The Pine Box

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"Where are we now?" Robert E

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"Where are we now?" Robert E. asked as he, Billy, Clint and Chyna stood before a burned down cabin. Chyna gazed at it with a dullness in her eyes. If felt like so long ago they set fire to this place, after a night storm. She could still feel how her heart raced as she stood between Johnsey and the McCoy boys.

How it hurt to see this places go up in flames, at the time it was the only place in the world that had ever felt like home. But now, it was just a ghost from her past. A past that felt like a lie.

"It's Nancy's childhood home." She said, clutching a blue bottle jacket in her hands. The hunt around the Still proved unfruitful, she was no tracker and it had been so many years not much was left evidence wise of what happened to Harmon McCoy. But she found that jacket, faded and moth eaten...and slighty torn.

So why was she here?

Chyna walked around the back of the home, where there was once planted a small garden. Getting to her knees she shifted through the dirt. Where was it?  She begain to dig deeper.

"What are you looking for?" Clint asked. "Before I was sent away by miss Martha I saw her write a letter, she put it in a pine box and burried it here...somewhere." Chyna said. "That letter, was after Harmon was killed. It might say nothing. But it might be enough to sooth this rage in Nancy." Chyna said.

"You cant be tryin'ta help her! Not still, she's a witch!" Billy shouted out. "I know, it aint for her. We calm her down and maybe Johnsey can have a happy enough marraige to end this fued, make the McCoys see - they aint all monsters." Chyna said.

"Wouldnt count on that boy for that..." Clint muttered.

Chyna finally dug up a small pine box. "This is it!, alright now we can -"

The sound of a gun hammer clicking back cut off Chyna's words. She froze, Clint and the boys drew their riffles and aimmed. "Wait! Wait!" A woman called ridding her horse up to a heavier set black man. He chewed casually at a piece of straw with two pistols aimed at the group.

"Buckweet stop it! Didn't I tell ya not to spook them!" The woman scolded. "Theys might be dangerious little ma'am." The man said. "Confounded people in these parts! And bother with all these twigs and sticks!" The woman shouted as she dismounted her horse and plucked a few stray twigs from her loosely curled hair.

Holding up her dress she marched over to Chyna and her group. Chyna slowly rose to her feet. "Who are you?" Chyna asked firmly. Eying the two strangers up and down. They were coloreds, but she wasnt so sure who to trust anymore - with the McCoy bounties being so high, all kinds was hunting them.

She needed to protect Robert E. and Billy.

The woman dropped her dress and looked over Chyna. Chyna shifted uncomfortable under the heavy gaze. "You look just like him, my lord!" The woman gasped. Chyna arched a brow "like who?" She asked.

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