[color=dcdcdc][right][i]TW: IT'S A LIAM POST. IT'S FUCKED.[/i]
TIMESTAMP: Proceeds after Heroes & Villains[/right]
[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220714/182ba7be8ea505e4cc406c459db564a7.png[/img]
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/5bmDyxG.gif[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/81j01k4.gif[/img]
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[indent][indent]Wes really didn’t know what to make of it when he bumped into an aide of the Mayor earlier that day. He was asked to meet them on the corner outside Swerve Arcana so that he could talk with the head of the town that dreaded sundown. In Wesley’s investigative mind, the logical explanation was to think that Theodore had discovered his relationship with his youngest daughter and wanted to go through the whole father spiel of warning him to not put a wrong foot forward lest he face the consequences. Wes didn’t mind that, he believed he had enough warewithall to be able to talk on the same level as Mr Grimm. 

With his beloved camera in one hand, Wesley climbed into the black sedan with the blocked out windows without a second thought. He wasn’t going to back down, no matter what sort of thinly veiled threat Kylee’s father was going to throw at him. He loved that girl, in spite of everything that she may not know, he truly loved her. In the short time they had even been a thing, she had made him feel more alive than anything ever had before. He did wonder if she knew all of his secrets, if she would still be there by his side. He wondered…

Wes closed the door behind him and the car took off instantly. It did not speed, if anything it was a leisurely drive but the motion of the engine restarting still made him jump. He turned to face the man sitting on the other side of the back seat. Kylee held a lot of resemblance to her father with their dark features. He sat there, dressed in a fine black suit and gloves with a warm smile on his face, just like hers.

[color=666666]“Good Afternoon, Mr Silo. You know who I am?”[/color] The Mayor poised, his fingers interlocked together across his lap, the air around him carrying that aura of regality that he produced all the time. 

[color=E9F4C9]“Yes sir, Mayor Grimm.”[/color] Wes was not going to back down but that didn’t mean that he still wasn’t nervous. Meeting your girlfriend's father was always a big deal but for him? Well his girlfriend's old man just so happened to be the most powerful man in three counties. A man who not only ran a town or who owned multiple businesses but a man who was feared for a past he dare not speak on. He fiddled a little bit with his camera but never let his eyes stray away from Teddy.

[color=666666]“Correct. And who else am I?”[/color]

[color=E9F4C9]“Kylee’s father.”[/color]

[color=666666]“Correct again. I like this young man, Bash. He’s clever,”[/color] Teddy spoke to the man driving their car towards Milligan bridge and the growing dark cloud in the distance. The driver simply nodded his head as his pale blue eyes watched in the rear view mirror. Lifting his hands to his Windsor knot, the Mayor loosened the coal grey tie that his precious had picked out for him earlier that morning. [color=666666]“Now tell me, Wesley, if I can be so bold as to call you such….What are your intentions with my daughter?”[/color] It was a habit of his to pause or elongate sentences. In his current guide, many believed it to be for show, to enunciate. In reality, for those who recall days gone by, they would know that as a boy, Teddy Grimm suffered terribly from a stutter. He certainly did not stutter now, however…

[i]There it was![/i] The big bad daddy speech he was expecting. Wesley hadn’t had that many considering he never really had a serious girlfriend, something his sister never let him forget. That said, he had seen the movies, read the comics, he knew how it was supposed to go and someone like Teddy, who thrived on his power over people would not get to him. [i]No sir.[/i] [color=E9F4C9]“I have no ill intentions, sir. She makes me happy, the happiest I’ve been in a long time. In fact, probably the happiest I’ve ever been. Period. I’m falling in love with her.”[/color]

[color=666666]“Love? Well, isn’t that fascinating?”[/color] For the first time since Wes had climbed into his sedan, the look on the Mayor's face had transformed. The warm, inviting gaze of the man who had won the hearts and minds of the people of Edenridge Massachusetts had been replaced with a much more curious, not quite serious but stern enough look. [color=666666]“Love is built on a cornerstone of trust. It is the very foundation on which any strong relationship will take root and yet…I wonder if you trust my daughter, truly trust her. And if you do not trust her, then surely you do not love her?”[/color]

With a furrowed brow, the reporter looked at what could very well be his future father-in-law with confusion in his eyes. Where was the older man pulling this from? How could he question how he feels about Kylee? The two of them had never met before. There was no possible way Teddy could justify this opinion. [color=E9F4C9]“I don’t follow.”[/color]

The Serpent legend let out a hearty laugh. Loud and bellowing, with the sound bouncing off the black windows of the sedan. [color=666666]“Please, Wesley, you are a smart boy. Top of your class from Pinehurst Academy. GPA 4.0. Graduated 2016, went to Brown University, passed with flying colors there too, if I’m not mistaken? Journalism major right? Then you returned home and took up a position at the Pinehurst Echo. All that education. All that experience and yet you cannot follow the beautiful simplicity that is love.”[/color]

[color=E9F4C9]“I…I well…”[/color]

[color=666666]“Sh sh sh, Wesley, the grown up is talking.”[/color] He placed his hand on Wesley’s camera and took it away from him. [color=666666]“You see, I am aware that you were released from your contract at the Echo for reporting fake news that you yourself cooked up to drive paper sales, website likes and subscriptions and to get your little self noticed.”[/color] Once again, Teddy's face morphed accordingly. In place of his frown was now a cold, blank and completely detached glare. [color=666666]“I am also aware that your older brother has bailed you out of more financial holes than you would care to even dwell on. I know who your family is in debt to and I know what you have been doing behind my little girl's back. I know you are helping the one sending the letters.”[/color] The Reaper’s voice had transmuted into a machine gun, his words like bullets bluntly hitting their target. 

With every statement of his hidden past now coming to light, a wave of panic began to wash over Wes. [color=E9F4C9]“Where are we going?!”[/color] He looked out of the blackened windows — they were not in Edenridge anymore. The realisation that there was no escape hit the reporter like a ton of bricks. The doors were locked; there was no way he could break a window. He finally realised that this wasn’t just a father warning his daughter’s boyfriend to get her home before dark. It was the look in Teddy’s eyes that gave it away. This was a Reaper who came to collect a soul. [color=E9F4C9]“I…I had to! I had to,”[/color] He professed, gripping into the inside door handle. [color=E9F4C9]“Ky is innocent in all this. I’d never hurt her!”[/color]

[color=666666]“And I will not give you the chance to.”[/color] Calmly, Teddy took the camera he was holding and smashed it against Wes’s skull several times, right above his left eye. He dropped the camera and used his superior size to pin Wes down as his gloved hands wrapped around the young man’s throat. [color=666666]“She is the very air I breathe!”[/color] The Reaper hissed. [color=666666]“My precious!”[/color] As Wesley’s face began to turn red and his lips blue, Teddy tightened his grip. [color=666666]“You lied to her. As any good father would, I cannot allow that to happen again!”[/color]

Wes gripped at Teddy’s hand around his throat but the older man was much larger and stronger. The angle at which he was pinned down made it extremely difficult for him to get any leverage at all as the Mayor pressed his full imposing weight down on top of him. He could feel his skin beginning to burn as he struggled. His blood vessels burst, as the air was squeezed out of his lungs. The blood seeping from the huge gash on his forehead was beginning to obstruct Wesley’s vision. Through the crimson mass covering his face, the young reporter gasped for breath, the only thing he could see were those beautiful brown eyes, the same ones that belonged to his love, Kylee.

[color=E9F4C9][i]Kylee, I’m so sorry.[/i][/color]

After several moments, Wesley Silo’s body went limp in the Reaper's hands. With their chests pressed together, the Mayor could no longer feel the boy's heartbeat, the air no longer flowing from his mouth or nose. Teddy leaned back in his chair, finally releasing Wes from his grasp. He took out the handkerchief from his suit pocket and lightly dabbed dry the damn perspiration around his mouth. 

[color=666666]“It is truly a great shame that ruin will descend upon this town like the fires of Pompeii but it must be done, our boy here has seen to that. Eden will fall to rise again….Bash, let Julian know we are coming, would you, darling?”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]