In Constant Sorrow

Chapter Nine: Not Even Ghosts Are This Empty

Abilene had seemingly disappeared after that fateful night. House empty, truck gone, her mail and local newspapers piled up. No one seemed the least bit concerned. Scrim had tracked Caroline down to confront her about Abilene's whereabouts and the woman had looked at him like he was crazy. He certainly felt crazy.

Declan had been no help either, but what had he expected?

The man had laughed right in his face, "you think she would tell me where she's going?" And slammed the door in Scrim's face.

Two weeks had gone by as if nothing had happened, she would come over or he would come over after she was done with school, they would eat dinner, watch a movie and lay in bed until it was time for her to go to sleep. He had enjoyed the routine and now it was gone.

She was gone.

He wandered around day to day, confused and unsure. Had he done something? He didn't think he had. He wanted answers. Where was she? Was she ok? His chest ached.

The weeks turned into months and he tried his best to distract himself with money, drugs, and other women. Try as he might, the emptiness he felt without Abilene in his life was difficult to ignore, even with all the distractions he had surrounded himself with.

Months quickly rolled into a year. A year of debauchery, fiend serving, and whatever else he could consume his time with.

Nothingness.

It pained Ruby to watch his cousin sink further and further into a depression as the days went on. Scrim was putting on a good front for the first few months, lots of parties, lots of trips to the strip club, even palling around with Declan when the man would drop by for his cut of the drugs he wanted to sell.

Scrim's eyes held an unspeakable sorrow. Ruby was keen to his spiral into depression, watching as the drugs and the girls stopped being fun. Everything seemed compulsive now, just going through the motions.

Ruby, through an acquaintance, sat down to try and track Abilene. Going through the highly illegal process of sorting through banking records, tax records, whatever would lead to a hint of where she could've gone. Abilene had been raised by old country folk that didn't trust in banks. She had never had a bank account but did use a seedy little check cashing spot. Ruby tried to remember the name and where it was. Maybe he could case the place out and wait for her.

Several thousand dollars and a few months later his acquaintance found her name in a rent database for an apartment complex about an hour away.

A sigh of relief.

He felt conflicted however, would he tell Scrim about her whereabouts? Should he? He was sick of watching Scrim waste away. Ruby ultimately decided that he would wait, track Abilene down, and try and talk to her? He knew that wouldn't work out well but he could at least try. Depending on how this interaction would go he would then tell Scrim.

Abilene wrung her hands as she sat on the paper covered examination table in the doctor's office, waiting. Everything had felt slow, like she was traveling through mud. Minutes ticked by like hours and the days dragged out before her. She stared off listening to the ticking of the clock on the wall which by her calculations was off by five minutes. Not that important but she found it funny that a doctor's office would have a clock running behind by five minutes.

The doctor, Dr. Aiken was a short, plump little woman, with bright eyes, and a warm nature which only seemed to make Abilene more anxious as the woman came in and settled herself on a chair across from her.

"Ms. Abilene what seems to bring you in today," she hummed as she read through Abilene's chart.

"Well, um, where do I start- nausea, vomiting, I'm exhausted, I can't eat, I'm peeing around the clock-