MAD HATTER [TATE LANGDON]

prologue

PROLOGUE: FINALLY GOING TO HELL

f r e y a

"Be a good boy, Tate." Constance murmured as she set down the baby boy. She walked out of the room and closed the white door before Freya became visible again.

Freya, a beautiful young woman with clothes that seemed to have fit in the 1800's, looked down at the child in it's crib. It's dazzling  brown eyes stared back into her own. She smiled and caressed the boy's chubby cheek as he giggled. Freya wrapped her delicate hands around the boy's waist and pulled him out of the crib. She bounces around and smiles at him as they do so.

"Get your hands off of my child!" Nora demands as she becomes visible.

"Oh, yes. He did emerge from your dead, dysfunctional uterus. Do I say wrong?" Freya mocks with sarcasm dripping in her sentence. Nora's eye twitches as she grits her teeth and grunts in anger and frustration. "I'll get you back someday!" As if Nora set off a timer in Freya's head, she immediately thought of something.

"But, Nora, sweetheart, you said you were not homosexual anymore!"

Nora grunted and left the room.

Freya shrugged at the baby with a lopsided grin and put him back in his crib. "Goodnight, my sweet darling, and may the stars align to show your path to greatness and give you the bittersweet taste of an endless world."

~

4 AND A HALF YEARS LATER

"Mommy, Mommy, I want to go play with Freya!" Tate's voice called out. Constance picked up the boy and held him at her hip. "Did you finish going on the potty?" She asked suspiciously. He nodded and she set him down to go play.

"Freya, Freya!" He called on her. She opened the door as if she hadn't been there and spoke, "Did you finish?"

He nodded and she held the door wide open. "Can we finish playing tag?" Tate asked innocently, Freya smiled devilishly. "You're it!" She lightly tapped him and ran slowly away from him. The boy sprung with energy, "But, Freya, there are no rules!" Freya pursed her pink lips in a small smile. She held her head up high and admired his memorization. "Of course, darling, but how would this game begin?"

Tate giggled and ran after her.

~

12 YEARS LATER

"I hate this house!" Tate, now sixteen years old, yelled and slammed open the door of his bedroom.

Freya, still beautiful and young, looked up with curiosity tickling her amusement. "And why, Tate?" She asked with a delicate look on her face. "I hate her and him! They killed Beau! I know they did! They locked the poor son of a bitch up and suffocated him! That little-"

"Tate, calm down. Who told you this?"

"Nora. Nora did." He said as he looked into her doe brown eyes, as if he dared her to dance with his dark demons. The look in Freya's once innocent eyes looked alarmed with anger.

"How dare you talk to Nora? I told you not to talk to her and you disobeyed me!" She screamed at him. Freya inhales and exhales the sweet air and shakes her head.

"Freya-"

She turns with fire burning so powerful in her eyes, "I told you! Why would you do this?" Freya sighs with her palm covering her face. "I just," She pauses for a second, "need some time alone right now."

Tate, with his mouth open, closes his mouth and nods and leaves the room.

Freya sits on the bed and starts tearing up. She hated to see this happen but he did wrong. He deserved this.

The brunette gets up and walks to go apologize but something tugs on her leg. Her eyes widen in horror and she falls down. Suddenly, she is being dragged.

She gasps and grabs and grabs at the wooden floor in horror but nothing stops her. Freya cries and breathes hard. Terrified, horrified, petrified. Nothing describes how scared she was.

Here, she was.

Finally going to hell.

And it was only under the bed of her lover.