Anglerfish

[A haunting whisper and the sounds of distant war]

[The night is quiet again, aside from the cicadas]

Horses have started dying around here.

The air's thick with it.

They're getting slaughtered on the beach.

Damn wind's blowing it in from the south.

We'd come up from whittle,

on our way to the station in rye.

He was a decent man, but...

He had debts to pay.

A train to nowhere...

A new town,

forgotten even by god,

was our only hope for a better life.

The winds blew through.

We got separated in the darkness.

When I found him,

he had been beaten and trampled.

His bones were broken.

His skull was crushed.

I cried for help, but no one came.

It's been three nights.

His body already smells.

An angel of death roams this place.

If you need somewhere to stay,

our cabin is just up the road.

We can't go to rye tomorrow, but

Jonathan and I can go with you the next day.

You won't be a burden to us.

I met Juliette at the stream.

I thought we could help her

catch a train in town.

Yeah, I've been needing to get to town.

Come in. Come in.

God, Johnathan!

Ah, it's...

I have medicine.

Plants, herbs...

They might help.

How long have you been together?

Oh, about...

Five years. More or less.

Back when a summer garden would still

bring in a hundred dollars.

She got off at the station on the last train.

Two suitcases:

One, clothes.

The other one full of books,

heavy as a sack of bricks.

Said she had an aunt

in town, staying at the inn.

Only I guess nobody told her there

weren't no inn in rye at the time.

The weather was turning,

so I offered her a place to stay and...

She accepted.

Much to my surprise.

I said, you gotta'

choose which bag to bring though

'cus the cart could only hold one.

Now, she was mighty torn about this...

But like anybody with good sense in her head

she...

She left the books at the station.

And we hadn't...

Barely got home when it started raining.

Damn, if that wasn't something.

Awful.

I took her back the next day to the

station to fetch those books.

Maybe catch a train home.

But there weren't a dry page left.

And she didn't have a dollar to her name.

I reckon that's when we fell in love.

Right then and there.

Do you dance, Juliette?

It's the best we can do.

Last night I dreamt his grave had filled with bees.

They built their hives in the cracks of his skull.

Honey flowed into the stream,

poisoned the water,

made it sour.

You could hear the buzzing for miles,

as far as the next town.

A man told me,

everywhere we stand is a pool of blood

crying out to god,

what water can clean us now?

As I turned a corner...

The streets were filled with waste.

There was a light behind the building.

Somehow, I knew Richard was alive over there,

but that if I went behind the building,

I would die.

I don't know if it was a dream or some bad omen.

Maybe he is alive out there.

Happy.

Surrounded by light.

That's all I can hope for.

The dreams stop after awhile.

My brother fought in the war.

He was my best friend.

My father's favorite.

He wrote home once a week,

when we are to make an advance, no one knows.

But may the god of battles make it effectual,

and the last.

I hope to see you in the course of two months;

Maybe sooner;

Maybe hardly so soon.

One day the letters just stopped.

We never heard from him again.

I don't know where he's buried,

or if he even was.

My father grieved with the bottle.

And I read books.

I stayed in that house for years,

listening to every breath of wind,

every crunch of leaves,

every knock at the door;

Hoping he'd show up someday.

I had terrible nightmares.

I saw him...

Ripped apart by canons;

Torn with bayonets.

His guts spilled on empty fields.

His eyes were always...

Cold, but they stared right at me.

Like he was calling out for help.

Every night, I prayed that his spirit would rest,

but the dreams went on.

Then one day I heard a great trumpet in the sky.

I don't even know if I was awake or asleep,

but it sounded like a...

Great voice telling me to be at peace.

I felt a dark cloud lift off me and...

I haven't dreamt of him since.

Your water's sweet, like honey.

That's because the land is strong.

They say it's the first plot god pulled from the sea,

and the last he'll drag back.

It's been in Jonathan's family for a thousand years.

Are you happy here, Mary?

Come to the coast with me.

Get away from this place.

I can't, Juliette.

While you live...

Shine.