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JOHNNY REB IN 'SHADOW' Part 6
Character by Tim Frady Story by Wayne Clayton
October 1862
Johnny gripped the reigns tightly as Bullet weaved his way down the narrow mountain track. In the distance for the first time he could make out the dim lights of home. Tucked away about a mile out of Shadow lay the large timber framed mansion built by the Rebbeck Family. Handed down from father to son along with everything else the family owned.
With home firmly in sight he gave Bullet a final kick as he thundered over the wooden bridge which forged the gap over the now swollen mill stream.
Suddenly Bullet reared up beneath him as the horse fought to stop itself from proceeding any further. Twisting in the saddle Johnny pulled the reigns tight and tried to calm his faithful friend, but it was of no avail. Something up ahead had spooked him and no amount of reassuring would convince the beast to take another step foward into the avenue of trees ahead.
Johnny dismounted and finally managed to steady Bullets nerves. Slowly he began to lead the horse on but even now he was unwilling. Johnny peered into the darkness in order to see what had caused a horse who had faced cannon fire without flinching an inch to act up so.
The branches of the trees swayed in the wind which howled about them. And as they did so Johnny became aware that it was not only the wind which caused the branches to bend and groan. There in the shadows above Johnny he now saw the dark shapes swinging two and thro. Mingled in with the limbs of the trees were those of human limbs. Hung limp and lifeless. The lightening flashed and suddenly Johnny saw the full horror of it all. In that brief second he saw that each tree along the avenue bore it's own strange dark fruit dangling upon stalks of thick hemp rope.
Johnny's heart began to race as he now thought upon what lay ahead at the end of the avenue. He drew his gun and with hand shaking he cautiously made his way under the gaze of the dead.
Finally he left the avenue of trees behind and now before him stood his home. To his surprise he began to hear the sounds of laughter and music coming from the great barn at the side of the main house. For a moment Johnny feared that somehow the Yankies had slipped through the lines and caught them unawares but as he got closer it was clear that these were Southern voices he now heard.
Suddenly from the bushes he saw a figure race towards him. He raised his weapon to fire but before he could pull the trigger the figure called out to him by name. It was Sarah.
"Johnny!! Johnny!! You've got to stop him!! Please!! " tears streamed down her cheeks as she grasped Johnny's sleeve, dragging him towards the barn door. With each step she begged and pleaded for Johnny to stop them.
"Who did this Sarah, Who??" demanded Johnny but Sarah seemed unable to hear him over her own cries for help.
"Sarah, TELL ME WHO?"
"THE MASTER, JOHNNY, YOUR FATHER!!!"
Johnny froze and took a step back. His mind began to reel at the thought that his own Father was responsible for the horror in the Avenue. They had never seen eye to eye on things since his Mothers death but this was something else.
Sarah once more pulled at Johnny, bringing him back into the real world.
"Something 'Evil' has taken root in him Johnny, only YOU can stop him." she sobbed.
The next instant Johnny felt her push him in through the barn door and suddenly he was face to face with his Father.
The music suddenly stopped and all eyes were now upon Johnny.
The barn glowed with the embers of a roaring fire which cast flickering blood red shadows upon all that surrounded it. Upon the bails of hay sat a small group of ranking uniformed men, each with a glass in hand. And to their right a band of grizzly looking soldiers from the rank and file stood guard over a group of three chained black men lying heaped on the floor as lifeless as those outside.
Johnny glanced at the final figure. It was a man he recognised, it was Peter 'Ghost', not only a childhood companion of Johnnys but also the man Sarah had chosen as her husband. He now stood against one of the uprights of the barn wall, a rope about his neck pinning his head to the beam, and on his head sat half a bottle of whisky.
"W..W..What's going on here?" stammered Johnny
"Well, well ,well. If it isn't the Prodigal Son come home" said a voice from the crowd which Johnny instantly knew was that of his Father, Colonel John Rebbeck.
"What's going on here? he asks, War is what's going on here Son, or hadn't you noticed?" Said his Father with a cool hard tone.
"Me and my Boys are just getting a little target pratice in." He sneared and suddenly the silence was filled with the sound of shattering glass as the bottle exploded into a thousand shards above Peters head.
"Rack them up, boys" He barked. "Care to join your Old Man in another Round?"
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