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nA man with a gun taped to his hand was sitting in his car taking a deep breath while pointing the gun to his head.

nHis face was full of acne scars. His black hair looked extremely unkempt with scruffy hair and unequal sides. His lean body was well defined with muscles due to his regular workout, yet he had a body thin enough to be called unhealthy, looking almost like a malnourished athlete beyond his prime.

nEven though he was in his early 30's, the dark bags under his eyes made it seem like he was in his 50's, while the well-defined wrinkles on his forehead from constant frowning only further verified the theory he was beyond his 30s.

nHis short black hair receded enough to define the wrinkles and acne, keeping the attention there longer than anywhere else on his face.

nHe wore a black shirt under his leather black jacket with stains of brown-red over it and his face. his black sweat pants and black PairForces were also stained, yet it camouflaged with the color of the clothes.

nBehind him was a 3 story house big enough to be capable of inhabiting 3 families of four. Its windows were smashed in and had flames burst out, while slowly yet surely destroying everything in its path.

nThe people outside can be seen running out of their houses in a panic. While most of them were holding their hands above their agape mouths, others were hurriedly taking out their phones while quickly mashing three numbers and putting their mobile devices next to their ears.

nFor Atlas, this situation all started when he was barely 7 years old, the day his mother passed away from a heart attack. He mourned and cried for 3 days straight yet no one came to console him, not his father, not his aunties nor cousins from either side of the family, no one...

nHe decided to skip school for a while and spend time with his father, yet his father's face showed no sadness, just indifference. His father looked at him with the coldest gazes which made Atlas lock himself in his room to reminisce on everything he did with his mother.

nHe would only eat breakfast and dinner while spending the rest of the time sleeping, working out which was a new hobby he gained to forget about his problems, and playing video games he recently started to enjoy more and More.

nOne month later, his father married another woman that Atlas had never seen before. This woman was gorgeous and had eyes full of joy and vigor. His father had married a new woman one month after the death of his wife. His eyes which the boy had expected to be dull for the next few years were full of life.

nAtlas had expected that his father would pay him the same attention he paid the new women he married, yet every time they would make eye contact, Atlas could see the same face of indifference his father always made around him. It was not a face that could not tolerate the existence of Atlas, nor was it a face of pity or hatred. It was the face you would make when seeing a homeless man on the side of the street begging for money. The face of absolute indifference, where the person could not care if the one they were looking at were to die or live.

nAtlas' father would constantly play with the children on his new wife and now that the children had seen the neglect their new father was giving Atlas, they had followed suit and did the same thing. Now the wife and children of Atlas' father kept tormenting him about being a

"waste of space

" and told him he should

"just leave the house

".

nThe main prosecutor was his older step-sister, the oldest of the three children. There were two other siblings both younger than Atlas yet apparently that didn't stop them from riding along with everything that was happening. Atlas' step-sister would constantly flirt with him even though there was an age difference, she didn't care.

nAfter she would torment him a little more and there would be no reaction, she would normally beat Atlas up without him being able to fight back or she would tell her mother that he tried to

"touch

" her. Even though the parents knew exactly what was happening, they would only punish Atlas while his stepsister, Dalia, would get away with everything.

nAll Atlas could do was try to ignore her as well as he could.

nAfter a year passed of being tormented by everything and everyone around him, when one of the boys got old enough to have his room, Atlas was kicked out of his and sent to sleep in the basement with all his belongings.

nThe basement was full of cobwebs, spiders, rats, and insects yet Atlas decided to deal with it. It was quite spacious yet Atlas had to constantly clean the place and block holes that allowed rats to enter his room and remove cobwebs. For the next 3 years, he spent his time doing the same things as always.

nHe would wake up, go for a run, work a few jobs here and there like in local stores and even the library. He would then get home and get a bucket of water to his basement with some soap to use after he works out and finally he would play a few video games on his old phone.

nHis computer had been taken away by his stepmother and given to his younger stepbrother.

nAfter turning 11, Atlas decided to call the domestic abuse helpline service and report his parents. The services decided to send over an observer just to find there was nothing wrong.

nDue to not having a SIM card, Atlas had to call Through the Landline telephone which was promptly reported to their mother by Dalia. Dalia's mother swiftly took action and covered everything up while at the same time making Atlas seem like a spoiled child. After that incident, he promptly took a beating from his stepmother and her daughter every day for a month for

"neglecting

" all that they had

"blessed

" him with.

nWhen Atlas was finally 14, he started going to high school. After taking those beating, he decided he wanted to move out as soon as possible, so he started studying night and day for a couple of days while still maintaining his normal routine and squeezing in 6 hours of sleep when he can.

nThis was all in hopes that he would find new friends in high school that would give him love and care that his parents didn't give him, yet he managed to forget that he hadn't interacted properly with people for the last 7 years therefore not knowing what the people his age liked nor knowing if he and they had in common.

nOn the first days of Highschool, he found people who were being nice to him, showing him around. yet, what he had mistaken for kindness was them seeing how much of a pushover he could be and what was the best way to manipulate him into becoming their slave.

nUnfortunately for Atlas, the answer was simple.. they just had to act like they were his friends which quickly plunged him into the chaos that is high school and he was completely oblivious to the imminent threat hovering over his head.

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