Hangman Chapter 22

Chapter 22-

Sonsee sat by the water’s edge, her knee drawn up to her chin. She stared into the pitch-black depths and played with her hair longingly. The light had a lifeless, empty quality to it, as if flowers would grow better in the shade. The few remnants of grass that remained were more like thin strands of silk poking up from the scorched earth.

“Sonsee.”

She looked up at the source of the sound, she shared her brother’s bright green eyes. Gallow stood in the fractured darkness cast by the skeletal branches of a petrified tree. Their gaze held for a moment before she looked down at her knee again.

“Excuse me?” she said in a flat, polite tone.

“Janna got a scholarship to the Hilltop Medical Academy.”

“W-what?” she was lost.

“You know how she wants to be a doctor?”

“I thought so-”

“Yeah, well Hilltop is the best Medical school in the country- maybe the world- for doctors.”

“Well, that’s great-”

“I’m taking her cross-country to the capital, I want you to come with.”

Sonsee’s melancholy was broken.

“You- you want me to-?”

Gallow had a bright, charismatic look in his eyes, like he could face down anything; it was the kind of look that inspired a kind of confusion and excitement in her.

“You’re a tough girl, Sonsee,” he proclaimed bluntly. “But even I can see that you’re taking this whole thing pretty roughly- and I’m stupid. If you came here to find the Spring, and it’s gone, then you don’t have a goal left to go for; some people get like that and say ‘I’ll just live for enjoyment’ or ‘love’ or something like that, but they just don’t know where the next big thing for them is.”

Her eyes widened as he spoke.

“I’m not gonna speak for you or tell you that you don’t have anything to live for, but I’m extending the offer to you- take it or leave it.”

“I- I-” she was speechless. Gallow fell to his knees and slumped over.

“Alright,” he muttered weakly. “I acted like a man for twenty seconds, now I’ve run dry.”

Sonsee looked at him, then turned her head away and closed her eyes.

“To Hilltop?”

“Yes.”

“...You know they don’t accept my kind of people there.”

“You can be our ‘guide,’ or whatever…” his voice was remarkably apathetic, he really was beat.

“I could be attacked, or distri… distinc…” she struggled to think of the proper word in his language.

“Discriminated?”

“Yes.”

He looked back up at her, she opened her eyes and met his.

“I read it in a paper the other day… there’s a movement to give a lot of tribes back their land.”

She scoffed. “I’m Atamape, I don’t have any business with other tribes.”

“That’s awfully cold hearted of you,” he replied. “Do you think this Garden is reflecting poorly on you?”

She was silent for a moment.

“Alright, ok, if you really don’t want to come with, I’ll go,” he had defensive, smarmy tone. With a flash, he slipped back into the space between distances and left her.

For a minute, Sonsee pondered their conversation, looking out over the water.

“That man is stupid…” she thought. “But maybe this place is… entering my heart…”

After a few minutes had passed, though time was difficult to quantify there, she turned her attention to another approaching figure, this one much shorter.

“Boy?” she called. Bleech slowly walked towards her and sat down, crossing his legs. Slowly, he began to talk.

“What do you think?” the boy asked, sheepishly.

“About?”

“About the whole… the whole thing about losing purpose?”

She paused and thought for a moment.

“Do you think you have a purpose?” she questioned him, finally.

He, in turn, thought about his reply carefully before speaking.

“No. If I’m going to be honest, I don’t really know why I’m alive.”

“You’re alive because of fate,” Sonsee sounded like she herself wasn’t sure of the answer.

“I just-” he wanted to fill the space with words; even though he didn’t know what should be said, he knew he had to say something.

“I just don’t know if that’s enough to live for,” was his eventual reply.

---

“Got your stuff?” Gallow called to Janna.

“Mhm!” came her affirmation, carrying two packed suitcases.

“Did you roll your clothes when you packed them?”

“Mhm!”

“It really does save space you know,” he lectured.

“I know, you told me all about it…” she bemoaned.

His own clothes were packed into a rucksack that he could sling over his shoulder. Gallow looked back to the wagon that would be their transport to Fenway, commandeered by Gabriel, the only man in town with enough skill and experience to properly drive the thing.

“You two all good?” he yelled in his gravelled voice.

“Yep,” came Gallow’s response. “Let’s load up,” he suggested to her.

“Room for two more?”

The two of them looked behind them. Sonsee-array and Bleech faced them, each of them carrying not but a small sack.

After blinking at the sight a couple of times, a smile curled at Gallow’s lips, which he tried to pull back, so as not to betray how happy he was.

“I don’t think you’ll add too much weight with yourselves,” he proclaimed.

His words hung for a moment.

“Good!” Sonsee smiled back. Bleech looked down at the ground, not quite happy nor sad.

They loaded themselves up onto the wagon.

“Everything in?” Gabriel asked for confirmation.

Gallow, a man still finding the meaning to his life…

Sonsee-array, a woman struggling to find her purpose…

Bleech, a boy who has lost everything…

And Janna, the girl whose dream has roused them all to make this journey… perhaps one across distance, but greater than all, one blazing across their spirits and minds…

The HeartBlitzCrossing.

“Yeah, we’re all here!” Gallow shouted.

The journey to Fenway was about a half-day’s travel by carriage. From there, they would be able to take the railway at intervals to get all the way to Hilltop, on the other side of the country. In total, the journey would take two weeks.

---

“Wow!” Janna couldn’t find any other word for the busy city. The last time she had been to Fenway, she had been only a few years old, and could barely remember its hallmarks: throngs of people bustling about, noisy shopkeepers promoting their wares, and towering buildings at least three stories tall.

“It’s a big city, I’ll give you that…” Gallow was trying to lead them through the streets to the station as best he could, but he had to constantly turn around to ensure that his companions weren’t getting lost looking at the various mundanities of city-living.

“Please,” he said, exasperated. “You’ll have plenty of time to look at stuff when you’re in Hilltop!”

Eventually, his skills at herding cats got them all the way to the station. The actual platforms were gated by attendants waiting to verify boarding tickets. Nearby were about five booths operated by ticket salesmen.

“Hey, I need four tickets,” Gallow requested after approaching one such booth. “Two adults, two children.”

The salesman peered behind him to see the party he was referring to. He eyed Sonsee for a moment longer before ringing up the tickets.

“That’ll be $172, sir.”

Gallow winced at the number, his heart dropped.

“One- one hundred and…?”

“Seventy-two dollars, sir,” the salesman confirmed.

“Y-yeah, yeah I got you…” Gallow was prepared with some money, but not nearly that much.

“What am I gonna do?!” he shouted in his mind. “Why is the railway so expensive?? Who in the hell can pay all of that?!”

“Gallow?” a small voice interrupted his thoughts. It was Janna, peering up at him, holding a small envelope in her hand.

“Y-yes…?” his tone was shaky.

“Is this enough?” she replied, handing him the envelope. He nervously opened the flap and peered inside: a stack of green bills.

“What in the-?!”

He pulled the bills out and began sorting through them frantically.

“I-it’s all the money dad saved up…” Janna offered, shyly.

Gallow finished counting up the amount.

“Here ya go!” he proclaimed, slamming the stack on the counter.

The salesman picked up the cash and sifted through it himself. After a moment of anticipation, he stared at the money, then pulled out four tickets.

“Two adults, two children,” he repeated.

Gallow handed a ticket to Janna, and then waltzed confidently over to Sonsee and Bleech to give them theirs.

“Have you ever ridden the train before?” Janna questioned Sonsee as they proceeded to the platform.

“Not before,” she replied. “I was too nervous to order a ticket myself.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I was…” she thought about her next words carefully. “Always by myself… I couldn’t tell if something was going to happen to me.”

Janna was silent for a moment; they arrived at the platform and stopped walking.

“Because you’re a native?”

Sonsee didn’t look directly at her, but gave an affirmative “Hm.”

---

“Oh, oh jeez, I’m going to be late…” a man rushed through the crowds at Fenway on his path to the ticket booth.

“One ticket- for an adult, please!” he asked nervously.

The salesman looked up at the man, dressed in a peculiar black suit speckled with thin dark red streaks and spots, almost like mold stains. His hair was messy and short, and his face was slim and feminine, his eyes were a bright blue that brought attention to his anxious disposition.

After receiving his ticket, he rushed through the gate to the platform. While walking quickly, he tried to read his ticket to find the approximate departure time, neglecting to notice the elderly woman crossing in front of him. He stepped right into her luggage, tripping and falling, nearly taking her down with him and spilling her bags on the ground.

“Oh- oh jeez, I’m so sorry, ma’am!” he cried, attempting to pick both himself and the luggage up.

“What in the sam-hell are you thinking, young man!” she shrieked at him.

“I’m sorry, I really am!” he exclaimed desperately, while people on the platform rushed about the two of them. He picked up one of the woman’s bags and again attempted to apologize, but was interrupted by the sound of a train’s engine roaring into the station.

“That’s-!” The train settled in and he frantically looked about.

“You can worry about that after you’ve picked up my bags!” the woman demanded of him.

He was distracted, his eyes darted back and forth across the boarding passengers until he saw them.

“One man in a black hat and jacket, a single gold streak in his hair!”

The woman took the bag from his hovering hand, there were still two more collecting dirt on the ground.

“You’ve got two more-!”

“Ma’am,” his voice was suddenly dead serious. “I don’t have time for this.” He looked back at her with a newfound, terrifying look in his eyes; gone was the panic.

“What do you mean-?” she could barely finish her sentence before he had taken a step away from her and vanished, leaving her alone with two bags on the ground.

---

The train had been moving for about forty-five minutes, the four had all situated their luggage in the private room afforded to them. Gallow placed his bag down and caught Bleech out of the corner of his eye, staring out the window. He joined him, watching the landscape fly by at speeds previously thought unimaginable.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Gallow asked. The boy was silent the entire trip, and had barely looked at anyone.

“Yeah…” It was a shallow response, but the boy had trouble formulating thoughts of very much complexity at this time.

“Sonsee?” Janna tapped the woman on her arm.

“Yes?”

“Can you take me to the restroom?”

She blinked at the girl for a moment before exclaiming a happy, “Of course!”

“Thanks,” Janna monologued as they left the room. “It’s just, I’ve never been on a train before, and there’s so many people here that I’m a little worried about getting lost or something…” her train of thought continued down the hallway, through two cars, and up and down a flight of steps.

After a minute of walking, Sonsee saw the restroom sign and stopped.

“Ok, here it is-”

She suddenly noticed that Janna was no longer by her side. She froze in her tracks.

“She was just here a moment ago- she was right behind me,” she frantically looked about. “There’s barely anyone on this car!”

Sonsee walked with haste to the door of the car, throwing it open and looking around, only to be greeted by passengers giving her a curious look; a native woman by herself on a train was something of a peculiarity.

Not paying any mind to their observations, she closed the door again and ran to the one located on the other side of the car.

“What is happening-?” thoughts raced through her mind.

She threw the next door open and walked quickly through the standing passengers, searching for Janna. The panic of losing the child was enough to cloud her judgement; she was typically adept at focusing through stressful situations, but rarely was such a vulnerable thing at stake.

As she reached the end of the car packed with people, each giving her odd and sometimes threatening looks, she suddenly stopped cold.

Standing at the door opposite her was… herself. An exact mirror duplicate stared at her for a single moment, frozen in time.

From behind her, a black shape began to materialize. All at once, as if stepping out from a curtain, was an arm, shoulder and head, covered in shadow. Gripped in its hand, so fast and close that it couldn’t be reacted to, was a combat knife, speeding straight towards her heart.