Chapter 3: Early Years

I was born in New York City to the name of Jacob Dusk Ranger. My parents, Joshua and Christina worked in a university sponsored by a multi-millionaire named Sig Harrison, they were young as far as parents went, only in their twenties, but then again I was their only kid. I grew up alongside many other kids whose parents worked in the university. One went by the name of Jay Digger was my best friend even though he was a year older than me. He had blond hair and amber eyes, with a strong build like his father while I had the look of my father with the gentleness of my mother. A lot of people said that I looked exactly like my father, except my eyes, I had my mother's golden-brown eyes. My father, Joshua, was leader of a research team built around animal and human experimentation. They tested the ability to mutate the DNA of animals into humans, they worked with cats and dogs. That was how my mother died. A lab experiment gone wrong, the subjects went crazy and killed some of the employees, Christina was one of them. A few months later Jay disappeared too, he had been talking of running away for over a year by that point, but I didn't actually think he would. I never heard from him after that moment, I didn't know if he was alive and happy, or dead.

By then Pa figured it would be best if we moved. A small lab was set up farther west in a town called Nevaeh, the man who ran it did experiments with rattlesnake DNA and venom, using it in healing properties and antidotes. William McCarty. He lost his wife to a sickness three years before my mother died, leaving three kids. Two twin girls named Sasha and Kyra who were both four, and William Jr. who was six, a year younger than I was. So, after my father married again, to a lady named Cilia Heartnet, an English teacher, we moved into the desert. That's where I met her…

I followed my father closely, even on my light golden horse, ignoring the welcoming shouts from the town locals as I huddled closer to my steed, almost hoping that I would blend into the soft fur that lay beneath my jeans. I heard my father shout to a few of the men and women, asking for directions politely before we moved on. I could hear them talking about how I looked so nice in my matching outfit, light blue jeans, brown long sleeved shirt and boots. The tan hat on my head not matching with my slightly darker hair, but I pretended not to notice, for my father's sake. Behind me Cilia was riding sidesaddle on her white horse, and my father was in the lead with his dark brown one, the hooves not making a sound over the uneven sand beneath them.

"Joshua," Celia spoke, her voice softer than my mother's was, but she was almost always correcting my grammar. She was wearing a light grey dress, with black riding boots and a matching shall around her shoulders, her dark brown hair tied in a high knot. Her form was much shorter than my mother was, in fact, though I was only seven I still reached her shoulder, but then again I was taller than average as well. My father was the tallest of all the workers in the city, an even six feet, though out here, he seemed almost average height.

"Yes?" My father responded, his sky blue eyes absolutely nothing like my own.

"Where will we be staying for now?"

"William has a guest house for use; he has it set up for us until we can build a home for ourselves." My father looked toward me, giving me a small wink of reassurance before he rode ahead, up the road toward one of the larger houses down the small stretch of gravel that was the main road. From the once large and grand homes I had grown up with in the city, this looked like a rundown shack, but then again I wouldn't open my mouth, I had always had my mother's sense of style, simple and small. I would always spend my time outside in a tree or camping with Jay before he disappeared. A pang of regret hit me as I remembered my closest friend, the small red bandana around my neck was once his, he had given it to me the first day we had met. I had scraped my wrist pretty badly, and he wrapped it for me.

"Jake," I looked up at the sound of my father calling for me, immediately seeing him walking up to my horse, a man behind him. I could only guess that it was William McCarty. His sun-streaked brown hair almost the exact color of my own, though his skin was tanned from the work he did outside and the climate he lived in. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a white shirt that had dots of dirt along the rolled up sleeves, black work boots slightly caked with dried dirt and a splatter of what looked like to be green liquid. Though his eyes were what caught me, a violet that I had never seen anyone in the city with. They were like the flowers that my mother use to plant when I was young, and the light gold speckles within them were reflected off the sand and the metal of my horses saddle.

"Jacob, this is Mr. McCarty. William, this is my son Jacob." Will chuckled, extending his hand for me to shake.

"Welcome to Nevaeh Jake," the other adult snickered again, his height just slightly taller than my father and much more muscular, yet he seemed so much friendlier.

"Thank you sir." Was all I said, my voice still extremely high pitched despite my taller and more developed look. I took Mr. McCarty's' hand a second later, shaking it before letting go and remaining silent like usual.

"Yur a strong lad," William spoke, a grin spreading over his face, "You and Billy would git 'long good," his accent wasn't as strong as I had predicted, though it still had me wondering if his kids were the same. "The twins 're in da back, Billy's in the barn with de horses an' snakes."

"You let the kids be near the snakes?" My father asked, a look of concern over his face making me pause.

"Just Billy," the other male laughed, "Hell, the kid got more talent with dem creatures then ih do, Jake will be fine." His words had my worries fade away, the spurs on by boots gently nudging my old horse forward toward the barn a dozen or so yards away. I could still hear my father and Mr. McCarty talking over the small thuds of my mares hooves as I entered the barn, the entire thing a soft shade of grey that looked darker than what it really was, rattlesnake cages sitting across from horse stalls, the horses not batting an eyelash and the snakes not responding to any sudden disturbance like I would have thought.

I found an empty stall easy enough, seeing as though there were only three other horses in the barn, two a normal colored light brown that I had seen many times before, the other a pure black that had even me looking twice just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. After tying up my horse I looked around, my eyes catching the small amount of sunlight that crept through the open windows further up the wooden walls, the supplies that the McCarty's used to handle the snakes all over in a little workshop that must have been used for working with metal at one point. I sighed as I slowly walked over to the opposite entrance of the barn, my eyes laying on two young girls both wearing dusty white dresses that matched their golden hair and tan skin, the smiles on their faces making me sick at how they tossed the sand under their feet into the air without a care in the world.

"Well you seem pissed 'bout somethin'." The sudden voice had me stop breathing for a second; I didn't see anyone else in the barn when I looked around. The voice chuckled as I turned around, my eyes laying on a rattlesnake that was just a few feet from me, its position something I had remembered from books I had read, it was a strike position. "Ya should probably back up kid," the voice said again, the scratchy tone like that of a child having worked long hours without taking a drink of water, and the accent defiantly more defined then that of the elder McCarty.

It was Billy.

A figure jumped down from the rafters, a good few feet from the rattlesnake, pinning the serpent between us and making it turn around immediately, its tail rattling wildly until it flicked out its tongue. The creatures entire body suddenly relaxing as if there wasn't a soul to be found in front of it, even moving over to the held out limb and slowly slithering into the other child's grasp before finding a more comfortable spot along their shoulders. I couldn't help but look at the scene in shock, my eyes not really believing what I was seeing. Billy McCarty HOLDING a full grown RATTLESNAKE.

I held my silence as my eyes wandered over the younger's form. Short, almost untamed light brown hair was streaked with gold that was caused by exposure to the sun, lightly tanned skin bringing out black slacks with matching riding boots that were complete with copper spurs. A white shirt's sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and a red bandana was around the kids neck, Billy's look easily letting me know that he didn't take no shit. And even though Billy was maybe two inches smaller than I was he looked so much stronger, but what really caught me was his eyes, a soft green that almost seemed to burn like fire over a forest, the very color that escaped the territory of my new home.

"Ya must be Jake," I nodded my head, my eyes never leaving the snake that was currently SUNBATHING on his neck.

"You must be William." The boy snickered, sharper than average canine teeth immediately catching my attention.

"Call meh Billy," the boy said, turning to put the rattlesnake around his neck back into the nearest empty cage, "most people do anyway." He chuckled; it wasn't an amused chuckle, or a fake one. It was more like Billy was attempting to get rid of whatever awkwardness was in the air. "So were neighbors fer da next couple years ay?"

"Apparently," The male rolled his eyes as he climbed into the rafters in which he had come, his somewhat dark clothing easily making me understand why I had not seen him earlier, he was practically invisible up there.

"You commin' or what?"

I was an idiot for following Billy up to the roof; turns out he had about a dozen snakes up there with him. But we stayed in the rafters for the rest of the day, skipping lunch just so that we wouldn't have to stop talking, and arguing, becoming nothing less than best of friends. I didn't know why, but we were like two pieces of a puzzle, we just fit together better than Jay and I did back when I lived in the city. Back then I thought it was because both our mothers died, the two of us having to take a harder look at life because of it, having known the feeling of death at such a young age and be able to remember it. Because of it we were tougher, more mature and smarter than others our age, yet Billy was still greater than I was, but for one reason alone…

"Yur really somethin' Jake!" Billy laughed as he handed me one of the adult rattlesnakes, I was a bit more comfortable around the creatures then before, it was mostly because Billy said that his dad had an antidote, and the snakes that we were holding had been forced to release their venom that same morning before we came. I laughed along with the younger male as I heard a door open, the two of us looking down from the rafters to see Billy's father in the barn doorway.

"Hey, you two, it's getting' late."

"Be right down Pa!" Billy shouted, my eyes unable to leave the smile on the guys face as he grabbed a few of the snakes off of their spots and allowing them all to rest along his neck, I doing the same as I followed the younger boy down. Mr. McCarty helped Billy with the snakes once we were on the ground, the two of them obviously knowing where each one was meant to go, I didn't want to get in their way.

"Alright, say yur goodbye Billy,"

"See ya Jake!" the boy laughed, turning to leave with his father before he shouted, running over to the work bench at the other end of the barn and returning with a black hat, the top flat like I had always wanted rather than that of a cowboy's. "Here," he said, swiping the tan hat off my head before replacing it with the black, tilting the front down to cover my eyes, "dat looks better."

"T-thanks Billy." Was all I could say as I tilted the hat back up to see Billy tossing the hat he had just taken off my head onto one of the rattlesnake cages.

"No prob," he winked, his forest green eyes almost glowing as his father called to him again.

"Come on baby girl." William called – Wait. BABY GIRL?

"Comin' Dad," Billy shouted again, laughing at my dumbfounded expression before she unbuttoned the top button of her shirt, revealing the black strip of fabric that only women were meant to wear.

"W-what?" I stuttered as Billy followed her father out of the barn, turning back right before she left to look me in the eye, green meeting gold as she spoke.

"Didn't think I was a female did ya Jake?" she chuckled, flipping her shorter hair out of her face before skipping off, the only sound remaining being the soft hisses of the rattlesnakes next to me.

…

"So," Priscilla started, looking up at the outlaw as he took a small sip of bear from the bottle, "Billy was a girl?"

"Yeah," the male whispered, his still golden eyes darting around the saloon to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation, "It came up when Billy was born, 'parently William wanted a boy so badly dat he decided on a name dat would fit a boy or girl," Jake paused again, his eyes lowering to his right shoulder, moving his shirt slightly so that Priscilla could see the tattoo that laid there, two words reading 'Dawn's Dusk'. "Her name was Billy Dawn McCarty. Our nicknames fer each other were Dawn and Dusk 'cause of our weird middle names." He chuckled, returning the piece of fabric back to its original position as Priscilla looked back at the outlaws face. "She kept callin' meh HER Dusk, and she was MY Dawn."

"So then what happened?"

"We started growin' up." Jake admitted, running a hand through his hair, "Worked with our Pa's tryin' ta get a cure for some disease ih didn't even know, but Billy was always workin' hard, so I did too." The male's eyes darkened as he remembered what happened, a hand suddenly on his arm making him come out of his short trance, his eyes suddenly meeting Priscilla's once again. "I was eleven when Billy got sick,"

"Sick?" Priscilla paused, seeing the red flames start dancing around the outer edges of Jakes eyes once again, the pupils already starting to slit back into that of a snakes, "Sick with what?"

Jake didn't answer at first, his gaze changing to stare out the window of the bar for a short while before he returned to the conversation at hand. "She had the disease we were tryin' to cure."

…

I ran down the halls of the McCarty home as fast as my legs could carry me, I knew the place like the back of my hand if not better, I could hear Billy shouting out in pain as I turned a corner, my body colliding with the wall from my speed, but I didn't care. I continued to run down the dark hallways until I reached Billy's room, seeing my father and hers holding her down as another fit finally calmed down, her tears flowing down her cheeks as she cried. She had gotten the same disease that her mother had eventually died from; she had uncontrollable fits and a mix of symptoms that caused her body more harm than it did for her mother.

"You can come in now Jake," my father spoke softly as Billy opened her eyes at his words, I immediately ran over to my best friend, moving to sit in back of her and hold her still as she cried into my chest, her tears staining the dirty red shirt but I didn't care.

"Dusk," her voice was softer than what it was yesterday, it worried me, but I tried not to let it show as I hugged her closer. Her lighter colored hair mixing with my slightly darker toned, the black hat she had given me when I had first arrived still on my head, hiding my eyes from the views of my father and Mr. McCarty as they left us alone, knowing well enough that I wouldn't do anything to her. We were closer than brother and sister, closer than best friends.

"I'm here Dawn," I whispered back to her, her usually warm body now covered in goose-bumps from her fever. In a way I was thankful what she had was hereditary so that I could still see her, comfort her as she had done so many times with me whenever I had gotten hurt, the brace around my right wrist a key note for what I was thinking of.

"J-jake," she stuttered, my mind thinking just how sad it was that I had gotten use to her doing that over the past few weeks. "I'm sorry."

"Fer what?" The small bit of an accent that I had earned over my four years in the desert coming through as I spoke, my golden colored eyes meeting her dull forest green ones as she looked up at me.

"I asked Pa to get ya out 'a here when I-"

"Don't ya dare think 'o that Billy," I said, a single tear coming down my cheek at the thought of losing the one best friend I had out here, "Nothin' 's gonna happen to ya." She shook her head as another coughing fit took over her, I myself sitting there and waiting it out like I always did before she continued.

"Jake, I'm worse den my mother was," she coughed again, my arms holding her closer to me as more tears started to drop down my cheek, knowing where this was leading, but I didn't want her to say the words that were sure to break me apart.

"Dawn please."

"Dusk," her voice shook, tears coming down her cheeks as she accepted what was going to come, "Pa said that I'll die within da month."