Blake slowly opened her eyes. All she could see was darkness except for the light shining through the cracks of the train car. As she was suspecting she was alone, she heard the door open. Out came what she assumed was a warden for a prison. All Blake could do was watch.

The warden stopped and turned to the wall. He looked down and started talking to it. Blake raised an eyebrow and moved a little closer. Upon further expection, she noticed there was a man, probably in his mid-fifties, dressed in all grey, looking down from the warden. As the warden kept insulting the man, the grey cladded man eventually looked up and gave him a sly smirk. The warden mocked him once more before turning around.

He never got the chance to move any further before the man in grey stood up and hacked the guy in half with a hidden machete. Blake stood there in horror.

Blake felt her heart race, her face slowly dripping with sweat. She felt as though she couldn't swallow. The grey cladded man the looked at her and smiled one of the most murderous smiles she had ever seen. Blake wanted to move... But she couldn't. She was too petrified to move.

"What's the matter~?" the man asked. She felt her heart stop. What was this feeling? She couldn't figure it out fast enough. "Do I sense a strong wave of fear in you~?"

Was that it? Fear?
If so, then she hasn't felt this in a very long time.

"I'm sorry, deary~. How about I put you out of your misery~?" and the man shot her.
Three times.

...

...

Blake woke up in a jolt. She felt the ground and could feel sand-

Wait.

Sand?

Blake got up and could feel the blazing sun beat down on her. The feeling made her uncomfortable despite wearing dark clothing all the time.

She looked around and found herself on the 'battle ground' from yesterday. Her mind told her that everyone was dead, even...

No.
Not him.

Blake looked around, feeling that same feeling she felt from that first dream. She soon spotted something lying on the ground a few yards from her. She took a few steps closer to the unidentified... body. She found that the body was dressed in black, had long black hair, and seemed to be of a slender stature.

Her heart immediately stopped.

"Butch?!"

She ran over to his body faster than a dog running to its master joyfully.

As Blake came to Butch's lifeless body, she turned him over and became consumed with silent agony when she saw how bloodied his face was. "B-Butch? Can ya hear me?" she begged. She shook him a few times. "Butch! C-C'mon! This ain't funny!" Tears began to fill her eyes. "Come. On! Wake up! Please!" No matter how hard she tried, she could never get Butch to respond.

Now feeling desperate, she looked up from him and around the field. She stood up. She ran. "Help!" she screamed. "Help!... Somebody!... Anybody..." she cried out, hoping for someone to come. But all hope was lost. "Help..." she muttered. The tears finally escaped her eyes and flowed freely down her face.

The tears were of not only sadness, helplessness, and despair, but of anger and guilt as well.

Blake slowly walked back to Butch's body. She went down on her knees and collapsed onto his chest. Blake cried her tears of sadness and anger. That was all she felt she could do at this point.

Until she heard a pistol's safety click back that is.

Her eyes widened and she quickly raised her head off Butch. Something inside her gut told her not to turn around. Blake barely swallowed. She felt the barrel of the gun on the back of her head. Her breathing hastened as her heart raced. She heard a voice say: "I'll just send you down to Hell. Where you rightfully belong~."

And he pulled the trigger.

...

...

Blake woke up again. This time, she had absolutely no idea where she was. All she could see was darkness; and all she could hear were countless voices. She felt the feeling again. This time it didn't affect her much on the outside as much as it affected her on the inside.

She heard a voice; and it was none of the ones filling the dark abyss. "I finally caught up to you, Blakely~. After all these years," the voice said. She recognized the voice. "J-Joe?" she said. The same voice chuckled. Afterwards, a hazy light appeared in front of her and just like so, Joe materialized right in front of her.

The fear feeling grew stronger in her. How was he alive? "Wh-What er ya doin' here?! Wh-Why now?" Blake questioned. Joe only smiled and asked her, "You thought I was dead~?" She hesitated but nodded slowly. He continued, "Your little massacre had somehow missed me by a long shot~. However, I will tell you now-"

Blake somehow turned her head and could see arms grabbing her and restraining her. She paniced as she struggled. "I admit that you did a very fine job with the killing." Blake stopped struggling and looked at him. He got closer to Blake's face as he kept on going: "If you must know, it wasn't your friend Lamia that told you to do it..."

What?

Joe grinned murderously like she had seen in the first dream. He leaned down and whispered in her ear: "You and Lamia are still, to this day, under my influence~."

Her eyes widened in horror and disbelief.

Before Blake could act, the arms restraining her pulled her into the darkness. She screamed for them to stop. She wanted to struggle out of there, but they took a hold of her real good. She wanted to look an see who exactly was holding her back. She gasped in fear when she saw the burned and marred faces of the people who were once her family. Her mother laughed demonically as her uncle and father clasped her mouth shut. They then forced her head back to Joe. Tears were once again filling her eyes and flowing down her face.

"So you see the result of your finest work~?! You see what our minds don't think about once we commit these acts?" Blake wanted to yell, "No! No! I get it! Let me go!" but all that could come out of her mouth was a whimper. Joe's face darkened. "As of now, nothing will save you-" he underwent a horrific transformation into a monsterous cross of a spider and a scorpion.

Now Blake can take spiders and scorpions alone; but having a crossbreed of them was a different story.

Her heart rate was rapidly going up. The tears of fear flowing like a waterfall down her face. Joe raised a claw and was ready to strike down. "Nothing will save you from Hell!"

He struck and stabbed her.

...

...

Blake gasped in horror as she jolted straight up. He face was covered in sweat, her body shaking. Blake felt very warm and threw off her jacket. She examined her surroundings and saw that she was back on the train and that her gang was asleep... Or she thought they were.

She pinched her hand to make sure she was awake for real and not dreaming again. She felt the pinch and gave a shaky sigh of relief. Blake stared at the ceiling for a moment while muttering to herself: "Okay. It was jus' a dream. It was jes' a dream. Jes' a dream..." But now, Blake felt the urge to breakdown right there. Her bottom lip quivered. She curled herself in a ball and gently rocked back and forth. "J-Jus'... Jus' a... A dream..." she whispered in tears. She cried softly.

...

...

Something was bothering him. No matter how hard he tried, Butch couldn't get back to sleep. He gave up and opened his eyes. He looked up and saw that it wasn't anything in his car. Just a bunch of sleeping drunk gangmen and nothing else.

Butch stood up and slicked his hair back and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. He thought about that gut feeling for a moment before quietly exiting the car. He slid the door close and hesitated before the next. He felt the gut feeling grow. Butch took out his knife and slid it through the peep-hole, not wanting to disturb anyone of Blake's gang at first. He got it to open and he slid it just enough to see inside.

Butch didn't see anything until he saw the girl curled up in a corner with her head on her knees. His look concerned, he put his ear up to the peeper and could hear a faint quiet cry. His heart tugged and he slid the door open. He closed it and silently stepped over her gang to check on Blake.

Blake didn't look up and didn't notice Butch's presence when he knelt down in front of her. "Y'alright, Blake?" he muttered to her. Blake shot her head up and saw the worried look on his face even in the dark. She didn't want Butch to see her weak side and snapped, "I'm fine! Nothin's wrong!" and turned away from him.

She still felt his eyes on her and she turned back to him. She could read in his grey-blue eyes that he knew that she was consumed with fear. Her angry look quickly became a look of apology, anxiety, sadness, and deep fear. Blake put her head back down and said in a muffled voice: "No... No I'm not..." and cried again.

Butch immediately thought of a way to talk to her personally. "Here. C'mon," he said getting her on her feet. He put his arm around her and held her close. He knew that the first car behind the engine was empty and also knew that Marty and Sid probably wouldn't mind them being in there.

Once they got in the car, Butch sat the both of them down in silence. Blake never looked to him but Butch kept his eyes on her the whole time. He spoke up: "Wha' seems ta be th' problem, kid?" She still didn't make eye contact with him as she hesitantly told him about her dreams. "...It... I jus'... Jus' had three dreams, all at th' same time..." Tears quickly came back to her eyes. Butch nodded and said, "Alrigh'. Wha' happened?"

She explained her first dream with her first encounter with Joe and the prison warden. She carried on, "...Th-then he killed the guy... Ch-chopped him im half..." Butch was silent as he put his hand on her shoulder and asked her to simply keep going. Though the second dream made her want to breakdown, she mentally slapped herself to stay strong and tell him what happened.

"R-Remember tha' incident with them Comanches?" she asked. Butch nodded, clearly remembering that. Her bottom lip trembled as she explained, "...I was... The only one ta live. E'ryone else was dead-" Blake began to breakdown for real, making Butch feel even more worried about this. "-includin' you!" she finished before crying. Butch was shocked by what she had told him. He gently gripped her arm and pulled her right next to him. "What...?" he said softly. Blake nodded. "I... I screamed fer help... But no one came. Then... I dunno who it was, but somebody shot an' killed me again...!" Butch cupped her face with his other hand and wiped a tear from her cheek. She looked up at him and he had a soft and worried expression.

Blake felt like she couldn't finish telling the last dream before crying. "I... I dunno where I was... B-But someone I knew was there-" "Who?" She hesitated. "My... My uncle J-Joe...!" From that Butch cringed almost and pulled her close to him to the point where she had her head on his chest. "An'... An' I realized somethin' about him..." she said in between sniffs. Butch never said a word but she knew he was looking down at her. "...After all this time... The son-ova-bitch ain't nothin' but a damn sick liar. An' I trusted him!" Butch remained silent and allowed her to finish. "I... I thought he-he... Joe-Joe forced me ta kill 'em! He only wanted their damn blood fer whatever th' Hell he wanted! He-he even wants me dead! The... The asshole! He-"

Blake couldn't take it and broke down, burying half her face in Butch's chest and clutched onto his coat. Butch sat there in thought for a moment before putting his arms around her saying, "It's alrigh'. It's alrigh'." Blake spoke up again, this time, a little angier: "I cain't believe I fell fer every damn thing tha' snake ever said! If all he wanted was my dead body, then why th' hell did he let me go?!" She beat his chest as she said this. Butch honestly didn't mind it. He was kind of used to that.

"I shoul' be dead now! I ain't worth the shit I used ta be! I-"
"Blake."
Blake stopped.
"Blake. Look at me."
She didn't look up.
Butch put his hand under her chin and got her to look up. He then cupped her face and used his thumb to wipe the tears from her eye. He sighed and said, "Ya gotta quit blamin' yerself. All that'll do is jes' drag ya... An' it ain't gonna make anythin' better. All o' that's in the past. You cain't do nothin' 'bout it." Blake rested her head back on his chest."Besides: Remember what I said back at Clarton?"

She looked back up at him and back down. She thought about it for a while. "I gotta learn ta let go an' move on?" she asked. Butch smiled sweetly at her and nodded. "Exactly," he said. "An' if you even think Joe would get anywhere to hurtin' ya-" he held onto Blake tightly. "-he'd hafta get through me before gettin' over to you." Blake remained silent. "An' I ain't lettin' no damn jack-wagon like him do somethin' like that to a girl like you," he finished.

For years, Blake never would think of hearing words like that from her own father, much less a cannibalistic outlaw like Butch Cavendish.

She let the words seep in quickly before her breathing got shakey and became teary eyed. "Y-you actually...?" she said quietly. At first, Blake didn't think he heard her, but the next thing she knew, Butch had his coat around her and had embraced her again. All was silent before he uttered: "Every word of it."

Of all things for a father to say and mean, Butch had done it all. She never knew the feeling to feel safe around a father and not like she doesn't exsist. She whimpered. "Now wha'?" Butch heard her. She collected herself and gave him her answer: "I... I jus' ne'er really had parents. They all gon treat me like a slave. Not like I'm a human bein'."

"I don' understand why people like that would be heartless to make you a slave...," Butch said, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. After a few moments of silence, Butch told Blake to get some rest. Blake began to close her eyes when she said, "Ya know, from what I heard about you, yer kinda cold an' a heartless ass to... Well pretty much alotta people." He raised an eyebrow. "But from what I've been seeing... You've been like a dad to me more than anythin'. And honestly, that kinda meant alot ta me," she ended with a grin and fell to sleep.

Butch couldn't believe what he had just heard. Him? A dad? He never even thought about that connection with her. His train of thought got cut off once he heard the car door open. He rested his chin on her head, tilted his head to where it looked like he was asleep, and waited. He knew it had to either be Marty or Sid that opened the door since, obviously, they were the only ones wide awake and monitoring the engine. He heard the door close and he relaxed and gave a sigh of relief.

He kept his chin on Blake and messed with her hair momentarily.

...

...

Marty checked on the car in which he thought was empty. He opened the door and found Butch holding onto Blake like she was his lifeline. Marty reported back to Sid. "Is everythin' alright?" Sid asked. "I think ol' Butch an' Blake 're asleep in th' next car. Didn' wanna wake 'em up, ya know," Marty replied. Sid nodded. "Alrigh' then."

Sid turned his head back to the front and the two were silent. Then, Sid spoke up: "You think Blake won't trust us after we take her ta Joe an' Cole?" Marty shook his head; "If only she found out we were only doin' this ta save ourselves. You heard wha' Joe did ta Pappy all those years ago." Sid knew exactly what Marty was talking about. He and Marty could only watch as their mentor and father-figure got butchered right in front of them eight years ago.

"Once we take her ta him, he promised us our freedom," Sid noted. "Yeah, but, Sid, not alotta people do truly mean that kinda thing," Marty debated. Sid nodded. "Yeah, I know..."
"An' honestly, I'm startin' to feel a lil' guilty for doin' this. She shouldn't deserve to die like this. I don't think it's fair for what he did to her."

Sid kept maintaining the engine. "I know... So am I..." Was all he said.
The rest of the trip was silent.