Ides of Sorrow (Sterek AU)

Ch 2: First Come the Nightmares...

Person upon person was lined up in front of Derek's table to get their copy of his book signed and he sighed. It would take at least an hour and a half to sign all of the books and all Derek wanted to do was to go home and relax. He shook his head but continued to smile and sign the covers, each time his signature becoming slightly different and slightly messier. When he reached the last copy, he looked up and sure enough it was the man in the batman shirt. 

"I still cannot believe that you made such an extraordinary connection based off of the character's personality. I don't think I have ever seen or heard someone make such an interesting connection to a piece of literature and the author of the piece before."

The man in the shirt looked flustered for a minute but he quickly regained his composure.

"Thank you for the compliment as it means quite a lot coming from you."

They casually chatted for a couple minutes before the man left and the line quickly finished after that point. Derek didn't stay afterwards for the refreshments but hailed a cab and returned to his hotel room, where he promptly lay on his bed.

"I don't understand why people even read that book? It's horribly morbid, depressing and a second grade piece of trash. What makes it worse is that they treat it as a work of pure fiction. Part of it isn't pure fiction. Part of it is true and part of it hurts me every time I see someone reading its cover."

Derek rolled over and his hand wrapped around the neck of the bottle of vodka that he had on his bedside stand. He sat up and quickly took a large swig of it, the taste burning his nose and the back of throat. He continued to drink, soon finishing the bottle entirely.

         *******
His depressive and repetitive behaviour that consisted of drinking, the occasional drug and depression continued on for many months.

One day it suddenly stopped. Derek realized that he needed help. He realized the his problems ran deeper than he thought and that they would eventually consume him with pain.

He set up appointments with a therapist for every Friday night for a couple months and that was it. He would get help starting tomorrow.