"Where the hell are they?!" Storm exclaimed impatiently barely hearing her own voice through the crowds.
"Be patient with them," Sophie told her, "One thing I can tell you about Vi is that she hates people as much as Moo."
She rolled her eyes and groaned, "I can see why those two are together."
They continued leisurely walking through crowds getting frustrated by the minute. They expect almost the whole town to come out tonight; Marisol's return must've been a really big deal for them.
They that some were lying on the ground passed out drunk with others stepping over them heading to the city hall for the feast while others stayed and chatted with each other. The building lights were all lit up making the town look like downtown New York City along with the city hall that brightened up the way for the people.
From the opening of the crowds, they saw Marisol on the highest steps making her above everyone else. She easily spotted them giving them a wide grin waving them over. Storm and Sophie smiled back anxiously knowing the first thing she'll ask is the whereabouts of Violet and Moo.
I pray she hopes it's just a coincidence, Sophie begged in her mind making their way to Marisol.
—
Moo ended leading Violet to the same dark room she saw when they were going to watch the sunrise, out of curiosity, she wondered what was in it he kept it like this.
She followed him out to the balcony where he started taking out a cigarette lighting it up with a match beginning to smoke. Violet didn't if it was a good idea to let him talk about his background if it stressed him out this bad, she didn't want him to harm himself by burning out his lungs because of it.
He took his cigarette out his mouth blowing the remaining smoke leaning down on the rails staring blankly off into the crowds in the distance.
"Moo, are sure you wanna talk about this?" Violet asked concerningly rubbing his back.
He chuckled weakly, "It's alright, it's all in the past, it may not be pretty but it's fine."
She frowned staying close beside him, "Just stop whenever you want to."
He nodded taking a deep breath, "A year after the corpses came mamá became really sick to the point where I was for sure she was going to die. Cobra took care of both me and her but got really stressed about, that's when Augustus and Marisol suggested that I should stay with them," he sighed, "I hated your mom back then not wanting anything to do with her, but I kept my composure. Sometimes I would hear her crying in another room calling for you and Storm while Augustus comforted her. It wasn't easy when she would lash out at me and say stuff like 'stop making me feel bad! I know it was my fault!' or 'Why do you have to remind me of her?!'
"Anyway, I spent a year there until. . . it came."
She furrowed her brows, "What came?"
"The Burning Roses," the name drowned him in fear.
"Who are they?"
He looked down taking another puff of his cigarette, "They were the group that took me and other kids."
Violet gasped, "They were child-snatching assholes too?"
"Yeah, only imagine what you think the Delta's like and multiply it hundreds of times worse."
"I couldn't imagine," she admitted sadly knowing this would be the hard part.
"They took us on this boat with prison cells below and it just so unrealistic. You had kids wailing, people who were sick, and some on the brink of death; they were really desperate.
"The place looked well kept but it felt like I going into a real military dome. They had to force us out of the boat with people with guns aimed at the back of our heads if we tried to run, unfortunately, someone did and they were killed instantly. Most of stayed quiet and put while others cried in fear, for me, I was still too busy trying to comprehend was all that real and if that was my new life now.
"They took us to dorms where we be staying and this is where I met Storm, she ended up being my new roommate."
"What was she like back then?"
He smiled, "The same but more. . . Storm; she was basically like a teenage version of Mary.
"I didn't know why they had set me up with her in the first place, I was only eleven while she was almost an adult; kinda weird.
"As time went on she acted so weirdly around me like when I wake up I find her sitting on her bed just staring at me and sometimes when she thought I was sleep she crawl in my bed, holds me close to her like I was her son or something with her crying every now and then."
"You must've meant a lot to her."
He shrugged, "Beats me, we were strangers to each other back then and she made it seem like she despised when we were around each other.
"Anyway, us kids were sent to meet. . . him," Moo grimaced, "That son of bitch of a leader, Bates Lawrence. If you thought Lilly was bad, Bates made look like a harmless sheep compared to him."
Violet shivered knowing how awful Lilly was, she couldn't imagine coming across someone worst than her.
"The soldiers made kneel like he was some king, if you refused you were taken to a room and be brutally beaten—tortured," he trailed off quietly making Violet wondered if had gone through that, she prayed he didn't but this story was already at a rough start.
"He assigned us to where we would going and doing for of our lives there. Almost all of us were assigned to be soldiers in training, and as for me. . ." he sighed heavily inhaling more of his half-burnt cigarette, "I was assigned as a soldier and training too but. . ."
"What is it?"
"He assigned me to be in the group's brothel too."
The word was foreign to her but by the look in Moo's eyes, it wasn't a nice place to be in.
"What was it?" she asked out of curiosity.
"A sex working place."
She was right, it wasn't a good place after all. She thought what compelled this sick leader to put a child in an environment that he wasn't ready for, the thought just made Violet ill to her stomach.
"Why the fuck would he do that to you?" she growled as she still couldn't stop thinking about it.
He grabbed a fold-up chair beside him gently sitting in it inhaling the last bit of his cigarette, "He said I was too cute to pass up, cuteness equals more trade of supplies and weapons for them."
"But you were only a kid! I feel like I'm making that clear."
"There were a lot of young people in there I just happened to be the youngest, so yeah.
"When they took to the leader of the brothel, Gertrude, just instantly fell in love with me despite my age. She had special trainers to help me get in shape because she also told me even though I had the looks it couldn't substitute chubbiness."
She frowned, "But you were cute either way."
"She thought otherwise and. . . so did I.
"I didn't really go into the brothel until like a year later, they made me focus more on my soldier and physical training more than anything else. After every session I was so beat, my body felt a million weights being was crushing it, Storm had told Bates and Gertrude to lay off on the training but Gerts wouldn't listen and Bates, well Bates did listen to her request but for too long.
"By the time I was twelve I lost most of my weight and my body was already turning muscle-bound. By that time, Gertrude was ready for me to be in the brothel and thought I was too good-looking to pass off any clients. The brothel was like no other in the group, it was just filled with wild, fun-loving horny teenagers making out, speaking with clients, and partying most of the time. They were quick to accept me making me part of their family," he smirked, "I really did think of them as this weird broken family.
"But there was something I had to do before I could have client's; something. . . bad," Violet noticed he looked green in the face when he said that lighting up another cigarette.
Violet touched his leg looking straight into his glossy eyes, "Moo, what did you do?"
"I had to.. to. . ." he started to choke up with tears running down his cheeks, ". . .sorry, to have clients, Gertrude had test how good your sex was."
"Moo. . . she didn't. . ."
He nodded stiffly, "She did."
Violet ran her fingers through her hair pacing rapidly, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, Moo had been a literal child at this time. She thought you had to be a sick and disgusting individual to ruin a child's life like that.
"She told me she had never done it with a Hispanic before," he said while crying softly, "That's when I lost my virginity to her, she told me I gave her one of the best times and that my clients were going to love me."
"I'm so fucking sorry, Moo," she sniffled wiping away some of her tears, "If I ever thought. . . I should've come back for you."
"Quit doing that," he told her, "You couldn't have known like I couldn't have known about your situation; we can't change the past, sunshine, plus, we're both okay."
"I can't let this go through, you suffered like that and you've been holding it in ever since, fuck, I'm such a shitty friend."
"Hey, come here," he reached out to as she walked over to him, he grabbed her hand gently pulling her down to sit in his lap, she leaned in his shoulder while stroked the back of her head, "I'm okay, baby, I'm okay, I need you to understand that it's all in the past, alright? I made it out alive, that's all that matters right now."
She exhaled heavily hugging him tightly, "I guess so, I just can't believe that happened to you."
"I know, sunshine, I know," he started to continue, "So that's when I started to get my clients, apparently I one of their favorites with me being one of the only people that brought something of our worth like guns, ammo, medicines, you name it. I never knew why I was a favorite but all knew that my clients from other groups couldn't resist me."
"They're fucking sick," Violet grimaced coldly.
He fidgeted his fingers looking down, "During my next session is when I met Dakota."
Violet saw him smile at the name making her wonder if she meant anything to him.
"Who is she?" she immediately asked not trying to act jealous.
"He was my everything," Moo breathed wistfully, "He was one of the only people who saw anything wrong. His father was the leader of a group I was assigned to, they were super loaded, they even had wolves for dogs, Bates was for sure we were going to pull in something good from them, but when Dakota's father realized that I was the payment he immediately disgusted and wanted nothing to do with the Burning Roses after that.
"For those few years, I remained to have clients, finally being a fully trained soldier, and meeting Dakota in secret. He really wanted me to leave the Burning Roses and come live with him but I told him I couldn't for his and his group's safety. He was really upset, I was too, but I cared about him so god damn much and I rarely care about anyone or anything. For our two-year anniversary he gave this," he pulled out the wolf necklace he always wore, "And one of the puppies that his wolf had which is Smokey."
Violet smiled, "That's so sweet."
"I couldn't take him back to the group though so he watched over him when I was away.
"When I was fifteen I had met someone I truly regret seeing," he sighed fiddling with his necklace, "Onyx."
"Onyx? Who was he?"
"He was part of the brothel and the person to have a sexual relationship with."
"You mean you and Dakota weren't having sex already?"
He shook his head, "He didn't want to do anything that I wasn't ready for in the first place, but with Onyx it was just a crime of passion."
"Crime?" she blinked starting to realize why he used those choices of words, "You were a relationship while—"
"Yeah, I was still with Dakota while I fucked a prick."
Heatness started to overwhelm her at the statement, "Moo, how could do that?"
"I didn't know any better back then," he admitted sadly, "Sex was all I knew but it wasn't no substitute for love.
"Onyx kept saying he wanted to be with me filling my head with false promises and I stupidly believed him, he was already in my group so I just thought I could have a double relationship; I was such a selfish fucking idiot.
"Long story short, Dakota found out," he held his necklace looking at it in guilt, "I never forget the pain on his face when I told him."
"I bet."
"But after all that he forgave me and wanted to be more in my life. I loved him for it and he still loved me through the bullshit.
"One day I went to talk to Onyx privately about the situation, when I did he didn't want to let go of me. I tried to walk away but we ended up getting into a big fight, he took out this big machete and cut my neck then slashed my face," he ran his hand over scarred eye, "I bled a lot after that and he ended getting me medical help out of his fear of me dying.
"I deserved it, I know I did. He told Bates about my meetings with Dakota and man was he pissed. They sentenced me to be tortured publically so he could make an example of me. They beat me with whips, punched me, shot arrows at me, it was just a wild ride. It didn't stop until Storm stepped up and told Bates to quit it, he eventually did but was badly injured.
"I was no longer in the brothel and instead made to be Gertrude sex slave, and watch Onyx live happily with his new girlfriend," he glared down inhaling his cigarette, "I wanted it all to end, the people that hurt me just had to take care of, and trust me, I made sure of it."
Violet's face started to turn white at the tone when he said that, "Moo, what did you do to them?"
"What else? I killed them," he hissed with venom in his tone, "I made sure their deaths were slow and deserving."
She felt his coldness tensing in his lap, "How. . .?"
"Gertrude was first, while she was in the middle of fucking me I had a hidden knife under the pillow, took it, and stabbed her through the throat. She tried so hard to run away but I guess going against four years of bodybuilding didn't go too well for her. I stabbed her multiple times then took her body out into the woods and let the walkers have her.
"A few days later, I told Dakota of my incident and was dying to get revenge against the Burning Roses and so were a few of my friends. His dad was all for it too, but when I got back to my group it turned out that Onyx was spying on us then, three days later, Dakota's father was assassinated by Onyx orchestrated by Bates. This is when I knew he had to go too.
"By this time Dakota didn't want to waste time on this rebellion, when he led us into our first battle we saw that Bates wasn't leading the Burning Roses, Onyx was. As we fought, Dakota went straight for Onyx, he wanted to make him pay for what he did to his father and me," tears welled up in eyes as he began to cry, "I told him not to do it, he was too strong but he was so persistent.
"Minutes later, I hear him scream, I ran to them as fast as I could but. . . it was too late.
"Onyx had stabbed him in the stomach and his wound was unfixable. The last thing he told me when I held on to his hand is that he never stopped loving me after everything I did, it was then I found the meaning of a true relationship; the key was love. After that. . . he died right there in my arms."
Moo sniffled wiping away his tears looking down angrily, "I promised we were going to end this war and they were going to burn in hell starting with Onyx.
"He wanted me dead as much as I did so he was brave enough to chase me away from the warfare all the way to the woods. I ended up leading him to a special place just for him. He thought he had me cornered but the spot stood on he landed straight into a ditch, this gave me enough time to drop off his worst fear: snakes. I dropped at least two dozen angry timber rattlesnakes, they didn't seem to mind me for some reason. Anyway, dropped the snakes and you just don't know how satisfying his screams were when those snakes coiled around him biting him every place they could. One rattlesnake bite can kill someone around roughly thirty minutes without medical treatment so imagine all that snake venom just running through his veins."
Violet shivered at the thought.
"Not even fifteen minutes later and he was already dead.
"I took matters into my own hands with even some members of the Burning Roses switching on my side. Storm was very iffy about the rebellion if it meant killing Bates, I never knew why though since he was so awful.
"After weeks of preparing we finally struck back and this battle went hundreds of times better than the last one. We ended taking out almost every soldier, saving kidnapped kids, and burned the whole place, kinda cool.
"When I found Bates, he looked so helpless but wasn't backing out of our fight. I ended up beating him in combat since he was so injured and weak. He begged me not to kill him and said that the Burning Roses could be mine if I let him live; the manipulations were done for me. When I refused he spat at me saying that I couldn't kill him, I was the same harmless runt he raised me from being all these years.
"At that point, I had enough of his shit then ripped out his throat with my teeth throwing off a ledge to let him suffer. That was the end.
"Everyone was so excited that we won but Storm was so distraught when she found out I killed Bates, I'm still questioning to this day why she acted like that, guess I'll never know.
"After the rebellion, people begged me to stay and lead the group, I decided to take advantage of my freedom and go back to Charlottesville. Storm also wanted to come along since I was all she knew, then we left leaving someone else as leader and that was that.
He turned to Violet smiling at her sheepishly while her jaw dropped couldn't believe what she just heard.
Moo's story was like a tragedy nonetheless, if not worse. There was so much he had gone through she couldn't imagine the pain he still had from keeping all those horrific memories in. If there was a way to go back in time she would just save him from the bullshit and trauma he was put through, wondered how could he keep all of it in without falling into insanity with no one to comfort him, it just amazed her.
She hugged him tighter resting her head on his shoulder, "I'm so sorry that happened to you."
"Don't be," he kissed her forehead, "I'm alive, mamá and Cobra are safe, and I have you back in my life. I made it back from hell and that's all that matters."
She rested easily in his arms while he watched everyone from below partying without a care in the world. He felt a bit bad that this date wasn't as exciting as the party, if not the opposite, he was quite scared of what Violet thought of him after what he had told her.
But it wasn't too late, he still had things he had planned, things to show her, something to take her mind off his tragic past.
"The night's still young," he reminded her, "I got something cool I wanna show you."
She looked at him in confusion, "What is it?"
He chuckled getting up from the chair, "You'll see."
He grabbed her hand leading her to the darkroom that they always went to when they went on the balcony. Violet was kind of curious to see what Moo wanted to show in here since it was always pitch black or why would he always keep it like this.
Moo then flipped a switch which brightly lit up the whole room. Violet was almost caught off guard when the light glared in her face before blinking at all the things that were all over the room.
She saw workout equipment on one side of the room while the other side was scattered with beautiful lively paintings of people along with some colorful portraits of wolves. She couldn't help but make her way to one of the paintings as she picked up one gazing at it in awe.
"Did you. . . did you make these?" she asked breathlessly tracing her fingers over the person in the painting.
He nodded, "Helps take my mind off the stressful shit, one of my favorite hobbies besides working out."
She turned to a picture of her when she was younger, "This one's really cute," she giggled picking it up, "It's like looking into a mirror that makes me look like a kid again."
"It's one of my favorites," he smiled then pointed to another painting of her only this time it was a portrait of her when she was older.
She stared at it for a moment realizing that this painting had to be recent since they only knew each other as kids back then. But something was a bit off, he painted her into having long beautiful hair, a tattoo of roses on the side of her neck, and her face was almost as if it was a model's, it was familiar but Violet thought he had made her too beautiful.
"This is supposed to be me?" she said hesitantly.
"Yeah, I imagined what you would look like when you were older back when I first got this apartment," he traced the face, "Seem like I captured most of your beauty, don't you think?"
She had to admit it did look like her if she hadn't been in the accident. She almost asked why the expression was so.... seductive but kept quiet for now focusing on the other paintings.
She saw large portraits of his mother and Cobra, some of Storm, Sophie, and Izzy, a few more of her and Moo together when they were younger, and a few other with a guy she didn't recognize with a large gray wolf beside him. He had bright brown skin, long dark hair that hung past his shoulders, his face was bony but helped revealed more of his strikingly handsome face along with his unique ocean green eyes. He wore the same black coat Moo wore and the wolf necklace that hung down on his chest.
She picked up a smaller one of him showing it to Moo, "Who's this?"
He touched it frowning sadly at it, "Dakota."
She widened her eyes quickly putting it down, "Oh shit, I'm—"
"No it's fine," he picked it back up giving a half smirk, "This was him when we first met," he then slid his finger over to the wolf, "This was his wolf, Anita, Smokey's mom."
"She's pretty," she complimented, "What happened to her?"
"She was sick so was most of her third litter, Smokey was the only survivor through it all."
"It really was sweet of him to give Smokey to you considering he was all he had left of Anita."
He sighed, "I know."
She turned her eyes to Dakota not taking her eyes off him. She saw that he was very attractive as much as Moo, it was almost like they could be mistaken for a celebrity couple.
"Dakota, um, he was a good-looking dude," she said shyly starting to blush to have nothing else to say.
He giggled sheepishly, "He was, wasn't he?"
Along with the lining of the paintings of Dakota, there were more of the same kind of paintings he made picturing her future self. She walked over to some just looking at them disappointedly. Was this how Moo really pictured her? A beautiful blonde that all the guys would chase after?
Or was this how he wanted her to look?
She walked over to a larger portrait just staring at it solemnly while she couldn't stop thinking about how this was what Moo expected her to look like.
I must be a big disappointment.
As she kept looking she jumped at the touch of large hands going over her shoulders squeezing them gently.
"Something's bothering you," he whispered not knowing what.
She looked down shuffling her feet, "Is this really what wanted me to look like?"
Blinked at such a question, "What are you talking about?"
"I mean these paintings are so beautiful but is this. . . this was how you wanted me to look, wasn't it?"
"Vi, I made these when I thought you were dead," he explained, "How could've known you were alive back then?"
"I know that Moo, but. . . when you saw me again did you ever think that I wasn't the girl you asked for?"
He sighed knowing insecure the blonde was, he knew never thought anything like when were friends, and even when they got together.
He gently grabbed her hand turning her to face him as he gave a serious look looking into each other's eyes.
"I didn't care all about that," he told her, "All cared about is you being here with me again, something I thought would happen," he touched her giving her a loving smile, "You're everything that I wanted, Vi, don't you understand? Who cares about my imaginary pictures of you anyway, you're beautiful either way, besides you can't beat the real thing."
She took a moment to comprehend all what he just said and slowly take it to heart. Insecurities just kept getting in the way of her relationship to the point where it started to consume her. Her mind had ease at the fact that Moo loved her for her, not for just her looks.
That was one of the main reasons why she loved him back, not because he was an attractive guy, but because she loved him for him just as much as he did for her.
She smiled widely at him grabbing his hands, "Glad you feel that way."
"You know I'll always love you for you, sunshine," he said kissing her forehead.
She grinned shyly looking down to her feet anxiously, she then blinked almost forgetting to give him the present she made for him a while back when they first hooked up. She thought maybe this was the perfect time to give it to him now since all the other times weren't the best.
"I, um, I made this for you," she dug through her breast pocket pulling out a pin like hers only the pin was a little cartoon picture of a wolf in the middle of a stary.
When she handed it to him he observed then smiled happily instantly falling in love with it.
"It's very nice," he chuckled still looking at it.
She looked up at him nervously, "So you'll never forget the one together we had."
He clipped it under the right side of his breast pocket looking back at her, "And I never will," Moo then gave her a small frown, "I'm sorry I didn't get you anything, everything was just so last minute."
Violet gawked at that, "Didn't get me anything?! You gave me this homemade dress, literally brought back my childhood dream, you opened up to me, and, on top of that, you put on this amazing date, what could more could I ask for?"
He shrugged, "I dunno."
"Don't stress it, Moo, you gave me plenty of gifts."
He rubbed his arm looking away, "Well. . . uh. . . I did have another thing in mind since we haven't done it in a while."
She cocked her head, "What is it?"
Blood started to rush to his cheeks, "D-do you h-have the time for a. . . uh. . . d-dance?"
He almost felt stupid by the sight of her expression as she looked quite shocked at the request, but then her face instantly switched to joy.
"Of course I do," she chuckled making him sigh in relief, "but where though?"
He grabbed her hand leading her back outside with the sky now turning a star-filled wasteland. He thought this was the most perfect spot for the grand finale of this date.
"I thought it was a good idea if we could dance out here," he held out his hand, "What do you say?"
She grabbed his hand as he slowly pulled her in, "I can deal with that."
They slowly started by Moo carefully swaying her hips while she grabbed hold of his shoulders. He moved her from side to side along with a small twirl then pulled her back in.
"I see you've gotten better," she giggled.
"Only for the best."
As they continued to dance Moo just couldn't take his eyes off her, the shining stars and the bright moon illuminated her gorgeous features while she stared back at him getting lost in his eyes. His steps got slower and stiffer as he continued gazing into the blonde's beauty with his heart beginning to speed up. Violet's heart leaped to when Moo rested his forehead against her their eyes meeting each other's and lips barely an inch away.
She nearly jumped by the touch of his lips gently pressing against hers but wasted no time to deepen their kiss. His hand leisurely slid down to her lower back as he pulled her in closer. His tongue then slipped into her mouth with inserting hers but his ultimately dominated hers in a second.
As they kissed passionately, Moo had back her up into the current room then laid her down on her back continuing their kiss. She moaned at the touch of Moo's knee pressed between her legs as it rested there for the time being. He then rubbed gently before he grunted in the slight satisfaction of her soft touch and sounds.
He realized he couldn't take it anymore, he couldn't heathe Storm or Sophie's words any longer, they were out anyway.
He just had to have her.
He then pulled with a thick thread of saliva between them, and before Moo could say anything Violet was the one to speak first.
She bit her lip staring at him lustfully, "Take me to your bedroom, I think I'm ready."