AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Looking up from his large mahogany desk, a bright smile spread across his face.
“Dillon! It’s good to see you. Are you here because you’ve considered my proposal?”
Was that why I was here? That’s right, it was. I nodded. “Yeah. Did you drive to work today?”
Remy looked puzzled. “I did. Why?”
“Could you drive us somewhere? There’s a place I want to show you.”
Remy agreed, curiosity in his eyes. Walking to his expensive black car, I directed him to Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville. As we pulled up in front of an abandoned two-story building with broken windows and weeds snaking up the brick walls, Remy stared at it confused.
“This is the place?” he said looking up at it through the windshield.
A cold sweat layered my hot skin. I forced myself to speak.
“Yes, this building was where my father lived. At least, it was where the man I thought was my father lived.”
Remy frowned glancing between the decrepit building and me.
“But I don’t understand. Why put an outreach center here instead of an old YMCA or something? Wouldn’t somewhere with more space be better?”
I clenched my fists in my lap gathering the courage to continue. Tears flooded my cheeks despite my efforts. Remy’s heartbroken gaze was too much to handle. When he reached out to comfort me, I rejected his touch and pulled myself together.
“No, Remy, hear me out.” My voice choked forcing me to swallow and regain focus. “There’s something I should tell you about me.”
“Okay. What is it?” Remy asked hesitantly.
“I grew up thinking that I was the product of an affair. I thought that my father cheated on his family with my black mother. He never wanted to have me and I always believed that he couldn’t accept me because…” I held up my caramel-colored arms. “Because was I too dark.”
My voice wavered as a humiliating memory rushed back.
“So often when I was a kid, I would come here and stand across the street staring up into his lit living room windows. I would see people in there with him and wonder how it was he could treat his real family so well while pretending I didn’t exist.
“I even tried to confront him about it a few times. Waiting for him where I always stood, I would watch him walk up and call his name. That’s where my memories would always end. I didn’t think much of it until recently when I decided I needed answers. The thought that he didn’t want me haunted my dreams. So, a few weeks ago I came up with a plan. I wasn’t just going to confront him. I was going to get answers to why he didn’t want me.
“Oh, Dillon!” Remy said empathetically.
“Let me finish,” I insisted. “After stalking the building for a few nights, I noticed something weird. No one else lived there but him. It’s a three-story building with retail space at street level and 6 apartments above it. But, it was just him.
“Thinking it would make what I had to do easier, I figured out how to get in and what I would say to him.”
“Did you do it?” Remy asked concerned.
“I did. And then I did it again and again.”
“What do you mean?”
“It turned out that I had done this before when I was a kid. I had confronted him and he had made me forget. Even a few nights ago, it took me three attempts that I could remember to shake off the hold he had on me.”
“The hold he had on you?”
“Yeah. It turns out that the man I thought was my father was…”
“A vampire.”
As soon as he said it, I saw his full appear. It stood on his leather car seat like a dog anxiously wanting to get out.
Remy looked up at the building steely-eyed.
