© APRIL / 2024

FIVE MONTHS PRIOR

RAFE: No, no, no — please, dad. I can't. Please don't make me do it, dad. You don't understand, I love her. I couldn't — I'm not — Please —

WARD: Rafe, stop.

( Silence ensues, deafening. Rafe's eyes are glassy with tears, fat droplets clinging to his lower lash line. )

WARD: You know you don't have a choice, son. You can't just let her go, Rafe, not after she saw what you did —

RAFE: I only did it to protect you!

WARD: And now you need to protect yourself! If she says a goddamn word to anybody, you're done for. Done for, you understand? No more parties, no more money... no more nothing.

( Rafe inhales sharply. He looks down at his hands, knuckles dry from the amount of times he'd washed them in the past few hours. He scrubbed till his fingers were raw, an ugly, pulsing red, yet they still didn't feel like they'd ever be clean enough. He swears he can still see it, even after all of that, still smell it, the metallic, biting tang of spilled blood — )

RAFE: I can't do it, dad. You don't understand — I love her.

WARD: You love her more than you love yourself? More than you love me?

( Rafe shrugs. He can't meet his fathers gaze. He looks down at his hands, his trembling hands, his palms that still look as though they're still slick with red, still slippy with the crime he's committed — )

WARD: Rafe.

( Ward cradles Rafe's face, thumb soothing over his boys cheekbone. He tries to smile, tries to be reassuring, but his brows are furrowed and his eyes look pained. )

WARD: It's gonna be okay, son, alright? You just — you just gotta make sure that nothing gets in the way of that. You've got a good life ahead of you, Rafe, a fucking real good life. And you can't just let some — some girl fuck that up for you. Okay?

( Rafe's expression is nothing like Ward's ever seen before. For once, there's no crease between his brows, no scowl tugging on his features, no snarl pulling at his upper lip. For the first time, there's something far more terrifying, something that has a bubble of dread beginning to stir deep in Ward's chest, in the dark cavity he doesn't ever let himself dwell on: a look of absolutely nothing. )

( The blankness scares him. He doesn't recognise his son without the rage. Who is Rafe without his anger? )

( A moment lapses. Their eyes meet, a mirror of each other. Blue meets blue. Father meets son. )

( Killer meets killer. )

Rafe: Okay.

BRIAR CAMPBELL
GONE GIRL XVII ARIES     POGUE

RAFE CAMERON
XIX DADDY ISSUES CRAVES VALIDATION KOOK

ALSO FEATURING
CAIN CAMPBELL ♱
ROMAN CAMPBELL
LORETTA CAMPBELL

WARNINGS
substance abuse, toxic relationships,
violence, gore, blood, murder, manipulation

DEDICATIONS
deadboIts sunexits cainache 400luv
wxocann caelric bIedmoons chanelruiins

AUTHORS NOTE
she's bacckkkkk 😝 in my drew starkey era so bad rn like i'm seriously feeling physical pain over the fact i can't be with that man like whyyyyyyyyyyy :(

this is sort of a revival/revamp of a fic i wrote last year with the same sort of plot but just never finished (as per tbh) this is gonna be wayyy darker than anything i've written before, but i'm lowk excited??

also sorry you don't learn anything about briar like at all but that's kind of intentional like this is mainly gonna be from sort of rafe's perspective but that's kinda needed for her to maintain her mysterious aura guys just trust me on this one

oh and also i'm a firm believer in bleached buzzcut rafe so that's my own head cannon for him in this like he's such a douche you can't even say it's inaccurate bc it's not
so even though this aligns with season one-two i'm bringing forth bald rafe bc even tho i am a sucker for greasy bangs rafe nothing screams male manipulator like a buzzed, blonde head!!

anyways that's all
thank u for being here i will kiss all of u on the mouth