Why did he even think this would be easily accepted? “No, I got shot three times. Here, here.” He pointed to his right thigh, then his abdomen, and finally the centre of his chest. “And here. And when I came round not even a scratch. I know it sounds ridiculous, Dad, I still hardly believe it either and it happened to me.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out his penknife. He’d done this to himself several times, just to watch himself heal before his eyes. He made a fist and cut across the back of his hand. Blood sprang up out of the cut, and when Steve tried to protest, Theo waved him down. “Just watch, Dad.” It stopped noticeably bleeding. “Okay, wipe the blood away...go on.”
Steve did, gingerly at first, but harder once he saw there was no open wound underneath the spilt blood. He examined Theo’s hand, turning it over to look at all of it. “That’s impossible.”
“You’d think, but it’s not.” Theo offered the penknife over. “Here, you can cut me anywhere you want, same thing will happen.”
Steve still looked at where the cut had been. “Come on, Theo. It’s a trick, ain’t it? Some kind of illusion.” The small knife was waved in front of him and he took it with obvious reluctance.
“No illusion, you know I never liked magic tricks, and I wouldn’t joke about something like this. It’s real, Dad. And even though I seen myself heal, I still had trouble accepting it, especially when my new boss told me Immortals are foundlings. When you confirmed I was adopted, that sort of sealed it.” Theo pointed to the knife. “Go on. Anywhere.” It took a little more encouragement, but finally his dad struck with the knife. Theo grunted, biting back a cry of pain so they didn’t attract unwanted attention by the few other patrons. “Fuck! I didn’t expect you to stab me!” He clamped a hand over the wound in his upper arm. “It heals fast, but it still fucking hurts!”
“Let’s see it then.” Steve nodded at the arm with some amusement. “And remember, you did ask me to, so when the old Bill ask what happened, you’ll tell them.”
Still wincing a little, Theo pulled down his jacket and shirt. “There won’t be any reason to call the cops.” It was a deeper wound than before and hadn’t yet fully healed, and he was still softly swearing under his breath. It did convince his dad, whose skeptical gaze slowly changed to one of dawning amazement as it closed up before his eyes. “Satisfied, Dad?”
He could only nod dumbly. “That’s incredible. But...why?”
Theo shrugged and told him everything he knew about Immortals, which was all that Hsu had told him. By the time he finished, he added. “Just don’t tell anyone, Dad, not even Mum. It’s something that’s kept quiet, but I had to tell someone before I left for Switzerland.” And now he could go, his mind eased.