Golf, part 2

Another day at work…ugh.

He had already driven through to the employee and member parking lot, parked the car, and had gotten out. He waddled over to the trunk to get out his clubs and his balls and his tees and he scowled at the sight of them. His favorite club reminded him of last week…and of the incident. What is the world coming to when his favorite club makes him scowl?

Duff was twenty four and it was only a few months after Carol had died. Everything he looked with his eyes was hazy with a dark overcast. The day was cloudy, murky, and depressing. But even if the weather was sunny, warm and beautiful, Duff would say it was hot, muggy and sweaty. Nothing pleased him anymore. Not even golf…well, not completely.

Yes, Duff still loved golfing and he loved his job. He has been the golfing champion for six years in a row at all the national competitions. He was completely and utterly rich, but he never really spent any of the money. He had everything he already needed—he had his cherry red Scottish-made sports car, but other than that, there really wasn't much Duff wanted. He didn't need a big house (he already lived in a castle), he didn't want fancy things…actually, most of his money originally went towards gifts for Carol, but after a while she asked him to stop. She was too nice…she told him that it was his money, and that he should be buying gifts for himself.

Duff sighed. She was always looking out for him and he missed her so much.

After Carol had passed away, Duff snapped. He turned from being weak, wimpy, shy, quiet, respectful, truthful, and all around good to the complete opposite: he became violent, temperamental, insolent and rude (especially to women), and to summarize in two words, cold blooded. He took up a few new hobbies like smoking every and any illegal drug he could get his hands on, becoming an alcoholic, and visiting a Gentleman's Club every now and then. And, if he was really having a bad day, he would skip the Gentleman's Club and simply roam the streets looking for any woman that was willing and available. He never settled for anything less than his standard requirements—she had to be good, good-looking, and if he was satisfied by the end of the night, he gave the woman enough money where she would never have to roam the streets again.

Duff was almost thankful that it was such a long walk to reach the head facility of the Country Club. He used to be thankful because he would love to watch the scenery, but nowadays he doesn't even see the scenery anymore. Today, he was thankful because he dreaded facing Callum and anyone else after last week.

And what happened last week, you may ask? Well…after Carol passed away, as was said, Duff became very violent. And last week, during a game between him and another golfer, Lyon Forest, Duff got somewhat heated.

Lyon was the closest to competition Duff had. Duff had been on top of years, and slowly Lyon had been increasing his stats to get dangerously close to where Duff was. The media was certainly Lyon-friendly—he would go out often and brag about his reputation, a game he was sure to win, or his new girlfriends. He was unlike Duff, who practically gave any and all cameras the middle finger and a gruff, annoyed mumble of wanting to be left alone for once in his life.

Ever since Lyon started to become competition, Duff had to 'oomph' his game to get better and better until he reached a point that Lyon wouldn't be able to come close. He did successfully get to that point, and Lyon just wasn't good enough to get any better, but it didn't rule him out second place. Duff didn't like Lyon, he didn't trust him, and almost every day he thought of the possibilities of how Lyon was trying to sabotage his career.

But last week, he never saw what was coming.

Duff and Lyon got in a fight. It started out simple (Duff didn't even remember how the fight started…then again, nowadays he never knows how any fights start, he tends to lose track since he starts fights quite often), but soon it got to the point where Duff was in Lyon's face, threatening him. And when Duff started threatening, that was a time to back off. No one wanted Duff to threaten them…no one.

Of course, Lyon didn't know this. He realized that Duff had become a violent man (and, after some researching, realized it was due to the death of his sister), but he didn't realize how violent. After Duff started threatening, and when Lyon didn't back off, that's when Duff started becoming physical.

'It all happened so fast, too.' Duff thought as he walked. He played the scene over and over again in his mind—'I went over to Darren, my caddy, I picked up a golf club from my bag, I didn't care which one…and I just started hitting Lyon with it. He shouted at me to stop, that I was being an idiot, but I couldn't stop. I aimed for his head and I could just feel myself becoming so willed that my goal was to see him fall. And when he would fall, I wouldn't have stopped there. I would have kept hitting him until I saw blood. I wanted that man dead, and if the guards hadn't pulled me away in time, I would have.'

Duff wondered what would happen. He wasn't arrested or anything, even though Lyon did everything in his power to try and make that happen. The weekend was a disaster, combining the media, Lyon's agents, the police, and the guilt. What the hell had he done? He was almost sure this was going to be a huge scar on his career. He was a celebrity, for crying out loud. Celebrities can't get into these kinds of situations.

But, the more Duff thought about it, he could almost have sworn that Lyon had instigated him to start that fight. Lyon wanted to end Duff's career, so he could be the champion. After hearing that Duff had become a violent man, why not ruin his career by making a scene in which Duff attacked another golfer—especially one as popular as Lyon Forest? And, Lyon would have had the perfect story—Duff wanted to get rid of the competition. Duff was insane.

In the back of his mind, Duff kind of knew he was insane. But one, his conscious wouldn't allow him to acknowledge the fact, and two, he frankly didn't care. His was kept sane thanks to Carol. Now that she was gone, nothing held him back from being angry at a world that was cruel to him. Growing up, he lost everyone he ever cared about, and was abused inside his own home, and outside. Duff was teased, taunted, beaten, and criticized for everything he did. Carol was his light, but then, a few months ago, that light went out forever.

At first, Duff thought that Carol would have wanted him to keep it together. He thought that through all those years his sister was only trying to teach him how to be strong, and how to withstand the weight of the world. But he didn't care if that's what he wanted, or if that's what she was trying to do. Duff needed to live for once in his life, and he needed to let his emotions out. He was weak and let himself get beaten every day of his life. He used to cry all the time, which was pathetic. Now, a tear never shed from his face, and he got angry. Up went the brick wall, and it never, ever came down for no one.

Duff didn't care anymore about his job. After Carol died, nothing mattered anymore. He was too good to let his scores go down—he was still champion and nothing could sabotage that—but he always had this emptiness inside him. Golf felt like nothing to him anymore. He went to work, he practiced his swings, he discussed things with Callum, and he won a few games here and there. It was nothing.

In fact, instead of loving his job and enjoying every moment of it every minute of every day, he now had to face many feelings of evasion. When he walked through those familiar doors to the club's entrance, Callum nearly attacked him…but with some slight caution as to not end up like Lyon, who was still in treatment.

"Ye idiot! Whut was tha' little stunt ye played las' Friday, eh? Ye practically gave Lyon te numba one spot! All te trophies ye'll ever win fro' today—oh no, they won' go te ye, they'll go te Lyon now! Te club is considerin' kickin' ye out because o' tha' fight! Listen, Duff…ye know eh understand, things 'ave been tough since whut happened eh few months ago…but ye've gone outteh control! Yer doin' drugs, yer drinkin' too much these days…ehm afraid tha' soon enough tha's goin' te start affectin' yer stats! Buh don' even worry abou' stats, now ye 'ave te worry about yer temper!"

Duff wouldn't look at Callum. He knew he was right. He shouldn't have done what he had done, but he couldn't help it. It wasn't the drugs, it wasn't the alcohol, and it was just that he was lashing out to anyone and everyone who would notice. He was in pain, he missed his sister.

"Look, Callum, we'll deal wit tis." Duff mumbled. "Every celebrity has their meltdown moment…te club won' kick meh out, an' if tey do, we'll find someone else. Lyon won' get te chance te beat me, especially fro' eh few attacks fro' te media."

Callum rolled his eyes. "Aye, Lyon won' beat ye, probably because every bone in his body tis practically broken, an' once he heals, he mos' likely won' be able te play golf as well as he used te! Duff, te lad's gonna sue ye like hell! Tis sport doesn' tolerate violence, lad! Why don' ye realize tha?"

At that comment, Duff spun around and started threatening his own agent. He truly couldn't control it anymore—anything will tick him off.

"AYE, eh realize tha' Callum! Wha, ye don' think eh know tis sport like te back o' meh hand?" Duff started poking Callum's chest. "Eh love tis sport more than ye could possibly imagine."

Callum tried to stay calm, and crossed his fingers secretly, hoping the next thing he said would calm Duff down a little.

"Aye, but ye loved Carol more, didn't ye."

Thankfully, that did calm him down. Callum knew that all of this was because of the passing.

"Look, lad…why don' ye take some time off…try te deal wit tis." He said softly and sympathetically.

"No!" Duff snapped. "Ehm fine." He insisted.

Callum sighed. "Alrigh', but ye have te at least try te control yer temper. If ye don', it'll mark te end o' yer career as eh golfer fer good."

Duff agreed. He promised he would control himself, even though he knew he couldn't. Duff couldn't help that he had become more of a failure than he had ever been. Before Carol's death, Duff only thought he was a failure because of how his terrible, abusive family mistreated him. In reality, he was a wonderful man. He just never got the chance to live outside of his suffering to realize it. Now, he couldn't even see that he turned into the monster his father and brother pushed him to be. Now, more than ever, he was controlled completely by them, when he thought he was rebelliously the opposite. Duff's life had been so hurtful, so unfair, but he never got the love and the kindness to make him see that he didn't deserve it. After Will, his terrible brother, got everything—the attention and acceptance from Allan, a steady job, a new home on the mainland of Scotland and away from the family castle, a beautiful but evil, blood-thirsty bitch of a wife who led Duff to become a single father, and, lastly and recently, a few devilish spawns.

Duff couldn't believe that Bessie was going to be two years old. It seemed like yesterday when his sister-in-law, whom he had an affair with, left him with a beautiful daughter. He knew absolutely nothing about babies. He had to handle taking care of her, which Carol helped him out with. If it weren't for her, he didn't know where Bessie would have gone. Duff confided in Carol—he told her the truth, about everything that had happened, and she listened. She didn't judge. She helped him create a lie to tell the family—Duff didn't seem like the adoption type, so they came up with a story of how he got a woman pregnant, one from off the streets, and one day she came to him and handed him the baby. It made Allan furious and respectful towards Duff at the same time, oddly.

After Carol died, things went up in smoke (literally, with the drugs), but he still had to hold it together at home for his daughter. He smoked, but he smoked outside. He drank, but he drank after she was asleep. He brought women home, but he did that out of her sight. He always cared about Bessie, but he still had to keep reminding himself to keep it together for her. After kicking his own father out of the castle with terrible threats, acting the way he did at home and screwing his career up, Duff had to pray that this wouldn't affect Bess. He loved her with all his heart, but sometimes he forgot.

After a few months, Duff's actions did indeed come back to bite him in the butt. Duff couldn't control himself, therefore he didn't stop the violence at his work. Eventually, he was banned from every single golf course in the world, including miniature golf courses. And, his rage didn't cease at home. Allan called child services on Duff, and they took his daughter away. He was becoming too much of a dangerous influence on her. Duff felt that the world truly had gained up on him, and he was being kicked and beaten while he was already down. Duff had no power, and that made him lose it.

Losing Carol made him cold at heart. Losing his daughter made him ruthlessly angry. Losing his career, immediately making Lyon the champion and him the laughing stock of the world, made him evil.

At this point in Duff's life, he began seeking revenge on the world. He lost it all, and he was through having to deal with the world's criticism. He wanted to murder Lyon Forest. Eventually, he did. Duff was becoming a villain, and he took his revenge out on his failed career. First Lyon was dead, then Callum, and so the chain began. He hated the world for banning him from that which he loved, and in return, he thought he would simply make the world his own personal golf course (starting with Japan, which was the first country to ban him after a championship incident). He also did some trading in the black market to start him off, and he searched for his solution to revenge for years in crime until he finally met a professor that would make his plans come true.

Duff lost his lover, his sister, his mother and grandmother, his career, and endlessly he lost his life. Who could blame him for wanting to take some power back? But Duff never met peace—only a redheaded cheerleader, who foiled his dreams, and a cold, mean, punishing place that felt like nothing compared to what he's been through. Eventually, inside prison Duff met a few freaks, including a man with blue skin who was bent on ruling the world (and was a bit loony, Duff thought), and an even more interesting man from England who seemed to be a mutated man whose genes were fused with that of a monkey. Jail soon met jailbreak, and the freaks from jail soon became allies, and even friends. Duff was a villain, but no crime ever filled the emptiness in his heart, that ultimately lacked love and compassion, which never stayed for long.