Cassidy Bresner sat at the breakfast bar of the tiny household he shared with his father and older brother, tapping his spoon on an empty cereal bowl as he thought. He hadn’t been forced to board at Hillworth this year, dad let him stay home. He said it was because he trusted the boys a lot more now, to handle themselves while he busied himself with his various jobs trying to support them.

Cas had a feeling it was more to just cut back on tuition costs. Not that he had any idea if he paid for that s**t or not. Maybe it costed more to keep him at home? Who knows. It just sucked, which was the shocking part.

Maybe it was because he had a fantasy. Living in a fantasy world wasn’t all that out of the ordinary for him, but back then, back when all these changes were happening, he had a very specific way of thinking how this was all going to turn out. He had been ripped out of Meadowview and plopped into Hillworth with almost no warning, and boarded there while his parents worked out a vicious divorce. It wasn’t hard to imagine all the ways those kinds of problems could be fixed, especially when you found your very emotionally dependent self alone, contemplating the stabbing rejection that came from your own family needing you to go away for a while, especially after they’d taken you away from the few friends you had.

Back then, joining the Negaverse seemed like the answer.

Back then he actually cared about having answers.

Cas’ experiences had left him bitter. He hadn’t been granted the instant gratification that was power and recognition. He had cycled through regret and anger and blaming everyone but himself.

And now he was a scruffy seventeen year old, sitting on a stool in bare feet and pajamas. And nothing was happening at all.

It was a dreary morning, not just in terms of weather, but the Bresner household. Their father had stumbled in sometime around three in the morning and at this point was probably sleeping off a hangover. He had no idea where his brother was, but the contempt between the two had grown almost intolerable as Cas’ spine formed.

Once upon a time he would’ve followed his hooligan brother to hell and back. Where Al had been the dominating, older brother, Cas was submissive but loyal and they were inseparable best friends throughout the turmoil and family drama their parents tried and failed to keep from them.

It was a tiny house, there were no secrets here.

Even the fact Cas left every night was something his brother openly admitted to knowing about, even if he didn’t know it was to take to the streets as a soldier of the Negaverse. Maybe it was the fact no one seemed to care.

Maybe he was projecting it, imagining it, but Cas almost felt a mutual sigh of relief when he left home every night. He wasn’t wanted there, and he didn’t want to be there.

He thought he did. For the longest time he was still clinging to the promise that the divorce drama was temporary, that Hillworth was a stopgap on the road to better things, and that someday they would all be fixed.

Except things were still very broken around here.

He didn’t look up when he heard the padding footsteps of his brother getting out of bed, and the only interaction the two had was a passing glare as he headed for the fridge.

That was enough. Cas threw down his spoon and got up, heading off to slam the door to his room and wait for sundown when he could leave this god awful place for another night.

(630)