(A/N: Content Warning: Child Abuse
If this chapter is something that you can't read, you can stop reading at:
"She finds him, the man she's been searching for, at age 6."
and then skip to the last four lines before the Author's Note at the end of the chapter.
You'll be missing out on a bit of the girl's emotional growth and David's tragic past, but I'd rather you miss it than force yourself to read something this heavy. If you skip it, I'll include a brief synopsis of the chapter in an Author's Note at the end.
Also, this will be the only chapter that has child abuse since it will be obvious that David has dealt with it his whole life.
Thanks...)
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A black-haired girl about 17 years old sits cross-legged in the middle of a ritual circle made from her own time shadows. A tome floats before her, golden pages fluttering endlessly.
She's already confirmed the truth: this world was originally a work of fiction, just like her old world. Someone tore her from her original world, placed her in this new world, and saved her from any more torment.
Someone gave her a new life, new friends, and the happiness she had always wanted.
Now, she wants to find him.
"Tell me everything, Rasiel…"
"Who… is David Star?"
Golden ink bleeds across the pages, and her world explodes in divine light.
...
Zafkiel's hands tick into motion. The black-haired girl sacrifices time, years of her own lifespan, to be cast back across dimensions and timelines, to become a phantom observer.
She finds him, the man she's been searching for, at age 6.
A boy with bruises hidden under long sleeves.
Tears dried into his pillow.
A monster of a father screaming down the hall.
An older sister laughing, calling him worthless.
A mother who simply... didn't care.
And still, this tiny boy picks up his crying baby sister with gentle hands.
"Don't cry… I'll protect you."
The black-haired girl trembled seeing how gentle the little boy was.
She stretched out her hand and touched the edge of the memory trapped behind glass, letting her know she can only watch and can't interfere.
The little boy walked to his closet and hid inside with his baby sister in his arms, rocking her gently back and forth while whispering to her.
"Shhh... He won't hurt you, don't worry. I'm used to it so I'll take the punishment for you."
The little boy was used to the abuse from his father.
He still screamed when he got beat, but that was only because his father would hit him harder if he stayed silent.
"You're only a 1-year-old so it makes sense that you would spit up your food, okay? You don't have to feel guilty about it. If he comes in here to beat you, I'll stand up for you..."
The little boy tried to soothe his baby sister, successfully getting her to stop crying.
A few minutes later, the little boy felt his stomach twisting into knots as he heard heavy footsteps come down the hallway, heading for his bedroom.
"DAVID! WHERE DID YOU PUT YOUR SISTER?! BRING HER OUT HERE!"
The little boy, David, gently put his baby sister on the floor and hid her under his clothes, leaving enough space for her to breathe.
As young David stood up, he heard the sound of a belt snapping and the angry, heavy breathing of his father.
He quietly slipped out of the closet and shut the door without a sound.
He calmed himself down and tried to turn off his brain before opening his bedroom door.
"I will take her punishment, dad. She would get hurt too bad if you punished her at her age."
David's right leg is partially numb due to being beaten when he was just a baby. He doesn't want the same thing to happen to his baby sister who isn't even old enough to know what's going on.
"Clothes off and get on the bed, now!"
David nodded his head and did as he was instructed.
His father came over with his fist clenching the belt so tight that his knuckles turned white.
"Do you know why you're being punished?"
David steeled himself before responding, "Yes. Wasting food."
His father stood up straight and made a self-righteous pose.
"John 6:12, recite it!"
David took a deep breath, "John 6:12. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, 'Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.'"
WHACK!, WHACK!, WHACK!
David felt a burning and painful sensation on his back, ass, and legs.
He screamed to let his father know that he received his punishment.
"Proverbs 21:20, recite it!"
Through gritted teeth, David managed to say, "Proverbs 21:20. The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down."
WHACK!, WHACK!, WHACK!
The pain came again, this time heavier, causing David to scream louder.
The same scene repeated for five more bible verses, each round of hitting causing David's skin to turn darker and darker, until it was eventually such a dark shade of purple that it looked black.
"On your feet!"
David nodded and stood up, ignoring the hot tears streaming down his face.
His father threw the belt on the ground and grabbed David by the hair.
"The Lord shall only forgive you when I do!"
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
David's father punched him in the face, stomach, and groin, causing David to lose his footing, cough up blood, and fall to the ground.
Well, he would've fallen to the ground if his father wasn't holding him by the hair.
"Did I say I forgave you yet?! STAND UP!"
David stood back up and took 3 more sets of punches before his father's anger was quelled for the night.
"Huuu... You are forgiven, my son. Do not let the same wasteful behavior repeat itself. Do you understand?"
David was lying on the ground with a swollen face, blood and bruises all over his body.
He managed to nod his head and force out a, "Yes, sir..."
The black-haired girl who was watching the memory behind the fabric of reality had screamed herself hoarse.
When the beating started, she was angry.
When it continued, she was hateful.
When it ended, she was filled with a murderous rage.
"My savior... He went through such... pain...! ahhHHH! I WANT TO KILL THAT BASTARD! HOW CAN YOU DO THAT TO A CHILD?!"
The black-haired girl took a deep breath and calmed herself down, barely.
"I swear to whatever gods are listening... I will end that monster!"
She continued to watch David grow up for the next two years until he was 8 years old.
She saw him coming out of his father's bedroom late at night once again, tears streaming down his face with an empty expression on while he tried fixing his pants.
David limped to his bedroom, closed the door, and quietly laid down in his bed and fell asleep.
This same scene had replayed so many times over the past two years that the black-haired girl was already numb to it.
She had decided that if she ever had the chance, she would capture the souls of David's parents and torment them for all eternity.
Why include the mother, too?
Well...
One time, David encountered his mother after he left his father's room. It was the first night that his father had violated him in a way that can never be healed.
When he saw his mother after that, he started walking towards her and said, "Mom... I don't want that anymore..."
He tried to keep his composure, but seeing the woman who was supposed to treat him warmly no matter what caused him to lose control over his emotions and he started sobbing while trying to give his mother a hug and ask for comfort.
Unfortunately, when his mother saw him and remembered what she witnessed her husband doing to her son, she erased all emotions on her face and just pushed David away, treating him as if he were a bother.
David understood what she meant and finally lost all hope in his parents.
From that day on, whenever David's mother would see what happened to her son, she would always turn away with a cold expression, acting as if she hadn't just heard what happened and seen the aftermath.
David's older and younger sisters had been spared from any abuse at a young age. His father decided that David was the perfect outlet for everything.
While David's younger sister was growing up and learning how to act like their mother, cold and distant, his older sister had taken after their father.
Violent, sadistic, self-righteous, narcissistic...
Whenever David wasn't being abused by his father, he was being abused by his older sister.
Whenever David wasn't being ignored by his mother, he was being ignored by his younger sister.
One day, when David was 9 years old, he came home from school and had to tell his father that he got suspended for getting into a fight.
His father didn't ask what happened so he never found out that David was getting jumped by a group of kids and got kicked around because he was too kind to people, letting them walk all over him and take advantage of him.
His father didn't ask what happened so he never found out that David tried asking his teachers for help and despite them seeing exactly what happened, they found David to be an eyesore so they punished him instead, ridding themselves of his presence for a few days.
When David came home that day, his father didn't hit him and didn't yell.
David thought that maybe his father would know he was innocent and treat him properly for once in his life.
Unfortunately, his father took him out to the workshop where he works on cars and made him sit at the work table.
"Put your hands on the table, son. Palms down, flat against the surface."
David was confused and started to get a little scared, but he did as he was told.
"Look straight down and don't you dare think of looking up at me."
David nodded and looked straight down, not even thinking of looking up at his father.
He heard his father rummaging through a toolbox for a few seconds until it was silent, followed by slow footsteps.
"James 1:19-20. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."
SLAM!
"GYAHHHH!!!"
David shot up from the seat and brought his left hand to his chest, feelin the pain of having many bones in his hand broken from his father slamming a wide hammer down on it.
He was leaning against a car in the workshop while sobbing loudly.
"2 Timothy 2:24! And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful!"
BAM!
THUD!
David's father swung the hammer at David's gut before kicking his legs out from under him, causing him to fall down, hit his face on the car, and then crash to the ground.
"I don't care what your excuse was! Violence is not the answer!"
The black-haired girl was already used to the hypocritical preaching of David's father so she didn't think much of it anymore. Now, she was just livid because of the injustice David had to live through.
"21 years to go, huh... I wish I could've saved him from all of this..."
"I swear... No matter how long it takes, no matter how many timelines I tear apart... I'll make you happy. You're mine, David Star..."
The black-haired girl wiped the tears from her eyes and continued watching David's life play out in front of her...
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(A/N: This was a really heavy chapter and it sucked to write, but it needed to be done. David's life was garbage from the very start which attributes to his broken mentality in the current timeline. The Mental Reboot talent that Cosma and Chaos joke about being broken isn't actually broken, but David is so broken that it just isn't enough to fix him right away. Don't worry though, these types of chapters will be shorter than the others and hopefully they won't appear too close back-to-back, though it depends on if David gets reminded of certain things.
Future flashback chapters won't have child abuse since it'll be implied that he dealt with it his entire life and there's no need to beat a dead horse. Instead, we'll get to see the other awful things he had to deal with!
Yayyy~!
... That was sarcasm, I'm not looking forward to writing those things.
But it must be done so that everyone understands his past!
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope this heavier chapter didn't turn anybody off of it. It's necessary to know why the black-haired girl is the way she is when she meets David later on.
Alright, here's an AI-Generated chapter synopsis because I'm not good at summarizing my stuff on my own without making it the same length of the chapter... Also, most people should already know who the black-haired girl actually is, but for the narrative's sake, it won't be revealed until she meets David.)
*
"Zafkiel I - The Thirteenth Hour" Synopsis:
The black-haired girl uses a power called Zafkiel and Rasiel to peer into the past of the boy who changed her life, David Star. Through Rasiel's vision, she becomes an observer across time and space.
What she finds breaks her heart.
At just six years old, David was already forced to endure things no child should. Living under the shadow of an abusive father, an indifferent mother, and a cruel older sister, David's world was full of suffering. He bore his pain in silence, shielding his infant sister from the violence that had become normal for him.
The black-haired girl watches as he comforts the baby with gentle words, hiding her away just before facing punishment alone.
Each memory she witnesses makes her shake with rage. She sees the scars and bruises, the emotional neglect, and the heartbreak of a boy who cried out for love and was met with cold indifference. When she sees the final straw—the moment David's hope finally breaks after reaching out to his mother—she screams in fury, vowing revenge.
The black-haired girl doesn't just want to find David anymore. She wants to save him. Protect him. Love him. She will become his wife and give him the happy family he never had.
And in the distance… Zafkiel ticks on.