CAnnie awoke coughing and gagging. She kicked off the blanket and shot out of bed, then promptly tripped over the chair and tumbled down onto the faded green carpet. She counted herself lucky that it was surprisingly plush, although her chafed and sore cheek disagreed with the sentiment.
After a moment of lying in a heap to lament Connor’s choice of chair placement, Annie gingerly picked herself off the ground and tipped the chair upright again. Then she gave it a soft kick to make herself feel better. Dignity returned and nightmare-based adrenaline receding, Annie carefully picked her way through the dark and over to the bathroom.
She didn’t turn on the light, that might involve looking in the mirror, she just ran the sink and splashed some water onto her face. As she watched the water stream into the drain, she didn’t find the thought of returning to sleep terribly appealing. Instead she stopped the water and felt her way over to her bag.
After a moment of rooting around inside she pulled out a thick woolen cloak with two wing-like strips that trailed down the back. It sported scarlet, purple, and orange hues like a sunset and bore a wavy geometric design not unlike her tattoos. Annie stared at it for a while before carefully tugging it over her head and wrapping it around her shoulders. Then, after quickly lacing up her boots, she stepped out into the hallway.
Unsurprisingly, it was also dark.
Placing a hand along the wall, she meandered down the hall, taking care not to stumble or clomp her boots too loudly against the hardwood for fear of waking the other tenants. Only once she was out of the motel and onto the street did she allow herself a sigh, puffing out a cloud of fog into the desert night air.
“Dammit.” She wrapped the cloak around herself tightly. Seeing Jaigra again had clearly dredged up old memories and the nightmares that came with them. Lucky her.
The quiet was helping. The whole town was asleep now, not a single light illuminated the empty streets except that of the moon. The Stranger’s only company tonight would the stars and the dust kicked up beneath her feet as she walked. At least they didn’t need much in the way of conversation, Annie preferred a quiet stroll.
She nestled into her cloak close against the wind and looked up. Millpoint’s pride and joy loomed above her, its sails stretched across blades that cut across the moon as they spun in a lazy circle. It was a calming sight; Annie found herself breathing in time to the churning rotor; relishing the stillness of the town as it slept.
That quiet stillness was suddenly shattered by a metallic clanging, not unlike like a toolbox being thrown down a flight of stairs. Annie stopped. She knew that noise.
She watched as a shape moved from behind the wind turbine's transformer bank, pulling something large and heavy behind it with great effort. Sheriff Jed stepped out into the moonlight. He heaved on a small hand truck to pull it over the sand and out into the street with a clatter that made Annie wince. The cart was loaded with what looked like a large metal cylinder adorned with a series of blinking lights, and it sported a short black hose capped with some sort of metal attachment that poked out of the top.
Jed looked around anxiously and Annie slipped into the shadows. She watched him maneuver the hand truck onto the road and begin to wheel it away, heading further into town and… humming to himself?
The Stranger’s weirdness gauge was at full capacity. She wasn’t going to get back to sleep anyway, might as well see what Sheriff Dickhead was up to. She started after him, keeping to the pockets of darkness within the alleys and behind buildings where she could stay hidden.
After a few minutes of walking the main road he suddenly took a sharp turn left, lunging into an alleyway. As much as one can lunge with a hand truck anyway. Then the brim of his 10-gallon hat then poked back around the corner and Annie had just enough time to duck behind the wooden post of a porch before his head whipped around to stare goggle-eyed back the way he came. Then, with a nod, he disappeared down the alley once more.
She let out a small grunt of irritation and peered out from her hiding place, then followed after him a bit more wary than before. Luckily he wasn’t difficult to tail, the squeak of his ancient hand truck echoed down the alley like a trail of creaky breadcrumbs leading her on. He stuck to the alleys and side streets, darting this way and that seemingly at random. It was beginning to make Annie’s head spin.
He finally stopped somewhere at the edge of town. An open space behind Doctor Mitch’s neon lit clinic that was pressed up against the sharply sloping stone wall that made up the exterior of the ravine. A scruffy stretch of overgrown bushes lined the stone and was beginning to creep out towards the clinic unhampered. It seemed the doctor rarely bothered to trim bushes he wouldn’t see.
Sheriff Jed was leaning against his hand truck, smoking a cigarette and watching the bushes intently. Then, at some unseen signal, he flicked the cigarette to the dirt and ground it under his boot.
Annie was about to step out and confront the Sheriff when the bushes began to quiver. She could hear the snapping of branches and the rustle of leaves, and then out from the shrubbery emerged the smuggler, Romedeus Filch.
"You know," Filch said, "It would be a great deal more convenient for me if we cleared away a few of those bushes. You know, so I didn't have to force my way through every time I come out of them tunnels."
"That would defeat the point of them, Filch." Jed's tone was sharp, authoritative. It had none of the relaxed bravado Annie had heard from him back in the motel.
"Fair enough, fair enough." the smuggler shrugged and leaned down to dust off his pants, “It would just be easier to get the hand truck into the tunnels if them bushes was a bit thinner, that’s all.”
“I don’t pay you to complain, Filch. I trust you have my money from our last pickup?” Jed held out a hand and flicked his fingers expectantly. Filch sighed and pulled a pouch from his coat and tossed it for the Sheriff to snatch it from the air.
He sneered “Don’t get cute with me Filch. My business in this dump is almost finished. I’d hate for you to… stumble at the finish line.”
“Speaking of business sir, what was that Stranger doing in the tunnels? You said nobody knew they was there.”
”Nobody in town knew they were there, and I’ve made sure to keep it that way for as long as I can. But clearly our Stranger friend has other ideas Now, stop asking questions and do your job. I will handle our little complication.” Jed shoved the hand truck in the smuggler’s direction.
Annie had heard enough. She rose to her feet and stepped out into the clearing, only for a hand to yank on her wrist and pull her backwards. She stumbled and began to cry out, only for someone to clamp a hand firmly over her mouth and pin her to the wall.
“What the hells are you thinking?” Jaigra whispered.
Annie bit her hand. Jaigra swore under her breath and it away, “Alright, alright! What are you, twelve?”
”Now is not the fucking time Vrath.” Annie hissed, “Apparently I wasn’t clear enough earlier. Leave me alone, or I’ll send you the way I’ve sent every other fucking bounty hunter those ghouls have sent.”
“What were you going to do if you actually confronted those two? You don’t any weapons, you’re in your fucking pajamas, you don’t even have your damn needle!”
Annie’s eyes widened and she tried to wrench her wrist from Jaigra’s grip, “Fuck you! I should’ve shot you this morning.”
Jaigra held tight and leaned in close to the Stranger, “Listen, I’m sorry for what I said earlier, and you can shoot at me all you like later! But you can’t come back with me if you’re dead!”
Annie glanced towards the clearing, Filch and the Sheriff were gone, “Are you kidding me? Let go of me!” she drove her knee into the other woman’s stomach and shoved her away as she doubled over.
“Annie!” she wheezed, “Please! Just listen to me!”
Angry tears crept to the corners of Annie’s eyes, “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand? It’s not enough you destroyed me once, now you want to finish the job?”
“No! I–“
Annie let the glowing red hound sphere dangle from her finger, Jaigra’s hand shot to her neck and felt what remained of the snapped leather chord.
“This is your last warning Jaigra. The next time I see you, I will kill you.” Annie dropped the sphere to the ground and shattered it under the heel of her boot before turning and stalking off into the shadows.
Jaigra picked the pieces of glass off the ground as she watched Annie slip away from her again, cradling the shattered sphere and staring into the dark.
