She woke up to someone shaking her, it was Johnny.

“Time to get up, Jade.”

Jade slowly rose and slung her feet to the side of the bed slightly dazed from the day before.

She walked to the main room on the other side of the curtain. Will pulled a chair out by the table and put his hands on her shoulders and forced her down, Jade looked up at him in anger with a slight twist of fear.

“This is how we are going to do it. We are going to where your father is being kept, and you will stay there with him, he is going to rob the bank for us-we get our money, he gets blamed if he gets caught, we are still trying to find your mother…but, when we do we will make her look just as dirty as him. As for you, you can keep your mouth shut and we won’t say a word…or you can die, the one thing I just thought of now is a girl outlaw, a young girl like her parents…?”

Her looked at her.

“But, never forget, you dying is still in the cards.”

“Oh, I won’t…I won’t.” Jade looked at him just as eerie as he did her.

The sky was as dim as her life. The grey clouds rolled over the sun as the rain slowly began to come down and then it went to a pour.

“We have to go.” Will said.

“Now? Right now?” Garvin complained.

“Yes, right now.” Will replied.

They trudged on in the rain slowly but surely, the water turned to a muddy brown color, Jade looked down and frowned at her reflection she took a few smaller tired steps and walked in the same puddle. Daxton slipped every occasionally, as they went down a small slope that had started gathering mud, for he was stretching his legs and letting his horse rest.

“Mine as well get back on your horse, are your legs getting stretched or the possibility of your neck getting broken more important?” Garvin laughed.

“Yeah, my legs are stretched anyway.” Daxton laughed with a slight twist of anger.

Jade just kept on Rowdy head bowed and eyes half open and half shut…life was grim, she was defeated. She dared not run. There was nowhere to go. There was nowhere to hide. There was no one to run to. So many questions. No answers. She had no weapons. She had no hope. She has doleful. Her hope was shaken.

After more hard riding with no mercy from the weather, they stopped. It was getting dark with the already mysterious grey clouds looming over them in the day.

“How far to Willsborough?” Johnny asked.

“Another ten miles…but, it is just getting too dark, and the horses need rest.” Daxton replied his hat still covering his eyes.

A stick broke. They jumped. Jade looked. Leaves crumbled. Then a man appeared.