Strangers By Nature | Red Dead Redemption II |

Chapter Twelve | Friends & Family

NOVEMBER 18th, 1887

"Where'r we goin?" Stephanie asked,  "Are Ma and Pa gonna be alright?" As the child smiled in blissful ignorance Peter ran with her, holding her hand as they sprinted through the woods as fast as possible. Peter wasn't sure why, but everything in his body told him to run from home. Get as far away from people as possible.

"They uh... They're not comin' with us honey," Peter continued on his vague path, stumbling deeper and deeper into the woods. Stumbling over creeks and tree stumps.
"Why not?"
"Ma and pa are mean. They don't like us." Peter finally found an open enough spot to lay out some sleeping bags. Get a fire going. Just for tonight.

"But Papa said he loves me?" Stephanie insisted, Peter all but groaning as he began to lay down her bedroll.
"He does but not in the right way." He said without a second thought,
"What?" She paused,
"Nothin' I'm just talkin' silly." Peter then laid down his bed for the night as the child began her tired of questions.

"Why're we in the woods?" She asked, if there was anything she could do it's ask countless questions without taking a breath.
"We're gonna camp for tonight alright?"
"But why?"
"Because... Oh, you see those berries!" Peter switched her focus to the fruits, she loved to pick blackberries and raspberries. They'd spend days foraging. Anything to get out of the house.

"Can I pick 'em?" She asked excitedly,
"Yeah go get as many as you can!" Stephanie immediately ran off giddily, Peter continued setting up their camp. And after he got a fire going he laid down. Choking up as he curled into a ball. Falling asleep unintentionally with the warmth of the fire behind him, almost like a person holding him.

Peter awoke hours later to the sounds of footsteps stumbling about around him. Without question, he whipped out his revolver and flipped around to possibly shoot some folk.

As he did he came face to face with a few strangers, all of which stared at him with wide eyes as he held a gun to their heads.
"Relax son we ain't gonna hurt ya." The closet man said in that way parents always do. Taking down to him like some simpleton.
"How do I know that?" Peter asked, pulling back the lever.
"Well, I suppose you'll just have to take our word for it." Peter agreed, but he didn't lower his gun. Instead he ever so slightly loosened his grip on it.

"Where's my sister? If you touched her I swear to god I'll kill you." He growled,
"What'd she look like?" A man asked,
"Brown hair. Green eyes. Overalls." Peter furrowed his brow as he looked at them with nothing but pain,
"Oh... I'm so sorry son." Another man mumbled, shaking his head.
"What?" Peter asked, his grip tightening on the gun.

"We... We found her a few hours ago."
"What!? Where is she?!" He shot up, standing with his gun pointed at the men still, his eyes wildly darting around as he began to sweat.
"She was uhm... we did all we could to help her but we couldn't save her." The same man mumbled,
"Get the hell out of my way!" Peter shouted, shoving the strangers away from him as he took off.

"Steph! Stephanie! Answer me!" Peter called out for his sister, looking around the vicinity, hoping to see her with a handful of berries. See that smile on her face.

However he didn't get a response in the slightest, only dead silence as he found more and more people all around doing God knows what. However, a specific group caught his eye.

Peter walked over to the group of men, all of them surrounding something on the forest floor. The boy ran up behind them, shoving them out of the way to find blood. Splattered all across the leaves along with one boot. Stephanie's boot.