The Trail of Tears: Jackson’s Bargain with the Spirits
(An Unreliable Narrator’s Dark Fantasy Retelling) They say Andrew Jackson was a hard man—a warrior, a duelist, a president who carried bullets in his body like souvenirs. But what they *don’t say is that his greatest sin wasn’t greed or cruelty… it was a *deal he made in the shadows. The Night the Owl Spoke It was 1828, the year before he took office, when Jackson rode alone through the Tennessee woods. A storm brewed, the kind that makes even the devil seek shelter. Then—*a voice. "You will be president," it hissed, not from the trees, but from *inside them. A great horned owl, eyes black as a hanged man’s tongue, perched before him. *"But the land groans beneath the weight of the People. They must be… moved." Jackson, never one to back down, spat tobacco and grinned. *"And if I do this for you, what do I get?" The owl’s beak didn’t move, yet the words slithered forth: *"Power. Victory. A nation that stretches beyond the sun." And so, the b...