[John keeps his eyes closed. Normally, this story is told with gleeful abandon, taunting with just the smallest amount of details.
This is a different story. He speaks like he's reciting from a book. It's the only way he can tell it.]
CPS took us from our parents when I was five. Jacob would protect me from our father's belt, from the drinking. But one night, Joseph, the prophet, heard the Voice. He told Jacob not to protect me, to let the belt fly.
My brothers were not in school. I was. So the teachers saw the marks. [He laughs a distant, bitter laugh.] The first set of parents we were sent to as a trio had us living in the barn. Working the farm. I remember - Jacob hitting the man with an axe and setting the barn on fire. He went to juvie after that.
As for Joseph and I? We were split. I was young. Cute face. Compliant. Adoptable. Joseph was not. So I became John Duncan and Joseph stayed behind.
And the Duncans were their own sort of hell. They were not happy unless I was confessing. If I was too quiet, I was sinning. If I was alone, I was sinning. I told them everything. Every thought. Every movement. Every impulse.
[Whatever they wanted to hear.]
And it was always - always sinful. And I was punished for it.
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timeasmymeasure
cw: child abuse
Date: 2021-12-31 03:31 pm (UTC)This is a different story. He speaks like he's reciting from a book. It's the only way he can tell it.]
CPS took us from our parents when I was five. Jacob would protect me from our father's belt, from the drinking. But one night, Joseph, the prophet, heard the Voice. He told Jacob not to protect me, to let the belt fly.
My brothers were not in school. I was. So the teachers saw the marks. [He laughs a distant, bitter laugh.] The first set of parents we were sent to as a trio had us living in the barn. Working the farm. I remember - Jacob hitting the man with an axe and setting the barn on fire. He went to juvie after that.
As for Joseph and I? We were split. I was young. Cute face. Compliant. Adoptable. Joseph was not. So I became John Duncan and Joseph stayed behind.
And the Duncans were their own sort of hell. They were not happy unless I was confessing. If I was too quiet, I was sinning. If I was alone, I was sinning. I told them everything. Every thought. Every movement. Every impulse.
[Whatever they wanted to hear.]
And it was always - always sinful. And I was punished for it.