Trigger Warning: Mentions of bullying, abuse, cutting yourself (not self-harm), hair- pulling, being kicked, police, hospitals. Let me know if I missed anything. 

The majority of this chapter is written in 3rd Person Point Of View because it takes place in or talks about the past. However, the whole chapter is written from Virgil's point of view. 

EDITED

------

"You have been doing really good these past few weeks Virgil" Dr Picani said with a smile "it is still a long road to recovery but you are off to a great start!"

"Thanks Dr Picani," I said with a small smile.

"Now, there is one thing that I think should be discussed" he said "but only if you are comfortable with it."

"What is it?" I asked cautiously.

"You childhood." Dr Picani said "specifically your life before you were placed in the foster care system."

I froze and my heart began to race, I squeezed my eyes shut and I went over one of the breathing exercises Dr Picani taught me.

The man must have noticed my panic. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

I opened my eyes "no," I said. "It's okay, I want to talk about it." I took a deep breath and began my story.

-------

Virgil Storm was born on December 19th to two loving parents and an older brother who was two years older than him. You would think that would be the end of the story, Virgil would grow up in a loving family and live happily ever after. Unfortunately life doesn't always work out that way.

For the first several years of his life the Storm family was your average, happy, suburban family. They did things that any normal family would do, but sometime after Virgil had turned ten everything changed. Eliza Strom was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Eliza did everything she could to fight it, but no matter what she did she was slowly losing her fight. There were times when it seemed like she was going to make it, but it never lasted. And then on February 1st, a few days before Janus' birthday Eliza Strom lost her battle for good.

Things after that slowly began to downsprail. Virgil and Janus' father started drinking in order to cope. It wasn't much at first and he would only do it at night, making sure to be sober by the time that the two woke up.

But then he started drinking after work. A lot of the time he would end up passing out on the couch, forcing Janus to take care of Virgil and himself. Something that Virgil always felt guilty for. Then one night, their father snapped. Virgil doesn't know what happened, all he knew was that it led to not only the scars on Janus' face but also what led to his brother bullying him.

All of this led to both Virgil's home and school life being a living nightmare. It wasn't until Virgil started seeing Dr Picani that he realized that during this time his mind was in constant fight or flight mode. And when Virgil was thirteen everything changed, whether for better or worse he hasn't decided yet.

------

Virgil sat curled up in his closet, tears silently pouring down his cheeks. "Get back out here you ungrateful little rat" his father's voice bellowed.

It was all his fault. Virgil had been washing some of the dirty dishes that had started to pile up when he had dropped a plate. The sound of it shattering had awoken his father from his drunken slumber. Angry the man had stormed into the kitchen yelling. Virgil was terrified, he ended up running into his room and hid in the closet. He had cut his feet on the broken glass in the process but that was the last thing he was worried about right now.

Burying his head in his lap Virgil sob quietly. Because he had run off and hid father was sure to give him a beating when he was found. For once Virgil wished Janus was here, maybe he would be able to stop this. But Janus was off hanging out with his gang.

The closet door flew open and Virgil snapped his head up to see his father. "Get out here" he slurred.

Virgil shook his head and scooted farther into the corner, he could smell the alcohol on his dad's breath. The larger man reached in and grabbed Virgil by the hair, dragging him out of the closet. The boy screamed in both pain and fear and his father dragged him into the living room with a fistfull of his hair in hand.

When they got to the living room the man grabbed Virgil by the arm and threw him across the room into the wall. The wind was knocked out of him but before he had time to recover his father stormed over and kicked him in the stomach, taking his breath away once again. Virgil gasped for breath as his father began to repeatedly kick him in the ribs. He could hear him yelling something but he was unable to make it out due to the pain.

Then, it stopped. Surely his father wasn't done with his beating yet. So what happened? Virgil then felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and he flinched away, a soft voice began to speak to him in a low voice. He could hear the sound of yelling and see bright light behind his eyelids. He opened his eyes a crack to see a woman in a police uniform and then it all went black.

-------

When Virgil woke up he was laying on a soft bed in a white room, a hospital room. He was scared and confused but an officer came in and explained everything. They had gotten an anonymous tip that his father was committing child abuse and they had gone to investagate just in time to catch his father in the act. They immediately arrested his father and took him to the hospital to be looked over. After words they had picked up Janus and brought him to the hospital to be checked for any wounds as well.

After that Virgil was forced to talk to people from CPS, luckily no one ever made him give a statement in court for they had a good case already. His father lost in court and was now serving twenty years in prison. Unfortunately Virgil never got the chance to see Janus again before the two were separated and put into separate Foster Homes.

Virgil's Social Worker, Ms. Torres-Rosario, said that when they had asked him Janus said that he wanted the two of them to be in separate homes. Despite all of the things that Janus had done over the years Virgil still loved his brother and the memories that the two of them shared when they were younger.

------

"So yeah," I said leaning back in my seat, wiping my eyes with the wad of tissues in my hand "that's the story of my effed up childhood."

"I am so sorry that you had to go through all of that Virgil." Dr. Picani said softly "but let me ask you something, do you feel better talking about it?"

I paused before realizing that I did, it felt like a weight that I didn't know I was carrying had lifted. "I do," I said with a small smile.

"That's good" Dr. Picani said "talking about this can help the road to recovery, it may take some time and work but as I said earlier you are off to a great start."

At this I did smile "I look forward to it then."

------- 

A/N: Hey guys. I am so sorry I haven't posted in a while. The goal was to post two chapters last month (December) and finish up the last few chapters this month. But I got really busy with finals and didn't have any time to write, those of you who are in College as well will understand. And then my parents surprised my siblings and I with a trip to Florida were we went to both Disney and Universal. We just got back Tuesday night. So sorry again. 

That being said, what did you think of this chapter? We finally know Virgil's backstory. Also, the title for this chapter came from the song 'Dead Mom' in BeetleJuice: The Musical. It's one of my favorites in the sound track. 

Take it easy Guys, Gals, and Non-Binary Pals. PEACE OUT!

-Isabel