November DWC Day 1 - Neglect
Warnings: Small mentions of alcoholism, drug use, and a lil’ bit of body horror
Companion piece to Garren’s Day 1 found ---> HERE
If someone had asked Xylaes five years ago where he thought he would be right now, the answer would not have been still living and working in a brothel. He had big plans to reunite his family, buy a house together, and live happily ever after. Yet the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, as they say. Honestly it was the story of Xy’s life up until this point, and he shouldn’t have expected anything else.
It had been done before, he had heard about it and seen it with his own two eyes: Taking a soul out of the Shadowlands and implanting them back onto Azeroth. It wasn’t an easy process, nor was it cheap, but Callia would have been worth it. He could have his wife back, they could have their son and be a real family. Unfortunately, the missing piece of the puzzle was the most important: Her willingness. Xylaes knew a part of her yearned for that lost life, but she was never one to fuck with fate. Her time on Azeroth was over, and she would not go back.
After the Shadowlands closed up, losing his wife for a second time broke him in a different way than it had before. Back then he had something very tangible on which to take out his rage: They had stolen her life, so he would steal theirs, and he did just that. But now that it was her own decision to remain behind? He had nowhere to put that anger except towards himself.
He found comfort in the bottle as he had before, and alcoholism was one of the first bad habits to return. He couldn’t remember much from those first two months after the Shadowlands portals were closed. It was always easier for him to drink away the pain rather than wallow in it. Because of this, he began losing regular clients and quickly found himself walking on very thin ice with his employers. Thankfully they were friends and understanding of his situation, but there were moments when he probably should have been fired and thrown out onto the streets.
He had blown all of his savings on drugs and gambling within half a year; money he had been saving up to buy himself, and his son Garren, a new home. All that hard work so quickly and so easily gone. For a while, he had found it difficult to even look at Garren. So much of him resembled Callia, and Xylaes found it too painful of a reminder of what he had just lost…again. Their relationship suffered; Xylaes often canceled plans or just completely neglected to show up at all. It wasn’t what he wanted, this wasn’t how things were supposed to go at all, but the depression had taken hold and he found it difficult to do just about anything.
It wasn’t until he woke up behind bars, bruised and bloodied, bleeding from a hole in his thigh, and missing three fingernails on his right hand with zero collection of how any of this came to be that he decided he needed to get his shit together. Again. There was a threat of more prison time and a steep bail set, but for some inexplicable reason, Xylaes had people in high places still on his side that cared about him. He was embarrassed and ashamed, Callia would have detested this version of Xylaes. He owed it to her, and to Garren, and mostly to himself, to pull himself together and become the father that Garren deserved, and the friend that those who stuck by his side deserved.
The following years were spent in and out of rehab, going to plenty of therapy, and making amends with all of those whom he had wronged. While not once did he regret reuniting Callia in Maldraxxus, he could admit that maybe he shouldn’t have gotten so attached again. He often wondered how she handled their separation, if she was just as angry or sad, and how she coped. On occasion he would sit in the portal room in Orgrimmar, staring at the empty space where the portal to Oribos once was, willing it to open again. It was a dream he needed to let go of and start focusing on his future, but for a man like Xylaes it was always difficult to let go of the past.
These days life was more stable. He still lived and worked in the brothel but his debts were all paid and he was now over a year sober. The temptation still remained, but had to admit that he felt healthier now than he had in a while.
Light had just begun to peek through the cracked curtains to his room when he heard a soft rapping at his door. With a squint, he glanced over to the nude feminine figure still sleeping next to him, and then towards the door. No one was supposed to bother him while he was ‘working’, so whatever this was must be important. With a grunt, he rolled off the bed and pulled on his robe before cracking the door open just enough to slip out and shut it behind him, talking in a whispered tone, “What do you want?”
The guard looked up at him and then towards the steps, “Umm…your son is here? Says he messaged you like…an hour ago.”
Xylaes wiped some of the groggy out of his eyes, staring blankly as the words processed through his mind. He hadn’t checked his comm since yesterday evening. “Wait, he’s here? You let him in here? Fuck sake.” He was already halfway down the hall when he waved at his room, “Can you tell her an emergency came up?”
He had taken care not to fully disclose his profession to his son, leaving the details vague and maybe a bit misleading. He had told him the name of the place in case of an emergency, that thought immediately made him hurry faster down the steps and into the lobby. “Garren, what’s wrong?” It took him a split second to notice the suitcase and a wide-eyed Garren looking around the place while slowly making connections in his head.
“Ohh, no. Nothing’s wrong. I ummm…I need a place to stay. Can I stay …here with you?” The words trailed off near the end of that question, still a touch uncertain as to what ‘here’ was.
“No.” The response was a little more aggressive than anticipated, and Xylaes quickly tried to soften his tone into something more reassuring. “I mean, you would need to work here to…” He waves a hand, that was NOT going to happen. “How about you meet me over in the Legerdemain Lounge, grab yourself a coffee, and we’ll figure something out, okay? Okay.” He shoved some change that was in his bathrobe pocket into Garren’s hand and practically shoved him out the door towards the Lounge. “I’ll be right there!”
“Shit..” he grumbled under his breath, although there was also some giddy anticipation there beneath the shock. His son came to him for help, that was a first! He rushed back into his room and tossed on some clothing, grabbed his comm device, and made for the door. There were two people he knew he could ask a favor of; as much as he detested asking for help, he knew he didn’t have much of a choice at this moment. His kid needed a place to stay and he did not currently have the money to make that happen, but he knew someone with extra rooms, and right here in Dalaran to boot.
He sent off a quick message to Fio as he made his way to the lounge, “Garren showed up at the Moon needing a place to live, do you have an extra room he could use until I figure something else out?”
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