She stood at the bottom of the sloping hill, and raised her head to watch the summer storm clouds gather on the horizon. The wind grew stronger, dusting the tall grass around her feet, and increased it's strength as the clouds darkened. She watched as the grass began it's hypnotic wave, the rolling blanket of green rippled around her in its flight from the wind. She was startled by the first flash of lightning well up on the hill, it shot from the sky in a jagged line to the ground, and even from this distance, she felt the earth quiver underneath her bare feet. The thunder rolled across the sky, and she thought to herself how odd, thunder not diminishing? not growing quiet before the next blast of light from the sky? No, that's where it came from, as she looked up again. The herd of horses crested the hill, slicing the ripples of grass in their path. They galloped down the hill toward her, chased by the storm. Her feet remained fixed to the ground, despite every effort and signal from her brain to run, run, run. The frightened animals screamed as the lightning filled every space from the earth to the sky. Their eyes rolled white in their heads, and the foam from their flanks sprayed her as the first of the herd streamed past. The dark clouds above boiling and choosing their next target, light not unlike the blast from a rifle, and still they ran. Hooves cracked to the coronas, legs broken and dragging, the herd split and ran around her, the thunder of their movement shaking her, but still she could not run, their eyes mirroring her panic and their sweat mixing with her tears and the rain that whipped them all mercilessly..."Miz Dolly!" Samuel shook her, "Miz Dolly, you got to come on!" Elizabeth jerked back to consciousness, gasping and clutching the arm in front of her. Her eyes met Samuel's, he grabbed the rifle from her lap, and she leapt to follow him from the porch. She ran behind him as he fled across the yard, her blanket shaken loose from her shoulders, it fell to the wet ground. Samuel was a good two heads taller than she, with a stride to match, and he was giving her no quarter. Her bare feet pounded the ground and she squinted in the rain, trying to keep sight of the lumbering back in front of her. When they reached the edge of the woods, they ran along a deer trail, and the trees grabbed at her gown and hair, but she had not the breath to call Samuel to wait. Blood from the slashes on her arms, legs, and face, mixed with the rain and stained her, she ran.
When she reached the end of the wooded ground, seeing the clearing before her and the mill road to the side, she wondered a moment in her flight where Samuel was, then a strong arm shot from the depths of the darkness and caught her.
"Miz Dolly," he panted "Here, be quiet, look..." he motioned towards the left of the clearing, and she saw them all. Three saddled horses danced nervously under the trees, her trees, William's trees. The men astride them lighted eerily with the glow from swinging lanterns, and the fourth horse was held suspended in the bouncing orbs of light. On the fourth horse sat a terrified young man. Centaurian, they appeared as one creature with two pairs of frightened white eyes as the lantern bearers swung around them. There, in the light, a rope, twisted from the neck of the youth to the limb of the tree."Dear God," thought Elizabeth, she crouched low beside Samuel, taking the rifle back from him as he withdrew his pistols. As she steadied herself to take aim, she jumped at the noise from behind. Three rapid gunshots echoed in the night. Elizabeth turned back towards the source of the sound, her farm, then whirled as she heard the screams in the clearing. The riders acknowledged the gunshot signal by taking the reins of the fourth horse and running with it. She saw the young man fall against the slack of the rope, almost slowly, like a feather falling from a hawk's wing to the ground, then the jerk and snap that traveled the length of the young man, a wave that ended in a flip of his feet, shaking him free of his earthly tether.
"NOOO!" she screamed, standing against the rain and riders. Samuel reached out to grab her, but it was too late. The rain had made her slick and by the time he reached, there was nothing to hold but air. She ran to the edge of the mill road, shouldering her rifle as she ran, then she saw him. Matthew Stanford led the group of three, and as the horses lumbered towards her on the road, he looked Elizabeth in the eye, smiled, and tipped his hat as his horse ran past her towards the Miller farm.