Weayaya: The Sunset Woman

Chapter 6

Yvonne
Present

"Run!" A female voice I didn't know shouted at me.

The sounds of horses and screams of fear filled my ears, my heart raced as I saw women and girls and small boys running for their very lives.

I screamed as a dark skinned man rode in front of my face. He was painted up, his long black hair fell loose around him, and his eyes the color of coal. He aimed a rifle at me, and I found myself reaching over and clutching onto a young woman. She cried out and I reached over and grabbed a small knife; I held out the knife at him and he stared at me long and hard. I tried to put on my best scowl, and the man seemed shaken as he lowered the rifle and rode off.

"Come on, come on!" I grabbed the young woman by the wrist and pulled her behind me.

"Akecheta!!!!" A young man shouted, "Akecheta!!!"

I jerked my body around and saw a man aiming a rifle at us, he fired and I yanked the young woman down.

There was a bloody scream, a man fell down right beside us, half of his face blown off...and I could no longer contain my horror.

I jolted awake in a sudden shiver. My body was wet with sweat and I stank of fear. My eyes scrolled over to the window, the moon was high, and it was very late into the night. I crawled out of bed, my bare feet touching the cold wood floor. I yawned and stretched my body, my head turned toward the window once more.

In the light of the moon, for a moment, it looked like someone was outside. I skipped over to the window; a dark figure was standing there, in the shadowy moonlight, and it appeared to be staring up at me. I tried to get as close to the window as I could to make out the figure...but I couldn't see well through the old glass.

I walked away from the glass for a second, hoping that what I was seeing was a figment of my tired imagination.

As I went back to the window, the shadowy figure seemed to still be there, even a bit closer than before.
The figure suddenly disappeared, and my body jerked back in surprise.

Thunder rang out abruptly and I shook in fear.

I never liked thunder...

I ran back into my bed and huddled myself under the covers as rain began to pelt the old house. Sleep alluded me the entire night as rain seemed to want to shatter the old glass in the numerous windows of the house. I laid there until it stopped, only peaking my head out when the sun had shown itself from behind the clouds.

I tumbled out of bed and quickly went over to the dresser; I pulled out a pair of pants, a bra, and a shirt. I slipped them on and grabbed the boots that Aunt Lizzie had bought me. In less than five minutes I was out of the house, Aunt Lizzie had said something but I wasn't paying enough attention to notice whatever it what that she said.

Before I had noticed it, I found myself jogging out behind the house, where my window seemingly looked out too. On a level I needed to look at the area and see if there was any trace of the figure from last night. Through the grass, I lightly moved my foot back and forth, while also walking forward, searching for evidence of a person. I'll admit I didn't see anything at first and thought I was crazy...but then I tumbled over. I must have yelled or yelped or made a loud noise because in a second, I heard Jonah.

"Hey!" He shouted, "are you alright?!" I could hear his feet rushing off the porch.

"Yeah," I felt embarrassed, hiding my eyes from him, "I'm fine." I began to pull myself up when my eyes caught sight of something in the grass. "Hmm.." I vocalized as I started to crawl closer to it.

"What are you doing?" Jonah was closer.

"I found something," I half mumbled as my fingers gingerly reached out and grazed some feathers on the ground. I gently lifted them up into my hands and rolled over into a sitting position. "Look," I hesitatingly lifted up the feathers and showed Jonah, who was now standing nearly above me.

"Hey..." he gingerly picked them up, "why are these here?" He thought out loud.

"Why?" I asked ignoring his apparent inner processes.
"What is it?"

"They are decorative feathers," his voice was low as his hands held the feathers and his fingers glazed over them. "Most...don't wear ones like this anymore..."

"What do you mean?" I pulled myself up from the ground, dusting myself off as I did.

"These...are real...I think...." He sighed a bit. "Are you okay?" His attention turned toward me. "You look like you fell pretty hard."

"Me?" I rubbed myself off, "I'm fine." I flashed a fake smile and left him standing there with the feathers as I jogged back into the house.

"What's all that ruckus going on?" Aunt Lizzie shouted from the kitchen.

I walked in, careful to avoid the carpet rug things, and entered the kitchen. "Does anyone else live around here?" I questioned suddenly.

"Here?" She cackled immediately.

"Yeah!" I affirmed my question.

"Heavens no," she tried to hold in a laugh, "no one has for years and years. Most either live in town or closer than ten or fifteen minutes from it. Then I suppose there's the reservation...but that's still miles away."

"How far is miles?" I asked, having found the feathers and Jonah telling me they were real and that no one wore than anymore means it probably was someone from there.

"A good few...it's take near an hour to get there in the truck." She placed plates on the table for me, herself, and Jonah.

"Oh..." I heaved a disappointed sigh.

"Why are you so curious all of the sudden?" She asked as she served the food and Jonah came back inside.

"No reason..." I tried to put it off, but then Jonah placed the feathers on the table.

"Whats this?" She gestured toward the feathers.

"Feathers....she found em outside." Jonah jerked his hand at me.

"Where did you find these, Evie?" She sat down at the table and stared at them a moment.

"Just out in back..." I began, "basically outside my window..."

"Looked like ya was looking for it," Jonah began to eat and smirked at me as if he had told my biggest secret ever.

"Why were you looking for these? Did ya see a bird or something out there?" Aunt Lizzie put the feathers down carefully and began to eat herself.

"Not exactly..." I pushed the stuff around on my plate, "more like a person..."

"A person!" Aunt Lizzie choked a little. "Impossible. No one lives near enough to just walk up here like that."

"She's right," Jonah agreed with her immediately, "are you sure it was a person?"

"Well...it was a person like figure...." I put down the fork.

"Did it look like a shadow?" Jonah asked abruptly.

"Yeah, why?" I drank a sip of water.

"Oh my," Aunt Lizzie sighed, "my dear Evie," she took my hand in hers, "it looks like you had your first encounter with what we like to call our grassland ghosts."