Chapter 4

The small boy huddled under the bed covers in his dark room. He was listening intently, trying to make out the words of the grownups whispering nearby. Fragments of conversation were drifting in through the crack in his bedroom doorway.

"But why?" a woman's voice was asking (it was his mother, he knew). "Why…go back to her?"

"…my son too," a deep voice answered. "I…owe it to them…a little longer and…"

A son. The little boy's knees curled up to his chest and he wrapped his arms more tightly around himself in misery. His father had another son. A son he probably loved more than him. That's why he never visited here except at night. That's why his father never wanted to look at him. That's why he would catch his mother crying softly, thinking he couldn't hear her. That's why…

"…can't do this. He needs to know you. Are you afraid of what we've given him? What he might become? You've awakened already and you've learned to control it. You've done nothing but good for our kind. You've helped others. I used to help you before the baby came. She can't understand all of that. She can't understand you like I do. And what if they catch on? You'll be in danger. I can't live with the thought of you being taken away from us."

He could hear the sound of his mother weeping again. What had she meant? Had she been talking about him? He struggled to control his breathing. He wanted to hear more. He hungered to know more about the silent, invisible man who was his father.

But instead of voices, he heard footsteps approaching and then stopping in front of his door. He held his body still as the door opened. He could barely make out the dim shape in the darkness – a man. It was HIM. His father stopped in front of the bed and stared silently. He could just make out the rise of his father's hand – it was reaching out as if to stroke the top of his head. He couldn't breathe and his heart was beating so fast…just one touch, one touch. So close…

"Clear!" the man screamed and Amon's body arced off the gurney. A heart monitor began to beep an erratic signal. "Shit! That was close! We almost lost the guy. Keep an eye on his vitals…"

The drone of the helicopter blades continued as the chopper carrying Amon made its way through the pre-dawn skies.