Jacob and Esau

[Shoney Mullins]

There was a certain amount of tolerance a person had to possess when in the presence of Patience McQueen, and Shoney Mullins was most certainly not one of the sorts who could stand the other woman for very long. In short, controlled doses it was possible, but for any longer, no. So it wasn't with any amount of surprise that she'd left Patience for quieter pastures, choosing to spend the evening in relative solitude and peace. Staying in town rankled her enough to set up a small campsite on the outskirts. Justice may've been home at one point, but now it was just another spot of angry feelings and bad memories. The town as a whole had once treated her as one of their own despite her kin, though the black hand of warped fate had other plans.

Shoney'd fallen into a restless sort of sleep, tossing in her bedroll for a few hours before finally giving up to simply stare up at the starry sky. Even as the pale glimmers of dawn began to creep across the horizon, she remained still and unmoving.

Zeke had got what was comin' to him, her no good older brother resting in a pine box now. Roy'd come to pick up the body with Kip, and she'd watched from afar as her uncle and cousin took the coffin out of town. Roy. That mean sumbitch hadn't even noticed her, though she was sure that he knew she'd been watchin' from somewhere. Word had a way of travelin' faster'n the Pony Express even, and Shoney had to wonder if her pa and Frank knew she was around also. She'd not seen Seamus Mullins in such a long time that for a while she had to wonder if he was even still alive. In some cursed way she missed him, but growin' up the way she did had a way of bringing her back around to hating him.

As the sun began to rise up over the far-off mountains, Shoney set to making herself her morning coffee. She'd get breakfast in town, but not for another few hour's worth o' time.

Sitting on a flat stone, Shoney stirred the coals in her small firepit until their dull glow became alive once more. She grumbled to no one in particular, suddenly wishing that she was somewhere else.

But, that Mullins streak in her demanded she be vindicated, and there'd be no denyin' the vengeance she was owed.

[Frank Mullins]

Through the pink sky of morning, and the faint cast sunlight off of pine-studded hills, movement could be seen, still a faint two miles off. To anyone with eyes for that sort of thing, it was a rider and his horse, plain as day. The trails into and out of Justice were few and far between, and everyone knew which way they wound back and forth.

Someone was headed toward town.

[Shoney Mullins]

Her horse was saddled and only the remains of her campfire remained. Sipping at her bitter coffee, Shoney gave a look over her shoulder at Justice that matched the acrid taste of her drink.

If she were any other person, she'da thought that Justice looked like a promising town to set stakes and start a living; course, that weren't the case. Not for her. Framed by rolling hills and grazing land, it was a town that was at once heaven and hell.

She turned back to her coffee, gave a tired swipe to the dust on the ground, and hunched herself forward to stretch.

It was the distant sound of hooves that made her instantly alert. One hand still holding her cup, she let the other fall to the revolver nestled in the leather at her hip. Her hat she left perched on the saddle horn and pulling herself up to sit on her horse, the youngest Mullins watched as the rider - still a distance off, drew closer.

[Frank Mullins]

Frank Mullins cleared the last of the rolling hills that melted away to the pastures and outskirts leading into town. Still a couple of miles from Justice itself, he trotted leisurely along the way. He approached a wispy trail of white smoke, the remains of a lingering fire from the night before. Not missing his gait, he edged to the side slightly to spit a thin stream of tobacco.

[Shoney Mullins]

In the morning shade of a small outcropping of trees further down the dusty trail, Shoney watched her older brother approach. Watched him eye what was left of her small fire.

She nudged her horse then, and the animal moved out into the sunlight to amble onto the trail and into Frank's path. She took a sip of her coffee in a strange sort of leisurely way, Another gentle nudge, and her chestnut mare started forward toward the oncoming Frank.

There was dread calm in Shoney's eyes, tempered though it was with the barest fear that her brother always managed to instill in her.

Despite their years apart, it seemed he still had the same effect on her as he did when they were younger.

[Frank Mullins]

The barest of smiles cut across Frank's hard and otherwise expressionless face as he pulled his stud to a halt.

"Been a long time, sis."

Frank dressed in black matching his stud. The two seemed to be inseperable, a four legged obelisk erected in the dusty trail.

[Shoney Mullins]

"S'ppose it has."

His smile was unreadable, and Shoney rested her hand on the saddlehorn, coffee in its' grasp. She wouldn't mince words; not with Frank.

""Roy already took the body, so I know you ain't comin' to town for that."

[Frank Mullins]

Frank's smile widened. She shared his affection for candid talk.

"The Old Man figures whoever laid Zeke low's probably still around. I figure about the same."

He eased his stud forward a few steps.

"Lucky I found you here already. Maybe you can shed some light on that."

[Shoney Mullins]

Shoney tossed the remaining dregs of her coffee to the side, upending the tin cup to jog the last few drops out. She made a pained face, then turned back to Frank.

"Maybe."

She didn't move from her position, still blocking his way.

"And maybe I was the one that did it."

[Frank Mullins]

He leaned forward again to spit tobacco, rising to meet her steely expression.

"Between the you and I, neither of us much gave a damn about Zeke, but the old man loved him. Somebody's gotta pay for that blood."

[Shoney Mullins]

She gave a sniff, shoving her now-empty cup into one of the saddlebags behind her left leg.

"You don't give a damn about anyone, Frank. Don't try'n play me like that. I been gone a long time, but I haven't forgotten."

Her mare shifted a little.

"I came for him first; was gonna go for Roy an' Kip next, but things change. Thinkin' now maybe I oughtta find Pa first. Cut the head offa the snake."

Was she goading him? Perhaps. But it seemed there was still a sense of loyalty to the town below them.

[Frank Mullins]

Metal against leather sounded faint as a whisper, as Frank's Navy Colt was out and set against his sister. She was dead to rights, and they both knew it.

Frank's expression, if it changed at all, was one of curiosity. He wanted to see if she'd draw too. She was right, he didn't feel anything. Anything at all.

[Shoney Mullins]

The same words she'd spoken to Zeke, she now spoke to him.

"You gonna shoot your little sister, Frank?"

She didn't draw, but her hand did fall to rest on the butt of the revolver at her waist.

"Take me to the Old Man. It's time we talked."

[Frank Mullins]

Almost disappointed, Frank slowly returned his pistol to its holster. In its stead, he retrieved a bandana, and tossed it to Shoney.

"Put it on over your eyes."

[Shoney Mullins]

"I got as much a right as you do to see where we're going."

She caught the bandana easily, but rather than place it over her eyes, Shoney firmly knotted it around the saddlehorn.

She urged her mount forward until she was beside him, giving him a look that she knew, while hateful, wouldn't even begin to crack Frank's hardened exterior. It was like she'd said before - he never gave a damn about anyone, and that included his own family. Mostly her, she suspected.

"Get ridin'."

[Frank Mullins]

"You do it my way, or you don't. We both know if I was aimin' to kill you what would happen."

He leaned forward and spat again.

"Can't rightly risk your new friends puttin' undue stress on the old man's constitution. Best to keep it simple."

[Shoney Mullins]

For a long while she glared at him, at those cold, killing blue eyes. Shoney hrmphed, ran her tongue along the back of her teeth, and slowly undid the bandana. For however long she'd been removed from her kin, she knew that it'd be for the better to do as he said.

Angrily she tossed a leather reign at him.

"Not particularly concerned 'bout his constitution," she growled, fitting the cloth over her eyes.

[Frank Mullins]

Frank reached over, and plucked the revolver from her holster as she secured the blindfold.

"Didn't figure you were, but he's of a frail sort these days, if you're wanting to share his company."

He took the reign, using it to guide Shoney's horse alongside his own.

[Shoney Mullins]

As they started back the way he'd come, Shoney rolled with the gait of her horse. They rode in silence, her head angled downward and her arms crossed loosely over her chest.

Fnally, she spoke up.

"Where's mom."

[Frank Mullins]

"Typhoid in San Francisco."

It was all that needed to be said. He knew that she favored her mother a lot more than anyone else in the family.

"Was about two years ago."