Walker: Secrets

Chapter 39

*TW for Self Harm*

Sometime during the night, Maddie apparently did manage to drift off to sleep for when morning arrived, Abeline roused her gently from her slumber. She was unusually quiet and withdrawn when she rose, only responding when someone spoke to her by either a nod or a couple words. All this time she had hoped that somehow this was all just a bad nightmare but now, folding up the blankets they spent the night under and seeing the empty house, it was devastatingly real. 

As Cordell and Liam took the rest of the boxes to be picked up over to the front door, Maddie quietly slipped away to the bathroom with her suitcase. She changed, half attempting to make herself look human with some attention to her hair and makeup to hide the bags beneath her eyes. After four nights of little sleep, makeup was her best friend.

Stella knocked on the door as she was attending to her wounds and she assured her she wouldn't be much longer. Her wounds didn't appear too bad which was a relief but at the same time, seeing them, she wanted to cut again. Needed too... 

No. 

Not right now.

She forced herself to roll her leggings down after she'd cleaned them, leaving the wounds undressed now so they could scab over. She didn't have time to cut. The urge would need to wait until later.

Like she had the day before she slipped into black jeans then gathered her things and headed out. 'I want to see Chopper before I go.' She whispered softly to Abeline as her grandmother packed the last few things away. 'Can you make sure that Bubble's litter tray and stuff gets into the truck please?'

Abeline nodded. 'Did you get much sleep?'

'I'm fine.' She assured her without answering her question. 'I'll be out in the barn.'

Bubbles was finished with her breakfast when she walked into the laundry and after placing the cat's harness and lead on, headed out to the barn with her cat in her arms. It was quiet when she walked in, as if the horses themselves knew that something was amiss. 'Hey boy...' Chopper came to the door of his stall, sniffing gently at the cat in her arms as she gave him a pat. 

Lingering with him a moment she then proceeded to stop and say a goodbye to the horses she'd spent time with since coming to the ranch. There was Dusty, a buckskin gelding that she'd spent quite a few hours on doing cattle work, Bingo, a gray mare she'd borrowed a time or two. Buster, a young horse that she'd helped to start who had given her a rather hard time when they'd begun. Zadey, another young filly which had been the first young horse Bonham had let her help train. 

When she came to Skylar's empty stall she stopped, her fingers running over the mare's old head-collar and lead left hanging on the hook beside the door. A moment later she picked it up, looping it over her arm. The Davidson's wouldn't miss a halter. 

Her phone vibrated as a message came through but she didn't bother to check it. It would only be one of them telling her they would be leaving shortly. After saying goodbye to Chopper one last time she entered the tack room, going over the list of instructions she'd painstakingly handwritten for the care of the horses. With her family being involved with Bonham's court case and such, the care of the sick horses had fallen to her. There was no one else to look after them. Though Chopper and the other horses that had been sick were well on their way to recovery they still needed extra care for the next few days. Not only that, but she highly doubted any of the Davidson's had the brains or the know-how to look after the livestock on the ranch. The best chance she could give them was to leave instructions for what needed to be done and hoped for their sake they'd manage.