Dangerous Games

SOMETHING NEEDS MENDING

Samuel went out for his run before Kali woke up. His lungs burned as his feet pumped, pushing him forward faster and faster. The morning air nipped at his exposed skin, cooling the beads of sweat that formed on his face and neck. His breath came by harder and harder as he ran under the dark sky, the yellowish glow of the streetlight brightening his path.

After an hour and a half of running, he stumbled to a stop, bracing his hands against his knee to catch his breath. Running had always been a means of escape. Kali liked to gouge herself on treats, and he enjoyed running.

Dawn was breaking over the buildings, and colours blended into the dim sky, chasing away the darkness. Tired, Samuel sat on one of the park benches, looking at the sidewalk as other joggers walked by. On the other side of the street stood a tall hotel. Its flashing lights showcased the name with each blink.

The first and last time he stepped foot in that hotel was when he was sixteen years old.

"Samuel, son." His father began when they were seated in the room he had reserved.

Samuel questioned why they weren't eating in a restaurant, but his father argued that he wanted them to speak privately. Understanding that a serious conversation was about to happen, he quietly followed his dad's directions and listened to everything attentively.

"Yes." He answered, nervously preparing himself for a scolding, although he didn't remember doing anything wrong.

"I don't know if I say this enough, but I love you. I hope you know that."

"I do."

"I love you, and I care about you deeply. I worry about you. If there was anything I thought could remotely bring you harm, I would do anything to prevent it from happening."

"I know, Dad." Samuel smiled.

His father didn't smile back. His face was riddled with terror and pain as he stood from his seat to squat in front of him. "I need to tell you something."

At that moment, his heart dropped, and he felt the air around him grow stale. A hundred possibilities ran through his mind. What if he had cancer. What if there was a tumour or he was suffering from some dangerous disease. He only managed to nod, praying in the back of his mind that it was something mindless.

Nothing could have prepared him for the truth.

"I don't know any other way to say it." His father had said, holding him firmly on the shoulder. "I wish there was a way that would be less painful, but there isn't. You're...your mother...she...had an affair with someone else years ago. After Peter was born. That affair resulted in her getting...well...she got pregnant."

Even though the words took a moment to sink in, the implication did not. His father had singled him out. He brought him to a hotel room without his siblings to share this big news. There was no reason he was the only one to hear this unless he was the result of the pregnancy his father was talking about. Further meaning he wasn't his son. The man he called father for eighteen years was not his father.

After returning home, he spent the rest of the day in his room without speaking to anyone else. He didn't confront his mother or talk to his father when he came to check on him. He was just numb. The phrase, 'my whole life is a lie', repeatedly played in his head. Ember, Peter and Giovana were still his siblings, but only on his mother's side. He was an outlier.

He had grown up since then, but that building always brought back those memories. Especially when he wasn't having the best of days.

Sometimes he wanted to forget them. There were days when he wished he had never heard them. His life would have been so different if he only had one father. If he didn't know his mother was the way she was. Richard had never wanted to be a father to him, so sixteen-year-old Samuel didn't understand why he needed to know. At times he believed it would have been easier to not know.