Chapter 31: Father Pain

He was 12 years old. He lived in a slum in a small Italian village with his mother, a single parent who supported herself and her drug habit with prostitution.

He could remember that day as if it was yesterday. It was a warm summer afternoon. He had just finished playing with his friends on his return from the local Catholic school. Climbing the stairs to the small apartment he lives in with his mother, he heard a male voice talking to her.

This was not usual because him mother often plied her trade in the small apartment. He had learned to wait in the small kitchen until she was done. It never took long. His mother was not a pretty woman and the men just wanted a quick release. This time it was different. He found his mother sitting at the kitchen table talking to a priest.

And even worse, they we talking about him.

"We will provide for all of Giovanni's needs, and his religious instruction. Mrs. Pagano," said the priest.

"But why are you offering me all this money for him?" his mother asked.

"Because we need more boys to train to join our order as priests, "he replied for the third time.

"So you will give me money for my boy?" she asked again.

"Mio Dio! She is stupido." He thought. "Si Mrs. Pagano, I have here five thousand lira for you."

The money changed hands.

"Giovanni, go with the priest. He will see to you from now on," his mother called.

"Come son, I will protect you now."

The young boy and the priest left the dirty apartment, never to return again. Three day later his mother was found dead from an overdose.

Giovanni never knew.

The religious order Giovanni was taken to was extreme. They felt that whippings and beatings brought their followers closer to god. Because Giovanni was older than most when he started the beatings were harder and more frequent than most of the others.

Soon Giovanni's mind associated the pain he was receiving as his mother's fault. That thought morphed into all women's fault. It was the creation of a psychopath. As he received his nightly beatings, his mind formulated a plan to return his pain to the women who caused it.

Years went by and his thinking became affected by the constant pain. His mind was warped but not broken. He became smarter and smarter. But he kept his genius to himself. It was used only to get revenge on the women who hurt him, all pretty women.

One day when he was nearing his 19^th birthday, the door to his cell was left unlocked. That night he prowled the hallways of the monastery, killing all he found. It took him almost four hours, but when he was done he was the only one left alive.

His next step was to find clothes to wear. All the years he had been locked in the basement he was kept naked because it was easier to facilitate the beatings if there were no clothes in the way.

He searched the draws and the closets in each monks cell, finding nothing but black priest's garb. So given the choice, that's what he wore. In his searching he came across a locked strong box. It was an old fashioned lock and a few whacks with a hammer he found broke it open.

He was hoping to find some money in the box that he could finance his travels with. All he found were paper records. As he studied them, he found they were bank records for the order.

The order turned out to be very wealthy.

He dressed in the black clothes and put the papers in a brief case he found. Giovanni left the monastery by a rear door on the way to a new life. Besides his thoughts of survival, he also started his plans of revenge on women.