The Crow: Wait and Bleed

The Crow: Wait and Bleed

The Memory

 ""Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be.
As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy. Take your time, hurry up,
the choice is yours, don't be late. Take a rest, as a friend as an old memory." 

- Kurt Cobain

Joseph stared at the tombstone with his name inscribed in it, and he began to weep. He burst into tears as he read his own dates. He cried and screamed out to God why this happened to him. He was distracted from the paleness of the stone by a large black crow which gracefully landed on the grave. It gave a powerful caw and the bewildered Joseph screamed, "What the fuck do you want?"

"Everything." A deep voice said. Joseph turned around and then it was that he heard the sound of spurs hitting rocks. He looked behind him and he saw a dark figure. There he was, a man dressed in all black stood before Joseph. He wore black leather pants. He wore a black-buttoned shirt, black cowboy boots, a long black trench coat, and a black cowboy hat. Joseph could only see the top of his hat, until the man lifted up his face. Then she saw his face. It had been painted white and black. There were black lines running down from his eyes and they ran up from them as well. His lips were painted black with lines making a smile. Joseph stared into his empty, plain white, grim eyes. Joseph noticed the grim cowboy's long black hair tucked behind his hair. The dark buckaroo smiled. "He wants everything, including you." He laughed as he quickly drew his gun and shot Joseph in the chest.

"Aghhhhhhhh!!!!" Joseph screamed as he saw the bullet coming towards him. In his eyes he saw something else. Another time flashed before his eyes. He saw himself lying on the floor as someone shot at his love. "DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed. He opened his eyes which had been sealed with his own tears. He looked and saw the Grim Cowboy holding a still smoking gun. Joseph looked down to his chest; where he had been shot and witnessed a bullet wound magically heal. "What the hell?" Joseph fell to his knees in painful memory.

Joseph remembered a long time ago, when him and his girlfriend lay on a grassy bank and gazed up at the stars. He remembered holding Emily; his only love, tight in his arms. He remembered her faint whisper, "I love you Joseph." He remembered his own reply, "We'll always be together." As he repeated this aloud, the Grim Cowboy only laughed. Joseph screamed to the top of his lungs, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Joseph cried again as he remembered another time. He remembered kneeling down before her, right in front of her parents. "Emily," Joseph said, "I love you more than anything, and I never want to be separated from you. Emily, will you marry me?" He looked up at her as she smiled and cried and nodded. "Yes." He put the ring on her finger leaped up and kissed her. "I love you Joseph," Emily said. "We'll always be together," Joseph replied.

Joseph began to rant and cry "We'll always be together." As he felt the ring on his finger. His closed again dripping with tears as he saw himself in a hospital holding his first born baby. "I love you," He said to his wife. "Look at him," Emily said, "Isn't he beautiful." Joseph cried, "It's my son."

This image repeated itself three times. Once more with a boy and twice with a girl. Joseph cried for his lost family and saw one last image. He saw as he fell down in a puddle of blood. He saw the corpses of his murdered children, the image of his beaten wife. He heard his last words. "I love you. We'll always be together Emily." And he saw himself drift away.

"NOOOOO!!!!!!" Joseph cried out as he fell into the dirt becoming soggy from the now pouring rain. He put his face in his hands and didn't care at all about the Grim Cowboy, now propped up against a tree. He cried and sobbed and called out their names. "Greg. Lisa. Alex. Becca. Emily."

The Grim Cowboy made sure he was underneath the shade of the tree and lit his cigarette. He spoke calmly, "Now we're getting somewhere."

TO BE CONTINUED…

THE REAPER