::12 Years Ago::

At the impossible age of sixteen, David Wilson was utterly alone.  His adoptive parents had been killed in a car accident and years before that, his five year old adopted sister had been strangled by a stranger while she was lost at a park. His current foster parents didn't mind him coming home late as long as he wasn't doing anything the police would need to get involved with. As usual, David decided to visit The Bookmark, a local bookstore that also sold coffee and small pastries.

He may not have had family, friends, or even a girlfriend but like most lonely people, he had books. They were his friends and would always keep him company. He picked up his favorite book, The Anonymous Servant. It had actually won several writing awards when it was first published. He cracked open the book, enjoying its smell of newness. He put the pages up to his nose to take a better whiff.

"Are you smelling that book, son?"

Startled, David jumped up and let the book fall onto the table in front of him. "I'm...I'm sorry."

The man standing in front of him laughed, "Don't worry. I don't work here. I just haven't ever seen anyone besides myself sniff a book before."

"You like to smell books?"

The man laughed again, "Having you say it...makes it sound pretty strange, doesn't it?"

David shrugged.

"Do you like that book?" the man pointed to the red and white cover of The Anonymous Servant.

"Yeah...I mean it's okay."

The man nodded and smiled, "I'm glad to hear that. I come here all the time. I guess I'm a book lover."

He waited to see if David would respond, but he didn't.

"I guess you are too...since I see you all the time too," the man went on, "I always see you sitting alone with a stack of books. You always have The Anonymous Servant and I thought I would offer you a favor."

David made a face of disgust as he thought, "Is this some psycho pervert? I need to get out of here."

David looked up at the man with the light blue eyes and started to get up, "I'm sorry but I have to get home."

"I'll autograph the book for you," the man said.

David shook his head, not really listening, "It's not my book."

"You read it every day. Don't you like it? I'll buy it for you."

"Have you been watching me? Look man...I'm not into whatever sick game you have planned. I'm not some kid you can bribe to get into your car with candy or books."

The man began to laugh, "Don't you know who I am?"

David looked at the man, he did look a little familiar. The man picked up The Anonymous Servant and showed David a picture of the author, Vincent McDaniels, that was on the inside flap. David looked at the picture and recognition dawned on him.

"Oh...oh my God! It's you! You're him! You're Vincent McDaniels."

Vincent chuckled. "That's right...I wrote the book you're always reading in here. I'd like to buy it for you if you're okay with that. I promise it has nothing to do with any sick games."

David blushed in embarrassment. He couldn't believe he accused his favorite author of being some sort of pedo. "I'd be honored if you bought me a book and then autographed it."

"C'mon kid, let's go check out."

 As they exited the bookstore, David smiled. He looked over at Vincent, "I'm sorry about earlier. You just never know a person's real intentions nowadays."

Vincent agreed, "You're right David. You have to be careful. You can never know a person's true intentions."

"Well I should get going. Thanks again for the book."

"Yeah me too. I'm so hungry. I wanted to try the new Grimaldis they opened up in town. Have you gone?"

David shook his head. He was a foster kid, how could he possibly have gone?

"No? If you want, I can take you. My treat."

David's eyes lit up. He debated whether or not he should accept. His desire for delicious pizza won out because he found himself getting into a car with the author Vincent McDaniels.

At the restaurant, they both gorged on delicious mozzarella covered pizza.

"Your parents don't care that you're not home yet? Do you need to call them?" Vincent asked.

David shook his head, "Foster parents and no. They don't care about me. They only care if I'm home when my CPS caseworker comes by."

"I'm sure they care about you."

"No they don't. For their son's birthday they went all out and took him to a laser tag place with his friends. For my birthday they made cupcakes...and that's it. I get it. I'm not their kid...but still. Do they have to make it so obvious that they don't care about me? I guess I'm just a paycheck to them."

"I'm sorry David. That's horrible. What happened to your real parents?"

"They were in a car accident. They weren't even my real parents either. They were my adoptive parents. I miss them."

"You never met your real parents?"

David shrugged, "No. My mom was young and after she had me she died in some kind of overdose. I don't know who my father is. I'm destined to be an orphan I guess."

"No brothers or sisters?"

"I had a sister. Her name was Evelyn. She was the real daughter of my adoptive parents but when she was five, she ran off at the park and we couldn't find her. She had been strangled." The fact that he was telling Vincent McDaniels his entire life story in such a matter-of-face way surprised David. He normally kept everything to himself.

Vincent could see David's eyes turning pink and watery as he spoke of Evelyn.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Vincent told David. "It sounds like you've been through a lot. Who knows maybe you can fuel that into writing since you love reading so much."

"Nah, I know what I want to do when I get older. Someday I want to be a cop so that I can find out who killed Evelyn. If I can't find her killer, then I'll stop other monsters that kill."

Vincent nodded. "I hope you do that David. I really do. I lost my daughter years ago."

David didn't know that, "I'm sorry. I'm sure it's hard for you too."

"It is. She was my princess. She had been murdered too. I found her in a field of flowers. She had a crown of white flowers in her hair. I remember thinking, 'What a pretty picture she'd make.' Then I saw the blood and..." Vincent stopped speaking and sighed.

David put his slice of pizza down, "I guess we've both been through a lot."

Vincent smiled at him. "I'll tell you what David. How about we help each other out?"     

"What do you mean?"

"I get lonely sometimes and you don't have any real parents. You could treat me like a dad and I could treat you like a son. What do you think?"

David wasn't sure how to respond. The idea of having someone he admired treating him like a son, was overwhelming. He loved Vincent's book. He had already read it ten times. "How?"

"Well...I like to go hunting. Do you hunt David?"

David shook his head.

"I could take you hunting. We could go out to eat. You know....father son type of things. I'm going to go hunting tomorrow. Do you want to join me?"

"I don't know how to hunt."

"I'll teach you."

David was yet again confused. This all seemed too good to be true. Should he go along with Vincent McDaniels or not? He had heard rumors about him having problems with drugs, alcohol, and women. However, if he looked at the Vincent McDaniels sitting before him, he couldn't believe any of that. The Vincent standing before him, inviting him to spend time together, seemed really nice.

"Okay. I'll meet you at the book store again."

****

~The First Time They Went Hunting Together~

"You have to be very careful when hunting your prey. You don't want them to know you're stalking them, David." Vincent's voice was a whisper.

"I don't know if I can kill a living animal."

"Of course you can. Killing is a part of nature and sometimes it's necessary. Aren't you planning to be a cop?"

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do if a bad guy has his gun to you? Are you just going stand there? Or are you going to take him out?"

David didn't know what he would do but he didn't want to disappoint Vincent so he answered, "I guess I would shoot the bad guy."

"Exactly!" Vincent smiled. "Killing isn't such a big deal David. Everyone dies."

"Are you talking about the animals you hunt?"

A weird look flashed across Vincent's face, "Uh...yeah. I'm talking about the animals."

*****

~Six Months Later~

David and Vincent met at least three times a week. David really thought of Vincent as a father figure. He bought David new clothes, gave him an allowance, and always took him hunting. David had been wanting to ask Vincent for a long time if he would be willing to adopt him, but he was nervous about it.

"Uh...Vincent?"

"Yeah David?" Vincent was eating a hamburger before the two of them went hunting again.

"I was wondering...I'm going to be seventeen soon and then next year I'll be eighteen."

"That's great David. Remind me what you want for your birthday."

"Well what I want isn't something you can buy at a store."

Vincent put his burger down and gave David a confused look, "What is it that you want?"

"Well...I was wanting...hoping...praying...that you would adopt me." There, he put it all out on the table. He wanted to be adopted.

Vincent's lips formed a thin line and he had a look of regret when he stared at David.

David's heart was sinking. He could tell he was about to get rejected, "I'm asking because you're already like a father to me. It would just be making it official and I could live with you so we could spend even more time together."

Vincent shook his head, "I'm sorry David. I can't do that."

"Why not?" David was having a tough time keeping his tears at bay.

"I should've mentioned it before...but I already have a son at home and it wouldn't be safe for you to live there."

David was confused, "I don't understand."

"You know...this is a good thing that you asked. Thank you David. I'm honored that you did ask but I can't adopt you. I have two sons. One of them lives with his uncle and the other lives with me."

"You already have sons?" David didn't understand, "Then why do you spend so much time with me?"

"I have my reasons."

David was reeling. Vincent didn't want to adopt him because he had two sons already. Not one but two. "So a third son is out of the question?"

Vincent sighed, "If I could adopt you, I would. My son Christopher is amazing. He's smart and athletic. He's handsome like me."

David scowled. He didn't want to hear about Vincent's real son. "I think I should go," David muttered.

"Why?" Vincent asked.

"Because instead of spending time with me pretending that I'm your son, you should spend time with your real sons."

"You're misunderstanding David. Christopher lives with his uncle because it isn't safe at home."

"Your other son lives with you."

"My other son is Tom and he lives with us because no one else would be able to handle him. He's the reason Christopher can't live with us and the reason I can't adopt you."

"What do you mean?"

"Tom has...episodes. When he has them, bad things have happened. I didn't want him to hurt Christopher so I keep Tom home alone with me and my wife. If you moved in, he could hurt you too."

"Why would he want to hurt me?"

"It wouldn't be on purpose but he could really hurt you. I don't want to risk that. Even though I can't adopt you, I care for you as a real son David. Please believe that."

David was sitting across from Vincent, not knowing what to believe. "This sounds strange."

Vincent sighed. "Remember my daughter?"

"The one that died?"

"Yes. The one that died. She was killed. Do you know who killed her?"

David shook his head.

"Tom. Tom killed his sister. He could kill Christopher and he could kill you."

David wished Vincent would stop talking about this Christopher. He felt like someone had whipped him right across his heart. He was never going to get adopted.

"It doesn't matter. I'm not going to hang out with you anymore."

"Wait! There's something else I haven't told you David."

David rolled his eyes, "What?"

"You don't need me to adopt you because I'm your father. Your real father."

"No you're not."

"How would you know?"

"You can't be," David didn't understand why Vincent was suddenly claiming to be his father.

"Your mother's name...your real mother's name was Rita Fleming. I'm the one that got her pregnant. She didn't want to keep you and I already had Tom with my first wife. I'm sorry David. I couldn't take you in because I was too young at the time and didn't want to risk my marriage."

David was shaking his head in disbelief.

"It's true. I'm your father."

"No you're not. My real father's a mystery."

"No. He's sitting right in front of you. Do you think it's a coincidence that I met you at The Bookmark? I had to hire a private investigator to track you down. All this time you've been wanting a real family...and you've had one. You have me. I'm your father David."

David couldn't stop the tears as they traveled down his cheeks.

"I want proof," he whispered.

Vincent nodded, "We can take a test if you like. I'll already know the results. You have the McDaniels eyes, David."

As Vincent came across the table to hug him, David thought about everything that had happened the last four months and about what Vincent had just told him. He didn't like the idea of sharing Vincent with Christopher or Tom.

Tom.

Anger boiled inside him just thinking of him. He was the reason he couldn't live with Vincent. He also killed an innocent girl, his half-sister. He thought of Evelyn and his anger grew. Tom was evil and David couldn't imagine ever accepting him as a half-brother. He could feel his animosity towards Tom festering. He would have to get a better explanation about Tom from Vincent later. 

For most of his life he had been an orphan. In actuality, he still was. However, now he had a glimmer of hope in the form of Vincent McDaniels. Here was a man that was willing to spend time with him and who was his father. Through his tears, David Smiled. For the first time in years, David Wilson didn't feel completely alone. 

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Don't forget the next story in this trilogy is posted. It's called The Deadly Disciple! So is part three, Blood of the Demon. :)

If you like these stories, you may want to check out my other works. Most of them are completed and I have a new story, Forever in Your Heart that's now completed! ☺