Winter's Grasp Chapter 8

Beta's Saddletramp and Nakoosay

Jess's POV

I was sleeping soundly when suddenly, my eyes were wide open, and I was lurching forward, my hat falling to the floor of the stagecoach with a soft thump. I looked around ready for anything, but nothing came. I relaxed my tense muscles and wondered why I woke up since the stage was still rolling smoothly and there was nothing going on. I relaxed again and drifted off again.

Images and nonsense flashed before me and then it focused upon one certain man. He had a black droopy mustache, and he was laughing evilly. I stared, unable to move, unable to help as I saw he had something in his hand. It changed as he walked slowly towards me. It was a long piece of unraveled rope. Then the rope, all by itself, started to tie itself into a noose and the mustached man was hanging the noose off the limb of a giant tree.

The image changed and I was in a prison cell. The man was still coming towards me slowly; except now he had a knife. A small knife, but the blade grinned at me as moonlight came through the barred windows lighting up the cool metal. He continued to come towards me as the weapon continually changed as did the background and circumstances.

Sometimes we were outside, others inside, and there was one where we were underground in a cavern type of room. Finally, the images stopped changing and we were back at the ranch. He was still coming towards me. He was 2 feet away from me when he stopped and turned to his right; my left. He looked back at me his eyes icy and tainted a deep blood red color. His gaze was electric, and I could have sworn I saw luminescent green and various colored sparks coming at me from his eyes. He lifted his hand and sent chills down my spine when he pointed to the left of me. That was when I heard the muffled sounds coming from beside me.

I looked over to my left slowly, fearfully, and what I saw heightened my fright a thousand-fold. It was Slim. He was gagged and bound to a chair. He was shaking with what I thought was fright. But as I continued to stare at him in horror, Slim started to turn blue. Icicles formed upon his clothes and his skin turned a light blue.

I tried to tell Slim to run, to get free, anything, but nothing came out. I looked down and saw that I was bound and gagged too. I was helpless to help Slim and the mustached man was still standing just a few feet away from us. He was grinning so wickedly I couldn't look at him for fear that I would see in his eyes what he was going to do to Slim.

My attention was diverted to Slim as his blue hued skin suddenly turned a bright red. Slim started to scream and although the gag muffled it was still the most awful sound, I have ever heard. The man went to him and I tried to scream out for Slim, but the gag pulled so tight against my mouth that I started to taste blood. I stopped trying, my heart pounding and collapsed back into the chair, helpless.

I jerked awake with a strangled yell of "Slim" caught in my throat. I closed my mouth and I started to shake with a cold sweat clinging onto my skin. I finally got the shaking under control and I took deep breaths to calm myself. But the images were still so fresh in my mind that I couldn't help it that my hands continued to tremble. The sigh of my usually rock steady hands shaking, threw me as I continued to stare at them in wonder. The driver yelled so I stuck my head out of the window and he told me that we were just a mile away from the ranch.

I yelled back at him "okay", then settled back in my seat. All the while my hands was still trembling, never stopping, and constantly bringing the vividly horrifying images of my nightmare to my mind again and again. I needed to see Slim so badly to make sure that he was okay that I couldn't sit still. The remaining mile felt like eternity until I saw the big sign that said Sherman Ranch.

I was so happy to be home, but something bothered me as the stagecoach rolled to a stop. The lights were off. I reasoned with myself that Slim didn't know that I was going to be back a day early so he was probably in bed. I climbed off the stagecoach, snow falling heavier by the minute. I asked the driver what time it was, and he yelled back that the best he could make out was that it was only 8 o clock.

The stage left and I waved before hurrying to the front door. "Shoot!" I quietly growled to myself when I tried the door, and it was locked. I checked my pockets for the key that Slim had given to me and to my utter dismay I remembered that I had forgotten it in my room. I knocked loudly trying to wake Slim up and hoping that he wasn't in town. I really didn't want to be out in the cold any longer than necessary. Slim usually doesn't go to bed until 10 o clock or so, I reasoned to myself and waited patiently for him to open the door. 10 minutes passed and no Slim had come and opened the door with a tired look in his eyes but a smile on his face when he saw that it was me.

With a strange feeling in my gut, I banged on the door again louder and yelled for Slim. The door finally creaked open but what was on the other side of the door was something out of a nightmare.