|
Post by William Clay on Oct 30, 2023 19:47:07 GMT
William didn’t shake. He’d always imagined shaking, but when it came to the moment, the situation at hand, there was no other choice. How could you shake when there was no other choice?
It was quick. Done the Muggle way in part to avoid Unforgivable detection, but truthfully he’d never cared to learn the killing curse anyway. When it was done, William dropped the knife in the Thames and called a Muggle buddy in London.
“Got some heat,” he said. “I need a place to lay low for a while.”
William knew that he’d fare better outside of the magical world. If it was a big enough case then the Ministry might have the Muggle police out looking too, but he imagined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had far bigger things to worry about right now. He’d be safe off the grid for a few months.
In the movies, safe houses were grimy, windowless rooms. Prisons of a character’s own making. But William’s safe house was a small, one-story home in the Florida marshes. It was one of several empty homes in an abandoned development that had failed to rebound with the economy. When he stepped inside he found the house still furnished, piles of mail sitting in front of the door with words faded from the sunlight. A little spooky, maybe, but he’d been picturing something more like the room from Saw.
What he’d done didn’t weigh too heavily on his conscience. It was the wait that was agonizing. Once again, William found himself watching Georgie grow from a distance. And it was difficult to find news about the Darlings in Muggle America. He’d barely had any time to explain to Roxie what had happened, and he knew that she’d be busy working everything out with her brother now. He could only hope that she’d have a place for him when he got back.
His mind lingered there, not on his place in their business, but a different place he’d occupied back at Hogwarts. William had had his flings with girls, but Roxie was different. She’d always been different. And no matter how hard he’d tried to let his own ambition win, to pour himself into his work and impress her father, he’d always wanted to impress her more. She scared the hell out of him and he loved that feeling.
On his third night in Florida, William found himself going crazy. His mind wandered back to Roxie’s father, his plan to marry off all of his children to good pureblood kids that the family could trust. He thought about another man sharing her bed, and he paced the dark corridors of the house until finally he sat down at the small table by the patio door with a note pad and a pen and he wrote:
121 Sableye Drive, Whispering Palms, FL 32119 URGENT please see me – Willie
It was the most he could think to write, even if so many other phrases fit his state of mind. I miss you. I want you. I need you.
When the letter was sent, William slid out the patio door and found a seat on an old beaten up lawn chair. He collapsed in it and felt the Florida humidity roll over him. Three days without Roxie and he knew that he never wanted to do this again.
Roxie Darling
|
|
Year/Job
ceo darling enterprises
If you f* with me I might just change your life. |
|
Post by Roxie Darling on Oct 30, 2023 20:23:29 GMT
Roxie hadn't initially planned on being a part of the whole murdering her father ordeal. It just sort of… happened. And she'd gotten Jules involved and it was really hard for her to see him on the run. But nothing was happening... Mickey had to die, and someone had to do it. Magic wasn't supposed to be a part of the equation... but... like one of those cheesy muggle horror films she and Julian had looked at Mickey dumbfounded as he started to crawl toward them like a zombie from the Walking Dead. She and Tommy had been laying low thanks to her serious lack of judgment, but the ministry had been asking questions. He was on holiday, they'd been telling people, but it was starting to get suspicious and while she normally would have looked to her brother for guidance… ever since she'd graduated she'd been trying to cover her own ass for once. She didn't know that Tommy had his own plan to cover for her yet again.
She hadn't tried thinking of William. Over the end of seventh year and especially summer, she felt like he'd grown distant from her, focusing more on jobs he was getting from her father (or her father's men) rather than focusing on her. Roxie had said a few unsightly things about him toward the end of the school year, too… done things maybe she normally wouldn't have, and that lot had weighed on her mind quite a bit. But she wanted to make it up to him. Guilt wasn't something she was familiar with, but William was making her feel and experience a lot of things she wasn't used to.
An owl had found her at her parents' summer home in Monaco; it wasn't the best hiding place and she'd offered Jules some refuge before he took off, not wanting anything to look suspicious. But that was beside the point. Roxie recognized the handwriting anywhere - a little sloppy and a little rushed, but it screamed William… and the signature confirmed.
Pushing her sunglasses up onto her head, she didn't bother to let Tommy know where she was going (as if he'd care, anyway). It had been a few days since she'd seen William last, and… she had a lot of feelings on top of the guilt. She wanted to see him… there weren't many people she'd get off her beach chair for. Bo maybe, (very likely actually) and William. And Tommy. But one should not expect much other than the three of them.
Focusing on the address, the brunette clutched the paper in her hand, swallowing the lump in her throat as she basically materialized in front of… some place in the United States? It looked grimy and a bit low income for her taste, but. Jobs took them where jobs took them.
Roxie rapped on the door sharply, glancing over her shoulder as if someone were going to try and traffic her where she stood. And no one answered. Through the door she called out for him, and when he didn't answer, her hand dropped and she let the screen door close behind her.
Was this some kind of joke?
|
|
|
Post by William Clay on Nov 13, 2023 1:32:59 GMT
William knew about the plot to take Mickey’s life, but he only learned that they’d gone through with it when Trevor called the crew out to the safehouse to discuss their retaliation. The boys knew that William had been sweet on Roxie. Everyone seemed to know but Mickey. But William had been such a team player up to that moment, they had no reason to suspect that he wouldn’t be cool about murdering his girlfriend. Sure, William was Mickey’s employer, but as far as he was concerned the world was better off without the man who was trying to set his girl up with a pureblood. William only wished that he’d supported Roxie more, maybe he wouldn’t have found himself in such a precarious position with her at the end of the school year.
Listen, it’s not easy tiptoeing between your blood simple mob boss and his irresistible daughter, all while William grinded to get the bag. Working for Mickey was William’s first real taste of the organized life. He’d always been a crook, but before he met Roxie it was a solo operation. Obviously, that was not William’s ambition, he planned on joining an outfit one day, he just hadn’t expected to find employment at Hogwarts.
When William heard the knock at the door, he thought he was dead. Yeah, he’d sent the letter off to Roxie but to be completely honest, he hadn’t actually expected her to come. Between all the shit that had gone on between them and all the shit she must be dealing with now, he knew that she had bigger things on her mind. A part of him had hoped when he sent the letter off that they could lie low together. But it seemed just as likely that someone had tracked him down, whether it was Hit Wizards from the Ministry or a stray member of Trevor’s crew looking for revenge. William sat up slowly from the lawn chair, sliding his wand out of his pocket and returning inside the house.
William held his wand in one hand and a gun in the other. Stunning spells were easy enough, but Muggle weapons were useful when you really needed to put somebody down and easy enough to come by in America. He knew immediately that someone was in the house as he stepped inside, he could feel the presence in the air.
“Hullo,” he called out into the darkness, then raised his wand with a “Lumos”. The kitchen lit up, revealing Roxie’s dark features in the hallway. William quickly set the gun down on the kitchen counter and said with a smile, “Roxie…”
Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by emotion. There wasn’t much else William knew to do than to run across the room and pick her up into his arms. He gave her a kiss and then held her cheeks in his hands as he directed her to look into his eyes. “You scared the shit out of me, Roxie,” he said, referring more to the plot to kill her father than the sudden drop in. “But I’m so proud of you. I’m so freaking proud of you.”
Roxie Darling
|
|