By Joanna
Chapter IX
The Demons Within
The blinding white fury enveloped Buck as he stumbled along beside his faltering horse. He stayed close to the animal, trying to absorb his warmth. The knowledge that if he didn't find shelter soon either animals or people, or more likely both, would start dying chilled him even more.
He should have called back to make sure everyone was still with him, but that would have required energy he didn't have. He should have been shivering with the cold too, but again, was just too exhausted.
He tried to strain his eyes, his greatest weapon, but even this advantage that had saved him so many times was struck impotent by the driving snow. There was no seeing here, he knew. There was no hearing either, with the exception to the groaning and creaking of the tree branches. Even as accustomed to snow as they were, the branches might snap and crack under the strain any moment, crashing around their heads.
The snow was a sort of quicksand, up around his knees already and seeming to pull him deeper with every step. The weariness was closing his eyes, eyes that were useless anyway, but he struggled onward. Not only was his life dependent on taking another step, six others behind him were as well.
They walked for a few miles more, cheeks bloody red from the whipping wind, eyelashes coated with white flakes.
Finally Buck squinted against the snow and thought he saw the outline of something that was separate from the trees and the white. Feeling at first it was probably the equivalent of the mirage of an oasis to a desert wanderer, he almost didn't step off what was once the trail. However, an inexorable force pushed him toward the strange, solid shape in the dizzy world around him, and soon he was laying his hand against solid stone.
The lack of snow hitting him in the face seemed foreign, as if he'd never been without the stinging bits of ice. Feeling along the wall, he finally found what he'd prayed the spirits would lead him to.
A cave.
Not just a cave, he soon discovered as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the enclosed area, but an enormous one. The gaping mouth of the cavern might have been the pearly gates of heaven to the freezing travelers. The horses snorted suspiciously as the riders staggered across the natural threshold of the cave and out of the snow.
The blanketing blackness was the epitome of contrast to the violent whiteness. For a moment the only sound was the heavy breathing of both man and beast. Then horses and riders alike shook themselves free of the flakes and sighed in relief.
There were no words spoken between the weary riders as they began leading the horses further into the cave, where it widened into an even bigger enclosure. As their eyes adjusted the light in the cave brightened to a dull gray, a comfortable combination of the white and black. Even as exhausted as the riders were, the horses came first. They unsaddled the trembling animals and rubbed them down until they were steaming. Then they buckled blankets around them, pouring each a sizable measure of grain and leaving them content against a back wall.
Finally, they dragged their saddles a short distance away and set them up in a circle. Buck, finding the remnants of a previous inhabitant of the cave, grabbed some left over kindling and quickly built them a fire. Outside, the mouth of the cave was still a white curtain, the snow refusing to stop its relentless swirling.
All of them collapsed on their knees around the struggling flame, vying for the warmth. Only when the riders were hunched over the fire, trembling and blank with shock did any of them try to speak.
"Is this what the Indian meant about the sky falling?" Jimmy finally asked, his voice hoarse.
"If it isn't, I don't want to know what he did mean," Noah muttered in response.
"At least we have shelter. We'll be fine here for as long as it lasts," Cody said to reassure himself more than anything.
"As long as it lets up before our food runs out," Jimmy pointed out darkly.
"I wonder if anything lives in here?" Kid finally wondered timidly.
"You mean like bats?" Lou shivered.
"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of a grizzly bear," Kid answered pessimistically.
"There isn't a bear in here," Buck reasoned.
"How do you know?" Jimmy challenged him.
"The horses never would have set foot in here if there was one. We're fine. For now."
"Let's just hope one doesn't have the same idea we do and try to join us," Noah said.
"I don't know. A bearskin coat sounds fine to me right now," Cody pointed out and slid his hand closer to his rifle.
*
Outside the snow continued to fall rapidly. The mouth of the cave slowly filled with snow and finally the heat from the fire warmed the riders enough to where they could feel their fingers and toes. Buck examined all of them for frostbite, and found most of them, including himself, had light cases.
There wasn't much talk as they rolled out bedrolls and sorely climbed into them.
Lou's dreams were misty, vague, and terrifying. Images flashed in rapid succession. Horrible images.
A boy screaming and tearing at a man who attacked a woman, his small nose gushing blood as he sobbed and as the woman screamed at him to get away. The older man struck him down again and again.
Then Jimmy's face flashed before her eyes.
A swirl of large screaming boys gathered like a pack of wolves around an inert form, shouting and laughing and kicking. Lou felt herself drift above all of them and see a child cowered in their midst, his hands over his head. His large black eyes, tears streaming freely, were tortured, his hands reached out to the boys, wanting acceptance, finding only ridicule and abuse.
It was Buck.
The next was another boy, kneeling in the grass on a hillside. Nearby, the tail of a kite fluttered from a tree. The boy sobbed, clutching the hand of a prone figure, laying face down on the ground. With tears coursing down his face, he lifted his head and opened his mouth in a silent scream of grief.
Ike.
A boy playing in the river, a blonde-headed girl bouncing along beside him, pigtails flying. The sun shone on both of them. Lou felt a smile tug her lips from her strange, omnipotent-sort of view from above. However, as soon as she felt herself start to sign with relief, the girl waded too far. The boy screamed and reached toward her, but it was too late. The current in the deep part of the river was strong, and the girl was small. She was swept away in seconds. The boy screamed and plunged into the deep water. Lou followed the boy down the river, crying out as he plunged below the water and came up gasping. Eventually the boy washed onto shore, gasping and vomiting water and sobbing. The girl was lost.
Cody's blue eyes burned up to the sky as he sobbed for his lost playmate.
Next it was fire...fire and screams and horses milling. Lou could see the bright flashes of light, could smell the smoke. She peered through bushes and watched as men with torches and hoods circled around a tree. Her eyes searched through the darkness with supernatural sharpness. She could just make out an older black woman and a boy crouching in fear. Stagecoach Sally had her hand firmly clasped over a squirming Noah's mouth. Lou's eyes returned to the scene just as one of the mounted men slapped the back of the horse. There was a jingle of the harness, then the creak of a weight swinging on rope. Lou didn't have to look to know it was Noah's father. She struggled to hurry forward to help the man, but her limbs were lead and wouldn't budge.
Finally she found herself in the middle of a rolling field. She fought to remain where she was, afraid of what she'd see next. However, an inexorable force pulled her toward a shack. The slats in the wall were spaced, spilling ribbons of light onto the dirt around the shack, and the trash littering the ground. There was a single window with cracked glass and Lou moved toward it, becoming slowly conscious of a repetitive thudding sound. Her eyes filled with tears as she peered through the dingy glass and beheld the scene.
A tall man threw a shadow across the room, obscuring the tiny boy who stood before him. Again and again the man brought a leather strap about the shoulders and back of the boy. Though the boy had tears streaming down his cheeks and his lips trembled with the effort, he remained standing and did not cry out with ever blow. Even as a child, Lou supposed, Kid had been stubborn. The man, who grasped the neck of the bottle with one hand, wasn't satisfied with the beating alone. With one motion he ripped his son's shirt from his back and Lou screamed and lunged for the window as he turned the bottle slowly onto the open cuts on Kid's young back.
Tears blazed down Lou's cheeks as she struck the glass again and again, and as Kid looked with miserable eyes toward the window as if begging her to save him.
"Lou! Lou, wake up! I'm here!"
Lou awoke with a gasp and sat up so fast that she nearly knocked Kid's forehead. Tears had streamed down her face and wet her hair and blanket as well as the top of her shirt. She was clammy with a sweat from head to toe and instantly began shivering.
Her frightened eyes turned to Kid, and new tears filled them.
"Bad dream?"
Wordlessly she nodded and he pulled her into his arms and rocked her steadily for a moment. Then, feeling her trembling, he sat back and pulled his jacket off. When he did so the neck of his shirt pulled to the side, and Lou could just see the top of a scar she'd never noticed before on his shoulder. One that matched exactly the bleeding cut she'd just seen in her dream.
"Oh dear God," She gasped and stood up, moving away from Kid and toward the mouth of the cave.
"Oh God," She repeated as she moved to where the snow stopped pouring in and pressed her face against the cold stone wall.
The others awoke slowly to the commotion, looking around in confusion.
Lou glanced back at them and saw in their eyes, the tortured memories she'd somehow shared with them in her nightmare without them ever telling her burning brightly.
""Oh no," Lou mumbled.
"What is it Lou? What's wrong?" Jimmy asked quietly.
"I don't know...I just had a bad dream...I saw things..."
"What things?" Buck asked quickly.
"Things I couldn't have seen. Things I know have happened although you've never told me?"
"What things?" Buck persisted, standing up and walking to stand in front of her. He placed a hand on either shoulder and leaned down to catch her gaze.
"Bad things...memories...I think they were true. I saw the boys beating you, I saw Ike kneeling over his mother, and Noah's father, and Cody's friend in the river, and Jimmy's mother...and..." she broke off and her eyes drifted to Kid who stood like a statue. His whole body was tense, and she saw him glance over his shoulder as if to see the scars he knew she'd seen.
The boys all turned pale. Buck looked as white as the snowy background.
"Impossible," Cody mumbled, his voice thick. "I never told anyone about Nelly."
"You didn't have to. It was the horse," Buck informed them grimly.
"What about the horse?" Kid asked, still looking like he wanted to explode.
"Satan. My people say that people's inner most demons reflect in his eyes. That's why people are so scared of them. Sometimes though, it has been said that a person sees not only their own demons but those of the people they love the most. Lou has seen our inner demons..."
Lou shivered, "Well, how do I stop seeing them?"
Buck looked at her and sighed, "Face Satan again. And reclaim your own."
"My own what?" Lou wondered softly.
"Demons."
"What the hell are you talking about Buck?" Jimmy asked, rubbing his forehead.
"I'm saying that she's got to meet up with Satan again."
"Like hell she does! That's the craziest thing I've ever heard! There's no way she's going to do that. I don't buy into this possessed horse thing, but that animal is vicious! It's too dangerous!" Kid yelled.
"It may be the only way Kid!" Jimmy suddenly yelled too, "You want Lou to go on seeing the kind of things she's seeing? Because I for one, know what kind of memories I got, and I don't want her to have to see them!"
"There's no way she saw what she thought she did! It must have been a coincidence!"
Lou shook her head, "Kid, it wasn't."
"I don't believe you!"
"Don't you Kid? Because I know how you got that scar on the back of your neck, and the one on your shoulder!" The memory of seeing Kid beaten as a child brought a fresh stream of tears down her cheeks.
Chaos erupted as all the riders started arguing about whether or not there was any possibility of Buck's prediction being true.
"We have got to get out of here! Let's go back to Sweetwater and forget this! The company can buy new horses!" Kid finally screeched above the noise.
Silence fell over the cave, but from somewhere above them, a strange rumbling sound began. It grew louder and more deafening, and cracks and pops and groans accompanied it with increasing voracity.
"What is that?" Noah wondered, wrinkling a brow.
Buck, standing close to the mouth of the cave suddenly sprang to life, hitting Lou from the side and knocking both of them away from the mouth of the cave.
As Lou struck the hard surface of the cave floor and felt a crushing weight come down on top of her, she was vaguely aware of Jimmy screaming something. The words bounced off the walls of the cave echoing several times, "Avalanche."
To be continued...
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
