Son of Death

First memory

*NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR* Hello everyone, I've been developing this story for a while and I would appreciate feedback about anything you see! Thank you for anyone that takes the time to read and I will post chapters as I write them. Please enjoy the first installment of "Son of Death."

For some reason, Saul Mortin could remember the day he was born. Now of course, that didn't make sense at all. No human being could remember the day they were born. For the obvious fact that babies did not have the brain development to remember anything, especially that early. But, for Saul this was very true. He had teachers, mentors, counselors and other adult figures in his life tell him that that fact would be utter nonsense. What got better was what he told him he remembered. Which they automatically threw off as a childhood fantasy or bad dream. But to Saul it wasn't bad at all. It was a rather nice memory with familiar faces, warm embraces, and an odd assortment of gifts his mother keeps tucked away behind one of their many bookshelves.

Revealing this memory often got him in the seat he was in today. Staring back at the school Psychologist of Beaver Creek High School. They had a writing prompt in English class to write about their earliest memories. So being the very honest young man that he was (which his mother was very proud of, she might add) he did. He spun the tale of his first day as vividly as he possibly could, thinking it might land him an A that could pull up his borderline C- he was maintaining. But just as soon as Mr. Rouse handed out the graded papers to the students, instead of a shiny red A, B, C, D or even F, on the top of the page was a posted note in black ink that read "Please stay after class." And Saul knew he had done it again. His classmate Zach inched his head around and whispered "oooooo Mortin's in trouble now."

Saul, not having time or patience for mockery, struck Zach with a look in his eyes that could have sliced through Zach's C+ paper, causing him to crumble back into his chair and look at anything else but Saul's eyes. Saul sulked through the rest of class but obeyed the request from his teacher, resisting every urge to make a run for it right as the bell rang. He looked up at Mr Rouse, and for once noticed how rather young he was. He still had all his hair, and there none had turned gray. The only signs of aging was a the slight wrinkles that had developed around Mr Rouse mouth. Saul placed his teachers correct age to be 34 precisely, and by the look of his stature he would live a healthy life till the ripe old age of 79, when his slowly developed heart problems would catch up to him.

That was the other thing. Saul could tell any persons age almost down to the date and time, and also how and when they would die. Saul didn't share this nearly as much as he did his first memory because by the time he was 7 he realized just how much people didn't want to know how they died after he had correctly predicted the deaths of 3 people in a car wreck 4 days before the accident. This caused Saul to avoid the discussion of death completely among his peers. But he often used this gift to create a fun birthday guessing game and delivering surprise cards to the lonely people in town.

After talking to Mr. Rouse for a few moments, suddenly Saul was whisked away to the main office and into a board room with Mr. Rouse, Mr. Vanover (the vice principal), and Ms. Hewett, the very elusive school Psychologist. They had asked the same questions they always do. Things like "do you have these dreams often?"

"What is it like at home?"

"Do your parents let you watch scary movies?"

"Have you ever been given something you might have thought was drugs?"

Saul did what he always did. He was honest. He knew if he had lied his mother would immediately know and he would lose another video game privilege. If that happened he would be down to just Minecraft (that got old quick). Saul knew that they would continue to question him until his mother arrived. He really hated that they called her every time. She would give them the same speech she had done 4 times now. He really wished they had called his father. Saul's Dad had only came to Saul's school 3 times for various reasons and the administrators always seemed in a trance by him. They feared him almost. They would tell Saul's dad, Al exactly what he wanted to hear just to get him out of the building. Saul was always slightly confused by this because his father wasn't all that scary. Sure when Saul was in trouble and Al raised his voice slightly, that could definitely be very intimidating, but besides that he was a normal guy. He usually wore a dark colored dress shirts with jeans, he ran a tech company that fixed personal devices, so his casual style and brown hair fit in quite well. The only thing odd was the wickedly grey eyes that Saul shared with him.
While Saul sat there thinking about what his punishment might be when he got home with his mom, he overheard a phone call that Mr. Vanover was having across the room.

"Oh yes we understand, I'm just glad someone is able to come. But we do want to schedule a meeting with you Mr. Mortin........ Yes we understand...... We just want to make sure he's safe....... Yes Mr. Mortin........ Yes I will see you Friday. Thank you." He sighed and hung up. "Well that was your father. Both of your parents are caught up in their jobs, but they have decided to send your guardian to pick you up and have made an appointment with me on Friday." Mr Vanover managed out. He was a very large man and he was not well. He had a dark diabetic ring around his neck, which signified he was not managing the disease as he should, his eyes had yellowed from liver problems, and his voice sounded like an old scratchy record from 20 years of smoking a pack a day of Pall Mall Blues. Saul tried to block from his mind how long he thought Mr. Vanover had to live, but it stared him in the face every time he saw him at school.

"Well who is coming?" Ms. Hewett said clearly annoyed. "He said his godfather Stan Beelz." Mr Vanover coughed out.

This was quite the twist. Uncle Stan had only picked up Saul once when he was in 1st grade, and though he didn't know what happened he remembered Uncle Stan walking into the office, tipping his hat, and telling the teachers everything was alright. After that he took Saul home and no one ever asked him about it again. Saul definitely hoped this would go similar. He sat there and tried to block out the unnecessary rants of Ms. Hewett saying his parents 'should be there and that it could be considered negligence'. Mr. Vanover told her to calm down, which seemed to fuel her fire as she rambled on even more. That was till they all went silent. Mr. Rouse peaked out the board room door and saw Saul's godfather.

Stan Beelz was a unique individual. He wore a 3 piece suit, since he was CEO of a textile company, but he had tousled black hair that reached his shoulders and a trimmed goatee. Stan walked into every room like he already owned the property it stood on, he carried a solid gold pocket watch, could name every song ever written, and to Saul was a magician. Saul could tell immediately that that was who his teachers were watching through the office window. Saul always admired the way Stan could walk. It was so fluid and smooth he seemed to be walking in slow motion, like the cool guys in old spy movies. Stan entered the room and everything felt slightly warmer, like a furnace had kicked on. "Afternoon" Stan said, his voice just as smooth and enticing as his walk.

"Hello Mr. Beelz, I'm Mr. Rouse, Saul's English teacher. Were glad you made time to come down and speak with us today." Mr. Rouse said straightening his tie and attempting to stand a bit taller, even though Stan was shorter than he was. "Yes Al told me that my godson needed a ride." Stan said like he was just giving a hitchhiker a ride. "Yes, but Mr. Beelz, you must understand that we need to speak with his parents about counseling, Saul seems......troubled." Ms. Hewett started in just before catching a look at Stan in the eyes. She seemed stunted "I wish my mother was dead so I could inherit all her money and then I wouldn't have to deal with these brats anymore." She blurted out. As soon as she was done her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes filled with horror. "Ms. Hewett!" Mr. Vanover exclaimed.

Stan smirked "You have all your things Saul? We must be going, seems like Ms. Hewett is in need of some counseling herself."

Saul picked up his backpack and hurried out the door without saying a word. Besides the awkwardness of the room itself, there was another reason he wanted out of there quickly. Stan walked him towards the front entrance. "Seems like a nice day for pavlova, don't you think?"