Okay...the first chapter of The Wretched and Divine has now been published

Please go read it

Sorry, Wattpad decided to delete all my progress on that book, so I only have the prologue right now

I might cry

And there's also a good four characters that I haven't been paying too much attention too

So it's time for a big of a change...

TRIGGER WARNINGS : talks about a lot with what happened to Quinn (rape, self harm, abuse)

Thomas POV
"Who knew there'd be so much arsenic in the gold mines," I recited my lines, trying my best to not look at my script.

I love performing but I never expected to get the part of the villain. Aida is a great musical but an extremely long one. Zozor is the villain, which I'm playing this year.

Sadly, I lost the lead to Roman King. Not surprising considering he's the best but I thought I might actually stand a chance since I'm a senior now.

It was starting to get a little chilly out. I decided to practice in the park but now, as the sun sets, I'm starting to regret my decision to practice here.

But then again, Talyn and Joan are too busy today to practice and hang out.  And I don't feel like bothering my parents by singing along at the top of my lungs to the songs. 

Sighing, I fell backwards onto the bench behind me.  I had to look at my lines to remember the next one.

I leaned back a bit and looked up to the sky. It was cloudy. I miss the sun but I guess this is okay. I looked at the trees across the soccer field.

But the harder I looked, I noticed a black lump of something sitting in one of the trees. I looked closer and I realized the lump was shaking.

Curious and confused, I got up off the bench. My anxiety said just leave it but I wanted to know what that is.

I walked to the base of the tree, holding my script in front of me tightly as if it could protect me.  I looked up there again.  

There was a person in a black sweater up there.

"Hello?" I called up to them. The person flinched but didn't respond. "I know you can hear me and I can see you up there."

"What do you want?" A soft voice said.

"Just wondering why someone's in a tree in the middle of winter," I answered.

"Sometimes people need a break and this is the best I have to escape without doing anything bad," The soft voice answered.

"What would be considering bad?" I asked, worried I already knew the answer.

"Why do you care?" The voice asked.

"Just worried," I replied.

The person turned around and then I could finally see their face. It was a boy but best not too assume what pronouns they might prefer.

They leaned their head against the trunk and looked down at me. They were pale but their face was blotchy and red from crying.  They had thick curly black hair and a few soft freckles.  They looked really skinny too. 

"My name's Thomas,"  I said.  "Whats you're name?"

"Quinn,"  They responded. 

"Mind me asking what pronouns you use?"  I asked.  "I just don't want to offend."

"He him,"  Quinn answered. 

"It's nice to meet you Quinn,"  I said.  "Why are you in the tree?"

"Well I wanted to be left alone,"  He said in an accusing manner.

"Sorry for bothering you," I told him, my anxiety spiking a bit.

"No no, it's fine," Quinn said quickly. "I'm sorry." He buried his face in his hand and it looked like he was trying not to start crying.

"Are you okay?"  I asked again. 

"N-No,"  He stuttered. 

"What happened?"  I asked.  "If you're comfortable talking about it."

"No, I don't want to bother you,"  Quinn told me. 

"It's okay,"  I said.  "Can you come down from the tree?"

"Can I jump?"  He asked, making my anxiety skyrocket. 

"Absolutely not, the fall would probably kill you,"  I told him sternly. 

"That's preferable,"  He mumbled but I still caught it. 

"Can you please climb down here?"  I asked.

We stayed still for a while. Just staring silently at each other. Finally, Quinn started climbing down the tree.

Once he got down to the ground, I got a better look at him. He's much smaller than me. He also looks freezing.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Why do you care?" He retorted, hugging his arms around himself.

"I'm an empathetic person and I'm worried about you," I answered.

"Why? I'm a complete stranger," Quinn said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Seeing someone crying in a tree and asking if they can jump and kill themself makes me worried about their wellbeing," I told him.

Quinn flushed a soft shade of red and looked at the ground in embarrassment. He looked ready to cry again.

"I'm sorry," He chocked out.

"Mind telling me why you were up there?" I asked.

"Everything's going wrong. I hate my life. I hate my dad. I hate myself. My boyfriends want to break up with me. I keep getting told to kill myself so why not just do it already," He ranted before realizing what he said. "I'm sorry."

"Okay, lets sit down," I said, sitting on the ground. Quinn sat down next to me. "I'm just gonna go ahead and disagree with a lot of that despite the fact I know nothing about you."

"You probably know more then you think," He mumbled.

"How?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"You know Deveroux Corotion," He asked.

"Yeah, the serial killer," I said.

"That's my Dad," He mumbled.

"Oh," Was all I could say. "Well that explains a lot then."

"Do you hate me now?"  He asked, his voice getting softer.

"No of course not,"  I told him.  "But rumors exist so can you tell me how involved you were?"

"The entire time he was killing people, he kept me locked in a closet in the basement.  Two fucking years.  He hurt me and hit me and even raped me and starved me.  It was horrible.  It gave me horrible PTSD and so many other problems and I hurt myself because of those problems.  The only reason I didn't get held back in school was because I studied my ass off during that summer in the hospital."  Quinn explained. 

"So you absolutely can't be held accountable for what your dad did,"  I said.  "I'm so sorry he did all that to you."

"Can I die now?" He asked.

"No," I told him. "Let's start with what's bothering you the most out of those things you listed...besides all the Dad stuff. What's the most painful?"

"My boyfriends," Quinn answered softly.

"As in plural?" I asked.

"Yeah, sorry, is that weird?" He mumbled.

"No, people can like who they want," I said. "Or how many they want. As long as it's consensual. I'm gay myself so don't worry."

"It's hard for me not to," He laughed a bit.

"Well what happened with them?" I asked.

"Evan and Damien are my boyfriends. Evan's been with me for about a year now. We've been each other's only friends for years. It's sadly funny we only know each other because my dad hurt him and then we met in the hospital. But we were happy together and then we met Damien when he moved here. The three of us were just friends for a while until we confessed to him. Then he joined the relationship about four ish months ago. We were all so happy together. And then Remus showed up. He moved back to town and he started getting feelings for the three of us. Evan and Damien were so quick to allow him into our relationship without talking it through with me at all. I wasn't comfortable with him in our relationship. He's four years older than us, he's a recovering druggie and he's extremely loud. A lot of things he does triggers my PTSD from my dad and I don't want him
in our relationship. So then Damien suggested an open relationship which is something I don't want at all. Then they said they all hated me and wanted me out of the relationship completely. That's was earlier this morning."

Quinn stopped talking and he was sobbing. When he started talking about Evan and Damien, he seemed happy. Now he's not.

"That's a lot," I mumbled. "And that freaking sucks."

"It does, doesn't it," He laughed despite the tears.

"Well I can say that you shouldn't kill yourself over a relationship," I advised.

"But there's so much more than just that," He argued.

"But life gets better. Yeah, your dad sucked and obviously he hurt you a lot. But this Evan and Damien seemed to make you happy. Relationships come and go and eventually you'll find someone else that makes you that happy," I did my best to help. "Do you have friends?"

"Yeah," Quinn answered but then seemed to realize something. "Oh god, Virgil must be so worried. I just ran away. Like I always do. I just run from my problems."

"Do you have your phone?" I asked.

"No, I just ran," He mumbled, breaking down again.

"You should probably go back to him,"  I suggested. 

"I know,"  He sighed.  "But I really don't want to deal with all of them.  Virgil probably got mad and argued with those three.  And then he probably freaked out when I wasn't there when he got home and now he's probably dragged everyone else into this mess."

"Don't blame yourself for having feelings,"  I told him.  "Do you want to be alone right now?"

"From all of them and their drama and my issues,"  Quinn answered.  "I don't mind talking to you."

"Do you want to rant more or a distraction?"  I asked. 

"Sorry for ranting so much,"  Quinn apologized, rubbing his face with his hands to get rid of his tears.  "A distraction from all this mess sounds nice."

"I'm guessing we go to the same school,"  I said.  "Senior class?"

"Yeah,"  He answered.  "I think we have honors English together."

"Yeah, you look kinda familiar now that I think about it,"  I said with a little laugh.  "So you know the school is doing Aida for the musical, right?"

"Yeah, Roman tried out for that,"  Quinn said. 

"You're friends with Roman?"  I asked, genuinely surprised.

"Kinda.  Remus is his brother and Virgil is his boyfriend,"  He answered. 

"Oh,"  I said.  "Anyways, as a distraction, mind helping me learn my lines?"  I held up my script towards him. 

"Sure,"  He mumbled while taking the script from me.  "Sorry in advance, I tend to stutter."

"I don't mind,"  I told him sincerely.  Then I hopped up and stood in front of him.  "Let's start with Act One Scene Three.  That's when my character, Zozor, is first introduced."

"Okay,"  Quinn mumbled while opening to that page. 

"I think this is the start of a very good friendship Quinn,"  I said with a smile.  "As long as you're okay with that?"

"I am,"  He smiled softly.  "I think we'll be good friends too Thomas."