How to Help Howell?

Part 30

Phil

"What do you want?" I spat out, sick of the feeling of rope burn building on my wrists.

"You need to get your head out of the gutter, Philip." He replied with a monotone voice. "You haven't talked to me in months, and now I see you kissing a man in a laser tag facility?!" He said a little louder.

"Yeah, so?" I retorted with some underlying cheekiness.

"YOU CAN'T BE GAY, PHILIP, YOU'RE AN ABOMINATION!" The man screamed at me, putting a lot of stress on the word 'abomination'.

"You've barely even been in my life, why do you care now?" I scooted the chair I was tied to closer to him. He stared me in the eye, raised his right hand, and slapped me square in the face.

"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" He screamed again. He was a lot crazier now than I remembered. With nothing to ease my sore cheek, I rubbed it on the sleeve of my t shirt.

"I know who you are, but what does this have to do with me being gay?" I asked him, a little ticked off.

"Because of my position in your life, I forbid you to be one of their kind," he said quietly, his voice filled with disgust and betrayal.

"Your position... one of my kind... why are you talking so weird? I'm gay, Dad, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"DON'T YOU TALK TO YOUR FATHER THAT WAY!" He went off again.

"I'm not a little kid anymore and you can't tell me what to do and who to be. Why is this such a big deal? It's not like you cared this much when I was growing up," I pointed out.

"You weren't like this when you were young. It's all his fault. You can't see him anymore."

"You mean Dan? You're being ridiculous. He needs me..." I brushed off the comment, my fear growing slightly.

"No, Philip, you're staying with me where you can never think about being gay again." He looked a little insane. His head was cocked to the side and his eyes were really wide and staring off into space, as if he wasn't really there with me, even though he was in the same room as me.

"Dad, you're being crazy and irrational again. Just calm down, listen to the words coming out of your mouth, and realize that they make no sense.

"No, Philip, I'm making total sense. You're staying with me forever." His head turned to me and his eyes locked with mine. He grinned in a way that made me sure of at least one thing.

This man was a psychopath.

"You can't make me do anything." I protested.

The last thing I saw was his fist flying towards my face. Then the world faded away around me as I fell into a state of unconsciousness.