Make My World Go Black

Chapter Eight

Sam Chisolm finds himself walking away from the church, walking away from his past now that it was lifted off his shoulders thanks to Miss Emma. She did it. She had killed Bogue. She had gotten to kill him in the church, around the same place where he had previously murdered her husband. The irony was enough to wipe the smug smile off the evil man's face. Chisolm walks with a rifle in his hand, the one Emma used to take her demon's life while noticing a bunch of men and women have come out of hiding from the crossfire. The aftermath is dead quiet, the thick air was full of small voices buzzing, fires still burning, and bodies slowly rotting. Sam spots Teddy limping towards him, along with Turner, Phillips, and the preacher himself, still wearing a sling over his arm.

He hears the sounds of hooves, and he looks up. Sam feels his heart drop to his stomach when he sees Vasquez, Red Harvest, and Matilda sitting up on top of their rightful horses, but Red was also leading another horse beside him... carrying the dead body of Jack Horne. Matilda was hanging onto the reins of Sam's black stallion, while Vasquez also led a horse... a brown mare still wearing a saddle but empty of an owner. Sam wore a heavy expression, one he tries to withhold while gazing at Horne's body, then to Red Harvest, still stoic as ever, but doesn't want to look at Sam, his eyebrows furrow as his sweat melts off his face paint. He sees Teddy appear out of the corner of his eye, but that's not what he was curious about, as he stared dead ahead of him.

"Faraday?" Sam asked, his tongue nearly stuck to the roof of his mouth as if he was afraid to say it.

Vasquez just shakes his head with a broken look, no longer feeling the pain in his bleeding arm. Sam bows his head, scared to spare a glance up at Tilda. But he does so anyway, knowing he had to see for himself that she was alright.

She looked anything but that. Her skin was pale, as she appeared cold. Matilda's eyes were rimmed with a pink tone of color, her lips nearly blended into her skin, the blood still on the side of her face stuck out among the sweat and tear tracks running down her cheeks.

She didn't look Sam in the eye. She turned away the moment he looked at her. Chisolm looks over to the horse Vasquez was walking around, noticing it to be Jack, Faraday's- his horse. And he had to admit, this is the quietest that damn beast has ever been as if he knows something is wrong.

Sam decides that he has to look away now, or he'll regret it. He looks to a spot on the side of the church, seeing the outlined body of Goodnight Robicheaux. Barely having to shift his eyes, Sam looks above the steeple and sees a glimpse of Billy Rocks hiding in the shadows. Emma walks out of the church, locking eyes with Chisolm before he turns back around. He wore a look of acceptance on his face, tossing the rifle and Teddy catches it without a fuss. He nods to the bounty hunter, but Chisolm's attention is distracted elsewhere when he hears a man embracing the preacher.

"Thank you, Father." The man and the preacher break from their hug, and the preacher locks his gaze with Sam, the old man's tired eyes looked solemn, mourning the deaths of his fellow townsfolk.

"Miss." Teddy had moved from his spot and limped towards the persuasive woman, grabbing her attention.

Matilda looked down to find Emma's gentleman caller holding up an item to her, wearing a sympathetic look on his face as he squints his eyes up at her through the sun. She took the object with her shaking fingers and realized, to her devastation, it was one of Faraday's playing cards. It was the one Teddy took out of Faraday's hand when he was teaching the kid how to shoot their first-night camping together and was probably way too drunk at the time to ask for it back. The Jack of Hearts. Tilda sucks in a sharp breath like she had forgotten how to breathe and looked up to hear both Chisolm's and the preacher's voice.

"Preacher."

"We'll take good care of your men, Mr. Chisolm. Proper."

Matilda sets her jaw and looked back down at the card. She took a deep breath and brought the card to her lips, her eyes screw shut as if it hurt to let go of the only thing she had left of that annoying, foolish, gambling Irishman.

She breaks from the card now printed with her kiss goodbye to Faraday and hands it back down to Teddy, "Please bury that with him," she chokes.

"You made it through!"

Chisolm decides that it's time to move as the town starts to become lively again, people running around and trying to find one another through the fires and bodies. He walks toward his horse and leaps up, grabbing the reins while looking around at the remainder of his assembled team. "Let's go," he whispers, barely audible as he pushes his horse forward to walk to the edge of town.

"God bless you, Mr. Chisolm." The preacher thanks as they trot past him.

"Take care of Jack, Teddy," Vasquez tells the younger man when he goes to take Jack's reins from the Mexican. And, with a heavy heart, Vas lets go of the reins.

Tilda doesn't bother to lift her head, afraid of what disaster she might see if she took a good look around the town, seeing bodies and fires that could be too much for her to bear right now. Her peripheral vision sees Red Harvest's horse, and that's the only thing she watches as it guides her and her horse Nessie out of town.

"Miss Emma." Sam nods as they pass by their employer.

"Thank you." The young woman says as grateful as possible, a small smile laced on her face.

"Thank you so much, sir." Clara, the schoolteacher walks by the horses, followed by Leni, her baby, and the rest of the women and children.

"Thank you, Mr. Chisolm."

"Thank you!"

"Thank you, Mr. Chisolm."

"Godspeed, men." Hank Stoner nods in thanks, holding some children's hands as he leads him back into town, back to their home.

"Mom, is it over?" A little boy asks while holding his mother's hand.

"Mommy?" Another girl called out when she spots a woman with her mother's hair, "Mom!"

The woman starts running to her child, her husband not far behind her, "Sweetheart!"

The children run around, trying to find their parents, as their parents run forward, crying out of relief and rejoice. People have started to laugh, feeling the nerves bubble up into happiness as the war was finally over. In victory, the people of Rose Creek yell out and cheer, crying out in their most happy moment in Rose Creek history, but young Anthony looks on, the schoolteacher's boy trying to spot his heroes within the crowd.

But Sam Chisolm and his own people don't stick around long enough to see the celebration, and soon they had their horses running off across the fields, away from a town they will never forget. Leaving behind a messy past, but starting a brighter future, they took off into the setting sun, the wind roaring in their ears and the fresh prairie air reviving them from the smoke they've inhaled and the wounds that have yet to heal. Red Harvest starts to ride ahead of the rest of them, being the youngest as he screams to the sky, yelling in victory and whooping in Comanche.

'Whatever they were in life, here, at the end, each man stood with courage and honor.

The people of Rose Creek were able to set up proper burials for the four out of the eight warriors that died for their town. As requested, Billy Rocks and Goodnight Robicheaux were laid to rest side by side, Goody's flask wrapped around the cross marking his place buried within the earth.

They fought for the ones who couldn't fight for themselves, and they died for them, too.

Joshua Faraday was buried on the other side of Goodnight, a single card, the Jack of Hearts, stuck into the wood that presented his cross. On the other side of him, was Jack Horne's gravesite, who was marked with a pinwheel that no doubt a child placed there.

All to win something that didn't belong to them. It was... magnificent.'

The strong winds start to make the Jack of Hearts shake from its permanent spot wedged in Faraday's grave, threatening it to let go. Then, whether by the spirit of a cowboy or the will of a God, the card takes off into the air, flying towards a new adventure.

The End?