Rising Against Fate

February 17, 3055

Vinton and Darth have been drinking buddies for years now. Their friendship was deep because they had gone through countless good and bad times drinking together.

Both of them had their differences and sometimes they even used to fight. But even when they fought, only the next day used to be awkward. They used to be back on the same table, drinking together from the third day.

Darth treated Vinton like a brother. He even gave him his old car for free. It wasn't really a big deal for him since he was about to buy a new Virtual driver model. But at this day and age, anyone would hardly do that for a friend.

"Darth, did you notice? Taffy was super nice to me today."

Darth was dropping Vinton home today because Vinton's car, which was an advanced automatic model, couldn't be driven when drunk.

"Huh? She is always like that to me."

Darth was barely awake, so his voice sounded a little sleepy, but Vinton himself was too drunk to notice.

"That's because you always give her tips. She used to treat me like crap."

Taffy was the waitress at the bar they used to visit regularly. Any normal man with a decent taste would consider her ugly because of heavy makeup she used to wear. But for Vinton and Darth, she was an unparalleled beauty, especially when drunk.

"What happen, nvr saa you gi er tip-"

At this point, he was half-asleep, and his words were barely understandable. But Vinton, who was also drunk, understood him.

"That's because I found a golden goose man. A golden egg laying goose."

"HAA?"

"I adopted a dumb kid and they are paying me for raising it. What they give me is just chump change, but they give a pretty hefty sum to the kid."

Vinton looked towards Darth who was completely asleep, but the way his head was slumping made him feel like he was nodding. 

"All I need to do is buy some cheap bread and leave it in the fridge, the rest he does himself. It's not like he can speak to complain in the first place, keh keh!"

"Vinton's house, sir."

After the car stopped, Vinton got off saying "see ya tomorrow!" and slammed the door close.

He stayed in the road waving until the car took the next left turn and disappeared from sight. After it did, he slowly walked towards the house.

Because of his habit of forgetting things when drunk, he used to keep his house keys in the vase near the front door.

After picking up the keys from the vase, he tried opening the door. After 3 conjugative failed attempts, he was finally able to open it.

Before entering, he reflexively reached the light switch that was inside and pressed it.

The lights were automatic, but he had turned the automation off to save the electricity bill. It's not like technologies to minimize energy consumption didn't exist, but Vinton wasn't the type who would consider long term benefit when the obvious difference in price was in front of them.

"This piece of trash is broken again!"

After he got in, he slammed the door hard in anger. He had recently repaired the lights, so it was natural for him to get angry when he found out it wasn't working again.

In the dim light that was coming from the kitchen, he took a closer look at the switch.

"Ha ha hahaha!"

It was only then that he realized he ended up turning off the light that was already on when he pressed the switch.

Who turned on the lights was already obvious. At this point, any normal person would start thinking how he reached the switch, but Vinton was too drunk for that.

After turning on the switch, he walked straight to the kitchen and opened the fridge. When he saw that the cake in the upper shelf was missing, he felt the surge of anger welling up inside him.

He walked straight to the sitting room where he found the boy sleeping on the sofa. The calm look on the boy's face when he was asleep made him even angrier.

He woke the boy up by pulling off the blanket that was covering him. When he saw the boy wake up, he caught the collar of the t-shirt that the boy was wearing and pulled him closer to his face.

The stink that was coming off of his face made the boy turn the other way with the look of disgust.

"You filth!"

He caught the boy's chin and forced him to face towards him.

"How dare you eat my cake!"

Before the boy could utter a single word, he started slapping him. If he had taken some time to think back, he would have realized that he had finished the cake this morning. But at this point it was too late, his anger had taken over him. 

The boy was helpless, there was no way he could resist a grown up. But even when he had to go through all this, not a single cry came out of his mouth, and not a single drop of tear fell from his eyes.

Vinton was too drunk to realize at that point but there was no fear or helplessness in the boy's eyes. Those eyes, they had rage, a violent, fierce rage.

February 21, 3055

Vinton was found dead in his house by his friend Darth approximately 18 hours after the death time according to post-mortem.

When Darth came to pick him up in the evening, he noticed that Vinton had forgotten to lock his door. Both of them were close friends who didn't care much about formalities, so he just entered the house without ringing the bell.

It was then that he found Vinton dead on the floor of his kitchen.

At first, he thought he was just faking it, so he tried waking him up. But when nothing worked, he dialed the emergency line.

After an ambulance arrived and confirmed the death, police came for an investigation. The investigation reached the conclusion that the death was caused by alcohol poisoning.

According to the reports, the only person living with him was a 4-year-old child that he recently adopted. The report also mentioned that Vinton had been torturing the child both physically and mentally. Heavy signs of child abuse were seen on child's body in the form of bruises and swellings.

Any attempts to communicate with the child after the incident ended up in a failure. He was too traumatized to even speak.

In the end, the child was taken under temporary care until he became a little more emotionally stable. He was then sent back to the orphanage.