Domin OTHERWORLD

HIS LAST MISSION
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-3-6957-9769-1
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 420 Seiten

John Bark is considered one of the best and toughest in his industry. Almost every job he takes on ends successfully. With iron discipline and his own set of rules, he earns his money as a bodyguard. Incorruptible and goal-oriented, he seems to solve every problem and accomplish every task. He appears out of nowhere like a tiger, throws people into turmoil, and then disappears without a trace, as if he never existed. But he is a loner and unconsciously struggles with his tragic past. His self-doubt about his existence grows, and the shadows of the past return again and again like a never-ending martyrdom. An unexpected encounter with the enchanting Michelle and her intelligent and wise father proves to be the first turning point in his life so far. Feelings he thought he had long lost slowly begin to reawaken in him. However, this encounter is short-lived, as a new assignment takes him to Rome for the time being. As if destined by fate, a young woman in the Roman Forum strangely catches John's attention. Noemi possesses a mysterious and enigmatic attraction that he finds almost impossible to resist. However, she remains closed off to him, so John has no idea about Noemi's dark past. They grow closer, and it almost seems as if they could change their destiny together. When another event comes to a head in Rome, Noemi is forced to flee once again. At first, Ibiza seems like an ideal and safe refuge. But in the background, tragedy is already looming, and Noemi's life is in danger. John tries to protect her by any means necessary, but then Noemi makes a fatal mistake.

Place of residence: Ibiza Place of birth: Hamburg Biography: Businessman, DJ, sales manager, marketing manager, product manager, managing director Functions: Lecturer, protagonist, quality manager, journalist, publicist, author Active: Bodyguard, licensed trainer for boxing, fitness and self-defense, Small actor for cinema and TV productions Social: Being strong without weapons in schools and clubs for children and young people Editions: 7 books, over 120 publications and 3 CDs Interests: Sport, philosophy, history, other cultures, traveling, music, Italian and Asian cuisine. Contact: www.tonydomin.de

Autoren/Hrsg.

Domin, Tony

Leseproben

AT THE WINDOW

John stood at the window for a long time. His eyes scanned the small view of the open countryside. His thoughts and feelings worked in an uncoordinated manner. He wanted to understand and feel what he saw at the same time as his heart and soul. For as long as he could remember, he had been reluctant to face this inconsistency logically. , he said to himself. This wasn’t the right moment to work through it all so he turned around, left his window seat and sat back down in his chair. The chair that had been very familiar to him for years.

This chair had seen many rooms and apartments over the years, but not as many as John had seen before him. There was the age difference. The chair was only eight years old and John was in his mid-forties yet John was sure that they had both experienced a lot together. They had seen a lot and survived many a storm. After a few minutes of contemplation, John realized the absurdity of his thoughts and quickly dismissed them.

It had been a long day and he already missed talking to Mr. Cremer. He loved long, interesting conversations. But he preferred philosophizing with other people.

The job had been completed satisfactorily, he had received his money and so he could concentrate on the planned trip to Rome. His potential client had already sent him the ticket and everything was now organized.

Once again, he turned his thoughts to Mr. Cremer. He was a very pleasant fellow in John’s eyes and also showed John a personal interest. John was not surprised. It had become the rule in recent years that people who met John often sought his friendship or his closeness. And they all showered him with kind words at first. People attested to his attributes of uniqueness, unusualness or even more profane synonyms. He was described as incredible, intelligent or even attractive and sexy. But where were all these people who apparently considered him so important?

And he had noticed something else significant.

Without exception, he was asked by everyone why he didn’t have a woman by his side or why women had turned their backs on him. The same routine and the same questions over and over again. And no matter what he did or said, nothing changed and he remained alone. That must have been what happened to Bill Murray as Phil Connors in the movie “Groundhog Day”. Nothing wanted to change!

John had become tired of being asked practically the same questions and having almost the same conversations for many years. He didn’t consider himself arrogant, but if the other people were right, why didn’t anyone ever stay with him? And of all these many people, no one knew when his birthday was, what he did on public holidays or even at Christmas time.

He had been looking at the computer screen for many minutes, enthroned before him on the top of his desk like a king. , John told himself. The strange box with the colorful pixels in it had power over him and certainly over many other fellow sufferers. This new thought scared him. Was he about to go mad, or even become addicted to wires, chips and transistors? He shouted at the top of his voice: “No, I’m not going to check my emails or anything else today!” He rose angrily from his chair, not forgetting to at least switch off the screen.

John sensed that he was once again talking to himself. In recent years, this habit had become more regular. His clammy hands bore witness to his inner fear. Am I on the way down or am I already on the precipice? He searched for an answer and finally decided, as he had so often done recently, to answer this important question at a later date.

His game to distract himself took its usual course. He lit a cigarette and went to his oversized sound system. The station was pre-programmed and all he had to do was press the power button. As if on command, large speakers filled the cold space of his living room with chill music which permeated every single corner. However, even the music couldn’t warm up the dreary-looking room.

John was aware that most people would be able to appreciate the high quality of the furniture. To the same extent, most people would also feel the coldness emanating from these objects. Was he cold himself, or did he have to feel the coldness to be able to move between these pieces of furniture? As had become a progressively more common feature of John’s thought processes, many questions began to assail him. There were hardly any people, events or even feelings that he could simply accept without raising many new questions in his soul. The concept of fate did not exist for him. There were only coincidences or facts.

If there really was fate, he told himself, it must have punished him severely by condemning him to constantly question himself or overthink everything. A healthy superficiality, he realized, was the privilege of normal people. Since he considered himself to be somewhat unusual, this circumstance of permanent questioning had to be a logical consequence of being different. He lit another cigarette in the hope that enjoying it would distract him from his thoughts. In his estimation, he smoked a lot. He dismissed it as a justifiable weakness, because to his relief or justification he could at least claim that alcohol could not harm him, as he lived in almost complete abstinence. Nevertheless, he admitted to himself that he had often wished he could clear his head with something. But these things did not include alcohol, drugs or pills. For him, consuming them would be a sign of weakness and surrender. And none of these attributes should burden him or make him vulnerable.

He had had to learn that people in society were aware of weaknesses and admitted them publicly, but the reality was different. The people around him were always happy when they found weaknesses in John. Then they could criticize him, expose him, insult him and try to put him down. For the first few years, John couldn’t understand what made people look for his weaknesses so that they could one day use them against him. It was only much later that he understood that the cause was closely linked to himself. In public, he was known as a rhetorical master with no rough edges who rigorously pursued his goals. Many considered him untouchable, some considered him arrogant, others described him as calculating and others even as egotistical.

He had not ascribed any of these qualities to himself. He had had a tough past and subsequently built up successful defenses over the years to deal with the worst society can offer. He admitted that he was completely different from many of his peers. He wasn’t particularly proud or happy about this realization, rather it made him lonely.

Many people, especially women, thought he was interesting. But he didn’t think anything of it. On the contrary, he knew all too well that no one could stand being around him for long. After a short time, most people found him too exhausting and too abstract. Far too many mismatched facets made it difficult to deal with him as a person. However, his wife at the time, Corinna, seemed to be able to, even though she wasn’t always good to him. After the divorce she had confessed to him that she had cheated on him several times during the marriage. He could still remember the conversation well. He took the news emotionlessly at the time. The reason for his lack of emotion was not only that he had known for many years. He had been able to feel it back then without ever having any visible evidence. He had also known for a long time that Corinna only regarded him as a desirable object and not as a person for whom a home with feelings, honesty and loyalty was a vital elixir.

His infallible intuition had accompanied him all his life. He was able to feel and sense things, sometimes positive events or sensations but most, sadly, were negative. These caught up with him again and again.

He was used to harsh self-criticism. It was not one of his characteristics to always see others as the guilty party. He was convinced that he alone was responsible for everything, even when he knew it wasn’t true.

Without realizing it, he had already lit a new cigarette and the ashtray was in danger of flying the white flag, it was already so full. John only noticed when the ashes fell onto the table, so he had to empty the ashtray.

John was a very clean and sometimes meticulous landlord. The fact that he attached great importance to order and cleanliness was one of his many, often annoying peculiarities, which he literally celebrated. Nevertheless, one could concede that these little “tics” had slowly diminished over the years, so that his current behavior had dwindled to a humane level of tolerability.

When he had emptied the ashtray, he turned back to the window. Even as a child, he had taken every opportunity that nature offered him to reflect on himself and his life in its presence. The window where he stood could only offer him an unsatisfactory impression of his connection with nature. He stared at the crystalline white surface of the first frost. It was already just before two o’clock. Some trees that had recently been planted were trying to brave the cold.

They took up their fight against the unwanted transplant. John knew that trees had a hard time being uprooted from their familiar surroundings, only to find happiness in an unfamiliar soil in a cold season. John didn’t even realize how...