The Sinner

76

"I don't get it," Limbrey slams the door open. Her crutches click against the floor as she walks into Rafe's house. "We had to have had the right place, nothing else makes sense."

I'm getting tired of listening to her ramble. I completely understand why she is so fixated on finding that cross. But it's making her crazy. She's so keen on finding this thing she doesn't even pay attention to anything around her.

I can hear her mumbling nonsense under her breath about where this cross could possibly be. It's like this is the only thing that she wants to think about. How can money control people this easily?

"Renfield help me up these stairs."

He brushes by me, wrapping his arm around her waist as she slowly walks up the stairs. She goes up one by one, needing to take a five second break after every three steps. I see Rafe roll his eyes next to me, he must be growing impatient.

"We're going to stay down here," Rafe says and elbows me to follow him. "Figure out another plan or something."

"I hope missy here isn't thinking of another plan," Renfield says, motioning to me. "She's the one that made us waste our day to begin with."

"I don't see you coming up with anything better," I retort. He gives me a look over his shoulder as he continues to help Limbrey up the stairs. Rafe and I walk outside, closing the door behind us.

"Why the fuck does he have to act like that?" I ask, motioning behind me to Renfield. "He's so unbelievably sexist."

"I don't know babe, but just drop it okay?" Rafe says, sitting down on one of the outdoor couches. The cushions deflate with air as he sits down, his elbows resting on his knees. He hides his face in his hands as I hear him let out a frustrated sigh.

"Why should I? I'm not going to let him talk to me like that." He's always been the first to stand up for me when someone talks down to me like that.

He looks back up, "Because, you don't know what he's capable of. They aren't good people."

"So why are you helping them?" I could feel the anger starting to grow inside of me. "You could've turned them away."

"I don't know if you can tell, Corrine, but I'm not a good person either. I want that money just as bad as they do, maybe even more." How could he say anything like that? I think as I watch him. After some time, he looks me in the eye. "Don't give me that look."

"Why would you say that?" I ask. I watch him sigh. "Is this about the shooting? You told me that you didn't mean to, unless now that's suddenly changed."

"It hasn't," He explains. "But it's not exactly the best thing to shoot someone regardless of the intentions behind it."

He was right, it's not good. But I vividly recall when he insisted I agree with him when he claimed to be a good person after he shot Peterkin. I wasn't sure whether he was at the time, but I assured him he was. We might both be living in denial, though. Either way, this is not a conversation that can happen right now.

"We're not getting into this," I say. It's just going to cause an argument. And I'm in no mood to argue. I'm tired from dealing with this treasure hunt bullshit all day. I want this to be over with. And I want these random people out of our lives.

"You brought it up." Why is he trying to pick this fight right now?

"No, I didn't. You're the one that said you aren't a good person," I counter. He looks up at me, his eyes droopy and I feel my stomach sink. I could see the redness in his eyes from here. "Are you high right now?"

"...I-"

"-I finally got her upstairs," Renfield's voice interrupts my question. "She's not going to stop until she figures it out. So we might be here a while." I feel his presence grow closer and closer until I see him in my peripheral.