The Seer And The Stetson

Silence

It was the silence that woke her. With a group this large, she expected at minimum the hum of conversation but she heard nothing. Just the eerie howling of the spring breeze as it rhythmically beat against the tent flaps.

She sat on the cold ground with her feet bound and her hands tied around the tent pole at her back. They even went so far as to rob her of her sight. But she wasn't completely blind, she could see their auras, she could find them slinking in the darkness.

Separating a person from their kin is the foulest violence that can be inflicted upon those concerned. That is what her parents believed. It's what she believes. But from the looks of the auras, she was seeing, none of them shared her convictions.

She thought back to the last moment of her parent's lives. She could not describe what she felt. Only that it was excruciating and numb at the same time.

Her heart screamed with pain and yet she was mute. She couldn't put it into words but she was certain of one thing, she died the moment her parents were taken from her but yet her body stubbornly went on living.

A set of deep hazel eyes framed by sun-kissed skin and a dusty brown hat flashed before her eyes. 'River,' she thought. He was coming for her.

Her foolish heart soared that the prospect of seeing him again. She should hate him. She should wish him dead. If he'd never come into their lives none of this would ever happen.

Another vision of those same twin girls flashed before her eyes. They were closer this time and felt more real. She ached to pull them to her breast but she was alone, with no one left in the world and those children would never be.

"Who's there?" Ellie startled at the sudden feeling of another presence. Its aura desperately faint.

"It's alright Ellie. We alright. Don't go grieving over us for too long and blaming others, hear? Somethings are just meant to be." The disembodied voice whispered.

"Mama?" She whimpered with disbelief.

"We love you, Ellie. I promise, my baby, God will keep you." Fingers ghosted over her cheek and frigid lips pressed against them, then the presence was gone.

Ellie's heart dropped in her chest, all the emotion that had been at bay poured out in fits and starts of tears.

She stopped when a chill slithered up her spine. It felt as if death itself blew its icy breath upon her neck. She turned her head slightly. A void blacker than she'd ever seen prowled towards her.

Footsteps kept pace as the darkness drew closer. She winced reflexively as a dark hand reached for her.

Clyde smiled, squatting to pull the dirty scarf from the girl's eyes. She knew the moment he'd stepped into the room. Most people never heard him coming. A tactic he'd learned in the war but this girl had senses beyond the ordinary.

"There," He said, "Ain't that better?" He watched as pupils ringed by feather brown eyes focused on his face.

"Mista, I'd rather never set eyes on you again." A slap cut across her cheek. A flush of red immediately marked her skin where she'd been struck. Pain flooded her senses as she spat out metallic-tasting blood.

"You'll learn not to sass me, girl. River let you and them other niggers think and act beyond your station. This shall not pass with me. You shall be reminded of where you belong." The slate grey of his eyes darkened under a gruesome scar on his left.

He took sick pleasure in her pain, of this she was certain. But she would never give him the satisfaction his perversions desired.

"You're just a man Clyde Puckett. One day you'll die and it will be by my hand," Her jaw rooted, her shoulders tensed and her bound fists clenched behind her.

She flinched when his hands flew to his sides to indulge in a roaring belly laugh. "Do you really think that'll ever happen? Honestly, darlin', why you fightin' so hard against the cause that created you? If it weren't for us you'd never be."

His face settled to a more somber look. Ellie wanted to ask him if he had lost his mind or if he was joking but neither of those choices was appropriate. He truly believed he was crusading for some righteous cause.

"So keepin' people in bondage is somethin' worthy of my praise? An institution that murders, rapes, mutilates, and kills my people should have my admiration?" She questioned, disgust clearly written on her face. "I'd rather be dead than to be subject to it any longer."

"My-My-My. Aren't we well-read and outspoken? If you aimin' to die, girl, I got good news for you. Because before the end, you'll scream and beg for mercy but you'll have none. Before you meet your folks up yonder, you gonna tell me where the hell, River Collins got to," the corner of his lip ticked upward.

"Who were you before the war?" Ellie asked, she couldn't imagine what could've made this man so full of hate.

"The son of a poor farmer who got sick of this country being turned over to coons and chimps." The vision of hundreds of his victims flooded her mind's eye. She moaned and screamed as their pain became hers.

"All this death. All that blood you've shed, dun nothin' but stained your soul and guarantee you a hot seat in hell. There ain't no point to any of it. Your obsession with thinking that the color of your hide somehow makes you superior to me makes no sense. Ain't nobody winning in this. We all losing from ignorance of people like you."

"Humph," Clyde scoffed, stroking the stubble on his chin. "You think you're pretty slick don't ya."

He balanced carefully on the balls of his feet then reached in his thigh strap for his Arkansas toothpick. The same murderous blade that claimed her father's life and the lives of many others before him.

"According to what I heard, River, a man who'd never looked twice at a woman that wasn't buxom and pale as a sheet, went through a great deal for you. Two things you never want a nigger woman to be; beautiful and smart. Unlucky for you; you just happen to be both." He slid the knife slowly across her cheek, "I think the first thing we should remove is that lying, sassy tongue without which you'll never again lure Godfearin' white men with your wiles."

"No," Ellie screamed and struggled as his hand reached into her mouth grasping her tongue.

Ellie squeezed her eyes shut as the blade moved threateningly toward its goal. Pop! Pop! Pop! The crackle of distant gunfire forced her to open her eyes. The shots seemed unending as they fired overhead.

"Hoss!" A young man burst into the tent brandishing his revolver. "We got trouble. We takin' on fire! We need you out here now!"

Clyde gave the blade an odd look, one resembling loss and longing, before holstering it and pushing to his feet.

"We ain't got no idea who it is, Hoss, but he dun killed five of us already." The youth gave a nervous glance.

"Yeah, well, I got a mind of exactly who it is and he's here for his prize but I'm gonna kill him before he can take it." Clyde pulled out his guns and rushed from the tent.