Carthie slammed the passenger door and emitted a monstrous groan as she stretched out her limbs like an angry starfish.

“Careful”, I grunted at her as I walked around the car and stood next to her. I stared at the landscape in front of me.

Carthie ignored me, probably drowning my voice out with with the smacking of her gum.

She followed my gaze and scanned the abandoned vineyard with disinterest. “This place is creepy”, she stated.

“No, it’s just abandoned”, I corrected her and walked to the small, tan building further down the road.

Carthie let out a frustrated sigh. “We could have driven up to the damn door at least”.

I drowned out her grumbling with the sound of paved gravel crunching beneath my shoes.

We walked up the stairs onto the creaky patio and raised my arm and knocked on the door.

The door was a faded blue color with most of the paint chipping off.

We waited a couple minutes and with no luck. This place really was abandoned. I received an email a week ago confirming that I had the highest bid for a vintage vineyard and that I had to come inspect the land before purchase.

Carthie thought the idea was ludicrous and I secretly did too, which is why I brought her with me to scope it out.

She tagged along mostly because she wanted to escape our helicopter mother than wanting to make sure that her older sister didn’t die in a field, or vineyard in this case.

I walked around the back of the building which extended into the vineyard. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look around. The email didn’t exactly state that there would be someone here to give me a tour.

I walked in between the lines of foliage, inspecting the dry shriveled grapes that partly hung from the leaves. It wasn’t in the best state but it was salvageable.

I heard Carthie dragging her feet behind me and smacking her gum. Before I could comment on her non-complaints, she opened her mouth.

“These are the real grapes of wrath”, she snickered as she pulled a cluster of dried grapes from the vine. They landed on the floor with a soft thud.

Before I could scold her a voice bellowed out between the rows of grapes.

“What’er grapes eve’r done to ya?” A lady with a very southern twang and a oversized bucket hat yelled from a few feet away.

I whirled around to look at her. She was wearing blue overalls that seemed to fit too small. She had very curly orange hair that stuck out from under her hat, and she had on a pair of very old work boots.

“S-sorry I thought this place was abandoned. I got an email saying I could come scope the place out before I bought it” I stammered.

Carthie looked at me with a weird annoyed expression on her face. I shot her a stern look and looked back at the lady.

The lady raised an eyebrow before she said, “I see. Names Suffix, like the thing ‘n a word. Emails a scam so ye’r off the hook. G’on and head back ta where y’er from.” She turned around and began to walk away.

“Wait—“ I raised my arm to get her attention but my words were cut short when she turned back around with a revolver in her right hand. She held it up confidently.

“I said we’re not for sale. Git!”

I stepped over to Carthie and grabbed her arm so hard that I heard her grunt in pain.

“Okay, okay”, I said. “We’re leaving” I complied.

Suffix put her revolver down, obviously pleased with my concluding remark. And before she could make another move to walk away, I pulled out my pistol and pulled the trigger.

Suffix landed on the floor at the same time Carthie let out a blood-curdling scream. She yanked her arm from my grasp and scrambled away from me.

“What the hell Graty!!”, she yelled at me with tears streaming down her face.

I sauntered over to Suffix’s body and stared at the blood pooling from her chest.

“I’m the new Suffix now. I won the bid”