The Tie That Binds: A Hatfields and McCoys Fanfiction

Phantom Moon

Spiderwebs stretched the length of the window frame. Cordelia peered through the silken netting towards the night sky where a full moon rode high above the snow dusted mountain. The moon winked in and out of the darkness, like an eye.

A blind eye. Her husband's face emerged from the stars, transparent as a ghost.

Cordelia reached out towards him, but her fingers were caught in the webbing. Smoke wafted around her, fiery heat at her back. She opened her mouth to scream and the acrid clouds filled her lungs, searing her throat. Her husband vanished from sight and the moon winked again, the white dripping to red. A blood moon.

"Darlin'...darlin-"

Cordelia jolted up in their bed, the frame complaining loudly. She grabbed at her neck, the taste of smoke having disappeared upon waking. Cap sat up beside her and rested a hand at the small of her back.

"It was burning and then the blood-"

"You were dreaming. That's all. Just a little dream." His hand drifted over her tangled curls and wrapped around her trembling shoulders. "You're shaking like a leaf. Come here."

Pulling her down onto the tick with him, he tugged up the blankets as she rested her head on his chest, cradled inside his arm. Smoothing a hand over her cheek, he perched his chin on the top of her head. Cordelia took a deep breath of the cold air seeping into their bedroom and relaxed against the long angles of his body.

"There now," Cap crooned. "What was this all about?"

Cordelia shuddered as visions of her nightmare played before her waking eyes. She glanced towards the window to find a frostbitten glass pane glowing in the light of a half moon. An owl hooted outside, but did not draw close. However, she didn't need an omen to ignite the fear kindling in her chest.

She pressed her face into him till she could feel his heartbeat reverberate through her skull.

"We're cursed, aren't we?"

Cap scoffed. "What are you saying?"

"Cursed. We have blood on our hands, the both of us."

"You're been talking too much with my mother."

"Look at what happened to my father. He killed that woman back in Massachusetts and his sins followed him all the way here."

Cap's hold on her tightened. "Your pap was murdered."

"But blood calls for blood. That's what you and your kin have been fighting the McCoys over for years. Even says so in the Bible, you reap what you sow. We have both sowed in blood."

"But blood that was justly taken. The McCoy boys, they killed my uncle so I did what was right even in the eyes of the law. The night your house burned... that man..." Cordelia sensed him tense at the thought of her attack. It had only added to his rage towards the McCoys and their bounty hunters. "He killed your father then you killed him. That balanced the scales."

Cordelia gripped his night shirt. "But that's the funny thing about blood. Where does it end? Where does the dying stop? If not with us, will it come back to curse our children?"

"That's enough of this talk," Cap replied swiftly, brushing away the notion before it could anchor itself in his thoughts. "Besides we don't have any children for this curse to lay itself on."

Cordelia released his shirt. "No, we don't."

The next morning dawned chilly and clear. However, the blue sky did little to erase the fear that lay like a stone in Cordelia's stomach. Their supplies were getting lower by the day. Though the men were able to fill their tables with meat they hunted, the corn meal store was sorely depleted. Cordelia was careful not to waste any as she prepared biscuits with Annie, Anse's racking cough echoing from the bedroom.