#gallowsheart

@gallowsheart

Astrid had noticed him watching. While she couldn't exactly blame him given they had been pretty damn loud, she had expected for him to do what anyone else would do and turn to go back inside. Instead, he had locked eyes with her, had watched as her partner made her come undone, all while lighting up a cigarette. When all was said and done and her partner stepped back inside to get an early night, she had stayed out on the balcony. She'd waited until she was sure he wouldn't hear before stepping a little closer to her neighbours, asking the question that had been on her mind the whole time - why were you staring?

muse: Jericho Ashworth (OC) limit: 21+ only please, mutuals and non-mutuals set: Ashworth ranch, sometime after dark open to: other OCs, canons, fandom crossovers, whatever! could be locals, hikers, pranksters, etc., could be running/hiding from something worse or seeking protection, go wild

Someone or something had been creeping around the Ashworth property after dark for a few nights now. Normally, the twins took care of any trespassers that made themselves too bothersome, but whoever this was, they were slicker than his dumbass twin brothers. They hadn’t been caught and tossed up on a meat hook, at least not yet. It wasn’t worth the gray it would put in his hair to try to stop the boys from having their fun, but Jed would prefer that didn’t happen too often, especially when he couldn’t confirm this wasn’t a local. Plenty of hikers went missing in Devil’s Holler, but the locals all kept themselves to themselves.

The motion porch light flared suddenly in the darkness, revealing Jed in a chair with a shotgun across his lap. “This is private property. I could shoot you where you stand, and there’s not a jury around here that would convict me.” He didn’t look in the mood to be shooting trespassers though, having not even lifted the gun. Instead, he just studied them like he was trying to figure out what the hell they were doing here. “Why don’t you explain yourself, and maybe you won’t leave here tryin’ to suck oxygen through a new hole in your head.”

Kara stood at the edge of what looked like it might be a driveway. She'd been lost in the woods so long that she was sure she had to be at least ten or more miles from her grandfather's home. The only reason she was alive was finding a camping site and the people looked as though they'd abandoned their things. She had no idea what was going on and didn't want to know. Keeping to herself, Kara was keeping away from the men she watched take her guard. The two men, that she would have thought was just one but she'd seen them together looked familiar. From her window on the 4th story she could see the edge of the wall and sometimes she watched them stay right there, sitting on the top of the wall. Kara did wonder who they were but she was sure that Misha died by their hands.

Death happened to good people all the time. All she cared about was staying away from anyone that might possibly take her back to the house. Now, with her injured leg, she wasn't sure how long it would take her to get anywhere. She looked around seeing that a few of the buildings looked as though there was nothing in them. Maybe she could use open for a few days till she could stitch her leg up. She looked down at her feet and had to laugh. What sane person decides to run away in ballet slippers. There hadn't been any shoes or she might have taken them off. They were definitely not made for the forest.

Kara was pulled from her thoughts when she saw a light come on and she froze. It was like being an animal of prey and a predator found her. She turned to look at him and it wasn't him that scared her too much. He had kind eyes. No, it was the two sets that came up to him and she knew who they were. Biting down on her ruby bottom lip that was cracking from dehydration, she sucked in a deep breath.

"I can't tell you who I am. I didn't know.. I mean, I knew once I saw the buildings but I didn't know who lived here. I... you... uuuuummm... " tears started to flow down her face and she couldn't stand on her legs any longer. Falling to the ground, she grabbed her leg where the pink dancer tights were ripped away and blood was crusted around the gap. A red angry wound was in the center and she looked down seeing that there was new blood seeping through. Reaching up, her pink ballet slippers were crusted with mud but the ribbons were crusted in red where they were tightened to keep the wound close.

Feyre’s hand moved on instinct.

To smooth the furrow in his brow.

To trace the edge of his jaw.

To offer something soft in the face of so much hurt.

But she didn’t reach him.

Her hand stopped short, fingers curling in midair before she let them fall back to her side. Like touching him would make it worse—for her, for him, for everything they never said out loud.

The guilt twisted in her gut before she could stop it.

Of course you reached for him. Of course you did.

James would call it selfish. Emotional bleeding. Needy.

She hadn’t even realized how much that voice—the one that wasn’t hers—had made itself at home in her head. All sharp edges dressed up like protection.

She swallowed hard.

She hadn’t cried when James snapped at her. Not when he called her exhausting. Not when he gripped her arm hard enough to bruise and told her she should be grateful he still gave a damn.

She hadn’t cried when she curled up in the corner of his apartment afterward, willing herself smaller, quieter, less.

But this?

This was the ache that threatened to break her open.

Theo’s voice. Theo’s face. The furrow in his brow that meant he saw her. That he cared— maybe in the wrong way—but still.

It would be easier if he didn’t.

If he hadn’t come looking.

If he hadn’t asked.

“Are you happy?”

She asked, voice nearly above a whisper.

“Were we ever really happy? . . . Did you ever care to hear my real answer before?”

God. She wanted to scream. Wanted to shake him by the collar and say Where were you? When it mattered? When she needed him? When she was folding in on herself and calling it self-growth?

But she didn’t scream.

Instead, she breathed. Shallow. Unsteady.

And tried not to cry in the middle of the sidewalk like a girl with a broken heart and no more excuses left.

“What does happy even look like?”

Was it James leaving her sunflower stems in a cracked vase? Or the way he flinched when she got too animated about frogs or stars or the way light looked when it passed through leaves?

Was it someone who stayed but never really saw her?

Someone who showed up but never chose her?

Was it this?

This moment—standing here in front of the boy she’d loved since before she knew what love even was—trying to convince herself that what she had now was enough?

Her chest burned. Her hands trembled. And still, she said nothing of what she was thinking.

Instead, she lifted her eyes to his, and with all the gentleness she could muster—voice steady only because it had to be—she said:

“Maybe I don’t know what happy really is… Maybe I’m finally trying to learn what that actually looks like.”

That was all she could give him.

All the truth she could afford without collapsing.

And even that nearly undid her.

Alex nudged the door shut with his boot, the old hinges groaning in protest before settling back into silence. The kind of silence that wasn’t empty, though—it had weight to it, pressing against his shoulders, crawling along the back of his neck.

He still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here at all. A letter from some lawyer he’d never met, telling him a long-lost uncle he’d never even heard of had left him property in Devil’s Holler. He’d half expected it to be a scam until the paperwork checked out and the keys turned in the lock. The man had died alone, no other relatives on record, and somehow Alex—city chef, no farmer’s blood in him that he knew of—was next in line.

He set his grocery bag on the counter, the sound of crinkling paper far too loud in the cavernous kitchen. “Great,” he muttered under his breath, more to fill the quiet than anything. “Inherited a farmhouse, not a damn haunted house.”

His gaze drifted toward the darkened hallway, the shadows stretching too far for comfort. He let out a tight breath, forcing a short laugh that didn’t quite stick. “Old houses creak. Drafts whistle. That’s all it is.”

Scooping the bag back up, he squared his shoulders and headed for the master bedroom. The floorboards groaned with every step, but he moved with deliberate purpose, as if staking his claim with each sound. When he reached the room, he set the bag down firmly on the dresser, taking a slow sweep of the space. Dusty, drafty, unfamiliar—but his. Or at least it would be, once he made it so.

They were dead. All of them. Every one of the friends she had made since moving to the city had died in just over the course of a week. It had been hell, briefly forgetting what it was like to smile under the weight of grief. She had hoped the bad luck was all coming to an end, and she could grieve without the fear of losing another. But in a heartbeat, that hope was shattered.

Robin’s back pressed hard against the wall, but her legs felt useless beneath her, trembling so badly she could hardly stay upright. Her chest heaved, every breath shallow, her vision swimming as the copper stench of blood filled her lungs. Her eyes flicked over the bodies once more before locking back on the mask, and the room tilted.

Her knees gave, dropping her down until she was half crouched against the wall, one hand braced weakly on the floor to keep from collapsing completely. Tears streaked hot down her cheeks, her lips trembling around words that barely held together. “F-for me? You… you did this for me?” She shook her head frantically, sobs catching in her throat. “No, no—I never wanted this. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Her free hand lifted toward them, shaking so badly it looked like it might not even belong to her. “Please,” she whispered, voice breaking, “please just tell me why. Why would you do this?”

For Kara there was being stuck in the tower of the castle that her grandfather built and then there was living with the Ashworth brothers. Of course both limited where she could go but with the five brothers, there was a freedom to how she spent her time. It took her a bit realize they didn't care where she went as long as she didn't leave their property. Which could seem limiting but that person had never been to a ranch in the Appalachian mountains where there were just about anything you might want to do just in your reach if you were willing to wonder.

She might not have been so willing to search the land and see what there was to do if it wasn't that she knew at least one brother seemed to always be watching her. Usually, she knew usually it was the twins, or at least one of them, but today was different. Only one of the brothers wasn't quiet and had a hard time keeping her from seeing him. Honestly, Kara wasn't even sure why he was hiding from her. He could have just walked with her. She liked his company and he seemed to always have a story to tell.

Finally, two hours later, she'd found the spot she'd been looking for. Kara knew there had to be a closer way to get there but put the thought away so that she could remember to ask Jed. There had been such a comfort being around the five of them, she realized that she found herself not being so uncomfortable or self conscious. Maybe it was because the five of them never seemed to judge her by the way her body looked or who she might impress. This left kara with a sense of freedom that she was good enough and she shouldn't fear if someone saw the large scar on her legs or the lash marks that were across her lower back and down across her body towards the top of her thighs. Those marks always left her with a feeling of emptiness and being worthless. The word used with each strike of the belt.

She wasn't sure if Jesse left once he saw she was at the hot spring. It had come to be her favorite place to bath being the water was so hot it turned her skin pink, the way her shower did back where her grandfather hid her. The warm water seemed to make her feel loose, not as achy and in truth just free.

Kara slipped the black skirt off she was wearing letting it fall on the rocks next to where the water naturally pooled over looking a valley. She kept the small black top that covered her like a bra top and her bright blue panties before stepping into the water. When it was the twins, she never cared if they saw her naked but she wasn't as free with Jesse yet and maybe she never would be. Strange as it was, she had a bond with the twins that she just didn't have with the others. She was finding that her relationship with each was very different but each fulfilled something that she needed all the way to her core.

As she slipped into the water, she walked to the edge to look out before she dipped down. Looking out over the edge, she realized that if it was raining more, or there'd been snow, the pool she bathed in would cause a waterfall down into the hot spring creek below her. It was so beautiful and she couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Hearing Jesse behind her, Kara turned towards him and smiled. "I knew you were with me most of the trip but I wasn't sure once you knew were I was, if you'd turned back around to go back to the house." She smiled as she turned towards him, letting her body sink below the water leaving only her head dry.

The twins' idea of a good time could be …intense, and by that he meant it wasn't survivable by most people. Kara seemed to be their exception, and as far as Jed knew, they'd never seriously hurt her or even tried to. Then again, just because they hadn't caused any damage that would send her to a hospital didn't mean much. There was a lot of gray area in there, and he didn't care to look more closely at their activities. As the eldest brother, he was the only person alive who could keep them in check, but even his influence only went so far. He tried not to use it unless it was absolutely necessary. He'd gotten home late, putting in long hours at the butcher shop with winter approaching and another mouth to feed. He always stressed about the family making it through the winter once the snow and ice got so bad it closed the only road into town. He was sitting at the kitchen table, a finger of cheap whiskey in a glass that he downed before sensing a presence in the doorway. He didn't know what had Kara showing up after dark with that haunted look on her face, but he motioned her further inside. "You hungry? Abram left some chicken soup in the fridge. I was thinking about warming some up." He wasn't. He was just planning to crash in bed without eating, but he'd make an exception for her.

She felt off, scared but not for her life. She felt at home now, finally found a way to feel needed. The house looked spotless the smell of clearer and candles that she'd made filling the space but she'd made the mistake of going to see the twins. As she came up to where they stayed, she felt nervous. It wasn't a secret what they did as much as it seemed like something no one really talked about. Kara wasn't sure if they'd heard her talking to Abram about animal fat and what would be best to use in soap and candles, something she'd learned from her governess, who was always teaching her what to do like the Russian Revolution might return.

When they'd given her the gift, she wasn't sure if she should take it but she didn't want to make either of them angry at her. They'd been the whole reason she wasn't married and used as a pawn. They'd kept her things and made her life her so much easier than it could have been. Sitting the two canisters down she popped up on her toes and gave each one a kiss on their cheeks, smiling as she carried the jars back to the house.

When Jed asked if she wanted to eat she shook her head, not even remotely able to eat. Without even thinking she moved over and sat down in his lap her head on his broad chest, her small hands in tight fists against his shirt. Tears were now streaming but she couldn't look up at him, only dappen a spot before her breath hitched and she felt his finger under her chin, so that she had to look at him.

Kara's eyes were so bright blue that it was hard to not believe they were fake. She shook her head but finally turned to the two jars ribbons on each. She was sure they were ribbons from one of her costumes they didn't return and that was fine... but the contents wasn't.

She sucked in a deep breath. "I was talking to your brother about using fallow for candles and soap. I knew that you weren't using the part that i needed because it doesn't work in cooking. I never know when the twins are around and I don't mind. They've helped more than harmed. I almost fell down a well three days ago but the grabbed me right before I stepped so... I'm not upset about that but I got a message that they had something for me."

Kara turned so that her back was resting against Jed but she didn't move from his lap, only nodded at the ribboned jars. "At first I didn't know what it was... and then I realized it was what Abram and I'd been talking about but... Jed it's the wrong color. See... my governess, her mother was in Russia at the time of Stalin's famine and she feared that something like that could happen again. So she taught me all this strange stuff... one being the color that fat changes depending where it comes and what animal it's from."

She swallowed hard as she turned back to Jed. "I don't think I need to say what they and I don't think I could handle making anything out of it, let alone selling it to women in town. I... I don't want to be rude, this took a long time to do. I also saw a stack of things that were my guards things. I'm... almost positive the.... the... yeah my guard. I --- I--I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"I can't believe I've lived in the city all these years and I never took a day off to look around. All I've done since I got here is work." Hands stuffed in his pockets, Liam shifted nervously from foot to foot as he worked up the courage to tell Grant what he had planned for their dating. They had only been dating a few months but already he knew Grant was something special and he wanted to show him that. They stood in Five Points, just on the outskirts of Chinatown, waiting for their guide.