Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen: We Smell Like Food, Paleface

Frankie was confused and Frankie did not handle confusion well. As a matter of fact confusion pissed her off completely. It made her angrier than a riled up bull at branding. For so long all she had ever wanted or needed out of life was the simple freedom of riding the plains with her uncle. Learning everything she could from the man from poker lessons to weapons. He had been her everything but he was gone now......

What was she supposed to do now? How did she move on without her Uncle Gibbs? Where would she go? She couldn't go back to that cabin, not without him there, and that had been the only home she'd ever truly known.

She supposed she could wander and simply be a nomad as she waited for this sickness to end and searched for a place that would somewhat resemble what had once been normal....

She felt so empty inside.... She just wanted to forget for even a few minutes that all of this was real. She wanted to pretend that life was still the way it always was. There were no monsters. No one she loved was dead. Mothers weren't abandoning their children to bloodthirsty monsters. And she wasn't' ordering crazy injuns to feed said mother to her children as a form of payback.

She thought of Comanche in the next room and knew that he could help her forget a while. She knew he wanted her and she wanted him too.... Despite her sadness her body hungered for him. Would it be so bad to give in? She had had men before. A good roll between the sheets often helped to clear her mind and relieve stress. Comanche was certainly a desirable man and she had a feeling that being with him would be something memorable.

And it would certainly be enough to make her forget, even if just for a while, the terror that was going on in the world around them. Her mind made up, Frankie went to the window and pulled back the blanket they'd used to block the candlelight from being seen outside. The night was dark and clear and Frankie couldn't see any rabid. There hadn't been more than a couple the entire time they'd been here and for that Frankie was grateful.

She let the blanket fall back across the window and walked to the closed bedroom door. She wasn't nervous about bedding Comanche. She just hoped he wouldn't say no since she truly needed the distraction that his body would provide.

Slowly she opened the door and stepped out into the sitting room, frowning when she realized that Comanche was no longer sitting in the arm chair. As a matter of fact she couldn't see him anywhere in the cabin. She walked quietly, her boots falling silently on the wooden floor boards as she made her way to the kitchen and realized he wasn't there either.

Where was that damn injun? Frankie hated to admit that she was a little concerned about him. She didn't want to care whether he was okay or not. She had cared about Uncle Gibbs and had had her heart ripped out because of it. She didn't want to care about anyone else.

"Gnaaaaa....." Frankie heard the long mournful sound come from outside the cabin and her heart froze. Was Comanche outside with a rabid? There was no other place that injun could be...... Damn his copper skinned hide!

Either way, Frankie knew that the rabid needed to die. Leaving one alive would only spread the disease. Frankie glanced around the room for a weapon that would be quiet and not attract any more of those damn rabid. They seemed to be more active at night anyhow without drawing them with noise.

She grabbed the iron fire poker and then went to the door, realizing it was unlocked, she opened it and stepped out into the night, her eyes peeled for the rabid she could hear moaning. Frankie saw it stumbling around, walking in a slow circle around the bush out in the yard.