♛
Anastasia grumpily scrubs away at the dirty clothes before her in the tub of water. A little over a week had passed since the party and tonight was the night the men were finally going to rob the oil field. Of course, Anastasia asked to go with, but her father deliberately made it clear that she was not allowed. Arthur didn't object to Dutch's opinion as he also didn't want to risk her getting hurt or worse.
So Anastasia kept busy the rest of the day, doing chores and ignoring the men. Arthur wasn't too happy to receive the cold shoulder from her, considering they don't get much alone time to begin with. But he would much rather have her mad at him than shot or killed.
"Think it'll be a good take?" Tilly asks as she scrubs clothes next to the blonde girl.
The sun slowly begins to set. The men had just left not long ago, wanting to hit the field at night when it isn't as guarded.
"I think so" Anastasia shrugs, "He seemed pretty well off."
"Need some help?" Karen and Abigail approach the two girls, bored and looking for something to do.
"Sure" both girls reply.
Karen and Abigail busy themselves with a pile of clothes, likely just wanting to avoid Mrs. Grimshaw, who currently is yelling at Bill by the campfire for smelling like a pile of horse shit.
"God, what on earth does Javier do?" Abigail laughs, holding a shirt up that is covered in blood, dirt and stab holes.
"Well, we certainly can tell which shirts are Uncles.." Anastasia chuckles, holding up a very clean and unmarked shirt compared to the other ones.
"Lazy shit." Karen snorts.
"Hey!" A voice calls from a few yards over, belonging to Uncle, who lays in the grass against a barrel, "I ain't lazy, I got Lumbago!"
"Yeah, yeah, sure." Karen rolls her eyes as the other girls all laugh.
Anastasia feels a bit better in the company of her girlfriends as they all sing and talk while they work. She begins to feel slightly guilty for ignoring Arthur all day and really hopes he and the others get back safely. Out of no where, she breaks out into a cold sweat and her mouth instantly waters. Suddenly, her stomach lurches in a very odd way causing her to drop the clothes in her hands. Without saying a word, she stands and rushes over to the trees, gaining confused looks from the other girls.
"Anastasia are you—" Abigail begins to ask but is cut off by the sound of the blonde girl hurling into the bushes.
After a couple minutes, she finally emerges, wiping her mouth as the colour slowly begins to settle back into her pale face.
"I—I'm okay.." she pants, kneeling back down to the water tub.
"No, you look sick," Karen puts hand to the other girls forehead.
"But I swear I felt perfectly fine all day." Anastasia sits on the ground, feeling suddenly drained and dizzy.
Abigail and Karen barrage the girl with a number of questions, trying to figure out what she ate or if she was around anyone with a stomach virus that she had noticed. Tilly stays silent the entire time, until she freezes in shock, dropping the soap bar into the bucket and staring wide eyed at the three.
"What?" Abigail finally notices the dark skinned girls odd behaviour.
"Um.. Anastasia.." Tilly swallows. "You—you remember a while back, when erm—you and Arthur was gone for the night.."
Anastasia blushes at the thought of that night. But what does that have to do with anything? She stares, with a confused expression, at Tilly.
