Tate leant back on his chair, his legs propped on old milk crates. He liked this part of the basement. It was quiet, one of the few places in the house where he could just sit and think for a moment. Not that he was getting all that much thinking done today; it was hard to concentrate on the matter at hand without little memories of Violet's soft skin and the way her hips moved creeping back into his head every few minutes.
He shook himself, trying to think. Vivian might have been frightened back into the house once, but he knew it was only a matter of time before she tried to take Violet away again, and Tate doubted that they'd be so lucky a second time around. The problem now was getting Vivian and Ben out of the way without killing them – the last thing Murder House needed was a pair of vengeful parents stalking the halls.
He knew that there was existing tension between the two, could hear their fights filtering through the floorboards day and night. Ben already considered her unstable after Violet had denied seeing the ghosts in the car earlier that day. If he could just make Vivien snap, Ben would have her taken away to protect Violet. One down, one to go.
"Aww," a jeering voice came from the shadows. Tate glanced at Hayden and rolled his eyes. "Look at little Lord Fauntleroy, writing sorrowful sonnets in your head to that little nightingale bitch. Adieu, nightingale! Thy plaintive anthem fades."
"That's Keats," Tate sighed. Whatever it was Ben Harmon had seen in this nasally little crackjob was beyond him.
"Who gives a shit? You're like a girl, sulking down here in the basement instead of doing something about whats really bothering you."
"I'm tired," Tate replied through gritted teeth, "of hurting people."
"Do you want her to go away? Because Vivien booked their tickets, I heard her. You know what you have to do."
"Yeah, I do." He was speaking to himself, not to her. "I just have to prepare myself. It's not fun." Tate felt himself flinch. He rarely spoke of aloud his plans to others like this. Something about verbalizing the violence made it a lot harder to dismiss as a necessary evil.
"You wanna fool around, while you work your way up to it?" Hayden asked. He glanced at her, and she kicked the crates out from under him. He pitched forward sharply to keep from losing his balance. "Come on."
He felt her cold hands slide over his chest as she straddled him on the chair. She smelled like old blood and desperation.
"I'm not into it," he said, looking away. Her hand slipped to his crotch.
"What is it about being dead that makes me so horny?" she murmured.
His hand was around her throat in a second, lifting her off him. "Quit it," Tate snarled. He rose, shoving her into the back wall. "I'm in love." He took a moment to enjoy the building fury in her pinched expression before turning and striding from the room.
"You'd better locate your balls before you go in there! That bitch is tough!" he heard her yell shrilly behind him.
~:~:~
The rubber suit had never felt so constrictive. The moment he touched it was like an electric shock. How much had changed since he'd last worn it?
It was late that night that Vivian finally went to bed, after frantically searching every inch of her room for intruders. She was already terrified, her hands shaking as she lifted the bedspread to peer under the mattress with a torch. This would be simple enough.
He waited until she had slipped into the blankets before stepping from the shadows into her line of sight. Vivian sprang up, scrabbling for the lamp. He disappeared again, moving to stand behind her as she ran to the curtains, hands still shaking.
Tate watched her turn before he made his move toward her. He reached for Vivien's neck, hesitating for just a moment. There wasn't really any need to hurt her, he realized – just her fear would be enough. He caught hold of her firmly, but not hard enough to cause pain, and shook her. Vivien pulled away with a scream, and he let go, stepping back into the shadows. She had her buzzer for the security guard in hand, and for a moment he watched her on the bed, her eyes frantically searching the room. She reached down and in the darkness it took Tate a moment to realize that she had a gun.
The bedroom door opened and Vivien screamed, aiming wildly at the door and pulling the trigger reflexively. Ben Harmon hit the ground.
The shot wasn't bad, but it'd done its work. Tate slipped by Ben and out the door. If he was lucky, he'd never have to wear this damned suit again.
~:~:~
He folded up the suit and put it in the corner of the basement, listening to the sound of police sirens overhead. Hayden had taken up residence on his favorite chair, which was irksome.
"Cute outfit. I see you pussied out from actually killing the bitch. Looks like that sensitive side's got the better of you."
Tate wondered if it was possible to hate somebody more than his mother.
"I don't want her ghost in the house. I'm trying to make her seem crazy enough for them to send her away from Violet."
"And you think some creepy S&M costume is going to be enough to send her into the waiting arms of the nuthouse? You've got to step up your game there, Langdon. I told you she's a tough bitch."
"It's not just a costume! It's – last time she saw it – she thought I was Ben. It's psychological trauma."
Hayden's eyes widened. "Hold up." She stopped rocking in her chair and stood slowly. "You're telling me that you fucked your girlfriend's mom?" Tate stiffened, and Hayden threw back her head with a scream of laughter. "Way to weird things up, kid. Is that why you wouldn't do me? You thought it'd be a bit much to bang a man's wife, daughter and mistress in the same house? Oh, this is just comedy gold."
He punched her so hard in the stomach her small body flew across the room and crumpled in a heap against the wall. In the opposite corner he heard Thaddeus whimpering nervously, and he restrained himself from going after her further. In a moment she was sitting up again, still giggling as blood poured from her nose.
"You know she's pregnant, with twins, right? You know you're probably gonna be a dad? Because I can bet sure as hell that unless she's doing that black security hunk, she and the man of the house haven't shared a bed in months, making you the proud daddy of two bouncing babies. How do you plan on explaining that clusterfuck to your little princess bride?"
Tate had stopped breathing. Months ago, this news was all he'd wanted to hear, when Nora had been his whole world. Now all he could feel was a cold, creeping sort of dread building in the pit of his stomach.
He left her on the floor without another word. It was going to be alright. They'd take Vivien away, now that she'd shot Ben. She'd be gone, and the babies would be gone, and Violet would never need to know. All of this could be forgotten.
Oddly, Hayden was screaming again. For a moment he wondered whether she was attacking Thaddeus, and he spun to reenter the basement when he realized that the sounds were coming from Vivien's room. His heart stopped.
He crossed the house in time to see Hayden standing at the foot of the bed, her face manic. She was watching the rubber man attacking Vivien on the floor. Hayden caught his eyes.
"He liked it so much the first time, he's going for round two!" she called out to the screaming woman.
Tate lunged at the person in the suit just as Ben flung open the door. In an instant he and Hayden were back in the basement, and he was grappling with the other figure on the floor. Reaching for the back of its head he ripped off the mask. His own face stared back at him.
"What the fuck?" he scrambled backward, watching himself sit up, rising off the floor.
"Pretty, isn't he? You'd be surprised how much he practices when you're too busy off with your girlfriend."
Suddenly the form shifted, and Thaddeus stood before him, the suit shriveling down to fit around his shrunken white body.
Tate staggered backward. "Thad..? You…you can do that without me?"
"He doesn't need you, honey. He's got a talent all of his own, don't you baby?" her arm slithered around the smaller boy's shoulders. Thaddeus didn't quite meet Tate's eyes.
"I can't deal with…this…right now. Why did you do that to Vivien? They were already taking her away, this is just-"
"Now they're even more sure that she's a wacko, and that her cheating husband isn't just trying to get her out of his life. Trust me. They're locking her away for good."
Tate rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "I need to go to go to Violet right now." Hayden snorted.
"Oh, good. Go, be the hero Gotham needs, Batman."
Tate crossed from the room, his mind reeling.
Violet and her father stood in the main foyer. He watched Ben kiss her on the head and leave through the front door – of course, Ben Harmon, father of the year wouldn't think to stay and comfort his troubled daughter after she'd seen her mother's mental breakdown. Tate walked softly behind her, leaned down to look into her eyes.
"It's okay," he said as cheerfully as he could manage. "I'm here." He put his arm gently around her shoulder. She still looked shocked, but in a moment she rested her head against his shoulder and gave a little sigh.