(Book 1) Hayden Mackay & The Forgotten Kingdom

3. The Burning Stone

"Did you read these?" I asked my uncle hopefully.

"Of course! I made them," he said shrugging.

"Then I'll just sign it," I said, and quickly took a pen and signed everywhere I was needed to. I knew my uncle was not happy with this kind of attitude. He looked at his wife and shook his head in displeasure. I left them there for my aunt to take care of and went to my room to find some much needed peace.

I so wanted to clear my mind, that firstly I needed a hot shower very badly. As the first hot drop hit my skin, my mind without clearing, drifted towards the weird thing that happened today. How did I burn the hound? What had actually happened there? Whose voice did I hear then? All these question kept running in my mind making me sick. I shook my head pushing all my thoughts, trying to relax and praying not worsen the life any more.

After putting on my pajamas, I started writing my diary. Out of all, writing diary before going to bed was the only habit I was really proud of. Not even playing baseball gave me such a pleasure. I remembered my father once mentioning me about my mother having the same habit at the time they first met but somehow later she was out of it. I guess the habit passed down to me from her.

I was almost finishing writing today's abnormal incident when it suddenly started thundering and lightning outside. Before the rain visited my room, I got up to close the window beside my study table. I wasn't sure first but my eyes fell on a boy standing across the road of my apartment waving at me. I gaped at him, looked harder and then I then realized he was the same guy I witnessed outside the bar. I tried to remember if I know him or If I had met him before, and I was sure of otherwise. I shut the window quickly, feeling nervous. I threw my selves on the bed and tried hard to sleep with nowhere my thoughts drifting towards that unknown person.

Next day was again a mind numbing one. Few of my friends came over to meet me. First I was happy to see them. I wanted to have some general conversation with them but when they started feeling sorry about my parents I tried hard not to burst. They must have noticed that I was not interested anymore so thankfully they left as soon as possible. By the evening, to set a distraction, I restarted my work out session. Working out was the other thing I liked, besides writing. It was the only time of the whole day me and my father had a normal man to man chat which he couldn't do with my mother around.  If you say writing diary was passed down to me from my mother then it was the work out that I inherited from my father. He was fitness freak. His this liking made him set up a gym in the corner of the house. I always wanted my muscles as ripped as his.

While I was weightlifting, my aunt asked me to go to the mart and buy some household stuff. I was glad that I got a chance to walk out of the house. When I reached the mart I noticed people staring at me. Little that I knew that the news of my parents would have spread as a virus throughout my locality in Clearwater, a town in Florida. I was appalled by people whispering behind my back. The fact that my father was a famous journalist brought many people get acquaintance with my family.

"He is Curtis and Sara's only boy! Poor fellow! Lost his parents at young age!

These sorry words made me so mad that I wanted to beat them up with baseball bat shouting things like "Can you bring my parents back? ...Will you look after me now?... If not then shut the hell up!"

I tried my best to ignore the women gossiping about me by concentrating hard on the list my aunt gave me. I was stuck on the last one which I presumed something to be....

"It's Chips-Ahoy!"

The unfamiliar voice startled me. I quickly spun around. He was standing next to me, the one hanging outside my house last night, looking over my shoulders at the list. His cap almost touched my cheek.