The bedroom door swung and his mom was standing there with a worried look etched on her face. “What happened?” she asked grabbing Parker’s arm to look at the hand he was cradling.

Parker didn’t know what to say. No words came to mind as he tried to think through what happened. “The doorknob burned me!” he snapped not understanding how that was even possible. His mom guided him to the kitchen and forced his hand into the sink and started running cold water over it.

“Keep it under the water,” she instructed as she walked over to his dad to talk. They disappeared into the living room. Parker could hear them arguing about something but couldn’t make out what they were saying. He wanted to ask Kendall to spy for him but she was nose deep in a book. Leaning as far as he could without taking his hand out from under the cold water he still couldn’t understand them. He leaned a little further and his hand slipped out of the water and the searing pain returned.

“Ah!” Parker screams shoving his hand back into the water. His mom rushed back into the kitchen with the same worried look on her face. However, after seeing him, she realized what he had done.

“I told you to keep it under the water.”

“What are you two arguing about?” Parker asked, digging for an answer. Why were they being so secretive?

Parker’s dad walked into the kitchen with a stern look on his face. “Kendall, I need you to go play for a bit.” As if she were waiting for that, she dashed out of the kitchen with a huge smile on her face. “Parker, tell me what happened.” His was different than normal. He usually was very cheerful and sarcastic but now it was stern and serious.

“Tell me why you were spying on me earlier.” Parker stood tall as he said it, trying to make himself appear larger than he was.

His dad glared at him and spoke in an authoritative voice. “Tell me what happened Parker.”

Parker looked at him for a moment and then caved. “I tried to open your door, and when I did, the doorknob burned my hand.” He said it, but out loud it sounded even more absurd than it had in his head. “How can a doorknob burn me?”

A moment of silence followed as his dad stared at him deep in thought. His dad opened his mouth to say something but then stopped and left the kitchen. Parker stared after him, upset that he didn’t get an answer to his question.

He spent the rest of the day with his hand in a bucket of extremely cold water. Kendall was very helpful throughout the day but made sure to remind Parker that he owed her one.

It had been a beautiful day but the later it got, the darker it got. A storm was coming in that looked like it was going to be rough.

After dinner was done, Kendall and his mom did dishes while he sat in uncomfortable silence with his dad. Storm clouds rolled in and lightning lit the sky. By the time dishes were done, the storm had gotten bad enough that his mom forced them all to go to the basement.

Parker walked to the high windows and stood on his tiptoes to see out back. The sky was pitch black, save for the consistent lightning streaking through the sky. After several bolts, Parker thought he saw something in their backyard, like there was someone standing outside.

“Hey, Dad, come look at this. I think someone’s out back.”

His dad walked over but didn’t appear to be overly concerned. It didn’t seem likely with their lack of neighbors and the intensity of the storm outside. Parker continued to see the figure out back until the moment his dad showed up next to him. “There’s nothing out back,” he said staring out across the empty fields.

“But…” Parker stammered. “It was right there!”

His dad grabbed his shoulder and asked him to move away from the window. He took a seat on the big leather sectional next to his sister. She was in her own little world again playing, with her hair hanging in front of her face. Parker always worried about whether or not Kendall needed some more social interaction. He loved to be around her but he knew it wasn’t the same as having friends your own age.

Time seemed to drag by as the storm continued to rage on. Parker was starting to get stir crazy. He didn’t have anything to do so he just sat there with his own thoughts; which kept bouncing to the figure he’d seen out back He tried to convince himself that he was just seeing things but could’ve sworn that he saw something.

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“Hey!” his mom said cheerfully. “Let’s play a game or something. I’m starting to go crazy down here!” She grabbed a deck of cards and the four of them sat in a circle and started playing. After a couple turns, Parker looked out the window behind his parents and he saw someone looking in the window.

“Ah!” Parker screamed pointing at the window. His parents spun around immediately but saw nothing where he was pointing. “What?” he asked confused. “Someone was looking just a second ago. I swear!”

“You saw a person?” his mom asked. She turned to his dad and demanded that he go look. He begrudgingly stood up and checked out of the window.

He shook his head. “Nope, nothing out there. In fact, the storm is even done so we should be good to go back upstairs.”

Parker walked up the stairs last, leaving him to close the door behind him. Out of habit, he just threw it closed behind him but it didn’t latch. He turned and grabbed the doorknob to close it full and a searing pain washed through his hand again. Letting out a scream, much louder than the previous time, made his parents come running.

“What happened?” his mom asked anxiously.

“The doorknob burned me again! How is this even happening?” Parker was beyond mad and confused at this point. He made his way to the kitchen quickly to get his hand back under the cold water. Getting more and more frustrated he finally snapped. “Tell me what’s happening!” he yelled in his parents’ faces.

The look he received from both of them made him physically take a step back. A heat burned off of them that Parker had never felt, or at least noticed, before. “Don’t. EVER. Talk to us like that again.” Parker was stuck staring into his dad’s eyes. A fire burned behind them that Parker had never seen before. “Now, take your bucket of water and go to bed.” It was said with such finality that Parker couldn’t even think of a response so he simply took his bucket and went to bed.

When he woke up, his hand still stung but the burning sensation went away. Parker made his way downstairs and walked into the kitchen to find his dad sitting at the table still in his pajamas. “Dad?”

“Morning Parker.”

“Why aren’t you at work?”

His dad pulled the chair out next to him and motioned for him to take a seat. “I wanted to talk with you.” Parker looked at him with a mixture of confusion and fear thinking about when he got yelled at. “First, I wanted to apologize for last night. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. But more importantly we need to talk about school.”

Parker stared at him confused beyond belief. “School?” he asked not understanding what there was to talk about. “What about it? Am I not doing well enough?”

“No, no, no. You’re doing phenomenal. You’ve actually finished everything we have for you. So, it’s time that you attend Lancastre Academy.”

“Lancastre? Is that where eighth grade is?”

His dad chuckled. “Not exactly. Things are about to change. You’ll learn answers to most of the questions you’ve been asking yourself.”

Parker stared at him. “Can’t you just tell me?”

Shaking his head, “I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to explain it in a way that will make sense or seem even remotely believable. Everyone in our family has learned the same way so I know that you’ll be fine.”

Parker still didn’t know what to say so he just stared for a moment. “Where is it?”

“Well, that’s one of the biggest things about Lancastre.” Parker looked at him growing more and more confused. “It’s a boarding school so you’ll be living there.” His dad stopped talking to let all of it soak in.

“How’s everything going in here?” his mom asked as she walked into the kitchen.

“Uh…” Parker stammered.

“How’s your hand?”

“Better…”

His mom looked to his dad to gauge how the conversation was going and she could clearly tell it wasn’t going overly smooth. “Honey, what’s going through your mind?” She gently rubbed his shoulders.

“I’m not ready to just move out.” He didn’t want to but he felt like he was on the verge of crying.

She gave a warm, motherly smile. “It’ll be okay honey. Your father and I went there at the same age you are. It’s how we met. We were a part of the same house and thanks to a friend of ours, it’s really easy to get to Lancastre now, compared to when we were in school.”

Parker gave her an inquisitive look. “Where is it?”

“It’s on the top of a mountain in the middle of a lake.”

His jaw dropped. Parker couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “It’s where?”

“Be happy. You get to take a nice ride there. We had to take a hike up the mountain to make it to school.” His mom continued in detail about the trip they would take up the mountain.

His dad laughed as she told her story. “Don’t forget that we only had to hike up once.”

“Once?” Parker asked. “What do you mean once?”

Both of his parents grew a slightly grim expression. His dad reached over and grabbed his mom’s hand before saying anything. “You’ll be at the school for six years.”

Parker stared back and forth at each of his parents. He was waiting for one of them to say, “Just kidding!” but neither said anything. “Wait, you’re serious?” He kept looking for some change in facial expressions to say that they were joking. “I won’t see any of you for six years? What is this place? Prison?” His voice raised and octave with each question.

“You won’t even notice how long you’re there. And Kendall will join you when she’s old enough. You’ll be going into your fourth year.” His mom sounded so cheery and optimistic talking about it but Parker just wanted to tell her to shut up. “The time seriously flies by.”

He just stared passed both of his parents taking in everything they’d told him. After several long moments of silence Parker finally looked at both of his parents and asked, “When do I have to leave?”

His dad cleared his throat; “We’ll drop you off at the station in four days.”

“Four days?” Parker asked in a raised, slightly angry voice.

“Four days is plenty of time to get ready Parker,” his dad said in a soothing voice that only made Parker even angrier. “Everything will be fine. We promise.”