Supreme Magus
No matter if you are a pessimist or an optimist, Derek Esposito’s life wasn’t a good one nor a bad one. It was just a mediocre insignificant existence. His father was a bipolar abusive man, capable of disappearing in his bedroom for days during the depressive phase. He would wake up only to eat, use the bathroom and the occasional "let’s make your life miserable" fit of rage. During his euphoric phase, he would work like a madman, but not having any talent either as a businessman nor as social climber, he was unable to both being successful and establishing the right connections.
In his natural state, whenever he decided to actually take his medications, he was just a coach potato that would stand up and go to work just to avoid the blame and spite from neighbours and peers.
Whatever was his mental condition, he always was a perfect example of an abusive father.
His sons were always a disgrace in his eyes.
They never studied hard enough, never were disciplined enough, nor did show enough respect.
And he was always there to remember them how wrong they were.
He would yell at them for the slightest mistake, constantly reminding them that they were just parasites that leeched off his hard work.
And when words weren’t enough or when they did fail to meet his expectation with school grades or chores, there was no teacher like his leather belt.
Hence, Derek and Carl had to quickly learn how to fend off for themselves, since their absent-minded mother practically forgot about them right after giving birth, dedicating her life in pursue of peace and quiet, staying as far as possible from her spouse tantrums.
Derek was two years older,and desperately tried to take care of his little brother, but to no avail.
They grew up watching and reading stories about heroes protecting the weak and upholding justice. But no hero ever appeared to save them.
Every week they would be forced to go to church to worship a nondescript benevolent god and his son, the saviour of all mankind. But no matter how much they prayed or how good they were, no miracle occurred.
So, they simply stopped believing in heroes and instead of wasting time with prayers they crammed.
School was their only oasis, but that lasted only until the sixth grade.
Once in middle school, it didn’t even take a month before the bullying started.
Their cheap clothes and gloomy disposition made them the easiest targets. They were so used being tossed around and insulted that they didn’t even bother trying to fight back.
For a long time, Derek had considered it the worst moment in his useless life. After a month, he knew he could not take any more of that, so he tried to make things better.
He reported his father’s abuses to the social services with an anonymous email, but being overworked and understaffed the social work assistant made a brief visit and never came back.
Then he tried to end the bullying by reporting their aggressors to a teacher, which in turn washed her hands by reporting it to the principal. The principal did not want to meddle with what he deemed as childish pranks, so he called Derek’s parents to inform them of the problem, hoping they would let it slide. And at least his wish came true.
Derek, instead, took and extra beating for not being man enough to face his own problems.
"Are you really that stupid to never learn anything from me? Never delegate, if you want something done right, do it yourself!"
Derek had never felt so helpless and desperate, so that night he bawled his eyes out, until he fell asleep. That had been the last straw.
The next day he felt different, clearheaded like never before. It was not the time for despair anymore, he needed a plan.
It would take him years to realize that something inside him had died. He was no longer able to trust, hope or develop any sense of kinship. He was surrounded by enemies, and to survive Derek needed to be able to fight back.
So, Derek asked his father to let him join a dojo and learn martial arts, and to his surprise he did not have to beg or even ask twice. His old man was glad that his wimpy and scrawny poor excuse of a child was finally interested in becoming a man. His only condition was that Derek was not allowed to quit for at least one year, otherwise he would have to pay for it.
Not only Derek started practicing aikido almost daily, he would also wake up two hours earlier every single day to build muscles doing push ups, squats, sit ups and running until he was out of breath.
In a few months he was finally able to do every day 100 push ups, sit ups and squats and run for at least 10 kilometres before going to school.
Aikido soon revealed to be a perfect choice for his situation. At low level was mainly focused on self defence but there plenty of space for attacking and fighting dirty.
By practicing martial arts, he finally discovered something he was good at. He was not particularly nimble, nor a fast learner. His hand to eye coordination was also average at best. His talent lied in the ability to spot the best time to hit a sensible spot during a block or a defensive manoeuvre.
Even when the sensei was teaching sword or tanto arts, Derek was always able to grasp the killing moves at his first try, sometimes even before the sensei completed the practical demonstration.
It was an exciting yet disappointing discovery since his only talent had no practical use. Even if aikido was a sport with tournaments instead of a discipline, hits to groin, eyes and trachea were universally forbidden.
For months Derek kept training hard while keeping a low profile at school, planning his next move.
At the end of the first semester, Derek stopped hiding from the bullies and started replying in kind to every single insult they threw at him, using the best quick-witted roast lines he had found online. Derek paid attention to never go to the bathroom or to remain alone for too long, always keeping and adult witness in line of sight.
It did not even take a full day before his enemies were fuming and outraged. Only when the veins almost popped out their necks, he threw his bait.
"I have enough of your sh*t, as*holes. Meet me in an hour behind the grocery shop between Lincoln and the 3rd. Or are you too scared?"
"Since you seek death, I will happily grant your wish, you fag*ot. It will only be you and the three of us, alright?"
Derek nodded without believing him in the least. And he was right.
When they entered the back alley, they had brought along two more people.
Derek was waiting for them, leaned against the wall at the end of the blind alley.
"There you are. I was starting to think you would stand me up."
They started laughing. "Sorry we were late. Hope you do not mind we taking some friends for the party."
Derek shrugged, while grinning from ear to ear.
"No problem. No matter how much, worthless trash is always trash. I chose this alley because it’s fully equipped with enough dumpsters to accommodate all of your friends."
The last line hit a nerve so they charged at him blindly.
"Gang up on him, guys! Do not let him escape! Let’s how him who is the trash."
And so, they fell into his trap. Derek had come here preparing the terrain, and choosing the best spot the fight. A blind alley to not make them escape, the end of the alley so they would not notice the trip wire due to the dim light.
The first two fell down hard on the concrete, and those behind them were so worried about not trampling on their friends that never saw the steel pipe coming.
They did come in numbers, Derek had come fully armed. Using the pipe as a sword he quickly hit them respectively on the head, the side of the knee, in the groin. Only then he started hitting the two that were trying to get back on their feet.
While they were moaning and sobbing on the ground, he used a small knife to cut the trip wire, then he started beating them again and again with the metal pipe giving a special attention to the nether regions.
Deeply inside he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he could not care less. If the world was built to be unfair, the only possible course of action was to make it unfair at his advantage.
So, he took out the taser that he borrowed from his father and tased them until unconscious. Then he stripped them completely and took multiple photos of each one of them and even filmed them after arranging them so that they would seem to be spooning to each other. Then he splashed them with a bucket of cold water and sealed the deal.
"Sorry to ruin your Brokeback Mountain moment girls, but I need your attention for a minute."
When the bullies woke up, they were still in so much pain they could barely notice that they were naked and embracing each other. Retorting to Derek while he had still a firm grip on the steel pipe was out of question, so they kept quiet and listened.
"I have made quite a scrapbook of you, even a short movie, uploaded it on my computer and even into the cloud. And it would be terrible if someone, I do not know, like me, for example would upload them on all the biggest image hosting sites. You know how they say, internet never forgets."
The bullies started crying and begging.
"Imagine how terrible would it be! Whenever someone would Boogle your names, be it your grandma, your girlfriends or even the colleges you were willing to apply to, the first thing to appear would be those photos!"
"Dude, no!" "Please, I do not even know you. I was just making a favour to a friend!" "It was only a joke, please forgive me!"
The choir of begging gave him the goose bumps. Derek wanted to puke at their hypocrisy.
"I do not care for your pathetic excuses! From this day onward, you will leave me alone. And you better pray that nothing happens to me, because the cloud is set so that if I do not enter the password every day, it will upload them everywhere."
Without waiting for their reply, he turned back and walked away.
"Almost forgetting, I randomly threw your clothes in the dumpsters, can’t remember which is which. If you don’t want to go home in your birthday suit, you better start digging. So long, suckers!"
Derek returned home euphoric, almost singing. He had never felt so proud of himself and had the completely undeserved confidence that he would never think about those b*stards ever again.
Chapter 2: Prologue 2.
The bullying ended, but his social life never stopped being miserable. How could he possibly make any friend with such a shameful private life?
He had to constantly hide the bruises with long sleeves and had run out of plausible excuses for his streak of black eyes months before. His classmates and professors simply pretended to not know and he just pretended to believe being that good of a liar.
It was painful, but manageable. He still had his little brother to share that pain with. Carl was all he had, his family, friend and confident. He was Derek’s whole word.
But when that age came, he started having crushes toward girls in his school, and those feelings weren’t as easily suppressed. Once again, he felt utterly helpless.
He could not tell anyone about his problems, could not allow people to get close to him, otherwise he would have to think of an explanation for not being allowed to bring any friend home. Let alone a girl he liked.
Derek was tormented by cruel thoughts, often demanding the heavens why what others took for granted was but an impossible dream for him.
Fueled by the hormonal storms Derek rage started growing relentlessly. He started having troubles sleeping at night, thinking about all those lovey-dovey couples out there.
Derek knew he was different from them. His crippling flaw wasn’t being shy or having a bad case of acne. His problem couldn’t be cured by any doctor, because it had a name and surname. Ezio Esposito, his trash bag of a father.
Derek started conceiving plan after plan to get rid of him, even if that meant killing him. At night he would device elaborate and meticulous plans that often involved prolonged torture, making Ezio suffer like Derek did for all those years.
But when morning came, he would always realize it was a dumb plan. More wishful thinking than anything else.
Derek lacked the means and the ruthlessness necessary for getting rid of Ezio. No matter how much he hated him, Ezio was still his father and he was just an angry teenager.
Kill Ezio? Sure. And what about then? Live a whole life ridden with guilt? Running away from home to avoid being the arrested? And with what money?
Killing Ezio would have meant abandoning Carl forever, and destroying any possible chance of being happy in the future.
So, every morning Derek would swallow his plan along with the porridge and move on. His only real prospect was to cram as a madman, get a scholarship and get out of that hell as fast as possible.
Time flew, and in the blink of an eye is was the last summer before Derek’s first year of high school. Despite the hot climate, his heart was cold as ice.
Derek had already hit his grow spurt. That combined with his martial arts and muscle training had given him a mean look.
Ezio was aware of that, and being a coward had started to avoid beating Derek as much as possible making Carl the new favourite target.
Derek had already tried standing up for his brother, but the only result had been Ezio buying a nightstick from the local Army Surplus and getting beaten with it instead that with Ezio’s bare hands.
He saved Carl from that by begging and crying, and only because the ruckus had alarmed their neighbours.
So, whenever Ezio threw one of his tantrums, Derek could only watch his brother getting beaten, again and again.
Then, one morning Ezio received his first big commission in years. So, he wore his best suit despite the heat and had Derek preparing him the briefcase and the laptop.
Ezio was in a real hurry, he could not afford his competitors to snatch this whale. It could have been his career making commission!
Derek rushed to the door, where Ezio was already waiting, and helped him adjust the laptop’s satchel.
Ezio ran to the elevator, pushing the button like a madman but the light remained red.
Cursing his damn condo, the building manager and his rotten luck Ezio made a rush to the stairs.
And that’s when Derek noticed it. Turning his head to follow his father, Derek noticed that the light made odd reflections on the hallway’s floor.
Ezio had just passed in front of him when he realized that the janitor had just washed the stairs but forgot to put the wet floor sign.
It happened all in an instant. Ezio made a long heavy stride, all his weight down and forward and then his foot slipped.
Derek could have warned him, could have even extended an arm and prevented the fall. But instead he chose to remain still.
Ezio tumbled down the stairs, bounced on the next alley and tumbled again crashing downstairs. His body was a broken mess, all his limbs bent in unnatural angles.
As any teenager, Derek had his smartphone at hand, so he started to make several photos to prove that the floor was wet and there was no warning sign.
His mind was already planning on hiring the best shark lawyer he could and sue the building managing firm responsible for his condo.
Only then he carefully walked down the stairs to confirm Ezio’s death. He was there, incapable of making a moan or asking for help, but his eyes were fixated on Derek, begging for help.
Derek grinned to him and said: "Do you really think I am so stupid to never learn anything from you? As you more than once taught me, never delegate. If you want something done right, do it yourself. Your smartphone is in your pocket, take it out and call 911. I’m just a failure of a son, I do not want to mess this up for you, daddy."
Ezio’s eyes were full of shock and hate, but that lasted only a moment. His head went limp, his gaze blank.
A laughter fought to came out, but Derek suppressed it. Instead he started shouting for help putting on his best terrorized son impression.
As always, Derek’s mother was too obsessed with her problems, her grief, her feelings to bother looking for the lawyer, leaving everything in Derek’s hand, since Ezio was no more.
Three birds with one stone. After a careful research he contacted and hired the best shark lawyer they could afford, so that Derek would be his client instead of his mother.
He told him everything about his father’s incident, the abuse, and the need to make so that the money would be split between the three of them, mother and sons.
Both Derek and Carl were very firm on that point, they wanted the lawyer to start the process to get emancipation. With the money from the compensation and the inheritance, they had enough to be self sufficient until Derek could provide for them both.
What followed was the happiest period in their life. First, they obtained the inheritance, and shortly after they got emancipated and moved away from their mother’s place.
Not even a month later, they received a very generous settling offer from the building manager. They used it to settle up and make proper plans for the future.
During the following years, bullies were not a problem. Derek and Carl were now both martial artists and had each other’s back. Finally they could experience having friends and girlfriends, their domestic nightmare finally over.
They suffered many disappointments though, since too many of those so-called friends turned out to be people that wanted to use their parent-free house as a party house.
Also they had an hard time figuring what being a normal teen was supposed to be. While their peers seemed only interested in having fun and skipping classes, they were focused on studying and saving as much as possible.
Derek and Carl would spend holydays and vacations doing part time jobs to slow down the thinning of their bank account. They were not poor, but not rich either.
They knew they had to save as much as possible, in case rainy days would once more fall upon them. But all in all they had a good life.
Derek got a scholarship and obtained a bachelor degree in chemistry, soon followed by a master in biochemistry. Carl was doing well too, already got his engineering degree, ready to study for his master and already had a fiancé.
Despite being really happy for his little brother, that was really a painful thorn in Derek’s side. He had always been the more socially inept between the two, and never managed to get into a stable relationship, not even in college.
Derek had no problem talking to girls, the problem always lied in him being picky and ended in his inability to trust. He had had many crushes, but never fell in love.
At the beginning he put the blame on his bad luck, always finding shallow or idiotic girls. After finding more than one good girl, he put the blame on his dark past.
But when confronted with Carl’s happy relationship he could only blame himself. While Carl had suffered almost the same things, he got out much stronger and pure than Derek.
Derek was just too scared of being hurt again to let any relationship grow above a certain level, and that was an enemy that he could not just beat up.
Derek accepted the first decent paid job he got, working in the night shift of a big chemical company in the Q&A department.
Carl had shared with him, as a graduation present, that he was willing to propose to his fiancé as soon as he got his master. Hence Derek needed money because he had only two years to save enough to give his little brother a decent wedding.
Derek did not like his current job, but it was a way to start his working career and filling his curriculum. Also it was well paid, and he resolved to use the company insurance to seek for psychological counseling.
He knew he had problems and wanted to work them out. Derek consulted several doctors before finding someone he was able to work with, and after several months he felt he was finally starting to make some progress.
But alas, such happiness was not bound to last.
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