One peaceful day in the year 2001, in Tampa Bay, Florida; a 17 year old boy with cancer, Sully and his father, John, were inside watching a football game. Ever since Sully was a little boy he’s wanted to be a football player,  but due to his condition that has continued to worsen, he couldn’t play. His father has always felt bad for him, and did whatever he could to treat the cancer and make his son forget about it, at least everyone thought. 

“TOUCHDOWWNNNNN!”  Both Sully and his father yelled as their favorite team made it to the endzone. Sully and his father have always been close, ever since the loss of Sully’s mother when he was 8 years old, their bond had only grown stronger; football being their favorite sport and activity to watch or play. The tv clicks off as the game ended, Sully stood up and went to his room. The room covered with numerous football references, whether it was a poster, his signed Tom Brady jersey that he had framed, or the numerous figure football players that his mother had bought for him before she passed. Sully sat down to play some video games as the hours passed. 

Finally, night time came. 

“Sully, dinner is ready!” shouted John from the kitchen. Sully made his way to the kitchen to be met with his favorite dish, meatloaf. 

“I made your favorite to celebrate the Buccaneers big win!” said John with a big smile on his face. John has always cooked for Sully, even when Sully’s mother was still alive. He had been taught how to cook by his own mother, and has enjoyed it ever since. His father on the other hand, taught John to be mean, ruthless, suspicious, and to never let anyone know his true motives. His father was also abusive. John and his mother would often find themselves scared of the drunken man that would come home from work every night at 6:00 P.M. John’s father was also very interrogative, often asking John, 

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” even when he was telling him the complete truth. Sully’s dad lost both of his parents sometime before Sully was born, so he never go to meet his grandparents. 

Sully joined his dad at the dinner table, the smell of his favorite food reminding him of his childhood. The warm sunny days, playing catch with his pops, going out for ice cream with both of his parents after; life was good back then. Sully quickly scarfed down his meatloaf, as if he had been starving. 

“If I was blind I would’ve thought a group of pigs broke into my house and ate my food!” John joked to Sully.  Sully laughed, 

“Thank you for dinner dad.” Sully said as he stood up to give his dad a hug. 

Sully went back to his room, and laid in bed ready to go to sleep. Since Sully lost his mother, he has had reoccurring nightmares about her loss. The dream was the same every time. It starts with a loud cry from his father. Sully runs to his parents room, he sees his father, crying standing over his mother’s lifeless body. 

“She choked, she’s gone.” His dad cries to him. Because of this, Sully has feared going to sleep every night since the loss of his mother. He felt like he was cursed, trapped living the same bad day over and over anytime he tried to get some sleep. 

The next morning, Sully woke up to the sound of bacon sizzling and the smell of fresh pancakes. He walked out of his room and greeted his father. His father wasn’t aware that he had woken up yet, and he panicked scrambling in a hurry to hide something from Sully, which Sully thought was very odd. Him and his dad have always had a very open and honest relationship, so Sully found it strange that his dad was hiding something from him, but he brushed it off thinking that his dad was doing something embarrassing that he didn’t want anyone to see. 

“Goodmorning champ! I made you breakfast.” Sully’s father said to him as he made his way into the kitchen. Sully sat down at the table and started eating his breakfast, joined by his father shortly after. 

“How’d you sleep last night?” John asked Sully,

 “Horrible, per usual.” Sully replied, “I had that same dream I’ve been having since we lost her.” John looked at Sully, seeing the disappointment and sadness in his eyes when he brought up his deceased mother. 

“It will get better buddy, it just takes time.” John comforted Sully. After breakfast John and Sully were on their way outside to play some catch. 

“Hold on I have to go to the bathroom, I’ll meet you outside.” Sully told his dad. Sully turned from his dad and headed towards the bathroom in John’s room since it was closest. After he finished up he opened the mirror cabinet to grab a brush so he could brush his bed head. He grabbed the brush, and found a small strange-looking bottle with a big label reading 

“DO NOT CONSUME.” 

That’s weird, Sully thought to himself, Sully put the bottle back in the cabinet and headed outside, but he didn’t forget about what he had found. All Sully could think about while playing catch with his father was, What was in that bottle? What could it possibly be for? Could that be what he was trying to hide from me this morning? But why would he hide it from me? 

Thoughts of trying to figure out what it could be for kept Sully up that night. He waited until his dad fell asleep, and snuck back into his bathroom to grab the bottle, which to his surprise; was gone. Sully snuck back out of the room to find his father awake, standing at the entrance to his bedroom, staring at Sully with a strangely horrifying straight face. 

“What are you doing Sully?” 

“I was just looking for-” 

“Looking for this?” Sully’s dad asked him. 

“What? What is that?” Asked Sully trying to play it off. 

“Don’t play stupid with me Sully.” 

“Ok, I was looking for it, but why do you have it in the first place?” 

“Don’t worry about it, go to bed.” John said 

“Is this what you were trying to hide from me this morning when I walked into the kitchen?” John went silent, 

“Dad?”

“I SAID GO TO BED!” Sully’s dad yelled. This scared Sully, his father has never yelled at him before, let alone raised his voice at him.

“Tell me why you were hiding this from me!” Sully said back to his father. 

“It’s medicine for your cancer.”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” This reminded John of his abusive father, and he snapped. John tried to grab Sully, Sully moved out of the way and looked at his father with a horribly frightened face.
“Dad?”

 John once again tried to grab Sully, causing him to start running away from him. John chased Sully all the way to the basement, Sully went into the spare room in the basement and locked himself in. Terrified, he backed up against the wall, breathing heavily. He felt something poke the back of his head when he backed up against the wall.
“Sully, just come out buddy, I’m sorry for scaring you, I’ll explain everything.” Sully ignored his father and grabbed the object that touched his head. It was a shoe box, filled with what seemed to be some random guy’s personal information. Sully continued to look through the box, he found record of this random man being locked in an insane asylum after the murder of his own father when he was 13 years old. The report said his father was severely abused, and his mother passed in a car accident, leaving him to live alone with his abusive father. The man’s name was Julian Sullivan. 

“That’s weird… nobody has ever mentioned this man before and I’ve never heard of him, why would my dad be keeping his records hidden in our basement?” Sully thought to himself. 

“SULLY OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!” John yelled banging on the door. Sully once again ignored his father, but his heart started racing even faster as he heard the door start to give in. Sully found a gun in the box, he removed it in order to keep searching through. Sully found out more about Julian Sullivan. Apparently he killed his father with his own gun. He also showed signs of heavy schizophrenia, and was a tier one psycho because of the abuse he endured. As Sully kept reading, he found out that the man had escaped the insane asylum in the year 1981 when he was 25 years old. At the time of the escape, he still showed heavy signs of schizophrenia. Along with many mental illnesses that increase aggression. Sully’s stomach, jaw, and heart all fell like they sank underground when he saw what was on the next page of the report. A mugshot, but it wasn’t any mugshot, it was his father’s.
“Sully come out of the room, I’ll explain everything about the bottle.”

“You’re a murderer!” Sully yelled from inside of the room. Sully’s dad made the realization, his son knows the truth about his past identity. 

“Please, just come out. I can explain everything Sully, I promise.”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” After hearing that, Sully’s dad completely changed, almost into an evil psychopath. Sully’s dad let out an extremely terrifying scream, then started trying to kick the door down.

“Dad stop!” Sully said while his body was frozen in fear. No words from his father, only the loud bang of his foot connecting against the door. The door finally gave in. Sully’s dad lunged at him, placing both hands on his neck. 

“You know, the bottle you found, I’ve been putting that liquid in your food ever since you were a little boy. Small dose by small dose, just enough to make you sick, sick enough to keep you relying on me and your mother for the rest of your life.” Sully came to a sudden realization, his father poisoning his food is the reason for his cancer. 

“And your mother, she didn’t choke, she caught me poisoning your food and tried to stop me. She has nobody to blame but herself for her death, if she would’ve promised me that she would keep her mouth shut about the situation she would’ve gotten to live.” 

“Dad… how could you!” Sully said while crying in complete fear. Sully’s dad had completely lost it, and ignored his son’s question and began to strangle him, the same way he had done to Sully’s mother. Sully began choking, gasping for air while his legs were flailing in the air trying to kick his father. He looked to his right and saw the gun he had found in the box earlier. He took the gun and… BOOM 

The gunshot was like a snap back to reality. John looked down where he had been shot, but there was no wound. Sully was also gone. John headed back upstairs, he was completely alone, no wife, no kids, not even any small bottle. There was never any Sully, there was never a murdered wife, only an escaped insane asylum patient with heavy schizophrenia, living all by himself.