Sillage

Chapter 28: Dreamer.

PLEASE READ THE TW FOR THIS CHAPTER! IF IT'S TOO HEAVY FOR YOU, IT'S PERFECTLY OKAY TO SKIP IT! I'M GOING TO INSERT A SUMMARY IN THE END NOTES!

TW - IMPLIED PEDOPHILIA, IMPLIED RAPE/NON-CON ELEMENTS, ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION, DOMESTIC ABUSE, SEXUAL ASSAULT ELEMENTS, MURDER, STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, MENTIONS OF MISCARRIAGE/STILLBIRTH

Anton Hughes was once a dreamer. A fool.

"But this world does not like fools who dream," his mother used to say between fine whiskey sips and old wine glasses. Most dreamers get drowned in the swamp of atrocities and human misery in the end. No matter how much they struggle and fight.

There's so many times people can push themselves back up, after all. Even people full of hope and light, like his late mother, or even Anton, once was.

And then, dreaming fools turn into nightmares themselves.

That's how it's always been in this vicious world, after all. And that's how it will always be.

Anton doesn't really know what started it. When was the exact moment the spark inside him died down? He can't remember for sure, which means it faded away gradually.

He believes it all began with his parents.

A regular, noble couple, they lived with their son somewhere inside Ehrmich District. Anton still remembers how beautiful their estate was. Over-viewing a lake, crystalline water mirrored the vibrant blue of the sky, while jewel green forests surrounded their lands. Servants hustling and bustling around the grand mansion, Anton had a lot of fun as a kid exploring the beautiful scenery, as well as the insides of the house.

He loved to imagine he was a prince — a knight in shining armor.

Wandering through the woods and battling foes terrible like no other, his goal was to reach his princess and save her from the terrible titan keeping her locked in the dungeon under their estate. It was not fair for a princess to be held hostage inside a cage. And Anton, with his powerful sense of justice, bloody knees and unruly hair, would let no one stand in his way of saving the lady from her doom.

With a busy father, part of the royal government and gone most of the time, and a mother who was too busy organizing and arranging tea parties and banquets, while also running the estate as the lady of the house, no one interfered in Anton's adventures.

And the princess was always rescued in the end.

Climbing trees, swimming in the lake. Sneaking out at night to listen to the song of the crickets and toads. Reading and losing himself into fantasies until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and then sleeping until noon. Anton's childhood was the happiest time of his life, even to this day.

Or so he likes to think. The rest of his life was more bullshit than anything.

Happy couple on the surface, no one actually knew what went behind the Hughes' closed, fancy doors. Even if they knew, everyone pretended not to.

His parents hadn't married for love, like so many people in that age and time. They married for money and status. And even though love between them was impossible, they could've at least respected one another.

But they chose not to.

His father used to be notorious for screwing every single living thing his eyes would land on. Man or woman, boy or girl, it didn't matter. As long as it had a pulse and a hole, Cyrin Hughes would stick his dick in there, and fuck the poor unfortunate into oblivion.

Anton didn't mean to spy on his father that night.

He just needed a glass of water from the kitchen. Usually, he'd have a servant bring it to him, but no matter how many times he called, nobody showed up. He became tired of waiting, and he was thirsty.