preacher's daughter inspired plots ♡
muse a finds muse b spiraling in solitude—whether in their bedroom, the woods, a church—over the prospect of winding up like their parents & grandparents. they do what they can to comfort & calm them, but given their own situation...they fear it's only so long before they follow in undesirable footsteps as well. so the two lean on one another as they lament over their poor lot in life, wondering if they can ever escape the cycle their families have thrust upon them.
muse a & muse b are lifelong childhood friends, but with graduation looming, they fear that they're each due to go their separate ways once they have diplomas in-hand. they make the most of what could very well be their final summer together while secretly pining for the other, & for the season to never end.
sneaking out late at night, visiting the corner store, watching nascar on tv, & watching their classmates enlist only solidifies the knowledge that nothing lasts forever as each light of day draws to a dark close, leaving them alone once again.
just on the outskirts of town is an abandoned house rich with local, long-forgotten history. for muse a, it becomes a sanctuary from a miserable home life. they make it into a place of their very own where they can escape to at a moment's notice. muse b stumbles across them one day. curious as to the location & the person they find within, they each return day after day & form an attachment to what they consider a home of their very own, & to each other.
a runaway, muse a finds themselves sleeping during the day & traveling in the dark of night, hoping just to make it by until they find refuge in a place they've yet to find. along comes muse b: their saving grace, but perhaps not the best of influences. neither wanting to continue on alone, they cling to one another in dive bars, cheap motels, & in/on muse b's ride, until the money begins to run paper-thin. breaking into atms can only get one so far, however. so the next stop is either staying put & finding demeaning part-time jobs, or robbing a bank to be flush with cash once more.
unable to suffer the circumstances of the deeply embedded wounds their family & town has inflicted upon them, muse a flees with a horrid family secret hidden in their heart, which they feel compelled to bury. muse b is a shining beacon in the middle of nowhere. rather, their religious community is to muse a's weary soul who is welcomed with open arms. but the grass isn't always greener, they soon come to discover, as what they initially thought to merely be a community centered around church turns out to be a devout cult, intent on cleansing muse a of their sins.
poisoned by a co-dependent relationship with one of their parents, muse a has had their view of healthy connections eschewed. exhausted by the other's wants, needs, & toxicity, they withdraw, resolving never to allow anyone else in. however, muse b becomes the exception as they slowly chip away at their seemingly solid exterior to discover who they are beneath the surface.
somewhere on the side of the road, muse a treks the shoulder of the thoroughfare, thumbing for a ride. muse b pulls up, tells them to hop in, & that they can join them on their sightseeing tour of western america before they reach their final destination of california. numerous tourist traps, diners, motels, & drive-ins later, the chemistry between them becomes electric as they come to realize that what they've been searching for sits beside them.
strung out, tricked out, & damn-near broke, muse a is circling the drain. in the back rooms of a strip joint, strange men come from near & far to desecrate what little purity is left within muse a's muddled mind & tired body. muse b being one of them... until their pity overrides their desire & they vow to get muse a out of their sickening predicament, whatever the cost.
kidnapped from the parking lot of a grocery store, muse b imprisons muse a in their attic or basement, fearing they've half lost their mind, they're so desperate for companionship, if not something darker. in time, stockholm syndrome takes over as the pair become utterly obsessed with each other. muse a fails to see just how dangerous muse b truly is through the rose-tinted haze that surrounds them, forgetting that not all stories come with a happy ending.
caught up with the wrong, delinquent crowd, muse a begins to make a plan of escape as their antics amp up & morph into something no longer mischievous, but illegal.
muse b, unwilling to let them go, makes clear that they will either stick around & do as they're told, or they'll be next.
free, but damaged, muse a has found their place amongst the heavens, or as close as they can manage. they are a free spirit, unburdened by conventions, or the expectations of others. they have known hell, & came out the other side as light incarnate. they go where they please, love who they please, & do as they please. muse b knows only the confines of a stringent existence, until a fateful meeting one night outside a trucker's chapel, or on an empty street, leaves them reeling, due to being convinced that they've set eyes upon a literal angel.
they refuse to stop looking until they've found what they believe to be their saving grace...their soulmate.
muse a is attempting to make peace with leaving a life of hardships behind. some things are easier said than done, however, as they continue to contain a penchant for violence, wanting to have revenge upon those who did them wrong & drove them away while they go on, same as they ever have.
muse b, the one who got away, is brought back to them through an act of fate. each believing that if something is meant to be, then it will, they embark on a journey of discovery of themselves, as well as what more can be had between them, far from those small-town gossips who could never find contentment unless it was in the suffering of others. They each understand that the past is something which must remain behind them, but that renewal & rebirth can still be managed from broken pieces when put back together with faith.
two individuals, muse a & muse b, meet on a rooftop, & it's love at first sight. or so muse a thinks. muse b grants them sweet nothings to lure them in like a fish on a hook, until they have their prey exactly where they want them.
soon, a polaroid in evidence & their photo on the side of a milk carton are all which remain to a worried family as the story spreads across the south like wildfire. meanwhile, muse a withers away in an unknown location as muse b tears metaphorical chunks out of them with their teeth, leaving little behind as they take whatever they want. but in the brief glimpses of affection—making love in the moonlight, & muse b telling them that they should be happy, for they have someone of their very own to take care of them now—muse a surrenders to their sordid fate, wondering if they are to blame, due to apparently not being good enough for anything better.
