The Seer And The Stetson

The Face of Death

They'd been on the road a full day, covering about fifteen or twenty miles of open grassland. But, River had yet to utter a word. He stared ahead at the empty trail with a vacant look and a slack expression. He had no food nor water. His dry cracked lips occasionally trembling and pressing together, holding back whatever swell of emotion threatened to overcome him.

Jolene was beginning to worry. This sullen silence was uncharacteristic. His melancholy was tangible. Like a massive ocean ebbing and flowing, threatening to drag her to it's depths with him.

"Hey," She called, trying to break the silence. "Hey, Collins!"

His head snapped up at her. His eyes widened but his brow furrowed. She wasn't the one he wanted calling him by that name but she'd done it purposefully. It was the only way it seemed to get his attention.

"You alright?" She peered across the distance between their cantering horses, trying make out the look on his face.

He scoffed, "Would it make a damn bit of difference if I was or wasn't. It is the way it is. The faster we get to No Man's Land and get that money, the fast we can get the fuck out of here."

This wasn't the River she knew. A part of him died on the Sweeten farm. Where was the overconfident sharp-shooting rakehell that oozed southern charm breaking every woman's heart within a country mile?

Jolene looked at him sitting on his stallion, his chest caved and shoulders lowered. He was a shadow of his former glory. Ellie's rejection cut him to his soul. He practically begged her to love him, yet he spurned the love that she freely offered.

"I thought fallin' in love was 'suppose to be fun." She said with a chuckle pulling up on her horse's reigns.

"I don't know why. When was any type of fallin' ever been fun?" He answered dryly.

Jolene wasn't buying the bravado in his voice. "I feel like you still hoping it's you and her in the end... but you know it can't be."

He gave another bitter laugh, "How many times can the same thing break your heart?"

"She'll break your heart for as long as you love her," Jolene said then watched as he kicked his stallion to a trot, leaving a trail of dust behind him as he charged ahead.

Ellie couldn't sleep. She pushed out of her crumpled pallet on the floor. They'd just finished the cabin. She was grateful that she didn't have to sleep in a wagon but the cabin floor was not much better. But she'd be grateful if she never had to sleep on a wooden floor again.

It wasn't the hardness of the wood beneath her that caused her sleepless night. Every time she closed her eyes she saw River's face. His sad eyes tugging at the strings of her heart. The vision of the twin girls she named, Essie and Annie faded with each mile that separated her from River.

She felt it. He was taking her heart with him. What did it matter if she had feelings for him? She had very little to no choice. She had to protect the family she had not one that had yet to exist. Leaving the fate of little Essie and Annie to dance in the wind.

The visions of that horrid man she'd seen grew worse. With each sighting, he stood closer to her. Sometimes her visions occurred in quick succession.

The smell of death clung to him. His gaunt frame, pallid skin, and a gruesome scar just above his left eye gave him a menacing appearance that matched his dark aura.

The phantom bullets piercing her chest felt more real. Lately, she'd even felt his gnarled hands curled around her throat, choking the life from her.

She begged her parents to leave but neither of them would listen. Her mother insisted that River would return and when he did, he'd find them there. Her father refused to leave the home he'd work so hard to give his family.

They all knew something or someone was headed their way and it behooved her that they did nothing to stop it. She pushed open the door, leaving the stuffy little hut for some fresh air, and walk to clear her head. The soft light of dawn cast a dim shadow over the colorful blossom of spring.

She let her eyes wander over the beauty of the land. She gasped suddenly, her hands flying up to cover her mouth when she beheld a figure resting against a wooden pillar of the newly constructed barn.

It was him. The man that haunted her visions. A face of utter nonchalance, as if he were merely enjoying the breeze on a spring day.

He wasn't slumped at all. His muscular physique was too well trained for that. Yet, it seemed just as relaxed as his face. He was smiling-smiling as if something good were about to happen.

Ellie's world collapsed. Whatever was about to happen was good for him but spelled disaster for her.