Hero of Darkness

Chapter 1: A Man at the Edge

Winds howled along with the passing cold breeze. At the time of midnight, in the glitter of lights from skyscrapers & malls along with multiple vibrant neon signs; the city life kept running as usual.

Amongst these sky-touching buildings & millions of people going about their lives, stood a man at the edge of the highest roof in one of such office buildings. He heaved a sigh, looked towards the bright moon & closed his eyes. Thinking & contemplating how & why his life came to be this way. Thinking to himself, Elric asked.

"Man, why am I the only one living so miserably? Will anything for once, go the right way for me? Why am I the only one always getting short end of the stick? It's as if the world itself is trying to tell me that I really don't matter at all."

Reminiscing about his childhood, Elric remembered the young him when he was 12 years old. He was a good kid with a great talent for reading among other kids in his class. The teachers would always praise him for being quick to answers. He was always good at getting the pronunciation of words correct & could read a chapter from the book without running out of breath easily. But this made his fellow students dislike him at the same time.

Some started bullying him as the days went on & even when Elric asked for help from his Teachers, no one helped him. Some saying it's just a small quarrel between children while some intentionally trying to smother the incidents to avoid being accused of neglecting the students of their class by school management.

So, Elric never got the help he deserved. When he told his father about how the kids at his school were bullying him, and even beating him on some occasions; instead of consoling his youngest son, his father reprimanded him to not bring such small matters into the house. His father worked in a manufacturing company for household appliances and had to spend many hours per day in the office as he was the manager of the department. So naturally, he was always tired & tensed up when he returned home.

After holding his sobs somehow, Elric told his mother, Sophia about the incidents. She told him that she would talk to his teachers. Elric believed her & decided to wait for tomorrow. But the next day, nothing happened. He still got beat up again, his parents had no time to listen to him. Even his older brother, David whom Elric looked up to told him to 'Man the hell up'. David was 17 years old & part of his school's baseball team. And due to his growth spurt kicking in, he often tended to be physical with his body & rash with his mind.

He paid no attention to his younger brother as if it didn't concern him. Elric couldn't ask his elder sister Jessica as she would get mad at him even if he mistakenly entered her room. She was very peculiar with her things, clothes & looks. And always spent a lot of time in front of the mirror for God knows what reasons..

Author : Let's call her someone with 'Princess Syndrome'.

So after both his family & school staff failed to help him, Elric had no choice but to endure the harassment at school. Hoping that his bullies would get bored & not target him any longer. He even stopped being active with his studies & interacting with other students & teachers alike to not stand out. And later when he went to high school, he adapted the same approach.

But during these times, Elric did find something to keep himself busy with. He no longer held love for historical figures or whatever they taught in schools rather in comics that he often read at the Comic store a couple of streets away from his house.

Somehow, these Heroes from comics gave him a huge sense of belonging & an urge to be a better person. His favorites were Spider-Man & Batman. He would often imagine if getting bit by a radioactive spider will give him powers like Peter Parker or whether he could find a mysterious clan of ninjas & martial artists who could teach him how to fight like Batman.