Son of the Lion

41:32.

The readout on his watch would have surprised John if it wasn’t for the nearly blinding sunlight that hit his eyes as he walked out of the side entrance of the Adams residence. The end of an all-consuming darkness, one which he felt both inside and out, gave him some hope. There was now some warmth, even if the darkness within him, that wicked creature known as fear, remained in his heart. There was, at least, a degree of happiness that he felt in seeing natural light as opposed to the unnatural light that had guided him all through that perpetual night.

It was in that light that he saw a different kind of darkness. The darkness he and his peers in the field of journalism had so readily spread. As soon as he was able to see the front gate, his suspicions were confirmed: the press had been able to make their way in alongside plenty of others. What before had been a simple set of garden-variety paparazzi now stood as a full-blown mob. He would be surprised if Adams survived the rest of the game.

John decided it would be best if he made his way to his family, just like he had promised he would. As he began making the trek towards his in-laws’ house, he saw a familiar face. The short blonde hair, blue eyes, and sharp chin were all very distinctive, even if the boy had tried to hide it under a thick jacket. Lee Adams Jr. resembled his father far too much to go unnoticed by one with an eye for detail like himself.

John approached the boy, thinking of what to say. From what he remembered, he was approximately nineteen years old, though he certainly looked younger than that. He decided to go with the easiest option and said, “Trying to hide in the shadows, Lee?”

Lee scoffed and replied, “At least you’re not calling me Junior. But yeah, I thought it’d be best to get out of my father’s nest before things got ugly.”

Then it was time for John to pop the question. “How’d you know to get out of dodge when you did?”

Lee pointed at the device on John’s wrist. “It was that watch. My father told me all that had happened at the event – one of the few times he’d bothered to tell me anything at all, actually – and I was able to deduce a thing or two about the game as a result.”

“Like what?”

“Well, as the number of people who were arrested or killed went up, I did some investigating and thought, what’s one feature that every smart watch nowadays has?”

John shrugged his shoulders. “You’ve got me stumped; there’s well over a dozen things you could be referring to. Gallagher mentioned a lot at that press conference and I was a bit more focused on the fact that it had forced itself onto my arm than anything else."

“A GPS,” Lee said with a shake of his head. “If it were me, I’d track each and every one of you just to make sure I knew where you were at all times. A tech company like his thrives on the information of its users and it’s no doubt that he already has a set-up in mind from whatever other smart watches his company already sells.

“With that in mind, I looked further at the information that was publicly available and, wouldn’t you know it, there was something interesting that only made sense if Gallagher was monitoring everyone’s movements.”

“Alright, you’ve got my attention,” John said. “What was it?”

“The only time the authorities or the public were able to catch a member of this game of Gallagher’s was when two players were close to each other. That confirmed my theory, but I didn’t bother to tell my father.” John didn’t need to ask why; it was something that was obvious to anyone who knew even a little bit about Lee Adams Sr. He wasn’t the sort of man who one could easily imagine loving his son in the way he deserved. “However, once you showed me your watch and forced your way in, I decided to pack my things and make a run for it.” Only then did John notice that Lee was holding a satchel over his shoulder.

“Fascinating.” With a smile, he continued, “You have quite the brilliant mind, Lee. If I didn’t know better, I’d recommend that you take up my profession.”

With a sarcastic laugh, the young man replied, “If your job wasn’t the kind of thing that put you on death row, sure.” He turned and began to walk away. “I’m gonna hide out with a friend of mine. Don’t be a stranger.”

John watched the young man leave for a second before closing his eyes. The only sound he could hear was that of the ever-increasing distance of Lee's footsteps. The mob had long entered into his father’s mansion and likely wouldn’t leave it for hours at this rate. If he didn’t know better, he would be inclined to say that all was peaceful in the world. When he opened his eyes again, he couldn’t help but feel that darkness again, though its exact color was different. It felt filled with danger and fear for a boy he’d just met that day.

Even if he wasn’t a participant in the game, Lee could be in danger by proxy. If Adams was still alive, someone might go after him. In fact, there wasn’t any certainty that his friend was still willing to let him stay there. At the very least, those were the thoughts his mind was telling him, but in truth, there was another feeling, one which came from the same place in his heart that his feelings for his own son came from. It was a place of light, of affection, one which said that he needed to protect this boy and stand in front of him should danger arise, even if the possibility of danger was minuscule. It could be called a myriad of things, but he simply called it paternal instinct. The boy had never had a proper father, and that moved the light in his heart, making it much stronger than the darkness could ever be.

He found his legs moving before he had a second more to think. Lee turned around at the sound of his running and raised an eyebrow, as if to ask, “What’s up?”

Between deep breaths that reminded him he wasn’t as in shape as he hoped he was, John asked, “Would you like to stay at my in-laws’ house?”

“No, I think I already told you, didn’t I? I have a place to stay with my friends,” Lee answered with an expression somewhere between horror and confusion.

After taking another second to catch his breath, John was able to catch his thoughts, too. “What I mean to say is that there’s a chance that you could potentially be in danger, too. People going after you to get your father.”

“Oh, right,” Lee said with a curt nod.

“That, and there’s no guarantee that your friend is still up to letting you stay over now that the information has leaked about your father and he is effectively broke.”

Lee seemed genuinely shocked by that information. “I guess I’m not as smart as you thought I was.”

“Trust me, it only occurred to me as you were walking away,” John replied with a smile much weaker than it should’ve been.

Lee shook his head. “Are you okay? You didn’t run that far, did you?”

“I think I’m tired beyond the run,” John answered, the realization hitting him like cold water. “I haven’t slept at all since yesterday. That’ll be the nice advantage of my in-laws’ place. Not only will they have a spare guest bedroom for you, I can finally get some sleep in a bed I’m at least somewhat familiar with, too.”

Lee stuck out his hand.

John shook it.

“Sounds like a deal to me,” Lee said.

The two of them began to make their way to their destination, walking side-by-side. Now that John had someone else with him, he began to appreciate the fact that he had some company. There was something aside from his own thoughts to accompany him on his journey through the next few hours.

“So, what’s your life like? College? Career?” John inquired, fishing for something to get a conversation going.

“I thought about college, but everything there was kind of boring,” Lee answered, looking down at his shoes in shame. “Especially the people.”

“The people? Don’t think I’ve ever heard someone describe someone else as ‘boring’ before, but there’s always a first time for everything.”

“Less boring, more that I couldn’t connect with anyone.” He let out a sigh. “Everyone assumed I was just like my father and wanted to get in good with me so they could connect with him. No one liked me for me.”

John nodded. “You just wanted some friends.”

Lee also nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t find any, though, so I just quit. I was able to find myself a well-paying writing job, though.”

“A writer, huh? Small world.” John smiled. “Well, what do you write?”

“Short stories, mostly,” Lee answered sheepishly. “I keep them under a pseudonym, though. I don’t want them being traced back to my family. I want to make something out of myself. If I’m going to have my own career, I want it to be defined by who I am, not who my good-for-nothing father is.” The resentment in his voice was palpable.

“Sounds like you’ve got some pent-up emotions,” John said after letting a moment pass between them.

Lee let out a chuckle. “You could say that again.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to say? You’re the one who did the exposé on my father, you probably know more about him than I do.” He had him there.

“Trust me, it was a simple puff piece. He wanted very little about his family in there, it was all about his career, which I found very odd.”

This really enraged the boy. “Of course it was!” he yelled. “That man couldn’t care less if I died tomorrow, all he cares about is having some prim and proper idea of a son, not actually getting to know anything about me!” He was completely fuming now. “That idiot drove my mother to suicide; did you find that out in your investigation? I bet not, because he purposefully hid the news as best he could. It would’ve driven any other man to bankruptcy and a deep depression, but he just kept sleeping around and conceiving new children he couldn’t care about. I’m the son of his actual wife, yet I don’t think he ever loved her at any point during their marriage!”

When Lee stopped to take a breath, John asked, “Feel better now?”

“A little bit, yeah,” Lee replied. “Thanks for listening.”

“Anytime.” John hesitated a second before deciding to reply. “You know, I didn’t have the best relationship with my own father, either.”

“You didn’t?” the boy asked, a quizzical expression on his face.

He shook his head. “No. He was always busy working, so I never got a chance to know him well. I always thought he didn’t care about me and wouldn’t have missed me either. It was only when I became a successful journalist that I really saw how much he cared.

“When I won my Pulitzer for my breakthrough report on Mishka Gomez, he was in the front row. I didn’t even invite my parents or my in-laws, yet there he was, sobbing his eyes out. After the ceremony, he gave me a hug, told me how proud of me he was, and handed me an old photo album. In it, there were pictures he’d taken over the years of me as I grew up that I didn’t even know existed. There were clippings of articles I’d written dating back to my days working for the school paper in college.”

“Alright, what’s your point?” Lee asked sarcastically.

“My point is that your father, terrible a person as he might be, could have room for you and your mother in his heart. He just might not have expressed it to you just yet.” He looked over at Lee then and adopted a more jovial tone. “Of course, I know who I’m talking about here, but still, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Lee laughed long and hard in a way that seemed to come from deep within his heart. It was perfectly timed, too, because they had arrived at a great source of darkness, the one place every married man fears above all else:

His in-laws’ house.