CHAPTER ONE
A child of wonder, his mother had always called him. Her golden boy. Her very own miracle that had been given to her by god himself. She had always dreamed of a boy, needing her and loving her unconditionally. And love her Kaladin did, from the moment he was able to remember her smile for the first time. She could ask anything of him and he'd do it. He never complained about taking care of his younger cousins and eventually his sister, who was nearly six years younger than him. And he loved her too, almost as much as he loved his mother. But sometimes love isn't meant to be reciprocated.
CHAPTER TWO
He had always admired his father. Hardworking, dedicated. IF he would ever be like him he'd be lucky, Kaladin thought. His father, a surgeon at their local hospital, was rarely at home with them, so caught up in work they were lucky to see him once a week. It didn't dim the admiration Kaladin felt for him, didn't dim the boy's love. Perhaps he didn't love his father as much as he loved his mother, but he knew he was just the same as him. And one day, he wanted to be exactly like him. If only to make his parents proud. And so he studied hard, tried to make them proud so badly, he started losing himself under the pressure, dissipated in the need to have them tell him how well he did. Things didn't change when he got his Hogwarts letter. Muggle born, they called him, sneered at him. The only wizard in his family. Branded on both ends of the spectrum. He was different in the world of magic and mysteries, and shunted in the world of his parents. And so he pushed himself even harder, worked harder, studied more. Only to make them proud.
CHAPTER THREE
"You left me behind because you're better now." The words burn in his mind like a stake on which he would be executed one day. His sister's scathing hatred for him sits like a splinter in his flesh, festering from the inside out and no matter how much he smiles through the pain, s his worries away and gets into trouble, nobody could ever hurt him like her. He loves her, god he does, but knowing how much she hates him for being what he is while she is nothing but an ordinary muggle, kills him. It kills him a little more with every text message she ignores, with every call she takes only to spit fire and venom his way.
"She'll come around", his mother assured him countless times, her voice gentle over the phone, but her smile lost to the static. "That's how she deals with you being away. Because she loves her big brother so much, darling." He believes her. He'd believe her if she told him the sky was green instead of blue. And yet there is nothing in this world that could ever hurt him like this. And so he chooses to stay at Hogwarts during the holidays, bulls his way through phone calls with his father, drinks himself senseless to numb the part of his soul that is festering and bubbling with Scarlet's venom.
❝ All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Because who is Kaladin Ravenwood, simmered to the essence of his being, if not even his own sister can love him?
