The Heathens

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Tanya Jane Byrd, known to her friends as TJ, never gave a damn about being famous. But here she was, four days on the run from Tibbehah County, Mississippi, with that girl Chastity passing along che burner phone to show they now had more than a hundred thou sand followers on Instagram. They only had six posts, the newest one from just two hours ago after TJ cut her hair boy short, dyed it black as a raven's wing, and made her ultimatum to that cowardly son of 2 bitch Chester Pratt. She called him out for not only her mother's murder but the money she and her little brother John Wesley were owed.

On the forty-five-second clip shot outside the Tri-State Motel in Texarkana, she held up her fist on the diving board to an empty pool and said, “Fair is fair,” remembering the line from one of her mothers old VHS tapes in the trailer.

“What do you think?” Chastity asked.

“I think I better drop that phone into the nearest creek.”

THE HEATHENS

...I'm real sorry, TJ. You're too young to got through a mess like this.”

“My life's been a mess since I was born,” TJ said. “Don't shed a tear for me, Sheriff.”

The little girl wide awake now, as Maggie wiped her face with a napkin and handed her over to Quinn. He held his daughter tight, the child's eyes wide and unfocused. Halley so small, light in his lap, while she checked out all the smells and sounds of the Fillin' Station diner.

“She sure is curious,” Maggie said.

“Skeptical,” Quinn said.

“I guess she comes by it naturally.”

The X-Files

Fringe

The Heathens

major

The Revelators

The Heathens

THE HEATHENS

The Heathens