Fated Absolution by Kathi S. Barton

get away from her, her head was splitting and she was thirsty. So thirsty.
    She stumbled to her dresser where she always had bottled water and nearly tore the lid from the bottle in her haste to get it opened. She drank it down in one draw. She reached for the second bottle and with a little more fineness, opened it and drained it as well. The water hit her empty stomach hard, making her gag and cough. Dropping to her knees she threw up all the water and bile into the trash can.
    “Fuck me girl, that ain’t right. You wanna maybe have me, I don’t know, call somebody for ya. Cause, you know, fuck that ain’t right.” Marcie moved toward the broken door. Maddy didn’t care. She just wanted to die, to crawl into a tight ball and die.
    It was an hour later before she could sit up and another thirty minutes before she stood.
    Thankfully she only needed to use her laptop for the next couple of hours then she’d be able to take a shower and go to work. Hopefully. ‘Fuck girl, that ain’t right, well no shit!’ she thought.
    By the time she finished working on the proposal for the men and decided that they needed a business name she decided she was feeling a little better. After the hot shower, she was nearly human feeling again.
    “I need to ask Mr. Wolff if he feels human, just for comparison purposes,” she said with a giggle.
    Maddy had only been to sleep for an hour before the dream hit, so by the time she’d made it to the MacManus estate it was only one thirty. By then everyone but Sally and Duncan were gone or to bed or coffin, whatever she thought.
    “These are for the men. They’re labeled for them. I left a phone number where I’ll be tonight if anyone has any questions.” Maddy could smell the muffins in the oven and wanted one in the worse way. Instead she asked for a glass of water, no ice please.
    “If you do not mind my saying Miss, you do not look so well. Are you unwell?” Duncan asked, concern coloring his voice. She smiled at him. She knew she looked like shit, she’d seen what she’d looked like when she’d left home. Dark circles under her eyes, pain riddled her body.
    Kyle, she grinned would have no trouble telling her what she looked like.
    “Yeah, I’m okay. I had a bad dream that’s all. Just a bad dream. Duncan, I’m really sorry about this, but do you think I can have one of those muffins? They smell heavenly.”
    Her mouth was watering now, she didn’t know what she would have done if he’d of said no. But he didn’t, he sat her down and found her a plate and Miss Penny fixed her a glass of iced tea. Before too long she was wolfing down her third muffin and enjoying a second glass of the best tasting tea she’d ever drank.
    “I feel like such a pig. I hope that those weren’t for anything special. You have to let me pay you for them. I’ve never…I was suddenly so hungry. I guess it was from throwing up, but I feel so much better. How much do I owe you?” She had been dragging out her wallet, and thinking she didn’t have much, but she would certainly give him all she had and more for what he’d done for her.
    “Nonsense. I have baked them for the household and you are a part of it now. You will just take the rest with you. I have already wrapped them up. Miss Penny, see if you can find her a nice jug please? Good girl,” he told the older woman when she handed him one. “and some of her lovely tea to go with them as well.” Despite her best efforts, she left with seven more muffins and a thermos of iced tea.

    Maddy was at work by four-thirty and had her fruit cut and the glasses gleaming by the time the bar opened at five. The girls had shown up while she was finishing up.
    “You know girl, you look a little under the weather, you feeling fine,” Nips asked as she sat on one of the bar stools.
    Maddy explained about having a bad dream to Pink Nips, hopefully her stage name and not something her parents had actually picked out for her, and after she’d been