Mad -COMPLETED-

Prolouge

Prologue:

The End of the Beginning

****

It was a warm night, hot and muggy. Mosquitos were pushing at the screens in the open windows. The three of us sat in the living room, the fan whirring in frantic frenzy above us and the TV turned up loud to compensate.

Mom sat by me, but she wasn’t paying attention to the show that was on. Her knitting-needles clicked, foretelling a day when it wouldn’t be this warm.

On my other side was my brother, Henry. He was slumped into the couch and his hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat. He wasn’t paying attention to the TV, either. His eyes flicked and his fingers drummed, his toes tapped and his knee bobbed up and down. He was muttering under his breath.

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t paying attention to the TV either, even though it was my favorite show that was on. Henry was acting weird again. Henry always acted weird, but when he got like this, with all his nervous energy slowly building, I got scared.

I knew what happened when Henry couldn’t control himself anymore and it frightened me more than anything I’d ever seen. In those moments where he became terrifying, ruthless, and violent, all I could see was who he really was trapped inside.

“You okay?” I asked, raising my voice over the television.

Henry nodded.

I glanced sideways at him. “Should you…should you leave?”

He looked at me sharply. “Jeez, TJ, do you think I’m going to hurt you, or Mom?”

Mom has looked up now. I can tell by the hard way her face was set that she was scared, too. “It’s happened before, Henry.”

Henry glared at her. “It always happens. What am I kidding myself?” He slumped deeper into the couch. “Go ahead and lock me in the Destruction Room, then.”

Mom was standing now, her knitting set into its basket. She helped Henry from his seat, though he hardly needed it. He turned toward her and her grip on his arm tightened. He didn’t fight it.

“Dad did this to me.”

Mom didn’t say anything. I stood also and grabbed Henry’s other arm. It was starting again.

“He did this to me!” Henry tried to lash out at me but I was holding him too tightly. I had always been stronger than him. “I see it. I see it! I hear it and it’s in my head and I can’t…” he collapsed and his weight falls on us. We were half-dragging him now. “I can’t breathe.” His eyes were on me and I had to look away, there was a maniac light in them and they were starting to change, the colors rising in them like a rush of dark flames. “I see them. I see them!” Henry’s head whipped around. “They’re everywhere,” he whispered.

I gritted my teeth. We were almost to the room. It would be over soon. He yanks harder than before, and despite my advantage I almost lost my grip. Mom did. I gestured frantically with my head for her to go back to the living room, but she didn’t.

“They’re everywhere and nobody knows but me. Can’t you see them?” His eyes were utterly mad now, a stained glass window with an insane glint lighting them from behind. “They have wings and teeth and they lurk in every shadow every splinter of sunlight.”

He was sinking deeper now, and I didn’t know him. I pull him now, trying to get him to move. All I could think of was Mom, she was right behind me. He has hurt her before and I knew he would do it again.

“Let go of me!” Henry kicked at me and hit my shin. It hurt but I didn’t let on. I shoved him in the destruction room and slammed the door quickly. He pounded at it, jerking at the knob. Mom pulled a key out from her blouse, and let it dangle on the chain before turning it in the lock.