Afterlife Dream

It happened when Wolfhound was seventeen years old. At that time, he was in his third year of high school. By that time his mother and his stepfather had given birth to two more siblings, a boy and a girl each. They were respectively five and four years old.

The stepfather now had eight people in his family to feed, and he was getting overwhelmed. Wolfhound did not know what happened to his stepfather, but it was clear that his career was going nowhere. He never once got a promotion, and his yearly bonus was rather so-so. The yearly salary increase could no longer cover the living expense.

That was when the stepfather came to realize that he really did not have to feed the four brats that he did not sire. In fact, having raised them for ten years, the stepfather felt entitled to some gratitude.

Unknown to Wolfhound's mother, the stepfather started to make plans to get rid of the children and at the same time earn some money on the side.

"Unbeknownst to me, my stepfather arranged to make my sisters quit school and start to work. He threatened to throw us all out of the house if they dared to breathe a word about it to my mom or me."

Wolfhound closed his eyes and clenched his fists. His face was strained as he remembered a painful episode in his life.

"I was almost done with high school, and I got a full scholarship to a renowned college in the next town. I had it all planned. I wanted to escape the hell hole so bad."

"I did not know that while I was studying diligently day by day, my sisters already abandoned their education and were working like slaves. Every penny had to be given to my stepfather with no exception."

"One day, my youngest sister died."

I stared at Wolfhound. The latter was unable to continue for some time. He merely stared at the full moon with a pair of glassy eyes. Pain from the loss was clearly written all over his face.

"She fell from the balcony when trying to clean some windows. The lady of the lavish house had demanded my sister to climb onto the balcony railing and reached out to wipe the windows on each side clean."

Wolfhound rubbed at the spot between his brows.

"She was only thirteen years old. She did not know that it was dangerous. Initially, she was doing well but then she slipped and fell from a thirteen-meter height to her death."

Wolfhound sniffled.

"She died just like that and then the whole scheme was exposed. My stepfather was caught and detained by the police.

We forbade my sister from resuming her work, but she was unable to continue with her studies."

Wolfhound's lips were pulled into a thin line.

"After my stepfather was gone, we lost the main bread earner of the family. Mind you, six people needed to be fed still.

My mom decided to go and work so that I could at least finish high school and go to college. Once in college, I could also do some part-time jobs to help support the family.

My youngest brother meanwhile had to stop going to school. The other two stepsiblings that we had were still too young for school at that point.

My sister took care of them so that my mother could go out there and earn us some money to survive."

Wolfhound sighed. His gaze was unfocused. It was as if he was watching a movie that only he could see. A movie that depicted his life.

"At first things were working out. My mom got a job as a nurse assistant. The pay was decent. Enough to feed all of us. My sister also ended up taking care of the neighbors' children to earn some extra money at home.

I wanted to go do a part-time job but my mom said no. I should focus on my studies, she said.

I was the sole hope of my broken family."

"And then you know what? My father came back. My biological father."

"We didn't know what happened to him. He simply showed up one day and demanded to be back in our life.

And my mom let him into our house.

He was jobless. Claimed to have been injured permanently and was thus unable to continue earning money. Mom felt sorry for him and let him stay at home every day."

"One day, when all of us but the two little siblings were out of the house, he robbed us out. He took my mother's entire savings. It was equal to our living expenses for three months.

We came home to find the house deserted and the two little children bawling their eyes out due to hunger."

"I had anger issues, Antares. A bad one. Whenever I got beaten up by my stepfather, I never once retaliated. The wish to fight back unknowingly accumulated within me and was looking for an outlet.

By chance, I saw my biological father again. He got kicked out of a gambling shop and pushed onto the streetwalk.

I approached him and asked about the money."

"Turned out that he already gambled it all away. He even had the audacity to ask me for more money. When I refused to give him any, he started grabbing into my pockets and bag.

I pushed him away and he fell onto the brick-layered pavement.

I could smell from his breath that he was drunk.

Maybe that was why he was aggressive as well."

"We got into an argument. It started with him calling me all the names that he could think of, accusing me and my siblings of ruining his life.

I talked back, but I held myself back with every strand of my mental sanity. I kept telling myself that he was still my biological father nonetheless, and he was not in a good place at that time.

All I had to do was walk away.

But I didn't, and that was my biggest mistake."

"Not sure how he found out. Maybe my mom told him. He started talking about my deceased sister."

I knew that it was past the point of no return as soon as Wolfhound mentioned the last sentence.

I was right.

"He said that it was good that she died. Then we had one less mouth to feed.

I did not remember what happened. My mind turned blank.

The next thing I knew, I was being dragged away by men that I did not know. I was struggling, trying to punch and kick at anyone who came close to me.

And my father... he lay there on the cobblestone pavement in a fetal position."

"He was completely motionless. And I saw blood everywhere. I had literally beaten him up to death."

This was the story that people used to read in books and not from someone else's mouth. It would be a lie if I said that I was not terrified, but I knew that Wolfhound was not a bad person. He just had a rather violent composition.

Due to his unhappy childhood.

"My father died a few hours later in the hospital. I was locked up inside a cell. We did not have enough money to bail me out, I was clearly guilty of murder. And so they put me into a juvenile detention center. I was sentenced to detainment for a period of five years.

Gone was the admission as well as scholarship to the college.

Gone was the hope to become the breadwinner of the family as soon I finish college.

Gone was my life, my future."

"Inside the juvy, we were allowed to play Afterlife Dream. The psychiatrist thought that it was good therapy, especially for me without endangering other people.

I was encouraged to socialize with other people online, and uhh... it just so happened that I suck at playing MMORPG and at making friends online."

"Not that I was a social butterfly in high school, but I at least had a place there. Playing MMOs required skills that I unfortunately lack. My eye-hand coordination was not good. And I got nervous easily too.

When I was nervous, I made a lot of mistakes."

"Party quests are nightmares. I got scolded a lot. But I was forced to endure. Our gaming activities were monitored closely. What we said, what we did... They did not punish us for any trespass, but they always wanted to talk about it in the counseling sessions."

"When we lost our temper, we were advised to endure and to hold it in. When we managed to have a day of peaceful interaction with others without getting into some kind of trouble, we got praised and told that it was a job well done."

"It did not matter who told us what to trigger our anger. In the eyes of the counselors and psychiatrists, we were automatically the guilty party simply because we were in juvy and those children were free."