Chapter 12: It's a Mediocre Life

Wilco and Vlad dumped Derek out at the entrance of their drab office suite. Lucky Catch 2.0 looked nearly finished, so when Wilco told Derek he'd been gone for over a month, Derek had an easier time believing him. The warlock explained that he and his cronies had covered for Derek in his absence so the town didn't attract undue attention. The people in Derek's life would all have a sense Derek was gone but that he'd only been gone for what felt like several hours and had been slacking off somewhere, which was never too far from the truth. Wilco didn't go into the details, but it sounded like they were using Magic to alter perceptions rather than change anything significant about the town or his family's memories.

After the explanation, Wilco and his henchman disappeared back into the building, but the billionaire kept Derek's phone. Derek felt like he should be upset, but he couldn't muster up enough feeling to care other than a vague sense of relief. He needed a break from thinking about Magic and Heroes of Prophecy, and Wilco had given him that chance. A cool breeze ruffled his hair, carrying the scents of pine and the lake along with its gentle touch. More than anything, I'm just glad to be home. Guilt from leaving Andy and now Teetch behind tried to rear its ugly head, but Derek shoved it deep down into his subconscious. He could deal with it later. Derek remembered Duck's frantic message in his pocket and decided to leave it there. He could deal with that later, too. First, he was going to check on Golden Lake.

It felt like late April or maybe the beginning of May. He could hear birds chirping, and the Sun had that "brighter" quality it got in the spring and summer months, like it was a couple of degrees more vibrant. People were bustling around on the docks, and even a few boats were on the water. The hum of their engines reminded Derek of Harmony. The way she snorted when she found something funny or inexplicably always managed to get a bit of grease on the tip of her nose. Derek didn't care if he looked borderline homeless or smelled like something a pig might wallow in. He needed to see her.

On the Angel's Perch side of the lake, a series of docks led into a wooden structure that acted like a garage but for boats. People who needed engine work done would park their boats there, and Harmony and her boss Randall McGuffin, who people called Randy or Mac, would fix their boats in a jiff or their money back guaranteed. Once Randy took Harmony on as an apprentice, he let her take over engine work entirely. At the same time, he focused on bodywork, painting, and finishing boats, what Randy considered the artistry of boatwork. That suited Harmony fine. Working on engines is all Harmony had ever wanted to do, but when she finally got her job at The Pit Stop, she didn't seem as happy as Derek would've thought. She never outright said she didn't like it, but she always made sly remarks about how any old grease monkey could do it, or once you'd seen one engine, you'd seen them all. That had always confused Derek; she'd gotten what she wanted, so why hadn't it made her happy? Regardless, with the weather this nice, Derek was sure to catch her at The Pit Stop.

Derek meandered his way there, soaking in the sights and sounds of Golden Lake, carefully avoiding the dock with WWW's sigil but otherwise enjoying the pleasant day. It was easy to forget that an entire Realm needed his help when the occasional fish splashed on the lake or he heard someone laugh out on the water. Derek planned to surprise Harmony. He knew she wasn't missing him because of Wilco's Memory Mumbo Jumbo, but she was probably at least annoyed that Derek was off playing hooky somewhere without her. Usually, he played hooky on the lake. Since he hadn't been on the lake, Harmony had to be at least wondering where he was.

Derek avoided the squeaky boards approaching The Pit Stop. It wasn't the first time he'd snuck up on her while she was at work. He peaked through the cracked window of the main office to get a glimpse of Harmony working on an engine. Derek loved seeing her in her natural habitat with her work coveralls and hair tied back in a grease-stained ponytail. Randy was putting the finishing touches on a white boat with blue trim and the word Patty scrawled on the side. Harmony's back faced Derek. Derek's hand hovered over the door, poised to knock, when Harmony's melodic laugh rang like a clarion bell. Randy must have said something funny, but that wasn't the point. Derek scanned through his annals of memory, looking for the last time he'd caused that laugh, and it was long before Reid Wilco and MythMaker. All his recent memories were filled with the countless times she huffed in frustration or scowled at him instead.

Wallace Wilco boasted that he'd smoothed the edges of his absence, but that didn't account for the joy in Harmony's laugh. No Magic could fake that laugh. Knocking on that door would cut that laugh short, and Derek's mere presence would drag Harmony back to earth and remind her of the vast quantities of water underneath their particular bridge. Thinking of any tangible way Derek added to Harmony's life proved a task beyond his capabilities. That's the story lately. If the Great Scroll had chosen someone else, would Teetch still be slated for execution? Would the Queen be awake? He knew the WWWarlocks wouldn't have locked up Andy. He could see Harmony was happier without him.

Derek lowered his hand and turned from The Pit Stop. As he slunk away from the shop in defeat, he was still careful to avoid loose boards. He didn't want Harmony to hear. If she knew Derek was back, he would drag her down. There was only one person in Golden Lake Derek could think of that he couldn't drag any lower.

Φ

Rod's Rods and Other Junk had a hastily taped piece of printer paper at an askew angle. It read "Out" in red marker. Derek couldn't think of a single reason why Rod would be gone. He didn't know where to find the big man if not holed up in his shop. Save for the times Rod was fishing at the lake, Derek could only count a handful of times he'd ever even seen the large fisherman outside his shop. Derek cursed under his breath; this might have been the only time Rod's presence would have been more comfort than annoyance. Derek knew the old fisherman's life would be the same regardless of Derek's intervention, and he had no interest in seeing anyone else. He'd disappoint them, or they'd disappoint him. Everything was changing, becoming warped and tainted by WWW and Derek himself. It didn't matter what he did; WWW was twisting the Golden Lake he knew and loved into an unrecognizable, corporate shape, and anytime Derek took an overt action, it seemed to do more harm than good. He'd thought if he left everything alone and arranged it just so, it would be immune to the ravages of time. But it had the opposite effect; the things he wanted to stay the same changed the most in his absence.

Maybe that's why he wanted to see Rod so desperately. In some indescribable way, the big fisherman was the same way as Derek. They were kings of stagnation, antithetical to growth or change. As long as Derek knew him, nothing about Rod changed. He wore the same outfits, said the same things, and lived the same types of days mired in routine. Some visceral, innate part of Derek envied that, but he'd missed the glowing neon signs along the road of that path. Rod Hockenson was alone. The world flowed around him like he was some jagged rock in a rapid, best left avoided, and that's what Derek could feel himself becoming.

But surely Rod has some good qualities? Doesn't he?

Derek thought about Rod resisting WWW's advances while the rest of the town succumbed to greed or better lives. Wasn't that an admirable trait? Shouldn't he and Rod be lauded for protecting something they cared about, but were they protecting it or preventing growth? Was there a difference? If there was, Derek wasn't sure he could tell. Would Rod know the answer?

All roads of thought led to Rod. Hockenson knew more than he was letting on. The big fisherman had been there the night Teetch and Derek stormed the Giild. Rod may be able to tell Derek what to do next. Derek didn't trust himself to make that decision. He hated to admit it, but he trusted Rod's judgment over his own. Derek did his best to ignore the big man's advice and ministrations, but despite how much Derek resisted, Rod tended to be right more often than not.

Derek's parents could wait. They'd gone over a month without their troublemaker son and would probably be thankful for a few more hours without him. Derek decided to wait for Rod to show up. He could tell Derek what to do next. Derek wouldn't be making any more decisions. Whenever he did, people got hurt.

Φ

The Sun dipped below the horizon. Shadows from WWW's construction projects lengthened, casting an unfamiliar lens over Golden Lake like the new shadows were Wallace Wilco marking his territory. Even the lake wasn't immune to his influence. This time of day was perfect for its idyllic golden sheen, the town's namesake. Instead, the new and improved Lucky Catch proudly marred the horizon, casting an ominous shadow over the lake's glassy golden surface, claiming the lake in some small, indescribable way. Soon, they'll be trying to change the town's name.

Earlier that day, Derek had decided to wait as long as it took for Rod to show up, but he couldn't stand to look at the town any longer. Derek had to move. It felt like he was losing the town and himself in real time and needed something to cling to. There had to be something on Main Street to kindle the familiarity he craved. Ever since he'd been back, Derek didn't feel like he'd returned home. It felt like the Gate deposited Derek into another new Realm. This sham wasn't Derek's Golden Lake anymore. He just wanted to be home. Derek's strides took him past an unfamiliar, unfeeling store until he saw a familiar lime-green awning looming over Main Street. It evoked the smell of hot food and the sweet blend of tuna and cheese fried between two tasty flour tortillas.

Derek broke into a dead sprint. He needed a tuna melt quesadilla. When he pushed on the glass double doors, they refused to budge. A plastic placard hung from a chain in front of Derek's face. It read "Closed for Remodel." Derek could see inside what used to be La Casita. Someone had stripped the familiar booths and tables from the building, and an opened paint can lay abandoned next to a wall where lime green was losing a war to corporate beige. Esme's shop used to carry the faint hint of spices and cooking oil, but it was overpowered now by the smell of cleaning solution and wet paint. A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach took root. What if Esme gave up because I was gone? Derek had no illusions of self-importance, but he and Esme talked almost daily those last couple of months before leaving for the Giild. Esme, Rod, Derek's parents, and others were the last holdouts from being bought out by World Wide Wilco. He needed to know how many others were left.

Main Street passed by in a blur of unfamiliar colors, like Derek was in another new and unfamiliar city. Way more people had succumbed to the complete buyout offer than before he'd left. Wilco hadn't wasted much time, his logo marking each building like some modern arcane sigil. It held its own type of power. The billionaire was bit by bit, branding the soul of Golden Lake, not realizing that his actions would taint the innate Magic of the town. It was something Derek knew on an instinctual level. Wilco had come to the town because it was a reservoir of Magic or whatever, but the mogul's need to buy, own, and change the town would stomp out what had drawn him to the town in the first place. Why does it seem like I'm the only one who cares?

Derek's feet inexorably carried him where he'd been avoiding since his return. He feared what he'd find, but he needed to know. Derek's traitorous legs turned off Main onto 4th. At the end of the street stood a familiar building Derek didn't recognize anymore. Where Dunn, Dunn, Dunn had once stood, a store called Wilmart wore its skin. The Wilmart sign glowed a sinister neon red, marking its territory, its kill. Derek's future in Golden Lake, his inheritance, was, for all intents and purposes, murdered. How could my parents have done this? Wilco must have cast a spell on them while I was gone. It's the only explanation. Derek ignored that he'd been on thin ice even before he'd left, and his parents were using the store as a leash to keep him in line.

Everything started to spin, but somehow, Wilmart managed to stay in the center of his vision. Derek wasn't consciously walking toward the offending building, but he found his feet inexorably drawing him toward its glass doors. The rational part of Derek's mind knew he couldn't do anything to change what had happened, but his heart hadn't received the memo. He needed to do something, anything. Derek couldn't let this pass without a fight. So what if he didn't have his Magical gear or fishing pole? He had his spirit. Wilco would pay.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Derek pushed the double glass doors open with too much force. A cheerful ding announced his arrival, and the store manager emerged from store aisles stocked with items Derek didn't recognize. Reid Wilco wore a red vest with the words "Manager" stitched on the chest, and all the fight left Derek with an exhale that felt like Wilco's goons had punched him in the stomach.

"Derek Dunn, well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" Reid said with a smug smile, "I knew you'd be back sooner or later."

"This had better be some sick joke," Derek said. He couldn't stand looking at Reid Wilco a second longer. "Where are my parents?"

Reid closed the distance between them and got closer than Derek felt comfortable. He responded in a conspiratorial whisper, "I was hoping to bend your ear about something upon your return." Reid placed a special emphasis on the word return.

Derek remembered what Daddy Wilco had said about his son, Reid. Reid had been working behind the scenes on behalf of Harmony and, by association, Golden Lake. Derek's mind resisted the restructuring necessary to cast Reid in anything other than a villainous light. Although the business heir's intentions may have been good, Derek found he didn't particularly care. Reid had taken his store from him, and all the best intentions in the world couldn't forgive that.

"Reid, I'm going to say this once. If you don't tell me where my parents are right now, the only that's going to get bent is your face."

Not the most witty retort, but it's been a rough day.

Reid opened and closed his mouth several times as if he were constantly deciding what to say and changing his mind at the last second. The result made him look like a gaping fish grasping for air, and Derek didn't hate the image. Eventually, the protests died on Reid's lips, his shoulders wilted, and he pointed toward the back office.

"Maybe you're smarter than you look," Derek said with a wink and an accompanying pang of something he didn't like. Was it guilt? Derek had been more congenial to the guy than he wanted. Ultimately, it wasn't Reid's fault Derek's parents sold the store. As far as Derek knew, they still had free will, which also meant they were the ones he should've blamed Wilmart. Swathed in righteous fury, Derek kicked open the back office door, prepared to let his dad have it. So what if he had been waiting for his dad to talk to him first? He couldn't let this one slide.

Lisa Dunn's face looked at Derek with an "O" of surprise, followed by a smile that doused his fury like a bucket of ice water. Wilco Senior might have cast some spell to make people not notice Derek's absence, but when Derek saw his mom's smile, he saw that some innate part of her had known deep down that her boy was gone from this world and had finally returned. Derek wanted to be angry, but there was no one to be angry at except himself. He could feel tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.

Lisa Dunn's smile faded, replaced by a genuine concern: "Oh, Wreck, what's wrong?"

The floodgates burst.

Derek rushed across the room and wrapped his mom in a bear hug. Tears ran unbidden down his cheeks, and huge racking sobs shook him. His mom held him firm, weathering the storm. Everything he'd felt over the last month, the helplessness and the guilt, found their release. He didn't know how long since his mom held him like that, but Derek hadn't realized how much he'd needed it. He could feel how badly she wanted to know what was wrong, but she waited until he'd used up all his tears before she gripped him by his shoulders and looked up into his eyes.

"What's going on, hun?"

Derek had to fight back a melodramatic reply. A more straightforward question would be, what's right? Instead, Derek said, "How could you?"

Lisa Dunn swallowed. She knew exactly what he meant, "We had to make the best decision for this family. That includes you." his mom said, her grip firm and her steely gaze intense, "I don't know when it happened, but you stopped growing Wreck."

"It was Dad's idea, wasn't it?" Derek asked, "That sounds exactly like him."

"Your father and I are a team," Lisa said.

"That's adult speak, for one person made the decision, and the other backed the play."

"If anyone is backing anyone else up, your father is the one who backed me up," his mom replied, "Your father thinks you need more time to make the right decision on your own. He says that if we make decisions for you, you'll never learn any lessons, but I think you've had plenty of time, Wreck. It's time to start your life; no more training wheels. Go out, experience the world, my son." his mom said. Derek could feel the subtext in what she was saying. Go out and experience the world like your brother and sister.

Derek was used to his dad comparing them, but he'd always considered his mom the supportive one. David and Maddie had always been his dad's favorites because they had goals and ambitions outside of Golden Lake, and it bothered Harold Dunn that his youngest boy was satisfied being a grocery store clerk. Still, Derek always thought his mom understood him and loved him anyway. Inheriting the store and living in Golden Lake for the rest of his life was supposed to be his identity, and she'd taken that away from him and given it to Reid Wilco. He's already taken my best friend, was that not enough for him?

"Did Reid put you up to this?" Derek asked, taking an unconscious step back. His brain knew it was a ridiculous question, but his heart was currently running things.

His mom blinked a few times as if she needed a second to catch up with Derek's train of thought. "What? Uhh, no. He'd been spending some time at the store, overseeing some changes, and your father and I were worried we wouldn't have enough help this summer, and Reid offered to help out." His mom said, "We knew the Jamboree was important to you, so part of our deal with the Wilcos was we'd finish the summer so you could have one last chance at a victory before we move. Reid's been a dear and even helped make it feel like our old store despite all the changes."

"Mom, they called it Wilmart. How could it possibly still feel like our store?" Derek asked.

"As I recall, you haven't been around much lately, so what your father and I do with OUR store is our business. You're just an employee."

"Wait, is he my boss now?" Derek asked.

"I suppose if you look at it that way," Lisa said, "He's all our bosses."

"No, Mom, he's your boss," Derek said, "I'm not sure why everyone in this town is so dead set on giving Wally and the assorted Wilcos ownership of their lives, but I refuse. I'll make my own way from now on."

A small smile curled the corners of his mom's lips, "How are you going to do that?"

Derek didn't find it very amusing. "You let me worry about that. Maybe I'll work for Rod Hockenson. I don't know. I can't believe I'm saying this, but he seems like the only person with any sense in this entire town."

Lisa's smile widened, "You're going to work for your so-called arch-nemesis to get back at us? You'll still have a job here after you've finished with your little temper tantrum and get back your common sense. Reid's been excited to work with you. I think you two boys will get along."

"When I get some sense? I'm the only one with any sense left. I'm glad you find selling your soul to the highest bidder amusing, but I have higher standards." Derek said, noticing a calendar on the wall. It still had the Dunn, Dunn, Dunn logo in its margins, and it held a picture of a smiling Derek at the top of a human pyramid of the part-time workers Dunn, Dunn, Dunn had employed the previous summer. Derek pulled it from the wall, the pin holding it in place, skittering across the tile, "And I'm keeping this. You don't deserve it."

"I know I raised you better than that, thinking you can talk to your mother that way," Lisa said, advancing toward him. One of her famous tempers brewed in her eyes. Derek didn't care.

"Better than what? To speak the truth? To hold up a mirror to naked hypocrisy? I must've learned that lesson in spite of you because you seem to have difficulty being honest with anyone, including yourself. I'll treat you with respect when you do something I can respect."

His mom stopped mid-stride, the storm behind her eyes extinguished in a heartbeat, "I'm sorry you feel that way."

The heartbreak in her tone extinguished Derek's temper just as quickly. He wished he could rewind, taking it all back, "I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't mean that."

Her eyes hardened. "You said what you meant, Derek Dunn. I think it's best you leave. This area is for employees only." Derek started toward the door. "Leave the calendar here. We won't want to call Sheriff Johnson, now would we?"

"Are you serious?" Derek asked, "I just wanted something to remember the old store by."

"Serious as a heart attack." Derek's mom said, without a shred of his mother on her face. She was just Lisa Dunn. Derek could understand why Lisa Dunn struck fear into the hearts of so many, but then again, Derek had faced down dinosaurs and golems. If she wanted to call the cops, she could be his guest.

As Derek turned to leave, calendar in hand, his mom struck out so fast she was only a blur in his peripheral vision. Derek's hand instinctively tightened on the calendar, so when his mom tried to yank it from his hands, he pulled back equally as hard. The result was the calendar tearing right down the middle. Smiling faces and reminders of better times fluttered to the ground. Derek left them there. That wasn't the world he lived in anymore.

Derek ignored the unfamiliar shelves of Wilmart and hurried out of the store with his head down. He couldn't take it anymore. Reid said something about desperately needing to talk to Derek, but Derek didn't trust himself to speak to the pompous business heir. Then they really would have had to call down Sheriff Johnson. A cheerful jingle announced the last time Derek would ever set foot in the building that used to be his parent's store.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Derek felt lost, frustrated, or abandoned, the first place he'd have gone would've been the lake. Fights with his family, friends leaving, or just garden-variety existential crises had always sent him to that beautiful, placid pool of water, but it was tainted now. He couldn't look at Golden Lake without all the Hero of Prophecy-shaped baggage dragging him down. While he was wasting his time fishing, was he condemning an entire race of people to a slow death because he couldn't think of a way to save them? Was he abandoning his heretical friend to a painful execution while he dreamed of winning a fishing tournament? Was every second he waited for a nibble a second that World Wide Wilco was buying and corrupting another portion of his town? Logically, he knew that everything wasn't on his shoulders, but logic had no place in a pity party, and there wasn't a corner in Derek's mind he could turn without finding a piece of his subconscious dining on complimentary self-loathing.

Derek let his feet carry him, paying no attention to the direction. He should've known that muscle memory was too ingrained in him. His feet knew the patterns of taking him home after a long day of work, and that's where they'd gone. Blue light glimmered in the window of his parent's living room, and Derek knew his dad had to be in there watching a sports program. At any other time, his dad's silence would've been comforting, a part of Derek's routine, but today, it felt accusatory. Derek didn't want to be alone, but that's what he deserved.

His tiny home was tidier than when he'd left it. His mom must've done a cleaning pass while missing him, and Derek felt another pang of guilt, her blank, hurt expression flashing in his mind. Derek's living space felt uncomfortably large now that he didn't share the space with the amberkin anymore. Thoughts of Teetch reminded Derek of how desperately he needed a shower. As the grime washed away, Derek wondered if there was some Amber in the accumulated filth that would never make its way back to the Flow. Teetch probably would've berated him for his wastefulness. He wondered where the little amberkin was and if he would think of Derek before the end.

Wait a minute. It's not the end—Duck's message.

Derek dried off, tied the towel around his waist, and rummaged through the dirty clothes he'd been wearing the last month to find the golden slip of paper that was his last tie to the Giild. As Derek picked up the pile of clothes, something heavy clunked to the floor. His phone. How had that gotten there? Derek distinctly remembered having his phone taken by Wilco and his goons, but there was no mistaking the device. Being a Hero of Prophecy isn't something you can retire from.

Derek had a suspicion that whatever he or anyone else did to the phone would always end up back in his pocket, reminding him of the Realms he needed to save. On a typical day, finding the device may have been just the motivating jolt that Derek needed, but today, finding the phone had the opposite effect. Derek felt the crushing weight of responsibility of being a Hero of Prophecy and just how magnificently unsuited Derek was for the task. The phone case dug into his hand, and Derek realized his grip had tightened to the point that his knuckles were white with strain, and the grooves of the phone cases were leaving indents in his skin.

Naked save for a towel, Derek strode out his front door, phone in hand. He walked until he reached the forest's edge on his parent's property. He relished the cool Golden Lake night air, a comforting contrast to the Giild's muggy heat. Derek took a couple of deep breaths, savoring the familiar sights and sounds, before he cocked his arm back and hurled his phone into the forest. It hit a pine tree with a satisfying thud.

Screw responsibility. I'll be a Hero of Prophecy tomorrow.