Forgotten Yesterday
originally written for a theme prompt, it ended up combining with a concept ive yet to explore in story; dividers from here
Once again, Damien is certain time isn't real -- it's fake fucking bullshit -- and he can only say this due to the absurd string of events he's recently endured.
Reality could be altered with contracts made with demons for the price of a soul -- fuck you, Perri -- or if a poor soul met an untimely end in The Void. With the latter, as a consequence, the victim's entire existence would become null, history rewritten to spin a tale where they never existed in the first place and reality would continue as if that was fact.
But, by being someone who survived an experience in The Void, Damien could remember the reality he once lived in before it was altered by The Void's wicked curse.
And, almost like a joke, after learning how his very life was altered by a contract drafted by a wretched cousin -- a cousin he can't even remember having -- she dies in The Void at the hands of the very demon she contracted that deal with. . . causing reality to shift back to what it 'should be' had she and her contract never existed in the first place.
But the damage was done.
After all, even if she does not exist, and never did, according to reality, the years spent living in that tampered reality she created did 'happen' at one point.
Samson, the guy he previously only ever thought of as the asshole head of the Student Disciplinary Committee, would turn out to be his twin brother. A twin brother that was trapped living in a mansion with two parents who only married out of convenience and hated each other's guts, stripped him of his own hopes and dreams, and tried to mold him into the perfect heir.
With the contract unraveling, it would turn out his -- their -- parents were actually very kind and loving people, not just to their family and each other, but to just about anyone in need. To the point they were willing to open their homes to the friends of their children, made outrageously huge donations to the student aid program at their school and various organizations -- primarily animal shelters.
While, it wasn't that different from what Damien was familiar with when compared to the version of his parents he was living with while under that damn curse -- the only difference was the fact his actual parents have money and can do so much more to help -- Samson is still struggling to reconcile the adults he now lives with are the true version of his parents and not the adults he knew growing up.
There was also Irene, the mechanical wonder Samson created as a child, to worry about. As a child, Samson was so bad with people he cried when he interacted with others. His father lovingly suggested that Samson should make a friend and Samson took that literally and created Irene as a result.
It's unknown why, but, Irene's memories remained intact despite Perri's contract. Perhaps entirely due to her non-human nature but no one but, perhaps the Demons ruling over The Void would know but not like they'd tell them shit. That had to be an absolutely miserable existence for because she could remember how kind and loving her family and she had to watch her family and loved ones fight and drift farther and farther apart.
What made it worse was that she could do nothing about it. How could she even explain the discrepancy with what she knew and how life once was? So she was forced to pretend that she was nothing more than an emotionless machine to protect herself.
And Thera.
God.
He almost feels like an ass to be this upset over her situation when compared to his literal family, but Thera was always there for him and he was for her. In every reality, she was his first friend and childhood friend he supported and cared for. And until she roped Julian into their Trouble Duo, making them the Trouble Trio, he was the only person in her life because her pitiful fucking excuse of parents were more dedicated to the hospital than her, their own fucking child!
But in this reality? His parents have supported and taken care of her when she needed an adult figure in her life, doing little things -- while Thera refused a ride in their car when she went grocery shopping in bulk, like always, they insisted on transporting the bigger items for her -- and they absolutely love her. They love her so much they didn't even blink when Samson revealed his intent to court her with marriage in mind. They absolutely loved the idea and were ecstatic to officially have her apart of the family.
( That's such an insane thing that he still needs to unpack. )
( The fact they endured so much in The Void that lead to them making a promise to get married because they bonded so deeply is so HUH???? )
That weirdness aside, Evelyn -- the only other person who knew about all this reality warping from the start but couldn't talk about it -- explained while the number of friends around her was so much more . . . she didn't connect to them like she did when it came to Julian, Samson and Damien himself.
Of course, when he questioned this, the smile fell from her face and such sorrow filled her eyes as she bit her lip and folded her hands together. It's a really fucked up reminder that she entered The Void as a child, before Perri made her contract, making her situation very similar to Irene's.
"Your mother likes to create photo albums," She sighs. "If anything that's where Thera got her love for scrapbooking from. . ." The pink haired girl trails off for a moment, a hint of a smile on her weary face once more. "But, ah, Mrs. Tyler's photo album collection should say enough. . ."
So here he is, digging in one of the bookshelves in the living room at ASS O'CLOCK to find his mom's photo album collection. He's not going to do this with Samson, because, despite all the bullshit Perri put him through, he values family -- and by extension, her -- and he would probably be upset by the lack of photos of her, despite knowing there's no way to document a cousin that does not exist anymore.
( If he could, he would spit on her corpse again, but there's literally no body of that bitch . . . )
Despite that, Damien chuckles under is breath at the thought. He shines the flashlight of his cellphone -- holy shit a goddamn top of the line iPhone, he is still not used to how he has access to such high quality goods in this reality -- on the spine of the books before him.
That aside, he isn't sure if Julian or Thera would be proper support for this kind of mental breakdown he'll inevitably suffer. And honestly, could anyone? At this point, with how many veterans they have among their team, they know of the alternate realities The Void creates with each life it takes but seeing actual, physical proof of how much was taken and altered, is an entirely different thing.
Sighing to himself, Damien shakes his head and focuses on his objective once more. Finding the photo albums is incredibly easy, seeing how his mother openly left her collection on the bookshelf, each book labled with a year on the spine in her elegant script.
( Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if she happily grabbed an album when someone came over, )
( Just to show them her 'most precious pride and joys'. )
( Embarrassing. )
The only problem being these books are from middle school forward and, according to Evelyn, she and Elijah came into the picture in first grade. . . so, that's. . . Fuck. Damien points his phone's flashlight towards the floor as he tries to do the math on his fingers.
If its 2011 right now and he's like, 16?
( God. He fucking hopes he is. )
( He doesn't want to have a stroke about even his age and birthday being wrong because of this curse bullshit. )
Squinting his eyes at his fingers, he continues where he left off. So, if he's 16 in 2011, and in the tenth grade, nine years ago would be . . . 2002. Yeah, that sounds about, right.
Nodding to himself once more, Damien quietly pops a squat before the lower half of the bookshelf and opens the storage cabinet door. The fact it doesn't squeak is a mercy at this time of night but also an obvious sign his mother most likely visits her many books often. He'll have to make sure to put everything back as he found to avoid alerting her.
Although, he doubts his mother would actually act negatively in anyway to such a discovery. She would most likely coo over it and think it's cute. The Tylers, er, his parents, think way too positively about the children under their care. Like, the only hard rule his dad has given him is 'Don't Do Illegal.'. Which, yeah, that's obvious, dad.
Realizing he's letting his thoughts run off, Damien shakes his head once more and points the flashlight at the trove of photo albums beside a box containing doubles of the photos used in said albums waiting in the storage cabinet. Like the ones on display, they're labeled with clean, elegant script and distinguishing each book by the year.
Just as he's about to grab the '2002' book when he spots what's directly under it. 2001. The year he met Thera as classmates in kindergarten. Unable to resist the temptation, he grabs the book and flips it open, and easily skipping through the sections labeled by months to August, around the start of the school year.
Damien squints his eye and angles the flashlight's light once more to ensure the glossy surface of the photo doesn't blind him.
Instead of finding a picture of young Thera like he expected, he finds a picture of . . . himself and Samson and if he guessing right, it's a 'First Day' photo. The two of them are standing side by side, his young face covered in bandages and showing off a toothy grin as he clutches his twin brother's hand. Samson, on the other hand, lacks the air of authority and confidence Damien is used to seeing. . . instead he sees the crybaby he's been told of. His face flushed red, scrunched up as tears roll down his cheeks.
Something coils in his gut. Damien isn't sure what. Something between a familiar warmth and uncomfortable emptiness. Perhaps it's because his mother did the same thing when the family was separated by Perri's contract.
Unable to bear the discomfort of this window into the past, Damien swiftly flips the page. There's a few photos of . . . his mom -- Mrs. Tyler -- volunteering at the kindergarten for various events or just helping in general. Samson is positively beaming in the photos, his tiny fingers clutching his mother's hand and their mother is smiling back in turn. Her gaze is full of such love and affection, a stark difference from Samson's description of his cursed parents he grew up with.
Damien returns the flashlight to the photo album, glancing over his father's notes in beside the pictures. Notes that indicate the date and what was happening in the photo, or just silly pointless comments he's making about the scene. It. . . It makes him smile a little.
In this reality, Mr. Tyler is still a business man, but he's so . . . loud and enthusiastic, always smiling. And he has no intention to pass his business off to his children, wanting them to follow whatever path they desire.
Setting his phone down for a moment, Damien runs a hand through his red-brown hair, uncertain of what to feel once more. The Tylers he knew in the reality created by Perri's contract were horrible powerful, and feared people but they were never real depictions of who they actually were . . . Fuck. That should be obvious . . . but, it's simply not the reality he knows. Even so, despite how different they are from what he knows, the fact they care is so painfully obvious. . .
. . .
Continuing onwards, Damien soon finds a photo of himself and Thera playing with the classroom's indoor sandbox together. She's clutching her favorite stuffed cat -- the only thoughtful gift she's ever received from her parents -- as she uses the other hand to slap at the sand, her expression in the usual impassive and blank mode. He's simply running little toy cars over the mounds of dirt she's made.
It's. . . close to what he can remember. He can clearly remember driving the toy cars into the little hole she made and when the teacher called for them to change activities, she grabbed the back of his shirt and followed him to the next activity he picked. After that, they suck together like glue.
And in this reality too, her first trip to the beach is taken with him and his family as indicated by the photo on the following page. The two of them are dressed in bathing suits and Thera with her favorite stuffed kitty plush from her childhood. She's avoiding eye contact with the camera all together and hugging the plush close to her chest as he grins at the camera like a fool, still covered in bandages and scrapes.
Again, not so different from what he remembers but the only difference is that Samson is here too, ready to burst into tears. According to what information Samson managed to scrape together of his life before it was ruined by Perri, he knew of Thera since they shared the same kindergarten class together, but they hardly interacted and having her at the house made him think Damien was trying to replace him.
( It's almost embarrassing how much the two now love each other. )
( Like, if the love is true they'll find a way back to each other kind of romance between them. )
This photo shares the page with a photo of the two of them on the beach, her old raggedy stuffed kitty plush sitting in the sand as they work to dig a hole together. Since Thera couldn't swim -- and still can't to this day -- she choose to dig a hole, and he decided to help her out, claiming he was going to make her into soup.
There's also a picture of Samson in the corner. His face red from the sun and tears, clinging to his mother. Usagi is simply smiling, stroking her son’s back. It's disgustingly sweet that he cant help but smile.
But. He's getting distracted isn't he? 2002. He's looking for Evelyn and Elijah in 2002 . . . And yet, he finger slips, causing him to fall into the summer memories of that year.
He finds a photo of Irene wearing a simple white sundress and sunhat while holding a hand with Thera, who's other hand holds onto her plush. Irene’s other hand holds on tight to Samson’s and he, Damien, is settled on her shoulders, trying to make himself tall as he could be. Her expression is awkward, but she's smiling all the same.
There's a few additional photos in the set, featuring Irene offering ice pops to the children on the house's Japanese style engawa; Irene with a hose in hand as she supervises the three of them splashing in a kiddy pool in the grass of the front yard as the dogs blur like cryptids in the background.
It's the first time he's ever seen her so genuinely happy and content.
But, his first summer with Thera, he remembers it . . . differently.
His . . . fake parents caught on quickly that her home life wasn't the best. While her parents were a renown doctor and nurse combo at the local hospital, exceptionally good at their job, they fundamentally sucked as parents . . . to the point they forgot her birthday, hence why the plush was so precious to her, so Damien insisted on doing something nice for her over the summer.
The adults scrimped and saved for seasonal passes to the Rapids Waterpark, rented a deluxe cabana for each visit, and spoiled her a bit with the food options available at the park. His parents even took shifts 'watching' Thera's favorite plush to ensure she wouldn't get wet or lost.
. . .
Eventually, Damien finds what he's looking for. A little into the September section, two new kids are added to the roster of familiar faces. Evelyn with her round doe eyes and short soft pink hair and her childhood friend, and current boyfriend, Elijah with his toothy smile with missing teeth.
Damien doesn't look into the details of the photos anymore. He flips the pages again and again, and two more familiar faces appear; Kay and her brother Brice. . . The fact his crush was in his life before Perri's contract was even forged throws him for a goddamn loop.
As far as he was aware, and by extension Kay since she entered The Void on the same night as him, their first meeting was in drama club in middle school. . . but he's starting to get what Evelyn was saying. There was more people involved in his life, and by extension, Thera's life and he wasn't as much of a lone wolf as he thought he was. He simply hadn't fight the right people to bring into the pack.
Damien abruptly snaps the photo album close. He slouches forward, pressing his forehead against the photo album, trying to. . . grasp what the hell is going on inside him. He feels. Something. Pain? Sorrow? Maybe both. Maybe it's longing? How could he even begin to define this twister of emotions?
According to reality, all of these photos happened once upon a time but he's never lived a single moment of it and he will never remember it due to The Void. The thought leaves him bitter that he has to learn who his own family is -- his own history -- from scratch.