VA- The Wild, Wild West

Chapter 4 Dazed and Confused

I would just like to say to my fans I'm sorry it took so long to get this up I've had some major health issues, but thanks for hanging in there I will try very hard to get the next chaper up very soon.

The wild brawl was extremely brutal. Excruciating pain throbbed under the cold pack making me wince. At some point during the ruthless fight, someone callously slammed something so hard in the back of my head, that it’s possible I passed out. Everything seems a bit fuzzy, and I’m not exactly sure that I’m one hundred percent. The world just doesn't feel right, I feel like a stranger in my own skin.

Lord knows, I've always been a little abnormal, but right now, it feels like I shouldn't be here. Stirring in the back of my mind a fleeting memory seemed to be trying to make its way to the surface. Telling me that I belong somewhere else, and that place is very important. Gently rubbing my neck with my fingertips and dismissing the nagging feeling, I just needed to rest up. This ice pack sure wasn’t helping any.

Groggily, I shook my dazed head, counting my many blessings, and very relieved that I finally got those uncivilized wild hell raising boy's outta here. They were sure rowdy, ever since that no good gunslinger Victor Dashkov and his brother Robert rode into town with the rest of his outlaw gang; my saloon has taken a real beating. Those Dashkov brothers are a real pain in my ass! They're causing trouble all around these parts and they made one hell of a mess for me to clean up.

There hasn't been much need for the long arm of the law around here, but now, sitting here at three in the morning looking at my Saloon… some broken chairs, tables over turned, glass and bottles scattered all over the floor. It's gonna take me and my bar keep, Eddie, quite a few hours to clean up Rosie's tonight. Nevertheless, this isn’t the first time and it sure as hell won't be the last mess I clean up.

It used to be a quiet, peaceful loving, place; or it was until those no good scoundrels got into town. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to call in some major favors to get out of this mess. I guess I don't have much choice anymore, since it's getting quite bad around here. I really didn’t want to use up my favors for that. It’s good having "friends" in your back pocket, especially for a young lady like me, if ya know what I mean.

Just barely turned 19, and I've had one hell of a life. My mama left me on the doorstep of my best friend’s family home when I was just a little one, right about 5 years old. Ya see, she basically left a brief letter and me in the middle of the night, wrapped up in mama's quilt sleeping on the front porch. I'm not quite sure where my mama went, but in her short letter, it said she was going to make a better life for us and she'd be back. Well, I haven't seen neither hide nor hair, or heard from her since. My new family took very good care of me, as if I was one of their own. Until they were murdered, that is. Sitting here staring at the broken bottle on the floor, the long lost memory seemed to surface in a flash, sucking me right back there.

Flashback

"You girls stay where I can see you." Mrs. Dragomir shouted. "Yes Mama" we said together in a singsong voice. Lissa and I were only 10 years old; Lissa just asked mama if we could go play by Bitter Creek. Mrs. Dragomir was doing the wash in the washtub right by the creeks edge. Chasing butterflies as they fluttered through the trees and flowers over the hill, we were laughing, giggling, and singing "On top of Spaghetti." We skipped, played, and danced through the really tall grass. I could barely see Lissa’s head bobbing over the tops of the swaying green sea. A warm breeze blew our long hair all around us as it was floating at our backs.

We had only been playing for a short time when we heard mama scream. I took Lissa's hand in mine and we ran as fast as we could to the top of the hill. We could climb on a big tree with long branches to see the whole Dragomir Horse Ranch from the top of the hill and we could see mama. She was screaming because a large group of the barbaric Strigoi Indians was attacking her. The Strigoi Indian's were bloodthirsty savages! I looked at Lissa as fear surged through me. Tears were flooding down her horror struck face and she was about to scream and run to mama, but I reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders pulling her down so we were squatting in the grass. I put my finger to my lips to shush her and shook my head to tell her not to make a sound. She was still crying, but she was staying quiet now.