Through the Deep, Dark Valley

I Have Made Mistakes

Tommy sat on the couch, cuddling into Harold and Harvey as the rest of his friends? sat on the floor in front of him. After the sound of shuffling clothes went silent, Tommy sighed and rested his head against the back of the couch. "Well, I guess I should start from the beginning, right?" Looking at Deo, who nodded encouragingly, Tommy smiled. "I, uh, I do have a family. My... father lives in this district, but I think I ran away from him? I'm not exactly sure... All I remember from the night before Deo and Wisp found me was the fact that I wasn't in my house, and I was safe away from Dr- him.

"But, going further back, my name isn't Theseus." Tommy saw Bitzel and Deo tense for a moment before he continued. "I don't know when exactly I'll give you my real name, but I think you should at least know that... I'm, uh, fourteen years old, and I think? My mother is dead? I'm not entirely sure..."

Deo cleared his throat gently, and Tommy blushed. He had gone a bit off track from his original topic, but now was the time to bring it back. "But anyway, I'm fourteen years old, and I was... emotionally, physically, and mentally abused by my father for nine of those years."

Wisp stood up, his eyes looked fiery as he began to pace. "You were abused?! Seriously?! Who the fuck, who the fuck?! "

Tommy sighed and stayed still until Wisp sat back down with a huff. "I don't do too well with yelling, or hitting, or loud noises in general. I was... basically kept in my dad's apartment all day for weeks on end unless he ran out of beer and had me buy some, so that's why I don't do too well with people and crowds. I never went to school other than early grade school, so I taught myself a lot of what I know. "

The group nodded, silently waiting for him to continue. "The thing that set me off this morning was something that Luke said. When... When I still lived with my dad, he would always call me certain things when he was upset. He called me a-a 'useless leech' the most often."

Luke teared up as he brought a hand to his mouth, already planning on spilling more apologies, but Tommy put his hand up. "But I'm not with my dad, and I'm not in a super horrible situation anymore, so there's no real reason to keep talking about all this, okay?"

He could see the other's frowning, and he was grateful that none of them pushed him. He didn't think he was ready to tell them everything just yet. But as Deo stood up from his place on the floor, Tommy couldn't help but feel the slightest bit of dread settle in his stomach.

"I think it's time we come to a decision on whether or not Theseus should be our leader or not."

Tommy tensed. He had less than two days, sure, but so suddenly?! Tommy looked up at Deo with slight panic but felt his heart calm just a tad at the look of reassurance the older was giving him. The others stood up, smiling all happy, and Tommy was simply forced to watch.

"We talked about this the other day before Bitzel and Wisp went out on a patrol, and we've come to a unanimous decision..." Tommy looked up at Deo with wide eyes. "Theo, we are happy to call you our new leader."

Tommy felt like crying. "Wh- What? "

Deo grinned as Bitzel stepped forward. "We talked it over for hours, since we didn't want to put stress on your shoulders, and we figured that so long as you let us help where we can, you can be our official leader! What do you say?"

Tommy stood and practically tackled the four. " Yes, fuck yes! "

The four laughed as they wrapped their arms around Tommy, ruffling his hair and rubbing his back as he sobbed softly. Luke was the first to pull away, wiping his own cheeks of his tears. "So, boss, what should our group be called?"

Tommy giggled at the title, scrubbing his cheeks with his hoodie sleeve. "I don't know, to be honest..." He looked around the room, glancing at labels and crates before a very bright box caught his eye. "How about... 'Business Bay'?"

Deo nodded, as did the others, and ruffled Tommy's hair. "Well then, Theo! Welcome to the new Business Bay!"