We Could Be Heroes, Big Man

01*

  "Dad! No!" Tommy reached his hand out, watching in fear his father's hand glowed bright. His eyes burned from the bright light but he didn't look away. He couldn't look away. He knew what his father was capable of. "No! No!"

  As his father's hand touched his chest, it was almost as if he had summoned the sun, the light so bright it was blinding. It sent Tommy flying backwards, hitting the wall of thin glass behind him. His body broke through. Shards of glass flew everywhere. Tommy tumbled, hitting the concrete hard.

  He let out a few cries of agony, forcing himself to move. No, surely his father wasn't dead. Surely he hadn't just. . . Killed himself. Tommy didn't want to believe it. Not so soon after. . . That.

  In agonizing pain, blood dripping down his face, Tommy stumbled to the glass. He froze, weak whimpers sounding from him as he fell to his knees, covering his mouth with his palm.

  The walls were stained with blood and Tommy even swore there was a lung on the floor. Blood droplets rained to the floor like a day that a storm was only getting started. Puddles of blood settled on the wooden flooring. It was all a lot of a child like him. However, as he looked over the room, his father was no where to be found.

  Tommy woke with a start, saliva going down the wrong hole in his throat. He gasped as he sat forward, coughing the spit back into his mouth.

  Ms. Puffy glanced at the rearview mirror. "You alright, Tom?"

  Tommy cleared his throat and nodded his head. Tom wasn't his usual name, but it his was legal name. "Yeah." He glanced at the time on the dashboard of the car. "How much longer?"

  "About ten minutes now. You've been asleep for most of the ride."

  "Oh." Tommy nodded. "Sorry."

  "Nothing to be sorry about, love. You were walking around with eye-bags before I got ahold of your file. By the way, mind me asking you a few questions?" She asked, eyes fixated on the road.

  They were currently in the middle of nowhere. There was some lush bushes here and there, but otherwise there was only the road. The road was rather worn, could use some fixing in Tommy's eyes. This school that Ms. Puffy was taking him was rather far from the city, it worried him a little.

  Seriously, who puts a school so far out from any city or town? This school had better be prestigious to have such an odd location.

  "Um, no." Could it hurt?

  "Alright. Says you were diagnosed with ptsd, how bad?"

  Oh, no it could.

  However, Tommy had known Puffy long enough that he wasn't against answering her questions. Now there were questions he avoided. Questions he didn't dare answer truthfully. He was far too afraid of the consequences for spitting out those answers.

  "Pretty bad. It's gotten better over the years though, sometimes I can sleep all the way through without a night terror." Tommy paused. "Sometimes they're just nightmares though."

  "I see. Have you had any panic attacks?"

  "Uh, a few." Panic attacks were the worst thing in the world, Tommy had concluded. To have your nervous system get so wracked up that it turns against itself has to be the most fucked thing he could have ever experienced.

  She gave a smile through the mirror. "Don't worry too much, Tom. This school is for kids like you."

  "Troubled kids?" Tommy raised a brow. "Orphans?" Blond kids? Blue eyed kids? Poor kids? Tommy could really keep going.