"What…Where are you going?" Allen shouted, a little softer than usual.
"I'm going for a walk." His dad responded, grumbling by the sight of his son.
"In the middle of the night?" Same tone.
"How's that your business? I don't have to answer to you! And I can go anywhere I want, anytime I want. You are supposed to be in bed, what are you doing here?" His dad asked, trying to use his authority.
"I should be asking you the same question?" He said, with a higher tone than before, still pinning him to the ground.
"And where did you get this cloth from?" Allen continued.
"Shut up!" He matched with Allen's tone, pushed Allen, and then lessened his voice. "You ask too many questions." He said as he stood up, and left Allen on the floor.
"Since when did you become like this?" Allen asked.
His father ignored him and kept on walking. Allen noticed the bag in his hands.
"What's that?" Allen asked.
He was still ignored, so he went back. After his father had gone out of the house, Allen turned back again, deciding to follow him secretly. He walked through the streets, until he reached a dark alley and stopped. Allen was some meters behind him, not too close, not too far.
Allen's father turned his head sideways and shouted, "What did I tell you about going to bed."
"Well, you didn't answer my questions." Allen said in response. "I'm not goanna say it one more time. GO BACK HOME." His dad said, very furiously.
"You're not the boss of me!"
"YES, I, AM." His father sharply replied as he turned back, his eyes, being blue because of the lack of light.
"Now go home." His dad said in a more serious tone. Allen still didn't listen. He decided to continue following him, with less suspiciousness. Suddenly, his dad passed another dark alley, and then, disappeared.
Allen moved a step closer, then another, and then two more. But he still wasn't there, so he called out.
"Dad?" In a soft tone.
"Dad?" He was louder but still no response, so he stepped forward, it was darker the more closely he got.
But he still wasn't there.
Out of fear, Allen ran backwards, going home. When he ran out of the alley, he saw that it was a little earlier, about 4 AM, but when he reached home, he decided to go back to sleep and tell others earlier in the morning.
[Earlier in the morning, in the passage way, upstairs]
"Good morning Ava, how are you?" Ava's mom asked.
"I'm fine mom." Ava said, still feeling sleepy.
"How about you Allen?" She asked Allen, who had a wearier look on his face.
"Not fine, I'm not fine at all."
"Aw, what happened? Did you have a bad dream?" "No, I saw dad outside, in the middle of the night, and he was wearing a grim reaper's cloth, that cloth is not allowed in any house!!"
Both Ava and her mum looked at Allen in a strange way, like he had watched too much brain rot.
"Allen dear, your father has been sleeping all night." His mom said.
"You're wrong, I'm sure I saw him. He never even came back home." Allen said without hesitation. "You can come take a look at your father, he's still sleeping."
They all went to his room, just to see his father still sleeping, wearing a bright blue cloth.
"That's not possible!" Allen said softly. He ran to the closet and started throwing out clothes, looking for the black attire. "It's not here, it's not here." He said as he looked in the closet. He checked every drawer frantically, while Ava and his mother just stood there, looking at him as he searched wildly.
Suddenly he stopped.
Liked he had just found proof, or he realized he was looking in the wrong place. Then the dashed through Ava and her mother, out of the room.
"Where are you…?" Ava shouted as he sped past them. His plan was to check for any proof or footsteps outside to get them to believe him, but there were none. No footsteps, no dirt on any of his shoes, maybe he did have a bad dream, so he just let it slide.
"Sorry mom, it was actually just a bad dream." He said when he got upstairs.
"Okay, but if you have that dream anytime again, feel free to tell me, okay?" His mom asked. "Okay."
They hear Allen's dad wake up.
"Dad, good morning?" Ava greeted.
"Did you happen to go anywhere last night?" Ava asked.
"What she's trying to say is that there is no milk in the fridge and she was hoping you bought some last night, right honey?" Allen's mother said, elbowing Ava to continue the act.
"Yeah mom!" Ava said, smiling very widely.
It's not every day that you read of a boy dreaming that his own father is keeping something dark from his family. Well, this is you're lucky day.
[The next day]
"Hey Ava, did you see my socks?" Allen asked, because he needed it to play soccer.
"No I didn't, but if I smell anything like rotten eggs, I'll inform you, okay?" Ava didn't. Allen said to himself "Useless."
[A knock on the door]
"We're not expecting anybody." Ava said to herself as she rushed downstairs to open the door. "Coming!" As she opened the door, she saw a group of men with janitor clothes and painting buckets.
"Your father sent us to paint some unpainted area." One of them said in a thick, dark voice.
The next minute, Ava's dad came, frowning weirdly.
"What are you waiting for, start." No greeting, no welcome, just order.
And the next minute they started painting.
[Some hours later, it was time to paint Ava's dad's room, and no one was allowed to enter it except him and the painters, like they had, a connection, a secret that they were keeping, and then, they came out]
Their paint buckets were closed, and it looked heavy. Allen was just about to see them of, until, the cover of one of the buckets fell, and Allen laid his eyes on a bucket full of money, at least 100,000 dollars. The painter quickly closed the bucket, and glared at Allen, a glare saying "You saw nothing".