Phobia

Prologue:

"Wake up you idiot, I have some stuff I need you to sign." A deep voice said to me as I slowly regained consciousness. I tossed and turned in my bed, then slowly opened my eyes to see my father sitting in a chair next to my bed, he was holding a packet of papers with the words 'Phobia Curing Establishment.' I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then sat on the side of my bed and faced my father.

"What is it pops, something wrong?" I asked as I yawned and stretched out the last bit of sleep from my muscles. My father handed me the packet of papers along with a pen. I looked at him with a confused looked and asked what they were for.

"Just sign these and you'll be able to go to school just like a normal kid your age." He said as I took the pen and papers from his hands. I became a bit skeptical as I flipped through each page of the packet and signed what I needed to, but it didn't occur to me to ask if this school was an all-boys school or not, but it was also early in the morning and I was quite groggy.

I looked at my father's expression as I signed the last paper and noticed that he had a look of relief on his face. I gathered all of the papers I had signed and handed them to my father, he looked at a few of them, then placed them in a big manila envelope and headed out of my bedroom doorway.

'That's weird...' I thought to myself as I watched my father close the door behind him. '...he usually tries to give me a pep-talk to start my morning, I wonder what's up.' I couldn't help but think that something was eating at him, but there wasn't anything I could have done since he always kept up the 'strong man' façade. I ended up telling myself that he would tell me what was wrong when he felt like sharing it with me and rolled over in my bed on my right side to look at my alarm clock on my nightstand.

'Two A.M....? Why'd he wake me up so early?' I heard footsteps coming up to my doorway and stop just outside my room. I already knew who it was, but I had no idea why he was coming back to my room.

"Hey, son I-, I just wanted to let you know that, what ever happens from here on out, I will always love you." My father said on the other side of my bedroom door. His voice sounded pained, as if something dear to him was being ripped from his heart. I sat up in my bed and looked towards my bedroom doorway, then staggered a bit as I got to my feet and walked to the door to open it. The door creaked with a low dull hum as I pulled it towards me but, when I looked out into the hall connecting the living area to my room, my father had disappeared without a trace.

'I must have been imagining my dad saying that.' I told myself, but had I imagined it, or not? I closed my door and walked back over to my bed and laid back down to sleep for the rest of the night. Little did I know, that morning was the turning point in my life that would cause me an agonizing amount of grief and hardship.