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1878.
Outside in the middle of a town standing before a wooden gallows was a short chubby man.
He was wearing a saggy vest that had a silver chain dangling out of one of the pockets, the faint amount of hair made the rest of his scalp sparkle in the sunlight, and his pointy mustache helped the bald head go unnoticed.
Reading off a thin piece of paper his voice became clear and loud.
"You are accounted for 2 counts of arson, 1 count of murder and multiple accounts of theft, you are here by sentenced to be hanged."
"Do you Tom Gibsion have any last words?".
Standing before the chubby figure with a rope around his neck was a young man.
On both of his sides had an officer, towards his left side was an officer that had a clean shaven face, he didn't look much older than Tom himself.
The officer to the right looked much older he had a scruffy beard and thick bushy eyebrows.
Grinning the young man answered.
"Well nature calling right now. Perhaps there's a chance I could take a dump before this, you wouldn't want a shitty dead body would you?"
Hearing this the younger officer looked towards the older officer with a questioning expression.
In response the older officer just rubbed his furrowed brows and sighed before walking towards a lever.
"They don't pay me enough for this job"
he said in an annoyed tone. Without hesitation he then pulled the lever.
The floor underneath Tom's feet suddenly vanished leading to the rope quickly tightening around his neck.
At first his expression was resigned but later he started scratching towards the rope in hopes to unleash himself for air.
Spinning around while hanging by the rope he finally came to a stop, noticing the short chubby man.
He was looking back and forth at Tom and his pocket watch, while murmuring the time.
Seeing this Tom's last thought came to mind, what a fucken prick.
When that last thought occurred everything started fading to black.
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BOOM! a loud thud noise was made by Tom hitting the ground.
Gasping, Tom finally caught that break of air that he had been struggling for.
After a while his breathing pace started to steady.
Looking around he noticed he wasn't exactly where he had been before, above his head dangled a white sheet, it had one corner tied in a knot around a wooden plank used to stable the roof.
Further on the wooden plank was a light bulb, lighting the whole area.
Rubbing his right elbow that was damaged due to the fall, he saw the light white concrete flooring, a small thought occurred.
That'll cost some cattle for a fine job like this one. Noticing something in the corner of his eye, he paled.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Waving his right hand around he had a confused frown, that sure as hell ain't my hand, he thought to himself.
Seeing a small reflection in a window that had a cobweb in the top right corner Tom saw a skinny figure frowning right at him.
The figure was around 5 foot 9, his tanned skin resembled one of Tom's friends who was a mixed between american Hispanic, although that would be the only resembling feature.
Unlike his brown eyed and dark haired friend, the figure had hazel eyes a mixture between green, gray and brown.
The skinny figures brown and gold hair, reminded Tom of the fluffy ears of the Irish setter dog that was always lying upon a porch of one of the taverns he frequented.
Nothing to his knowledge gave him a clue what he was wearing, but the thick material felt extremely comfortable.
Reaching out Tom started gently patting his new acquired face, after that he pinched himself.
"Well I'll be damned" Tom remarked.
Analyzing, he tried to make sense of his situation.
At a glance he could see a dangling sheet, a machine object with 4 wheels that was covered in grass and kicked over a chair.
Adding the chair and the sheet together reminded Tom of the day he became a man.
Toms father owned a farm, but because he owed money some collectors just killed his father and took everything valuable.
Hiding under their house Tom and his mother survived.
Throughout the years, Toms mother couldn't fend for themselves financially, leading to Tom turning to crime.
His mother got in touch with a friend and became an escort, they started living a reasonable life, until word got out about her past from her friend who introduced her to the job.
The collectors at this point had turned into tycoons, they ended up sending men to visit Toms mother.
Cutting her face and shaving her hair they made sure to send a message.
Due to her friends wording and gossip, apparently Tom's mother was seeking revenge and within a day Toms world was turned upside down.
Tom took up harder jobs and tried to make things work only to, one day return home to his mother and the familiar kicked over chair.
Out of spite, he murdered his mother's old friend and went on the run.
Letting out a long sigh Tom looked towards the sheet.
" I wonder what would lead such a young kid to do this."
Suddenly, Toms head started throbbing with pain. Grasping his head with both of his hands, a memory started painfully surging within.
Tom was facing towards the end of the bed, the black fluffy blanket was pushed to the right side of the bed and the left side only had white sheets with a creased white pillow a further bit ahead of him.
He saw faint dots of water heading towards the pillow, hearing a frequent huffing and puffing of an older man from behind. Recalling this memory, Tom felt a surging anger.
Everything began turning red until the figure fainted.
To his surprise he opened his eyes, to once again see the same figure he was, in his imprinted memory, although he wasn't bare naked this time.
Walking towards the reflection of the window he picked up a hammer that was neatly placed on the window shelf.
More memories were slowly occurring in Toms mind and it gave him more of an opinion to seek redemption for this kid.
Information kept surging into Tom's mind like a tidal wave, realizing this wasn't the world he used to know he hadn't given it much thought yet.
Built up memories on how Theo came to this situation was the only thing he cared about right now.
He knew Theo was nothing like him but he had a kindred spirit vibe due to a similar feeling of pain that Theo had gone through.
Walking towards an aluminum door Tom twisted the black door knob before heading outside.
The scenery was just as he expected from his memories, except darker.
The swirling white concrete pathway heading towards the backdoor of his house, the perfectly trimmed grass and the shiny silver car parked before the garage he had just left.
Entering from the back of the house, Tom started walking along the hallway.
Stopping, he made out a short figure standing before him rubbing his eyes, in the darkness.
"Theo I heard a noise, was that you. Wait, what's that behind your back.
The figure said pointing towards Tom's back. Tom didn't know what to say so he just blurted the first thing that came to his mind.
" It's my hard biscuits I'm not sharing, now go back to bed."
Rolling his eyes the figure replied while walking back into his room,
"Okay I don't want that anyway, just don't wake up uncle teddy, he might starve us again."
While the short figure was leaving a small memory relapsed.
Tom and two other kids were sitting on all fours near the end of a table.
Sitting at the end of the table was an older man, he was eating a steak and mashed potatoes with peas, Tom or rather the figure Theo and the other 2 children hadn't been able to eat for 2 days.
Theo was new to this foster home and he was adamant about his distaste for broccoli, leading to his punishment.
During Toms life he'd recalled heaps of fucked up stuff but this certain lifestyle was just grotesque.
Theo's foster parent Ted liked to be called uncle Teddy.
He would have the 3 children have turns spending the night in his bed.
The other two had gotten used to it, but Theo couldn't handle it this 3rd time through.
Entering the room at the end of the hallway he saw Ted there fast asleep within his fluffy black blanket.
Reaching the end of the bed, Ted shifted over half asleep, facing away from Tom.
"Theo come give uncle Teddy a cuddle its cold"
Ted mumbled quietly. Moving closer Tom raise his hammer over Teds head.
Thud,"What the fa" Thud. Thud. Thud.
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