Part Eight

Into the Mists

Chris Larabee felt disconnected.

He did not hear when Fowler shouted his warning to stay back and he certainly did not care when he heard the gun went off. He paid enough attention to get out of its way, unwilling to die before he paid Sarah and Adam's killers in kind.

Ignoring the feeling of hot lead slamming into his arm, Chris hardly registered the injury or the pain that accompanied it. When he heard Sarah scream her last, whatever it was inside him that still felt and wept for her demise simply detached itself from the rest of him. He was on top of Fowler before the assassin had the chance to pull the trigger again. The pain in his arm did not exist, nothing did but this intense need for vengeance that would be far from satisfied, even after Fowler was dead.

Chris ripped the gun away from the man and tossed it aside before Fowler had a chance to fire again or run for that matter. The weapon fell away into the darkness and Chris paid little attention as to where it landed. Fowler prepared to attach but no sooner than he made the attempt, Chris' swatted his hand out of the way and grabbed the man by the throat. As his fingers enclosed around the assassin's neck, Chris tightened his fist into a ball with as much power as he could channel to his vise like grip. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, allowing himself to slip over the edge of the maw and fall headlong into the dark sea of his rage. Everything that he was went with him. Sarah, Adam, Buck and now his life. They were all that kept him bound to what he had been, kept him secure on the edge of darkness. Everything that was Chris Larabee died with the family and friend that he loved so much. What was left wanted vengeance and would be satisfied with nothing less.

He was aware of gurgling sounds that might have been choking but he did not listen closely. There were instances when he felt hands other than his own trying to prise his fingers away from flesh but the attempts did not last long because Chris did not intend to let go, not for anything. After a few minutes, when the rasping and the strangled cries reached apogee, they withered away all together and all he could hear in the wake of that silence, was the cackling of fire as it destroyed what was left of the Larabee home.

Chris opened his eyes then and saw Fowler dead in his grip. His hand was slick from the regurgitated fluids of Fowler's final gasps. The blood ran down his hand from the man's open mouth, soiling the sleeve of his duster and seeping into the grass as it fell to earth in pregnant drops of dark crimson. Chris let him go then, allowing Fowler to collapse on the ground, feeling no satisfaction whatsoever in taking his life. This man had destroyed everyone who had ever meant anything to Chris Larabee. Chris knew he should have been feeling something but he did not. If it could be called an emotion, then what he felt was emptiness. It was a most curious sensation for he could feel nothing. No anger, no rage, no pain, just that overwhelming emptiness. Its depth was so penetrating that nothing could fill it while Ella Gaines, the real architect of this entire nightmare still breathed.

He walked away from Fowler and returned to this horse. His blue eyes, almost obsidian in its coloured, searched the hills surrounding his property and tried to guess which would be the most advantageous point from which she could view the contracted murder of his wife and child. He had remembered from that other life, the one that was as lost to him as this one, that she had wanted to watch because later, she would collect her souvenirs for the event.

He climbed on his horse and rode away, knowing that she was somewhere in the woods and he had to find her. She had boasted that she had stayed for the entire thing, until the house was nothing but cinders and she was able to sift through the ash and find her mementoes. It did not take him long to find her. He was single minded in his purpose and he was guided by something far more accurate that instinct. He was no longer thinking about Sarah and Adam and how he had failed them both. It was a testament to just how numb he felt because Buck's death was similarly distant.

There was one way up and down the ridge that Ella was using as her private viewing gallery while she watched the death of his family and friends. Once Chris caught sight of the tracks in the ground leading to the peak, he knew without doubt that it was she who had made them. Dismounting from his own horse, he made the rest of the journey on foot. There was no way he was allowing her to get away. Chris moved through the trees, moving with stealth that would make Vin Tanner proud. He could hear her horse neighing and stamping its feet whenever the need took it and immediately closed in on that sound.

When he finally reached the top of the ridge and broke through the line of bushes and shrubs, he had his shotgun poised and ready to fire. He knew that the moment he stepped out from the cover of vegetation, that rustle of branches and leaves would give him away. Chris cocked the trigger and stepped out, making the very sounds he knew would alert her to his presence. Ella turned around the instant she heard the sound but Chris was ready for her. Pulling the trigger the moment she discovered he was there, her startled face was eclipsed by the roar of a shotgun blast.

Ella let out a short scream as her horse buckled underneath her, mortally wounded as Chris had intended. Unable to remain as the blast had injured its leg, the animal crumpled to the ground, throwing its rider off as it vainly attempted to remain on its feet before an agonized bray of pain signaled the futility of it. Chris watched without emotion as the creature landed heavily on the woman, pinning her under the weight of its body. Ella struggled to crawl from under the body, crying out in pain at the weight pressing down on her. He continued watching as her cries of frustration grew more frantic as was her attempts to pull herself free. Eventually, he stepped out and into the moonlight, where she could see him. The sound of his boots against the gravel brought Ella's gaze to bear on him.

"Chris!" She gasped and then saw his eyes and understood in that moment just how far she had pushed him. "Chris," she swallowed trying to reach through that fog in his mind, to penetrate the rage that was aching to hurt her. "You don't understand, I did for you. For us! She was in the way."

"Was Adam in the way too?" He asked, his voice was just as dark as the rest of him.

"He would have held you down. We didn't need a child! When this is all over, you'll see that I am right." She implored, dirt covering her cheeks as she groveled in the dirt, trying desperately to escape because she was aware now that she had awakened something inside him that was not even Ella in all her obsession had believed existed.

Chris said nothing for her words bounced of him and had little power over him. He strode forward and sank his hand into her blond hair before yanking her back viciously. She screamed in pain as he pulled her from under her trapped position by the hair, keeping as firm a grip upon her as he had done on Fowler a short while ago. Ella struggled to break free, frightened now at what had been unleashed but Chris was not about to let her go. He dragged her to her feet and made him face her.

"Chris I love you." She begged as he maintained a clenched fist over her hair. "I did it for you."

"I'm sure you did." He said quietly and hauled her to the edge of the ridge. Beneath them, there was a panoramic view of the house, still burning into the night. The sky was emblazoned with rich colours of amber and crimson, almost mesmerizing in its reflection against the indigo sky. He could not see the bodies of Buck or Fowler for that matter but he knew there were there. Looking down, Chris ruminated for a brief moment and then turned his attention back to Ella who was staring down at the drop with widening eyes.

"I told Fowler I was going to make it slow for you." Chris met her eyes for the first time. "I don't need to waste that much time. I don't have to make it slow for you Ella, I just need to make it hurt," he said with a perfectly humorless smile. "I want to hear you scream like you made Sarah scream."

Without another word, he threw her off the edge.

She did scream to start of with and he watched every second of her descent, from the time her arms flayed desperately trying to find something to hold as she felt nothing but air around her, until her body slammed into the first protrusion of rock on her downward journey. The scream was cut short then, replaced by the sound of snapping bone and flesh. It was almost melodic in his ears as he stood at the edge, straining to hear every tune in Ella's musical demise. When it was over, when she lay sprawled somewhere below him in the black, Chris finally turned away.

He stepped away from the edge, knowing that Ella was not alone when she fell.

Chris Larabee had gone with her gratefully, plunging himself over the periphery where he would never stop falling. .

********

Vin Tanner followed Alexandra Styles back to her hotel, with no idea why he was following her; aware only that he had no choice but to do so. As much as she confused him, he could not deny that when she had first kissed him, the part of him that acted on impulse did not care that she was a perfect stranger, did not even care that she was insane, he knew he was lost. He watched her as they journeyed back to the hotel, trying not to stare but found himself unable to do nothing but that. He watched her hair worn loose, bouncing off her shoulders, admiring the luster of her skin and the eyes that drowned him in its depths. When she said she loved him, Vin knew it was the truth. He just could not say how he knew it so perfectly.

"Where did you come from?" He found himself asking, still sounding very confused.

She linked her arm through his, not caring how it looked. In her mind, they were engaged and even though it was for a short time, it had been the happiest days of her life. Before she woke up from this dream, there was one thing Alex needed to do and that was introduce him to her father. If this wasn't a dream and it was more or less a foregone conclusion that it was not since it was in her reckoning the longest such experience in her life if it were, and she was stuck with this, then it was best that her father met Vin anyway.

"Boston." Alex answered his questions and noticed that he did not pull away when her arm slipped through his. In fact, he was starting to feel a little more at ease even though the confusion in his face was still very apparent.

"How can you love me, we ain't never met." He looked at her, defying her to answer him because he really needed an explanation to this insanity as well as a reason for why he felt the way he did. Not even Charlotte had effected him this way and when Alex had kissed him, when he had felt her lips against his, Vin had never felt anything in his life to be so right. It was almost like the day he and Chris had looked at each other across the street and decided that it was the right thing to help Nathan. Such moments of clarity had always proceeded the best times in his life and although this beautiful woman and her claims puzzled him, he could not deny how she made him feel. Vin seldom felt so passionately for anyone, even with Charlotte it had taken a little time especially when he found out that she was married. However, with Alex there was none of the doubt that made him pause or hesitate, no matter confused he may now feel.

"I know." She replied as matter of factly. "But I do love you."

"This is crazy." Vin replied, thinking he needed a stiff drink to make some sense out of what was happening. "I know I ain't never met you and you say you love me? What makes it even crazier is well, look at you!"

Alex paused and examined herself feeling rather self-conscious at his remark. "What do you mean look at me?" She asked, hands on her hips as she stared at him with a hint of indignation.

"Well you're a lady and all, you got linen and lace hanging off you, I ain't got no business having anything to do with someone like you!" He retorted as if it should have been perfectly obvious to her although he did admit that when she was riled up, she was actually even prettier. He wondered what she must be like when she was truly infuriated. Magnificent, Vin was certain.

"Oh for God's sake!" Alex rolled her eyes in exasperation "What has that got to do with anything?" She demanded annoyed that even in this reality, he could still use that for an excuse. Hadn't she been through all this nonsense with Charlotte? "I love you. I don't care if you got a bounty on your head and you only a dollar a day! That never mattered to me! I love you because you showed me some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. You've shown me sunsets and stars, you've shown me how easy is to become lost in the quiet and have a whole world open up when I shut up long enough to look. Those are things money or position can never buy Vin. When I'm with you, nothing else matters. It’s like there's only the two of us and I love being with you so much. When I woke up three days ago and found out that everything was different, that you weren't in my life any more, I thought I was going to die and I knew I had to find you. One way or another."

Nothing she said was making any sense but her words did penetrate, just like the feeling of intense pleasure at knowing that someone cared for him that much. Not like Charlotte to whom he was second best. Vin started to smile because despite the impossibility of it all, he believed her when she said he had shown her all the things he had. With no more doubt in his mind, he placed a hand on her cheek and drew her to him. Alex did not resist when he leaned down and kissed her. Her lips against his tasted heavenly and he felt confusion burning away along with all the other reservations that lingered in his mind because the truth was, none of it mattered. Not one bit of it.

All Vin Tanner was conscious of was how he felt about her and the moment he had seen Alexandra Styles only a short time ago, Vin knew that she was right, he would love her if he did not already. Their mouths melted together in kiss of lustful desire with neither caring whom was watching their passionate exchange. When he pulled away, it felt almost painful.

"I gotta be crazy." Vin said shaking his head as he grinned with his arms still around her.

"Well save it for now," she replied she disengaged herself from him and resumed walking towards the hotel. "My father's waiting."

"What?" Vin grumbled as he took her hand in his and let Alex led him where she wanted. "I just met you and I now I gotta meet your pa too. .?"

********

"Ezra, what are you doing!" He heard Cousin Charles shouted in astonishment as his horse pulled away from the duo and made for Mrs. Washington at breakneck speed. Ezra knew he would have only one shot at this, so it had to be done right or not only would he doom the woman and her children to certain death but himself as well. Pulling out the gun from his holster, Ezra took careful aim at the men standing over Mrs. Washington, taking their pleasures from the atrocity they were inflicting upon her body. He wondered if the respectable Mr. Standish had the same marksman skills and decided that in less than a second, he was going to find out.

Squeezing the trigger of the gun, he fired on shot at the man who was presently hunched over the helpless woman, brutalizing her as he grunted his way to ecstasy, oblivious to the repellent nature of the act he was committing. The bullet struck the man in the rump, making him pull away from her abruptly in pain. He felt on his side, screaming as he clutched his bleeding rear while the other man looked around to see where the shot had come from. Ezra did not give the chance to find out and fired again just as swiftly, the bullet slamming into his knee and dropping the man where he stood.

"Madam," Ezra said quickly when he reached Mrs. Washington who though shocked by her sudden deliverance, had presence of mind to compose herself quickly. He snatched the hood from his head and tossed it aside, feeling grateful to be rid of this symbol of violence. "I am sorry I was not here sooner." He apologized.

She stared at him with tear-streaked cheeks and eyes that were filled with amazement. "But why?"

"I do not believe we have time to discuss it," Ezra retorted, seeing the others starting to converge on him. Leading them was dear Cousin Charles and Cousin Jacob who had recovered from their own astonishment at this sudden turn of events to know they had serious problem on their hands. "I would suggest you take your children and start running. I have no idea how long I shall be able to hold off these pointed head cretins before they resume their efforts to retrieve you."

At that statement, she looked around and saw precisely what he meant. The other ghouls were taken by surprise at this betrayal by one of their own but they were recovering quickly and the confusion that was hampering their progress would not last for long. She nodded wildly and immediately started towards her children, the oldest being no more than five he estimated. Ezra looked at the men approaching and fired once into the air, gaining their attention and hopefully buying himself a few minutes.

"This has gone far enough gentlemen!" He shouted. Most of these men were confident that their anonymity would protect them but in this instance, it was one of their own who was standing up to them, who knew the faces behind the masks.

"Ezra, what the hell are you doing?" Cousin Charles demanded as their horses came to a stop at the sound of his warning shot.

Ezra was still holding his gun; ready to fire at the first man to make a move against him. By now, Mrs. Washington had gathered her children and were wisely fleeing into the woods, where the darkness would keep them safe until they could reach help. "What I should have done long before now. I have no idea what possess me to wear this costume," he regarded the robes over his clothes distastefully, "but I wear it no more and neither will I allow you to vent your sick philosophy on a helpless woman and her children. You have killed her husband, I do believe that it is enough of a lesson for her to vacate the premises without resorting to the vile actions I was happy to put an end to a moment ago."

"You do not walk away from the Klan, Ezra!" Charles swore angrily. The fury in his voice was unmistakable and Ezra could tell by the cold edge to his tone that it was time for him to make a hasty departure. Casting a sidelong glance, he could see no sign of Mrs. Washington and hoped that the narrow window of opportunity he had allowed for her escape would be enough.

"I am walking away now." He said firmly, his gun still aimed firmly in their direction as he nudged his horse to make a slow retreat backwards. The gambler never took his eyes off the enemy even for a second and took full advantage of their confusion. He was one of their own and this sudden bout face had left them uncertain over what they should do. Under normal circumstances, they would have killed him already, like Serfonteine had been so eager to do when Ezra had taken the same stand when he freed Alex from their ministrations. However, he and Charles were kin and judging by the authority that Charles represented, he was probably the leader of the local chapter.

"Ezra, think of Annabelle and your children." Jacob implored. "You're not just endangering yourself, you're endangering them too."

"They know nothing about this and I am certain you know that." Ezra retaliated confidently as the horse started to move into the trees. He could hear the rustle of leaves behind them just as he was aware of them closing in on him with just as much stealth in their advance. "Harming them does not serve any purpose and would raise uncomfortable questions, would it not?"

"This isn't over," Charles hissed and with that posturing statement, Ezra decided that it actually was. Unless they got their hands on his person, there was very little they could do to him and for the moment, Ezra had not intention of falling into that position.

"I think it is." Ezra grinned and dug his heels into the side of his horse and took off through the trees. He kept his head low and galloped hard and fast through the foliage, completely aware that they were following as he heard the loud rustling of branches and leaves as they broke through the line of trees in pursuit. Ezra who had more practice at evading large gatherings hell bent on tar and feathering him that they would ever know, had little difficulty keeping ahead of the group and he had just enough tricks up his sleeve to throw them off when necessary.

Ezra had no idea how much time had passed until he no longer heard the hoof beats or angry voices screaming out for his hide but eventually the sounds faded away with the coming of dawn. Most of the men in the group were undoubtedly family men like he was meant to be and could not afford to spend too much of the evening with their extra curricular activities. Ezra knew that if he could just keep ahead of them long enough, their own domestic concerns would bring an end to their pursuit. Besides, Cousin Charles was of the belief that when Ezra stopped running, he would return home to Annabelle and his children.

As much as Ezra had wanted to give his wife a face to face explanation for what he was about to do, his Klan involvement now made that impossible. He felt somewhat remorseful that he had to deliver such news to her over correspondence but Ezra was certain he had the necessary skills to compose the letter that would might make her understand that he was not the man she believed him to be. Once upon a time he had wanted a life like the one he had experienced today and it was a monument to his own stupidity that he had longed for it even after he found the friends in Four Corners and Julia Pemberton.

When Ezra finally returned to the road that connected Charleston to the rest of the south, he gazed into the city for a moment and wondered how it was possible to have everything that he had always wanted and realized that it was less than what he had. Questions for philosophers, he decided and started down the road taking him from Charleston. The sun was starting to peek over the horizon and Ezra wondered how long it would take him to get Four Corners.

He did not know if the people he cared about would even remember him when he arrived but one thing was for certain, they would not forget Ezra Standish once he was there.

********

Julia Pemberton was extremely content.

She found herself lying against Ezra's chest, listening to his heart beating next to her ear and wondered how it was possible for one man to have so much power over her when once upon a time, she had power over so many of them. Even though all of this had taken him by surprise, Julia was certain that he was quite pleased with the turn of events, even to the point where she actually meant something more to him than just the money. When she had first met him, she had no idea what made him tick underneath the cool facade of the southern gentlemen. Although he confessed to an insatiable love of money, Julia knew that Ezra Standish was not just about that. No self serving human being intent on making himself a fortune would remain in a town where death could come with a bullet at any time for a dollar a day and room and board. Oh, he said it was because he had business interests in town but Julia knew better. Ezra stayed because he was part of the fellowship.

The six men he rode with were more than comrades in arms; even she could see that. It was an unspoken understanding between all of the women in their lives, Mary, Alex and even Inez though the barmaid would loathed to admit it that the bond between the seven was a chain that could not be broken. They survived the things they did because they were together and Julia had this sense, as she believed the other women did that alone; their men would come to harm.

They had married yesterday, much to the surprise of the others and even more so when Ezra had announced his attention to remain in Four Corners. Julia was glad of that because he liked this little town more than he would prefer to admit and for that matter so did she. Before she woke up and found her life resembling nothing of what it had been then day before, Julia had liked her existence in Four Corners. She had enjoyed running her Emporium and playing the part of businesswoman. It had allowed her to discover that she could be more than just a face.

Neither had any idea of what they would do in the long-term future but for the moment, it was universally agreed that they ought to stay where they were. With the premarital contracts signed and Ezra having access to half her fortune with no strings attached, he would never have to worry about her gaining the upper hand with money. Julia had wanted him to love her without the fear of worrying whether his efforts to please her would have any financial implications. And it had given her great relish to send the telegram home informing her relatives that she was indeed married and had no immediate plans to return home. Julia almost wished she could see their faces and knew that they were probably about as pleased as she was. As long as she continued to fulfil her obligations to them, Julia wanted nothing more to do with the Averys. In her mind, she still considered herself to be Julia Pemberton although really her name was now Standish. Still either was a more realistic depiction than which she had been when she was living as Julia Avery.

Outside, it appeared to be late morning and it had been their habit to sleep in unless Chris required something of Ezra in their duties as the town lawmen. The gunslinger cared little for Ezra's change in fortune and treated her new husband as always, like one of his men. Still, even Julia could not deny that Chris Larabee's presence would always make him the leader, even if everyone around him were a billionaire.

She was hungry and shifted slightly to see if there were any scraps left from the dinner they shared last night on the table not far from the bed. Ezra was sleeping soundless and Julia saw no reason to wake him as she gently climbed out of bed and reached for the robe draped over the bedpost. Slipping it on, she went to ring for some room service, having come to the conclusion that she was getting hungry. However before she could proceed to do that, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Ezra was starting to stir and Julia frowned, hating to see him roused from such a fitful sleep and hoped that there was not some new trouble in town that required his presence. As much as she understood his need to be one of Four Corners' defenders, she could not help worrying for his life whenever he went to face such threats. She opened the door expecting to see Chris or one of the others when to her absolute surprise, she found herself faced with neither.

"Roderick." Julia exclaimed.

Roderick Packard stared at her coldly, his eyes travelling up and down the length of her and deducing immediately that she was not alone. "Julia, may I come in?"

"Roderick, what are you doing here?" She asked, throwing a nervous look over her shoulder at Ezra's direction as she stood by the doorway.

"I've come a long way to see you my dear," Roderick pushed his way in with Julia doing little to stop him because she was still so stunned by his sudden appearance. He looked as if he had been travelling and knew instinctively he must have come off the stage since this was one of its scheduled days in Four Corners.

"Roderick please," Julia said doing up all the buttons of her robe as he strode into the room. Everything in his manner indicated that he knew all about her marriage and she guessed he had come to see for himself, what man she had selected over him.

"Let me congratulate you on your marriage." He turned to her after Julia had shut the door. "I am somewhat surprised that you came all this way to do so but when I heard the news, I was simply compelled to bring my salutations in person."

It required no clairvoyance to see that he was furious and Julia stared past him at Ezra who was starting to become aware of some problem, even though to the casual observer he still appeared to be fast asleep. "What do you want Roderick?" Julia asked trying not to show that he was intimidating her. "I'm married now, I am sorry that things did not transpire the way you wished but I am a grown woman free to make my own decisions."

"You are nothing but a wanton tramp and you should have been grateful that you were privileged enough for me to consider making you my bride!" He lashed out viciously, his fist doing the talking as he swatted her aside like she was a badly behaved child.

Julia felt her cheek flare as she felt to the floor, furious that he had struck her and was prepared to kill him for that insult. However when she looked up, she saw that she had need not have bothered.

Ezra was standing next to Roderick, holding his derringer against the back of the man's head, while his other hand held onto the sheet that was hiding his naked form. "I have not had the pleasure Sir," Ezra said with an even colder voice than Roderick had managed. "Although I would prefer an apology made to my wife first before formal introductions are made."

"Your wife?" Roderick snorted. "I know all about you Mr. Standish, I know that your mother is a swindler and that you are nothing more than a con man, so let's not pretend this marriage is anything more than a sham. Besides, your wife is the biggest trollop in Philadelphia. I have reports from a dozen of her lovers who will happily verify that she is nothing less than a wanton!"

"And still she rejected you." Ezra said hardly fazed by the man's vicious revelations. "I was perfectly aware that Julia was hardly virginal and I might add that had you sampled the goods, you would not be so particular about where she acquired the skill. In any case, we are married so if you would kindly depart quietly, I will resist the urge to shoot you dead for laying your hands on my wife."

"Fine," Roderick hissed, unprepared by to argue with the gun barrel that was pressed against his skull. "Have her then," he glared at Julia as he started walking towards the door. "You both deserved each other."

"I assume then you will not be needing the name of our bridal registry?" Ezra quipped as Roderick strode past Julia and reached the door. The former suitor reacted with a stormy glare before he departed the room, slamming the door shut behind him. As soon as he was gone, Ezra lowered the gun and turned to Julia, his hand outstretched to help her up.

"Are you all right?" He asked gently.

"I'm fine." Julia grumbled, flinching when she touched the corner of her lips where Roderick had struck her. "I'm sorry about that, I had no idea he was that persistent."

"I am sure we can deal with him if he chooses to slither back for a second round." Ezra said confidently. "Although he may decide such a scandalous wanton may no longer be worth of his time now that she has attached herself to a con man."

Julia frowned as she wrapped her arms around him and brought her lips to his.

"Pity," she sighed. "He has no idea what he's missing."

********

Buck Wilmington saw Mary Larabee before him and knew that he was in trouble. The wife of his oldest friend stared at him with those incredible eyes of hers, the ones that were capable of reducing anyone to a slobbering mess, Chris included, and wanting only one thing from him he was certain. Buck had no idea what to do and wondered how he could escape with his hide intact. Deciding that under no circumstances was he even going to remotely fall into the same situation as he had with Julia or Alex, Buck was going to going to nip this in the bud right now.

"Listen Mary, I know that you think I'm irresistible and you ain't wrong, it's because of my animal magnetism but this ain't right and you know it. You love Chris, hell you've married Chris and he is my oldest friend, I ain't never going to betray that."

Mary Travis Larabee said nothing for a few seconds as she stared at him following his earnest statement. She nodded as if absorbing his words and Buck hoped he had not hurt her feelings too much. Women like men had their pride and rejection was not any easier for them to endure.

He never finished the thought because Mary struck him across the jaw.

Buck fell backwards into the opposite wall looking at her with astonishment at her novel approach to seduction. "Mary. .?"

"How dare you Mr. Wilmington assume that I was here for it!" She could not even bring herself to say it as she sputtered in fury. "I assure you that you are the last man in this town, no, on this planet that I would even presume to having a dalliance with! I came here to see what the hell was going on, there are women running around town screaming your name as if you were the Second Coming!"

Buck swore under his breath at his mistaken and supposed he was grateful that she was not effected yet, although Alex had been completely composed initially before she too had succumbed to his overpowering allure. "It's my animal magnetism," he tried to explain as he rubbed his throbbing jaw. The woman had a great right hook. "It's driving the women in this town crazy. You have no idea what I've been through the last few hours."

Somehow Mary did not believe him. "Really?" She stared at him with arms folded in contemptuous disbelief. "Somehow I find that extremely difficult to believe."

"Buck, what the hell is going on?" Vin suddenly appeared as he and Ezra coming walking up the staircase toward them. Buck was almost grateful to see the tracker since Vin would be in a position to keep Mary back when this craziness started to effect her too. "I just came from Alex's and she said that it was all over between us because she wants to run off with you!"

"What?" Buck exclaimed horrified, staring at his friend with dismay. "Vin, I swear to you something is happening to the women in this town!" He looked frantically at Mary. "Ask her!"

"Its true," Mary was forced to concede on this point as she met the tracker's gaze ."I've been coming across women all day who have been doing nothing but saying that Buck Wilmington was the man for them."

"Am I to understand that you are completely innocent of all these unwanted affections?" Ezra asked, with almost as much scepticism that Mary had displayed earlier.

"It's my animal magnetism!" Buck shouted exasperated, feeling like a man drowning. "Before she went nuts and try to tear my clothes of me, Alex told me it was something to do with pheromones."

"Tear...your...clothes...off...you?" Vin glared at him dangerously.

"Take it easy Mr. Tanner," Ezra put a restraining arm on the tracker ."Let's hear the man out. As much success that Mr. Wilmington has with the ladies, there is no way that he could turn Alexandra's head unless reality as we know it has gone completely insane. We both know the lady in question, she has always behaved in the most proper. ..Julia?"

Julia Pemberton picked that exact moment to emerge from Buck's room, adjusting clothes as if she had been only a moment in a state of undress. The gambler's words died in his throat as Julia came in their direction with Buck groaning in frustration at the woman's impeccable timing.

"You were saying Ezra?" Vin turned to Ezra with an almost smug smile on his face.

"Start explaining, Buck." Ezra replied calmly. "And perhaps, we may not have to do to you what we do to geldings."

********

It was starting to rain and Josiah Sanchez inched further beneath his wagon to take refuge from the teeming rain. Across the landscape, he had could see the traces of civilization in the flares of lights through the window of the occasional farmhouse. He had seen much of Kentucky during his travels up north and like all places, it had its own charm even if the stink of slavery was more than Josiah had been able to tolerate. He had found it difficult to stomach the sight of the plantations and their main crop, which was not cotton at all but rather a more human stock. This cross country journey from California to the east was more than he had bargained for and Josiah looked forward to getting out of the southern states.

The fire was battling to stay alive under the light rain that was sprinkling across the land and the cold in the air made Josiah hope that it would win the day, since he did not relish the chill of wet clothes during the rest of the night. He had yet to make his mind up about what he wanted to do now that he had walked away forever from the constraints of having a parish. He knew he wanted to conduct the Lord's work but he had no idea what shape that service would take. He just knew he could no longer sit by and watch other people stand up for what was right where doing the same would violate the vows he had taken. A choice had to be made and he had done so but Josiah was still uncertain whether or not it was the correct decision.

"I could use some help with an answer Lord," he looked up into the cloudless sky, trying to see past the cumulus into the stars he was certain were a conduit to the almighty. "I have never been good drifting on my own and I need some kind of sign that I'm not making a mistake."

Unfortunately, only silence followed his divine entreaty.

"I guess that means you expect me to handle this myself." He frowned, disliking that notion considerably.

"Josiah, he never answers you the way you expect him too." A voice broke through the hiss of rain.

Josiah swung around and saw a boy, no more than seventeen years old, staring at him with familiarity, even though the wet on his face was not just from the rain. In his arms, he was carrying a girl and the manner in which her arms dangled as he held her, immediately told Josiah that her state of health was not exactly the best.

"Please Josiah," the boy pleaded as he took a step forward into the campsite. "I need help. She's hurt, my Becky's hurt."

The sorrow in that youthful voice was enough to pull Josiah from his warm and comfortable position and send him hurrying to the young man. He did not need to ask if they were runaway slaves for in the south that was all a black man could be if he was not in the presence of a white man. Josiah did not know how the boy knew his name but he had asked God for a sign and this was as good as any. The young man dropped to his knees in front of the warm glow of the fire and as he laid her down on the ground, could Josiah see the terrible dark stain on her side. The wound had been bandaged with some amount of skill but not enough.

"I tried doing what I can for her," Nathan stammered, trying to keep the tears from coming but knowing from experience that he could do nothing more for. "But she's lost too much blood."

He had tried desperately to tend the injury she had received but with their being on the run from the master, there was no hope of getting the kind of supplies he would need to help her. Rebecca for her part had tried to say focused but Nathan could see it was a battle she could not win. With each passing day, she grew weaker and the gaps where she needed to rest began more extended.

"You did the best you could son," Josiah placed a comforting hand on the youth's shoulder, trying to ease the pain of his sorrow even though he knew that nothing he said could change what would soon happen. "It's in the Lord's hands."

"The Lord can go to hell!" Nathan swore with uncharacteristic fury because the unfairness of it all was beyond his ability to stomach. How could he be sent back in time to this place and still fail to save his sister? "Where was the Lord when we were in the plantation? Where was the Lord when they were working us to death?"

Josiah could not answer, nor was he going to patronize the boy with platitudes about God's will and how there was some grand design that they were not privy to. He had seen the plantations himself and even Josiah wanted to know what possible good could there be in placing an entire race under the yoke of nearly barbaric servitude. "I can't rightly tell you son," Josiah said honestly. "I can only tell you that you did your best and sometimes that ain't enough."

Nathan brushed his cheek against Rebecca's cold skin and knew that although she still breathed, the sands of her life were running out fast. She reacted to the warmth of his skin and she looked up at him, her eyes cloudy and not quite able to focus. "Did we make it Nathan? Did we find Josiah?" She asked, her lips barely moving as her voice escaped her.

"Yes," he swallowed, trying to sound brave but not quite managing it as the tears came harder. "We found him. He's here and he's going to get us north."

"We're free then," she almost smiled, her eyes lighting up just for an instant. "I told you we would be." She closed her eyes as if the effort was too much for her.

"You did," Nathan nodded, unable to prevent the sob that escaped him. "You were always right about that."

"Of course," she said finally, her voice starting to drift. "I'm smarter than you."

She disappeared before him at that moment, slipping into the shadows of life as the spark inside of her breathed its last and her hand went limp in his. Nathan closed his eyes, knowing the precise moment when the light of her existence was finally extinguished, almost as if he could feel a part of himself go with her.

He knew that he should not feel the grief he did because he had lost her before but this time it felt worse somehow because life had been within reach and still it had been taken away at the last moment. Maybe this was a lesson about the immutability of Fate and some other cosmic factors he could not even begin to fathom. All Nathan Jackson knew at this moment was the one question he had wanted answered all his life was finally delivered to him and he now wished to God that it had not.

Some things were better left unknown.

********

"Court me?" Inez stared at him in perfect astonishment.

Of all the things he could have said to her, that was the one statement that could leave her perfectly tongue tied without a word in response. It was only today that she had managed to see Raphael as something more than Don Paulo's hired gun, she had no idea that he had seen her as much more than just another servant in the Don's enormous mansion. While apart of her was flattered that such a man would take interest in her and knew immediately that her sister Calla would be fuming with jealously since Calla like the rest of the village deemed Raphael as quite the catch, the rest of her was just flabbergasted.

"Is that so strange?" He asked, uncertain of how he should take her surprised reply.

"Yes," she found herself admitting. "We've hardly spoken two words to each other in all the time that we've lived in this village."

Raphael could not disagree and had to admit that was partly his fault. He did not have the kind of manner that was approachable even though he had been aware of Inez for quite some time now. Fear had kept him away because the depth of his feelings for her was no passing affection but a something that could grow into a deep abiding love that could be paralyzing. "By courting you, we will change that." He countered.

"Raphael," Inez struggled to put across what she felt. He was a good and honourable man and she ought to be a fool for refusing him but she was not the person he imagined her to be. Through some quirk of fate, the last two years of her life had been erased but not the memories of the people she had met and the relationships that had been formed. Buck Wilmington was an irresponsible, half witted child with no more sense than a jack rabbit on heat and God help her for saying this, Inez loved him. She did not know why she loved him and rather hated that she did but it as the unfortunate truth.

"Raphael, I don't know how I feel." Inez finally managed to say; hoping that sounded even partially sincere. She knew that it was no easy thing for him to reach out like this. This was not a man who was accustomed to exposing his feelings and she truly did not want to hurt him by an outright refusal, even though in the long run she would have to make that rejection eventually.

"I ask for only the chance to allow you to learn who I am. I am in no rush and we appear to have the time." He said earnestly.

If only he knew! Inez had every intention of leaving the village in the next day or so in order to return to Four Corners, there would be no time for her to gain the familiarity with him he would like. In truth, Inez had no wish to lead him on when she knew in her heart she could never feel anything for him, yet Inez had no idea how to tell him this. She had meant to depart in secret, not even letting her mother Paloma know her intentions. No doubt, her mother and Calla combined would have a dozen reasons why she ought to stay and Inez had no way of telling them the truth at the reasons why she could not.

"I suppose." Inez smiled faintly angered that she could have allowed herself to stumble into this situation. "Allow me to think about this." She said finally, not knowing what other answer would suffice at the moment and hope he understood when she disappeared from the village the next day.

After this, she had no choice but to leave.

********

The room reeked of musty herbs and old books.

In the darkened recess of what passed for Morag Bellingham's cellar, Josiah found himself surrounded by volumes of book so old, written in languages that were ancient even when Latin was first scribed by the Romans. He examined their leather bound spines with fascination wondering what secret knowledge was contained in its pages of parchment and paper and whether or not the answer to his dilemma was similarly locked within them. As his eyes scoured over the ancient texts, attempting to decipher the origins of the strange writings before him, Josiah found that most of them were beyond his understanding. Even Audrey, who confessed to being somewhat scholarly, could make little head or tale of what was before her.

Meanwhile Morag was conducting examinations of her own, studying the book that had been the cause of so much discourse. From Josiah's description, she was able to discern what had happened to him and in that sense, had some clue to seeking out the particular enchantment that had turned his existence upside down.

Although Josiah was somewhat skeptical about just what the old woman was able to do, he could not deny that he was experiencing some extraordinary things which only lend proof to the fact that not everything in the world was as explainable as he might like to believe. The very fact that he was here proved that somehow, the world of mists as she called it did exist. It had existed enough to shape his entire existence into something it was not.

"I have always tried to be a nurturing educator to Lily," Audrey grimaced as they waited for Morag to give them some news. "I never wanted to say no to her about what she wanted to learn. When she found the book, I thought it was just a collection of old wives tales, how much harm could she do?"

"Well most of the time, it would be harmless." Josiah said trying to sympathize with her. "You just had the bad luck to let her get her hands on the genuine product."

"Now I'm raising a witch." Audrey groaned, proving that Josiah's words of comfort were having very little effect upon her. "A hundred and fifty years ago, she would have been burned at the stake and me with her for allowing to practice. Frank was so much better at putting his foot down with her." She said starting to become more disconsolate. "Now he's gone and I'm letting her run wild! How can I teach a school full of children if I can't even be responsible for my own daughter?"

Josiah was about to say something to make her feel better because he could see just how upset she was about Lilith's activities when suddenly, Morag spoke up.

"Here it is." The woman exclaimed. She had been at her old walnut desk, studying the book closely, trying to sift through all the invocations, incantations and spells that were contained in its yellowed pages trying to find the one used by Lilith. "It's called the Spell of Desire."

"The spell of desire?" Josiah and Audrey left the small library and joined her at the table.

"Yes, it is meant to grant a person their fondest wish." Morag explained. "It can grant any wish the heart desires like physical objects, the return of loved ones, even the shape our lives takes. It is a spell of great complexity, usually cast as a gift of love."

"That would make sense," Josiah had to agree even if it all seemed a little surreal. "Billy thought he was doing something good for all of us."

"He's a child," Audrey agreed. "Children probably think our wishes are like theirs, simple and straightforward. Adult wishes and dreams are more complex because of all the experiences of age."

"He thought he was doing the right thing," Josiah sighed. "Except he did the exact opposite." The preacher let out a deep breath, not feeling better even though he now knew the how and why of the matter.

"So what can we do to change it?" Josiah looked at Morag, praying she had answer.

The old woman leaned back into her chair and took a deep breath, considering the question before her. "As I told you before, I can only open the door but you must walk through it. You are enchanted Josiah Sanchez, it reeks off you like the smell of death. I can use that to find the place where you began but you must go through and find Lilith. She invoked the spell, only she is able to unbind it. To cast the original enchantment, she required objects of yours and your friends. The objects must be sanctified and the casting upon them removed. Only then, will what you knew as real will return to what is."

"I'll do what I have to," he said without hesitation. "I don't have any other choice."

Upon agreeing to undertake the quest set before him, Morag wasted no time in beginning her preparations. Although she said nothing to prove otherwise, Josiah could sense the fear in Audrey. He could not blame her really for he felt the same chill himself over all the talk of spells and enchantment. As someone who believed in God and everything else that went with it, what Morag practiced was nothing less than paganism but there was nothing in the Bible that could explain what had happened to him and Josiah knew he was not mad. His world had changed and he was certain that God had no part in this.

When Morag was finally ready, she beckoned the duo to step into the circle that was painted into the floor. Josiah and Audrey stepped within the painted boundaries as Morag began a highly elaborate ritual where she chanted and spoke ancient words with odd looking object that Josiah did not recognize but could not deny the atmosphere of enchantment they brought to the occasion. Thick, long candles that gave off a sweet scent as they burned in the darkness illuminated the room. Josiah tried to place the aroma but could not describe it; aware only that it filtered through his nostrils and made him breathed it in deeper. There was almost an intoxicating flavor to it and when Josiah breathed it in a few more times; he started to feel a little lightheaded.

He turned to Audrey, wondering if that overpowering scent had effected her and notice there was a thin layer of mist on the floor. It resembled the fog in his mind as Morag chanted her strange words, her gnarled hands holding his as she spoke and Josiah wondered what she was saying but the question had difficulty leaving his mouth. Eventually, he forgot it all together as the mist grew thicker underfoot and the chanting more feverish.

"Josiah," Audrey whispered. "What's happening?"

Josiah wanted to answer but he could not. His eyes were playing tricks on him he was sure because the room was starting to spin. His head throbbed with a mild headache as the walls began to move around him, slowly at first for he was able to count the number of times Morag past by him. However, it soon increased speed the louder the words she was speaking became in his ears. As the room spun with such intensity that everything was soon a blur of colour and sound, he found he could not tell where he began and where the room ended. Even Morag's words began to fade until suddenly, he saw something flash with almost white light.

In the few seconds of intense brightness, it seemed to Josiah for a brief moment, that the walls had suddenly disappeared. When the flash appeared again, the preacher was certain he caught sight of a flash of colour that might have been sky. Josiah blinked but the spinning was making him increasingly disorientated and he knew not what he was seeing was merely an illusion or some hallucination caused by the sickly sweet smell of the candles.

The interval between flashes became more and more frequent, until finally the walls dissolved altogether and Josiah found that he was able to recognize where he was. Once that realization was made, once he knew where he was meant to be, the spinning began to slow and the haze over his mind lifted, with clarity returning to him with only a slight headache left in its wake. Josiah dropped to his knees, feeling not wooden floorboards when he felt but the grainy substance of gravel under him. It took a few seconds for him to take regain his equilibrium but Audrey's voice bursting into his consciousness tore him back form the cloud of uncertainty with much more speed.

"Josiah!" She cried out and immediately forced him to look for her.

She was standing exactly the gap of space, as she had been when they had embarked upon this ritual, except they were no longer within Morag Bellingham's cellar. Josiah looked around at his surroundings and knew exactly where he was.

"Where are we?" Audrey asked, unafraid to show her fear. She was looking about her with a mixture of fright and fascination, Josiah could not tell which had more supremacy.

"Four Corners." Josiah said as he found himself standing in front of the boarded up shop front that should have belong to the Clarion News. Lengths of wood covered the door to the building and the neatly painted sign on the glass was worn and chipping. Even the glass itself was covered in dirt, giving all the indications that the Clarion News had not been in business for some time.

The town itself was nothing like what Josiah remembered. It was not the prosperous little town that was booming with the eminent arrival of the railroad, far from it in fact. Tumbleweeds were being pursued by dusty winds across the quiet streets. People were about but their manner seemed to be cautious and weary. This scene was familiar and as Josiah stared walking up the street, he could not shake this feeling of deja vu.

"I moved to a town like this?" Audrey asked unimpressed as she saw the grim atmosphere that was as prevailing as the dust storms tearing through the main street.

"It did not look like this." Josiah retorted. "That there," he pointed to the Clarion News. "Was open the last time I remembered. I haven't seen this place so dead since. ."

And then it came to him.

Audrey saw the answer in his face and quickly demanded. "Since?"

"Since before Chris got here." Josiah mused.

"Chris?" Audrey did not recognize the name. Why should she? Where she had been, she had never come to Four Corners and thus she would have no reason to know the name Chris Larabee.

"When Billy gave everyone his wish," Josiah continued speaking as if hearing himself say it would make it any easier to understand. "He changed how things were here. Chris Larabee lost his wife and child, he would have wanted to have them back. If he had them back, then his gunslinging days would be behind him and there would be no reason to come to Four Corners and he wouldn't have met Vin and the rest of us."

"One man changed this entire town?" She looked at this community that resembled a ghost time.

"He was the right man," Josiah met her gaze. "He pulled us together, I don't know why. Some men have that power over others and Chris Larabee was like that. In this case I don't think its just him. One event can unravel everything. If I know my tracker, then Vin would have wanted that price off his head. He would have gone after Eli Joe and got him, not the body that Eli Joe tricked him with but the real man. There would be no price on his head, no reason to be looking for work in Four Corners, no reason to meet Chris. Nathan would have died because neither Chris and Vin were here to stop them from lynching him. J.D. would have had no reason to get off the stage and is probably alive somewhere else, same with Buck. Ezra would have kept going once he had cleaned out everyone in town. It all changes once the key players are out of the picture, do you see?"

Audrey understood but it was still very confusing.

"So how do we fix it then?" Audrey asked instead. "Where is my daughter in all this?"

A very good question, Josiah decided and tried to remember which house that Audrey King would reside in once she arrived in Four Corners. There were probably flaws in his reasoning that someone with better sense than he could poke a stick at but at the moment, he understood that when Billy had granted them their wishes, he had removed all of them from this reality and supplanted them in another. Everything they had ever done in this existence was gone. He had a feeling that at the centre of this vortex was Lily, who knew that she was responsible even if she had no idea what she had done by granting a friend a simple request.

"I think you bought that old Wainwright place." Josiah remarked as he started walking up the street to the house that would in his reality be occupied by Audrey and her daughter. Moving through Four Corners, sent a shiver up his spine because the place looked positively eerie. He had no idea how much their lives had impacted the town and what would have happened if they had never banded together to save the Seminole village. This did not at all look like the home he remembered but resembled one of those places where people were just waiting for things to die out before they could move out.

It did not take long to reach the house and to Josiah's relief it was not boarded up. It had all the signs of being lived in but had that some grim luster about it that was ailing the rest of the town. He glanced at Audrey and remarked. "This is it." He stated.

"Well," Audrey looked it over and found that it was not so impossible that she would chose this quaint little home with its picket fence and small garden as a place to raise her daughter, particularly if the town was in better shape than it presently appeared to be. "Its not so bad."

"Mary said you fixed it up real nice." Josiah commented as he went to the door, uncertain of what he would find when he knocked.

"Mary?" Audrey asked confused.

"Never mind," Josiah replied, deciding that such explanations could wait or might be redundant if Lily could fix what she had done to them all. Knocking on the door, he waited impatiently for an answer, hoping this was not a wild goose chase. Morag had been certain that Lily was here and if she was, could be the only once who change everything. No one answered the door but Josiah saw the slight part of curtains that almost went unnoticed had he not let his gaze wander.

Suddenly, the door swung open and a young girl stepped forward and ran straight into Audrey's arms.

"Momma, you're alive!" She gushed happily as she hugged Audrey. "I thought those men killed you!"

Audrey looked at Josiah helplessly, unaware of what the child was talking about but was certain that this little blond waif who looked so much like Frank was undoubtedly her daughter. Audrey knelt down to face the child whose face was covered in dirt, like she had not washed for awhile and whose tears were clearly visible against her skin. "Lily, baby, what's happened to you?"

"You were dead Momma," she sobbed. "It was all my fault. You brought us here and I made Billy and everybody disappear! When those bad men came, there was no one to stop them and they killed you!"

"Lily, listen to me." Audrey said taking a firm hand of her daughter, absolutely convinced now that everything that had been said about her child was now correct. This was the proof she could not deny, the evidence that was irrefutable. "Josiah is here, look. You didn't make him go away."

Lily wiped her tears and looked around at Josiah with wide eyes. "You came back. When I made all the others disappear, no one remembered but me. They said Billy and his Momma had gone a long time ago before we came here and all of Billy's friends, Miss Pemberton too, they never came here at all."

It fit with what Josiah had already deduced. "I know Lilith," he met the girl's gaze, trying not to be unkind even though she had caused more grief than any child her age had business doing. "But you can bring them all back, including Billy."

"How?" She asked, looking at her mother as if Audrey's say so alone would make it more true than anything Josiah could say.

"You took things from us to make the spell work didn't you?" He inquired."Yes," Lilith nodded tearfully. "Billy collected them so I could do the spell. All I wanted to do was make him happy. He wanted to get something really nice for everyone for Christmas and I told him I could help him get the best gift for Miss Pemberton."

Well that would be enough to convince Billy, Josiah sighed, perfectly aware of the young boy's feelings for Julia. What would have seemed like a harmless bit of magic what become something powerful and dark, he hoped that there was enough strength left in Lilith to return things to normal. "Do you still have them?"

"They're in my room," she said taking hold of Audrey's hand as she entered the house once again. Audrey felt her heart constrict in her chest as she entered the home and saw that it was immaculate inside, almost as if Lilith had tried to keep going for as long as she could without her mother. Knowing what her daughter endured made her cast a teary glance at Josiah who saw the same things when he followed them in.

The personal items that had allowed Lilith to cast her spell were kept in a small wooden box at the foot of the child's bed. As she opened up the chest and presented the cache to Josiah and Audrey, he sighted one of the books that he had lent Billy Travis, along with other objects that were familiar only because he knew them to belong to the rest of the seven.

"Lilith," Josiah said to the girl, knowing that she had been through an ordeal herself with the shift in reality because of what she had unknowingly done. "I know you were trying to help and no blames you for anything but you have to set things right again. What's happened not just to me but to Billy and the others has to be put right again. You're the only one who can do it."

"I'm scared." She whispered, casting a fearful glance at Audrey as she spoke. Fresh tears were running down her cheeks and Josiah honestly believed that her spell casting days would soon be left behind her following this experience.

"I know you are baby," Audrey took her daughter's hand and squeezed it with encouragement. "But you have to do this. You're our only hope."

"What if I make you and Josiah disappear again?" She cried out. "I don't want to be alone again."

"That won't happen," Josiah said trying to sound confident as possible, even though he was lying. He had no idea what would happen when Lilith attempted to undo the spell of desire. All he knew for certain was that it had to be tried because the consequences could not be any worse than what they already were. "You can do it Lilith, I believe you can and your mother believe it too."

"That's right, Lily," Audrey added her voice with Josiah's in support. "You're my special girl and you can do anything you set your mind too baby. You prove that by what you've already done."

Lilith looked at her mother, her lips quivering as she contemplated what her mother had said. Josiah could see Audrey having more effect on her daughter than anything he had said and knew that if the girl could be swayed into cooperating, she would do so only for her mother.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Lilith answered. "Okay," she swallowed. "I'll do it again."

This time, there was no need to step into the circle.

On the floor of her bedroom, Josiah saw Lilith placing the belongings of his friends into the centre of the outline traced in a powder that smelled like brimstone but knew to be sulfur. He marveled at how intricately she had observed the ritual and had to admit that even if it was a pagan rite she was indulging in, she approached it with a maturity that was far beyond her years. Even Audrey was somewhat surprised by the manner in which her ten year old carried out the requirements of the spell she was about to cast.

"What will happen if it works?" Audrey asked Lilith.

"I don't know," she said in a small voice, still overwhelmed by what she had wrought. Josiah was quite certain that Lilith's concept of magic and full blown sorcery were worlds apart. She had believed that she was conjuring little tricks, not shape shifting events to suit her desire. Like the discovery of all things new, she had underestimated it as so many had done in the ages before her. "I think everyone will just come back."

Josiah hoped it was that simple.

"I'm ready." Lilith announced quietly and both Josiah and Audrey fell very still as she stepped into the circle and sprinkled salt from container she had brought from the kitchen over all the personal effects she had used in the original spell.

"What's the salt for?" Josiah had to ask.

"Magic doesn't like salt." She answered meekly. "You have to be quiet now." She instructed. "I have to say the words."

Josiah did as he was told and went very quiet as Lilith closed her eyes and began her chant. The language she spoke was nothing that either Josiah or Audrey recognized. There were aspects of it that sounded like Latin but she recited it with inflections that did not seem common to that ancient language. Her soft child's voice was almost melodious to hear as she continued speaking the words from a race Josiah was certain was now extinct. She was no longer looking at the book opened in her hand and Josiah realized she was reciting the words from memory.

Suddenly the window shutters slammed shut as did all the doors. What light was shining through the glass was immediately shut out and the whole house became dark with shadows. Josiah did not jump but the sound had startled him as surely as it startled Audrey. Lilith was oblivious to it, she continued reading into the darkness, until the sound of her voice drowned out the noises of everything else. The girl's blond hair was swaying in the air, as if a gust of wind had come in from some unseen opening and was blowing its breeze at her alone. The words grew louder still, until they bounced off the walls and fell like something tangible as they coiled around Josiah and Audrey in the room. There was no light in the room, no candle to taunt them with aromatic smells, just the silhouette of Lilith in the black, like her namesake in the Old Testament.

Lilith, wife of Adam who was cast out of Eden for having a mind of her own and went out into the world to create a race of monsters. What would this child do when she was finally went out into the world? Josiah shuddered to think. Through the cracks of the shutters, what little light sneaked into the darkness of the house suddenly disappeared and the warm sunshine out of the day outside soon evaporated into the chillness of night. Josiah had not seen the sun disappear behind the horizon but with a sixth sense he knew not he possessed, he was certain that it was no longer day light outside. Lilith's words continued, reaching a crescendo of power in a voice that was not hers and belonged to something beyond their understanding. Even Audrey could see that her daughter was no longer speaking and something else that worked its will through her body was inside the room with them.

The doors and window shutters started rattling, shaking the house with their clattering sound as the forces that was capable of shaping reality like a sculptors clay worked its magic in the walls and beams of the house. Audrey was holding Josiah's hand, terrified by what was happening and resisting the urge to run to her daughter and spiriting her away from this madness. With the same abrupt action, the doors and shutters burst open and the clear beams of moonlight poured into the house as the final words were spoken and the unbinding began.

The gust of wind that had been circling Lilith swept across the entire room, blowing away anything that was not held down. Dolls, hair brushes, sheets, pillows and even small pieces of furniture became airborne as the vortex whirled around them. Josiah and Audrey dropped to their feet, grabbing hold of the child's bed for it seemed the only thing that was too heavy to be borne away. In the eye of the storm, Lilith remained unaffected by the calamity taking place around her.

"What's happening?" Audrey shouted over the roar of the gale.

"I don't know!" Josiah replied and it was the truth. He was as much out of his depth as she was. Only Lilith seemed unfazed by what was happening and Josiah had a feeling that interrupting her at this point would be a mistake.

His gaze shifted to the personal effects in front of Lilith and observed that something was happening there as well. Every tiny grain of salt that the child had scattered upon it earlier had become illuminated like embers of red flame. The effect of the shimmering layer of colour was almost beautiful and Lilith's chant had become fever pitch the brighter the sparkle, until its amber light was radiating against the child's skin. The glow expanded outwards, sending tendrils of crimson and amber to penetrate the vortex that was creating the chaos around them until it could expand no more.

In that final instant when vortex and radiating energy had finally merged, Josiah shielded his eyes as the conflagration that exploded outward from that union, spewed a wave of fire that drove all thought from his mind and plunged him into the cool depths of complete darkness.

********

Chris Larabee woke up in a cold sweat.

It took him a few seconds to realize where he was as Chris searched the surroundings he was in and realized that he was where he should have been all along, in bed with his wife. Beside him, Mary was sleeping fitfully, a soft smile across her lips as the last remnants of the dream where love had been lost and found dissolved in her mind. She did not stir and Chris saw no reason to wake her. For a few seconds, he took in the breathtaking sight of her, trying to stop the trembling in his entire body while fighting the need to throw up.

Eventually, he settled for climbing out of bed and going to the open window. The room felt suffocatingly hot, almost as if he were trapped in a furnace.

Or a fire.

God, Sarah. He almost wept, as the nightmare still remained fresh in his mind where Chris had revisited what had to be the most vivid memory of Sarah's death he ever had the misfortune of experiencing. He could almost feel the smoke in his lungs, the heat against his skin and the echoes of her screams lingered in his mind like a headache that would not disappear. However, none of it was as bad as remembering what he had done after. He stared at his hands, almost expecting to see blood on his fingers and knew that the dream had allowed him to see something ugly and vile that existed deep within him and how fortunate it was that he had never despaired enough to unleash it. For one brief moment, where steeped in reality or fantasy, Chris Larabee had been given a glimpse of the creature that lived within. If it had not been for Buck and Mary, he could not even imagine what he might have become.

"Chris," he heard Mary's soft voice in the dark. "Are you alright?"

Chris swallowed and answered in a hoarse whisper. "I'm fine." He said quietly. "Did I wake you?"

"No," she shook her head, able to see through the darkness. "I had a strange dream."

He could understand that. "Me too," he answered coming back to bed. "Anything you want to tell me about?" He asked, even though he knew he would not be able to talk about what he had dreamed, not to anyone.

"Just about you and Steven, that day you first came into Four Corners," Mary replied, a bittersweet smile crossing her face at how she had found Steven, only to lose him again and how Chris had been her salvation, in any reality. "What about you?" She inquired. "Why are you up?"

"Had a dream." He said abruptly as he slipped into the covers with her.

"Want to talk about it?" Mary looked at him, knowing that his nightmares were never pleasant.

"Nope," Chris shook his head as he nestled next to her. "Nothing to talk about. I don't remember what it was about anyway."

********

Cold.

Vin Tanner woke up thinking he felt cold. He opened his eyes and felt a shiver run down his spine because for a moment while he was lost in the dreamscape, he dreamed that he was dead. He remembered vague images of Eli Joe, of walking away from Jess Kincaid but the rest of it was obscure and then was only one moment of clarity, which sliced away all other recollections. The sound of a gunshot and the overwhelming iciness he felt in his bones he knew was not a result of the winter outside.

The only warmth he could feel was Alex's arm draped over his chest. He tried to move her arm away gently as he sat up but she was already starting to awake and Vin felt slightly dismayed that he had awakened her. For a moment, he felt like he was still asleep as his eyes moved across the room and he realized that he was in Alex's room in her house, exactly where he was suppose to be. Not somewhere out there, chasing ghosts with the grand notions of what might be, instead of what was ahead.

"You okay cowboy?" He heard Alex asked once awareness had seeped into her waking mind.

"Yeah," Vin answered, rubbing his arm with his palm, trying to generate heat with the friction. Damn, why did he feel so cold? "Cold just woke me up, that's all." He explained, hoping it did not sound as weak an excuse as it felt.

"Lie back down," she urged, tugging his arm gently back into the warmth of their bed. "I'll warm you up."

Vin found himself smiling at the suggestive tone of her voice and slipped back into her arms. "What you got in mind Doc?" He whispered as he pressed his body against hers.

"Whatever you like," she answered holding him close and grateful that he was in her life.

"That sounds good to me." He had to admit.

"You know something Vin," she said suddenly. "I think my father would have liked you."

"I don't know why," Vin responded. "I ain't nothing but a drifter."

Alex felt a wave of emotion overcome her then as she whispered quietly, "So was daddy."

********

Julia woke up to the sound of someone opening her bedroom door.

It was not as if it was bad enough that waking up had told Julia that the events she had just experienced were nothing more than a rather extended vision in the dreamscape but now there appeared to be a prowler roaming around her house. Staggering out of bed, she slipped on a robe since it would be unwise to greet the man in her present state of undress and grabbed a bronzed ornament that sat on her bedside.

Edging stealthily to the door, she heard the footsteps coming to her bedroom and raised the ornament to the proper position to attack when her intruder. She saw his shadow cross the doorway and raised her arm to bring down the object when the figure passing through the doorway, suddenly announced himself.

"Julia."

"Ezra!" Julia exclaimed. "What are you doing here this time of night?"

"What are you doing behind the door with that?" He asked once she had emerged from her hiding place and they stared at each other.

"I almost took your head off!" She said letting out a sigh of relief that he had made some sound before she had brained him.

"You did give me a key." Ezra retorted with exasperation, holding it up for her to see.

"You don't normally come sneaking in here like this." She countered. "I thought you were a burglar."

"Well I had this strange urge to see you." Ezra said sarcastically. After waking up from the dream he had just experienced, the gambler felt the insatiable need to see the love of his life and ensure that she was still in the life he remembered, not some parody of it.

Julia put down the ornament and slipped into his embrace. "I'm glad you came. I had this really weird dream." She commented and debated a moment upon whether or not she should tell him about its content. "I dreamt that we were married."

"Is that a hint?" He looked at her with a smug smirk across his handsome features.

Julia rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself."

"You are correct," Ezra agreed with a grin. "What on earth would I want with a wanton like you? I am a con man after all, I could do better."

"In your dreams." She retorted as she parted her lips to kiss him. "In your dreams."

********

The first thing that Buck Wilmington did when he woke up was to check under the covers and make sure he was not gelded.

Then he looked around and discovered that unlike his vivid dreams had made out; he was not defending honour and some rather vital body parts in the hallway of his rooming house but in the bedroom of Judith Winton. The lady was oblivious to his midnight ruminations, which was just as well because he had no wish to explain to her what he had been dreaming of tonight. Unlike most of his dreams, which faded upon waking, this one remained firmly in his mind. Who would have thought that animal magnetism could be such a pain. At least everything was back to normal.

And Inez was not pregnant.

********

Inez woke up in the middle of the night and felt nausea, irritable and unable to keep from throwing up. She endured these things quite happily because for a brief moment, she understood what it was she had almost lost and knew she would not make the mistake of wishing it gone ever again. It would be hard, the next few months, she had no illusions about that, but she had friends who would help her and a man who would probably drive her insane when she told him and after what she had experienced in her dream, she had to tell him. When her stomach finally settled enough for her to resume her slumber, Inez slipped into the sheets with one satisfying thought regarding her peculiar dream.

Thank God, she was still pregnant.

********

J.D. did not go back to sleep again.

He woke up from his nightmare so abruptly that sleep was driven out of his mind when he fell out of his bed. When he realized where he was, the young man was almost driven to tears of happiness, knowing that what he had seen while he was dreaming was just that, a dream, inspired by the discussion he, Josiah and Ezra had shared earlier on that evening. The relief escaped him like the hot gases of a volcano, almost overwhelming in their potency because what he had seen was too terrible to imagine.

The young man spent the rest of his night, scouring through his collection of dime store novels, throwing out the ones having to do with gunslingers, pistoleers or anything that could ever inspire him to desire becoming the best gunfighter in the West. That dream was behind him now, not after he had seen of what necessary to accomplish it. J.D. had been forced to look through a dark mirror and the reflection that stared back at him was one he could not stomach under any circumstances.

Knowing that he could be the best was enough. Being it was another thing entirely.

********

Nathan sobbed quietly inside the darkness of his room, allowing himself to become lost in the sorrow of losing Rebecca again. He had dreamt about her for years after her death, trying to imagine what he could have done to change things, it was possible to change it at all. After tonight, he knew that Fate and God had decided hand in hand that it was Rebecca's time and no matter how Nathan might wish otherwise, he had to accept it.

He always wanted to know if he had been aware of Serfonteine's plans for Rebecca, could he have changed things and give her the chance for life. For years, that question had plagued him following his escape from Avalon. He lay awake at night replaying the day in his head, asking himself how it would have transpired if he had just known what was going to happen. After all those years of wondering, Nathan finally had his answer.

It would not have changed a damn thing.

Rebecca would still be dead and he would still have to go on without her. At least he was luckier than most people. He had friends, the love of a good woman and a future that would allow him to do the things that he loved. Even if she was not here, Nathan had to be content with knowing that Rebecca would have been pleased.

********

He was back.

Josiah stumbled out of the room inside the church that had become his permanent address since he started his restoration work, with a great gasp of pleasure. Still clad in his longjohns, the preacher found himself smiling from ear to ear as stepped into his church and saw it to be the same one he had been pouring his blood and sweat into for the past two years. It did not look pristine or completed but appeared just as it did when he had gone to bed before the insanity of magic and reality bending spells had him in its grip.

He knew what he had experienced was no dream. He knew it as surely as he knew the sun would peak over the horizon some hours for now. Josiah remembered clearly everything that had taken place and knew that Lilith's spell of unbinding had worked, that the young girl had set things right and returned everyone to their rightful places. Did that also apply to Audrey, he wondered?

Audrey was from that fantasy world, would she not disappear with it once it was vanquished back into the mists? Josiah could not answer this question but he supposed going to the widow's house at this hour and pounding on her door to find out would not be the done thing either. If she did not remember what they had experienced together, Josiah did not mind either.

He was home and for right now, that everything else would take care of itself tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED