Roxxane And Wendy

The sun shines on the White Spider house—a house where villains who are rehabilitating are kept and watched over by two knights of the kingdom. This house is incredibly big due to all those who live in it. One of the rooms of this house smells of old, cheap beer, and the metallic smell of blood mixes with it also, as if you doused a bowl of coins in alcohol. The walls are stained yellow from cigarette smoke. Glass shards and dirty clothing litter the floor, as well as cigarette buds.

Roxxane wakes up slowly after tossing and turning all night, waking up multiple times through the night. She hears a voice coming from the other side of her room that sounds like her father's. She shifts her head to look over to that side of the room, and her eyes scrunch in annoyance as she throws the empty beer bottle she had in her hand towards the wall where she thought the sound originated from.

She rubs her eyes, and with the scales from her hand, she scratches her skin—which instantly regenerates. But not before a drop of blood hits her shirt that is already covered in sweat and beer stains. She walks over to the mirror in her room and grabs it as she looks at herself up and down. Her nose scrunches, and she puts her hand out, unsheathing one of her nails, and scratches her face on the mirror from one end to another.

Then she hears laughing from the other end of her room. She quickly shifts her head over to look, and there's nothing there.

Roxxane thinks to herself. Fucking ghost. Lizzy tells me they're not real, but I don't believe her at this point. Why else would I keep hearing these damn voices? I'm not crazy. She's crazy. She's the scientist. They're all fuckin' mad. Dumbasses don't actually know anything.

Roxxane walks back towards her bed and from under it she grabs a beer from a case she bought last night, which is already down to its last bottle in its twenty-four pack. She walks out of the room drinking the bottle, and as she walks down the stairs towards the kitchen, she sees most of the household. Although it seems Natic and Grace are still sleeping, Wendy and Katty are making breakfast, and Vail is looking at something on her phone in the kitchen. And from the couch, she hears an incredibly nagging voice.

Peggy.

"Hey, doggy. Take a shower sometimes before you come down every morning. Some of us don't want to smell your cheap beer and cigs every darn day."

Roxxane responded, "You're dressed like a cheap whore. Shut the fuck up and leave me alone for once."

Peggy responded, "First of all, I am an expensive whore. And well, that sure is sweet coming from the doggy who is in a pair of panties and a dirty wife beater. Someone desperate might see you on the street and try to pay for your time."

Roxxane responded by throwing her bottle at Peggy's face. But since Peggy had super speed, she just caught it and started twirling it in the air with a smug look on her face. She tossed the beer back towards Roxxane.

"I think you'll have a better time trying to cut steel with glass, doggy. Or better said, trying to catch a bone that has flown to the moon."

Roxxane's eyes started to twitch at this point. She responded, "I don't give a shit what Star would say at this point. I'm gonna put a fucking hole through your face. Fuck my job."

Peggy responded, "Oh, you're dumber than I thought. Maybe the alcohol has finally rotted ya lil doggy head. I guess animals shouldn't be drinkin' after all."

Wendy softly but sternly said, "Roxxane, Peggy—that's enough. You two need to be kinder to each other. You'd think after living with each other for so many months would make you two nicer to each other."

Vail looked up from her phone and addressed Peggy. "Treat Roxxane nicely, Peggy. Stop being so mean to her."

Peggy responded, "MEAN??? OH, THE AGONY. I'm not being mean. I'm just having some fun. What's wrong with having fun? Are you two the fun police now? Just because we're a bunch of murderers doesn't mean we can't have any fun."

Roxxane angrily responded, "Your definition of fun makes me want to fuckin' kill myself."

Peggy responded, "With how much you drink and smoke, I thought that was eventually your plan anyways. Seeing how much your mom doesn't love you."

Katty and Wendy both loudly said, "Peggy, stop! That's enough."

Peggy rolled her eyes and said, "Oh yeah, whatever, fine. You guys are no fun. So serious."

Wendy then said to Peggy and Vail softly, "Hey, you two maybe should go and do some shopping for groceries. Maybe get more stuff in this house that isn't… alcohol."

Katty said softly under her breath to herself, "Sorry, Wendy."

Wendy still heard her, though. She grabbed Katty gently by the back of the head and brought their foreheads together, gently rubbing them together while doing a slight giggle. She said, "Don't worry, kid. We all have our vices. You'll be okay."

This gave Katty a small smirk on her face while Roxxane looked at them and her face dropped a little. Wendy noticed this and walked over to Roxxane and did the same thing while playing with her wolf ears on the top of her head. She looked up at her and stuck her tongue out with a dumb little grin on her face. Making Roxxane giggle a little.

As Wendy walked away, she said, "Put the bottle down, dear. It's time for breakfast. Let's eat. And yes, that means Peggy also."

Grace leaned on the railing looking down at everyone and with a bright and cheery tone said, "Good morning, my lovely loves! Let's have a wonderful day today. Hopefully no one gets injured and work isn't too tiring."

Both Vail and Roxxane heard her and rolled their eyes the more she continued to talk. Wendy noticed this and giggled while shaking her head.

She thought to herself, Man, these guys aren't like nobles at all. I like that. Quite a bit. I think you two would have liked it a lot too. And would have your kids? If they turned out like you two, I think so. Would they have liked me? Especially like… this.

Tears started to flow down Wendy's eyes, and Grace noticed before anyone else did. She jumped down, wrapping her arm around Wendy and turning her back towards the kitchen. She quietly spoke to Wendy and wiped the tears from her face quickly.

"Heyyy. Everything okay? Need some chocolate? Scientifically proven to make us all happier, and it tastes great."

Wendy lifted up her head and said while sniffling her nose, "Yes, yes, dear. Don't worry. Just… an ancient woman thinking about ancient things."

Grace responded, "Ancient? Ya look younger than me. Those red dots everywhere make such a pretty pattern. It's like a field of flowers on your face."

Vail heard the last part and from afar said, "Oh, you're such a kiss-ass. What are you trying to get from Wendy? It's the same way Quetzalcoatl speaks to me when she wants something."

Grace responded, "Nothing. It's just the truth. Her face is like a flower field."

Vail rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, I guess."

Wendy asked Vail, "Where is Quetzalcoatl and Nikola anyways? I walked into their room this morning to wake them up for the day, but no one was there."

Vail responded, "They're with their 'favorite lizard.' Nikola went over to Lizzy's lab again and slept over there again… I feel like that boy forgets I exist sometimes. And Quetzalcoatl just follows him."

Wendy responded, "Why don't you go with them sometimes?"

Vail responded, "I-I never thought about that."

Peggy, in a snarky way, annotated, "She has a supercomputer in her head, by the way."

Vail, annoyed but calm, remarked to Peggy, "Oh, shut up. Let's go when we're done eating."

Peggy confusedly responded, "Huh? I thought we had to go get groceries?"

Katty responded, "Peggy, that was said to get ya ass out the house. Haha. If my kid in the future turns out like you, I'ma leave 'em in Antarctica."

Peggy responded, "If ya kid turns out like me, she'll just teleport back home. Hahaha."

Roxxane sat back and watched everyone talk to each other, and her mind started to wander. Her mother's voice kept bouncing around her head and the things she would always tell her. She looked over at a corner, and she saw a younger version of herself—as she lifted her hand ready to set it ablaze.

Natic finally walked out of his room and saw Roxxane doing this. He used his strings to slowly let himself down as he walked over to Roxxane and slapped her softly on the back, but hard enough to knock her out of it.

"Snap out of it. Our minds are normally meaner than reality normally is."

Roxxane looked back over at the corner, and this younger version of herself was no longer there, and the voices had stopped. She told Natic angrily, "Don't fuckin' touch me."

Before Natic had a chance to respond, Grace went and hugged him from behind and kissed him on the cheek. "Morning, baby. How are you feeling? The meds working?"

Natic responded, "Yeah, they are. Thank you, Grace."

Everyone sat down and ate. Roxxane finally went and took a shower and put on her knight uniform and went out to do her knight work—patrolling the streets with Andrew, who was outside the door waiting for Roxxane. Everyone else went to do their own things. Natic went to go teach at Logios Academy, where Solara, Luner, Wayne, Cressida, Dynobe, and Katty attended. Katty went with him since she had to go to her classes. Peggy and Vail went over to Lizzy's lab to spend time with Nikola and Quetzalcoatl. And Grace went to work at the hospital she worked at during the day when she didn't need to be a medic for the White Spider House.

Leaving Wendy alone in the White Spider house for the day.

Wendy walked around the house cleaning, cooking for when everyone came back. And that's it. Once she finished all the chores for the day, she had nothing else to do for the day, so she sat down on the couch and just laid there. She looked over at the kitchen, and for a moment she saw her old children. She blinked, and they were gone. She rubbed her eyes and walked towards the kitchen looking for them before she stopped and thought to herself.

Oh shit. I'm… seeing things again. Fuck… Sigh.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and left the house and went out to the street. Looking around her, she saw a lot of families walking around her. Her eyes kept darting everywhere, and she couldn't keep her sight straight on anything. She kept walking faster and faster, not seeing where she was going, until she bumped into two little boys.

She started frantically apologizing. And when she went to go help them up, she froze. She blinked and looked at the boys. And suddenly they became a younger version of her children, which caused her to step back and freeze.

Someone from the street screamed out, "Watch where the hell you're going, dumbass!"

Wendy decided to avoid being on the street for the rest of her time outside and used her spider powers to web-swing across the city until she stopped at a park. And just sat there and looked at the kids running around and playing and having fun with their parents. She sat there with a sad grin on her face, looking at the children, reminiscing on the good memories—or at least trying.

As Roxxane patrolled throughout the street, anyone who saw her flinched, tripped, looked away from her, and even ran away from her. This happened so often she stopped suspecting anyone of doing anything wrong and just guessed they were afraid of her like everyone else.

While she was walking down the street with Andrew, she saw a kid with a wolf tail walk into an alley with a laugh that sounded familiar. She walked down the alley to try and look for the kid. Andrew, confused, looked over at Roxxane as she did this and followed her into the alleyway. Andrew started to scream her name, asking what the hell she was doing running into an alleyway after some random kid.

Roxxane couldn't hear him as she kept running after the kid with the wolf tail. When the kid turned their head… it was her when she was a teen.

Confused, she ran after the kid, and for some reason, each step she took, the buildings around her started to crumble. The alleyway started to get more and more narrow, closing in on her more and more, until it started to crumble over her. She forced it off her with her super strength and kept running after the past version of her who wouldn't stop both laughing and crying as she kept screaming the name of Roxxane's dead sister.

"Perdita! Perdita, where are you, Perdita? Please, please, Perdita. I have to find you, Perdita. I beg, where are you, Perdita?" The young Roxxane looked back at Roxxane and said, "Please let me find you, Perdita. Mom would be so angry if I lost you, Perdita."

Roxxane's eyes started to water unstoppably when she said the last part. She sped up and finally caught this younger version of herself. She screamed at her while punching her in the face.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO LOOK LIKE ME? HOW DO YOU KNOW PERDITA, YOU BITCH? TELL ME HOW THE FUCK YOU KNOW MY SISTER! TELL ME!!!"

The world around them again started to collapse as Roxxane kept hearing her name being screamed out—anger flowing, confusion and sadness growing more and more on her face. Her eyes started to shake. Her breath heavied as she looked around, confused at the world falling, collapsing around her as her name kept getting screamed.

And suddenly, everything went back to normal.

She looked down, and Andrew's wrapping was tied around her arms, nearly breaking but still holding her down. She looked down and saw a child beaten into a bloody mess, inches from death, barely breathing. It was a wolf half-beast who saw Roxxane and, like a lot of others, saw Roxxane and ran in fear.

Roxxane looked behind her and saw Andrew sweating, tired, with shaking eyes and heavy breath. Roxxane stood up and stumbled and fell on her butt, looking at what she had just done. She rapidly scooted away, saying, "I-I-I, she was, uh, uh, uh—FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Oh my god. Oh my god. Shit, shit. I-I should call an ambulance."

Andrew, with exhausted breath, said, "Yes, Roxxane… we should. Don't worry. I won't tell them how it happened."

As the girl was taken away in an ambulance, Roxxane sat down on the curb of the street, staring at her bloodied hands. Andrew sat right next to her with an arm around her shoulder. They sat in silence for a few minutes before they both went their own ways.

As the day comes to a close, Wendy leaves the bench and web-swings her way back home. She jumps into her room through the window. Almost every corner of it was covered in webs, and anything sharp in the room was wrapped in webs in particular.

Natic comes back home from his teacher job. Grace comes back from the hospital. Vail, Peggy, Quetzalcoatl, and Nikola are still at the lab.

Grace asked Wendy where those four were, and she responded, "Lizzy called me and said they're gonna stay over. She said Peggy is quite useful for testing her equipment to make sure it's idiot-proof—or at least clown-proof."

Grace just shook her head and laughed. "As annoying as she can be, I'm glad she found something she's good at that isn't… murder."

As Grace and Wendy talked, Roxxane walked into the house and said, "Hey, I'm gonna go shower and then go to sleep. Had a long day. No, I don't want to eat anything… I just need some rest."

Wendy heard her say this and said, "Okay, dear. Don't worry about it. We'll see you tomorrow, then."

Grace looked over at Wendy and said, "Since when does she shower when she comes back from patrol? You sure she's okay?"

Wendy stated, "Don't worry. I'll check on her later. Let's just make some dinner for the three of us. If Natic leaves his room, that is."

Grace responded, "Oh, don't worry. I'll get him to leave his room. I'll cook so well he'll come floating down from the steam like in the cartoons."

Wendy responded jokingly, "Oh, I assure you that sure will get the boy down here. I know it will. The fastest way to a man's heart is his stomach, remember, girl."

Roxxane walks into the bathroom and takes her clothes off and just throws them to the side. She runs the shower. She looks at herself in the mirror, and instead of her reflection, for some reason she sees her younger self again. Grinning at her. Laughing.

Roxxane, still alone in the bathroom, heard her mother's voice say while crying, "Perdita, my beloved. Oh no. Please tell me this is a lie. Why not Roxxane? Why? Why did you, my baby, have to die?"

Roxxane's hands started to clench, and her own claws pierced her palm as her breath heavied and her eyes started to shake. The bathroom gained a metallic smell as Roxxane punched the reflection she saw in the mirror, breaking it and having glass shards embed themselves in her hand. She didn't bother to remove them as she entered the bath.

She sat in the bath with the water washing over her, looking up as the water hit her in the face. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down her breathing. She opened her eyes and was in a big red pool with no end in sight in any direction. It smelled metallic, like a bowl of pennies. Perdita stood in front of her, looking away from her, looking at the starry night sky in a white flowing dress, with feathers around her.

Roxxane heard her name being called in Perdita's voice over and over and over again. And the more and more she ran towards her sister, the farther and farther she got. When her sister did eventually turn around, her face was blank. There was no detail on her face. The confusion caused Roxxane to trip and fall face first.

She shot her head up from the water and heard Wendy calling her name.

"Roxxane, you've been in there for a really long time. Are you okay, dear? Do you need anything?"

Roxxane screamed back, "No… no, I don't need anything. Like I said, I was really tired. This bath is so relaxing. I just kinda fell asleep for a moment."

Wendy, doubting she was telling the truth, said, "Sigh. Okay, if you say so."

The moon shines over the White Spider house, and Roxxane tries to fall asleep in her bed. But she can't. She grabs a beer and just stares at the wall thoughtlessly. But suddenly, she hears her mother's voice. She looks at the window and sees her mom sitting on the window frame.

Roxxane, confused, says, "Momma?"

Her mother on the window sill repeated the same words she told her when her sister died. "Daughter of mine, you are not. Never call me that again. You have no mother."

Roxxane starts to bargain as a splitting headache strikes her head. She loses her balance and keeps swaying back and forth, sometimes hitting the walls.

"Momma, I'm sorry. I didn't want it to happen. It wasn't on purpose. I know I'm a failure. I know I can't bring Perdita or Nabi back. But please, Momma, please… Give me a chance to show you."

Roxxane looks down at her hands and sees them bloodied again in the same pattern they were bloodied earlier in the day when she nearly beat the girl to death. As her hands started to shake and to sweat, she heard her mother's voice say, "Failure. Fucking failure. Why can I never catch a damn break? All I want is a break, Roxxane. Why must you make things so much harder?"

Roxxane shot her head up and screamed while tears wouldn't stop flowing from her eyes. "MOMMA, I'M SORRY! Waaah!"

Tears started to uncontrollably flow from Roxxane's eyes, as well as snot, as she struggled to breathe and started holding her chest.

Although soon from behind her, she heard the words, "Oh, you poor baby."

Roxxane, through the tears, angrily said, "Don't call me a fucking baby!"

As she did this, Wendy kneeled down and pressed Roxxane's head into her chest. Roxxane tried to fight her tears, but she just couldn't stop crying, holding tightly onto Wendy's clothing. As it started to rip the sleeves on Wendy's clothing, she didn't move. She didn't say anything. She just sat there and held her for who knows how long.

When Roxxane got some composure, she managed to say, "I-I keep seeing things. And and hearing things. I-I almost killed a fucking kid."

Wendy calmly responded, "It's okay. Everything is okay now. I'm here. I'm actually here, I promise you. This is my voice. This is my touch. This is real, I promise you. This is real, dear."

Roxxane sniffled and dug her face deeper into Wendy's chest as her heart rate calmed down and her tears calmed down. She eventually fell asleep in that state. Wendy noticed this and picked her up and put her on her bed. She held her hand as she put her in bed and didn't let go.

Grace appeared at the doorframe, looking at Wendy's tattered, wet, and snot-covered clothing. She said to Wendy, "Want to go clothing shopping tomorrow?"

Wendy nodded her head yes.

Then Grace asked, "I'ma make some hot chocolate. You want some?"

Wendy nodded her head yes again.

Grace said one more thing. "I'll go make that then. See ya in a bit, Wendy."

Wendy held Roxxane's hand the entire night. And for the first time in a long time, Roxxane was able to sleep throughout the entire night.