Abigails Sin

The Set Up

The shouts of triumph echoed back and forth through the old wooden building. For once a joyous kind of laughter floated around me. My nose was filled with the smell of burning meat and smoke but it was an improvement compared to the stench of death that had seemed to be lingering in the air of Montana. I clasped my hands firmly around the cool bottle between my palms. The  condensation from the bottle wetting my skin with a relaxing chill. Old country music I barely recognized played around mingling with the voices of the small crowd filling the chairs inside the Spread Eagle. Some of the people I could place names to but not enough to want to speak to anyone.

The celebration of winning over the last outpost Jacob had in the North was something to celebrate but I didn't feel much of anything. After we returned with Peaches we did what we could, stitching her wounds, cleaning them, feeding her but Matthew had said that only time could heal the wounds in her that Jacob made, and maybe not even then.

"You look lonely" Matt slid into the seat across from me only half dazed from the amount of alcohol he must have consumed by now.

"I wouldn't call it lonely" I shrugged taking a sip of my beer

"heartbroken?" he leaned forward

"why would you say that?" I was a little taken aback

"You protected him, believed him and he hurt you, I'd be heartbroken" a frown in place on his chapped lips, my own sorrow reflecting back in his eyes. Finally hearing someone say what I had been thinking made my heart rock back and forth, an uncomfortable feeling making me shift in my seat. I had done everything he'd asked for and still it was not enough, he knew it would never be enough but he let me attempt anyway. A sickness swept through me, a heat that tingled my fingertips, anxiousness and sadness mixed as one.

"It's not your fault" Matthew assured me

"how isn't it? everyone knew he was a lunatic, even I did but I fell for the tricks and pretty words anyway" I avoided his eyes.

"He's handsome, charming, he knows the exact words to say and when to say them"

"I should have been smarter, should have seen though it" I rolled my eyes at myself

"he didn't outsmart you Abigail because now you know" he reached across the table to place his hand over mine. The cuts and scabs from his weeks of fighting clear on his ragged skin. He looked better now, not happy but content. Having me safety back in reach most likely helped him to regain parts of his sanity. I studied his face, eyes shot with fatigue and skin sunburnt as if we had been to a beach all day. Though I suppose he hadn't been inside very often in the last few weeks. My skin probably reflected some of the same.

"I was terrified he had killed you, that I had left you there just for him to.." he balled up his fists in an attempt to hold back the emotions begging to pour through

"he never hurt me" I trailed thinking back to my time at the ranch "not physically anyway" I added. He looked as if he wanted to say something else but Mary May interrupted him by slamming down two new cold beers on the table in front of each of us with a grin on her face. The bun holding her long dirty blonde hair was lose and letting pieces fall down to frame her face highlighting some of the tiny freckles on her face.

"Don't look so glum guys, we finally won something" she patted Matt on the back. Her gaze turned over to me "because of you two chef wants to get the Testy Festy up and running this weekend as a celebration!". Our shared unamused looks on our faces must have told her how unappetizing that sounded. I had never been to the festival, not in all the years that it had existed. Of course going now sounded even more of a bad idea with the cult looking for me to bring me back to John, this time I didn't think he would be so kind.