Light in the Darkness by Shadowwolf Prologue:
It's a quite a sad thing to acknowledge when you realise that all good stories start off with an unhappy beginning. My names Andrew Thorne and I hate to tell you life hasn't exactly been friendly with me.
I was born nearly dead, the twin to a healthy brother and the unexpected result of a pregnancy where only one son was expected. Struggling to survive, everyone was amazed when not only I survived but slowly continued to get better.
However not everything was perfect, while my twin and two older sisters managed to avoid my fate with genetics, I unfortunately received a nasty case of Moderate Haemophilia A from my mother. While my siblings and all the other children I knew got to play and enjoy their childhoods, mine was filled with nothing but needles, endless pain and so many tears.
School was surprisingly one of my only happy places, although I couldn't do everything the other kids could do, I was proud to say my intelligence was more than enough for me. During primary school, I not only thrived but succeeded in both my normal classes but also my beginner's art classes. When I wasn't in school, I was busy continuing to read and draw, drawing everything from landscapes to things in my imagination. Primary school was one of my favourite periods in my life.
I'm sad to say however when it came to starting year seven, everything changed for the worst, because of my haemophilia and quiet disposition I was the target of a gang of popular kids who made it their mission to bully me every single day I was there. From year seven all the way continuing to the middle of year eleven I was subjected to physical attacks (kicking's, punching's, slapping's), cyberbullying, mental abuse and discrimination. But worst of all was the homophobic bullying, I couldn't walk down the hallways or into my classrooms without someone sneering at me; whispering awful things like fag or homo under their breath.
Yes, my dear friends, I happened to be a gay teenage boy. Although I hadn't come out at the point of my life (and didn't plan to, no point in adding fuel to the fire) their cruel jokes and insults hurt more then any bruise they could give me.
I tried to be resilient, I'd clean myself up after every beating trying to remove any trace of their attacks. I'd laugh off every joke or slur as nothing but nasty kids just picking on an easy target. But after a while, I just began to lose hope.
When I had my first anxiety attack, it was like I was drowning in a sea of negativity I couldn't get out off, I was crying while my breath was escalating to the point where someone would assume, I was having an asthma attack, even my heartbeat increased to the point where it felt like I'd ran a marathon without a break. At that point I knew something was wrong.
I started seeing a psychologist who confirmed one of my deepest fears: I was now suffering from severe depression along with anxiety. I couldn't believe it, I had let myself become a victim instead of standing up for myself. By then, I just let go and drifted into non-existence.
I stopped caring about school, letting my grades drop from straight A's into D's across all my subjects. I began to shut down socially, isolating myself from my family and any real friends I actually had left from the bullying, I began to lock myself away in my room with only my Music and Netflix for company, I even stopped drawing because I just couldn't find the energy or motivation to pick up a pencil. On some of my worst days, I'd feel so low I'd cut my wrists with a razor blade, only cutting my wrists slightly open so I'd just feel something instead of the crushing sadness and loneliness I locked myself away in.
I'll admit that I was planning I felt so low I was even just planning on giving up on life, hoping that maybe there was something or somewhere else better than the life I'd purposely giving up on.
But all that changed for the better when I first met him, the first day I met my future husband Adrian Shepherd.
To be Continued...
Hi guys, I'm a new writer to Nifty so I'm testing out a new story I've been trying to write for a couple of months now. I thought I might just provide a brief character backstory and see what you guys thought about Andrew as a character. If you have any suggestions or would like me to keep writing this story, let me know at Shadowwolf091199@gmail.com. I'd love to hear what you think.
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