Dad?

Chapter 1:

Kyle POV-

She was dead, and even though I had been expecting it for a long time, it was still hard to imagine. After many years in and out of the hospital, the cancer had finally progressed to the point where it could not have been stopped.

At the funeral, I stood in the back, dressing in my black suit, not wanting to look at the lifeless form of my mother in the coffin. Very few people had attended, only my mother's parents and a few of her close friends. After the service, my grandfather came over and laid his hand on my shoulder.

"Come on son," he said, "It's time to go home."

Now here I was, sixteen years old, and essentially an orphan. Whether or not my father was still alive was a mystery, he never was even told about me, my mother and he had been dating when she got pregnant with me. After that, she broke up with him and moved away.

My life has always been difficult. I do well in school so I am automatically cast as a nerd, and as if my social status could get any lower, right after I hit puberty, things started to get…weird. I gained abilities that most people didn't have and certainly didn't understand. The only one's who never judged me were my best friend Claire and my mom, and now they were gone too. Claire had moved just over a year ago, her family was military so they never really stayed in one place for very long. I had just never noticed how much I had come to depend on her support until she was gone.

My mother had never been judgmental and she never thought that I was crazy whenever I told her that something weird had happened. She would always just, sigh deeply and pour us each a glass of hot chocolate while I would explain what happened, nodding every so often. I always got the feeling that she had an explanation for me but was withholding it, for what reason, I didn't know.

…

I sifted through yet another box my mom's old stuff, not sure whether or not to keep it. I picked up one of her old diaries. Contemplating on if I should read it or not, my curiosity won out over my better judgment and I flipped through the tattered pages. In the center of the book, was a folded sticky note. The only thing that it said was:

Amity Park

I peeled the sticky note off of the page and read the entry for that day.

August 20, 2007

He is in Amity Park, I've known for a while that he has become successful, but now he's in Amity Park, so close. I've often wondered if this is the opportunity I have been looking for to tell him he has a son.

Was she talking about my father? I knew Amity Park was not that far away, just a state south. The entry was dated from five years ago, when I was 11, if my father was so close why didn't she tell me sooner? Then I remembered that that was about the time that the cancer emerged. I sighed knowing that she probably didn't want me to be too overwhelmed with the news while she had been in her condition.

Now that she was dead, there was nothing holding me back from finding my father.

…

I had been staying in my grandparent's house for a little over a month now. After I found the note, I immediately told them.

"No," was the first thing that my grandmother said, "If your mother had wanted you to find that bastard then she would have told you about him a while ago." My grandparents had never known my father, but considering that he had gotten their daughter pregnant, they automatically didn't like him.

In his rocking chair, in the corner of the room, my grandfather said nothing, he just slowly rocked back and forth, his warm brown eyes fixated on the space between where my grandmother and I were arguing.

"Maybe she was going to but she didn't have a chance!" I snapped back, "He never got to know me, what if he wants me?"

"And what if he doesn't?" she said a little softer, "I just don't want you to get your hopes up and then get hurt. Besides, you don't even have a clue who this man is. He could be dead for all we know."

"Then shouldn't I have the right to know if I actually am an orphan after all?" I challenged.

My grandmother fixed her cold blue eyes on me, "Kyle, I am done talking about this, I will not allow you to go see that man and there is nothing that you can say that will make me change my mind. If you really are so determined to do this, you will have to move out first," The old woman turned away from me and stalked off into the kitchen to finish making dinner. I sighed and went upstairs to where my makeshift bedroom was.

…

Later that night…

I was sound asleep when I was woken up by someone shaking my shoulder.

"Huh? What?" I muttered.

"Kyle," I blinked and my eyes adjusted to the dim light to reveal my grandfather standing above me, "I know I can't make you stay, and I figured that you would try to leave on your own, so here," he shoved something into my hand, "You have to find your own path in this world. I hope you find what you are looking for, but if not, your grandmother and I will always be right here waiting for you. When you get to where you're going make sure that you get a job, that won't last forever, and register in school."

It took me a few seconds to realize the implications of what he was saying.

"So wait," I whispered, "You're letting me go?"

"Yes, and you better hurry, the last bus for Amity Park leaves in an hour," he told me. I nodded and he left my room. In my hand, I realized was a wallet, my wallet with my ID in it and a wad of cash that was obviously what my grandfather had given me. I packed all of my clothes into my small duffel bag, sticking the wallet in the front pocket and slinging it over my shoulder. Quietly, I made my way down the stairs in the dark, so that we would not wake my grandmother. In the kitchen my grandfather was waiting by the back door.

"Good luck Kyle, we love you very much," he pulled me into a hug.

"I love you too, make sure grandma knows that," I told him. He nodded and I slowly crept out the back door into the dark night.

Amity Park here I come.