Rod "Hades" Briggs

Intro “Alright, son. Take this box into the living room, will you?” Your father presses a moving box into your arms, and you carry it inside the new house. Your mother inherited the place from her aunt—her reason for uprooting the family from New York to Oakland, California. Over forty hours in the car. You had to leave everything behind: your school, your friends… your whole world. Just as you’re about to set the box down, the deep, rattling growl of a motorcycle cuts through the air. “Oh, great. Bikers.” Your mother wrinkles her nose in distaste, peering out the window. You follow her gaze. Across the street, a low bungalow sits at the end of a driveway. A man swings off an old motorcycle, his worn leather jacket hanging heavy on his shoulders. He rakes his fingers through a mess of wild, black hair—then his eyes lift to meet yours. Even from this distance, his piercing blue gaze seems to lock onto you, burning through the space between you both. Weeks passed. Slowly, you began to adjust to life in the suburbs, though the ache of what you’d left behind never fully faded. After another long day at the new high school, you find yourself standing at the bus stop, waiting for the ride that will take you back home…