#w:amom

[river-phillips]

When the Bough Breaks | Solo

River sat crossed legged on her bed, two items sitting out in front of her on her crisp blankets. One was the note from Rye, which sat unfurled, silently instructing her to call her mom. It had been something she’d been contemplating doing for weeks now, some of her anger fading and being replaced by a need for the sort of comfort only her mother could give her. But nothing had really pushed her over the edge, not even her conversation with Iann about needing answers, until she’d gotten this note out of the blue.

The other item was her laptop, skype open full screen on it, her mouse pointer hovering over her mom’s contact. She hadn’t found the nerve to click yet, her stomach in knots inside of her, curling in on itself in a way that made her want to just crawl inside of herself and die rather than deal with what was making her feel this way. But a few deep breaths served to dull the discomfort, if only slightly. 

She’d meticulously cleaned her room, even the parts her mom wouldn’t see in the video call. Partially because she felt like her mom would just know something was amiss if the whole room wasn’t clean, and also she’d been using it as an excuse to put off calling for the past 2 hours, cleaning a bit, then noticing something out of place once she sat down, having to clean for another 20 minutes before sitting down again and continuing the cycle over and over. But everything was clean and organized now. She had no more excuses.

With another deep breath, she jabbed her finger into her trackpad and the familiar skype ringback tone played. With each ring that passed without her mom picking up, she slowly lost her nerve, until suddenly the ringing stopped, and she was face to face with her mom.

Both of them sat there for a moment, completely speechless at seeing one another on their screens. But River broke the silence first, a rare occurrence for her, especially around her outgoing mother.

“Hey ma. How are you?”

“I’m doing...okay. What about you, sweetie?”

River could tell her mom was picking her words carefully, as if tiptoeing around a sleeping bear that could wake up and maul her at any moment. After their last conversation, River couldn’t exactly blame her. She probably saw this as a second chance she was determined not to screw up.

“I’m good. I got a job at a gym and I’m rooming with a really cool dude. Look at this room!” She picked up the laptop and gave her mom a quick look around the space, glad she’d cleaned beforehand.

“That’s great, sweetheart! I’m glad you’re settling in.” The tone was clearly forced. Their last conversation she’d pled with her daughter to come home. She was anything but glad.

River plopped the laptop back in front of her on the bed. “Are you really?”

“...Of course.”

“Don’t lie to me, Ma.”

A beat. Her mom pushed a breath through her nose, hanging her head a little before looking back up at River on the screen. Their eyes didn’t meet, but it felt as if they were boring right into her. “I’m scared for you, River. I’ve wanted to call you for weeks, but I was....respecting your wishes.” 

River remembered the ultimatum and felt sick to her stomach with how cruel she’d been.

“Ma, I need to ask you some stuff, and I need you to be honest with me, okay?” She stared right into the webcam so her mom could feel the intensity through the screen. “I’m not giving up on this, we both know that, so keeping things from me is only going to make it harder for me to stay safe." She glanced down at the screen, where she saw her mom nod silently. 

“What do you know about Leeman Calloway?”

Her mom had clearly seen the question coming, and the hesitation was apparent as it rippled across her face. But as a ripple does, it dissipated quickly, and River settled in to listen as her mom started talking. 

“As you know, I met your parents young. They helped me out of a tough situation...” Head down, staring at her hands on the desk. She could hear her mom picking at her nails. River had picked up a lot of her bad habits from her.

“Your uncle was a scumbag. I remember.”

“Well, the way they helped me was teaching me their ways, and I got good at what we did. We stole from the rich and...”

“If you say ‘gave to the poor’ I’m gonna barf.”

A small chuckle erupted from her mom’s throat. “No, we weren’t so noble. We squandered what we took, looking for thrills everywhere we went. But when Tony was born in 1980, things changed. Eventually we ended up in Soapberry. And that’s where we met Leeman. He was a rich kid that wanted a taste for danger, and we gave him that, letting him in on heists and teaching him how to fight in the underground. In exchange, he helped us out of legal trouble whenever we slipped up, because your parents wanted to raise you kids in Soapberry around your own kind, so we couldn’t just flee like usual.” The words were still strained, as if being squeezed out of a stubborn tube of toothpaste. Clinging to the nozzle in an a desperate attempt to stay hidden.

“Why not stop stealing then?” River’s voice had a little more ire than she’d meant. She could tell this was hard for her mom, but she didn’t correct herself. 

“We had nothing when we arrived. Spent it all down to the last cent like a bunch of hooligans. We were desperate.” Her mom leaned back in her chair, a defeat written in neon lights on her face. “It was no excuse, I understand that. We should have earned it honestly. We could have probably avoided all of this. But your parents were popping kids out so fast and they wanted you to want for nothing. It was easier to stick to what we knew.” The regret in her voice was heavy, weighing down her words as if they were sinking to the ocean floor to drown. “They did stop though, eventually. After the twins were born, they finally ‘retired’. I guess you could call it that.”

A long pause, as if her mom was reluctant to continue.

“...but?”

“But a few years later, with the lifestyle they insisted on keeping, they ran out of money again. They were too proud to ask, but not too proud to take.”

Another pause. Whatever she was hiding, it was a painful memory that her mom had to drudge up from the deep.

“What did they take? From who?” River had a feeling she knew at least one of the answers.

“We’d been to Calloway’s house so many times. It was an easy target. They’d cased it and knew it like the back of their hands. Knew his schedule down to the minute. They thought they could get away with it.” River could see her mom grinding her teeth between her words. “I wish I’d known what they were planning. Maybe I could have stopped them.”

“What did they take?” River insisted again.

“A pocket watch worth a lot of money. They figured he was so rich he wouldn’t miss it. But he’d shown it to me before. It was priceless to Leeman. A family heirloom imbued with powerful magic. Apparently it held memories of his ancestors, but when your parents touched it, the spell...fucked up somehow. Everything was erased.” 

“Wait....wait, wait, wait, a pocket watch? It was like gold and clear so you could see the inner workings and shit?” River’s illustrated a turning gear with her hands enthusiastically, her eyes wide with realization. Her mom nodded. “I found that watch in his house! In a glass case in the basement!” She rubbed the back of her head, remembering the feeling of her skull colliding with the concrete floor when she’d touched it, along with all the pain it had caused before it was destroyed. 

“Don’t tell me you touched it.” Her mom’s chiding was almost comforting. Some semblance of normality in this bizarre conversation.

“....Maybe.”

“River Iris....” Her mom shook her head. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Well, sorta. It made me....really angry. Violent even. I punched a friend so much her face looked like raw hamburger, sooooooo....” She hung her head a little. “But it also gave me a connection to him. I saw some of his memories, and I saw where he is now...kinda. It’s weird and hard to explain.” She held up a hand. “But it’s gone now. All the magic seemed to just like, drain out of it.”

“Wait, where he is now? You told me he was dead!” The same fear River had only heard over the phone last time they’d spoke was now staring at her through the computer screen, and seeing that sort of fear on her mom’s face was honestly one of the most unsettling things she’d ever seen. 

“Oops?” River shrugged, feigning innocence. “He faked his own death, apparently. And he looks like shit now, if that helps. Did not age gracefully.” But her jokes did nothing to calm her mom, so she put a hand on her chest, letting her face drop to a more serious expression. “Ma, listen, I know he scares you, but if I’m going to stop this, I have to find him. There’s no other way.”

Her mom looked as if she had something to say, but she let the words die on her lips, pursing them together and nodding.

River was desperate to move on though, her need for answers gnawing at her. “What I don’t get though is...if they stole the watch, how was it in the house again?”

When before her mom was heistant to speak, the words flowed freely out of her now, as if the need to supply River with as much knowledge as possible was suddenly her top priority. “He must have been setting you some emotional trap. Sneaky bastard. For a while everything was fine after they stole the watch. They sold the it off and were set for life, even with their crazy lifestyle. A year later you were born. Leeman was acting like everything was fine, though he was more distant. Don’t know if your parents realized, but I did.” At this she did pause, the hindsight in her eyes haunting to look at. “Then one day, your mother’s pelt was stolen, cut from her while she was sleeping. We all knew it was Leeman. Less than a week later, Victor was killed. Your parents tracked down the watch and tried to give it back to him, sneaking in and putting it back in the house. But it was too late...”

“...we were already cursed.” River could feel anger rising up in her, but she wasn’t even sure who to aim it toward anymore. It was just there, boiling under the surface. Her rage was too hot and confusing that it pushed any follow up questions she’d meant to ask out of her mind.

Her mom nodded. “That’s when they scattered you kids, and I got you.” A sad smile spread across the woman’s lips, and seeing that calmed River slightly. “Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking...you don’t have to call me mom anymore if it makes you uncomfortable. You can call me Jessica if you want.”

River’s brow furrowed, and she shook her head defiantly. “What?” Even if she was upset, felt betrayed, felt lost in this convoluted web of mistrust spun before she’d even been born, that thought had never crossed her mind. 

“No way. You raised me. You’re my mom.” 

#solo #arc:calloway #w:amom #//idk what happened to my read more the first time but i fixed it #also AHOY EXPOSITION DUMP

[river-phillips]

Moment of Truth | Solo

Leeman Calloway. Wendy and Paul Kimura. Jessica Phillips. River’s eyes darted between these four faces in the photo taken from Calloway’s house. Their happy, carefree smiles just felt like they were mocking her as they stared back. But especially Jessica’s. Her mother. The mother that raised her. The liar that raised her. 

For the past five years, she’d learned to forgive her mother for keeping River’s true nature from her. Keeping her painful past hidden. She’d only been trying to protect her, after all. But when she’d specifically asked where her bio family was from, she’d claimed she didn’t know for sure. That she’d met her parents on the road or something like that. River had been a little peeved about the lack of information at the time, but took it as truth. Why did she have any reason to doubt her mother then? 

But oh how wrong she was. She’d been sitting on information that whole time and said nothing. River had been surprised Iann hadn’t suggested calling her adoptive mother, but he also had no way of knowing if they were even on speaking terms. She knew a lot of people would have stayed mad if a secret was kept from them their whole life like that. She hadn’t been mad before, but she sure was now.

Finally tearing her eyes away from the photo, she picked up her phone laying next to her in bed and scrolled to her mom’s contact. She hovered hesitantly over it for a moment, before defiantly pressing it and bring the phone up to her ear. It rang once before her mother picked up.

“River! Hi! I meant to call you on your birthday but one of the heifers got sick. Darcy? You remember her, right? She misses you, I can tell. We had to have Dr. Kingsley make a house call. Cost a pretty penny, let me tell you. But your present is in the mail, don’t worry.”

“Mom...”

“Is everything alright, sweetheart?”

River paused. “No.” Her tone was curt, but potent. 

“Oh, did something happen? Did you want to talk about it?”

“Oh yeah, Mom. Something fucking happened all right. Tell me, does the name Leeman Calloway mean anything to you?”

Her mother froze. She could practically hear the movement cease on the other end of the line. Then all she could hear was breathing for a moment. Quick and shallow. Panicked.

“Where did you hear that name?” her mother asked. Genuine fear had boiled to the surface, shaking her voice to the core. 

“I’m in Soapberry Springs, Ma.” She paused, hearing her mother gasp softly. “That’s right. And I went to his house. I know you were in his little gang or whatever the fuck was going on. With my parents. You conveniently left that little detail out when I asked about it five years ago.”

“River....” The fear in her voice was genuinely unsettling. It shook and rattled. Low and raspy suddenly. It was a voice River had never heard out of her. “Forget you ever heard that name and get out of that town. Now.”

“Why?” she spat.

“Please, just do it. I can’t...I can’t tell you why, you just need to trust me. You’re in danger. Please, River, sweetheart. I love you. Come home and we’ll talk about it where it’s safe.”

River felt her blood start to boil. “Why should I trust you? Why are you so scared of this guy? Why won’t you just fucking tell me the truth?” She balled her free hand into a fist, grinding it into the sheets next to her. “Calloway’s dead, Mom. So spill it.”

Her mother sighed heavily, with a little relief. But only a little. She seemed to be taking time to process the news. Maybe to formulate how she’d present the truth. As she started to speak, her voice caught a little. “I was...” Another sigh. “River, please. Just come home.”

The fist grinding into the sheets jerked upwards, punching down into the mattress. “No! Either you’re going to tell me right now, or....or....or this is the last time you’ll ever hear from me.” It was a heavy threat. An ultimatum. River had always hated ultimatums. But she needed the truth from her mother. She needed to know she could trust the woman that raised her to be honest with her. To trust that River was smart enough to make the right decisions with the information, if only she’d give it to her. 

“...I’m sorry, River. I can’t.”

In one swift motion, River took the phone from her ear and ended the call. And then she screamed, full volume, letting the sound push out of her until she ran out of air. Before she could herself, she threw the phone across the room, where it collided with the exposed brick and made a sickening snap when of the glass of the screen cracked. 

She’d come here to find answers. To find peace in locating her parents. To avenge her those murdered within her family. To find a way to be whole again. But instead, her world shattered more and more with each passing day, and she was struggling to pick the pieces back up again.

#Solo #w:amom #arc:calloway