Fan Fiction ❯ Seditious Hearts ❯ Breaking Tam ( Prologue )

Seditious Hearts

By Nix Winter

This is work is all original and my creation. It is rough draft, comments are welcome and deeply appreciated.

Prologue

Small houses, the kind that FBI Special Agents can afford for young families, do not muffle screams very well. On the North Side of the city, it really didn't matter though. Not that it really mattered any where in the city.

It mattered to Laney and Tam though. It was their husband and Daddy Richard McGregor who was screaming. Together they hid in the small compartment in the back of the closet under the stairs. Laney held her young son, rocking back and forth, soothing his hair. Light filtered between the trap door and the wall. A strip of fire red hair showed under the light. It was her anniversary and she still wore the black velvet evening gown, her hair loose around her body, covering her like a shroud. Her tears soaked into her son's hair. His was just as bright as hers, but neatly trimmed like the smart young man he was.

Tomorrow would be his birthday. Mommy and Daddy had promised to take him to the zoo and he was going to ride an elephant! Mommy's fingers were over his mouth though, holding his mouth. Her fingers smelled like roses. She pressed her cheek to the top of his head. Her sobs had soaked through to his skin and his hair tangled into her mouth.

Tam clung to her, one hand tangled in her long hair, one arm wrapped around the arm holding his mouth. Fear wrapped around him, cold bands of terror that held him too silent to cry.

Screaming echoed into the little space he and his mother hid in until Tam was afraid to open his eyes. The walls seemed to be screaming and he was afraid they'd look like they were bleeding if he opened his eyes.

"Laney! Here Laney, come out here, be a nice little bitch," said a smooth male voice. Carpet covered all the floors and the man made no sound as he moved trough their home, but Tam could tell when he was closer from the sound of his voice and from the violent trembling that went through his mother.

It has been said that adulthood be is born in a person with the understanding that their parents are not god. Tam knew his Daddy was dead. He wasn't old enough to need to explain how he knew that to himself. Claustrophobia swelled up around him, making him feel like a oatie-os bobbing on the top of a bowl full of milk, as if at any moment he might tip and slip under the milk, disappear without even screaming.

The taunting voice was back now, standing just outside the closet they were hiding in. "Laney girl, you need to come out so we can talk. I'm going to burn the house down right around you and that little brat of yours. Do you know what it feels like to burn to death, Laney. Come on out, I'll give you a nice comfy bullet in the back of the head and you wouldn't need to hear your little brat screaming."

Mommy whimpered and clutched his mouth tighter. The door to the cellar, right across from the little closet where they were hiding. Tam patted Mommy's hand and tried to wiggle free of her embrace. She only held him tighter. He had an idea. He wanted to tell her, but she wouldn't let go of his mouth. There was only a little time for this idea to work. Tam began to struggle more and she held him so he couldn't hardly breath, pinching off his nose, holding his mouth. "Shhhhhh," she hissed.

And then he bit her! She grunted and smacked the back of his head. It wasn't a hard hit, but she'd never hit him before in all his life. Her hold on him relaxed and he burst free. Out the door, out of the closet he shot. The man with the elegant voice spun around in surprise and Tam rammed him. Little fists hit the man's legs, his head slammed into him just below his belt. Furious the little red headed boy shoved the man back towards the dark stairs to the cellar. A bullet exploded past Tam's ear. It was the loudest sound he'd ever heard, but he shoved with all his strength anyway.

Perhaps it was surprise, or disbelief, ore maybe even ignorance of what the red headed kid was trying to do, but Tam stood at the top of the stairs, watching him fall, leaving a trail of blood. Only sounds came up from the darkness surrounding the cement stairs. Popping, slapping, wet sounds and groans left a track in the boy's memory. He stood there, trying to imagine the man in his white suit again, dark hair, surprised eyes.

"Tam! Run! Run away!," his mother screamed from where she sat behind him, bleeding from one bare shoulder. Though the red was stark against her skin, it soaked into the black velvet, making the wound look as if the blood were strangely flowing up over her shoulder. Trying to get to her feet, she stepped on her hair which was tangled in her fingers and dropped herself back to her knees.

He heard the other gun shot though and turned to find the red now flowing from his mothers forehead, her body slumped against the wall. "She's gone with Daddy," Tam said, feeling nothing in particular about it. Mommy was so pretty. They were going to the zoo tomorrow, he thought.

He didn't hear the man who shot his mother screaming at him, didn't hear the man come closer. The slap up side of his head though he felt very well. "Stupid little brat! Where is Marker?"

Tam looked up at the man, a tall beanpole of a man with a sweaty shock of blond hair hanging over his forehead under a grimy fedora had. The world wasn't real anymore! "I'm going to the zoo for my birthday tomorrow," he told the man. "I'm going to be eight."

"Is dat so kid," the man asked, putting his gun away now, feeling safe with just the red headed kid. "You was gonna be eight years old tomorrow? Where's Marker, uh?"

Tam pointed towards the cellar stairs. The blond man sidestepped towards the open door and looked down into the dark. He reached inside and patted down the inside wall for a light switch. "Whaoo. Did you do that," he asked.

Nodding Tam stepped away back towards his Mommy, holding out his hand to her like he expected her to take a hold of his hand. The man looked down the stairs still, his eyes wide as he grimaced shoved his hat back up with two fingers. "Kid you're really something. And damn that white suit o'his nothin more than rags now. Campisi is gonna be righteous pissed."

Tam let his hand fall to his side. Mommy always took his hand. He must not be him anymore, he thought. "You don't speak a very clean English," he said, glaring at the man.

"Is dat so? Yeah, well," the man took hold of the brim of his hat and pulled it back down over his eyes, "Yer dad didn't speak so good there near the end neither! Kid, you was just born on the wrong side. Ya shoulda been a gangster."

"I'm gonna shot gangsters!" Tam snarled. "That's all I'm going to do!"

"Yer just got a mouth on you," the man pulled his gun back out of his holster. "Yer ain't got no brain though, er at least ya ain't gonna after I blow yer head off."

The little red dot from the man's laser sight danced over Tam's face before settling between his eyes. He knew what it was, this little red dot. Daddy

said was red to remind you that it would make people bleed and because you should never point it at anyone unless you want to make them bleed. Tam knew then that he was going to die, but he didn't want to. Tomorrow was his birthday! It wasn't fair. "You're mean."

Tam thought it was odd that he heard the gun fire. Maybe he was a ghost already? Could ghosts kill?

Must be so, because the mean man slowly toppled forward, bright red spreading across his chest. Tam closed his eyes very tight and wished it he would be a ghost fast and it wouldn't hurt too much.