"Silasoncetoldmewarpushes peopleinandout yourlife ." "Butyoubetteroff  guessingonthewind thantryin'to figureit." "Truerwordswasneverspoke." "Theheropartislater, afterthelabelingpart." "Inthemoment, itjustbe somecowering andsomethatchoose tothrowtheirlivesaway ." "Later,maybesomeofthose thatthrewtheirlivesaway , theybetheheroes." "Morethanhalf amillionmenwas killed bysnipers,smallbattles andskirmishes ofjustafew dozenmen madeupabouthalf ofallthekilling." "I curse the ground of this northern soil, and given the chance, I will not touch this land again." "Anything can happen here." "We are abandoned by hope." "Therebe'smisery, andtherebe 'smisery that changes your life forever, andputsyouona newpath." "Thatparticularmisery wascreepingin thewoods thatnight andit'swhatbrung thembrothers, andallwhattheydone  heretonightshade." "Canyoulookatme?" "You're awake." "Are you all right?" "Can you look at me?" "Son, son, look at me." "Look at me, come here." "Here." "Can you look at me?" "Can you sit up?" "Come on, you can do it." "Sit up on me." "Come on." "There you go." "You and your brother have been unconscious for five days." "Frankly, I'm surprised you even survived." "You have a very serious infection." "I have seen this, a half a dozen times during the war." "It's overwhelming your body's defenses." "Soon, even daylight will make skin feel like hot coals are on it." "There's no medicine to help you." "But... there is one thing." "They're only rumors that I've heard, but they're very persistent." "When you make an offering to him, by no means make it modest, but I think he's... he's the only one who can help you." "You have to go to Lazarus notch and see the potion man." "Now lay back down, easy, easy." "That's good." "Cannibals." "Wordtoldit startedinthe prisoncampsduringthe war ." "Sometookto it to survive, somedidn't." "Butitgavethem strength,power,spreadpast thewallsof thecamps." "Now some was sheriff, deputies, homeguard,drifters..." "We're the home guard, fellas." "We need to see all of your release papers, right now." "...whateverthey wantedtobe called, theywasalljusteaters." "Whoa." "This is not our fight." "Likeopiumsmokers, theycouldn'tstop." "Theywasaddicted tohumanflesh." "All right, then." "I think..." "I think that should just about do it then." "Poison." "What?" "Poison... it's all that spills from your lips, Stokes." " Poison and lies." " Shut up, Lester." "Things ain't perfect for no one." "But the war is over, and if we're going to keep things together here at eye tooth hollow, it's best we abide an understanding with Royce and his nightwalkers." "I don't got much use for them." "Now, let's be clear." "We're all in a world of trouble if those negroes up and clear off." "This truce is critical for us to have an abundant survival." "And this truce is..." "Is designed for one thing, and one thing only, and that is to keep our labor in place, so as we all can be fed." "Are we done?" "Well, mister, hurry-up, why don't you just repeat, back to me, the rules, so as we can be certain there are no misunderstandings." "Royce and his ghouls go first." "Me and mine are left to their cast offs and their leaving's." "And?" "The only ones who what get took, are the troublemakers, and lawbreakers or, generally, any uppity niggrahs, or anybody what dares fall on the mighty emperor's bad side." "This truce between you, your men and Royce and his people, is the law." "And more important than that you are accountable." "Well, I thought we might need them for cover." "You were right." "I'm sorry I was right." "Hilde, I want you to have..." "Try... try not to talk, Jim, save... save your strength." "Howcouldtheyknow the horror, and river of blood, thatwouldbe  releasedbythatdeed?" "Stick with the plan, little brother." "We've already put them through enough." "Seems like red hat and his men are headed in the same direction as we need to be going." "We'll catch up." "Thereasonwe gotyou  allouthereinthis breeze, is' causey 'allisrespected, andcantalktotherest." "Mr. Lincoln says you are all free to leave, go where you will." "But he don't know that we all depend on each other and understand each other in this hollow." "You can all shove on, but when the cotton's grown and ready for pickin', what will you have?" "Same thing we all have right now... nothing!" "When you're out there on the road..." "What harming' bandits are waitin' out there to prey on you." "You... you've got to stay here." "See... see through the season." "Sheriff has heard of reports that speak of cannibalism." "Blood drained corpses of unfortunate and innocent travelers." "We need each other despite whatever yankee laws are saying.... ...about freedom." "Therewewas, andtheretheywas , tryin'totellus tokeepslavingfor 'em  likeitwas brisketandbiscuits." "Andtheydidn'teven cracka smile." "What about us cropping' cheap, like peanut and hemp?" " We make bigger coin wit' that." " Eye tooth is cotton." "Well, ain't y'all tired a picking cotton for Jimmy crack corn yet?" " What did he say?" "" " I'm telling y'all." "We get a lil' piece a land, a lil' piece," " we all throw in together." " I don't believe this." " It's good dirt around here." " This boy, he just doesn't understand." "We get one good bumper, that all we need." "We can build from there." "Is you moonshine crazy!" "All flavor of spookies runnin' round here, you tryin' to join the Chuck wagon?" "Take your ass home 'fore they chop you up." "I want you to take care of that boy." "Just do it quietly." "Home guard, huh?" "Ain't y'all heard, the war's over." "You scream pretty, real pretty." "Praytogod ifthebrotherscameforyou." "Butgod,don'tlisten tonononsense." "Two whiskeys." "We're holding the paper for a nightshade farm, mister, here in eye tooth." "Do you know who we can talk to about selling it?" "Well, now, boys, you can't sell that 'cause I own it." "Well..." "That doesn't bother me." "You see we have plenty of your type around here." "And that paper's no good." "No one will buy it from you, 'cause you don't own it." "Our paper says different." "And we done quit bosses for good, mister." " Much obliged." "'Neighbor." "If you're interested in some whore cabins, just east of here, they're clean and they're white." "But ifin' you boys is hungry, there's some nigga whores down in the holler, and you can do what you want with them." "You see we have ourselves a truce here in eye tooth." "Nightwalkers like you will not touch any eater, and the eaters won't touch you." "You know, I hope them pantied ladies at least as friendly as the welcoming committee outside of town." "Well, come on then." "You ghouls ain't gonna be the first ones to cross my path." "Hey, why you lettin' your horses go?" "Somebody's been flooding' this land." "These fields..." "Covered with creek silt." "This could be good land but Stokes keep flooding' it to help irrigate his own land." "Right 'Cher yonder." "What we going to do, hilde?" "We don't have nearly enough for the potion man, we can't sell this, and we don't have enough for planting or labor." "Look, the way I see it, i could bandit for the money." " No..." " That feller in town, Stokes, thinks he owns our land." "Well, I could kill him, take what he got." "You know that'll 'cause more problems for us then it'll solve." "Look, we wouldn't have nearly enough time to sell the farm before we run." "Then we'd just be on the run with no money, instead of just having no money." "Yeah, well, either way, he ain't getting nightshade." "This here farm is our only chance." "Come on, now, you got another solution?" "Oh... oh..." "Looks like maybe the solution to our problems been living rough right here." "We're the charmington's." "My name is Beau, this here is my brother, hilde, and this property is ours." "I told you they didn't look nothin' like Stokes' men." "Stokes is done lording' over what ain't his." "Hush up!" "If Stokes ain't dead, he ain't done lording'." "Well, we got paper that say different and so do the law." "We ain't got nowhere else to go 'cause them free-work niggrahs..." "Made it where an honest man can't work." "We been tryin' to hold up waitin' for Jim everette to make it back, so we can work with him, help him get nightshade up and cropping' again." "What's your name squatter?" "My name's Ferris, Ferris hoagland." "And these here is my people, even if it ain't by name." "Well Ferris, Jim everette is dead." "Nightshade is ours now." "Now, y'all can run off if you want to, but come first rain, we fixing' to start croppin' and make a go of it here at nightshade." "Now, we gonna need all the money from the crop, but if you work the land with us, we'll deed this farm over to whoever done helped us." "Are you sayin' we work this season for free, then y'all gonna give us the land?" "That's right." " We 'spose to believe that?" " We ain't cropping' with no niggrahs!" "I ain't your boss, squatter, but you don't like who I hire, you can take your chances out on the roads or the woods or in town." "Or y'all can stay and work." "We only planning' on staying this one season, then we going home to our people." "You work or leave." "What y'all fixing' to crop?" "Hemp, peanut, tobacco." "Whatever we can afford the most of." "Charmington's huh?" "Well, y'all definitely ain't from around here." "I need to order some supplies, Mr. Jenkins." "I got cash money." "The charmington brothers want to buy some hemp seed." "Much obliged, sir." "Sir, you still wantin' me to take Stokes' order out to his place?" "You's the most ignorant fool" "I've been displeasured to ever know." "I can't take your money, Silas." "You better take that money and ride on." "Exactly what you think gone come of you foolin' around with them nightwalker?" "Everybody want a piece of you right now:" "Stokes, them plantation boys, Lester hunt and the rest of them eaters." "If you want to live, boy, you best to move on." "I can't leave, Silas." "And I got me some land to crop." "Land to... what?" "Boy, you been drinkin' corn liquor from them jugs." " Move on, griff." " It's for true, Silas." "Now, them brothers, they ain't got no money to pay, but they going to keep the crop money and pay whoever crop with them, with the land." "And you fool enough to believe them spookies?" "I need you to listen to me on this here, Silas." "Now, you ain't seen them when they said it." "Now, these spookies here is... they's different." "They's different than everybody." "They's different, Silas, and they paying with the land." "Now, this here be's our chance here, Silas." "Now, we gonna have to share the farm with those squatters and whoever crop with us, but it's gonna be ours." "Our land, Silas." "You hearing' me, old man?" "Our land." "What's on the list of supply?" "How you figure to get that there, with Jenkins how he is?" "No, we, we can't get the seed from Jenkins, gotta go to bachelorville, or lake Weir for that." "About two weeks 'til first rain." "But they should wait, so Stokes don't get no word of it." "But I could get everything else on here." "And some of our people to work." "We gone have us some land." "Yeah, boy..." "We gone have us some land..." "You got some nerve drawing down on me, niggrah." "I was gonna field dress you quick, with my ax." "But, now..." "You let me pass, or I aim to kill the first one of you Jimmy's that's bold enough to stop me." "Would you look at this." "I want to thank you all for coming to my humble planters party." "We have plenty to rebuild something better." "And, free or not, we don't have to worry about our slaves leaving' us." "Because they are deadly afraid of Royce and Lester's men..." "Goddammit, Lester!" "Now, go ahead and play, play something nice." "I said play, you malingering bastard." "Now, folks, there's no need for you to get upset about this, we're all used to" "Lester and his boys with a wild streak." "We have, on the veranda, some spiced custard and mint julep." "Please, go this way, and I'll be rejoining y'all, momentarily." "Beautiful dress." "I told you, did you not hear me, that I would not abide you disrupting these festivities?" " Now..." " This goddamn ghoul" " was moving funny..." " ..." "Take your boys and go." "Now!" "This ain't right." "This ain't no kinda balance a power like you talked about." "Them ghouls is practically running the show." "We ain't on even ground here with this thing." "I have four fresh coloreds waitin' out by the barn for you boys." "You can have your pick of three of them." "Mm-hm." "We just getting Royce's hand me downs." "They ain't nearly as fresh as you say." "Hardly got no strength left in 'em." "They's fresh enough." "Now, the barn, Lester." "Come on, boys." "Please... please accept my deepest apologies." "But you can't completely blame Lester, now, can you?" "Those charmington boys, they launched an unprovoked attack on Lester and his men yesterday." "Now, they may not be local, but they must abide by the rules." "I expect those boys to be punished appropriately." "You just gotta get a feel for it, the weight, the balance." "You don't think about it, know the blade will hit." "Outta help the next time you run out of bullets." "All right, then." "That's the spot." "In the hollow of the neck." "Use two hands, you do not stop pressing." "Your blade should be looking for daylight on the other side." "You're pretty good with that." "Yeah, well, I had to work at it." "You're a natural." "Go on back now, I'll catch up." "Yes, sir." "Yeah..." "I had to work at it." "It's pretty much all I'm good for, is killing men..." "And trees" "farther from home with each and every one." "Your dresses have been particularly beautiful lately." "Do you have a gentleman in mind?" "I noticed the men gathered outside the stables, daddy." "Odd sort for honest man's work." "I hire them sometimes." "Some on, some off." "Just depends on our needs is all." "There are quite a number of them." "These new men wouldn't have anything to do with the people" " planting down on nightshade, do they?" " Now, Philly..." "I just don't see the point of pushing everyone off Jim everette's place." "The hard facts are that we need to hold on to everything that we've got." "And that includes nightshade and the flood grounds." "You realize, we are surrounded by thousands and thousands of freed slaves?" "We're out-numbered nine-to-one." "Now, what happens if they get the notion for revenge?" "They're going to go after what families first?" " But, daddy, what if..." " Sweetie, there are no what ifs." "Daddy, your freed slaves don't want any revenge." "They just want to try to find their families and start some new kind of life, and these men you've hired are not farm hands." "This is not the time for this discussion, 'cause it's upsetting my digestion." "The war is finally over and if we can just..." "No!" "No." "Now..." "Sweetie, Jenkins promises me that he'll have Silas run those dresses right up here as soon as they arrive." "I think I'm ready for that chicken now." "Thank you." "Thank you, Henry." "You are my very heart, Philly." "My very heart, we must remain together on all of this." "Now, listen..." "Listen, they'll be no more of those late night walks." "I want you to stay close to daddy, now." "And no more of those little clandestine charity meetings." "Please, put the silverware back." "We'll soon be without any eating utensils." "If I cannot alter my fate, as you say, daddy, then what do utensils matter?" "Or anything else I may choose to do with my time?" "Henry, please tell Marie that the chicken is particularly excellent tonight." "You look like you're still ready for the war." "For the squatters." "My canning skills ain't the best in eye tooth, but last season's berries were the best in years." "My name is Stokes." "Philomena Stokes." "Of course... my name is beauregard charmington." "My brother hilde and I, we own nightshade." "You're a beautiful man, aren't you?" "Do you have a nickname your brother or family uses for you?" "Beau..." "Beau." "Well, Beau..." "Beau," "I'm going to figure one out for myself." "Welcome to eye tooth hollow, Mr. charmington." "Welcome to my home." "You're welcome, Michael!" "You and miss philomena gonna get married now?" "Hilde..." "Hilde." "Hilde!" "You know what, brother, you are not the god of sky and light and steel and battle." "Things was right lively out there that day." "And they took their chances, same as us." "I owe, hilde." "Jim everette, at camp, tried to help me, wound up dead." " Shit, you tried to help me, you end up bit." "Poisoned, with the blood fever, just like me." "Now, I owe, hilde." "I owe and too many people been payin' my bill." "You're leaving out the part where you done saved me." "May we come in?" "Come on." "So..." "Where are we going with this?" "We're not going anywhere." "Stokes believes that he can control everything." "Which is really, not unlike a muskrat, lost and drowning in a mighty river, while anointing himself the river king." "The two of you are all that matters." "I mean, the blood feud with the eaters is nothing." "They're so focused on the short term gains of their digestive mistakes, they're blind." "Most of them can hardly even speak anymore, and that only portends much greater and irreversible changes if they don't alter their diet." "We don't care nothing about them." "As well you shouldn't, in the end, they're hardly a threat." " Just don't let them mass up on you." " You have a point?" "Stokes wants me to kill you both." "But I think that's a bad idea." "And it would be a violation of the truce." "Not his, mind you, mine." "I think you're far too valuable to be treated as livestock." "Get out." "Just hear me out." "The two of you are now... gods." "But you still think you're mortal." "I mean, you've been handed Olympus, and you want to toil the fields as farm hands?" "But around you, all the land, and all the people, all of this is ours." "We want you to join us." "You heard my brother." "Now, did you see that, gentlemen?" "I told you they had it in them." "I'm gonna allow your little commedia Dell'arte to play out." "And in the fullness of time, there will be clarity." "Jasper, I found out your mother was sold to the Robinson family in cutlerville, Virginia." "Bessie, i haven't been able to find anything out about Herman just yet, but I'm going to keep trying." "Little Sarah I'm sorry..." "Your daddy died three years ago, as a runaway." "He was trying to get back here." "Trying to get back to you." "Jasper..." "This is for you." "This is from my hope chest." "I want you to use it to get back to your mother." "Go on, now, go on." "Shh..." "You know, he's right." "Y'all done for, boys." "No... no, wait." "Wait." "Wait... it's not..." "It's not what it looks like." "I'm sorry!" "Come on now, Beau, let's get these bodies." "Doyouwanttofeel  thesunon yourskinagain, mychild?" "Now, make sure you get the squatters and the new families working up on the east fields by tomorrow morning." "Then, tomorrow night, me and Beau, will finish up what they didn't get to." "Yes, sir." "That be 'bout the last field." "We'll be ready for first rains." "You know, I'm grateful for what y'all doing here." "Hell, I'm grateful for every lil' thing." "The war done took most everything." "That's what war do, mostly." "But right here on the tail end of that, there be's somethin'." "I never much cared nothing' much about... family and farming." "And we was never rich enough to own nobody." "And, now, I'm grateful for that mercy." "You see, everything they told us we was fightin' for we thought we was fightin' for, that was a lie." "Yeah, the men who started this war, well theyjustas easilykill awhitesoldier, astheydo ablackslave." "Ora lameploughhorse." "Yeah, we was nothin' to them." "Yousee, thewarfunnylikethat ." "How it be teachin' and takin' all at once." "I done learnt a few things by it." "Like what I'm 'spose to do with this?" "What I'm 'spose to do with freedom?" "That keep me up most nights." "Since I come here to nightshade, well, I sleep just fine." "And so do the rest." "You should know that." "Now, if you find things happen... or things change, your plans change, well, you should know how these people have taken a shine to you." "Well, you all will always be welcome here." "You know, if something changes." "Well... goodnight, gentlemen." "Goodnight griff." "That mug made griff a regular chatterbox." "Vino veritas." "What?" "Now, y'all in violation of the law." "Nightshade farm and these woods is mine." "I laid claim to it openly and notoriously." "If you persist with this insurrection it will end up in the fires of hell." "Now, who shot at my pig?" "Who was shooting at my pig?" "Why you chasing my pig?" "We only feeding' our families." "Thems wild hogs don't belong to nobody." "Hallelujah!" "I have found the reason for our mutual misery and discontent." "You see, there's simple misunderstanding." "I own all the pigs, and the possums, and the rabbits, and the water, and every blade of grass." "As a matter of fact, you're breathing my air, without my permission." "Collect their weapons." "Nightshade has been the flood plane of my ancestral home for years, and what you're doing is upsetting the Jewel of eye tooth, with your unsightly rabble." "And this will be your last and only warning." "Our deed is legal and proper." "Leave now, or we'll kill you." "I don't think so." "Why don't y'all come out and model those bush robes i heard about?" "So you think you going shoot us all from your little hidey holes in the trees?" "It looks like our bunny rabbits have grown teeth now." "All right, then." "All right." "But I will be back!" "We will be back." "Clear!" "The very definition of, "you shall show to them no mercy."" " Hilde..." " Double the patrols." "This is all we got." "Maybe our chance is one in a thousand, hell, maybe a million." "What if the doc was wrong 'bout the potion, man, huh?" "What if they're ain't no cure for what we got?" "No, we... this our one chance." "Our one chance to go back..." "To what we was." "We're going to make it back." "We could just kill Stokes, take he got." "There'd be plenty for the potion man then." "Right, of course not." "Your delicate constitution won't permit us banditry." "And nor yours, prior to fighting confederate." "That's your problem, little brother, you think the war's over." "What are you doing here?" "Are you afraid of me?" "I've seen many nightwalkers in my life." "That's not what I asked you." "I am." "You seem to be a very violent man, Beau charmington." "And, yet, you do not try and escape." "Perhaps you see something else." "Perhaps you see who I really am." "Shit!" "What in tarnation you do that for!" "Ihope..." "Thatthempantiedladies are at least as friendly as the welcoming committee outside of town." "These our men went done gone missing." "Go get everyone." "Right now!" "You goddamned ghouls gonna pay for this." "First rain's a coming and it's been two weeks since those boys stole my property." "And they're still on it." "They're still on it." "And you have done absolutely nothing to get them off." "Absolutely nothing." " Well, I tried to bring them into the fold..." " Into the fold!" "...but they're not exactly ready yet." "Into the fold!" "Into the goddamned fold!" "Have another drink, filbert." "It is what you do best lately." "The misery of your inaction..." "Makes a man want to imbibe." "Royce..." "Royce, I'm giving you 'til sun up tomorrow to remove those boys from my property." "And that's your last chance." "If you haven't done it by then, i know someone be more than happy to push them off." "This is wrong, Lester." "Stokes is wrong." "Go on and tell it to the trees ghoul," "I don't take orders from you." "Stokes has got you out here, attacking nightshade and you mean to tell me it's never even occurred to you that this is senseless, not to mention dangerous." "How many men of yours are you willing to sacrifice out here tonight on the altar of Stokes' whim?" "If Stokes says it gets done, its gonna get done." "Stokes can't last like this, Lester, and you know it." "You can be the new Stokes." "Let's move." "Obviously, I've lowered myself to the height of a fool." "Nothing good can come of it, brother." "Good already has." "The day suits?" "No time." "Get up!" "Get up!" "Get up, you big son of a bitch!" "They sun poisoned." "We gotta get 'em to the sleeping boxes." " Come on." " Come on, Beau." "Come on, we got you." "What the hell is wrong with you boys, huh?" "!" "I mean, you just..." "You..." "All you're going to do is get yourselves killed!" "Ain't nobody ever been good to our family like you, Mr. hilde." "Sorry I didn't stop that man." "I was going to..." "Or die tryin'." "Sorry he weren't quicker with the rifle, Mr. hilde." "I got you, come on." "Come on, Mr. hilde." "Come on, Beau." "Niggers and squatters..." "On the grave of my granddaddy you will rue this day." "Death is too good for you." "I'll give you the money in these pockets, if you kill that worthless ghoul." "Go back to your daughter, Mr. Stokes." "Say her name one more time." "Come on." "Philomena." " Just say it one more time." " My, my." "You are drunk, filbert." "But I encourage you to continue upon your course of action." "Some actions do have consequences, however." "I... never want you to say the name of my flower... ever." "Ever." "Listen, those boys, they're gonna start planting come first rain." "But I want you to forget about that, you cowards, you groveling sniggering dogs..." "...And just remember the fact, that those night walking freaks have hired our slaves and are paying them with land." " Land?" " They're paying them with land." " With land." "" " No." "And what other kind of acts, grotesque acts of..." "And disgusting, vile..." "Why they... they're living together with white people, how many of those white people are white women." " Women?" " Niggers and white women!" "Come on, now, this is our town." "We need to enforce whatever laws are necessary or becomes necessary to uphold and support our rights and traditions." "And them nightshade brothers' ain't eating' those niggrahs from down in the bottom, like we gots to." "No, no, them two brothers is eatin' us." "Me and my men." "They're huntin' us down like pigs on truffles." "Picking us off one at a time!" "Now, that is a violation of the truce that we're 'spose to have with the ghouls!" "You wait a minute, Lester..." "And that niggrah, griff, helping them to hunt us down!" "You're right, Lester." "You're right, and I agree." "Now, it's up to you to make a decision, you must decide on what side you're going to be on." "Or by god..." "Well, I'm not going to fight against you, but you better pray to whatever deity it is you got." "Pray that the new blood's wrath will be merciful, but I truly doubt it." "Lester, I want you to gather up all of our friends." "All those undead, goddammed eaters and deputize 'em all!" "Go find them in every county, every place you find them, bring them in here and deputize them." "Well, it's about goddamn time!" "We will set... now for a correction in nightshade of biblical proportions." "We are about to scourge eye tooth hollow of all those race-mixin' niggers and ghouls for the very last time!" "That's right!" "We must fight!" "We must fight for our rights and traditions!" "I'll be back from bachelorville by tomorrow night with the seed for planting." "We'll get the seed in the ground before first rain." "There are two of us, you know?" "I always told mama you could count." "I want to go with you." "Griff can't protect nightshade alone." "I'll be fine, just mind the store for a day." "It'll be safe for a few days, at least." "Stokes is gonna need time to build up more men." "That'll be at least three days, i expect." "It's now or never, if going to make a go of our harvest." "You and griff will be okay." "I'll be back in one night." "That girl's making you soft." "Now, come on, now, don't get all womanly on me." "Brother..." "I will not say this to you again." "You're tender-hearted." "You talk too much and do too much." "Like you got something to prove." "You are also the finest man I've ever known my whole life and I envy you, your Mercury heart." "You got nothing to prove, Beau." "For whoever cannot see these obvious and wonderful qualities in you, is not worth the letters and breath to dissuade." "And I cannot imagine the station at which I find myself, without you by my side." "You a bear, Beau." "You a goddamned grizzly." "Hiya!" "I want you both on the eastern field tonight." "I'll take the Meadow with Beau." "Mr. Jenkins say you want to see me, Mr. hunt." "Yes, we do, Silas." "Yes, we do." " Have a seat." " Yes, sir." "Have a drink." "Yes, sir." "Daddy!" "Daddy, where are you?" "No..." "Philomena!" "Hey..." "Philomena!" "Shh, shh..." "Hey, tell me what's happening." " Hey, hey, what's wrong?" "What happened?" "What happened?" "It's just..." "It's this whole place, Beau." "It's eye tooth itself." "There is no love here." " Shh..." " Except with you at nightshade." "Tell me about what you're going to do when you leave here." "Tell me about your family." "As soon the crop comes in, we're gonna have enough money, we are going to go see the potion man." "All right, we are gonna..." "We're gonna be human, again." "We're gonna go home." " Why can't you go home now?" " Because I..." " Before things get worse." " 'Cause I ain't exactly right." "All right, I don't know what i am, but I am not what I was." "You're fine just how you are." "Shh..." "Well, there's my brother, too." "I ain't never heard of a nightwalker making that transition back, not ever." "We aim to try." "What is this, Beau?" "It's my family." "My family's gone, Beau." "I'm all alone." "No... hey..." "You are never alone as long as your family is near." "Yessum, I believe today is the day of first rains." "Too many of them for us alone." "Hilde must have been wrong about them gathering' men so quick." "Hold them off long as you can." "I'm going to go get Beau." "Run!" "To Silas..." "For conveying the proper message to our negroes." "Whiskey." "Goddammit, Lester, what the hell happened this morning?" "We did what you said, we poisoned the ground." "All high ground, you got all the crops?" " All of them?" " Yes, sir, we did." "Twenty large bags of lime and... acid." "I want a raise, goddammit!" "What y'all have promised us, ain't nearly enough for this madness." "Sure, sure, you earned it." "It was like them ghouls knew we was coming." "One of 'em got loose in that... that robe a his, and killed us or run us off who weren't already killed." "Now, where's the rest of your deputies?" "Are you not listening?" "They're dead!" "The whole thing went sideways out there, all of it!" "So, those charmington boys, they just run you all off?" "Uh, no, it weren't but one them in that bushy suit a his." "And those goddamned squatters did their part, too, and that niggrah, griff." "Less than a dozen a us survived, prolly less than half a dozen." "So how many of those others were killed besides your men?" "You weren't there, Stokes, you don't know what we was dealing with!" "Even your goddamned daughter showed up in that crazy mix." "If you have harmed a hair on my little Philly's head..." "Quit your threats, Stokes." "She wasn't supposed to be there." "The new men thought she was a squatter." "We done lost five men getting her!" "You fiends!" "There weren't but no other way to bring her." "She was like a bag of angry cats." "You have doomed us!" "You have doomed us all!" "These me are going to take you home now, Philly." "I am my father's daughter!" "And by my birthright, I am doomed with the rest of you!" "There will be a reckoning for all that we have done!" "There will be a reckoning for all that we have done!" "There will be a reckoning!" "No!" "You men..." "Just get her home!" "There will be a reckoning!" "There will be a reckoning!" "Reckoning!" "Where's the other brother, Lester?" "I have no earthly idea." "I want you to ride to every burg and briar patch you can, find every man with a firearm and have them here tonight, have them here by the town hall, tell them I will pay $100 and five acres of land." "We're going to end this thing tonight." "One night's work." "That's all, now, get." "Come on." "I want you men to get down to Jenkins store and get all the wood you can get." "We're going to secure the hall for our families." "Now go." "My mama's dead, griff." "She got killed." "Can't find David." "I gotta go warn Silas." "They might be coming for him, too." " I want to go with you." " Find your brother." "I'll be back in a spell." "Go." "Beau was off with miss philomena for a spell, andwhentheycametoattack," "Iwentofftofetchhim sowecouldstandtogether." "I wouldn't let them mass up on you." "Where is she?" "The few what we didn't kill, they done took off with her." "She went with them?" "Not like that, she was kicking and screaming." "Yeah, I'm sure." "They poisoned high field with lime." "Therainsdonealreadywashed itacrossthewholefarm ." "There won't be nothing growing here at nightshade this season." "And... they killed Ferris." "And Silas, too." "Left him hanging out there in the middle of the town." "I'm sorry for your troubles, griff." "You a good man." "We know you and Beau needed this here money so we all throwed in." "It only 'bout $75, but it all the moneys we got." "You still gots to see the potion man so you could go home to your peoples." "That's some good seed stock." "Y'all keep it 'til next season, clean up the bad top soil from the rows, plough it under and come next season, you'll be good to grow." "Y'all are now the owners of nightshade." "Well, they just gonna run us off soon as you leave, Mr. hilde." "How we gonna stay and make a go of it?" "You can stay, griff 'cause y'all going to be the only ones left." "'Cause I'm gonna to kill anything bigger than a yardstick." "It's mine!" "It's mine!" "I curse the day you were born, you motherless cur!" "I curse you through the afterlife!" "May you rot in hell!" "My god..." "And I'm just gettin' started!" "Kill him!" "Get in there!" "Get him out of there!" "Get him out!" "Get in there!" "That's right, ghoul, we got him." "We killed your soulless brother." "And you ain't no goddamned different." "We gonna kill you, too." "I told Stokes it was a bad idea to go this way." "You don't know nothing of your new nature, do you, hildebrant?" "What happens when it's been too long since we've fed?" "We start to become handsome, beautiful." "Exquisite, irresistible." "The hungrier we get, the more beautiful we become to them." "That's an evolutionary development." "It allows us to predate more effectively." "Join us, hilde." "Let us show you our world." "You don't have to hide, you don't have to be alone." "Not that it matters, because I'm going to kill you all." "Which one of you fed on Silas?" "Waste not, want not." "Hilde!" "Hilde!" "Youcanhavethis littlespitof land, butI willseeyou again." "You want to feel the sun on your skin again?" "Yes, sir." "Do you want to be human?" "Yes, sir, I do." "Do you have an offering for me?" "Yes, sir." "Right here." "Come in."