Chapter 4: Prologue (4)
The day finally came when Bruno was discharged from the orphanage. His very being was a mere shell of its once happy demeanor. He looked exhausted and his eyes stared at the road in front of him as if it were an abyss.
A company had called the orphanage, offering Bruno a scholarship due to his outstanding marks, so right now he was waiting for one of their representatives to come and pick him up.
{I finally made it out Randy, I just wish you were here to see me off,} smiled Bruno as a black sedan came to a stop in front of him.
A woman emerged from the car, dressed in a neat black suit.
"Bruno Desiren, I'm Clara Sufon, and I'll be taking care of you for now on," said the woman, holding out her hand.
"T-Thank you."
***
Bruno had been admitted as an honor student to one of the top universities in the area, having scored outstanding marks in the entrance exam it wasn't much of a surprise to him. As soon as the academic year started, he buried himself in coursework, finding a newfound love for life in his engineering degree.
There were still nights when he was crippled by the anxiety attacks, in fact, after Randy's death, they became so unbearable that there were days he contemplated the point of it all... life that is. He promised himself to get help, and after his first year of university, he finally got it.
"You have type IV-2 panic disorder. It's not the end of the world, but you've done well to seek help. Most people take mental health for granted, and end up not getting help until it's too late..." The woman in front of Bruno recited what she was saying as if she had said it a hundred times, and even the look on her face seemed bored, like she'd rather be doing anything else but sit here.
"I will refer you to a psychiatrist, she will be able to give you medication to help cope with your episodes." The woman handed Bruno a medical report, along with the business card of a psychiatrist.
Months passed since Bruno started his medication and the drugs helped to some degree. Although they gave him fast relief during his episodes, they failed to cure the sadness that continuously lurked in the background like static. Even when he was socializing with friends, he felt like something was wrong, like he was guilty about something he didn't remember doing.
It affected his relationships, several of his girlfriends called him out for being mentally unstable, or for being a druggie -as he became heavily dependent on his medication. In fact, his psychiatrist recommended changing his medication and dosage, which lead him to seek other drugs for relief.
By the time he was out of university, not only was he addicted to his medication, but he had also become a regular drug user. It wasn't that he had become a complete junkie- in fact, he had graduated top of his class and was probably on the road to being a successful engineer- it was just that he couldn't function without them.
Psychotherapy didn't work for him, and although he lied to his psychiatrist that it did, he was almost certain that she knew he was lying. But still, he had grown into a practical man, drugs worked so drugs he would use.
He ended up being hired as a nuclear engineer at a government-owned power plant, starting off with a medium-level position. Although it paid well, he didn't plan to work there forever, the job was unfulfilling and didn't let him explore the engineering field the way he wanted to. He had dreams of creating a tech start-up, one in which he could work creatively and do what he enjoyed.
Every day after work he would go home and work on a few side projects, they ranged from the creation of new kinds of networks to the abstract designs of new weaponry. And after a few years, he had made quite a name for himself as a freelancer in multiple fields. It was around this time that he had saved up enough money to afford himself a small building to use as a premises for his startup.
His supervisor and a few of the upper echelons of the powerplant were against him leaving, in the end, they ended up offering him a promotion, however, his mind was made, he wanted to work for himself.
The first few months of operation were horrendous, marketing and running a business were vastly different from engineering. And although he was good at a wide variety of things, nobody seemed interested in a business that had such a broad list of services. After getting some advice from a friend he met at an entrepreneurial event, he decided to focus his business on something specific.
Putting his networking, building, and creative aspects into a single service was hard, but in the end, he came up with an idea. A household assistant much like Alexa, except it had access to the physical world and could carry out tasks past turning appliances on and off.
Investors -seeing his history- quickly put money into his business. Coming from such a background, they thought he would be an instant hit once his story was told. And they were right, after hiring a PR his business saw steady growth. Soon his appliances were becoming a household name among the wealthy, and he began amassing quite a bit of money.
But despite all the cars, all the suits, and all the money, Bruno still felt unhappy. He was still crippled by anxiety, and without his drugs he was useless. If he having anything he needed with a mere word didn't stop the sadness, then would he ever be 'free?' he sometimes wondered to himself. But still, he was content, he hid his depression behind his work and that was enough - though just barely so.
Chapter 5: Prologue (5)
Although Bruno was CEO of his company, he wouldn't let the board remove him from the engineering team. After all, it was the reason he started his company anyway. The board reluctantly let him keep his engineering job, despite it being both a security issue and a bit overbearing to other engineers on his team -what with having your boss literally breathing down your neck every day.
And breath down their necks he did, their work was never good enough for him. Bruno was a visionary in the engineering field, and being trapped in a field such as appliance and AI development, he felt his talents were a bit wasted. Feeling underwhelmed, Bruno began exploring the field of weapons engineering. Designing weapons had been something of a hobby since his nuclear engineering days, and now that he was rich it could easily become a full time thing.
He handed his first batch of designs to the government for approval -as he deemed that was where he would be able to get the most money without putting his empire in any danger- and they ate it up. After several tests, a few government officials came to his house to discuss a contract. Already the defense ministry deemed his works confidential, and although they didn't outright say that he wasn't allowed to sell to other countries, it was an unspoken fact.
He was willing to sign a deal with them, that is until they showed him a video of how 'successful' his weapons were in war-stricken 3-rd world countries. His weapons caused deaths on a major scale, the problem was that a few of those 'rebels' were children and innocents who had nothing to do with it. His weapons were being used to kill, and ironically enough death was what was crippling his mind in the first place.
After realizing the true horrors of his weaponry, he called it off. He dropped the project and allowed the government to keep what he had already designed, though he would sell no more. He continued designing weapons but their schematics never saw the light of day, and after a few restless nights he began a charity operation to send food and clothing to the people struggling in the war-stricken countries.
It was around this time that Bruno discovered Marcus, a visionary much like himself that had dropped out of college to join as an intern at his business. Marcus proved himself reliable after designing a workaround one the many bugs that the engineering team was struggling with. After that Bruno took him under his wing, it helped him cope with his mental issues having someone around him often. And seeing as how Bruno was probably among the greatest minds in the engineering field, Marcus clinged to him instantly.
He would follow him everywhere, reading all his works and working closely with him on all his projects. However, after a few years of being so close to Bruno, Marcus discovered a few things about him. For one, that the rumors about him being mentally unstable were true. And just like Marcus discovered things about Bruno, Bruno discovered things about Marcus.
Marcus had a... radical approach to things. He would often suggest they collect information on clients and sell them to advertising companies, or add additional... features to their appliances. Where people saw humanness in technology, Marcus saw inefficiencies that had to be cleaned out. But that was nothing 'time couldn't fix' Bruno would often think.
***
Bruno often worked late and would head home after everyone had already knocked off. It was sort of a routine, he would stop work at 21:00, after closing up he would say goodnight to the security guards before heading back to his mansion. Funny enough, it was the final part he hated the most, heading back to his mansion. At least at work he was surrounded by others, it hurt going home to nobody... well usually nobody.
As Bruno's driver parked the car, he noticed that the door to his house was open. Seeing this, his personal bodyguard went in to check what was going on, while Bruno waited in the car. Once his bodyguard was out of view, three figures appeared from the other side of the garage.
"Behind us!" shouted Bruno, trying to warn his driver, however his driver remained calm, as if nothing was out of place. Bruno tried opening the door to run away, but the driver locked them instantly, before gripping the steering wheel firmly with his black gloves.
"What is this about?" asked Bruno, realizing that he had been set up.
"You're a smart man, I knew you'd understand," said one of the masked figures that had appeared from the other side of the window.
"Open up," said the figure, gesturing to the driver before the doors unlocked with a click. The figures calmly opened the doors and sat in the car before the driver locked it again.
"Let's go someplace more... comfortable," ordered the figure that seemed to be the leader.
"Is this about money? If you want money then I can give you as much as you want, just let me go," said Bruno impatiently before trying to open the door. The prospect of dying triggered a panic attack, his body was shaking uncontrollably and he could hardly suppress the thumping in his chest.
"This isn't just about money, well of course it's a big part of it. You see, our client isn't too happy with you Mr. Desiren," said the figure, fiddling with the knife in his hand as the driver pulled out of the driveway.
"An unstable drug addict who refuses to sell his other... more interesting works," said another one of the figures.
"D-D-Drug addict? L-Lies, I'm not a- wait, what do you mean 'more interesting works'?"
"Did you think I wouldn't find out about the weapons you design on your free time? If only you'd just sell them, can't you see what wonders yo-"
"Marcus?" Bruno instantly recognized the voice of the third masked figure.
"You blew it," whispered one of the figures once his comrade's identity was revealed.
"Well it doesn't matter anyway, we're almost there."
"Almost where?"
"Your final resting place."
Bruno's panic attack worsened, causing him to double over in his seat as he fought back the illogical urge to cry. Marcus pulled out a single pill from the canister, before placing it on his foot.
"Lick it off."
"M-Marcus, why?"
"Why what? Why did someone like you get all this luck? Why was it you born so brilliantly? A drug addict? Someone who takes his gifts for granted? You don't know how much I had to work to get here, and every day you come to work and act like you weren't lucky to be born with your brains while saying that nothing we do is ever good enough for you."
"S-So what's your plan?" Bruno understood what this was about, he would sometimes see it in Marcus's eyes when he explained something that Marcus couldn't understand. Envy.
"We're going to have you overdose, and make it seem like an accident," smiled Marcus, his voice full of spite.
"H-Huh, so that's h-how I'm going out, huh?" stuttered Bruno as he bent over to lick the pill off Marcus's shoe. But right before Bruno's tongue touched the pill, he threw a punch at Marcus, before wildly throwing punches around the car.
"Fuck, just kill him n-" The figure's voice was brought to a halt when the headlights from an approaching car blared his vision.
The driver had been knocked unconscious, and the car swerved into another lane. It felt as if everything was happening in slow motion. Bruno could see the driver in the car in front of him trying to swerve out of the way, but it was too late. The two of them would collide, and at this speed...
{A kid.} It was a single thought, but it was what made him let go of it all. If the kid was lucky, he would die in this accident as well. If he ended up surviving without any parents he might end up like Bruno, after all that's where all his problems began... wait, perhaps it began even before that.
A split second later blunt pain radiated from every pore in his body, before finally he felt nothing.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
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