mistersmith_tm | Most people wish that I . . .

"How did you know?" Beaten and bleeding, the villager still found the strength to grab the smaller man by the throat and throw him up against the wall. "HOW?" he demanded, screaming his anger and pain and grief into the prophet's face. "And why . . . why DIDN'T YOU STOP IT?"

Mister Smith made no attempt to remove the man's lacerated hands from his jacket or to stop the words of anguish.

"They're dead . . . my friends . . ." His voice hitched. ". . . My . . . my WIFE! You fucking BASTARD!! You let them kill my WIFE!!"

Wild with grief, he punched Smith hard across the face, as if by doing so he could relieve his own pain, and found that he couldn't stop himself. It felt oddly exhilirating, raining blow after blow on the man who had predicted the demise of his town -- but was not in time to save it.

He might have continued beating the prophet senseless but strong arms grabbed him from behind and hauled him back.

"That's ENOUGH!" shouted Kurdy. "Get off him!" He hurled the man backward and into the waiting arms of two soldiers. Anger and sympathy warred for control over his expression. The guy had just lost everything he owned and everyone he loved. Kurdy understood that. He'd been there himself, not so long ago. "You've got a right to be pissed. I'd be too. But save it for Daniel and his men. They're the ones that did this. Not Smith."

"He could have stopped it," sobbed the man, sagging between the two soldiers as they began to escort him away. "Why didn't he stop it? Why??"

Kurdy reached down and offered a hand to Smith who had fallen to the ground beneath the furious hail of blows. His face was a bloody map of bruises. "You okay?"

Smith nodded and accepted the offered hand, grateful for the assistance.

"Couldn't have gotten that message a few hours sooner?"

"I can't control when they come. Or what I see. Or don't see," he said wretchedly.

"The timing sucks. I mean, what the hell's the use of getting a warning if it doesn't come in time?"

"I know."

"You did what you could," said Kurdy gruffly. "But I gotta tell you, sometimes I wish that Voice in your head would just go fuck itself."