and a horse called Straton

Chapter 29

Pain split across her skull when the harsh light filtered through the curtains onto her face. Caitlyn groaned and rolled over, putting an arm across her eyes. She tried to sit up but groaned again and decided against it. Foggy memories floated through her head but she couldn't grasp many. But she got the idea. Ben was gone. She'd drunk something, alcoholic she knew but apart from that she couldn't remember a whole lot. The curse of being an evident lightweight.

She heard overly loud footsteps stop outside her door and then quiet knocking. "What?" She asked quietly, trying to quell the painful headache.

"You okay?" It was her dad. Panic caught her, he must know then. This is it, she thought to herself. I'm dead. "Need some panadol?" Or maybe not dead, just maimed.

Confusion ruled most things but panadol did sound good. "Thanks," Caitlyn said somewhat awkwardly, still unsure if she was in trouble or not. It certainly wasn't something she wanted herself doing so she was having trouble wrapping her head around what her dad was thinking.

A few minutes later he came back and into her room, a glass of cold water and panadol in hand. He passed both to her then lingered. Caitlyn accepted them with a quiet thank you, not bothering to mention that the open door was hurting her with the light since she was probably in enough trouble and didn't want to trigger the lecture.

Once she'd taken the tablets and finished the water she sat the glass down. Neither of them had spoken yet and she got the feeling her dad was uncomfortable as well. Maybe he didn't know what to do either.

Ben had been around for as long as she could remember and since her dad was young, so him not being there was going to take some getting used to. So was this silence. Why was it so awkward since she got back? It seemed like everything had changed and she hated it. Ben wasn't even there anymore, Nulluh wasn't there, Luke was dead, and she was r sure where she stood with Ty anymore.

"Um," her dad dragged his hands down his jeans, almost nervous. That was another strange thing. Her dad was never nervous, he was always steady and calm. Or maybe she hadn't noticed. The headache got worse. "You have chores today, when you feel like it, head down to the barn to check."

He barely lingered once he had said what he needed to then left. Caitlyn listened to his footsteps as they became quieter then the loud squeal of the rusted front door then silence. She slowly dragged herself out of bed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

She stretched and tried to ignore the painful throbbing. Perhaps she wasn't as Aussie as she thought, she chuckled a little to herself. Immediately she felt guilty. She shouldn't be laughing without them being there. It wasn't right. Luke should be laughing and talking loudly to make it worse then carry panadol around without telling her and whipping it out when she needed. Or Ben should grunt and tell her off for being stupid. Nulluh would laugh at the strange ways of the white people.

But none of them were there.

At each thought, she could see each death plainly. Once the thoughts subsided, she realised that she had been crying. That was not something she was used to doing. She wiped her face and then stared for a moment at how it made her hand shiny. What kind of person was she becoming?

She walked down to the bad with her Akubra drawn down over her eyes to try and stop the pain splitting her skull. Thankfully it had eased with the panadol but it wasn't gone. She looked at the schedule. Calf checking.

Again memories dragged themselves through her head. That was what she had done, the last chore before she disappeared. The last thing before Luke died and everything changed. Her legs gave out, not that she noticed. Her thoughts were all encompassing as she again heard the thunder and watched Luke fall into the mud, Mayriah run off and blood soaking her clothes.

She plainly sobbed, unaware of where she actually was as she stared in horror at the blood on her hands, it was caked under her nails and still dry on her palms. She could have saved him but she didn't.

"Caitlyn!"

Her vision cleared slightly as she was pulled out of the nightmare by a hand on her shoulder and someone calling her name. She jumped back when she realised what was happening then tried to calm herself down. Through the tears she couldn't tell if the person was concerned or angry but either was bad. Either way they knew something about what was going wrong.

A/N
I'm so sorry guys but thanks so much for 1.1 K 😱 that's awesome even though I've been awful haha. Thanks so much for not hating me and yeah. I hope you like this chapter!

I'm not sure how this is going so I do want your feedback, I haven't really written anything human based before so let me know if this is how 'normal' people are haha.
Thanks!