Chapter Text
Where There's Smoke, There's Fire.
“Do you smell that?” Jeremy asked, his nose crinkling as the smell of burning flesh reaches his nostrils.
“Whoever smelt it, dealt it,” The eldest Earp replied with an unseen snicker.
“No,” Nicole argued. “It smells like-”
“Burnt flesh.” The youngest woman responded. Her eyes followed the black shadow as it creeped toward the window.
“It’s getting warmer too,” Dolls agreed as he mirrored Doc’s movement and leaned against the windows. Red embers flash against the glass as they embarked into the burning inferno.
“That’s it, I’m going to hell.” Wynonna muttered.
The fabricated metal beast came to a sudden stop. Dolls and Doc’s foreheads smashed into the foggy window pane, and Nicole flailed forward, her long leg reaching out in time to collide with the floor and stopping her and Waverly from falling. The doors flung open as smoke swirling into the cabin and choking each of the passengers.
“Do we go out?” Jeremy asked, his face glowing an orangish red.
“Don’t move.” Dolls commanded. “If we get off this train, we can’t get home. So, stay here.”
Waverly’s eyes danced around the decrepit carriage as she analyzed the corroded iron and tacky upholstery. A glimmering metal in the cabin's corner caught her attention. Without hesitation, she dashed toward the container.
“I got an idea,” The youngest Earp spoke. She tugged the fire extinguisher off the wall, the black plastic affixing it to the train breaking in her strength. Taking a deep breath of fresh oxygen, she rumbled toward the open door, flames licking at her face and scorching her hair. She jerked the thin pin from the canister and aimed the tube toward the flaming floor. Squeezing the trigger, gaseous contents fired at the ashes, like a torpedo launching toward the enemy and destroying everything in its path. As the room darkened, the fire turned to a smokey steam, a shadow solidified in front of them.
“I see him!” Jeremy huddled behind the ripped fabric chair; danger terrified him. Without waiting for a command, Wynonna jerked her Colt Buntline special from her belt strap and aimed it at the shadow. The golden metal bullet rocketed from the chamber with supersonic speed toward the silhouette, but instead of falling to the ground, an angry shriek resounded across the metal carriage.
“What the hell was that?” Dolls cried, smacking his hand on his forehead in frustration. “What did you think? Did you think the bullet would send him to hell! Well, guess what? He lives there!”
Beside him, Waverly wrapped her arm around her mouth, choking from the smoke inhalation. Nicole pulled her in close, hoping to shelter her from the incoming fumes.
“What else are we going to do?” Wynonna shouted.
Doc stepped closer toward the door with as he puffed smoke from the cigarette in the corner of his lips. He held his jacket wide, offering the explosives stashed in its hidden pockets. “I got dynamite.”
“Oh, because that will work.” The eldest Earp rolled her eyes. She jerked the transgression from his mouth and chucked it into the flaming abyss.
A shrill whistling scream cut through the group like a thick shard of glass. Nicole’s pulse quickened and her heart thudded around her ribs as if it were a prisoner in a cage desperate for an escape. The figure expanded as it zoomed toward the group. As its outline came into view, Waverly took in his eyes wide with anger, his mouth rigid and open, and his chalky face gaunt and immobile. One of his fists clenched with his blanched knuckles, while the other dug into the metal doorframe.
“Who dare dispose their debris on the floor of my home?” He shouted. His breath reminded the youngest Earp of rotten eggs, choking the life out of her. Nicole’s eyes watered from the stench, but Dolls glared at the eldest Earp, threatening her next words. Instead, she pointed over at Doc.
“It was her!” Doc spoke, pointing his own index finger at the Earp woman.
Wynonna bit back. “It was your cigarette.”
“Doc Holliday!” The man recognized. He took a colossal step into the cabin, smoke and odor traveling beside him. Fire licked at the bottom of his pants as if it was a hungry kitten with a saucer of milk. Plumes of black, grey smoke wound itself around his leg like a hungry snake. “You still smoking like a chimney?”
“Alexander,” Doc raised his cowboy hat in respect. “You’re looking-”
“Like I’ve been burnt alive for every second of my afterlife, smoke filling my lungs and my body gasping for breath?”
“No?” Doc responded. “You look great for your age.”
“You!” Alexander thrust himself at Doc, shoving him against the back wall. The flames tickled the cowboy’s leg, tasting his jeans and sniffing his skin. “I have been waiting for a century!”
“Me?” Doc called. “I was your friend, your coworker-”
“You infected me!” He spit, his saliva puffing out of his mouth as like dried ash. “It was because of you I died.”
“Great,” Wynonna interrupted. “Now that you have him you can let us go.”
“Wynonna…” Nicole lectured in her warning tone. The eldest Earp clapped her mouth shut, wrapping her arms around her chest in disdain.
“I did this?” Doc’s face paled as he recalled his long, long-term memories. “I do not remember-”
“Do not remember what?” He shoved his burnt finger into Doc’s face. “That you chain smoking eight hours a day caused my death? You are the reason I died, Doc Holliday! My lungs were not strong enough to inhale your nicotine infested breath every day of my life. Each day we worked together, it felt as though I was being stabbed in my chest. Until, I started wheezing and coughing up blood. And I vowed to haunt you every day of your life until I got my revenge.”
“What?” Doc quizzed. “I did not… I did not know that I was hurting you.”
“And you still are hurting everyone around you!” He hissed; his voice laced with venom.
“No, I did not,” He tried again. “I can quit. I did not know I was killing-”
“That’s right, Doc, you are a murderer. Always have been and always will be.” He shook his head. “What did Wyatt ever see in you?”
“I did not know,” Doc cried. “I can quit. I will quit!”
“It's too late now,” He shouted. “Are you ready to feel the way I felt right before I died? Gasping for my last breath? Hungry for oxygen? This is how I felt before you killed me.”
Alexander pressed his forearm against Doc’s neck, blocking his air passages. As he watched the light fade from the cowboy’s eyes, a smirk crossed his face. The last thing the cowboy felt was a light prick to his arm, before he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
“Holy shit,” Wynonna coughed from the inhalation. “Can we go home? My lungs are collapsing!”
“This isn’t even actual smoke!” Nicole reminded. “Its fog machines, Wynonna,. We used these machines for Halloween last year.”
“Oh, is that why I’m feeling high?” She smirked. She walked over to Alexander, her elbow nudging the scorched man in the stomach. “And this guy… Jeremy, let Robin wear this in the bedroom.”
“No, fuck no,” Jeremy said, shivers running across his spine as he glanced at the ghost. Alexander tugged at his neck, the rubber mask separating from his skin and falling to the ground. “That mask is horrifying.”“The fire extinguisher was an excellent idea, Waves,” Robin complimented as the fog from the room cleared. “I had a hard time seeing through the mask’s small eyeholes. I hadn’t a clue you arrived.”
“Plus, the flashing red lights and heaters couldn’t have helped.”
“No they didn’t,” Robin agreed. “But we did it. And this was perfect to help me practice acting for the play for the Purgatory Seniors next week.”
“For the play?” Wynonna chuckled. “You know who we really did this for, right?”
“Alice and Wes,” Waverly reminded. “Because he cannot keep smoking in the house. It’s not good for their young lungs.”
“That’s right.” Wynonna nodded. “Now let’s go home. I need sleep before my daughter wakes me up at the crack of dawn! Dolls, you take Doc.”
“What? Why me?” Dolls whined.
“How was your night last night, you handsome devil?” Jeremy asked as Doc streaked into the Black Badge Office.
“I had the strangest dream,” Doc said, kicking his feet up onto the desk. Bags filled under his darkened, sleepy eyes. “I think it was a dream. It felt so real.”
“You want to talk about it?” Robin slid into the seat beside Doc.
“Just tell me one thing.” Doc asked. “Waverly, have we been researching someone named Alexander?”
“No, Doc,” Waverly bit her lip to keep a smile from forming on her face. “Do you need me to research him?”
“No, no,” Doc removed his hat and ran an uncomfortable hand through her greasy hand.
“Oh!” Wynonna sashayed into the room with a tray of coffees in her hands. “The gang is here! And look what I brought!”
Dolls swept into the room; a dozen donuts box held like a platter.
“Sometimes we get donuts!” She winked at her boss.
“Oh, donuts!” Nicole cheered. She leaned on the door frame, her thumbs slipping through her belt hoops. “What is Black Badge celebrating today?”
“Does anyone have anything to celebrate?” Jeremy asked as his eyes wandered around the table, stopping at Doc.
“Nothing besides my lack of sleep,” Doc grumbled.
“Hey Holliday, are you missing something?” Dolls asked. “I know it will be an outstanding day when Wynonna isn’t drinking and you aren’t smoking in the office.”
“Yeah,” Doc sighed. “I think I will stop.”
“Stop what?” Robin asked.
“Smoking,” Doc said. “It’s not good for me or anyone else. And now we have Alice and Wes in the homestead.”
“Really?” Wynonna asked, her ears perking up from his admittance. “I’ve been asking you for two years now. What made you change your mind?”
“Something came to me last night.” He shrugged.
“Well, we will support you,” Waverly said, reaching forward and slipping her hand into Doc’s.
“Wait,” Wynonna said, twisting around and locking eyes with the boss. “If he’s not smoking in the office, does that mean that I can’t drink either?”
A glimmer twinkled into Doll’s eyes, and a smile burned his face. “Looks like we all got what we wanted, huh, Wynonna?”
The sun ducked underneath the horizon as nighttime twisted back again. One by one the Purgatory streets emptied, as children were tucked in and adults looked for solace from the crisp breeze. With only the starlight, moon and the few streetlights, the blackness extended from one side of the town to the other. A small squirrel rustled through the dead grass, contrasting against the bone chilling silence.
The clean air wisped away as a putrid smell of burning rubber and oil filled the streets. The cracked tar vibrated with such a strong intensity, scaring the small flock of birds looking for a midnight snack. A clickety clack shook the store’s windowpanes, followed by a brash squeak of the locomotive’s brakes. The train sped through the quiet town, disturbing its citizens from their peaceful slumber, with a grinning Alexander at the helm.