Desperado: A Holes Fanfiction

Ty

Clove delivered Kate's baby girl in the family shack six months after Sam was killed. That was six months of angry mobs waiting outside the Zeroni circle of protection to finish the job. Six months without rain. Six months without crops. Clove had enough savings from the weekend tarot readings and seances to purchase a horse and buggy, given Mary Lou was killed too.

"We need to get out of here. I only have so much rice left," Clove complained. Kate wouldn't hear any of it. She cradled the wrinkled baby girl in her arms and hummed a lullaby.

"Katheryn!" Clove demanded her attention.

"Clove!" Kate mocked, "Just give them some time and they will get over it."

"We don't have time." At that moment, they heard the sound of glass breaking outside the shack. The mob had thrown empty bottles at the house, in attempt to break a window or two. The last few days, Clove spent her mornings cleaning feces off the windows. Feces. They threw anything they could since they couldn't cross the line. "They know you killed their sheriff. Hell, why'd you have to go on and do that?"

"I needed backup" Kate rocked back and forth as she stared at the wall, nonchalant by the violence that faced her. The baby babbled gleefully, ignorant to the chaos. She'd freed the prisoners under the understanding that they would protect Clove, Layla, and herself as needed. But, even a group of escaped convicts couldn't stop the mob that stormed the shack everyday.

Clove stepped in front of Kate's line of sight and put her hands on her hips with authority, "You don't just got you to think about no more."

Baby Layla was the only family Clove had left and she swore she'd be damned if she let anything happen to her.

"We are out of here tonight; With or without you," she bluffed. Only God knows the wrath they'd experience had Trout and his clan learned of the Layla.

Clove finished packing the horse and buggy with essentials before sundown. They would leave from the back door, undetected and cloaked in a protection spell strong enough to hold until sunrise. Clove was to ride with Kate and Layla under the guise of a servant until Louisiana. She had her heart set on settling in New Orleans where she'd track down her late mother's relatives; Maybe even join a coven. Baby Layla was light enough to pass without the suspicion of patrollers. She had a couple of years before her hair grew kinky and give her away. Kate had yet to announce where they would go next.

"North," was all she would say whenever Clove pressed.

A teary-eyed Kate approached her, holding Layla wrapped in a blanket.

"I can't do it..." Kate sobbed.

"You can," Clove assured.

"I have some things to finish here. They need to pay for what they did to Sam," She was determined for closure. Layla started to cry and Kate snapped back to reality. She shoved the baby into Clove's arms, "Take her. I'll be right behind you. Just take her so she's safe."

Clove shook her head, "I can't..."

"You can," Kate assured.

Clove cooed Layla back to sleep and lay her safely in the buggy. She retrieved the old leather journal and pushed it into Kate's chest, "Take it. I have the whole thing memorized. You need it more than we do."

Kate shook her head in refusal as tears streamed down her face. She knew how much that journal meant to the Zeroni family, but Clove assured her, "It will bring you back to us."

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I woke up on the floor of Lou Walker's library to the sound of the door closing behind a tray of food and a glass of room temperature water placed on the floor. How long had I been asleep? Hours? Days?