A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

Ghost Stories

“You guys look like hammered shit”, Jackie said picking his guns up.

I didn't even known what to say to him. He was supposed to be dead, yet he was standing right in front of us and had just saved our lives.

“You guys see Jackie too right?”, Hudson asked.

“Yeah”, I replied, “we see him too.”

“You act like I'm missing limbs”, Jackson said, “anyone gonna say, “hey Jackie, thanks for killing the Jugg?”

“Where you been the past 20 years Jackie?”, Hudson asked as we all traded hugs.

“Working for Nolan”, Jackson said, “you?”

“Soldiering”, Hudson replied, “never left the Marines.”

Jackson nodded, “I miss the Corps, I missed you guys, I missed Raven.”

“We missed ya too brother”, Frank said, “welcome home.”

The sand on the beach began to stir into a wet, muddy, gritty cloud as Blackflag landed. The hatch dropped and we boarded the helo.

“How'd you survive?”, I asked as we lifted off “we buried you, I watched the Russian execute you.”

Jackson sighed, “not too sure myself. I remember the knee shots and then the man sticking the knife into my neck, but I blacked out from the pain. When I woke up, I was in a hut. My knees were bandaged and so was my throat. I remember the dragon that had saved me told me that he had been out hunting and found the fresh grave. He dug me up to see if I was still alive, I was so he took me to his house. I spent two or three years after that in Vietnam before Nolan reached out to me and invited me to Romeo. The doctors there cured my mute and there the only reason I can even tell you this.”

“Mute?”, Hudson asked.

“I couldn't speak the entire time I was in Nam”, Jackie said, “I guess that when the guy sliced open my neck, it tore up my vocal chords.”

“Yeah”, Frank said, “I still have the nightmares from stitching your neck closed. It's one thing when you stab somebody whose trying to kill you in the neck, quite another when your trying to stitch closed the neck of someone you care about.”

“Ain't that the truth”, Jackson replied, “by the way John, I believe this is yours.”

Jackson reached into his kit and tossed me a tarnished, silver cross necklace. My Dad had given it to me when I was a human, right before I left for the Marines.

“Never thought I'd see this old thing again”, I said, “why did you keep this all these years?”

“In case I found you guys again”, Jackson said, “the Marines taught me to never quit, never back down. I made it my mission in life to find you guys again, then go from there.”

I clutched the necklace tightly, “were in a new war Jackie, we need all the help we can get, welcome back.”

“What's up with your eyes bro?”, Jackie asked.

I smirked, “you'll see when we get back to Romeo, but let's just say, I'm the youngest one on the team.”

Jackson looked at me like I was crazy, “Okay I've taken some pretty bad head wounds over the course of my 42 years, but last I checked, I was the youngest.”

“Lots of shit happens in 27 years Jackie”, Hudson said, “after Nam, we went on a deployment to Africa to rescue Wyatt.”

“Yeah I remember that”, Jackson said, “the Russian dude forced us to play Russian Roulette and when Wyatt told him to screw a member of his own species, he knocked him cold and sent him to God knows where. Tell me you killed that shit head?”