Harlon Fest

Background

Harlon likes to believe he's a hero. Or at least that's what he tells others. In his mind he's a villain that's good at hiding.

He grew up with two dads, a mom, and a sister. Well not grew up with so much as was born into a family of four. He was a happy and reckless kid, and was completely oblivious to what the piling up bills meant. He didn't really have any friends, but he had his sister and she was enough for him.

One day the bills disappeared. His parents seemed less stressed, but papa disappeared a lot more. Dad and mama weren't worried, so he wasn't either. Then the bills came back, and the lights stopped working.

Papa came home covered in blood one day. He just kept saying "I'm so sorry" between sobs. Two wolves came in behind him. They shot mama and dad, and Harlon ducked behind the couch before they saw him. Hana started screaming, but he couldn't see what was happening. Her screams stopped after another shot rang through the house.

He peeked around the corner and saw them hand the gun to papa. They said "off yourself, scum" and walked out the door. Papa had tears streaming down his face as he put the gun to his head. "I'm sorry Harlon," were the words before the worst shot yet. Harlon could see his papa's brains splattered across the wall, and had watched his body collapse.

Harlon only felt numb afterwards. The orphanage knew he needed help when he refused to eat, sleep, and talk. Any food they shoved down his throat was thrown back up. Every time they knocked him out he woke up silently crying and huddled under his bed. They sent him to a therapist after a week.

The therapist couldn't get a word out of him, and gave him a crystal fox to be his emotional support. Thanks to Lonye he started eating again, and slowly was able to get a full nights sleep. He still refused to talk, and eventually just forgot how to talk.

He learned sign language and was finally cleared for foster care when he turned fifteen. They told his foster parents about his selective mutism, but his foster dad figured he could beat him into talking. It only made things worse. Harlon snapped when his foster dad started beating the new foster kid. He grabbed the gun he'd been threatened with too many times and just pulled the trigger. When his hearing returned, all he could hear was screaming and he and Lonye bolted.

He met an anarchist while out on the road that he felt safe around. Miri taught him how to speak again and he started to feel again. One day, on his way back from nabbing some food for the two of them, he heard someone yelling "Just take off your clothes". He dropped the food and ran faster than he'd ever run before to find Miri pinned down. She was crying and he snapped again. He grabbed a piece of broken glass from the ground and shoved so far into the wolves chest that it pierced his heart.

Miri wasn't the same. She was pregnant from a bastard wolf, and Harlon didn't know how to help. She would yell at him a lot. One day in the middle of being yelled at Harlon shouted "shut the fuck up and let me speak. I'm tired of your bullshit, and I'm leaving. I started to believe I loved you, but I don't want my stupid heart getting messed with anymore!"

He stormed off and just kept muttering to himself how fucking stupid he was. After what happened to his family and his life how could he possibly believe everything would be okay?

Then he met Cochelle, and he swore he would be her hero.