Redwood County Jail, Redwood Run
BEEP! BEEP!
"Ugh…"
SLAP!
…
BEEP! BEEP!
"RRRRAAGGGH!"
GRAB!
TOSS!
SMASH!
Having lost her 5 extra minutes of beauty sleep to the accursed alarm of the table clock, now just a scattered mess of wasted wires and mangled metal on the floor, the bounty hunter forced her still tired eyes open as she begrudgingly began to pull her slumbering form off of the hard, cold mattress of her bed, the burning heat of the morning sun shining through the rusted window bars.
Wait a minute, table clock?
Bed?
Rusted window bars?
"What the…?" a hand held up to shield her eyes from the blinding sun as they trailed away from the window and started scanning her decrepit surroundings. The toilet and sink, the fold-in white beach chair and side table at the center of the room. Even the steel door that was blown off its hinges and lying down like a shot-up corpse just across from where she was, she remembered it all so clearly.
Murdoch's old holding cell.
"How the hell did I end up here?" not wanting to think about it at the moment, she swung her legs off the steel bed and planted her feet to the floor as if preparing to leave.
Only to stop at the sound of fumbling footsteps pacing towards her direction, followed by an annoyingly jovial voice.
"Morning there, friendo!"
…
"Oh God, no." although she had wished it to be anyone else, even if it was hillbilly Howdy, the bounty hunter forced herself to face the fat, foolish, sprinkle-bearded form of Redwood Run's failed attempt at a functioning law enforcement officer, Gorou Shimizaki.
Standing by the front entrance with a big smile on his face, and holding a pink box of a dozen donuts in his hands, some of which were already half-eaten .
"Did you sleep well?"
"I was going to, until you came rolling along." either because he did not hear that last part or because he was simply that ignorant, the sheriff sauntered his way to Zora's bedside before holding out the donut box, much to the bounty hunter's growing disgust.
"Donut?"
"Hard pass." she grabbed the nearest object she could find from her seated position: an unattended pinecone sitting peacefully by the window and without so much as a warning, the bounty hunter proceeded to take a large bite out of the brown cluster of seeds, chewing away and swallowing the contents.
As rough, dry, raw and generally tasteless as the pinecone was, it was still a lot better and surprisingly cleaner than to risk contracting severe salmonella from Gorou's contaminated confectioneries.
"Aw well, more for me, then." the sheriff pulled in the fold-in chair and took a seat, before proceeding to voraciously gorge himself on his dozen donuts, with Zora making absolutely no attempt to even try to suggest that he should slow down lest he choked on one of them as she simply took another hard bite of her pinecone before swallowing.
…
"I'll save us the small talk and just cut straight to the chase." Gorou momentarily stopped his furious feasting to look up at his guest.
"How the hell did I end up in your cell, sherriff?"
"Oh, your friend dropped you off just the other night." that caught her attention almost instantly.
"Friend?"
"Yep, tall lookin' one dressed in all black. Spoke that Mexican language the youngins seem to like so much and had these glowing red eyes. Did you know that humans can actually get red eyes? Huh, strange feller."
The bounty hunter's eyes widened at Gorou's description as a myriad of not-too-distant memories from the previous night came pouring through the back of her mind. Her near-total sacking of the saloon, her frustrations unleashed upon the Red Woods, and someone who was mental enough to brave those withered wild woods just to go look for her.
Someone who found her all alone and in anger.
Someone who fed her when she found only hunger.
Someone who silently sat by her side as she struggled to come to terms with one of the lowest points her life had possibly ever gotten and raised her right back up.
Someone… who gave her a feeling she thought she would never be able to feel again after so long.
"I can't quite remember what his name was though. I think it was… Nothing? No, maybe… No Good? No, that's not right either."
"Nada…"
Though it came as but a mere whisper, the sheriff snapped his fingers in confirmation of the name.
"Nada, that's it!" Gorou smiled in satisfaction as he recounted his meeting with the missionary to the bounty hunter.
"He carried you all the way from the Red Woods and brought you straight to my doorstep, you know? Held ya like a helpless little newborn when I first saw him with you."
"He did?" as unamused as she was that Nada would pick the county jail of all places to bring her to, Zora could not help the warm smile from forming on her lips at the thought. He really braved the cold dark night of the forest to bring her back into town?
But then, a startling thought sneaked into her mind.
"Wait… is he still here?"
"Oh, he actually left just as you were starting to wake up. Said he wanted to go out on a morning walk to get some fresh air." the sheriff seemed utterly oblivious to the growing glare on the bounty hunter's eyes, her body suddenly shaking slightly as if trying to hold back the urge to break loose and pound him to a pulp.
"And where… is he now?"
"Last I heard, he said he was heading towards Redwood Station b-!"
BURST!
Gorou did not even have time to blink as the bounty hunter suddenly blasted off from the bedside and out the front door of the office, grabbing her cowboy hat that was hanging by the coat rack and knocking the poor man and his box of donuts onto the floor.
"Aw, my donuts!"
—
Gods & Demons around the World - El Silbón
In the South American lands of Colombia and Venezuela, residents rarely wander onto the streets at night in fear of running into El Silbón. Tales vary on how this phantom came to be. Some say he was once a man who murdered his father for killing his fiancé. Others claim he was a spoiled brat who killed and ate his father. But regardless of how it began, the story ended the same: with his grandfather lashing him and setting his pack of dogs upon him. Now El Silbón wanders the night, looking for more victims to add to his collection.
—
Redwood Station, Redwood Run
…
"Dios Mio."
"Yep, that's pretty much the gist of it all."
Nada did not expect much from his mostly peaceful morning walk across Redwood Run. Day to day banter and business between bustling rural residents, sure. Soft and subtle sounds of nature, any day of the week.
Coming face to face with one of Zora's nearly-murdered victims and sitting down with him for a small matter of casual chatter over a box of dry Honey Nut Cheerios? Not so much.
But here he was, seated in of the station's many empty benches and having an almost hauntingly normal conversation with a man who was almost killed by his female friend.
All because she wanted to make a twisted example out of him for her former superiors.
"I knew the kind of work she does requires her to do things like this, but to hear it from the actual victims…" the man seated next to him, Howie Honeyglow, placed a hand onto the missionary's shoulder, somewhat calming whatever dark thoughts he may or may not have conjured up in his head and averting his attention to him.
"I won't lie and say that that was an experience I would ever wanna live through again." he then flashed a firm smile as he munched on a handful of Honey Nuts.
"But if there's one thing I learned on that day…" he pulled out a large steel wrench from his baby blue overalls and rested it on his shoulders.
"It's that if you're ever gonna make it in this world, then you're gonna have to give a hell of a whole lot more than what you got at the beginning and never stop building it up, especially when you're the one who doesn't have a serendipitous superpower to save your ass."
A relatable statement for many of the world, the missionary himself included as he gave the foreman a knowing nod in agreement as he too picked away at his hand full of Honey Nuts.
"So what are you going to do now?" he swallowed a piece of the cereal as Howie tipped his yellow hard hat.
"Got a call from the company about a contract in Sweet Jazz City. Seems like the Banzai Blasters are up to their old tricks again." Nada raised a questioning eye at that.
"Banzai Blasters?"
"Just a bunch of lowlife street thugs looking for a reason to cause some trouble." The foreman's brows furrowed irritably as he recalled a clear memory.
"I should know, they made a real mess out of this town for me and my crew to clean up just a couple of weeks ago."
Nada grimaced lightly at the idea, not that the fact that Gorou's lack of participation in maintaining any semblance of order in the town made it any easier for him to stomach it given his time with the sad excuse for a sheriff just the other night.
WHISTLE! WHISTLE!
"Last train heading for Sweet Jazz City! All aboard, last train heading for Sweet Jazz City!" at the conductor's announcement, the two men looked at each other for one last time, the missionary being the first to extend his hand.
"It was a pleasure to have met you, Howie." the foreman smiled warmly in return and held Nada's hand with his own and gave a firm shake.
"Likewise, Nada." he handed him his box of Cheerios. "Consider what's left of the Honey Nuts and a parting gift from a member of the Honey Bee Labor Union."
His eyes then steeled in slight seriousness for a moment.
"And please… help her." the missionary nodded in response, his smile never leaving.
"I will. I promise."
"Good… well, see you later, then."
And with one final tip of his hard hat, Howie left the bench and boarded his train, turning around just as he stood on the steps one last time to see the missionary holding up a hand in farewell, the foreman smiling in return before he entered his car.
WHISTLE! WHISTLE!
With a steady stream of hot steam pumping from powerful pistons, the limbering locomotive slowly chugged and churned as it pulled its line of lumbering passenger cars and caboose along the steel set of rickety tracks. Before long, the train had driven down the deep end of the forest and disappeared from the station, leaving behind a trail of settling dust and steam clouds.
Fading away to reveal the full feminine form of Zora Salazar standing still from the other side of the tracks as Nada remained where he seated, her widened brown eyes locking instantly onto the missionary's soft red ones as the two stared at each other in simple silence.
Not a single word was whistled.
Not a single motion moved.
Until the solemn smile of the missionary made the lines on his lips.
"Hello, Dawn."
Scared as she might have been at what he would think of her now, the bounty hunter could not help a sad but visible smile of her own at his name for her.
"Hey, Blood Eyes."
She made her way to the bench he was sitting on, himself while holding the half full box of Cheerios shifting to the side to give her some space before she too seated herself down, the smiles still clear on the pair's face despite the awkwardness.
"Breakfast?" he shook the box of Honey Nuts to her, to which she held up a hand in polite refusal.
"It's alright, I already had somethin'."
"Not from Gorou, I hope." a mirthful giggle was shared between the two and for a moment the tension in the air seemed to be alleviating.
But Zora knew these distractions could only drive away from the elephant in the room for so long.
"Nada, I know what you're thinkin' about." the missionary found his smile falling into an understanding frown. He knew he could not have hid himself any longer than needed.
"Sí, I know."
"How much did you hear?"
"Well, seeing as how it took you about 2 and a half hours to get here, all of it. More or less all of it, I suppose." the bounty hunter breathed a long sullen sigh in response.
"Figures." she turned away with a light grumble and frown before forcing herself to look back at the missionary, unsure of how to handle this.
"So, what are ya gonna do with me now?"
A small pause lingered as the bounty hunter awaited for anything inevitable. Anger, disgust, sadness, maybe even outright hate, she would welcome it all knowing she deserved far worse.
And then, a palm rested upon her shoulder.
"I was hoping that I would be able to get your side of the story as well. If only so I can fully understand what had happened that day."
She blinked momentarily, seemingly unable to believe it herself. Even after hearing a first hand account of one of her victim's near death experiences by her hand, straight from said victim's mouth, she might have added, he was still willing to sit and listen to her side, just as he did the night she met him in the forest.
He was too good for her.
And for that, she smiled.
"You want the long version or the short version?"