Falling for the Enemy

Dirty Ragdoll

                                                                                      Henry

“Sankey if you lie to me, you will be losing a few limbs today starting with that one,” I say gesturing between his legs with my rifle once more.  

Just barely whispering loud enough for me to hear him Sankey says 

“Follow the stream that runs next to the property.  It will fork into a smaller creek.  Then follow the smaller creek and you will find her.”  

From the stairs, I catch the movement of a shadow and for a second I think that there is another man with Sankey that I missed, turning towards the movement and aiming my gun, I place my finger on the trigger and begin pulling it but stop when I realize it is Susanah creeping slowly down the stairs.  She has a pistol in her hand and she is shaking with her arm held out from her body and pointing the gun at Sankey’s body on the floor.  

“Susanah, shoot him if he moves.  I need to go find Catherine.”  

Turning to leave the room a gunshot goes off.  I jerk towards the ground instinctively covering my head with my arms.  Susanah is standing near Sankey’s body, holding the gun pointed directly at Sankey’s head.  Her hand begins to quake and she drops her gun on the floor.  Turning to look at Sankey I can see the bullet hole in his head. Blood oozes from the fresh wound.  Susanah has received her revenge and Sankey is dead.  I am happy that he is dead but in the back of my mind, I am worried that he may have lied about Catherine’s location, and now I will never find her.  

Running out to the barn I saddle the only horse still left in the barn, which is Mary’s old horse, Galway.  Stepping into the stirrup with my good leg, I pitch my body and wounded leg over the horse with all of the strength I can muster.  I tug on Galway’s reins and give her a little kick with the stirrups and guide her out of the barn and towards the stream.  I have never followed the stream long enough to see it fork, but I am hopeful that Charles told me the truth because if he didn’t I may never find Catherine.  By the time I make it to the fork in the stream the sun has risen into the sky and I can see streaks of different shades of purple, pink, and red spreading over the sky, it is a glorious morning, but there is no time for dawdling on these inane thoughts.  I must keep my eyes peeled and continuously scour the forest and fields for any sign of Catherine.   

I follow the creek around a bend, slowly guiding Galway to stay on the creek bank, when I see Brennan drinking water from the creek in front of me, I am excited.  Brennan is Catherine’s horse, Catherine took her yesterday when she left the plantation.  Jumping off Galway I guide her towards Brennan.  Brennan is aware that I am near but she recognizes me and does not startle, she simply continues drinking from the creek, unaffected by my proximity to her.  Grabbing a hold of Brennan’s reigns I scream out into the morning mist for Catherine but receive no response.  I sit astride Galway once more tying Brennan’s reins to the horn of my saddle and begin guiding both horses further along the creek bank.  

I am moving even more carefully than before because I know that Catherine was in this area at some point yesterday because Brennan is here.  By the time the noon sun is beating down on me from the sky, I am starting to doubt the information given to me by Charles Sankey.  I was a fool to trust him.  Why would he tell me the truth after all the evil he has done.  He had no reason to be truthful to me except for the fear he felt about the possible pain that I was going to inflict him with.  I am at an impasse.  I don’t know if I should continue following the creek or if I have been led astray by a sadistic liar. I decide to keep going the only reason being that Brennan was in this area, so I am hopeful that so is Catherine.  I stop to let the horses have a drink and to refill my canteen with water from the creek.  

I place the canteen into the water and let the cool water fill the canteen to the top and take a long gulp and then return the lid to the canteen.  Looking up the stream I swear I can see something hanging from a tree.  Mounting Galway I begin trotting towards the object.  As the object becomes clearer I can see it is a body hanging from the tree.  

“Oh dear god no.”  I am frenzied so I strike the sides of Galway with my stirrups so she begins galloping towards the body hanging from the tree.  Dismounting Galway I quickly tie her to a nearby stump and limp as fast as humanly possible toward the body.  

There hanging from a tree branch is Catherine.  She is still and unmoving.  She looks like a dirty ragdoll dangling from a tree branch tempting a child below.   Her arms are above her head and her wrists are bound together.  She hangs limp, her feet just barely dragging on the ground below her.  Pulling out the knife in my boot I walk towards her.  Embracing her in my arms I cut the rope above her wrists.  Catherine’s body falls lifeless into my arms.  I kneel down to the ground keeping her upper body cradled in my arms at all times.  

Her face is bloody and bruised.  She has a gash in her forehead where blood has dried her hair to her scalp and her back is indescribable.  It's just raw open flesh covered with blood.  I can see line after line after line engraved into her skin.  With Catherine’s head lying in my lap, I cut the ropes from her wrist to reveal more wounds.  Her wrists are bruised and bleeding from where the ropes have dug into her skin, and I have to pull on the rope because it is embedded into her skin.