𝔴𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡 𝔰𝔲𝔫 ⟡ ʀɖʀ2

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 𝟷𝟼

If I was honest, I didn't get how John could watch his own wife ride off and be a part of something like this. I think I'd wanna be right by my girl the entire time and to protect her. Though, I knew that John and Abigail didn't have the best relationship when he left the gang, swearing up and down that Jack wasn't his. Came back. I've seen how he treats that boy sometimes. Acting like he doesn't have the time of day for him. No wonder Arthur was more of a father figure to Jack than John would ever be. John was getting better now, after the whole thing with Jack being taken away. I wasn't sure how John and Abigail were doing nowadays, but, I'm sure things would happen that were better off for them in the future. Sure we all could figure things out together if it did come down to us running away from all of this.
Hosea and Abigail are gone, they're off to make a distraction for the law in Saint Denis so we can enter the bank. Didn't take too long till we heard an explosion and we were off into the bank. Arthur and Dutch head into the safe room and myself and everyone else are keeping the other tellers from flipping any switches. Though, it didn't take long for the law to show, but the law had Pinkertons and they had Hosea within their grasp. Agent Milton begins calling out for all of us to surrender or else Hosea was a deadman. Dutch sits there and tries to charm them, as if that was going to work a second time around and without warning, Hosea is pushed within the middle of the street and is shot in cold blood. Nathan and I are in shock in the given moment, completely and utterly fucked right now. We hadn't seen Jenny, Mac, or any of the others die in front of us like that, Hosea, that was different. I knew he was excited for myself and Selina, it was like losing the good father figure and being left with the bad one.
The shooting begins with no hesitation and we're all trying to fight back out of anger, out of hate. We lost someone who meant the absolute world to us. I'm trying to keep my aim on one Pinkerton when all of a sudden, a bullet hits me, straight in my upper left shoulder. I fell back from it, just confused as to what just happened. My adrenaline was pumping and of course I wasn't feeling it right off the bat currently. "Asher! Fuck!" Nathan yells before I hear the blow of dynamite. "Get outta here, Nate. Leave me be. Go!" He shakes his head, refusing. "Nate! Get the fuck outta here!" Arthur comes rushing over while Dutch is shouting for everyone to leave. A person is on top of me suddenly and literally wailing their fist within my head and body. They go down just as quick as they come up and Arthur is the one who took them out for me.

"C'mon kid, we ain't gonna let you go out like this!"
"Leave me the hell alone! The lot of you! I've accepted this! Just go!"
Arthur is still trying to get me up, ducking down at every possible bullet flying towards him when one hits him within his arm and he drops me onto the lobby floor. "Go... Just fuckin' go." Nate doesn't leave me. He stays, just like I figured his stubborn ass would. "I hope you make it, kid. I hope you do." He mutters before running out the dynamite hole within the side of the bank. I just sit there, blood is all over my hand as I'm trying to keep pressure upon the wound. Nathan is just whacked out with emotion right now, nearly crying, this guy. I wasn't dying, at least I didn't think so. But the sound was becoming muffled and I knew was about to black out. Suddenly, a woman's voice is barely echoing throughout my ears. I look up to see Abigail. She had come back for us.
"Asher, come on! Get up! Gonna get you outta here!" I'm losing my vision now, I'm not sure what to do other than reach out for her in exchange. Nathan is helping me up too and they're getting me out of the bank. Some law walk up to us out of curiosity.

"Stop right there! Who are you guys?"
"We're tryin' to get our friend outta there, caught in the crossfire." Nathan replies and the man gets distracted and waves us off. Abigail and Nate get me in the back of the wagon that she had arrived in with Hosea and all I remember was seeing his body in the middle of the road and then just pure darkness.

I waited for the light. For the fire. For whatever the hell was coming for me in the next life. But it never came. I dreamt though, for the first time in a long time, I dreamt.
I remember every detail. Shit was beautiful as hell. Selina and I left the gang, she had to be about four or five months pregnant. Nathan left too, John and Abigail and little Jack as well. Even Arthur, we all headed back to West Elizabeth. Charles was there too and Sadie and Javier. Those were the only ones, everyone else was either gone and left on their own, still with Dutch, or dead. We all were seated at a table within the Blackwater Saloon. Eating, some of us drinking. Cheering to the good times. Lauren, Nate's girl, was there too. They was kissing and hugging and everything was great.
"So glad we're all outta that gang. We needed this. All this." Arthur states as he's raising his glass to us. We nod in agreement and I look over at Selina with nothing but pure love. Smiles all around for the first time on half of these people's faces. Looking down at my hand and I see a wedding ring, my own mind within it remembers my wedding with Sel. It was short and sweet but all these people were there. We must've tied the knot as soon as we left. It was a beautiful feeling, knowing I was married to this girl and we were all happy. Nathan and Lauren are fixing to get married as well and they both just look so happy too. There isn't much to love it seems and John, Abigail, and Jack are like a proper family.

"So, Asher, what're you gonna do if that baby is a girl. Niña." Javier questions playfully before I just shake my head.
"Pray she's just as beautiful as her ma here. Could you imagine me as a woman? No, she's gonna be like her ma. Piercing green eyes and beautiful smile that'll have me wrapped 'round her finger too."

I place one of my hands on Selina's abdomen and she just shakes her head with a slight laugh.

"They have been movin' a little too. Shit is like feelin' a snake go up ya pants and ya don't know what to do. But you see it!"

Everyone laughs and it's just nothing but a good time. We're happy. That's what mattered in that moment, was that we were happy. Dutch was nowhere to be found, Micah was hopefully dead in a hole. Everyone else, we could've given two shits about. They weren't here for a reason and I was sure of that.

"Cheers to nothin' but good times for all of us. Movin' forward. Growin'. Keepin' us all goin' in life. We made it you guys. We made it."

All of us that are drinking clink our glasses and take these shots, which taste so strong. It's almost crazy. The laughs begin to fade off now, it becomes dark again and I was hoping for something else. Something good. But--- It was just silence. That was it.

Pure and utter silence.