Thomas Hewitt: End Of The Line

Look At Miss Ohio

The following weeks in the place she had imagined would be her own personal hell had quickly turned to bliss. In fact, weeks turned to months in the blink of an eye. The air around them had shifted, suddenly life here seemed more than bearable. The moments they had to spend apart were met with harder working hands just so they could tangle them in each other once more after sunset. She had awoken something in Thomas and it didn't go unnoticed by the other members of the household. He was happy, that was more than evident. He could barely go an hour without interrupting her in the middle of chores to steal her away, even for just a moment. He was addicted, they both were.

Ronnie waited patiently with a smile as she scrubbed the dishes over the sink. She heard the front door swing open followed by the sound of familiar and heavy footsteps approaching behind her. Then his hands snaked around her waist. She found herself just living for moments like that, when she could lean her head back on his shoulder so he could pepper her neck with kisses as he squeezed her closer to him. She let out a deep breath and relaxed into him, momentarily escaping the day's work in his arms. He brought his hand up to her chin to lift her lips to his. She smiled into his needy kiss, which always led to him pressing harder against her.

"Thomas, I can't just leave these dirty, what would your mother think?" Ronnie said playfully.

Thomas groaned as he went to silence her with another kiss. He reveled in the sound of her laughter ringing in his ears as she returned his kiss through that smile that seemed more present than not these days. He grabbed the plate out of her hand and set it down in the sink before he turned her around to continue his playful nagging.

"Alright you two," Luda Mae said, causing Thomas to drop his wandering hands down to his sides.

"Told you," Ronnie said under her breath with a smirk.

Mama rested her hands on her hips and looked at them with a pleased smiled. She loved seeing her son like this. She had grown so used to his heavy brows being scrunched atop his eyes and that frown that just barely hid behind his mask. It was different to see his eyes with life in them, it was something she never thought she'd get a chance to witness.

"I don't wanna be a killjoy," she said before she nodded towards the door, "Ronnie why don't you just help Tommy with whatever it is he's workin' on today. If he's workin' at all," she said, playfully narrowing her eyes at her youngest son.

"I'm sure he'll be fine on his own," Ronnie responded, which only made Tommy grab her hand in his to guide her out of the room.

Ronnie playfully dragged behind him as she turned back to Mama, "You sure you don't need me today?"

"Go on," Mama said as she went to grab the plates Ronnie had left, "I'll manage."

"I oughta cut you off, you know that," she heard Ronnie say to Tommy before the door shut behind them.

Luda laughed to herself as she continued with the dishes, but her laughter was cut short by someone who wasn't as contented with the happy couple.

"She's more trouble than she's worth," Hoyt muttered from the doorway as he watched them from the window, "that boy hasn't done Jack shit in weeks and it's her fault, you know that."

Mama let out a heavy sigh, "Is that all you do? Stand in the doorway and complain?"

He didn't even gratify her with a response, he was too focused on them. Luda could practically feel his discontent filling the room like a dense fog. He was more than hateful, his contempt for Ronnie was nearly enough to black out the sunshine that streamed into the kitchen. She didn't have to look at him to know he had his arms crossed and his tongue shoved into his lower lip as he milked his nicotine high for all it's worth. Though even nicotine did little to satiate him at this point. He needed something else, something she was preventing. Hoyt had a lust that hadn't been satisfied for far too long a time. A lust that if left unattended festered in him like a disease bound to infect any that crossed him when he was in such a state. Killing for him was more than survival. He could live off of rats, mice hell even chicken, he knew that. He'd always known that. Survival had nothing to do with it, that was simply a facade to keep them compliant. Thankfully his loving family never needed much convincing when it came to his word, they trusted him. They were foolish. Hoyt Hewitt killed purely and simply out of want. To deal death with his own hands gave him a high even the strongest form of tobacco imaginable could never provide. To consume a person granted something far beyond a high. It was power. Knowing whoever walked through that door, no matter what rank they held, how rich, poor, intelligent, big or small, knowing that he held their fate right there in the palm of his hand . . . It was ecstasy. It was his drug of choice and who was she to take that from him, to make him cut cold turkey? No. She didn't have the right. In Hoyt's humble opinion, an eye for an eye was the only solution. She took his drug, he would take her's. He wasn't just standing in the doorway to complain, he was there to think. Though Thomas and Ronnie's bond seemed to be iron clad, he had found a chip in the armor and he hadn't hesitated to infiltrate. He was close to breaking through, he could see it in those lingering glances she allowed herself each time she left the room. Her curiosity about that metal door and the secrets it held would be their damnation. He had let it grow on its own, she needed to form her own opinions on it first, he knew that. He knew she couldn't help but wonder what Tommy did down there. It only made it easier for a snake like him to find his way into her ear.