The original John

John Dark, was getting old, he worked all day, and slept all night. When he was younger he could stay out for hours into the night, meet up with people, get drunk, have a good time. Granted that was then, now John worked for his son, and his wife, he would come home, and almost immediately went to sleep. In fact the only time that John was awake was when he was watching football, admittedly he should pay more attention to John Jr, but he figured he would have more time later in life. The kid was only eight, John doubted he even knew what was going on most of the time.

The office lights went off, meaning it was time to go, John proceeded to shut down his bulky work computer, grab his keys, and start heading to the door of the office. It wasn't rare for John to be the last to leave the office, he loved working, it was a hobby, and a passion. Now even if it was fun, he wished he made more, hints why he is so willing to work more hours.

The drive home was uneventful, John actually felt pretty good, well not super tired after work. John figured he would spend the day watching whatever games his wife had recorded for him. Pulling into the drive way John heard the dog start barking, a good sound, one that represented his family. Walking in the door the dog ran up, giving a little whine as John reached down petting him. Rufus was a mutt, something between a golden retriever, and a German shepherd, but he was a good dog, he had golden hair and pointed ears like a German shepherd.

"Honey, i'm home John called out, he wasn't expecting a greeting but got one anyways. "oh hey honey, i'm up in johnny's room" she called out, John smiled, John jr and his wife hadn't always gotten along, when she first met him he cried, and cried. Until she set him down or handed him to John, its good to see they were getting along enough for Mary, his wife, to spend time with him. Johnny, being a special kid, due to his certain "genetic differences" was always shunned by other kids, he never had too short hair so that he could cover his ears, and he always had dark eyes, even when wearing contacts, his dark irises would sometimes still be visible.

After finding out about his physical differences from normal humans, and the fact that Mary had to keep it a secret. Mary had originally taken it bad, staying away from Johnny, but eventually she got over it, there was no reason to fear Johnny, his physical differences weren't good things, he constantly stumbled and fell, he had bruises all over sometimes. John had always thought that he was more elegant than other kids, always picking things up faster, and always super loving.

John's wife came downstairs a second later, John had already taken off his shoes, and got comfortable on his recliner chair. Mary had a runners body, lean, with a small waist, and strong legs, she had been a cheerleader in his high school, in this very town mischestor. The same time John was a nerd, but they fell in love, until she left for a football player, and John found Johnny's mother. After Johnny's mother had left, they found each other again, Mary didn't seem to care that he had a son, and they fell in love. "Johnny stumbled again, but hes okay I put him to bed earlier tonight" Mary said, coming to sit on the couch. "Oh, that not good, how bad was it" John asked concerned. "pretty bad he fell down the stairs, he has a black eye" Mary replied, turning on the TV, and looking through football games. "I'm sure it will all be recovered by tomorrow though" Mary said absently, focused on flipping through the channels.

"yeah that true enough" John replied gruffly, thankfully every injury that John got, went away like magic the next day. When he was a baby it would take longer, maybe a couple of nights, but now on night he would be good as new. John started to get hungry, so he walked to the kitchen, "do you want anything, babe?" John asked his wife. "Could you get me a glass of wine please" Mary hollered into the kitchen, John walked into the kitchen, they weren't a rich family but they had a good amount of money. So they could afford good wine every once in a while, tonight was one of those nights, he poured himself a glass, and made himself a sandwich.

Though just as John finished making himself a glass of wine, he noticed a red splash on the table corner, he walked up to examine it, setting the plate, and wine glasses down as he did. The red splotch had black spots on it, that how he knew what it was, little Johnny's blood, concerned he called out to his wife. "Did Johnny cut himself today?" John asked, now more worried than he had been about the prior incident. "what?" asked Mary, John could hear her coming into the room, "Oh my god, yeah, he busted his lip when he fell, he must have gotten some of the blood on the table, I'll clean it up" she said, hurrying to grab a towel to clean up the mess.

John frowned, I mean it was possible, but the blood was a little high up on the table. John didn't know for sure, but it seemed like if Johnny had gotten blood on the table his head would have been split not his lip. Looking at his wife who was busy cleaning the table, he frowned maybe she just didn't see his split head. John decided if his son was hurt, he had best go check on him, make sure he didn't split his head open, in a spot where Mary couldn't see it.

"I'm gonna go check on Johnny, and make sure he's okay" John said moving to head down the hall, and up the stairs. As John moved to do so, Mary came up, blocking him, "oh don't worry about him, I already cleaned him up, and I checked him really well for any other accident spots" she said with a smile. John also smiled, she said she preferred to call them that to make sure Johnny didn't get too scared, showing her love for the child. "how about instead me, and you" Mary said moving her hands up johns chest, "work on making Johnny a little playmate". John kept smiling, he was sure the child was fine, plus he doubted an accident could seriously hurt him anyways, besides he was tired from work. Maybe the night was starting to look up.

The morning light shined through the window, waking John up, his wife was still fast asleep on her side of the bed, John got out of bed, and got ready for work. After getting fully changed he went downstairs to let the dog out, but as he walked through John's door, he heard a hiss. John stopped, and listened again, another loud hissing sound, it was early in the morning. John knew that Johnny's room would still be dark, unlike most kids Johnny wasn't scared of the dark, in fact he thrived in it. When he was a baby he would cry until John covered the window in his room with a dark blanket, the tradition stuck so John's room was always dark.

John opened the door to the dark room, looking around for whatever could see, using a flashlight that he kept by the door for emergencies. Nothing, John sighed in relief, he had thought there was a snake or something in the house. John turned to leave the room, when he saw some movement on the bet, the blanket had moved, he shined the light on the bed. Originally John thought the movement was Johnny moving his legs or turning his body in his sleep. But when the movement started to move across the bed toward the door, and John, he realized that was not Johnny

Worried for his sons safety, he immediately moved towards the bed, pulling the blanket off Johnny in a hurry, John couldn't believe his eyes. Laying there coiled around his sons legs was a red snake, the only issue was that the snake was glowing. The eyes were solid red, and the snake was almost transparent. The snake moved faster than John as he reached down to try to grab onto the snake. it slithered up on his sleeping sons chest, and coiled up poised to strike John. Johnny was waking, John froze immediately worried that he or the kid would disturb the snake into attacking. As Johnny woke up the snake hissed one time, staring John directly in the eyes, then it seemed to grow more, and more transparent until it was no longer that.

"Daddy?" little Johnny asked sitting up with a confused expression on his face, John just stared with a dumbfounded look on his face. "uh I just wanted to-" John stopped, what was he supposed to say, he didn't want to freak out his son "ask about last night" he finished. Sure enough there wasn't a single issue with Johnny he looked perfectly fine, like nothing had happened. Johnny looked down, "maybe he embarrassed" John said with a frown, "sorry, daddy" Johnny said sounding almost on the verge of tears.

"That's okay son, its not your fault" John said reassuring him, with a hug, still freaked out about what happened. Probably from embarrassment, and the shock from being woken up, but Johnny just cried into his fathers shirt. "I didn't mean to" he said almost hysterically, John pushed him back a bit and looked down at him "its okay son, we all make mistakes, you'll be okay I promise" John said reassuring his son. he knew he would be slightly late for work, but John didn't care, his son was more important. John waited until his son fell asleep, all the while thinking about what had happened with the snake thing. "I must have been tired" John said out loud to himself, as if hearing a voice say it would make it true, even if it was his own. John rushed through letting the dog out, and then grabbed a cup a coffee to go. Then John headed out of the door to work.