Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series)

by Martin Cogburn

  Soon, Jason’s frustration began to escalate. It seemed as though Tyler was just using him as a work horse. The question was ever present in his mind – when was Tyler going to begin teaching him how to climb?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jason could feel the fingers of the night digging its claws into his back as he fought his way through fog and darkness so thick it threatened to choke him. Not a leaf stirred. There seemed to be something very strange about the forest around him, for no other life-form could be detected in it. If he could hear a bird chirp or see a rabbit hop across his path then, at least, he would know that he wasn’t completely alone. But no, those were creatures of the day. Maybe he would see a raccoon, or a baby fox – or something that was a creature of the night… but still not scary.

  Then through the fog, standing right in front of him, Jason saw a lamb of pure white. It turned and joined him on his journey, walking along by his side. Off in the distance, a lone wolf gave a spine-chilling cry. Shortly, two others joined in its choirs of mournful song. In a langue unknown to mortal man, they howled their eerily beautiful, ghost-like melodies. The lamb stopped and turned towards the haunting sound. He stood as still as a statue for a moment then slowly headed off in that direction. Jason didn’t want to be left alone in the foggy darkness, so he had no choice but to follow.

  They traveled far together, Jason and the lamb. High and low they searched, looking for the answer to a question that would end their quest. Their trail narrowed before opening up into a clearing. There the lamb stopped with its ears pointed forward, focused on the other side of the small meadow where the trail began again. From there, walking in rank, like the ghosts of fallen soldiers, shapes began to emerge from the fog.

  A low pitched, quite howl sounded as across the clearing the wolves came… one on the right, one on the left, and one leading the way, out front and in between. The two in the back led a human, female captive. Bound by a rope on each wrist and a wolf pulling on either side, her arms were slightly spread apart as they pulled her along. The woman’s face was lowered towards the ground. Stray locks of her long dark hair covered her face, keeping her identity hidden. Judging by the features he could make out, Jason could see she was young and beautiful… and so helpless.

  As the wolves approached, the lamb did not run, nor did it show any sign of fear. When the lead wolf drew near, it bowed down at the feet of the lamb. The other two, clutching the ropes of captivity in their mouths, followed suit by drawing up one paw, arching their backs and lowering their heads to the ground. The young and beautiful woman, ensnared by ropes and sharp white teeth, dropped to her knees exhausted with her head still lowered towards the ground.

  Seeming to no longer be aware of Jason’s presence, the lamb stood with his back to him while looking down at the wolves. It lifted its head high, arrogance and self-importance showing in its stance. It took a proud step forward, and a gentle breeze began to blow, softly toying with its wool. Dread filled Jason’s heart. He could feel terror in the wind. The woman captive lifted her head and looked right a Jason, her eyes full of sorrow and fear.

  Jason had only one thing in his life that he would rather die for than live without… and there she knelt before him. “Misty!” he tried to call out, but for some reason, he was unable form the words.

  She couldn’t speak but seemed to be trying to tell him something as she pulled his gaze with hers down to the lamb. The wind shifted in the forest, and it seemed as though some slumbering evil had been awakened. It came from behind Jason, tugging harder and harder on the lamb’s wool, blowing the hair back from Misty’s face. She looked from the lamb back up to Jason, and her eyes begged him to understand, but he couldn’t. The truth would have to wait to be revealed.

  Jason tore his gaze from Misty back down to the lamb. As the wind blew harder and harder, its wool coat seemed to be coming lose. Pieces of hide began to flap until, finally, the lambs entire coat was lifted, blowing away with the fog. Now, Jason knew what Misty had been trying to tell him. With sharp teeth and the eyes of a predator, the companion who had traveled the long and lonely road with him, the innocent lamb, was, in truth, another wolf.

  “Misty! Misty!” Jason tried to call out again and again… but no sound came from his lips. Some supernatural force seemed to be holding his words captive.

  Jason felt himself being shaken back and forth. All the images seemed to be spinning and blurring together. He lashed out wildly and felt his fist make contact with what he hopped was one of the wolves. It seemed to give out a grunt that sounded very human… then began calling out his name?

  “Jason! Jason!” the voice echoed inside his head. What was that awful squeaking sound?

  Jason set straight up in the spring bed and screamed, “Misty!” in a long, drawn out, lonesome cry.

  “Easy, Jason! Easy now!” a bug-eyed Tyler spoke excitedly from a distance as he clutched his side. Jason shuffled back against the bed’s headboard, like a scared horse backing into a corner. “Man, are you okay?” Tyler asked as he got a chair from the table and warily pulled it over to the bedside – though he did not come within striking distance.

  Jason didn’t reply or look at the horseman. His whole body was trembling with such intensity that the springs in the bed were responding in a squeaky, quivering sound. It was like he’d lost her all over again.

  “Misty,” Tyler spoke quietly. “Is that your wife’s name?” Jason just nodded without looking up. “Pretty name,” the horseman commented. Jason couldn’t agree more. “She’s in your dreams?” Tyler asked.

  “First time,” Jason answered.

  Tyler sat silent for a moment before beginning to ask an uncomfortable question. “Look, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’ve never seen anybody act so – so,” he searched for the right words, “the only way I know how to explain it is, it was like you had everything you wanted right before you,” he paused for a moment before adding solemnly, “and lost it.” He paused for a moment more as an enquiring look filled his eyes. “So, man, I gotta ask… what’d you dream?”

  Never raising his head or blinking an eye, Jason began. “I was lost in the night. Fog and darkness surrounded me.” He sat silent for a moment then, in a voice numb from the drain his dream had brought upon his mind, he went on. “I was all alone until a lamb met me in the fog and led me. I followed it, thankful to no longer be alone.” Tyler sat stone-still and silent, listening as the dream unfolded.

  Several minutes later, Jason reached the end and, in a voice numb from anguish, concluded, “And that’s when I realized that the lamb – the one I had looked to as my friend – was really my betrayer.” He was silent for a moment. “Oh well,” he muttered, realizing how bizarre it all sounded, “just a crazy dream, I guess.”

  “I don’t know,” Tyler spoke solemnly. “I’m not a spiritual man, but one thing I know for sure; sometimes our subconscious uses dreams to present a hidden truth. I wouldn’t completely write off the dream. Keep it in mind. It may come in handy.” He paused for a moment, seeming to be lost in deep thought. “I know this is a stupid question,” he spoke after a bit, “especially when you consider what you’re going through for her, but do you, um, do you love her?”

  “Yes, of course,” Jason responded in a voice filled with sincerity.

  “Jason,” the tall horseman spoke, a hint of sadness creeping into his eyes, “if you find a woman who’ll stick by your side, regardless of how crazy what you’ve got to do may seem, you have a true treasure.” He leaned forward as though to reveal some critical information. “The woman I loved was not a true treasure,” he said quietly. “She left me when I needed her most. But if your wife is a true treasure then don’t let her go without a fight.”

  He paused for a moment then added, “That’s what today is about. I want to find out how far you’re willing to go for love. I’m not real smart, Jason, but one thing I know for sure is that true love never quits. True love may fail, but it never quits. Today I wa
nt you to remember that, Jason… never quit.”

  “Yes sir,” Jason responded, unsure of what made today different.

  “I’m going to clean the stalls today,” Tyler said in a matter-of-fact way. “I have something special planned for you.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Jason asked with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety evident in his voice.

  “Go back to bed,” Tyler responded and, as a result, Jason bobbed his head back in surprise. “Rest. I’ll be back at first light to get you started.”

  Seriously? After his dream and Tyler’s speech, Jason felt like doing anything but resting… but Tyler was the boss so, after the tall cowboy left, Jason did exactly as he had been instructed. He did the “go back to bed” part any ways. The order to rest was an impossible order for Jason to follow at the moment. His mind did nothing but spin. Bits and pieces of the last week or two flashed in and out of his mind until he heard the clunk of cowboy boots coming across the wooden porch to his door.

  A knock sounded. Jason got up, quickly made his bed, walked to the door and opened it. The tall horseman stood with his back to him at the edge of the porch, leaning against a brace post as the first few drops of morning sunlight lit the sky before him.

  “Are you ready?” Tyler asked without turning around.

  “I hope so,” Jason replied nervously.

  “Me too,” Tyler responded as Jason walked across the porch to its edge and joined him. The tall horseman lifted a finger and pointed to the trail he had led Jason down every evening over the course of the last week.

  “You know the way by now,” he commented. “Run the trail.”

  Really? Was that what all this secrecy was about? Doing something he’d already done before? He could run that trail by now with his eyes closed. “Then what?” he all but scoffed.

  “There is no ‘then what’,” Tyler responded. “The trail is all there is. Run it. I want to see you come by the ranch at least once an hour. I catch you taking any short cuts, you’re gone.”

  “When do I finish?” Jason asked. Tyler looked at him but didn’t answer. “Well, how many laps?” Jason persisted.

  “Run,” Tyler growled. “Just run.”

  A bewildered Jason looked at his phone for the time before setting it down on the edge of the porch. After putting on his shoes, he jogged off down the trail. One hour? He’d show that overgrown nut under a cowboy hat how long it was supposed to take to make a lap around that trail.

  A while later, an exhausted and sweat soaked Jason came trudging by the ranch. “Forty-five minutes,” he called out victoriously to Tyler after glancing at his phone on the porch’s edge. Much to Jason’s surprise, the big cowboy did nothing more than give an unimpressed nod. Jason’s high spirits sank. At the least, he had expected some sign of approval. Maybe even a “Good job” or “Keep up the good work.” Instead, he got nothing.

  Worn out and beat down, Jason collapsed out of sight on the ground between his truck and the shed. He felt sick. Needed to rest a little. After a while, Jason rolled over and pushed up to his knees before crawling over to his phone. Dread filled his heart. He had spent the fifteen minutes he had gained, lying on the ground. In the shape he was in, Jason saw no way to make the trip in an hour… but images of Misty flooded his mind. He wasn’t about to quite on her, so down the trail he plunged.

  When he made it back again, there was a bottle of water, a bag of nuts, and some jerky sitting on the porch, but the first thing Jason grabbed was his phone. Yes! He had made it with several minutes to spare. He grabbed the snacks and water to eat and drink as he walked down the trail.

  Lap by lap, the hours began to pass by. And at the end of every lap, there was a bottle of water sitting on the porch of Jason’s shed, waiting for him. He was still managing to maintain his one hour curfew. Time after time, he raced against the clock. He wasn’t sure what Tyler would do if he was late. He wasn’t going to find out.

  At lunch, Jason found water, nuts and more jerky accompanied by some fruit. Again, he devoured the snacks while heading down the trail for his… what was this, his fifth or sixth time? Jason couldn’t remember. From what Tyler had said, the number of laps didn’t matter anyways. That was hard for Jason. He had always been the kind of guy to figure out exactly what need to be accomplished before setting out to get it done. If Jason could just have some sort of set goal, a time or a certain number of laps, then it would be a lot easier to remain motivated. The not knowing and not seeing the end coming closer was getting harder and harder to bear.

  An hour or so before sundown, Jason knew that at no other time in his life had he experienced such extreme and utter exhaustion. His legs seemed to be acting on their own. They just kept flopping out in front of him. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d fallen down and struggled back to his feet. He was slowing down. His time had slipped from the punctual one hour mark to an hour and fifteen minutes. Soon it was taking him an hour and a half to make the circle as with each lap his body shut down a little more and a little more. Had Tyler forgotten about him?

  He found a dinner of water, nuts and jerky sitting on the porch but grabbed only the water before heading off down the trail. He was too tired to eat. It was almost dark by the time he finished his next lap and, to his surprise, he found Tyler up close to the shack building a small campfire next to the trail. He simply looked up and handed Jason as bottle of water as he passed by. It was getting cold out.

  “I’m going to grab my coat,” Jason said as he rubbed his cold arms.

  “You don’t need it,” Tyler spoke calmly.

  Jason couldn’t believe his ears. No coat? “Are you serious?” he asked in dismay.

  Tyler didn’t acknowledge the question. He just continued building his fire as a coatless Jason stumbled off down the trail again.

  “You’re falling behind on your time, Jason,” Tyler’s voice called out from behind. “If you can’t do any better than that, you may as well quit.” But Jason kept going.

  When he finished his next lap, Tyler, wrapped in a blanket and sitting by the fire, looked at a pocket watch that he held dangling by its chain. “Come on, Jason. You’re slowing down,” he said with a sigh. “You’re failing. That last lap took you an hour and forty five minutes.”

  That was easy to say when you’re warm and sitting rested by the fire, not actually out there facing time and the elements. The words that the horseman spoke burned down in Jason’s soul. He was failing. He always failed. Why should this time be any different? He knew the answer to that question. It was obvious – Because of Misty.

  Jason shoved all negative thoughts aside. He couldn’t afford them. One leg in front of the other. Stay upright. Keep fighting forward. And so he kept going and made another lap through complete darkness.

  When he got back to his shed, there was Tyler still sitting warmly by the fire, but this time something had changed. Another warm blanket sat beside him, a bowl of soup sat warming over the fire and two empty soup cups were placed nearby. Jason could feel the warmth and rest that the things placed before him would bring.

  Instead of asking if those things were for him, he just stumbled over to the bottle of water that waited for him on the porch, grabbed it and crashed into the ground as he fumbled with the lid. A seemingly heartless Tyler didn’t appear to notice his troubles but just kept staring blankly into the fire.

  Jason downed the entire bottle with several pulls… Then realized he shouldn’t have done that on an exhausted and empty stomach. He rolled over in desperation and rose up on all fours before bowing his back as he puked the water back out onto the ground.

  Sitting up, Jason wiped his mouth and asked, “Is that good enough?”

  “Yes,” Tyler replied quietly, “that’s good enough.”

  Jason heaved a sigh of relief and started crawling towards the fire, the blanket and the warm bowl of soup seemed to be reaching out to him.

  “We’re you going?” Tyler’s steely voice froze him.

&nb
sp; “Um, to the fire… to rest?” Jason more asked than stated.

  “But you’re not finished,” Tyler replied, still staring into the fire.

  “I thought you said that was good enough,” Jason pleaded.

  “Well, good enough ain’t good enough,” Tyler said solemnly. “What’cha goanna do – get half way up the Tombstone and decide that’s good enough? Doing something ‘good enough’ is just another term for quitting.” He was silent for a moment. “If you’re satisfied with being good enough then go be it at home. If not then get going,” he said, pointing a lazily raised finger off down the trail.

  Jason was so tired that it took a little while for what was being said to register. When it did, the let down and disappointment were almost too much to bear. But with no other option than to quit, he pushed to his feet. As he did so, he lost horizontal bearing and stumbled forward. It didn’t really feel like he fell; it was more like the earth rose up and slapped him. One way or another, they collided.

  Jason lay there trying to remember which way was up. “If you were smart, you would just stay down,” the horseman commented coldly. “A little boy like you could never survive this… You know,” he added as an afterthought, “even a real man might not could. So why don’t you say those two little words that will put an end to all your suffering? I quit,” he spoke, laying the words out just in case Jason had forget them. “Just tap out. Submit. It’s really your only option ‘cuz boy, you’re beat.” He paused as Jason seemed to contemplate it.

  The tall cowboy went on trying to sell his idea. “You could just come over here… sit by the fire and try to regain your strength. I can take care of everything. I’ll get you some soup. You can stay the night. Rest. Go home in the morning to… what do you have waiting at home?”

  “A dog,” Jason muttered, still lying on the ground.