Twisted Mercy

Y'all Come Back Saloon

October 21st, 2021

11:24am

Location: Doniphan, NE

**********

I grunted as I hit the ground.

Hard.

The taste that filled my mouth was horrible and I spit out a weird mixture of grass, blood, and mud. It was enough to make me dry heave into the closest bin near me. I heard laughter behind me and turned to glare at Genevra, who was holding the reigns of my horse as well as trying not to fall off of her own.

"Dude! You just got bucked off a horse," She managed to get out in between her evil little giggles. Seeing the unamused expression on my face caused her to laugh even more.

My horse just looked at me and snickered in a way only a horse can. That's it. This horse has made an enemy out of me.

I'll do something horrible. I'll eat its favorite apple right in front of it and not share.

Genna eventually got off of her horse and wrapped the two sets of reigns to a pole next to a food and water trough. She was still laughing as we walked into the saloon.

Yeah, you read it right. It was an actual old-timey western saloon. Currently, the two of us were squatting in a ghost town at the moment. Literally. The population of this town has to be less than fifty.

We sat at a table and the same waitress we've had since we came into town a couple of weeks ago came over with a smile on her face.

"Hi there, darlins! How are you doing today," She asked us. My expression turned sour as Ivy took one look at me before busting into another giggle fit. Sammi, our waitress, started laughing because Gia's laughter is like a yawn, contagious, but my scowl only deepened.

"I will skin you like the rat you are, Genevra," I mumbled, but my threats fell on deaf ears as she was now full-on howling.

Sammi wiped a tear from her eyes and said "You girls are a hoot! What tickled you so horribly?"

Genevieve, after she finished her maniacal giggle fit, told Sammi what had happened. I thought the poor old woman was going to break in half, she was laughing so hard. She wiped another tear from her tired, yet joyful, gray eyes. A wide and bright smile lit up her caramel face, dusted with only a few wrinkles.

As I studied her, I was reminded of home. Not with the Cabals or Big T, but actual home. I remembered the way my Mom would laugh after my Dad shared a stupid joke, the same wrinkles gathering around her eyes as what was gathering around Sammi's. My brothers, sisters, and I would all groan when, after they were done laughing, they would share a kiss. However, it was the love in their eyes, the same love they would have when they looked at us, that I missed the most. My heart sank.

The change in my mood was gone just as quick as it had happened. If I dwelt on my family too much...it hurts. In training, we were taught to hurt. If we got hurt, we might as well just leave ourselves to die. Obviously, we didn't want that. So, I had to stop thinking about them. If I let myself grieve them, I would never survive to the next day. This is why I kept thoughts of them pushed into the back of my mind.

After the two stopped their incessant laughter, Sammi brought out glasses of tea for us to drink from. It's not Texas sweet, but it was okay enough for a Midwestern state. We ordered our food and got right to business.

"Okay. So, we know the Cabals were planning on killing us after 'failing' in Louisiana. The only question is, who were they planning on bringing in to replace us?" My question fell on seemingly deaf ears as Gia pulled out her laptop and began typing. We sat in silence for a few minutes with the only sounds being the click clack of Gia's keys and the whir of the air vents.