Sharon Poppen

by Hannah

  This is a work of nonfiction. Names. Characters, places and events described herein are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organization, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Hannah

  Copyright – 2004 Sharon Poppen (www.sharonpoppen.com)

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  Cover Art 2006 – Jeff Reitz (www.jeffreitz.com)

  ISBN: 978-1482365825

  Hannah

  By

  Sharon Poppen

  Chapter 1

  Friend or Foe

  Hannah turned from the stove to see Caleb loading his rifle. “Hannah! Get in the safe-cellar. Now!” His curt orders and nervous rush caught her off guard. Though they’d only been married a few months, she’d found her twenty-four year old husband to be a calm man, not easily rattled. Unlike his younger brother Jacob, whose whine was echoing around the small two-room cabin. Though only two years difference in age, they were more like father and son.

  “Damn, Caleb, I told you that bringing us out to this Texas wilderness would get us killed. We should’ve stayed in Ohio. No cowboys and Indians there!”

  Hannah wondered that Jacob wasn’t dizzy with his head swiveling between the door and his brother. As usual, he was making no attempt to help Caleb. She rushed to her husband and touched his shoulder. “What’s the matter?”

  Continuing to work with his weapons, his voice softened. “There’s a cloud of dust yonder. Enough to tell me there are many riders. Don’t know if they’re friend or foe.” He looked up. “I need you to hide. Please.”

  Hannah wanted to ask more, but trusted his judgment and decided to do as he asked. There’d be time for questions later. She kissed his cheek and went to the hearth. She slid the wood box away, pried up a small board and reached under the adjoining board. It lifted like a trap door. Caleb offered her one of his pistols.

  She shook her head. “I wouldn’t know how to use it.” She turned and climbed down into a hole designed to hold two people, and then looked up into the concerned face of Caleb. He was blocking his brother from following Hannah down the drop ladder into the hole.

  “Be very quiet.” Caleb forced a smile. “I love you.”

  She nodded. “And, I love you.”

  Caleb closed the door and Hannah heard the wood box slide back into place. The tomb-like atmosphere brought on a shudder.

  Through it all, Jacob continued to whine. “I need to hide, too. Why’d you stop me from joining Hannah?”

  “Cause, I need your help. Grab a rifle and follow me.”

  “Damn, Caleb, I –

  “Now!”

  Hannah jumped at her husband’s roar. The wooden floor creaked under hurried footsteps, and then there was silence. The darkness, along with a strong earthy smell, brought another shudder. She strained to hear some sound, some assurance that Caleb was all right and that he’d soon come get her.

  Like he had from that orphanage in Mt. Carmel, just outside Cincinnati. Despite her concern, she smiled at the memory of her fifteenth birthday when she’d came face to face with the new young milkman who would someday become her husband. It was love at first sight. They’d married on her eighteenth birthday and left for Texas to chase their dreams on the very next day. She glanced up, hoping to hear Caleb saying it was safe to come out, but all she heard was silence.

  The silence continued for what seemed hours. Her legs began to buckle, more from fear than fatigue, she reasoned. She was about to scream, when she heard voices yelling and then laughter. Maybe the riders were friendly after all. Hannah reached up to touch the trapdoor and was about to push upward when a shot rang out and then two more in rapid succession.

  Footsteps scampered across the floor and she heard Jacob.

  “Don’t shoot me. I’m unarmed. My brother was a fool to use his gun.”

  The floorboards thundered with many footsteps. Hannah guessed that a crowd had entered the room. She heard a deep voice threaten Jacob.

  “Yeah, he was a fool, but a brave fool. Not a liver-belly like you.”

  Was! Hannah gasped as the word tore through her heart.

  “Please, don’t shoot.” Jacob sobbed with terror. It echoed though the cabin and down into Hannah’s hiding place.

  “Why not,” asked the deep voice. “Can’t leave you alive to tell the law about us, now can we?”

  The round of evil laughter verified that there was a crowd just above Hannah. She squatted to get as far away from the footsteps and voices as she could.

  “I know where there’s something for you and your men.” The shrillness of Jacob’s voice cut deep into Hannah’s fear. “A woman! She’s beautiful. Hardly used. My brother’s woman. Only been married a couple of months.”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s true.”

  “Show me, coward!”

  “Only if you don’t kill me.”

  “I make the rules.”

  “Yes, but if you kill me, you’ll never find her.”

  After a lengthy silence, Hannah heard the deep voice laugh, and then the many joined him.

  “Coward, show me this woman and you live.”

  Almost immediately, Hannah heard the wood box scrape across the floor. Avoiding the light from above, she dropped her head and crouched deeper into the earthen walls.

  “Woman! Look at me!” came a command.

  Hannah’s heart jumped and her body twitched at the sound of gun being cocked.

  “Look at me or the coward dies.”

  Hannah disliked Jacob more than any human she’d ever known, but she couldn’t allow her actions to cause his death. She looked up to see a giant, clad in dusty riding clothes. Long black hair hung menacingly as he peered down.

  “Raise your hands, woman.”

  Hannah couldn’t make herself move. The man turned his head and spoke to someone. “Johnny, kill the coward.”

  “No!” Hannah cried. She slowly struggled to her feet, afraid to leave the safety of the cocoon where Caleb had entrusted her, yet more afraid to see his body and come face to face with a vile reality. But, Jacob was family. She knew Caleb wouldn’t want him killed.

  The giant again turned to someone. “Benny, pull her out.”

  A large, husky man knelt above the hole and reached down. He caught Hannah’s hair and urged her up the ladder.

  Her fear and dread turned into pain as she began to feel like she was being scalped. She was given no choice but to hurry up the ladder. Tears threatened, but she wasn’t sure if it was fear or pain as her mind raced to understand and cope with the cruel and abrupt changes to her world. Hannah reached the top and stepped up into the cabin. She turned to Jacob, who avoided her eyes.

  Benny released her hair and stepped back into a pack of half dozen filthy, bearded, leering thugs. A deep voice brought her attention to the giant who was obviously the leader. He circled Hannah twice, stopping once to touch her golden hair and ended his tour staring down at her.

  She had cringed at his touch and kept her head down as if watching his feet. But, in reality, her eyes darted about looking for Caleb. When the man stopped and stood in front of her, Hannah raised her head and came eye to eye with evil. Less than six inches separated them.

  He leered at her and then nodded. “You’ll do.” The thin cottons of her apron and dress, along with the delicate fabric of her undergarment, gave way to his brutal yank leaving Hannah’s breasts exposed to hungry eyes. “Right, boys?” His answer was a chorus of profanity.

  The floor squeaked as Jacob eased toward the door.

  Without taking his eyes from the feast of the woman, the leader cocked his pistol and pointed in the direction of th
e squeak. He fired.

  A wounded Jacob howled. “You promised I could live.”

  The man turned to Jacob. “I didn’t say how long.” He fired a fatal bullet, tossed his pistol toward his men and turned back to Hannah. With a breast in each hand, he smirked. “Yes, indeed. You’ll do.”

  The reality of her situation pulsed with terror. Trying to avoid dealing with the degradation, Hannah stared at Jacob’s lifeless body. She was struck by how much he resembled his brother. In his silence, she felt she was seeing Caleb’s body. Slowly, a gray aura began to blur her thoughts and the sights right before her eyes. She allowed herself to be drawn into the aura. All sight and sound became muted as her mind retreated back to the meal she’d been preparing when Caleb had hollered, “Hannah! Get in the safe-cellar. Now!”

  Hannah’s body flopped about like a rag doll when she was thrown onto the bed. Her mind slipped into a circular loop that continued to play and replay her preparations for the stew she’d been preparing. Onions, carrots and potatoes were cut and re-cut. The heat of the cast iron stove and the searing, cubed deer meat created beads of sweat on her brow.

  Her kitchen scene delusion masked the feel of many hands exploring her body. She never felt the multiple invasions into her most private parts that left her damp and bloody. The teeth marks on her breasts and throat would have evoked screams of terror in a sane person, but Hannah just kept preparing the stew. Finally, she slept.

  Chapter 2

  Never Kill a Crazy Person

  Intense pain niggled at her consciousness. Struggling through sleep cobwebs, she sought light. It seemed locked away. Attempts to open her eyes generated terrible pain in her head, brow and eyes. She was about to moan, when from what seemed far away she heard a deep voice. Hannah vaguely remembered the voice and instinctively held herself immobile.

  “Well, boys, I think we’re done here. Time to move on.” A chair scraped the wood floor and Hannah heard footsteps. The deep voice seemed almost upon her. “Like to have another go at her. But she’s so God damn filthy even I can’t abide the stench.”

  Foul laughter filled the room.

  “I can.”

  The bed jiggled and sagged as someone sat down beside her.

  The deep voice laughed and gave an order. “Bet you could at that, Benny, but keep your pants on. We got to get movin’. Can’t hang around waiting for a neighbor or the law to stumble by.”

  “Hell, Drake, there ain’t no neighbors for miles.” Benny laughed.

  “You heard me. Pump a bullet into her and let’s get going.”

  Hannah heard multiple footsteps tromp heavily across the floor and then nothing. But, she sensed she was not alone.

  “You really gonna kill her?” a new voice asked.

  “You heard Drake. Gotta’ or he’ll kill me,” Benny answered.

  “I think she’s crazy. When my turn came last night, she was like dead or somethin’. Real limp. You know what they say about killin’ a crazy person. They’ll haunt you, forever.”

  Spurs jingled as someone scuffed his way toward the door, but a stench of filth and heavy breathing let her know someone was still in the room. She struggled to remain calm, but jumped as a hand covered her mouth.

  “Listen, woman,” Benny whispered into her ear. “If you can hear me, you best keep quiet ‘til you’re sure we’ve ridden off. I’m gonna shoot the mattress here next to your head. You’re probably gonna die anyhow, but don’t you go hauntin’ me. You hear?”

  Before she could respond, Hannah heard the repeat of a gun and smelled the gunpowder. His hand muffled her scream. Her body jerked as if a bullet had actually torn through her flesh and her heart stopped for a moment. She heard spurs jingle as the shooter scurried out to join his buddies. Hannah fainted.

  *****

  Hannah woke up shivering from a cold wind that was having its way around the room. She managed to partially open one eye and found nothing but total darkness and an eerie silence that assured her she was alone. She fought to open her eyes fully. They wouldn’t cooperate. She managed to lift her arms and wrapped them about herself in a hug. Her nudity registered in her mind and ugly visions began to emerge. She trembled, convulsed and started to scream. Her hands thrashed about her body fighting off demonic visions of invaders. Despite the cold, she became fevered and eventually passed out.

  A ray of sunshine warmed Hannah’s eyelids. She woke slowly, processing the horrors she experienced. She worked at opening her eyes and managed at least a slit. She struggled to a sitting position and surveyed her cabin. Its ransacked appearance threatened to push her back onto the mattress, but she knew she had to act if she was to survive. She struggled to her feet, pulling the bed sheet around her and began to take inventory.

  She stumbled about the cabin in a daze until she tripped over Jacob’s body. She screamed and jumped back a few steps. They had left his body where it had fallen. Despite his lifeless open eyes, his body was stretched out as if asleep. His face had relaxed from its usual look of worry and distaste and he looked at peace. His resemblance to his brother caused Hannah to moan with anguish and dread as to what she was still to find. Bile rose in her throat. She pulled the sheet tighter, stepped over Jacob and ran out into the yard.

  She found Caleb face down in the dirt a few steps from the cabin door. Falling to her knees, she turned him over and pulled him into her arms. She eased into a sitting position and embraced his head against her sheet-cover bosom.

  Finally, she wept. Quiet tears made their way down her cheeks and fell onto her beloved husband. Hannah’s fingers gently brushed and combed her tears into his sun-streaked hair. Hours passed as she fought to make some sense of what had happened. Finally, the heat of the sun and the buzz of an army of flies brought her back to reality and thoughts of what needed to be done.

  She kissed Caleb’s forehead, closed his eyes and eased him down onto the ground. Getting to her feet, she realized she needed to clean herself and get dressed. A look at the abuse the sun and flies were causing to Caleb’s body, made her decide the bath could wait. She hurried into the house and donned a loose fitting cotton nightgown.

  Once dressed, she drug Jacob’s body out into the yard and left it in the dirt. She drug Caleb’s body into their garden and covered him with rocks to thwart the elements, flies and other vile predators. She wished his spirit along. Prayers to God were not offered. She ignored the body of Jacob, leaving it to rot in the sun.

  *****

  Four days after the attack, Hannah decided it was time to leave this place with its ugly memories. The invaders had taken their two horses, along with the few weapons Caleb had kept on hand. She turned the cattle lose from their pens to fend for themselves. She wished them well, but this was Texas and she’d just been taught that, in Texas, it was every man, woman and cow for themselves.

  Clad in Caleb’s shirt and overalls, with her feet encased in several pair of his socks and tucked into his work boots, Hannah walked away from the cabin. Even the thought of a dress over her scarred and bruised body, turned her stomach. And, she needed Caleb to be with her as she moved on, even if it was only through his smell, his essence in his clothes.

  Her focus and motivation were based on a strong urge for retaliation when she began to walk. Caleb’s death had to be avenged, of that she was determined. Over the past few days, she’d become obsessed with what she now referred to as a mission, a mission that demanded her full attention and drove her forward. As she walked, she repeated what was becoming her mantra.

  “Drake. Benny. Beware. I will find you. Beware.”

  Chapter 3

  The Reverend’s Offer

  The dusty town of Nacogdoches shimmered in the distance. Hannah sat on a boulder along a rutted trail that skirted a rare, rolling brook. It had been a long walk from her ranch on the outskirts of Carthage to this city, deeper into the heart of Texas. Although she and Caleb had made few acquaintances in Carthage, she felt it best to head for a larger city where she’d be more apt to he
ar about Drake.

  Her feet ached from every bit of the thirty some miles she’d traveled. It had taken her nearly a week in her weakened condition. She avoided making contact with the occasional wagon or lone riders that had happened along, in order to avoid explaining her bruises and why she was afoot and alone.

  Her bones creaked and complained from the hard ground, peppered with small stones, where she’d caught a few hours sleep each night.

  Hannah swallowed the last of the venison jerky she brought with her and then bent over to fill her canteen. Despite the gentle flow of the water, she got a glimpse of her reflection and managed a weak smile. Most of the swelling was gone and the yellow-purple bruising had faded. Her days walking in the sun had resulted in a deep tan that masked any trace of the beating she’d taken. She gulped half the water in the canteen and refilled it. Standing up, she did some exaggerated stretching and started walking again.

  *****

  With her long hair pinned up under Caleb’s Stetson, her mode of dress was hardly noticed as she made her way down the dusty Nacogdoches streets banked by cattle pens, stables, blacksmith shops and saloons. She passed cowboys, Indians, and ranchers who either lolled about talking or hurried about their business. An aroma of fried food drew her attention toward a sign that announced “Eats.”

  Up a couple of wooden steps and across a matching walkway, she entered a busy room filled with folks eating and drinking. A portly man walked by carrying a couple plates of stew that left a trail of steam and a rich beefy aroma.

  “Over by the window,” he pointed. “Take a seat. I’ll be right with you.” He took the food he was carrying over to a stern looking man seated next to a nervous, pinched face woman.

  Hannah relaxed into the welcomed comfort of a padded chair and let the delicious aroma of the room whet her already ravenous appetite. She only had two dollars and could only hope she could get some, actually a lot, of that stew.