Ƭɦҽɾҽ WιƖƖ Ƈσɱҽ α RʋƖҽɾ, Wɦσʂҽ Ɓɾσw ιʂ lαιԃ ιղ Ƭɦσɾղ 👑 ƠƇ Ɓαƈƙʂƭσɾყ -[BOOK 1/2]

ҽιɠɦƭ

TW// cussing, parental death mentions, crying, talk of abuse

Ash's POV

I stood up from my chair.

"I'm- I'm sorry, I just- I need a minute." I said, speeding off. I went down the large hallway with tears in my eyes. Why am I crying? This isn't sad news, I'm finding out who my actual father is!

Maybe I'm so upset because after all of these years of abuse, he wasn't even my father, and I didn't have go through all of that hell. It's my mothers fault. It's her fault that I've been abused. If she hadn't gone back to him, I could've had a good life. I wouldn't want every day to be the last.

I found myself outside. I didn't know how I had gotten here. I also didn't know that there were tears running down my face.

I sat down on the soft grass under a willow tree. There were yellow and pink and blue flowers everywhere. It was pretty. I closed my eyes, letting myself wander into thought.

I heard footsteps and I looked up seeing none other than the king...or...my father?

"Hi..." I greeted, looking back at the ground, letting my eyes focus on a bee. "Hey, there." He replied, sitting down next to me.

"I'm...sorry that I ran off like that. I'm just...I dunno, worked up? Could've avoided all these years of abuse from a man who's not even my father." I drying laughed. "But no, she went back to him for some fucking reason. Guess I'm just upset about that."

"I understand, I would be too." He replied.

A small silence.

"So...you're my father?" I asked. "Apparently so." "Ok, so...what do I call you? I mean, it's gonna feel weird calling you 'father' or something like that because- you know- I don't even know you, but it would be weird to call you 'sir,' wouldn't it?" I asked.

He thought for a moment.

"I guess you can just call me whatever you want to. Sir. Father. Dad. Pops. Pa. My actual name, which is a strange name, but it's Nicodemus." He said. "Strange? No, that's a cool name!"

(Totally not named after that really old prophet rat Nicodemus on The Secret of NIMH cartoon 😋)

"That's too difficult to say, though. I'll just call you sir." I said. He nodded.

I couldn't control myself. I reached over and hugged him tight with both of my arms. He seemed surprised at first, and then he hugged me back. And we sat like that for a good while.

"You know, my name isn't actually Ash. That's just what my...old father...always called me because he said my actual name was too hard to say." I suddenly said. "Really? What's your real name?"

"My name is Artemis. He thought it was a stupid and difficult name to say so he just calls me Ash. My mother named me Artemis before she died." I said. "I would...prefer if I started being called Artemis, though. When I'm called Ash, it just reminds me of him."

"That's a great name! It's cool! I'll start calling you that and I'll tell everyone else to call you that." He said. "Thanks."

It was quiet for a moment.

"Can't believe I'm a dad." He laughed. "I can't believe he's not my dad." I added.

We looked at each other for a moment before I hugged him again.

Words: 575
A chapter with less that 1K words??? 😨