' ~𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑖𝑛'✓ [RDR2 OC]

Head In The Clouds

"Husband?" Sadie said, aghast.
"Shh." Cain hissed. Sadie ducked her head for some reason and squinted her eyes.
"Husband?"
Cain nodded and looked around.
The barn was still occupied by Tilly, Mary-Beth, Jack, and Abigail.
They'd moved John out into another room because Jack seemed to stay by his side far too often.

"And I don't need you telling anyone."
He pulled his eyes back to Sadie, who looked dead serious.
" 'Course. Listen, Husband, wife-whatever, O'Driscolls killed them, so O'Driscolls gotta pay. Ain't that it?"
She asked, in a tone that only invited a positive answer. His fists clenched, and his eyes hardened.
"Whatever it takes, them lads are destined to be buried beneath their hat and boots because of me."
"Us." Sadie got her things and poked Cain in the chest. "Cause of us."
She gave him a determined smile and left him to himself.

He'd taken to having a rare drink now and then. Eating was getting more and more difficult, and he'd try to pull any excuse he could to make sure a job or an errand or hunting would get in the way. The alcohol helped calm him a bit, helped him see more sence-as stupid as it sounds. Still, he knew alcohol, and he knew it well.
"Keenness slips from drousy sailors."
As his father had said.

A firm hand patted Cain on the shoulder, and he yelped. Javier's sat across from him.
"She's a looker. Her husband just died, so you'll probably have to wait until she's over that." He laughed. Cain did not.
"Mother of-damn, Javier." He winced and rolled his shoulder. "In case you've forgotten, I've been -"
"Ravaged by wolves ? Yeah, it hadn't slipped my mind, just where it happened did." Javier smiled, Cain did not mirror it, with no response to complement his time-wasting, Javier continued.
"You feeling any better?"
Cain sighed. He was nervous, really. He'd heard that they were scouting for Seán and he didn't like the thought. He'd only known him shortly, but not nicely.
"As much as I can. I think the cold did help." He said in a joke-mock tone. Of course it didn't. He was just petty.
"Yeah. Hey, you like. . ." Javier pursed his lips trying to find words, took a glance around, and said in a hushed tone,
"You're not turning idiot on us, are you?"
Cain's eyes widened. "What?"
Javier held up his hands. "Hey, just checking. I've been here and there. Certain folk have been saying you've been. . . Distant. The mumbling hasn't stopped, either."
"Javier." Cain sat forward, tapping his fingers on the table in a slow, rhythmic tone. The black ring he wore glinted sharply in the lamp light. It wasn't made out of any fancy metal, nit by a long shot, and he'd took to removing it when other gang members were around, to avoid questions.

"I'm a wanted man who has lost his entire family in a night. What's their not to worry about?"
Javier frowned. "No, you're not. You just ride with us. No one's even seen you, amigo."
Cain had to laugh. His laugh was dry and without humour at that.
"What's your problem with me anyway? You're either eavesdropping on my conversations or following me like a lost dog."
Cain leant forward inquisitivly, hoping to close the room beneath them, in order to cause discomfort and possibly make it easier to detect a lie when he saw it.
"I have a feeling." This time, Javier's hand came down into the table, he rested himself there, in a comfortable position.
"One that's slowly growing. You see, you dress despite your profession, you have a name only the Reverend would know, you're not from here, and Pinkertons already have your wanted poster."
Cain sat back. When did Javier see his poster? He was surprised they were still making copies of it.
Javier shifted in the seat slightly. Between the drumming of the fingers and the dry, mevolent tittering, it was a disconcerting sight.

"My father was a Fenian, as was my plans before I had to leave. I killed Englishmen. The soldiers who roamed the streets, looking in windows, burning down houses. They killed teachers and kids. Anyone who was or might've been Catholic. Or that's what I heard, I was a silly young lad. I was far too patriotic to care who or why I was killing. I saw a uniform, I saw a dead man's face. I didn't kill a lot at that time, 4 maybe. But the way I killed them, why
I might as well as killed a thousand."

Javier didn't respond.
"They saw a rosemary bead my mother left out on the windowsill one day. Lit up the cottage." Javier still had nothing to say.
"I was 17. Javier, I was seventeen, and I watched my mother burn alive."
A pause.

"So I killed them all."
He leant back, calming himself.
"They took my mother. I had nothing left." He laughed, the tapping slowed down.
"Twenty-one, i think. I didn't count, " He said almost wistfully. Javier's eyes widened. He was eating this up.
"Fucking twenty-one? You're insane."
Cain waved a hand.
"It was easy. They were asleep. I killed some myself out of spite, took them, and killed them slowly out the back of their little camp. Slit their wrists and let them look at their fellow dead-to-dying comrades. I burned the rest down.
I'm quite aquanted to the fire. Fire starts one and eventually ends another."
Javier tilted his head ever so slightly.
"Well, I won't have to worry about you losing your mind on us. It's already lost."
Surprisingly, he laughed softly and took a swig from the bottle Cain had had in possession. He glared at Javier. The hollowness in his voice left him. Cain was fibbing. He'd hardly known a story book character who'd done things as evil as that. He just wanted Javier out of his face.
"That's mine." His face scrunched up.
Javier shrugged. "What's mine is yours, is it not?"
"No one's saying what's mine is yours."
"You lost the right to personal belongings and supplies when you joined this gang, Mister Realeza."
Cain half-heartedly rolled his eyes and shifted in his seat. Javier was giving him that same glare, and he had no idea what to think of it.
"Are you going to ask me something, or are you too busy counting the hairs on my head?"
Javier blinked and leant back. That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. Something more hostile or sarcastic would be eligible, but he seemed nervous, like he'd been caught in the act. Cain's eyebrow rose, and Javier spoke.

"Hunting, I think. Something about hunting with Arthur, deer, etcetera."
Javier didn't seem quite stubborn to leave after that.
Cain shrugged.
He probably scared the living shite out of him with that story.

He went to look for Arthur.