"I forgot how childish we could be," laughed Drew, his voice thick with his usual Scottish accent. His laughter only grows when he sees JD and Finn racing each other on the assault course just beyond the boundaries of the kid's park. Within the park, Damian was swinging back and forth on one swing while Aleister was standing on another next to him, both cheering Finn and JD on as they raced each other. Corey and Punk seemed content going down the slides, commenting they'd gotten stuck as they neared the bottom. On the other hand, Miz sat idly on a large seesaw as if waiting for someone to join him while Dean and Seth sat atop the tiny playhouses above the climbing frame bridges.
"Y'all ridiculous," commented Jey upon joining the group with Jimmy. As he did, Drew joined Miz on the seesaw, both instantly turning into preschoolers again. "Can I join?" he added moments later, running over to the turn table and dragging Jimmy with him.
"It's like y'all only act like adults around your girls," commented Jimmy, helping to spin the table faster, an unspoken bet between him and Jey to see who could hold on the longest or topple over first when they finally stopped spinning.
"Have you met our girls?" asked Aleister as he swung back and forth, gripping the chains tightly to prevent falling off. "Cross would be on the trampoline seeing how high she can jump while gripping her energy drink," he laughed, knowing Cross too well to know she wouldn't pass up the opportunity to indulge her childish side, even if they were just at a park. "Pretty sure Demon would be hanging upside down from the monkey bars, pulling faces by now," he added quickly after glancing around the small park.
"Rhea would be making angels in the bark as well," added Finn, recalling the last time the Darklings had gone to a similar park; Damian had gotten so dizzy on the sticks that he had fallen out the gate. JD had challenged and lost to Cross on the rock climbing unit; while Echo had gotten wet going down the slide, she'd not noticed the puddle at the bottom. Finn had settled for making sandcastles in the sandpit while Aleister had gotten stuck in a plastic tube, much to Cross's amusement. Eventually, they'd gotten him free.
"Damo, you asked Brie to prom yet?" called JD, upon sitting on a bench to rest before continuing the course.
"That's cute," commented Jimmy again, noticing the couplings for prom—how most were within the large group, romantic couples and friendly pairings. "Y'all plan that out or something?" he asked, wondering if it was all a coincidence or if they planned it out so everyone had someone they trusted. "Wait, yo Rollins, you going with Demon? Campaigning for prom king and whatnot," he added suddenly, realizing there had been nothing on the front of prom dates when it came to Echo and Seth, even when Seth had quietly campaigned for the pair to be king and queen.
"He's working up the courage to ask her to prom and give him another chance," replied Dean from the top of the bigger playhouse.
"I'm gonna ask AJ to marry," spoke Punk from the slide he'd since gotten stuck halfway down. Between chuckles as he tried to free himself. "Got the ring and everything," he added, recalling Seth going with him, the pair sharing a heart-to-heart, talking about the hopes of the future and regrets of the past.
"Sounds daft, but I'm glad none of you let Roman win," called Jey, his words muddled as he and Jimmy stepped from the turn table, stumbling in different directions. One falls over the wooden borders of the sandpit while the other into the hammock swing. "Y'all stronger together," he added again with muddled words as he tried to focus on the clouds above and push the nausea away. His thoughts turned to Rhea soon enough as he wondered again why she'd chosen him over all others. Damian, he understood now, the Archer of Infamy had a different date in mind, but Finn or another she trusted.
"Speaking of the baby daddy," voiced Jimmy, "I see three of him heading this way. " He added with uncertainty as if trying to determine the real Roman and the dizzy hallucinations.
"Probably because Baby Momma's with the girls," called Dean from his spot, like the others not moving to greet nor even acknowledge Roman. Instead, the lunatic prepared himself for the confrontation inbound. After all, Roman had little else to lose at this point, or so they thought. At the same time, the boys displayed that they were unaware of the act between Serenity and Roman, an act the group of ladies had figured out and told Serenity about as much.
"Can we talk? " Roman said as he roughly pulled the yellow-painted gate open, all but slamming it behind him as if to signal he was trapping each of them inside the area with him. His focus, however, was on Seth and Dean sitting above, both looking down as if expecting something or looking for an explanation for the shared feeling of unexplained terror. "See if we can get things back on track," he added, not elaborating further. Once again, trying to leave things ambiguous as if hoping the two would fall into his trap and lead the rest into it.
"Nope," replied Dean, once again taking notice when Seth remained silent, almost as if his silence was in defiance or a form of rebelling against what was now a distant memory.
"Talk about what?" asked Seth, his calm tone tinted with unresolved anger and frustration. "You're determination to destroy, the pain you caused, the lack of apologies, or the act you played on us both?" he added, his tone turning deadly serious now. A shadow of a grin appeared across his lips upon glancing at the hill he and Echo had fallen and rolled down.
"I don't owe anyone an apology," retorted Roman, hearing Finn scoff somewhere in the background,
"Summer, Finn, Echo, Becky, Seth," listed Dean.
"His apology would mean nothing to me," called Finn, suspecting it wouldn't mean anything to Summer either. "Summer is more likely to throw her favorite shoe at him than accept whatever he makes up," he added, receiving a few chuckles in response, most likely from those who could imagine the scene unfolding.
"We should have locked this lot in a room together," Miz said, knowing there would have been fireworks, but at least it would have solved the problems faster.
"With the way our prince is glaring murder at the big dog, are you crazier than AJ," asked Damian, slowing coming to a stop, while Aleister had jumped from the swing and stood protectively at the end of the small bay. "Locking the girls in there would have ended with a cludo murder," he added, receiving chuckles from the Uso's as if they could imagine the who-done-it mystery.
"There's nothing to fix," commented Seth, again clarifying his stance. "He wants the old traditions back, I wanna keep it how it is, he wants to lie, cheat, and the popularity no one cares for outside school, and all I want is Echo. He became my enemy the moment he took away what I abandoned the old ways for, the moment he revealed our brotherhood was nothing more than a means to get what he wanted," elaborated Seth, an ire of sadness now as he remembered the times when he thought the brotherhood was legit when they were thick as thieves. Now, everything had changed; the close bond he, Dean, and Roman had once shared was a memory of the past. He was working to get Echo back once more. However, he'd already prepared himself for rejection and the possibility Echo would choose to walk away after all the pain, ending the possibility of happiness between them.
"You'd throw all that we had away for some girl," called Roman, frustrated neither abandoned their higher ground to talk face to face, even more so when he was forced to confront them in front of the others, making it impossible to enact his plan to sway them over.
"Why not? You did," replied Dean in a flash. "She was going to be your queen when you got your precious popularity, wasn't she? Just like she wanted. Seth and I would've been what, your loyal dogs, dating two random girls whose priorities extended to fashion trends, celebrity gossip, and attending some random parties," he commented with spite dripping through his voice as if a deadly poison. "What about what we wanted? Did you stop to think about that? Did you even care as long as you got what you wanted?"
"My priorities never changed, even when you threw it all away for some freak," retorted Roman with his voice raised. "Did you ever stop and think about what Echo wanted? If she wanted to be in the spotlight? Did you ever think maybe you were to blame for her pain? You did cheat on her after all," added the Samoan, ignoring one of the others in the background warning him to stop. "And what about you, Dean? Did you ever think about what Renee wanted? If she wanted to be a part of a group destined to collapse? Do you think about what she wants now? Have you even bothered to ask her?"
"Yes, actually, I have asked what she wanted; I've always put her before anything else, including you. You may think our family was meant to fail, but you also ignored that most of us were friends in some form or another before; most of us had some connection to one another before our family became the norm. Ney was friends with Nikki, AJ, and Echo before all of it. We all knew of Finn and Aleister creeping through the shadows of the terror twins; no one could mistake Cross for someone else. Maryse and Carmella knew everyone, no matter their social standing," replied Dean, pointing out the obvious Roman had neglected to notice. All of them were connected before their family came together, but only back then did none of them have the confidence to be who they wanted to be, outside the Darklings at least.
"Echo isn't some freak, Roman; she's my demon. Given a chance, I do it all over again, only this time with the knowledge one of my best friends was a two-faced bastard," spoke Seth, "I took responsibility for what I did to cause her pain; it killed me every day she was gone, but I accepted it knowing I deserved it, knowing the pain I felt was just as fraction of what she was going through. Knowing what I know, I can't blame her for how she reacted; I consider myself lucky she didn't go on the warpath; you should, too, considering everyone involved would have paid the price."
"Your jig is up, Tribal Chief," worded Corey from the slides, still trying to free Punk from where he'd gotten wedged. "Girls figured out your act, confronted your shallow queen," he added, pulling on Punk's arm with the help of Drew and Miz. The voice of the voiceless only laughing at his predicament. "They're not on the outs, just acting so one could get into the good graces."
"Forget that," called Finn urgently, reading over Becky's message. The message was simple: four words:"You, Seth, Punk, Hospital.""Something's happened; Becky's just sent a message telling me to get to the hospital with Punk and Seth," he added with haste, his eyes lighting up with concern; one by one, the urgency and seriousness fell on the instantly Seth's gut told him to call Echo, when he did his concern only grew, twisted into fear even when it rang until he got voicemail.
"You three go. We'll find out what happened and catch up," said Miz, just seconds before Punk was freed from the slide. He, Seth, and Finn soon ran from the park, heading toward the nearby parking lot where they'd all parked upon their earlier arrival.
"What did you do?" fumed Drew, suspecting Roman had a hand in whatever happened, in some form or another. "You or Serenity had something to do with this," he added as he reached for the collar of Roman's jacket, anger written across his face. "They better be alright. All of them better be; if not, they'll be hell to pay."
"Drew!" called JD from outside the park, finding it odd that he was the voice of reason. "He's not worth it, and you'll regret it."
"No, I won't," quickly replied Drew before pushing Roman backward, seething with anger. His agitation only grew upon Dean jumping down from the playhouse and Aleister appearing as if he'd teleported.
"There was a car accident," said Dean, reading the messages coming through from Renee. "Demon's car was run off the road by a pink Ford Fiesta, a Barbie car, as Ney put it," he added. Other messages suggested the others had also been hit but only suffered a slight scare or minor injuries. "All of the girls, minus Serenity, are at the local hospital,"
"Where's Serenity?" asked Roman, needing to know where she was and if she was alright. If their baby was okay. If she wasn't with them, then he questioned where she was, even more so when she hadn't mentioned any other plans outside of going dress shopping with the girls.
"Message her and find out," voiced Jimmy while Jey all but shooed the others away and followed them, no doubt to check up on Rhea. Roman did as instructed for the first time, pulling out his phone and firing a message to Serenity, feeling as if the seconds dragged out the longer it went unanswered, even when it hadn't been that long. However, Serenity didn't answer by text but instead with a phone call. There, she explained she'd bumped into old friends at the mall, admitting she was a part of the accident by commenting she was also heading to the hospital.
"She's a little shaken up, but okay. Waiting to be checked over by hospital staff," said Roman. By now, only Jimmy remained with him, the others having left to rejoin the girls at the medical center—even Jey had. They'd also focus on calming Seth, Finn, and Punk down. There was little doubt something was seriously wrong; there was no other reason for her to send such an urgent message. "She was with old school friends; their car must have been caught up in the accident," Roman concluded as if tricking himself into believing it and continuing to ignore the red flags showing.