Getting Wilder ✔️

Bonus pov: slenderman.exe has crashed

This is an incident to give more of a background on Wilder's family life. If you guys remember, in issue twenty-first: scalpels and stitches,  Wilder and Nico's hospital date, Wilder mentions how he once broke his leg and Nico wrote a message on his cast. This is the chapter that explores that incidence. 

Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments!

Wilder:

There were two steps before breaking a piece of bad news or asking for permission to your parents. First, be interactive and polite. Two, do extra chores. If you succeed, you will have everything you ever wanted. If you don't succeed, then you can go the extra mile and give them the cold shoulder with a few tears.

The third step however had failed spectacularly for me. Seeing that even my twenty-four hours hunger strike hadn't made my parents cave and get me a puppy. My mother had instead resorted to making the most delectable brownies and my stomach had won over my willpower.

Currently, I was in the middle of step two.

I crouched down, placing my hand under the tall pile of books that my mother owned and lifted them, straightening up slowly to make sure that they wouldn't topple over. "Mom," I asked, peeking around the pile of books to look at her. "Where do you need these to go?"

My mom sighed and shook her head, looking distressed. She took a step back and placed her hands on her waist, gazing at the already jampacked bookshelf in the corridor where we were standing on the first floor of our house. "Oh my god, I have a problem, Wils."

I placed the books back on the floor and walked over to her. I gazed at the bookshelf, full of collectable books, illustrated editions, special signed editions and even popup books of what looked like every book ever published. My mom had an entire library to herself beside her bedroom, however, space always seemed to run out.

"I think you do, mom." I agreed reluctantly.

She sighed and shook her head. "I might have to put them in Wilson's room again," she bit her lip. "When he returns he is going to be mad."

I didn't answer, knowing in my heart that there was scarcely any chance that he would return. I didn't tell her that. As it was, our family was held together by a thread. 

We made our way to my elder brother's room. Most of his cupboards and shelves were now occupied by my mother's books. After he had moved out with most of his belongings, my parents had kept his room pristine for a long while in hopes that he would return. He continued to actively avoid any family gatherings, although he still did contact me from time to time. Making sure I was alive, perhaps.

I felt a pang in my chest when I saw the worn down posters and remembered how Wilson and I had plastered them onto the walls. He had been a massive comic book geek, superheroes and supervillains had always fascinated him. Something that my parents deemed as worthless. 

I couldn't really understand though. If it made him happy, how was it worthless?

"Oh my god, that was exhausting," my mom said as we stepped out of his room.  "How about some breakfast now?"

A voice in my head gazed at her dazzling smile, the sparkle in her eyes and wondered what my revelation would do to them. Somewhere inside my heart, I couldn't imagine her disapproving. My mom was the most supportive person I ever knew. Even though she did have rules for me, I knew she wouldn't impose any rules on me at the cost of my happiness. And either way, I couldn't imagine hiding anything from her. Especially not something that mattered to me so much.