Kansas Kate looked at the Owl Mother with genuine horror.
Her hair had been lighter as a child, she remembered. She still had her dark brown eyes, but they were vibrant and lively, not evil and cold.
Six Year Old Siobhan Miller, pre-Kansas Kate:
"Mommy no!"
The plea fell on deaf ears. Tilly Miller had gotten her hands on, of all the damn things in this world, a genuine hickory walking cane that some fool had managed to break in half. How that happened is a mystery to never be solved, and one not relevant to little Siobhan as she feels it come down on her.
It hurts. It hurts a lot. It hurts as much emotionally for Mommy to hit you with it as it does physically.
Tilly Miller, still settling in to her addiction:
"Shut up Siobhan you little whore! I am so tired of you!"
The broken implement rises and falls twice, each impact hitting with a sickening thud. One of the other 'soiled doves', one with a heart anyway, would sneak in the room after the laudunum took Tilly Miller out and take the little girl to a doctor. She'd need stitches, and her wrist was broken too. That prostitute would also steal $15 from Tilly Miller's not-so-secret stash, but little Siobhan would never say a word.
The present day Kansas Kate does not stand there and take it however.
"
YEeeeeeAAArgh!"
The outlaw kicked a small clay pot, which pulverized it into dust. The interior was mostly saved because there's not much to interact with here in an immensely satisfying way.
"
Don't ya call me that. Don't no one call me that! Not no more. It ain't mah name no more, an it ain't been fer a coon's age."
If her heart still beat, it would be pounding right now, but even without it Kansas Kate was wound up emotionally.
Owl Mother:
”Siobhan,” she says, ”do you want to remain as you are, with one foot in each world? Or do you want to be among the living once more?”
But talk about mood whiplash. Kansas Kate began to laugh, that bitter, hollow, mocking laugh of hers. That laugh which her raspy, smokey voice made terrible.
"
What ah want? What ah want?"
She rasped some more.
"
Ain't nobody give no damn 'bout what ah want. Ah'm here cuz yer ornery kin, an' ah ain't count you as one of th' devils, yer just too alien to th' concept of good 'n evil as men see it, cuz there ain't no sech things nohow cept for what ya make up fer yerself. What ah want is meaningless. Mah life was meaningless. Mah existence now, is meaningless. The lives and decisions of everyone you seen ta-day, they don't amount to white crust on a dog shit.
"
Ah already seen it. Ah seen what's beyond th' pale, what's at th' end. There ain't no good in it, there ain't even just nothin', because just nothin' would be a mercy. No, this universe don't have no mercy. No matter what ah ever done, this is how it ended. They done showed me good."
She shook her head, her tone changed yet again, this time to sincere, and as least abrasive as she ever got.
"
Ya think ah didn't try? Ya think ah don't wish it could be diff'rent? Ah tried everythin' ta make it diff'rent, but it ain't never no diff'rent. What in the hell are ya'll gonna do against that? An' why me? They's better people'n me what winds up dead 'fore their time, or at least innocent ones. Ah'm a piece of shit and th' very right hand of the Devil. Me bein' alive again, that would just lead to more evil in the world. Ya, ah'm evil now, but ah'm evil by nature, that don't really count, there ain't no choice no more. Why help me even if ya could?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:06, Sun 21 June 2020.