The Robert Stanek Short Story & Novella Collection by Robert Stanek

Author:Robert Stanek [Stanek, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reagent Press

Chapter Seven:

In and Out / Out and In

Ray did not wander far before the darkness gathered him in. He welcomed the night sounds. The night was a time of solitude, a time to feel and to reflect. In his thoughts he mocked himself, “My path is long”; he no longer felt smug. He couldn’t shake images of Old Bull and the probing eyes that were death, death to his dreams, and much more.

He sat still as a stout tree in a turbulent wind, contemplating images that spilled over into his thoughts. The bull had without a doubt sacrificed itself to save him.

He didn’t know why or how he suddenly came to know this but he was sure it was the truth, and the realization was a powerful stroke of awareness across the plain of his mind’s eye.

The stinging lay around him, though he did not feel its protective circle. In his heart, he mourned much more than loss alone. He had not retreated as far as he would have hoped, but instead, he had paralleled the stone land, following a jagged path between the In and the Out.

He wanted to turn away, but couldn’t. It wasn’t noble thoughts that brought him back or the wish to continue on, but preservation of his land and his home, thoughts of revenge. He wanted to make the outsiders pay for what they had done. In his eyes, he saw the head of the bull over and over, slumped lifeless, pierced through. If Braddick wanted prizes, Ray would give him a prize—one the outsider never bargained for.

Darkness did not mean sleep for Ray this night, not sleep in the true sense. He was idle, his eyes were open, and he could have been asleep by all other appearances, though it was his thoughts that kept him awake. It was an incessant, monotonous thought, from which there was no escape.

Countless hours drained away. He was oblivious to the passing, even oblivious to the minute flashes of heat against his face. True had slipped through the cage’s door and ran back and forth under his chin, trying to gain his attention without luck. Ray was in his own realm though and it would take much more to break him from this state.

True was frightened and trying to warn Ray, and if Ray had been paying attention he would have known this. The man had come some hours after Ray had settled in, and he had not left.

True flashed his tongue again, adding to it a soft hiss. A harsh noise following this drove True back into frenzied prancing. Ray shifted uneasily, though he did not return from his reverie.

Images crossed before his eyes and voices, both familiar and unfamiliar. The visions frightened him while at the same time they attracted and lured him in. It was the same vision he had had back in the safety of Second Village, except now it had changed somehow, twisted, if that were possible. Yet throughout it all, the voice remained, urging him to continue and not to give up.

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