Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

Virgil leaves my sight with a shovel in hand. I don’t know what to do, so I just watch him leave to dig a grave for his brother. Can someone help him? He shouldn’t have to do that alone. If only I wasn’t so injured. I turn to Johnny and start to speak, but the man interrupts me.

“Can you—.”

“No. Let him do it. Some things you have to do yourself.”

Johnny walks up to me and pats me on the shoulder.

“Good job, Wyatt. Happy to see you’re already up and moving.”

A small smile comes to my mouth as I look down at my body and Earl who is helping me stand. Yeah… moving.

“Can’t say I’m moving all that well.”

A light grin tugs on his face as he nods. Then he speaks to all three of us, not just me. He gets frustrated at Elizabeth who is still puking.

“That’s true. But I’m sure you’ll be back to normal soon. Anyway, will you three follow me. Come on Elizabeth. Get your shit together. You three are lucky if you made it this far without meeting a Two-Face. They are quite common in the east. Now, can I have a small chat with Wyatt for a bit? In private?”

Earl looks at Johnny oddly as he helps me stand, but the man agrees to leave us alone with a nod. I have no problem with it either, there are some things I’d like to talk to Johnny about. Like why he used that skill on me. I still don’t understand. Wouldn’t it have been better to wait? I don’t know, though.

Elizabeth slowly regains control of her stomach as she stands straight and stares Johnny in the eye.

“Only if you promise not to hurt him.”

The Gunfighter looks at her amused.

“Of course, I won’t hurt him. He’s my dreadnought.”

Elizabeth’s eyes slowly squint as she finally nods at him. At her agreement, Earl lets go of me and hands me off to Johnny who catches me by the shoulder. Then, my two friends walk away as Earl mentions checking on Abraham.

I look at Johnny after he catches me and he leads me to walk a bit away. I limp and struggle, but make it with his help. After about twenty feet, we reach a fairly quiet place with a large rock to sit on. I sit down on it with his help and he joins me on the other side of the decently sized rock. Dakota also follows behind us cheerfully and lies down beside the rock. Seems like his wounds were healed too.

The second he does, I ask him something, unable to hold my curiosity.

“What’s a dreadnought?”

Johnny laughs a heart chuckle with his head flying back.

“Hahaha. Always curious. I like that about you Wyatt. Dreadnought. It means fear nothing. And that’s what you are. No matter the challenge, you face it down without flinching. I need that. For everyone fears something, well except you it seems.”

Johnny points to his heart and makes a tight fist with his hand.

“And those fears restrain us. Heavily. They keep us from our peaks, from doing what needs to be done. But all I need to do is point you and give you a destination. Then, you will take me there. Of that I’m sure.”

I nod a bit at his reasoning. I think I’m starting to understand what fear is. The thing that I lack. It truly is odd to know that you were born unfinished, missing a part of yourself. My grandmother’s I believe was grief. My father’s is pain. Mine is fear. And I reckon that the child the First met was an ancestor of mine. He lacked blood.

Johnny’s words however bring back a thought of mine. He only needs to point me and give me a destination. That’s what he did with Hura, no? But why? Was he afraid?

“So, why did you give me that skill before the fight with the horde? It almost killed you, no?”

Johnny looks out to the vast dunes before us, the opposite direction of Rustbank. Or what used to be Rustbank. The town is virtually ruined. Only a few buildings remain without severe damage. A deep sigh comes from the man with his mouth still closed, and after it opens again, he speaks with drooping shoulders.

“Despite the confidence I exude, Wyatt, I possess very little. Most of what I do is an act, one that rallies people behind me. I’ve killed demons before, although they were much weaker and nowhere as old as Hura, and I’ve killed many monsters in my life as well.”

Johnny then looks up to the sky. I see isolation and a tinge of regret on his face.

“But despite all that I have accomplished, I still fear. I feel that I will fail and let down my daughter. This fear has kept me alive for a long time, but it’s kept me complacent. Kept me from advancing and growing. Kept me from fighting against the Hunters. Only after I saw a young Harvey execute a 5th Sigil for simply walking into him, did I overcome my fear with anger, with morality, and with ambition.”

The Gunfighter sighs again with a pause as he stares at his hands caked in blood. They tremble slightly. I stay silent even during his pauses.

“That instant, though. I had no hate. Only fear. Hura is an incredible foe that has lived for at least two centuries. One that, truthfully, I had very little confidence in beating, for he had a whole horde of Outlaws, monsters, and the Phantom Pain with him. When I looked forward after starting the battle, all I could see were shadows. The darkness in between the monsters and the dark clouds the demon summoned. It consumed me. I was restrained by fear.”

The man then looks at me, finally meeting my eyes.

“Then, I saw you. When everyone else is shaking in their boots, sweating their asses off, and about to shit themselves in fear, you were bouncing from foot to foot. So, I did the only thing that could regain my confidence. I gave you the strength that could make use of your lack of fear, my dreadnought.”

I hear the emotions in his voice and see them on his face. Johnny’s eyebrow is quivering and he seems to be incredibly regretful and disappointed in his actions. I feel a bit bad and try to console him. I’m still alive after all.

“It’s fine, Johnny. You did the right thing.”

He shakes his head, disagreeing with me.

“No, I didn’t. The right thing, the correct thing to do, was to save that skill for later as it ran out in the middle of our fight. Marion and Vernon would still be alive. You and Abraham wouldn’t be so injured. I’m sorry Wyatt. Truly.”

For the first time, I see the weight on his shoulders. My eyes instinctively flow the Ether for Chain Eyes as I see something new. Around the neck and shoulders of Johnny, I see gray chains with spikes that stab into his shoulders. They are hard to see and fade quickly under focus, but without even needing to think, I know what they are, my Sigil giving me the knowledge.

There is more that restricts us than just our bodies. Johnny is weighed down by so much that it is literally affecting his body, mind, and Ether. Seeing what’s happening to him, I lean forward and hug the regretful and depressed man. One who I thought was unbreakable, but out of nowhere, he seems to have shattered.

He takes my hug stunned at first, but eventually, he returns it. For several seconds, compassion passes between us. Two people who have gotten others killed because of poor actions. After that compassion passes, though, Johnny pushes me away.

“Thank you… I… I’ve lost a lot lately. Levi was a big hit, the man’s been with me for longer than my daughter was even alive. He was childish, but I loved him like a son. And, Marrion. Again, a goofball with Otto, but my heart twists to think of the lonesome redhead now. I know for a fact he will want to come with us on our next journey for that very reason. Primrose’s injury about broke me as well. That’s not to mention all the others who died today. Every single one hits me like a train. A never-ending trainwreck that I have no choice but to endure. Makes me wonder what Marshall has gone through...”

I continue to sit in silence as I watch the older man pour his heart out. I’m sure why he chose to do it to me, but I don’t judge him. Just a few deaths have affected me quite heavily, of people I barely even knew. Ma’s death and Edmund’s I still refuse to face. The emotions just won’t come.

Johnny spends a few moments wiping his eyes with his sleeve, then he stands up and holds a hand out for me.

“Come on. We’re going to have a meeting in a little bit. To decide whether we stay here in Rustbank or leave.”

I reach up and grab onto his hand. He pulls me up with a bit of a grunt, showing that even he is weakened and tired physically from the fight.

“Okay, sounds good to me. But what about Virgil? And Abraham? I doubt the first will want to come and that the second can.”

Johnny shakes his head as if it doesn’t matter.

“Virgil will come if he wants. I won’t force him to do anything right now. I can feel the ticking bomb inside him. He’s just as risky to be around as you were when you first showed up at Rustbank. Abraham, however, is awake. Heath went to him after you, so he should be able to attend the meeting.”

I nod and walk with Johnny a bit. My weakened body only continues to frustrate me and make me angrier at the Bloody Palm.

“Where are we having it then?”

“Bonfire is making a pyre for the dead, for there are too many dead to bury without wasting too much time. Well, once he recovers enough Ether. We’ll hold the meeting thereafter.”

Johnny then helps me walk to where Bonfire, the man named Emmet who hates to be called anything else than his chosen name, is laying down staring at the sky.

The Gunfighter then sets me down beside him and he walks away with a wave. He's got other things to do that just sit with me for another hour.

Bonfire acknowledges me as I sit beside him. He doesn’t sit up, however, and just speaks with his eyes in the afternoon clouds above.

“Hey, Wyatt. How you doing?”

“Fine, I guess. Still alive.”

I can hear him nod and that’s all the response I get. At his lack of speech, I lay back and stare at the clouds with him. The soon-to-be-setting sun dyes the clouds with a brilliant series of colors. For about an hour, the two of us just lay and relax. But once the sun fully falls, Bonfire stands. Then he limps over and gets his “boys”.

Cigar, with a cigar in his mouth, helps me move near where the pyre will actually be. A huge stack of bodies, wood created by Woody, and jars filled with Grease by Clumsy are haphazardly put together.

A huge number of people gather, all the remaining survivors who can still stand. Earl, Elizabeth, and Esther find me and take over Cigar's job of helping me walk. This gives Cigar the freedom to go back to his friends.

Then, as the moon rises on this first winter’s night, Bonfire creates a resplendent blaze that he lightly puts onto the Grease soaked wood. The beautiful pyre of fire reaches almost a hundred feet into the size after just a moment of ignition.

I see a lot of people put their heads down while others look up. But I do the same as Emmet. I stare into the fire, burning the consequences of failure into my mind. All these people are dead. So many more would be dead if we hadn’t killed Hura. If Alexos hadn’t cut his head off…

I’ll have to do everything I can to keep these people alive. To help Johnny achieve his goal. Because we might have felled one demon, but many more remain. Some cloaked in human skin, and some that might as well never of been born human.

Alexos is somewhere nearby. Watching. Waiting. For what, I’m not sure. But he has what I want. What I need. The only thing from my family, and the last thing from Edmund. I will take them from him no matter how much it takes. No matter how much fire must burn me or limbs I must lose.

Although… There might still be one thing left from Edmund. The last bullet. The bullet that disappeared. I wonder where it went. Did Edmund take it? Maybe? Did I just lose it? It’s possible I guess. I'm not the most forgetful or clumsy, but shit happens.

My thoughts twist and turn like the crackles of the fire before me. Bodies stack in the flames just as they pile up to watch the spectacle. Eventually, my three friends grow tired of watching the fire, mostly Esther as she is still little and it was starting to get late. They walk away for a few and I continue to watch the flame on the ground.

Something about it just draws me in. The grimness of death calls for me, I suppose. Maybe the lady with tattered clothes is angry at me for keeping my soul from her. I’m not sure. It just feels weird. As I sit, I feel the spot on my chest where the tattoo was recently flare in a type of phantom pain.

I check the spot, curious to see if the tattoo from Lily and the Cardinal River had returned, but no. Maybe she was just somehow telling me something with that. She did say she could devour nearby souls. I guess that’s what I’m feeling now, then. Ever since I first saw that gun, I’ve had a bizarre attachment to it. It is the only thing from my father, after all, and the last thing my mother ever gave me.

That’s probably enough for a connection to form between us.

Gradually, people leave the pyre and return to their wounded friends or simply to rest. But I stay sitting, not just because I can’t move on my own, but also because Johnny said that a meeting would be held here soon. And he was right.

After about an hour of sitting alone with the crackling embers, people gather in a circle using me as an edge.

Elizabeth and Earl sit next to me, Esther is sleeping in the former's lap. Dakota is curled up and asleep behind me. Bonfire and Abraham sit next to each other as they argue about mundane things. I barely even pay attention as it has something to do with whether steak should be seasoned or not.

Frank, covered with bandages all over quite similar to me, sits with a thump as the two Sisters Of Silence who yet live sit beside him. Sacate, Heath, and Primrose are the next to arrive. The Woodsman sits cross-legged as he closes his eyes to rest in the circle. Heath literally lays down at the edge of the circle exhausted. The man of medicine was pushed to his limits as well. Primrose arrives in the most… special way.

A bullet lands beside Heath, making him freak the fuck out, as Primrose appears next to him giggling with a hand over her mouth.

“Hey! I’ll tell Johnny to take that thing from you! Watch out how you use it!”

She laughs at his threat and bares her teeth.

“Try it, doctor-man. I’d rather you take it.”

Heath, the middle-aged doctor blushes as Primrose who is obviously fucking with him on purpose. Not sure why, though.

After those three, Otto arrives. After losing Marion, he is sad and disheartened, but he sits in the circle with a bit of hope in his gaze. The redhead lost his ‘twin’. I’m half glad I didn’t know them that well, or else the death would hurt a lot more. At the same time, it also hurts that I didn't know him at all.

Johnny is the next, and he brings someone new. Someone who wasn’t at the last meeting. A twenty-something female with gaunt eyes and a shaved head adorned in grayish cloth robes. Johnny nods to us all and introduces them.

“This is Blake. She is our newest 4th Sigil, welcome her to our little council, not sure what we’ll ever come to call it. Blake, introduce yourself a bit more if you will.”

The woman looks around at the twelve or so of us sitting and starts to stutter when she speaks, but after Johnny puts a hand on her shoulder, she gains the impetus to speak. I assume he pulls some Lawman skill out to invigorate her.

“Hi—. I–. I. I–. I’m… I’m Blake Nightingale. Nice to meet you all. I’m a Ghostbond. It’s a.. umm. Mix of Sexton, which… umm focuses on the undead and death, and umm… Abbot which focuses on vitality and life. I can… umm do quite a bit.”

Johnny pats her shoulder as she seems to be incredibly uncomfortable speaking in front of just a dozen or so people.

“That’s enough Blake. Thank you for being so open. Most aren’t. Go ahead and sit wherever you’d like.”

The woman nods awkwardly before moving over just a bit and abruptly sitting in the dirt. I kind of ignore her weirdness and smile at her, trying to be friendly, but she takes a single look at me before looking down.

What a bizarre woman. Is this really the only person who reached 4th Sigil in that fight? Probably not. The others must have just died. That means this lady is somehow the best of them all. Don't know how though.

We lost one of the sisters, Marion, and Vernon. But the only person who could step up after, is this girl? What the hell? Surely there is someone better.

While I contemplate her oddness, our final expected person arrives. A man with a face just as dark as the shadows he wields sits nearby me with a thump. No longer is he covered in blood, instead, it’s dirt and mud that covers his whole body.

He arrives without any words to anyone and just a short acknowledgment of me with his head. I guess he buried Vernon. I wonder why he did that instead of having him join the pyre. Maybe he wanted it to be personal or have somewhere to go back to. Not sure. I do wish he let me come and watch even if I couldn't help. It hurts a bit to be left out, but I'll see his grave another time to say my goodbye. I don't want to press him right now.

After everyone arrives, just like last time, Johnny gets the meeting started, but this time, he does it with a question.

“Who wants to go meet Death?”