DEAD MEN PAY THEIR DEBTS.

TAINTED TONGUES.

People hurry down the road behind him, carrying buckets. Colt turns around and moves to join them. Jesse closes the door behind him, turning over to look at Casey quickly. His face is white, his eyes wide. 

"The church - I -"

"Get Sierra and let's hurry. Quickly, now." Jesse pulls him into a quick kiss, and then pushes him back into the house. Casey nods, looking slightly dazed, but hurries off. Jesse listens to him tramp around, shouting Sierra's name, as he pulls on his boots.

Casey flings the doors of the house as he shouts for her, but as the seconds tick on, Jesse frowns. Is she not home? It doesn't look like she is, because Casey reappears a minute later, brow creased.

"She's not here," he says, and Jesse hears the creeping fear in his voice.

"She probably went off somewhere with the boys," he suggests, and Casey latches onto that gratefully.

"Yeah, she did, she did," he murmurs to himself as he laces up his boots, but Jesse sees the tension in his shoulders as the two of them head out.

Instantly, the smell of smoke assaults his nose. He coughs again as they walk down the road. Smoke rises in billowing clouds over the top of the buildings, and the two of them quicken their pace.

As they round the corner, Jesse's eyes fall onto the remains of the church and the crowd of people surrounding it, all of them throwing bucketfuls of water onto it. Two and a half walls remain, blackened and burnt. Part of the roof is still up, too, but it creaks dangerously in a way that makes Jesse think it won't be up for much longer.

Colt throws a final bucketful of water onto the last flickering flames, and they go out in a burst of smoke. Casey pushes past Jesse and begins to shove his way through the crowd. Jesse stares after him for a moment and then follows, shaking his head ruefully. The crowd parts for them reluctantly, revealing Colt, Noah, and Nicolas standing in front of the church. All three of them have their sleeves up to keep from breathing in the smoke.

" -go in now," Colt is saying to Noah and Nicolas. "Smoke's still thick, so keep your sleeves over your mouth and nose, y'all hear?"

Noah and Nicolas nod. Their eyes slide to Jesse and Casey, and Colt turns around to look at them.

"Casey, Jesse," he says, his voice slightly muffled because of his sleeve. The smoke is starting to dissipate, but Jesse's eyes sting and his throat feels raw.

"What are y'all doing?" Jesse asks. Casey is silent, staring up at the ruins of the old church.

"Checking the inside to see if there's anything we can save. Gotta move quick to make sure nothing gets more damaged than it already is." Colt taps the side of the blackened wood, and then waves away some of the smoke. "Smoke's thinnin' out anyways, so. Noah and Nicolas are helping me with this, but y'all are free to help out as well. As long as y'all are careful, of course."

"I'll do it." Casey's voice is edged with something hard as he looks up at the old church again. "Let's do it. Now."

Colt steps aside as he strides into it. "Be careful, son! The roof ain't very steady, so we have to make this quick."

Noah, Nicolas, and Colt follow Casey into the ruins of the church. Jesse pauses for a moment. He looks back at the crowd. Most of them are starting to drift off, though a few of them don't look like they're leaving.

He catches Buck standing at the edge of the crowd, murmuring intently with Lillian. Jesse frowns, as he watches them. What were they talking about? Lillian has to stand up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, a hand up to cover what she was saying. Buck is listening, silently, and then he nods.

His eyes slide up as Lillian continues whispering - right onto Jesse's. Swallowing, Jesse looks away quickly and hurries into the old church.

The floor is covered in inches of wet black ash, sticking to his boots as he walks into the church. A few pews are still standing, stained, but most of them have been reduced to either ash or chunks of burned wood.

The three others are poking through the remains, one arm over their mouths and noses. Jesse joins Colt and Nicolas, who are all the way at the back of the church. The sheriff pulls open a chest and casts a cursory glance inside.

"This one's alright," he mutters as Jesse comes to stand beside him. "Oh, Jesse. Did you find anything?"

"No, not yet," he says, then tilts his head slightly at Nicolas. "Nic, did you see Sierra this morning?"

Nicolas shakes his head, looking away. "No?"

Jesse frowns a little, glancing around at Casey, who is on the other side of the church, near the doors, with Noah.

"Odd," he says slowly. "And she's usually home, isn't she?"

Nicolas nods as Colt shuts the chest. "Yeah. She's always reading or something, but I can convince her to come with us, most of the time."

"What's this about Sierra?" Colt frowns as he straightens up, one hand on the lid of the chest.

Jesse bites the inside of his cheek. "She wasn't there this morning, so I thought she was out with the boys. But Nicolas says she wasn't with them."

Colt rubs his jaw. "The church caught on fire last night, I reckon."

The two of them stare at each other. Jesse licks his lips. He opens his mouth to say something, but a shout rings through the air before he can.

"Y'all! Come look at this!"

Noah and Casey are on their feet, staring at something down on the floor. The three of them hurry across to them. Jesse stops by Casey's shoulder and follows his gaze down to the floor.

Jesse sucks in a breath. White bone peeks out from under the ash, from underneath a mess of fallen timber. It looks like a foot, but he can't be sure. The five of them stand there mutely, staring down at the bone.

"We need to move the wood," Colt says finally. They shift a little, and then set to clearing the timber off of the bones. The ashy wood is heavy and falls apart in their hands, covering them with more dust. And as he works, Jesse can't help but dread what they'll find.

They finally straighten up after close to ten minutes, streaked with soot and sweat. The body lies in front of them, the skull grinning up at them. And then Jesse realizes what it's wearing. A dress. Or what's left of one, anyway.

Even though most of it is burned off, the pattern of it - simple, dark, long - is clear. Jesse thinks back to what Sierra was wearing the last time he saw her. Was it yesterday? The day before?

Next to him, Casey's breathing comes in short, shuddering pants. Grimly, Noah kneels down next to it. He touches the blackened bones, the ruined dress, the burnt flesh clinging to some of it.

He opens its mouth gently - and all five of them wince as its jawbone comes loose and clatters to the ground. He touches its skull, where a few strands of long hair still stick. Slowly, he sits back on his haunches.

"Gentlemen," he pronounces finally, carefully, slowly. "I'm afraid to say that this is the corpse of Sierra Hawkes."