You can never escape your past

Title: You can never escape your past
Rating: General/Teen
Series: Metalocalypse
Characters/Pairings/Couples: Cooper, Terry (Original Character, Original Male Character)
Part of: Random Word Drabbles; prequel to Kitten
Beta: No Beta, all mistakes are my own
Summary: A life changing decision led Cooper to his last resort and a chance to escape from his ghosts.  If he even makes it that far, he will never see his babies again.
Warnings: Brief mentions of animal abuse, murder and suicide.  I am not an expert in law, so I probably messed up.
Notes: I am losing myself in Baldur’s Gate 3 and the characters I created and their back stories.  I’ve had this one finished for almost two months, when a lot of people have their own characters.  These two are what I came up with, Cooper and Terry.  And while I don’t fully condone what Cooper did, I understand his frustrations and the fact that animal abuse isn’t taken seriously.  This was prompted by the line “Don’t you think you’re taking this too far?”

“Don’t you think you’re taking this too far?”

Breathing heavy and struggling not to let the flood of emotions out, Cooper looked over his shoulder to his friend.  Hands that were shoved into his jacket pockets with shoulders hunched, Cooper knew his friend was trying to talk him out of this, that most likely they’ll never see each other again (fuck, probably wouldn’t last long.  He’d probably die rather quickly).  Heart aching, he has the chance to not go and see if he could find work here.  Knowing that others would look at him with fear and suspicion.  Only finding work for pay under the table, if he was lucky enough to make it that far.

“I know I am, Terry,” he sighed, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hands.  Tears that he had been holding back were easily falling.  “Do you want me to say that I regret what I did?  Sure, a little.  I did what I had to do. Fuck, I did what any decent human would do-”

“So you beat a man to death?  Is that what a decent person does?”

“It’s not like I went out to kill someone.  No one was going to stop him.  No one had the fucking guts to do anything.  They couldn’t protect themselves, they can’t advocate for themselves!”   His voice echoed, tearing his gaze away, the images forever burned in his mind.  “No one who had the power to stop him cared that he was torturing those animals.  They didn’t give a fuck that he’d continue to do what he wanted.  So I did what I had to do,” Cooper confessed as he shouldered his bag.  “Besides, I was acquitted of the charges.  The fact that I can’t find any work here, and I need a job.  Just, do me this one favor, please?”

He knew that his friend was uncomfortable with what he had done.  His family wanted nothing to do with him, neither did anyone else, Terry was the only person he could ask.  Waiting for a moment, the nod of a dark head as his friend gave in for one last time.

“Go ahead,” Terry tossed out, clearly uncomfortable with how he was being nice.  He had given away pretty much everything he owned, a few things sold while the rest were just worthless to everyone but himself.  Terry had asked if he was planning to kill himself and at the time, Cooper could only smile; as fake as his ex’s tits were.  His backup plan was just that.  Life was already fucking miserable, confused and hopeless.  His last resort was getting to the mass interview and “training”.  If this didn’t work out, well, he knew what his other option was.

“Look after my babies, will you?  I can’t bring them with me.”

Dark eyes widened behind glasses, Cooper could see the swallow.

“You’re talking about your cats, right?”

He nodded, knowing what he was doing would be the best for them.  Terry always had a soft side for them.

“Yeah, of course.  Do you,” his friend hesitated awkwardly, reminding him of the young boy Terry used to be.  “Do you want pictures?”

“I don’t know if they’ll let me have my phone with me, but yes. Of course, yeah,” he scratched at the back of his neck as he looked away with a little nervousness.  “It’ll be a reminder of home.”

The horn blew as the bus approached the station.  Biting his tongue, Cooper could only give Terry an awkward hug, the squeeze from his friend and comforting words.

“Don’t be afraid to come home, yeah?  I’ll take good care of the cats.  Even the clinic,” the slap on his shoulder before Terry stepped back.  “Just… check in to let me know you’re alive.”

With what money he had, barely anything to his name now, Cooper took the steps that would either lead him to a different path in life or straight to death.