Between Love and Fire: The Sound of Madness

Prologue

Casey had carefully climbed the tree a long time before, or at least it felt like that to the five year old who had been sketching lines across branches to see where they'd need to be cut when his father got home. He frowned at the picture for a second and tapped his crayon against his leg, uncaring for the marks it left there as he tried to figure out what was wrong.

He looked up from his work when the neighbor's door slammed and a bout of giggles and squealing took over the peace and quiet he'd had only moments before. The source of the noise being a little boy seemingly chased by someone. He watched as seconds later his guess was confirmed when the boy's dad came out the same door. He looked back down at his drawing uninterested and ignored the yells and laughs coming from father and son as he continued to ponder.

A few more taps with the crayon before he put it away in his pocket and clambered down the tree again to look at the plans his father had sketched out the night before when Casey had finally managed to convince his father to build the tree house. He dropped down the last three feet, landing a little unsteadily before darting into the kitchen as quickly as his legs could carry him, where his mother was making jams for her store, the plans still on the table.

He drummed his fingers on the table and bit his lip as he tried to understand the notes his father had written, but didn't get very far; he wasn't that good at reading yet and his dad's handwriting was really hard to read. Even ma said so!

"Ma..?" He asked, biting his lip. He didn't want to disturb her in her work, not knowing that she'd been waiting for him to ask since he'd come in. "Can you help me?"

Linda McCarthy smiled to herself and nodded. "Sure. What is it you need my help with?" She asked as she wiped her hands on the towel hanging from her apron and walked over, putting one hand on Casey's shoulder and the other on the table to look at the plans.

It took her a while, but eventually she managed to decipher both her husband's handwriting and the plans, though it took her a little longer to actually figure out how to explain it to her five year old son. She thought she managed alright, though she scribbled a small note to her husband to check what Casey had done, no doubt it was surplus, but she thought better safe than sorry.

Casey grinned when she was done explaining and pressed a sloppy kiss to her cheek with a "Thanks ma!" before running back outside, planning to get right back into it. Only. He couldn't. The boy from before was in his tree!

"Hey! That's my tree!" He called up, his tone a mix of righteous indignation and whiny as he marched over to the tree, little fists pressed against his sides in an imitation of his ma whenever she was mad at him.

The boy looked down at Casey with a frown. "Shh! I'm hiding!" He explained in an all too loud whisper as he looked back over to see where his dad was. "Come hide with me, or he'll catch you too!" He scooted over on the branch he was sitting on and patted it expectantly, looking at Casey with puppy dog eyes.

Casey climbed up quickly with a deep frown on his face, straddling the branch with his face to the boy. "You can't hide here." He told him, crossing his arms with a stern look. "Dad and me are building a treehouse." As if that explained everything. "So you can't hide here." He repeated with a nod, satisfied with his explanation and now simply waiting for the other to leave.

Only. He didn't. Casey pouted and crossed his arms. "You're being really rude, you know?" He said in an attempt to get the intruder out, who was seemingly studying him.

The little boy pouted and crossed his arms. "No, I'm not!" He kicked his leg as if he were stomping his foot in midair. "I'm hiding!" He whined now, because why couldn't this boy just let him sit up there with him?

"Hide somewhere else then!" Honestly, this was beyond rude. It was his tree after all! "I can't mark the branches if you're sitting on them!" Casey was by now most definitely whining. And with good reason.

"I can help you!" He suggested with a big smile to try and stay in the branch... no avail to Casey, however.

A scowl settled on his face as an evil glint settled in his eyes before he shoved the other boy. "Get out." He demanded.

The boy's smile melted off his face as he slipped off of the branch and landed on the ground with a grunt. It wasn't that high up, but it was high enough to knock the wind out of him and he rolled on the ground as he started crying.

Casey bit his lip and looked down at the ground, where the strange boy was now rolling around crying. He didn't think that trying to ask him if he was okay was a good idea at all. His own lower lip trembled as he clambered down and ran inside to get his ma.

"Ma?" He sounded really, really small when he called out to her, guilt weighing heavily on him. "There's a boy crying in our back yard." Saying that the boy was crying because Casey had pushed him out the tree didn't seem to be the best idea just then.

Mrs. McCarthy again wiped her hands on the towel hanging from her apron and nodded at her son as she walked outside, knowing that she wasn't getting the full story, but deeming it more important to look after the boy, whose cries she now could hear. They were softer than she might have expected as she walked over and kneeled at the boy's side.

"Hey big boy. Wanna tell me what's going on?" She asked, her voice soothing as she put her hand on his shoulder, mentally looking him over for any obvious injuries and relieved when she couldn't find any.

The boy wiped his tears away when her hand was on his shoulder. "I - I climbed - the tree." He sniffed. "And - and then I fell out." He broke into sobs again.

She pulled him up into a sitting position and wrapped an arm around him. "Come on. Let's get you inside for some iced tea, hmm?" She said calmly, though the look she shot at Casey clearly screamed and you better tell the whole story.

Casey meanwhile was making a show of studying his sneakers, though the gratitude at hearing the boy not tell his mum made him like him a whole lot more. He trudged in behind his ma and the boy and hovered in the door opening as his ma made the boy sit down and poured him from the jug of iced tea that he'd been promised they would drink together when his da came home. He felt it wasn't fair, but didn't dare actually speak up for fear of the boy telling the truth.

The boy hiccupped a few more times before drying his eyes with his fists and looking around the kitchen curiously. "Why don't you help Casey and his dad out with the tree house? You just moved in next door, right?" Mrs. McCarthy suggested as she returned to her jams, ignoring the betrayed look on her son's face even as the other boy's face lit up at the prospect.

"Really?!" He asked excitedly, looking like Christmas had come early. "Thank you ma'am!" He told her, hesitating for a few seconds before getting up to hug her legs, not able to reach any higher. "Why don't you two go play outside?" She suggested next, though a booming man's voice cut across her.

"Keith?! Where are you?! We're not playing anymore!" The boy jumped and waved at them both before dashing out to greet his father. "I'll be back later!" He called over his shoulder and then he was gone.

A/N: Heya! Sarnedhiel here! I hope you had fun reading this prologue. Any questions or comments are very welcome! See you next time with our first actual chapter!