The sauntering gently downwards of one Frank castle
“What if I told you I don’t belive in god red?” “Then I’d probably have to ask you why, father.”. Matt sipped on a whiskey with ice stairing the man infront of him down, Frank had decided to try a shot of rum. He would not be drinking anymore then that.
“What’s it you wanna know?” “How the hell does a guy like you go from military to priest?”
Franks heart skipped a beat or two. Anything that he described to Matt couldn’t be worse then anything Matt’s father had done right?
Frank was young, fresh out of highschool he inlisted. Was in the military for a good 5 years before meeting a girl on shore leave. She was unjustly murdered shortly after franks leave and it shook him to his core.
Especially after men in his platoon went out of their way to show him photos of her corpse. Afterwards Frank applied to be discharged and by the age of 26 was entering college.
He attempted law enforcement training, get a god way through police officer training before abruptly dropping out one night. This would be the fault of his friend, billy. He met him at a trauma recovery meeting for vets and those with childhood trauma.
Frank there for the former, billy for the latter. The two were able to hit it off fairly quickly and a small relationship formed that looking back, Frank only viewed as a attempt at self preservation. Frank placed all his trust in billy which is why he allowed himself to get completely consumed by him.
He dropped out of college, deciding to live with billy on the streets. The two robbed people for quick cash, constantly fighting and hurting each other. Frank never fell out of love so quickly with someone. Especially after a night where bikly attacked him with a pocket knife, he stayed with him due to pitty.
One night billy tried to get him to rob a store, when Frank protested he threatened to kill himself and Frank simply just left. Taking the remaining money in his pockets he found a liquor store, bought as much as he can carry, and woke up broke sleeping on a church pew.
He was greated by a father Lantum, who had asked him why he had been so drunk and so beat up. Frank simply worded it as ‘I’m a starving vet with some bad memorys’. He was offered a chance to put it all behind him and now at the age of 33 was living normal.
Billy was some high class private military contractor, from what Frank had heard chatter of. Not that he necessarily cared. The permanent mark edged across his face and his misshapen nose were perfect reminders of why he didn’t need billy.
He glanced up into Matt’s eyes after contemplating for a moment, “I was in the military.. fell in love.. left the military.. I started college. Dropped out. Bam priest”
Leaving out some heavy details. Matt smiled “maybe one day you can tell me the real story.”
Frank smiled at the man "do i even want to know your backstory?"
"Not tonight father, not tonight."