"It was over one hundred years ago, Celina!" Corey laughed, "There's no reason to be mourning their deaths. I think you need to pack up the disks and send them off to good-will or something."
"Or," Celina held up her finger, signaling an idea although her friend couldn't see her through the phone, "Or I can forget about the first RDR and play Red Dead Redemption two again."
She could practically hear her best friend, Corey roll his eyes, "You got through the second game in a week, it's a massive game, that's not ok."
It was her turn to roll her eyes as she chewed absentmindedly on her fingernail, "I was on vacation, what else was I supposed to do?"
There was a moment of silence, "Go out with friends and enjoy your life?"
"Eh," Celina huffed, "I do that enough, plus, I had to see how Dutch used to be and I just love Arthur."
"They're dead, Celi,"
"Shut up." Her bottom lip stuck out in a childish pout. "I'm not talking to you anymore." A smile made it's way onto her face, she was twenty-three years old, it's not like she was truly prepared to be that petty.
There was a chuckle from the other end of the line, "You just think that Dutch is sexy."
"Well, yea," she rolled her eyes, "And Arthur."
Corey laughed, "Dutch is pretty much in sane."
She shrugged, staring at the tv and moving to grab RDR2, "He wasn't always like that."
"I know..." There was silence on Corey's end for a moment, "Are you gonna get your cute butt over here? Or are you going to gush over them and forget to come to the birthday party I have scheduled for you innn..." His voice trailed off, "Thirty minutes."
Celina laughed, "I'll be there in five." Without saying goodbye she hung up the phone, giving up on playing the latest game for the time being. She stood up from her chair and leaned back, cracking her back before heading to the restroom.
She used to have a crush on Corey, that was, until he came out as gay, then any point in having the crush of course was forced to disappear. Other than him, all of the guys she wished she could have had been dead and gone for about one hundred years. It sucked, living in 2018, but, it was what it was. Still, there was nothing like a handsome cowboy or classy man.
She was already dressed for her twenty-third birthday party and really, having a party didn't matter to her. It really seemed like it was more for her friends. Not that she would ever tell them that.
Celina studied herself in the mirror for a moment, running her fingers through her long black hair which hung down just past her boobs. Her make-up was minimal but perfect, perfectly accenting her blue eyes. She applied some lip gloss hastily and then she was out the door and making her way down the hall of her apartment.
After a short walk down the hall to Corey's place, Celina pushed open the door dramatically, "I'm here, bitches!" Only, no one was there, the blue-eyed girl rolled her eyes for what felt like the twentieth time that day and made her way further into the room, "You guys, you're seriously hiding from me? This is so immature, not like it's a surprise party, punks." Her brows furrowed when no one came out of their hiding places, "Guys?"
"This is a robbery, don't do anything stupid and we won't do anything unkind." The lights were flicked off then, leaving the room in darkness. She could hear footsteps approaching her, spurs rattling with each step. "Ok," she laughed, "Which one of you are pretending to be Bill Williamson? Because you got the wrong character."
"Damn it, Sean," The lights flicked on to reveal Sean, her best friend Courtney's boyfriend dressed in western attire, standing right beside her. "I told you that she wasn't into Bill."
Sean ducked his head a bit, somewhat disappointed, his cowboy hat falling off with the movement, making Celina snicker and pat his shoulder, "I appreciate you trying."
She looked around the room, almost busting a gut with laughter, "You guys!" To her utter amusement, everyone in the room was wearing stick-on mustaches and cowboy hats, "D-don't you guys think this is a bit much?"
They all laughed, Clark running his hands through his thick, brown hair and then rubbing at his fake moustache, "Are you saying our efforts are going unappreciated?" He challenged her, a humorous look in his brown eyes.
Celina shook her head and looked over to Courtney and Corey, watching as Courtney picked at her own stick on mustache. The blonde suddenly perked up, looking at the three guys in the room, "Why don't we start the night with gifts?"
A look of excitement passed through the four of them which did not go unnoticed. Celina wondered what they had done for her as far as gifts- not that that truly mattered. However, she would be lying if she claimed that their shared look hadn't sparked her interest. She smiled at them, "What did you guys do? I hope you didn't spend a lot on me."
"Please, Celina, Clark is rich. I would be offended if he didn't get me something nice." Corey snickered, looking at the football player. "You got her something nice, didn't you Clark?"
Clark swallowed almost nervously and looked to the other three who were obviously in on the surprise, "It is a gift from the four of us. I'm just hoping you'll like it."
"I'm sure I'd like anything you guys got for my." Excitement began to fill her voice, "Now what is it?"
Sean sucked in a sharp breath, "It's something none of us are supposed to have."
Celina's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "What did you guys get me or do? This Red Dead Redemption theme is cool, but you didn't rob a bank or something, did you?"
Her four friends laughed, "Well, no, not exactly." Clark scratched his head. "You see, I have money, and I know people. I, err..."
She felt her pulse begin to quicken and her eyes widened, "What did you guys do?"
"It was Courtney's idea." Sean pointed to his girlfriend accusing.
"Ok?" Celina watched as Corey went into his bedroom and quickly returned with a kind of small wooden box, "This is to let you know how much we all love you." He walked over to the couch and set the box on the coffee table instead of handing it to her, smiling at the confused look on her face, "You're going to want to sit down for this."
Celina almost cautiously walked over to the couch and sat down, staring at the box intently as everyone else sat down. "Say," she looked around at everyone, "This isn't a joke right? Nothing's going to pop out and scare the crap outta me?"
They all shook their heads, Clark chuckling, "I hope to God not.."
With a deep, calming breath, Celina opened the box, the object creaking loudly as the lid was lifted backwards on its hinge. When she saw what was inside, her heart felt like it had stopped... It was something that she recognized all too well... "No.." She gasped, shaking her head as she carefully picked up the tarnished object, "There's no way."
Her friends stared at her, nervous looks on their faces although each of them held hope that she would believe it was what it was and not by any means, a replica. At least, it hadn't been advertised to any of them as a replica.
"It's... It's his..." Celina turned the old pocketwatch over in her hand, studying every detail of it, it looked like it had stopped ticking around a hundred years ago. "This-" Celina swallowed, "This belongs in a museum... how, why? If..."
The group was nearly silent, they had gotten away with what they had done, but would Celina accept it? They thought she would but with the look on her face they each started to think perhaps they had misjudged her. It was Clark who spoke up again, "We saw it and knew you'd love it. I know it's a lot and no real reason to go all out like this but... we wanted to. We thought we could do it, and it was exciting, plus a plus for you."
Her voice almost shook with a mixture of emotions, "How did you obtain this?"
"Like I said, I know a lot of people and I have money. You'd be surprised what people are willing to do for money."
"So you guys thought it was ok to have this stolen."
Courtney chewed on her bottom lip, "Don't you like it? We know how you feel about theft but we thought considering what it is-"
"-Dutch's pocketwatch.. I know what it is. I'd recognize it anywhere." She licked her lips, staring at the precious object and feeling emotionally torn. "But you still did this knowing how I feel about theft."
"But why are you so against it? You love the Van Der Linde gang and they're a bunch of thieves." It was Sean who spoke, obviously being the one of the group who didn't 'know'.
Tears pricked at Celina's eyes and she shook her head, she had told the other three but never Sean. Knowing Sean, he would try to make her feel better and she didn't need that. "But thanks you guys," a small genuine simile graced her lips, "I know you didn't steal it yourself and I appreciate this," She clutched it tightly in her right hand, "I love it. But I can't imagine how much this cost you nor the drive to do it."
Clark laughed and stated what may have been his reason bluntly, "We needed some excitement." He scratched his fake moustache, "But, there should be sometging else in there too."
Celina dug through the wood shavings until she felt another cold, hard metal object. She laughed with joy as she pulled it out, "A flask of his, I assume?" She tilted it and studied the equally tarnished item in appreciation. Never saw this before but I'll believe it."
The night had went faster than expected, Celina being moderately drunk by the time she returned to her apartment. She was tired but she wanted to get at least started with her second play-through of RDR2.
Carefully she popped the disk into her XBox One and sat on the edge of her chair as her favorite story in history began.
It was the opening scene, right before Arthur was volunteered to go and help look for John in the snowstorm when Celina dared to drink from the tarnished flask she assumed was Dutch's. She had refused to do so at the party, despite the fact Corey had filled it for her... She just, didn't think it was clean enough to drink from, now, she was willing to say 'screw it' and take her chances with the taste that would invade her mouth.
Putting the flask to her lips, she tipped her head back and took a swig, forcing the liquid down when she realized how badly the tarnished flask ruined the drink.
That, was about when the weird things began to happen, the tv screen began to break up the picture terribly, the frame rattling, making Celina rush to eject the disc from the Xbox. Only when it opened, the disk was gone.
At the sound of a loud winding sound that filled the room, she looked to where she had set Dutch's pocketwatch on the tv stand to see the hands on it winding backwards at an incredibly rapid pace.
Despite herself, Celina grabbed the pocketwatch and stared down at the hands in horror as the hands moved faster and impossibly faster. With the object still clutched in her hands, she watch in disbelief as everything her surrounding turned purely white.
...
There's the first chapter, let me know if I should continue this story please. I love Arthur and Dutch but haven't finished RDR2. I also don't know if anyone else has the hots for them like I do. But feedback would be appreciated. There will be spoilers in this and I will write as I continue to play. Currently at the 35%- ish mark.
This will be an Arthur Morgan/ OC / Dutch Van Der Linde story since I just love them both so much!
Hope you guys enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own RDR or anythimg associated with it.