Page 25 of Like Fathers, Like Son
I’d been popping over to Anneka’s house, and letting myself in when they were out, so I’d become familiar with the layout of the house, I’d been through every drawer and cupboard, especially the ones in Anneka’s room, and I’d even laid in her bed, smelling her pillow.
This one night though, I was reading her latest diary, which didn’t mention me at all since the first babysitting incident, and just as I was putting it back, I heard the door close downstairs.
It scared me because nobody should be coming home, but when I peered out into the hallway, I saw a large figure going into her mum’s bedroom. Were they being robbed? Should I try and do something about it? Shouldn’t I just hide until they go away? No matter how weird Anneka was being with me, she didn’t deserve to have her house robbed.
As the man came back out of that room, the light caught his face, and I realised it was her dad.
I thought he’d left, but he was carrying some papers in his hands, and didn’t see me as I started following him down the hallway on the thick carpet.
When he reached the top of the stairs, he suddenly froze, tensing his shoulders.
“Who’s there? I swear to god you don’t want to fuck with me.” He spun on the spot and stared at me for a moment, before he let out a string of the swearwords I pretended I never used.
“You little fucker! What are you doing in my house?”
I stared right back at him, hiding my sudden fear at being caught. What were my dads’ rules? Never get caught was the biggest, and I’d just messed up again.
“Not your house anymore, is it?”
“Listen here, you arrogant little fuck, you get the hell out of here before I call the police.”
I pretended to be my dad, Gray, because he was always so brave and sarcastic.
“How are you gonna explain that, old man? I was sneaking in to steal shit from my family I abandoned, and caught the kid from next door?”
He took a step towards me, his fists clenched by his sides, one now holding screwed up papers.
“Someone needs to give you a good hiding, Blaze. You’re a real little piece of shit already. What were you even doing here, huh? Snooping through our things? Stealing? You little pervert. Were you in my daughter’s room?”
I pushed away from the wall and smirked at him, feeling my dad’s courage as I approached the bigger, scarier man.
“I’m gonna scream until my family comes and then I’m gonna say you touched me. You know what I mean, the kind of touching that gets you arrested.”
“You little-”
“I suggest you get lost before I do just that. You’re not in charge here anymore. You walked out on them, you left them terrified and heartbroken. You’re the piece of shit, not me.”
He backed up a step, moving closer to the top of the tall flight of stairs, and I suddenly felt this energy inside me. Power, just like I felt when I was making things burn. I stepped closer to him, and grinned at him, suddenly certain that I would win this one.
“You don’t deserve to live, and you know why? Because you’re not fit to be around her. She deserves the best. She deserves me, and that’s what she’ll get.”
As he opened his mouth to yell at me, I rushed forward, shoving him hard in the chest, and watching as he staggered back, and tumbled down the stairs with several loud thuds, and then fell silent at the bottom of the stairs.
I followed him down, and stood a few steps up, staring at him and waiting for him to open his eyes again, for him to sit up and face me, realising that he’d underestimated me. That he thought he could scare a kid by trying to bully him.
When long minutes passed and he didn’t do that, I finally crept closer and rested a hand on his chest. He didn’t move, and he didn’t breathe. I pressed my ear to his chest and couldn’t hear anything.
I ran to the phone in the living room and dialled my number next door.
“Yello?” I was breathing fast now, panicking because what did I just do? Did I just kill Anneka’s father?
“Dad!”
“Blaze? What the hell are you doing ring-”
“I need help… next door...I think I killed him,“ I rushed, hearing dad suck in a sharp breath. He instantly shushed me.
“Dory! We need to get next door now. Blaze, be ready to let us in. Don’t call anyone else, got it?”
