Dark Titan Journey: Finally Home (21 page)

After Nathan saddled Spots, they rode around the corral, and Nathan knew Spot was a barrel racer. Pulling hard for a turn, Spots could send you out of the saddle fast, cutting sharp turns. Satisfied the two horses were okay to bring, Nathan climbed off and opened the door, leading Spots to an empty stall.

Seeing Jasmine lead Knight past, Nathan stepped out, taking the reins. “Let me take his saddle off.”

Jasmine looked at Nathan in shock. “I’ve taken your saddle off before.”

“My saddle weighs twelve pounds. This one is a bit more,” he said, taking the reins. “I really don’t want to see a bruise on your hiney when you walk around in thongs.”

Jasmine chuckled and moved over, taking Spots’s saddle off. Grabbing a brush, Jasmine brushed her down. Spots really loved this. Jasmine continued to brush till she saw Nathan walk by and left the stall.

Reaching the camping area, they saw John sound asleep. Walking over Nathan moved John’s rifle, vest, and pack over by the wall then headed to his woobie. Taking off his vest, Nathan crawled over beside Emma and was soon sound asleep. Seeing Nathan was asleep, Jasmine smiled, watching him a second longer, then laid beside Chip. Soon she was asleep and the dreams started. She wasn’t alone as the dreams invaded the witnesses to horror.

Chapter 16

Day 49

Jumping to his feet from a sound sleep, John looked around, panicked, soaked in sweat. He blinked his eyes, trying to understand what he was seeing. The panicked expression left and was replaced by confusion. “John.” Hearing his name, he spun around, blinking.

“John, it’s okay, its Nathan,” John heard. He spun around again and saw Nathan. Breathing like he had run a marathon, John lowered the fist he hadn’t realized he was holding, ready to attack. “John, you’re safe, you’re with us,” Nathan said, moving closer.

Slowly turning his head, John saw the rest of the group, many looking at him clearly afraid. John looked into Nathan’s face. “Nathan, they were here.”

“No, John, it was just a dream,” Nathan said, putting his hand on John’s shoulder.

Looking at each member of the family, John sighed, seeing they were all right. “Nathan, it was so real.”

“I know, but it was only a dream. We did what we could. That family is together now, we saw to that,” Nathan said, slowly pulling John into a hug.

“They–they were—you don’t understand, they—our family,” John stuttered as Nathan quieted him.

“Shh, shh, no one hurt our family. We are the only ones here. Relax and tell yourself we did what we could and that will never happen to our family,” Nathan consoled him.

A shiver ran down John’s spine as he forced the dream out of his head. John returned Nathan’s hug, then stepped back. “Nathan, I—” John stopped, looking at Nathan. “Nathan, what happened to your face?” The left side of Nathan’s face was swollen and his lip had been busted.

“Jasmine had a bad dream as well, and I made the mistake of touching her to wake her up,” Nathan said.

John saw that Jasmine was crying. “I’m glad you didn’t grab me,” John said.

“I was getting ready to. You were yelling and kicking up a storm. I was yelling your name for three minutes and was about to shake you awake before you hurt yourself,” Nathan said, rubbing his jaw.

Shaking his head, John looked Nathan in the eyes. “No, don’t. I would’ve hit you, and I would’ve done it more than once. I don’t want to hit you.”

Nathan laughed. “Don’t sell Jasmine short. She hit me over a dozen times. I’m telling you, I saw stars on this hit,” Nathan said, pointing at his jaw. “She has been paying attention to the hand-to-hand lessons.”

With a look of helplessness, John closed his eyes. “Will they always be that bad?”

“No, they will come and go, but if you remind yourself you did what you could and we won’t let that happen to our family, they will just become dreams,” Nathan said, and John sighed with relief. “Are you sorry you helped me?”

John snapped his head up. “No.”

Nathan patted him on the shoulder. “Then you’ll be fine. You don’t let fear lead to regrets.” John just sat down and looked around.

“Where’s my gear?” he asked.

Nathan pointed at the wall. “It’s over there. I didn’t want you hurting yourself.”

John got up and pulled his stuff over to his blanket and sleeping bag. “Glad you moved it. I could’ve hurt someone.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. You were protecting the family from your worst fear, which is them getting hurt,” Nathan said, turning around as John looked at his watch.

“I was only asleep for two hours?” John shouted.

“Jasmine slept for thirty minutes,” Nathan said, walking over to Jasmine. She was sitting next to the wall, holding her legs and crying. “Would you please quit? You didn’t hurt me.”

Jasmine looked up at his swollen face. “Yes I did! Look at your face! I’m a wretched person!” she wailed, pointing at his face.

Nathan kneeled down and Jasmine cringed away from him, afraid she would hurt him. “I want you to listen to me, okay?” Nathan said in a calm voice. Jasmine sobbed as she nodded her head. “Stop it!” Nathan snapped at her. Jasmine jerked back from the sharp tone and quit crying, more from shock than the command.

“Thank you,” Nathan said, sitting down in front of her. “I’ve been hit a lot harder. You were thrashing around, about to get by that post in the middle of the floor. The way you were throwing your arms about you would’ve broken it. I knew I was going to get hit and didn’t care. I blocked the punches and kicks you threw that would’ve hurt me. I couldn’t let you get hurt. So I got popped, so what? Now I know what to expect if I make you mad,” Nathan said, smiling.

Jasmine snorted and smiled for a brief second. “I could’ve hurt Chip.”

“That’s why I moved him,” Nathan said.

Amanda sat beside Jasmine, putting her arm around her. Jasmine jolted as Amanda wrapped her arm around her shoulders. True to form, Amanda didn’t flinch or act like she minded. “Nathan, couldn’t you have warned them?”

“No, they wouldn’t have believed me. When you see what you fear the most face-to-face, that is when you are shocked to your soul. Your fear is supposed to be make-believe, but there it is, right in front of you. That shakes the mind,” Nathan said.

“We’ve seen bad stuff already,” Amada said, and Jasmine grabbed her leg shaking her head.

“No we haven’t,” Jasmine said.

Amanda pointed at Nathan. “I know he has, because he wouldn’t let me look.”

“Yes, Amanda, I’ve seen some bad stuff. But not like what was in that house. I want to drop it now,” Nathan said, looking at Jasmine.

Amanda nodded. “You’ve already had nightmares like that?”

“Yes,” Nathan said. “But they are actually night terrors, my body and mind don’t recognize that it’s a dream.”

“When?” Amanda asked.

Nathan looked at her with sad eyes. “When I was seventeen.”

“I’m sorry,” Amanda mumbled.

Nathan snorted. “Firecracker, you wanted to know and I’m pleased. You see why I had them.”

“I didn’t have them,” Amanda mumbled.

“The hell you didn’t! You beat the hell out of Ares and me on three occasions,” Nathan said.

Amanda’s jaw hit her chest. “You said that was a bad dream.”

“It was,” Nathan said.

Amanda gave Jasmine a serious look. “It’s going to be okay,” she said with authority. “I know when I woke up and Nathan was holding me tight, telling me to let it go because I’d done what I could, I listened. Then he would say it doesn’t go away, lock it away in your mind, you just live with it, and he’s right. But now when I’m scared or feel helpless, I just say I’m not scared because Nathan will rip its head off and eat it.”

Jasmine chuckled at Amanda and pulled her in for a hug. “I love you, girl.” Amanda smiled and squeezed Jasmine tightly. “So my fear was seeing family hurt?” Jasmine asked Nathan.

“Our greatest fear is to see happiness, innocence, purity, and love disappear. To be hurt for nothing and taken. To see that real evil exists right here beside us, and it takes pleasure in hurting what we hold dear. And can take what we hold dear away from us,” Nathan said. “For you it was the little girl we cut off the bed and the little boy we cut down from the wall. For John it was the mom and the older girl.” Jasmine shuddered as Nathan spoke. “You’ve seen real evil and now know it exists. What’s so terrifying is that it enjoys hurting what we love.”

Nathan clapped his hands for Emma. Emma ran over jumping in his arms. “Come on, doodle bug, let’s go guard,” he said.

Jasmine shook her head. “Fuck if I go back to sleep.”

John stood up, agreeing with Jasmine. “You got that right. Nathan, I want watch.” Nathan stopped at the stairs as John just carried his clothes and gear up. Tom, seeing his idol, smiled and stayed up there with him.

Amanda walked over to Nathan. “We are going to suck tonight; nobody’s going to sleep.”

Moving Emma so stuff on his vest wasn’t poking her, Nathan nodded. “You and the others could sleep.”

“After that? Are you crazy? Why don’t we just stay here for tonight and leave tomorrow night?” Amanda suggested.

“We aren’t staying near this house after the sun goes down,” Nathan informed her.

Amanda looked at Jasmine. “Yeah, it will give them bad memories.”

“Amanda, the memories are there. Like you, they know evil is real. That has nothing to do with it, that man was left alive. They may come back,” Nathan said.

“Then we have to go,” Amanda said.

“Not in broad daylight. It is way too easy to be spotted,” Nathan said.

Amanda shook her head. “We can be seen with thermals at night just as easy.”

“Not many have those and most gangs fall in that category. A bad guy sitting on a hill with a spotting scope can see movement from miles away,” Nathan said.

“What are we going to do for the rest of the day?” Amanda asked.

“I’m going to see what other gear they have for the horses, since we are bringing two more,” Nathan said.

“Okay, I’ll help,” Amanda said, picking up her rifle.

Nathan laughed, walking to the other end of the barn. Amanda had already told him about the tack room. Nathan was impressed with the array and collection of saddles and tack. Putting Emma on a saddle, Nathan walked around the room, grabbing every saddle bag he spotted. He found another pack saddle.

“They only had three horses. Why the hell did they need all this?” Nathan asked out loud.

Amanda turned around. “The pasture behind the corral has a bunch of horses.”

“That makes me feel better. This is over fifty grand in saddles and gear. They may have been cowboys but they had new gear,” he said, holding up the different saddle bags. He pointed at a saddle. “Take that one for your saddle.”

“I have a saddle,” Amanda protested.

“That is an excellent trail saddle, trust me,” Nathan said, pulling down some spurs.

Amanda gasped. “You are going to use spurs on poor Smoke?”

“No, but now with more horses, we can swap out. We don’t know how the new horses will react to gunfire. When a horse does something you don’t like, spurs just let them know it,” Nathan explained.

“I like Trix,” Amanda whined.

Nathan shook his head. “The only ones that need to change horses are John and me. The rest of you are light.”

They carried out armloads of stuff and dropped them beside the camping area. After another trip the pile was rather large. “That’s a lot of shit,” Jasmine pointed out.

“Some of its replacing what we have. The rest is going with us,” Nathan said as he picked up Emma. Jasmine didn’t believe a word he said. Nathan went down to Knight. Leaving Emma outside the stall, he saddled up Knight, then opened the stall to a very pissed off Emma. Picking her up, Nathan put Emma in the saddle as he led Knight through the barn.

“Where are you going?” Jasmine asked.

“Amanda said there were more horses behind the corral. I’m going to look,” Nathan said, grabbing a couple of leading ropes. Opening the door, he led Knight outside across the corral and opened the gate. Nathan held onto Emma as he kicked Knight into a trot.

They didn’t have to go far to find the horses standing around a water tub fed by a windmill. There was a tree and a large covered shed with the opening facing the water tub. All the horses looked up at Nathan as he rode over. When he stopped, several came over, greeting Knight.

Hearing galloping hoofbeats, Nathan turned around to find Jasmine leading the girls down. The horses looked up at the new horses. “Guys, they don’t know your horses so keep a tight grip on your reins,” Nathan said.

Amanda lifted up her M-4. “They hurt Trix, they die.”

“Just be careful,” Nathan said, walking through the small herd of horses. Nathan figured it was about thirty. Seeing an appaloosa mare staying beside him, Nathan put a leading rope over its head. He spotted a calm mare quarter horse and slipped a lead rope over her head.

He slowly left the group, leading the two horses over to the others, who were surrounded by horses. “Okay, let’s head back,” he said.

“Nathan, they are all around us,” Amanda whispered loudly.

“Don’t act afraid, they can smell it. It makes your horse nervous and scared,” Nathan said, and saw Amanda calm down. “Horses are very social. They are just saying hello and seeing who your horses are.”

Natalie looked at the horses beside him with a lead rope. “Are they are coming too?” Nathan nodded.

“Let’s take that white horse,” Amanda said, pointing.

Nathan saw the big white horse. He was starting to get an idea about why Knight had been separate, in the corral. “No way, that is one of the alpha stallions. The other is that big brown one with the white star on his head.”

“We don’t have many boy horses. Just the pack horse and Knight. We need more boys,” Amada said.

“No, I have two stallions and they are stupid. The pack horse is a gelding. Stallions have to be watched and have to know you are in charge. They still try to show dominance. They only think about one thing,” Nathan said, giving a soft kick to Knight.

“What thing do they think about?” Casey asked.

Nathan was about to explain but saw the small face looking at him totally innocent. “Ah, boys being stupid,” Nathan offered.

“Bullshit,” Amanda popped off. “The pack horse is a stallion, I can tell.”

“Gelding is a boy that’s had—” Nathan stopped and saw Amanda looking at him intently. “He’ been made so he can’t make babies,” Nathan finally answered.

“Oh, neutered,” Amanda said. “Our dog had that done.”

Exhaling a long breath, Nathan nodded. “Yes, same thing.”

“What are the boy horses thinking about? Maybe we can make them stop. The white horse is really pretty,” Casey said.

Nathan looked at Jasmine, who was just smiling. “You can jump in anytime here.”

“They asked you, not me,” Jasmine smirked, holding onto Chip as they rode.

Nathan looked ahead and thought about it. “They think about girls,” he finally said.

“Well we have girls, so they will be happy,” Casey said.

Amanda reached down and patted her horse. “Yeah, Trix would like more boys around that aren’t neutered.”

“Why would she like more boys around?” Nathan asked, hoping she would explain it to Casey.

“She doesn’t want babies, but having boys around would make her feel better. Momma said that if Teddy couldn’t make babies he would quit trying to raise his leg peeing on everything,” Amanda said.