Lone Wolf

Failed Plans

"If we can find her a cat or something I t'ink she'll be okay. She just passed out from shock is all," I hear from a distance.

I open my eyes slowly to find myself on a floor with a lot of blankets in a small room. Where were we? Blinking to try and see clearer, I notice Cassidy talking to Jesse. They both look at me and Cassidy comes over while Jesse walks out of the room. "Hey, hey," Cassidy says softly, walking over to me.

I try to sit up but he stops me, "don't sit up just yet, love, you were burnt pretty bloody bad," he continues.

I lay back down and groan in pain, "cat, please," I manage to say.

He chuckles a little bit, "soon love, you just rest now. I'm sure there's a bloody cat around here somewhere "

—

"She sure is Jodie!" the man with rotting teeth says with a bright smile, "can we keep her?"

With every cry of the baby, the man supposedly named Jodie grew more irritated, "I don't want this damn thing, just keep her in your room a while an' she'll end up starvin' soon."

—

When I wake up again it's about 3:30am. I get up slowly, trying not to groan too loud from the pain.

I walk around, trying to figure out where the hell I was. When I snoop around a little, I find Cassidy and Tulip sleeping in the same bed. Where was Jesse, though?

After searching for what felt like forever, I decide to go out and have a smoke. Wherever we were, it couldn't be bad since Cassidy and Tulip were sleeping soundly. When I walk out the front door, I notice two men talking from afar. One looked like Jesse, so I decided to walk to them. "J-Jesse?" I force out of my mouth.

They both look over at me, confused at first. But, then, Jesse's face lights up, "Dez! You're awake!"

"I-I don't mean to bother ya, was just wonderin'.... uh..... where are we exactly?" I say, seeing the other man curiously staring at me from the corner of my eye.

"This is my friend Mike," he looks over to who I now know as Mike, "Mike, this is Desdemona, otherwise known as Dez."

I smile at him, "is this the guy you were talkin' about that could help us?" I ask.

"Yeah... but it seems like he can't anymore," Jesse answers, looking in Mikes direction again.

Mike stares at Jesse for a moment, then takes a business card out of his pocket. "Whatcha got there?" Jesse asks.

"I ran into a woman a few weeks back," Mike says in a low tone, "parishioner of mine. I had her out in the garage a couple times. Booze, pills. But, she'd been sober a while, or so I thought. I found her looking pale as a ghost, trembling."

Me and Jesse watch him, curiously. Where was he going with this? What the hell does he mean by 'having her in the garage'?

"I asked her what's wrong, and she told me.... God himself had just been in. So I assumed she was back on the bottle," Mike finishes.

Jesse looks at him, hopeful, "but now, looking back on it..."

"She was pale as a ghost," Mike says after a long pause.

"That's her card?" Jesse asks, pointing to the little paper in Mike's hands.

"It's sort of a... dance hall down in Kimble County."

Strip club, he means strip club.

"Right," Jesse says, also realizing what he really meant.

They continue to talk, but I focus on a small piece of metal on the ground instead. God was a strip club.... why?