#c:roxy

There’s so many lately, aren’t there? I’d love to see Ellie, she looks strangely similar to the local murder Adie; is anyone sure she didn’t just change her name and come back to town? Khai seems interesting, nice to see Dylan hiring boys again. And Roxy, I don’t know what it is about her, but I wanna see what trouble she can stir up. 

There were books written about a world in which soulmates didn’t exist, and it was on days like this one that Roman really considered what that would mean for humanity as a whole. Would they have more freedom without the mark of their soulmate bond on their bodies? Growing up, even while knowing who his soulmate was, Roman always considered the music notes that danced across his collarbone when he looked in the mirror. Those notes matched the exact melody on Roxy’s collarbone, just like the Daphne flowers that wrapped around her slender wrist matched the ones around his exactly.

Oftentimes, he wondered if she ever felt burdened by her tie to him. Though the nature of that connection could be anything from romantic to platonic (like his relationship with Roxy) to enemies- the tie was there no matter what. Though Roman had never seen the mark as a burden, he wondered if she did. Obviously, some people had to, or why would they write stories about such things?

All of these things were considered by the young man as he leaned against the hood of his sleek black sports car, looking graceful and as relaxed as one could when groomed immaculately and sporting a perfectly tailored and pressed suit that cost more than some of the cars parked on the street around him. He was waiting for his soulmate in question, more than used to picking the blonde up after some of her various endeavors. It was for that reason that he was not phased by the eyes that lingered on his form or the titters of conversation that spiked from groups of people, women in particular, on the sidewalk once they had laid eyes on him. Instead, his amber eyes stayed trained on his phone from behind his dark sunglasses as he typed away at emails.

Riding at night was something that wasn’t suggested for anyone less than an experienced rider, and even then, riding through thick woods like Kaiden currently was definitely never recommended. That being said, the young man was more than confident in his ability and that of his steed, Kennedy, to navigate the familiar terrain, and after a hard day on the ranch that ended with both his brother and his father riding his ass about staying on the reservation- Kaiden needed a break from everything.

The edge of Glacier National Park was Kaiden’s stomping ground as he grew with the mountains on one side of his home and wide ranges on the other. Blackfeet Nation, and his small hometown of Babb, Montana, were nothing short of breath-taking in the young man’s eyes and it was for that exact reason that he sought to leave the land. His mind was set on preservation of his home, on fighting to better the lives of the thousands he shared the reservation land with. Kaiden wanted to make a difference not only for himself and the place that he loved, but for his people as well.

The thoughts he had been warring with since the day his teenaged self had realized that he had a voice to use in the world swirled around in his head until the sudden startling of his steed had the area around him coming sharply into focus. Taking in the surrounding trees, even in the relative darkness that the canopy offered from the nearly full moon, Kaiden could determine that he had just crossed out of reservation land. Running a soothing hand down his mount’s neck, dark eyes scanned the area around him. He followed the direction that Kennedy’s ears were directed towards, knowing his actions to be stupid to begin with as anything could have been laying in the darkness.

Strangely, nothing in Kaiden spoke of the fear that he should have been experiencing. Instead, a strange sense of urgency settled in his stomach and he found himself lightly prodding Kennedy into a steady trot, breaching the tree line into a clearing. The sight that he was met with, one that had his horse sliding into a steadfast halt and refusing to go any further, had the young man’s stomach turning even as his body dismounted. There was a girl, she must have been around his age or younger, laying in the middle of the clearing. Her blonde hair was sprawled out around her head, matted with blood that also covered her clothing. Dropping to his knees next to her form, Kaiden was acting on pure physical instinct alone. His mind hadn’t quite caught up to the situation he had found himself in even as he checked her pulse and found a faint beat. “Hey! Hey, can you hear me?” Kaiden called out, his voice sounding unnaturally loud amongst the nearly silent woods.

Anyone who spent any time in nature could tell you that the trees being silent was a sign of nothing good. 

“Listen, I’m going to get you help, okay?” Kaiden told the girl, hoping that she would open her eyes as he wrestled his cellphone from his pocket and thanked Na'pi that he had satellite service due to their rather remote area. He spoke quickly into the phone to the dispatcher that had answered his emergency call, giving details and the best estimate of their location that he could as his heart pounded in his chest. “Yes, she has a pulse. She hasn’t opened her eyes though.” Kaiden told the man on the other side of the call. “Hey, can you open your eyes? Ko'komíki'somma, open your eyes if you can hear me.” He urged the young woman, trying to keep his voice calm even as his mind panicked.

If he really thought about it, TJ did not make enough bartending to put up with some of the shit that he did. Between angry dudes thinking that him handing their girlfriends the drink that they ordered meant he was trying to pick them up to breaking up drunken brawls over a game between rival sports teams- it sometimes didn’t feel worth it.

This night was not one of those nights.

In fact, the night had started off pretty decently. TJ had smiled and flirted his way into a substantial amount of extra tips from a few groups of women on a girls night out, and he had even been recognized by a group of guys for his place on the local university’s football team though he tried to lay low when it came to that sort of thing while at work. His night continued to get that much better when a young woman walked in that TJ recognized straight of the bat due to her reoccurring presence in the bar. The only thing that was off was the fact that she was alone, actually taking a seat at the bar instead of one of the tables as she usually did, and she didn’t look all too happy.

Catching her mood, TJ approached with a bit of concern but a smile on his face as he brought the blonde a drink menu, setting it in front of her and leaning his elbows against the surface of the bar so that his eyes were almost even with her’s. “What can I get you, Angel Eyes?” He asked, his voice raised a little louder than normal so that he could be easily heard over the music and chatter of the bar.

You mean Shane and Marissa 2.0? Pretty much anyone Marissa sleeps with at this point. Maybe her and Roxy. Or maybe Adie and Ellie because I like the way their names sound together. 

It would be a lie in the highest form if TJ said that this was how he had seen his future panning out. He wasn’t sure that anyone imagined living the life that he did as they dreamed about their futures as children. In highschool, TJ was a football prodigy. Handsome, smart, and talented- he had good friends and a loving family. Now, as he watched two men drag a third screaming man from the room in which he was sat behind a desk, TJ stopped himself from asking just how he had gotten there.

He knew good and well how he got there.

Though his father had attempted to be secretive about his former job and succeeded in doing so when Val and TJ were young, he had eventually come clean to his children about his criminal days when they were old enough to truly understand it. His father had been an art thief, he stole priceless paintings and replaced them with nearly perfect copies done by his own artistic hand before selling the originals on the black market. This was done to fund the art recovery operation that he ran which involved stealing pillaged cultural artifacts from rich old people and museums in countries to which they did not belong and returning them to their true cultures. TJ supposed he understood that.

Perhaps that understanding was what made it so easy for him in the end.

TJ had grown up arm in arm with Jared Kincaid. The other boy was his absolute best friend and his younger sister, Roxy Kincaid was never too far behind them. From a young age, TJ held adoration for the younger girl. She was gentle and sweet and everything that he wasn’t. She hung the stars in his eyes and that never changed though all of their lives did- Roxy’s especially. In highschool, Roxy was stalked and attacked. Stabbed and slashed and left to die, but she didn’t. She fought to live and live she did, but it came at a steep monatary price. Healthcare didn’t come cheap and the Kincaids, a family TJ loved like his own, were drowning. 

So he did what was necessary.

With a few phonecalls to his godparents and ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’, a heist was constructed and TJ walked out of a bank’s vault with enough to cover Roxy’s bills and then some. He gave it to her parents, barely explaining the situation before he did what he knew he now had to do- he disappeared. His father kept tabs on him, the man’s old teammates now following his son as his son followed down the same path that he had, but making his own footsteps along the way.

After helping Roxy’s family, TJ realized that this was a very common problem for so many families. It tore him apart to think about it and he had many sleepless nights trying to work out a solution. What he found though, was only a way that he thought he could somewhat help. Therefore, TJ kept at his newfound life of crime. Regardless, he couldn’t return home to his family and friends so he might as well make use of his time. With the help of that team, TJ quickly found himself heading extensive criminal operations in various European countries all the while laying relatively low in countries that didn’t extradite to the US. Jacques and Caroline were his contacts in France, Jess in Italy, and Andrew in America, but those countries had only been the beginning.

Collapse of a world came faster than anyone could have ever predicted. Sure, TJ had grown up with movies and shows about an apocalyptic situation ruining the Earth and the human population like anyone else. He had always scoffed at the struggling survivors, turning to his friends as they joked about how much better they would do in that situation, about how they wouldn’t take the risk of outsiders and kill threats off with no hesitation. It was something easy to talk about because to them, it wasn’t a possibility. It was fiction through every definition of the word.

Until it wasn’t.

It started with strange news reports, reports that TJ ignored when walking by the television set in the locker room dedicated to his college team. He would throw an arm around the shoulders of Jared without hesitation, joking about bath salts and their effects. It turned into something bigger, into his coach demanding that his players go home. That the university was closing until further notice, so the small town boys loaded up TJ’s Jeep and tried to pretend like they both weren’t on edge about the people rushing from cities around them. It turned into their cellphones being all but useless. The service wasn’t out as it still showed up on their screens, but it definitely wasn’t working and none of their calls were going through. It turned into them having no way of reaching their families.

They drove through their familiar town with tension locked in their forms. The usually bustling town square that was now silent, sending an ice pick of fear into TJ’s stomach as he turned onto his friend’s street, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white.

He needed to get home- he could feel it in his stomach. He needed to get to his sister, but he knew that Jared felt the same. Hell, TJ felt the same about Jared’s sister. He wanted to make sure Roxy was okay, but his pounding heart let him know that Valerie wasn’t.

“Something’s wrong, man.” TJ said voice low as he pulled the Jeep to a stop along the curb outside of the Kincaid residence.

Perched on the sturdy railing, Marcus let one of his sneaker clad feet bounce softly off of the wood of the gazebo as he watched Roxy down at the pond’s edge. It wasn’t too late in the day, the pair had plenty of sunshine left to hang out in while simply trying to pass the time now that their school had let out early and all after school activities and clubs were cancelled for the day.

“My dad thinks that this is a ploy to garner crowd-funding towards rabies research.” Marcus said, shaking his head as he adjusted his glasses that were perched on the bridge of his nose that day. He woke up late that morning and couldn’t be arsed to mess around with contacts. “That its a media sham or government cover-up is also two of his thoughts on the matter.” He added, not sounding convinced by either of those theories either.