I was gazing at the pictures in the shoe box.
I left Phil on the sofa because he said he was tired; I would much rather have him sleep on my sofa than go home and leave me alone - I guess
that would be how he would feel if it were me in that position too.
The pictures of my grandfather were strange, I began to see them in a new, different light.
In every photo he was stood with his shoulders slumped, his head bowed a little, his eyes hiding something; it was as if even from the age of
10 he was keeping the one secret that made him who he was.
Well, I couldn't blame him.
I heard the sofa creak as Phil stirred, his breath loud and just completely adorable.
I guess Granddad would have liked him. He always wanted me to be happy, it was all he ever said when I was little. "Go out and play Daniel!"
and "Go and have fun!" and "Go on! Go and be a kid! Youth doesn't last for ever, my boy!". He would be happy for me. Happy for my happiness.
"I miss you." I whispered, looking out of the wide window, as tears spilled from my eyes.
Staring at the tree which he liked to rest under, I wiped them away with the back of my hand and sniffed.
And that was when someone knocked on the door.
"Hello?" I answered cautiously, opening it a fraction to see the outside world.
"Greetings." The deep voice sounded. "Is Mr Howell available?"
His hair was dark, his eyes a familiar and piercing blue.
He looked just like Phil. Almost identical.
My heart sank yet filled with an uncontrollable fire, my eyes burned yet brimmed with an ocean of tears that threatened to overflow. I could not
stop my hands curling into fists, my arms leave my side and.. and...
punch him. In the face.
He swore as he clicked his jaw back into alignment. "You fucking faggot." He screeched, kicking the door open, causing me to fall onto the floor
and hit my head.
Darkness.
When I opened my eyes, all I could see was a fuzzy and blurry haze. Disorientated, I fumbled around to find something to lean on, and
reassure myself of my surroundings.
My hands felt a chair leg, and I pulled myself up onto it.
"Hey, you." Phil whispered, I jumped.
"I almost shat myself." I swore "thanks for that."
"I'd rather have told you than you just sit on me. You'd probably punch me, as you did to... him."
"Yeah. Him. Why is he here exactly?"
"To end what he started. Or at least that is what he said before they threw us both in here." He answered my confused glance "there were two
men."
"You're not serious?" My breath caught, my lungs felt utterly empty of air.
"I don't know whether he meant what we both think he meant. But I wouldn't hold your breath on the chances of us both getting out of here
alive." He spoke with gritted teeth, as if he were also struggling to breathe. "You too, huh?" He whispered when he caught me looking at his
chest rising and falling painfully.
"I thought you said that he would leave you alone? That he exiled you in the hope that noone would ever know that you are ..."
"I don't know! Ok? I don't know! For all I know he could be here to end what he started with your family! If he had been by your father for so
long, and killed him, he might have known about you!"
I stopped, terrified. What if he was here to kill me? What if he was here to kill me because he knew about me? What if he would kill us both?
"I don't want to die." I breathed, my lip trembling.
"Sssh." He wrapped his arms around me, sheltering my body from the fears which surrounded us both.
"Hang on." I sniffed. "He asked me whether Mr Howell was available. Surely, if he killed Granddad, he would know that he was... well
unavailable, due to that fact?"
"He most likely said that to get your attention, to manipulate you, to hurt you. He does that, he's like that. What can I say, I just hope I don't
have that gene. It is bad enough seeing the man, who is not only the man who punished you for loving another, but also the one who tried to
kill me, in the mirror. And that man is my godforsaken father."
"You used to call me Dad, Philip. What happened to those days, eh?"
"I grew up." He spat, sullen.
"I think it's time you grow back down to where you belong." He smirked "Oh, Mr Howell... Dan I assume.. I have a meeting in which I wish to
include your presence."
I nodded, my heart in turmoil - I was in complete fear of this man, this devil, this.. criminal, yet I felt strong enough and felt I had the courage to
drive a stake through his heart and gift him with a bullet to the head.
"Come along then, vermin." His sadistic grin remained planted on his pale face as he dragged me by the collar into the living room. "You must
know this man, I assume?" He gestured to my father, who was standing with a sense of pride and gravity.
"Daniel James Howell. I just wish this would have stayed as a faze. "Your grandfather kept telling me it wasn't, I was adamant that you would
grow out of those emotions. I guess I was wrong. I will never be able to tell Daddy that I apologize." He drew his index finger across the
bottom of his eyelid, indicating shedding an imaginary tear "Oh what a shame I stabbed him before I could."
He smiled at me with perverse pleasure. "Now. What shall I do to you?"
