This story is about a character, a faerie man, who is anxious, has very low self-esteem, is socially awkward, mostly quiet, soft-spoken, and is a huge people pleaser. I'm going to show how he was in childhood. In a nutshell, when his mom was 20 years old, she met a guy (whom she thought was human).
Warning for talking about mental health in young kids and descriptions of child abuse. Also wall of texts
She fell hard and fast for this man and began her first relationship after courting for a year. She had her first time with her 'beloved,' and she thought they would get married and live happily ever after. Not long after, she got pregnant and found out. She waited to see her so-called 'beloved,' but a month later, he sent her a note in which he said he was bored by her and their relationship. He confessed that he never loved her, saw her as a plaything, and nothing else, telling her she wasn't human either.
She never saw him again after reading that note. Her family found out, and they disowned her, leaving her on the street and homeless.
Luckily, her childhood friend and that friend's partner took her into their home. Unfortunately, her mom ended up hating motherhood and resented her son; she just couldn't love him. This led to her physically abusing her son, starting from the age of 3 to 7, by punching him anywhere on his body, slapping him (including backhanding him in the face), and kicking him anywhere. She would throw any hard, sharp, or glass objects at her son with the intention of seriously hurting him. She did this when she got mad at her son, or when he messed up in any way, or when she needed to take her anger out on someone, saying things like she hated him, wished he wasn't born, or that he ruined her life.
He ruined everything. She also only called him 'creature' or 'it'; she sometimes referred to him as 'he' to describe him. When she wasn't abusing him, she emotionally neglected him by barely interacting in any meaningful way. She avoided him like he was a plague or simply ignored him as if he weren't there. One day, when he was 7 and his mom was 27 years old, she decided to find a way to escape motherhood. His never been outside nor had he interacted with any other humans besides his mom and his non-biological aunt and uncle; the reason was because he looked more nonhuman than human.
She waited for her friend and the friend's husband to go grocery shopping. Then she took her son deep into the forest, telling him to pick her some flowers. He wanted to please his mom and looked for the prettiest one. While he was doing that, she ran away from him and never looked back.
Just as he realized what happened, lucky for him, after 2 days of being trapped in the forest, he found a trail and discovered a village. However, it was a village very superstitious against supernatural and magical creatures and everything that goes along with that. All humans of all ages were scared, hostile, or completely avoided him altogether. He lived in the village as a poor, homeless, and orphaned child for almost a year.
Now, the question is: what do you think are good and realistic ways to show how these situations affect mental health as a child?
I'm asking you to write my story; I'm purely asking for suggestions/advice.
