Bad Beginnings (A RDR2 Fanfic)

Growing Up

(A/N: The story will get a lot darker from here on. Mentions/scenes of sexual abuse. I will have an end of chapter summary, if requested, if these subjects are upsetting).

Arthur and his father were home together. Arthur had started getting taller the older he got. He was 12 years old and growing like bean stalk, or, as his father would say, a particularly nasty weed.

Arthur also learned more about the cruelty of men as he grew up. He figured out that it wasn't normal for his father to use his mouth at the dead of night to blow off some steam.

He thought it could always be worse. He didn't have any injuries and he still had Copper around. But, sometimes when he laid awake late at night, the activities his father subjected him to, the beatings and the stench of sex in a room, it all caught up to him and he wept. He wept for his predicament and his long lost mother.

How things could have been different.

It was a night like any other. Fall was moving into winter, so Arthur was stockpiling the house for the many long months to come.

He was collecting any clothes he could to mend them into something a little warmer for the time being. He bought more cans of food in his daily outings, and even started to buy medicine.

If Lyle noticed, he'd never know.

Arthur was just stroking the fire like always. Copper was snoozing, his feet softly twitching as he chased animals in his dreams. Arthur couldn't remember the last time he dreamed.

His father walked in the door. Arthur stood when he entered. He didn't run however, just waited like he always does.

Today his father was really drunk. Sometimes they have deals at the saloon. Those are the worst nights.

"Taking care of the house, boy?" his father said as soon as he walked in, or staggered you could say.

"Yessir," Arthur replied quickly, clasping his shaking hands together.

Lyle dropped his gun belt by the door, and walked over to Arthur.

"Really?" he asked, getting close to Arthur.

"Of course," Arthur replied nervously, stepping back, only to be met with a cold wooden wall.

His father only hummed in response, before backhanding Arthur onto the floor. "Do you know what you did to deserve that?"

Arthur was at a lost for words. "No, sir," he replied. Maybe he should have apologized, then maybe this wouldn't have gone so badly.

"Really," Lyle said, with a sneer. "Well maybe it was the lack of sir."

Crap. Arthur was done for. His previous 'of course' echoed in his ears. He forgot the simplest rule he had. Yes sir or no sir. So now it was deal night at the saloon and Arthur messed up the simplest rule.

Lyle kicked Arthur when he was down, knocking the air out of the boy's lungs. When Copper started to bark, he was simply thrown outside into the growing cold.

Arthur couldn't let out a single word, only cries of pain, as his father dragged him into his bedroom, knocking him into his bruised and busted knees. This again.

Lyle unzipped his jeans, Arthur's mouth was forced open, and the rest was history. As soon as Lyle finished off down Arthur's young throat, he zipped back up and stalked off to his bedroom, leaving Arthur on the floor, shaking and wiping the drool off his chin.

He finally managed to stand numbly and let Copper back in from the cold. Then, Arthur switched into his union suit, his bruised limbs aching as he did so, before climbing into his cold bed, his thin blankets barely keeping the cold at bay, as Copper hopped up to join him with a loud sigh.

(A/N: I hope this wasn't too nasty for y'all. I'll try to continue updating regularly on the weekends).