Thomas Hewitt: End Of The Line

Black Crow

Sorry for being MIA the last couple of weeks, I was on vacation! Been dying to get back to this though, so let's get to it.

Warnings: Language, violence

Luda had kept her mouth shut for days, days that felt like decades. She hadn't dared challenge Hoyt when she awoke to Ronnie's screams. She knew better than to interfere, even when it pertained to her sweet Thomas, but she had reached her limit. Hoyt didn't seem to have any intention of releasing them, at least not for the foreseeable future and she couldn't help but fear the worst, especially when it had been so silent. She hadn't heard a sound from them since that night. She felt responsible, she had been the one to encourage their escape and in doing so, damned them to their imprisonment. There wasn't much she could do, she knew that, she only had her words and she wasn't confident those would do any good either. She'd have to be stern and Hoyt made that difficult. He was a near perfect imitation of his father, hardened, cold and unmovable. She feared him in that sense. He had never hit her, but she always got the impression she was one wrong move away from punishment, just as it was with her old lover. However, now was not the time for weakness. It was not only her son's life at stake, it was an innocent's. Her grandchild would die down there along with them if she didn't do something.

She heard the front door slam and her breath hitched. That old familiar dread from years before filled her chest and her words abandoned her mind. She scrambled to gather her thoughts once more as he strode into the room and set his hat down on the table. She watched him apprehensively as he pulled a chair back and collapsed into it to work on the lace of his boots. She took a deep breath in an attempt to slow her steadily increasing pulse, that's when he looked up at her from under his heavy brow.

"What are you lookin' at?" He muttered as he continued to unravel the string.

Luda's jaw clenched at his grisly tone. She tried to recall when she had let her authority slip, or if she ever truly had any over him at all. From the time he could speak, he made her uneasy, perhaps that's what had led them here. Sure, she was his 'mama', but he had not one ounce of respect for her, if she was being honest. That's why she stood there with her heart pounding to the point of discomfort in her chest and sweat in the palms of her hands.

"You can't keep them down there, Hoyt," Luda said just loud enough for him to hear.

He let out that sinister chuckle of his as he tossed one of his boots to the side, "They're still down there, ain't they? Reckon that means I can."

His hands moved to the other shoe and he didn't bother acknowledging her as he spoke. Luda's fists began to clench at his indifference to her words. It irritated her more than it usually did that day. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw tightened further as words bubbled up to leave her mouth without thought.

"Where did I go wrong with you, Charlie?"

His grip tightened around the lace before his hands froze. His body tensed as his eyes shifted under his brow to find her. His indifference had been replaced with all the contempt he kept just below his surface.

"The hell you just call me?" He muttered as he held her firm under his cruel gaze.

"Your name," Luda spat back through her tightly grit teeth.

He was silent for a moment as he waited for her to back down, but for the first time in years, she didn't. Her gaze was just as unmoving as his, though hiding her fear of him proved more difficult than she expected. He looked more like his father than she'd ever noticed before.

"That ain't my name," Hoyt said sinisterly, "not no more."

He kicked his other boot off and pushed himself out of the chair. Luda took her opportunity to breathe once he had finally looked away from her. Part of her screamed for her to submit and drop it, but somewhere inside she found resilience and she wasn't going to let it go to waste.