Like I have doing before. Here is the complete TwitterTale for November 2018. I post part of this tale every Thursday and Friday in November.
I brought the ax above my head and swiftly down, letting gravity split a log in half. The pieces fell to the side. I stuck a new one in place. I had a little more than a hundred to go. When I lifted the ax the second time smoke wafted into my nose.
My heart pounded, and my mouth ran dry. A forest fire would be dangerous. A trail of smoke lifted into the air, not enough for a blaze. Someone had to be using the cabin a few miles away. Bobby wasn’t going to like that. I’d rather deal with a fire.
I contemplated continuing my work with splitting the logs in half and ignoring the neighbors. I could distract Bobby for a few hours, but he’d eventually find out. If I was careful, he wouldn’t try and visit anyone tonight.
“Bobby?” I called when I entered the cabin.
“Jolene is the wood done? Do you want any help? I was putting our clothes away. He came to my side and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
“Before I tell you something, you have to promise me you won’t hurt anyone.”
“I haven’t killed anyone in five years. What’s going on?” His eyebrows furrowed together.
“You didn’t murder anybody because I did.” I feared if he did again, he wouldn’t stop. I shuddered at the memory of killing the cop to steal a boat. A few more people who recognized us died too because of me. Bobby would have dropped more bodies if I let him.
“Just tell me,” he said.
“We have neighbors,” I said.
“I’ll grab our guns.” Bobby turned away from me and headed into the kitchen.
“Can’t we wait to see what they do?” I placed my hand on his arm, stopping him from pulling a weapon out of a box.
“What if they recognize us? Do you want them to disturb our peace?” We’d been here for little over a year, our longest time in one spot.
“What if they don’t know us? We haven’t been on the news for months now. You killing them will get the cops involved. Someone will miss them. I don’t want—” I stopped myself from saying more and pressed my lips into a tight line. I hadn’t told him something yet.
“Don’t want what?”
“Never mind. Not important.”
“Why are other people in our woods?” Bobby ran a hand through his black hair.
“This weekend is opening season. I heard when I went to town last,” I answered.
“What’s the big deal? It isn’t a holiday.” He swept my hair away from my neck and gave me a kiss at the base there.
“Opening season is a holiday to hunters.” I had grown up with them. My dad tried to take me several times, but I had no interest in hurting animals that couldn’t defend themselves. He gave up after a while. We both knew he wished to have a son and not me. I was an only child.
“How long will they stay?”
“Through the weekend. They’ll keep on coming back though if they don’t fill their tags.”
“What do we do?” Bobby asked. He wrapped his arms around my waist.
“We wait until tomorrow and go talk to them. If they recognize us or we suspect they do, we can kill them. We’ll have to leave right after they die,” I said after taking a minute to decide.
“What should we do now? I need a distraction or I’m killing our neighbors.”
“I have an idea.” I pressed my lips against his. I wouldn’t let anything disturb him and me. We deserved happiness like any normal couple.
As I always do, here is a teaser for next months:
The sound of hoofbeats echoed in the field, coming from behind me. I turned to find nothing there, no rider, no horse. I must be hearing things.
My car had broken down, and I was in the middle of nowhere with zippo cell reception.
Come back next month to check out the post or search for #TwitterTales @kamengauthor on Twitter if you can't wait. I post part of the story every Thursday and Friday, and to make them easier, I have numbered them #Part1, #Part2, and etc. You can also find many more authors participating from my publisher. It's lots of fun.