Sun Kissed Innsmouth
Part Forty One
It was morning and Felecia woke late, again. She was improving every day but by no means back to her old self. Phillip was out in the forest behind the house, foraging and hunting squirrels and rabbits in the crisp of early spring. His boy was out tending to the small garden and what chickens they had cooped. Felecia had been relegated to the roll of chamber maid and cook, both titles Phillip’s boy relinquished with glee and ones that Felecia didn’t mind, therefore she wasn’t needed first thing in the morning anyway.
A cup of lukewarm chicory was resting nearby while Felecia contemplated another day of cleaning and cooking when a group of men came up the lane with some intent. Yelling was still largely beyond Felecia’s ability, as was running with any chance of not ending up in the dirt. The rifle though, Felecia knew where Phillip kept the rifle and where the ammunition was for it. She ducked into the warm, foul smelling interior of the house and came out with the Lee rifle. She knew the weight of the thing and how to hold and fire it. The one test fire Phillip dared a week before left Felecia stunned and a yearling tree trunk split. Knowing how heavy the rifle was Felecia rested the barrel on the porch railing and lined her cheek up against the top of the stock. Phillip’s boy had shown her how and Phillip gave his blessing, figuring that everyone needed to know how to use the rifle given the circumstances they were in.
Felecia didn’t try and shout or state commands to the men coming up. She was still mending, tender in a dozen places with a freshly mended right arm to boot. The first man, one of the men from the village Felecia recognized took three steps closer to the porch and Felecia cycled the action on the rifle, aiming the sight at his chest.
The man stuck his hands in the air and started shouting, “We come in peace!”
When Felecia didn’t speak up or shoot, the man took a step forward. “Tempers were up, the night got out of hand. We admit that. We don’t want enemies at our doorstep. Have Phillip come out, so we can talk to him like a man.”
There were two individuals standing behind the man doing the talking, one looked anxious, the other merely annoyed. The annoyed man also became familiar to Felecia as she aimed at the talking man’s chest. The older brother, the man who was all business in the hut that night was standing around looking like a man who clearly recognized that he had better things to do.
Felecia turned the rifle on the fiend and he didn’t look bored anymore. The anxious man was busy trying to fuss with knocking an arrow in response and the man who had been talking retreated into the trees and continued to call for calm. The fiend never did recognize the face of the girl he and his brother disfigured that night in the course of their escape.