And Then The Murders Began

Chapter Eight: Robin Hood's Kit

Six Years Earlier

Everywhere I go, I have people ask me what my name means, 'cause wasn't Loxley where Robin Hood was from? I mean, yeah, but have you maybe, just maybe, thought of the fact that I'm a lynx, not a fox, although my mother's uncle's cousin is... but he's so far disconnected from the rest of the family that nobody really ever mentions him.

I don't even think that I've ever met him, although I've only ever heard good things about him- except for that his parents weren't like Kurt's and Ram's dads from Heathers, they don't love their alive gay son, and nor would they love him if he were dead.

The rest of my family is pretty much the same way, so I keep having to pretend that maybe I'll find Narnia one day, 'cause I'm so fucking far into the closet that it's not even funny.

But to answer the question, yes, Loxley was where the ever so famous robber of the rich was from. That's not what I tell them, though.... Instead I warn them to mind their own gods damn business, if my last name was Smith or something as plain and ordinary as that, they wouldn't be asking me, now would they?

The obvious answer is that, no, no they wouldn't be, and I try to tell them that, hey leave me alone I've got better things to do. Even still, people pry, and holy shit some of them just won't leave you alone until you cave.

It's exhausting and I hate it and I just wish I could get them off my back, but I can't do anything about it, so I just grin and bear it.

So Lylah, people will ask me, what are you gonna do about it?

In that case, I have a question for you- do you want the short answer or the long answer?

If you wanted the short answer, it's that well, I don't freaking know, but really, it's a hell of a lot more complicated than that and, well, let me just warn you right now that you're not going to find it all here. I'll do my best, but no promises. I've had a bit of a rough day at school, and that's one of the problems with being thirteen, I'd say. Emotions are always high around this time of year, considering that we'll be getting out of school at the end of ou fifth grade year. Me, I can't wait, and I'm hoping that Electra will let me ask her out.

Wish me luck, okay?

-Lylah Loxley

Present Day

In retrospect, I've discovered that foxes are supposedly very protective, especially of the things that they hold dear to them, and it looks like Lylah held me just as dear as I did her...

Which makes the fact that she fell to such a point that she honestly, well and truly believed that I had hurt her like that, even more freaking painful.

Fuck. Me.

Wait, no, don't, I really don't have any plans to do that in the near future. I've screwed myself over enough already, and I'm only eighteen-

But my mind is older, New Brunswick streets are gettin' colder,

I shoulder-

Every burden, every disadvantage, I've learned to manage-

Dammit now that song is gonna be fucking stuck in my head for the rest of the night...

But Mister Miranda had a point when he wrote that, that like Alexander, I have to shoulder every burden, every disadvantage that I've learned to manage.

Except that that's part of the problem, the burdens are all heavy and sometimes the weight isn't manageable and unfortunately I'm not Atlas, I can't put the world on my shoulders... even though I feel like that's exactly what I've been trying- and miserably failing- to do.