Rafferty hopped on one foot, trying to lace up her boot while making her way down the steps at the front of the house. Katrin had left the little Hunters' cottage quickly, apparently excited about getting to the bottom of this mystery, and Rafferty was hurrying to catch up. It was dark, and Katrin was threatening to disappear in the darkness.

"So we're just going to knock on Marion's door and ask her what's wrong?" Rafferty jogging up behind her.

"Pretty much. Why? Do you have a better idea?" Katrin asked over her shoulder.

"Not really," said Rafferty. "It's just I'm not great at talking to people I don't know."

"Perfect. You can practice," said Katrin, walking faster.

"Wait," said Rafferty, trying to catch up before they got to the door, without actually breaking into a run.

Katrin stopped at a house just as Rafferty caught up to her. Rafferty put her hand on Katrin's shoulder to stop her, wanting to get clarification before she knocked, but Katrin shrugged her off and banged on the door very loudly.

Marion opened the door. She was confused, maybe a little concerned.

"Oh, hello. Was something wrong with the food?" she asked.

"It was perfect. Rafferty has something she wants to say, though," said Katrin, turning to Rafferty.

Moments later Rafferty realized that everyone was looking at her, and that no one had said anything for several seconds.

"Katrin says you're usually funny," Rafferty said.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That makes tons of sense.

"You came over because I wasn't funny? I'm sorry. Should I be sorry?," Marion replied, directing that last part at Katrin. If anything her confusion had deepened.

Rafferty took a deep breath, called Katrin several bad names in her head, and tried to start again.

"She thought that maybe it meant that something was wrong. Is there something wrong? Something we could help with? We thought maybe you wanted to ask, but weren't sure if you could,"

"Better," said Katrin under her breath.

Rafferty punched Katrin's thigh with the side of her fist.

"Do you want to come inside?" Marion asked.

"Sure," said Katrin.

The two hunters followed the young woman into the small house. There was a child sitting on the floor, Rafferty guessed he was about two years old. Marion scooped him before starting to talk.

"My man, his name was Briggs, he died about six months ago," she said.

"I'm so sorry," said Katrin.

Yep. You probably should have said that too.

"It's all right," she said, lifting her elbow up to try to wipe a tear from her face without dropping the child. "He got mixed up with the wrong people. It was stupid. He thought it would make things better for us."

Katrin put her hand on Marion's arm.

"His brother, Emil, I let him come stay with us. He didn't really have anywhere else to go, and I figured he's family," Marion said.

"Does he hurt you?" Katrin asked.

"No, nothing like that. He's loud. He's lazy. He eats too much of our food. Sometimes he grabs my ass when I walk by. It's annoying, but lots of people have to put up with worse. And, I don't know, it sort of felt safer with a man in the house, even if it wasn't much of a man. I'm sure that sounds stupid to you," Marion said.

"No, not at all," Rafferty said to her, remembering what it was like to grow up at the edge of the Breaks, in a house no larger than this one, with only her mother.

"But he's in with the same people that Briggs was. They all knew each other when they were kids. They lucked in to this old stash of weapons. There was a deal that went bad. They lost half the weapons, Briggs… well, he…. Anyway, they think they can sell the rest. Set themselves up like they're some big deal. Use some of the profits to start selling Juice around here. Nobody really does right now. They figure they can get rich. Get powerful. I don't know how safe it will be for LB and I if they…. but it's more than that. The place Briggs and I came from, it wasn't very nice. This is a nice place. I want it to stay a nice place. For LB ," Marion said, kissing the top of her child's head at the end.

Rafferty could tell she was trying really hard to keep it together.

"Where is Emil now?" asked Rafferty.

"Probably drinking around the bonfire with his buddies. A lot of people hang out there after dark. He should be back soon," she said.

"We've totally got you," said Katrin.

"What will you do?" asked Marion.

"We'll make sure it stays a nice place," said Katrin.

"We will?" asked Rafferty.

"Would you prefer to just let them start selling that crap to everyone here? Next time we come, we'll have to step over all the addicts sleeping it off in the street. And we can dig some graves for the ones that weren't so lucky," said Katrin.

Rafferty didn't prefer that.

She turned to Marion.

"She's right. We've totally got you."