#Tom Harcroft

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Teagan couldn’t take her eyes off the body, off the figure on the floor and the growing pool of blood around them. She wanted to, wanted desperately to run from the room and never look back. Wanted to wake up from this horrific nightmare because it couldn’t really be happening. It just couldn’t.

‘Teagan,’ came Tom’s voice, his face filled her field of view in an instant. Hands placed firmly on her shoulders, grounding her in the moment even if something in the back of her mind wondered if this wasn’t some horrific nightmare. ‘You need to get out of here.’

‘Jules…’ Her attention shifted to the stairs, to the pathway that would take her to her brother. But he was standing there, a smoking gun still held tightly in his steady hand. She’d never seen his eyes look so cold, his expression so focused. ‘Julian?’

He blinked once, and she thought it might be as though he was waking from a dream himself. But there was nothing like that. The chilling look merely moved from the body on the floor to Uncle Tom.

‘No,’ she said, but the word caught in her throat as Uncle Tom forced her towards the back entrance of the shop.  

‘You need to get out of here,’ Tom said, hands still gripping her shoulders.

‘He’s my brother,’ she told him, hearing the pleading note behind her own voice. It should have shocked her, how calm Uncle Tom was, but her brain couldn’t fully hold onto that. All she could think about was the ease with which Julian had simply pulled the trigger. She couldn’t accept that it was her brother at all, not really. He would never do something like this. Never.

‘Julian, what’s going on?’ their mother’s voice asked, even and far more detached than Teagan was used to hearing. She swore. ‘You killed him?’

‘That doesn’t matter,’ Julian said, a floorboard creaked and Teagan gave a nervous squeak.

‘Where’s your sister?’

Whatever Julian said next, Teagan missed it. Uncle Tom was already ushering her out of the back exit, placing himself as a shield between herself and the horrors that had suddenly made themselves a home in the place she’d felt safest.

As soon as they were out in the mid-afternoon sunlight, he pushed her towards the street, barely pushing the door closed behind them.

‘It’s OK,’ Tom said softly as they reached the alleyway entrance, ‘we’ll sort this.’

‘How?’ she asked in a hollow voice, turning to look at her uncle. There was panic behind his eyes, but something told her it wasn’t for the situation. It was a concern for her that pinched his brow. Julian’s actions hadn’t shocked him in the slightest.

He pulled her in for a tight hug, one that she wanted to pull away from and yet traitorously her heart needed. She found herself hugging him back, holding onto him as if he were an anchor in the sudden upheaval.

‘That doesn’t matter,’ he whispered against her head. ‘But you don’t need to worry about it.’

Teagan nodded, despite knowing that there was no way she could ignore what she’d just seen. No way she could simply not worry about whatever came next.

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Julian glared at his uncle and wondered if perhaps taking him out wasn’t actually the worst of ideas. His father might not actually thank him for it, but at least then it would only be his parents’ minds that he needed to sway, and not the other person who seemed adamant that it was a reckless idea.

‘I’m serious,’ Tom said, matching the glare with an icy look of his own. To most people, that look might have been enough to make them step back. But Julian had learnt how to deal with worse than a glare from a young age. From people worse than Thomas Harcroft.

‘So am I,’ Julian said simply, not bothering to look at his father as he heard the seat shift. They all knew that his father was on Tom’s side; that he wanted to keep his precious little girl out of the family business for as long as humanly possible. But for once, Julian feared his father was simply being sentimental. All logical thinking had flown out the window the minute the idea was voiced.

‘Why?’ Tom asked, head tilted a little to the side. It was the look Julian had seen countless times before; a look he’d seen offered to customers of the bookshop as if there wasn’t a danger that lay beneath the surface. A lie that not one of them had ever even thought possible.

‘Because she needs to know the truth,’ Julian said, trying to keep his voice level even as his hands balled into tight fists on his knees. ‘How is she supposed to protect herself –?’

‘We protect her,’ his father said simply. ‘Or do you think we’re incapable of that?’

Julian wanted to bite back, wanted to remind his father that there were still threats that they couldn’t prepare for. And yet he knew that was exactly what his father had been waiting for. An actual argument at the table would be enough to throw his motion out the window. While things were still civil, he couldn’t do it in good conscience during the family meeting. An old agreement that Julian was certain his father and uncle were beginning to regret.

His mother sighed, earning the attention of the three of them in an instant. ‘This isn’t getting us anywhere,’ she said, pinning each of them with a glare in turn. ‘We’ll return to it. Right now, we need to discuss what happens to Olivier.’

With great restraint, Julian swallowed down his argument. He forced himself to lock away the desire to share everything with Teagan because he thought forewarned was forearmed. There was still proper business to discuss, and part of him was grateful to be back on easier topics of discussion.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Criminal Gang Story Relationships

Dione is determined to keep her little girl out of the family business for as long as she can, and she does everything in her power to keep the more criminal element of their life away from Teagan. However, when Teagan learns the truth all her little comments about the family business feel almost condescending, and Dione has no idea about the slightly sour taste they’ve left in her daughter’s mouth.

Julian hates hiding things from people he cares about and the fact their parents have yet to tell Teagan the truth is something that eats away at him. He tries to be a good brother, at least in the ways he can, but there are times when he scares Teagan a little; even more so when she learns the truth of his role in the family business. When Teagan gets dragged into things, it’s all a little too much for her, and while Julian may have wanted her to join them, he also realises that she’s not necessarily like him. While he can distance himself from some of the horrors by being worse than them, Teagan doesn’t have that. It’s something that frustrates him a little because he feels it’s a failing of preparation on the family’s side of things. He tries to comfort her with facts, with the truth of everything, but that’s not how to help her through it all, and instead it just expands the space growing between the two of them rather than repairing it as he’d hoped for.

Tom is very much on his sister-in-law’s side when it comes to keeping Teagan out of the family business, however he’s better at sensing when Teagan is snooping around for answers because he was that kid when he was younger. He tries to keep her away from things, but it doesn’t always work out so well. Balancing the kind-hearted uncle side of his personality, and the maliciousness that is required of his job begins to get difficult when there is no distinct line with Teagan any longer.

When Teagan stumbles upon her father doing his real job, fear of him spikes in her for the first time. The idea that his little girl might be scared of him is something that breaks Will’s heart, but he knows he needs to get her away and far from the scene in the hopes of protecting her even a little bit. He hadn’t wanted her to be involved in things, knowing that she was different to the others and having hoped that they could give at least one of their children an ordinary life. But, when she is, he needs to know that she’s in with them rather than willing to give them up because of her own morals.

The idea of Teagan joining the business is something that Julian butts heads with his parents about no end, and Tom. Trying to convince his father that they can’t keep her in the dark forever, and that she needs to start somewhere, is a normal start to the day in their house. That being said, Julian will acquiesce the point occasionally when his father reminds him that he’s not in charge, and how easy it would be to cut ties with him should the need arise.

Teagan and Piotr have been best friends since practically forever. One is rarely seen without the other, and he knows something is up with her as her family’s perfect little life starts unravelling around her and she tries to keep him out of it. When the truth comes out, he reassures her that she’s not like them at all, at least not in that way. She only tells him everything out of exhaustion one day, and is then terrified that he might turn his back on her because of it all.

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‘All right, Leaves?’ Tom Harcroft greeted, shifting Teagan’s attention away from the news article she’d been skimming. The arrival of a dead body was big news, but none of the papers seemed to agree on an angle. Either it was an accidental death, or an organised crime killing that nobody was actually brave enough to put an accusation behind. ‘Your dad in?’

‘Nice to see you too, Uncle Tom,’ teased Teagan, smirking as he moved to ruffle her hair. He was the only one who could get away with that without receiving a Medusa-style look, but that didn’t mean Teagan liked it; she felt the frown settling onto her face.

‘I asked how you were,’ he reasoned, a grin pulling at his own mouth. ‘You were just too slow.’

Teagan rolled her eyes, glanced briefly at the few customers dotting the front of the bookshop, and turned back to her uncle. ‘He said something about an evaluation,’ she informed Tom, but guessed he already knew that. After all, he’d arrived barely ten minutes after her father had left for his office upstairs. A text was all it took to call him, and the only thing that really got him into the family shop.

‘Thanks, Tea,’ he said cheerfully. Then, mild concern creased his brow. ‘You OK until Jules gets back?’

‘Of course,’ she assured him with a grin as she spotted Piotr passing the window. ‘My saviour’s arrived anyway.’

Tom scoffed, shook his head before heading for the office.

The bell rang, announcing the arrival of Piotr Nicoli. Teagan watched as her best friend wound his way through the aisles, as he tried not to knock over any of the new displays she’d spent the morning arranging.

‘You seen it?’ she said in lieu of a greeting, turning her phone so that he could read the article. ‘What d’you think?’

Piotr stuttered out some kind of answer, even though he could only have read the headline. But Teagan sighed and leant on the desk, motioning for him to finish before he actually said anything. She needed his opinion on all of this, because she certainly wasn’t going to get a discussion out of her family in regards to the most interesting thing to happen nearby.

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Teagan watched as her mother put the notes in the till and wondered if it was really that easy to simply act like they were normal. She didn’t look like a woman who knew about the criminal underbelly of the city, nor did she look like she was phased by the arrival of their latest customer even though his glare said he wasn’t there for books.

The man looked like the kind of criminal seen so often in fiction; the thugs that people crossed the street to avoid. He looked so obviously bad that she thought he couldn’t possibly have been, that was just too stereotypical. But one look at her mother and she noticed something had changed. The easy smile she usually wore was replaced with a slight narrowing of the eyes. There was still a smile gracing her lips, but it didn’t seem genuine.

‘How can I help you?’ she asked, taking the lead before Teagan herself could say a word.

‘I’m here to speak with Mr. Harcroft about a book order I placed. The Dead of the Night.’ The man’s voice was as gruff as his outward appearance, and Teagan didn’t know whether to be disappointed or not.

‘Mr. Harcroft,’ her mother said, leaning slightly against the counter, ‘is out of the country on business.’

‘He owes me.’

Her mother laughed softly, mirthlessly. ‘Then perhaps you had better pay your subscription on time next month, Mr. Jackson.’

The man’s hands balled into tight fists by his sides. Teagan glanced worriedly towards the doorway, which he seemed to be blocking.

The creaking of a step pulled Teagan’s attention instantly towards the staircase. She hadn’t seen it, but her mother had pressed the bell that rang in Uncle Tom’s office. Julian, however, was the one standing on the stairs. He looked far more irritated than she’d expected. His arms hung loosely by his sides, shirtsleeves folded neatly to above his elbows.

‘Can I help you, Robert?’ he asked, voice icy.

The man’s expression hardened, but he nodded once. ‘I’ll try again another day.’ He glared towards Dione, tracked the look down to Teagan as well, before he skulked out of the shop.

‘He’ll be back again tomorrow,’ Teagan’s mum said.

‘No, he won’t,’ Julian assured her, before descending the last of the stairs and heading for the back exit.

Teagan’s heart thundered against her ribs. ‘What was that all about?’

‘He’s just a little irritable, that’s all,’ her mother assured her. ‘What else could it be?’

Teagan bit back her own question, knowing that the argument she’d heard between Julian and Uncle Tom probably wasn’t the kind of thing to broach her mother about while they were in the middle of the shop.

Obviously sensing that there was something more, her mother laughed softly. ‘We’re a bookshop, sweetie.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Teagan mumbled. ‘Imagination getting the best of me.’

Her mother placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. ‘I know. But I promise, he wasn’t going to do anything we can’t handle.’

Teagan hummed her acceptance of the comment; she was beginning to wonder just what exactly her family wouldn’t be able to handle.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Teagan rubbed at the injury in her hairline and wondered if this was the kind of thing the rest of her family dealt with on a daily basis: blood, pain, cleaning up wounds. The realisation that her family was more than just the owners of a bookshop had been something of a surprise for her, something that shifted her entire world view so she no longer knew what was what. But Piotr was still there, still a stalwart friend.

But would he be if he knew the truth?

‘You can talk to me. About absolutely anything,’ he told her, carefully tucking her hair behind her ear. He’d managed to find some antiseptic, a cotton swab, and even though he was more squeamish than he cared to admit, he was putting on a brave face to help her.

‘I know that, P. But… this changes things,’ she admitted in a small voice, bracing herself for the pain she knew would come. Falling off her bike was one of the clumsiest things she’d done. It was her own fault, really. She shouldn’t have been thinking about the way Julian’s eyes had seemed so empty as he levelled the gun on the man. She shouldn’t have allowed her thoughts to stray back to the moment Uncle Tom had ushered her away, complaining at Julian for being reckless.

That evening, her parents had finally had to tell her the truth. Had allowed her to look behind the curtain and she wasn’t sure she liked what she was seeing.

‘Are you a secret millionaire?’ Piotr asked, ever so gently dabbing at the graze.

‘No,’ she scoffed.

‘An alien?’

‘Of course not,’ she assured him indignantly.

Piotr put the cotton ball in the bin, and stood back in front of her with a tube of antiseptic cream. His eyes skimmed across her face, roving over her expression as if he might be able to read her mind if he looked hard enough.

‘Does it change who you are, Tea?’

‘Yes,’ she said vehemently. Fear clawed up the back of her throat. She felt so certain that it changed everything she thought was intrinsically right with the world that she didn’t know what to expect of anything anymore. 

Piotr merely raised an eyebrow at her as he squeezed cream onto his fingertips.

‘I… No?’ she said. The truth of the matter was, just because her family did something reprehensible, she wouldn’t. She would never join that business because it simply wasn’t the type of thing she could do. She wasn’t capable of threatening anyone, let alone killing them.

‘Exactly,’ Piotr told her softly. ‘You’re still you, Teagan Harcroft. You’re still my best friend and nothing’s going to change that. OK?’

‘OK,’ she said as he gently massaged the cream against her injury. But part of her knew that the truth would shift something between them. How on earth could it not?