I Did Something Bad

Chapter Four

A long wait for a long chapter. Hope you enjoy let me know your thoughts in the comments!

1st of Agust 2020 UPDATE: Hi everyone! I'm so sorry that I havent't updated this story in a while (November I think - god I feel so guilty), but I just wanted to let you know that NO this is not the last chapter and I really hope to be able to update soon. I've been really busy with university and some other projects I had going on, but i really care about this story so even if it will take time I'm really committed to finish it. Thank you for the patience and I hope to give you soon a new chapter.

p.s.: HOW GOOD IS FOLKLORE?!? And how good it goes with this fic aesthetic!? Seven is like the perfect song for Karlie and Taylor's childhood relationship!

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As the sound of laughs and the tingling smell of alcohol started to fade behind her, Karlie reached the town's bank. The white Victorian construction had a large and overly decorated façade as people walked up and down the steps leading to its opened door. Five horses were tied at the drinking trough in front of it, lazily waiting for their owners in the midday sun. The town looked busier in that area as people walked in and out of the bank, which also acted as a post office. Just one man was standing still, his back resting against the white wooden wall nearby the main entrance. His tailored clean clothes immediately caught Karlie's eyes, he was wealthier than the other passers-by, a large golden pin shining over his chest.

Fancy clothes for a small town's sheriff.

The man had his dark blonde hair slicked back and a cut short beard. As Karlie passed, her steps uncertain, she could feel his bored gaze following on her. The woman gave him a nod as a greeting, meeting his bronze eyes as she brought a hand up to her hat. He replied with a spit in the red sand at her feet, not sparing her a second gaze as he walked inside the bank.

What a warm welcome. She thought, diverting her eyes.

She had met men like that, ready to despite you just because of what you were wearing or your general attire. Maybe in Philadelphia, her male clothing would have just drawn some whispers, but she should have known that things would have been different in a small town like Grace State.

Maybe that was also the habitual welcome the sheriff gave to strangers, it wouldn't have been too surprising. She knew that town's like that didn't usually reserve a too warm welcome to newcomers, especially to those who came from the north. Even she hadn't opened her mouth, her clothes and the thick drops of sweat running down her neck where a clear enough sign of where she was coming from.

Not that the sheriff's opinion mattered. She wasn't planning to stay there for too long, was she?

A few meters ahead Karlie could see the hostel, a tall building than stood out from all the others in town, with tall green painted wooden walls and an old yellow sign hanging over the entry. The place looked cleaner than the brothel she had just passed, and even if a couple of inebriated looking man stood on the covered porch they were just happily chatting with the barmaid, a young woman with short, messy brunette hair. For a second the woman seemed to be looking in her direction, but before Karlie could focus on the greyish blue gaze the girl had already diverted her eyes on the jug of beer in between her hands, rising it in a cheerful shout. The two men at her side were quick to follow, one of them nearly tripping backwards in the act. The girl held him by the neck of his shirt, making steadying him on his feet as they both burst out laughing.

She had been so fixated on her mission, or whatever that journey was, that she had barely noticed the people she came across until then. Her eyes had zoomed out of families giggling together on the train, friends chuckling in the waiting rooms of the station, couples kissing and waving goodbyes. But something about the barmaid's laugh made her glance up to the group of friends on the hostel's porch, before leaving the building behind her. She knew well that she could have come there later, but she also knew that she wouldn't have been a friend, a known face, someone the barmaid would have shared a beer with and make small talk to.