Jay's back ached as he knelt down in the sand, pulling thick weeds from the earth and tending to the ground just as he had for years now. Thorns pushed against the skin of his hands, but the callouses he had there were thick enough that he barely felt it. He grabbed a small spade and began to dig shallow holes for the seeds he was planting.
"You ever get sick of doing that?"
When he looked up Riley was standing on the fence, leaning down over it and watching him. He had propped his head up on one hand and he drummed his fingers on the wood. Momentum had already built up inside him and it threatened to boil over, even in the short moments that he had been waiting for Jay to look up.
Jay squinted at Riley and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "Ain't you supposed to be in school?"
Riley grinned a bright smile and dimples broke out on the sides of his mouth. He snorted and laughed, "We got out an hour ago, Jay."
Jay looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had already began to dip below the horizon, he had been staring down at the ground for so long he hadn't noticed how quickly time had passed.
A few children from the schoolhouse called out to Riley, but he waved them away and turned back to Jay, "When's the last time you took a break?" He asked.
"Don't worry about me, kid." Jay answered and he brushed his tired hands on the coarse fabric of his overalls. He stood up and ruffled Riley's hair, and Riley shut his eyes and scrunched his nose in response. "Go back to your friends."
"Nah I've been with them all day. Come on, I got us sarsaparillas."
Jay opened his mouth to object, he still had work to do. However Riley had already jumped down from the fence and swung his bag over his shoulders.
"Race you to the house!" He called with glee, and in the next instant he began running. Jay had no earthly idea how the kid always had so much energy.
He hesitated for a moment. Jay worried that Farmer Carver would be angry if he left before his work was done, but when he looked over his shoulder Carver was staring unblinking at the horizon. He hadn't even noticed Jay walking away. Jay stared at Farmer Carver for a few long moments. Worry gnawed at his sides but he turned away and followed Riley.
When Jay approached the porch Riley was leaning out toward him, grasping the railing with one hand and holding out a sarsaparilla bottle to him with the other.
"Come on, take it." Riley said, and Jay took the bottle. Riley swung a leg over the railing and leaned against the column that supported it.
Jay grimaced when Riley bit the bottle cap off and took a long drink. "You're gonna break your teeth." He warned and Riley smiled that smile that always meant he had heard him, but he wasn't going to take his advice seriously. Jay took a drink from his own bottle after carefully prying off the cap with his pocketknife.
He reached out and handed the pocketknife to Riley, "Keep it." He said. "Next time use it."
"Thanks." Riley said with a grin and he placed it carefully in his pocket.
"How was school?" Jay asked and Riley shrugged nonchalantly.
"It was fine, we're learning about agriculture and hunting." Riley sat up a little straighter. "But I think you could teach me all that yourself."
Jay leaned back on the stairs and stretched his long legs out in front of him. "I ain't a teacher, Riley." He rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.
Riley drew a knee to his chest and rested his arm against it. "Well that's weird, cause you taught me everything I know."
Jay smiled just a bit and shook his head, taking another drink from his bottle. The sweet sticky drink coated his mouth and he swished it around to try and dislodge the sand from between his teeth. No matter how he tried to avoid it, he was always covered in sand after work.
"I can't wait for us to get out of here." Riley said and Jay looked up.
"Virginia still the plan?" He asked.
Riley nodded enthusiastically, "Course, I would've let you know if the plan changed," he answered with a grin.
He fidgeted and scooted a little closer to Jay, who looked at him quizzically.
"Do you mind it?" Riley asked and he looked down and picked at the sticker on the bottle he was holding.
Jay frowned, "Mind what?"
"Staying here so long. For me." Riley ripped a line down the sticker and Jay remained silent, surprised by the question. Riley had never talked about this before.
Riley sighed and continued, expecting no response from Jay. "I know you're still here because of me, because you're waiting for me to be old enough for us to travel. You could've left sooner if it weren't for me. And you wouldn't have to keep working on that farm every day." Riley looked up at Jay and met his eyes, "Do you- I mean… doesn't that piss you off?"
Jay stared at Riley, stunned. He had watched Riley grow up, his pride in him growing more and more each day, knowing no limit or bounds.
He vividly remembered the first time Riley smiled at him. The memory still remained in his brain just as strong, even as Riley now smiled at him all the time. He remembered his first word, his first steps.
He remembered how whenever he would get home from work late he would find Riley curled at the kitchen table, having fallen asleep waiting for him to get home.
There was nothing Jay had, or could ever have that he wouldn't given up gladly if it meant Riley could move forward. Staying in town a few years longer with Riley seemed like such a minor sacrifice that he had never even really thought about it.
As much as Jay wanted to say all these things, his words just didn't know how to manifest past his thoughts. "No." He answered simply.
Riley looked down and went silent, so Jay pushed himself to try again. "Riley, listen… I wouldn't change a thing."
Riley looked up at Jay and in the next moment he beamed and began laughing. His shoulders relaxed and he leaned back again. "Well, me neither." He told Jay, and Jay smiled with him.
The door of their house slammed and they jumped a bit. Their mother stepped out and stared at them. Her face was drawn seriously and when Riley waved to her she didn't wave back.
She looked to her left and right before she raised a hand, motioning to them silently to come inside. Both Riley and Jay just stared at her in confusion for a moment, as she had never been so quite before. She usually moved through the world loudly, slamming doors behind her and kicking things out of her way, but now she moved with careful calculation and motioned to them sharply again.
"What's wrong?" Riley asked and their mother shook her head.
Jay glanced at his brother before he stood and walked into the house, Riley quickly following suit.
When they entered the house their mother shut the door behind them quickly. The air around her was ridged and tight, and her sons watched with wide eyes as she raced to the safe and pulled out a shotgun.
"Mom, what's going on?" Jay asked as she raced to the window where the curtains were drawn and peered outside.
"They're coming." She stated with tight, clipped words.
"Who's coming?" Jay asked with a frown and he followed her to the window.
He could just make out flames coming from the mountains, and they moved slowly down the slopes toward the town. Jay felt his pulse quicken and he looked at his mother, "What-"
The flames grew closer and she turned quickly, "Where's your father?" She gripped the shotgun and breathed in deeply.
"I saw him by the schoolhouse." Riley told her and she hurried to the door.
"You two stay close together and follow me." She ordered and swung the door open. Riley stared up at Jay, dumbfounded, but Jay simply grabbed his hand and followed their mother out the door.
She crept across the road quickly with her sons in tow, there was a loud shout from the crowd coming down the mountains and she grabbed Jay, forcing her sons down behind an overgrown bush.
"Who is it?" Riley questioned and his voice quivered. He held Jay's hand in a tight grip that would have hurt if Jay were paying attention. Jay peered through the gangly branches as his mother pressed her back against a nearby house and peered out again.
A large red flag swayed high in the wind, and as Jay squinted he realized the symbol looked all too familiar, it was the great horned animal he had seen in the shed. It was the very same symbol that had been painted in blood beneath the man's lifeless body that haunting night in the field. His heart stuttered.
"We need to leave." He said with a rush of dread and when he looked back to his mother she sneered.
"You two stay together, no matter what. No splitting up, you hear me?" She grabbed Jay's arm roughly and yanked them quickly to the schoolhouse, crouching behind cover as they went.
When she forced the door to the schoolhouse open, Jay saw everyone he had known since he was a child, all cowering in corners with big glassy eyes. They flinched and stepped back when his mother pushed the door open. Connie stood surrounded by the parentless children in the town. They grasped her legs desperately and wiped their noses on her dress as they cried.
There was a loud crash, and when Jay tore his gaze away he saw his father throw Farmer Carver against the wall with one big hand. His father rushed to pin him against the wood when his back collided with the surface.
He held Carver up by his throat and he squirmed in his tight grasp, his eyes alight with fear.
Jay's eyes widened, "Dad, what are you doing?" He exclaimed and he looked at Riley who was just as surprised.
"You can't stop them now, they're already here." Farmer Carver told him in a pleading tone. Their father turned purple and slammed him against the wall again.
"Tell me how you did it. Tell me how they knew!" He demanded and Carver rolled his head to the side to look at the townspeople around him. His dark, weathered eyes focused on Riley. Riley squirmed nervously.
"They know where you'll be. They know you won't be able to fight back." He answered meekly. His voice sounded cornered and resigned and his small weathered body trembled. "I left the last of your weapons in the shed, I made sure you wouldn't put up a fight." His words shook as they squirmed in the air.
"You fucking traitor." He hissed. He pressed Carver further into the rough nails that stuck out in the wall but Carver gave no reaction.
"I had to do it! To save us all! You know what they do to towns that try and stop them!" Carver demanded and he struggled to breathe in the hold Jay's father had him in. "Did you really think you fight them? We never would have had a chance!"
"You've condemned us all!" His father roared and his veins pulsed in his head like thick power lines.
Farmer Carver shook his head sadly. The fight visibly left his body as he sagged against the wall. "We've always been condemned."
His father swung his fist hard against the man's head and something snapped. Carver went limp in his hands and fell to the ground dead.
Their father stared down at the body with his jaw clenched tight as cries began to break out through the townspeople, their fear grew louder as they realized that they had no weapons.
Their mother stormed over to him and with a loud crack she slapped him hard in the face, leaving an angry red mark across his pale skin.
"You damned fool." She spat. "How many times?" She demanded and she smacked his hand down when he tried to raise it to touch the place where she had hit him. "How many times did I warn you? How many times did I tell you that you couldn't just leave?"
She was yelling now, her words whipping him in the face and ricocheting off the walls. "I told you they'd find you, I told you they'd want blood for abandoning them." She seethed and stared at him disdainfully.
She stepped back and looked down at him and her voice dropped to a low growl. "And now your children are going to perish. They will suffer and die and it will all be because of you. You stupid, selfish fool."
His father wouldn't look at her. He wouldn't look at anyone. As the others trapped in the schoolhouse mobbed him and demanded answers he continued to look down, his hands dangling at his sides as the red hand mark on his face burned. Jay stared as the embodiment of fear throughout his whole childhood stood useless, nothing more than a broken man.
The boys mother crossed her arms, her muscles undulating furiously under her skin as she watched the others panic. Riley grasped her arm desperately and when she looked over his eyes were wide.
"What's going to happen to us?" He whispered.
"We're going to die." She answered simply and held her shotgun high. "Just as I always knew we would." She cocked her gun with a snap as Riley stepped back in shock. "But you're going to run."
"What if they catch us?" Jay asked and he stared at the shotgun in her hands.
"You fight. If there are too many of them you fight anyway." She pulled a knife from her belt and put it in Jay's hands. "And you pray it'll be quick."
Jay grasped Riley's hand and in the next moment the door was splintered to pieces. There were screams and the crack of his mothers gun rang out twice before a spear was thrown through her heart, and she fell to the ground. Jay watched as her tight grip on the shotgun unfurled and her fingers went limp.
"Mom!" Riley cried and he knelt beside her, tears filling his eyes as he reached for her. Jay's heart sank, as he knew she was already gone.
The glint of another spear flew into Jay's vision and he was snapped harshly into action, given no time to grieve or even process what had happened. "Run Riley!" He yelled, as men poured through the door with sticks that burned hot with fire.
Riley obeyed and turned to the nearby window but was quickly met with a metallic fist colliding with his stomach. He gasped and fell to his knees, his lungs heaved in attempt to refill with air and allow him to rise, but all he could do was wheeze and scramble on the dusty ground.
Jay looked back and horror flooded him as he watched Riley claw at the ground beneath him. He slashed at the men with the knife he had been given but they were quicker than him, and his blade met nothing but air.
Riley thrust a hand forward to pull himself away but he cried out in pain when an armored boot dropped down upon his small hand. The armored man reached down and grabbed his arm, crushing the limb in his iron grip and hoisting him up from the ground.
"Let me go!" Riley yelled, but his hands were quickly bound with harsh, thick rope.
Jay tried to get to his brother, but he was quickly surrounded. He struggled as his hands were bound as well, and the soldiers began to throw them out the door.
"Riley…." Jay gasped, he reached for his brother but was held back when the rough rope dug into his skin and pulled him back.
Jay strained to reach out an arm through his binds, he reached and reached to try and grasp Riley's unharmed hand. Panic filled him deep into his bones as he was dragged away while another soldier restrained his crying brother.
"Riley, I'm sorry." Jay croaked.
A man stepped forward through the shattered wood and assessed the small crowd he had gathered outside. An array of teeth haloed his head in a crown, his yellow eyes shone brightly and they glowed even stronger at the scene before him and all the potential it held. His eyes landed on the boy's father, who stood helplessly as soldiers surrounded him. Jay's father gazed up slowly at the man and the doom in his expression deepened, but his fear was quickly masked with a defiant glare.
The commander grinned, "There you are old friend."
Flames roared and stretched upwards as Jay took in his surroundings, climbing over one another to be the first to reach the sky. The armored men stood calmly in a circle around them, wielding spears and machetes that winked in the firelight. The symbol of the animal that had haunted Jay's dreams was painted proudly on each soldier's chest. Around Jay the townspeople stood with their hands bound as they shivered in the cold.
Beside him Connie was straining with all her might to squeeze her hands from their binds. Deep red blood seeped into the rope around her hands as she sliced her skin with each pull and twist, yet she continued to struggle. The boy's father stood a hulking mass in the shadows. Jay glanced nervously at Riley, who was standing a few feet away.
The commander took a broad step toward Riley, smirking when the child shrunk back. He lifted his machete to Riley's chin and forced his head up so that their eyes met.
"I am Amadeus. We are the Legion, and we are here to ensure that you answer for your crimes against Caesar."
"Don't touch him." Jay hissed, and the man looked at him unimpressed.
"A worthy example of the insolence the infects this town." Amadeus answered calmly. He yanked his blade back, and a small trail of blood drizzled down Riley's neck. He stepped away and began pacing back and forth before the small crowd. His eyes glinted and his mouth broke out into a wide toothy grin.
"An insolent town filled with even more insolent inhabitants. We have come to cleanse you, we have come to allow you a chance to atone."
Connie whimpered quietly as her binds turned a deeper shade of red and one of the Legion soldiers placed the sharp point of his spear against her back to silence her. She quickly hid her hands in the folds of her dress.
"You have let a beast live among you, a traitor of the Legion who thought he could roam free." Amadeus seethed as he stopped in front of Jay's father.
"Until this moment this town has been steadfast in its disloyalty. It remains the embodiment of sin that it has always been." He grinned and stepped forward, snatching Connie's bloodied hands and propelling them up so that they were exposed in the moonlight. "Until now."
Connie gasped and tried to wriggle away, yet his iron grip only caused her more pain.
"A select few of you will survive, you will take this lesson and pass it down through the remaining dwindling years of your fruitless life." His voice continued as it slithered in and out of Jay's mind, "Those who live will remember this night."
Amadeus dropped Connie's hands and forced her against the blade of the soldier standing in wait. The sharp metal pierced through her side and Connie screamed out into the night. He face contorted in pain as she looked up and met the glinting yellow eyes of Amadeus.
As the pain reverberated through her, Connie thought she would feel fear. She thought the terror that was always looming over her would consume her in this moment. Yet, as she looked into the monster's yellow eyes and felt her blood cover her, Connie realized she was not afraid.
While he kept her there impaled on the spear she held his gaze, and just for a moment her eyes focused on his. "Someone will stop you," She murmured, her voice shaky as she took in a sharp breath. Blood trickled from the corners of her mouth and she grit her teeth. "You wretched thing." She spat. She hissed and winced in pain when Amadeus grabbed her throat.
"Such a shame," He laughed, "we could have made use of you." He pulled her off the spear and threw her to the ground.
Connie fell to her knees, clutching her side and wetting the dirt beneath her with pools of blood and drops of tears.
"No!" Jay cried out. He struggled against his binds and tried with all his might to rush to her side, but the man with the crown of teeth pointed his weapon at him with a sick laugh.
"You cannot stop this process, it will only prolong it. You all must pay for this man's betrayal."
Once he realized he couldn't move, all Jay could do was stare. He stared as her mouth parted slightly and froze there. He stared, as the yellow dress she always wore turned crimson. He stared as her ever-present smile left her face and went somewhere unknown.
Jay thought about how he would never watch her run gleefully through the fields in town again.
Amadeus regarded Connie apathetically and nudged her limp body with his spiked boot. He raised his brow and turned back with a hungry expression. "Bring him forward."
Their father was pulled from the crowd by two soldiers and shoved to his knees in the sand. He did not struggle, nor he did not say a word. He glared at Amadeus with cold and hateful eyes, but not once did he look upon either of his sons.
"Wait! Please don't do this." Riley begged. His words were broken with panic.
The commander's crown of teeth glinted as he ignored Riley's words and grinned, "I have been coveting moment this for so long."
Amadeus crouched in front of his father, who stared back with unwavering eyes.
"Dad…" Riley whispered into the night, and just as the sound had crawled out into the air the knife was plunged into the man's heart all the way to its hilt.
His eyes widened, as if he had not been expecting to feel any pain. He opened his mouth and Riley thought he would finally speak. Yet he simply coughed and red blood splattered forth and painted Amadeus's face, and Amadeus grinned in response. Their father raised his head to the sky and gazed up at the stars as blood drifted from his chest and coated his body. Then he fell to the ground with a thud and did not move again. He offered no last words, no apologies, and no last act of courage. He simply died quicker than his son could comprehend.
Riley gasped and began to sob as he looked away from the bodies on the ground.
"Now, for his children."
Jay's heart sunk down to the core of the earth, screaming in fear all the way down. His brain spun as it tried to make sense of the scene that unraveled before him. Each pulse beat faster by the second as it prepared to do what was necessary to save himself and his brother.
"No. No you can't do this. Please don't do this." Riley's young voice shook as he pleaded to be heard. The two were dragged to the middle of the circle. The bodies had been pulled away as to not take away from their own performance, but the extensive pools of blood remained.
Riley was pushed before Jay who now rested before him on his knees. Terror flooded him when a blade was forced into his small palm and he quickly threw it to the ground like the object itself was rigged to explode.
Amadeus chuckled and thrust the knife forward again, "You will kill him. You will atone."
"I won't do it!" He yelled, tears streamed from his eyes and sobs racked his body. Jay reached for his hand, but he pulled away in panic.
"Riley…" Jay said quietly, his voice surging forth all the memories the boy had of that very voice calming him, supporting him, and laughing with him. He could hear his voice soothing him after he had a nightmare. He recognized its deep and familiar rhythm as he reminded Riley to do his homework before he gathered his farming tools and left for the day, working for hours while Riley waited by the window for him to return.
Riley looked down at his brother, whose expression was surprisingly calm.
"It's okay." He whispered and Riley sobbed again.
"I can't… I can't do it Jay." Riley couldn't think, his lungs were getting smaller by the second. "I can't breathe Jay, I can't breathe." He whimpered and looked for anywhere they could run.
"It's okay Riley, you're okay." Jay reached up and took Riley's smaller hand in his own. His skin was warm and his grip was strong, he tugged on Riley gently.
"No…" Riley whimpered. "No Jay, no you can't let this happen."
Jay shook his head and Riley sobbed, "We were supposed to get out of here Jay. Don't you remember? We were gonna to live on the water, remember? We were gonna have flowers." Riley's words were cut off when a cry racked through him again. "Jay you promised me."
Jay squeezed his hand. "You'll get there, Riley. I know you will."
Riley snatched his hand away and cried out, "I don't wanna go without you! You promised!"
Jay's defeated expression filled him with anger, anger that Jay would just let himself die. "You promised me, Jay!" Tears streamed down Riley's face and his nose began to run.
"You, you made life worth living." Jay said quietly as he searched Riley's face, his eyes saddened at his tears.
"Jay, please do something. Please make this stop." Riley begged. He felt doom descending down around him like big heavy waves of water that rose up past his chin and crawled down his throat to fill his insides. He wanted to paddle and swim against its presence, yet he found himself doing nothing but sinking.
Slowly Jay let go of Riley's hand, and Riley felt all his stability slip away.
On the side not visible by the Legion, Jay reached out and grasped the knife in his own hand. He offered one last small smile.
"I'll never stop loving you, no matter where I am." He murmured, and jerked his hand forward, pulling Riley's limp hand with him and jabbing the blade into his own heart.
Time stopped as if it were just as shocked as the witnesses themselves. Riley opened his mouth to scream in agony, yet no sound came as he dropped to the ground. Somewhere Amadeus was laughing. Riley crawled to his brother's side and held Jay's head in his small arms.
"Jay!" He tired to yell but instead merely squeaked.
They could have made it, if they had just run away, if they had known.
Jay looked up at Riley and smiled. Riley's lips were chapped, and Jay wondered if Riley had been getting enough water. He had meant to dig another well. He thought he had more time. He felt his body begin to slow down, like his blood had been replaced with sand. His lungs closed tighter and he shuddered in Riley's arms.
He hoped Riley would be able to find water himself, but who would help him build a well if he needed to?
Jay felt his body stiffen, he knew he couldn't move anymore. How strange it felt, to have spent his whole life wishing he could stop moving, and now that he could he didn't have enough time left to rest. He reached a hand up to ruffle Riley's hair, but it stopped and fell to his side before he could make contact. A tear fell from Riley's eyes and hit the skin of his face. He closed his eyes and felt Riley shake him.
"Jay, wait." He cried, "Jay, please don't leave me here."
Jay didn't want to leave, he didn't want to go anywhere without Riley, but he was leaving nonetheless.
He fought to stay just a moment longer, just one more moment with Riley didn't seem like too much to ask, but it was.
He looked into Riley's eyes and breathed in. And then Jay was gone.