The Alabaster Kid/Slipknot

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TWO STORIES IN ONE BOOK!
The Alabaster Kid: Beneath the Veil
We often hear that the west was wild…
Yes, but there were miles upon miles of not much of any-thing at all, and when the folks came, when the people moved into those virgin places, they brought their secrets with them. Their long shadows followed behind them and took up resi-dence in the grass and the scrub and the tiny towns that all too often were ghost towns…
even before they were empty.
As the new century approached, many of the old ways stayed entrenched. For that is what old ways do. That is why they are old. Veils are hung to hide the past so that outsiders will pass right on through. The future abhors those veils and eventually seeks to tear them down and gaze beneath. Men of vision light torches and pave new roads. They find the old paths and make them new.
There is ugliness beneath the veil. It churns men’s stom-achs and turns their hearts to stone. Still they look. Still they search. Still they uncover the layers so purposely laid and fas-tened and tied.
Why…?
It’s because the wounds beneath the wraps need the air and the light in order to heal. It’s because the beasts cannot be tamed in the dark.
We often hear the west was wild…
Now find out why.

Slipknot and the Golden Claw
We tell ourselves we can do it. We tell ourselves we are strong. We have no other choice. We fight the battles in our path with every tool at our disposal. We have to keep going, to keep moving, to keep dealing with the strife.
It’s better than the alternative.
There are people who would cut us down. There are evil selfish men who would take everything we have, just to see us lose it. We have to be steadfast. We have to keep trying. Surely God would never allow more than we could handle. Surely there has to be an end to the night, a new dawn, a new chance… one more smile…
Runyan Mann was at the end of his rope. His family was taken. His home destroyed. The evil overtook him, yet still he fought. They broke him physically. They crushed his soul, but still he fought. They ground him down until there was no more up, and there he was…
at the end of his rope… literally…
What happens when a man steps down, when gravity takes it course and the only thing stopping him from the stained wooden floor is a length of hemp tied to a ceiling beam? What happens when a man gives in to the final call and welcomes the embrace? What becomes of that man when even that fate is denied, when the beam breaks before the neck? When he rises, half crazed and half dead after his mind has already checked out, what stands in his place?
What becomes of Mann when the surrender fails? How do we continue when we are denied even our final rest?
We let the Slipknot take his place.