Once Upon a Time in the West Chapter 2
Once Upon a Time in the West, Chapter 2
The Kid
"The kid's up," a voice states.
I wake up to dust. Barely remember the year is 1845. I can hardly breathe. My hands are tied up. Not too far from me is a man. Attractive but I hadn't seen him before. Or perhaps I'd seen him before but paid no mind.
His blonde hair was unruly; thrown back into a messy ponytail at the base of his head. His cowboyish gait was at odds with the Outlaw Jack ten-gallon hat and gun.
"Where am I?"
He turns to me.
"At a shootout kid. Might want to stop shuffling around before you get a bullet."
He wasn't lying. Sure enough, I was at a shootout. I'm tied off to the side on a pole with the blonde man standing next to me. He has someone else on the other side of him but I can't tell who it is. It's not Kid Mav. I know that much. Kid Mav is in front of me.
The sun is hot.
We're in the middle of an empty, dusty road outside a saloon.
Two gunmen, one of them being Kid Maverick, are approaching from opposite ends of the road, complete with holsters and fully loaded six-shooters. Kid Maverick has a black hat. The other man has a white hat.
And I notice the other man has something else. A badge.
"HELP!"
I scream at the law and he gives me a nod acknowledging me in a cool collected way that makes all my frantic behavior seem all the more embarrassing, especially when Kid Mav turns to me and sneers at my panic. These other men who were standing next to me were no doubt part of the outlaws' gang as well.
"Better shut up kid," the blond outlaw states, "Kid's never lost a showdown."p
"Sheriff Longhorn," Kid Mav states, "How may I help you?"
"I got the word you took that there boy, Mav. Now let him go and turn yourself in. You know the law."
"Funny. Heard Dark Spire has no law."
I turn off to the side. This was it. This was Dark Spire Valley. The spire pierces the grey clouds hanging over the valley. There is a darkness about this place. Even with the sun beaming down the whole place has a violet tint. If this was anywhere near as dangerous as I'd heard it described then I was definitely in big trouble.
And my screaming continues. This time louder, more defined and more panicked.
"Shut `im up Judd," Mav calls out.
I feel a smack on the back of my head from the dirty blonde, clearly named Judd.
"What's your name sir?" the sheriff asks me.
"Season Samuels." Another smack.
"Well you'll be OK, Mr. Samuels," Sheriff Longhorn says, "I'll make short work of this."
And at that moment I swear I'm safe. Kid Mav thought he'd just kidnap me with his band of outlaws but someone saw us leave the train. Someone followed us in town. And that someone was the sheriff. He was the law. He'd make things right.
Or so I thought.
The Sheriff moved first. But he only just cleared his gun from its holster before Kid aimed and fired.
Zing!
There was no bang and no bullet. Just a little bolt of light that hit Sheriff Longhorn right in the heart. And finally, slow steady laughter.
And the dirty blonde, Judd, looks down at me.
The sheriff was dead. The outlaws ruled.
"Welcome to Dark Spire..."
And like a madman I get on my feet, hands tied and I start running for my sweet life.
==============
Finding a horse wasn't hard. Men kept them saddled throughout the city as though they'd just let them roam on their own. Must be an outlaw thing. Either way finding a horse was easy. Staying on was the problem. Plunging downhill at the gallop, I was slung from one side of the horse to the other like a rag doll despite my grip on the horn. I made an effort to check Sunny (the name I'd given the horse due to how goddam sunny it was) with the lead rope, desperate to stay aboard, and felt him slow a bit. I pulled myself upright and risked a glance back up the drive.
Nothing but trees tossing in the wind. I blinked. Still nothing. If he'd run after me, he would be in sight by now.
"C' mon Kid, where are you?" I ask.
I slowed Sunny to a long trot, fast enough to keep moving down the hill briskly, but a lot easier to stay with. I did not want to fall off. He had to be coming after me.
"WHERE ARE YA DOC!" I hear the calls in the distance.
Shit!
They were onto me!
Sunny grunted with effort, the wind whipped my face, the ground pounded beneath me, the trees tossed and moaned above and the storm howled.
Branches slapped me; I ducked low over the horse's neck. Sunny stumbled suddenly, throwing me forward. I grabbed the horn in time to avoid being flung off his back. Pulling on the lead rope, I slowed him to a trot.
"Easy," I said. "Let's getaway in one piece."
Sunny was tired. He checked down easily and trotted through the brush, breathing out long rolling snorts as he went. We passed the ruins of an old Dark Spire house, half blotted out by vines and mist. I pulled Sunny up at the black skeleton of the swingset and could feel his flanks heaving.
"Easy," I said again. "Grab some air. We've got a ways to go."
I looked back at the trail behind us. Sunny stared, too. The oak trees tossed above the green-leaved vinca. Strange wraiths of mist twisted between the redwoods across the valley. Raindrops swirled around me in gusts. Sunny's ears went sharply forward and his head came up. And then he neighed.
For a second I didn't understand. And then I saw. Charging through the brush, coming toward us, a horse and rider. Galloping. A dark horse with a dark-clad rider.
Oh shit. He'd mounted one of the unsaddled horses in the corral. He was coming after me.
I tugged on the lead rope and thumped Sunny's ribs with my legs.
Come on, come on. He was right behind me!
"Stop running! GET OFF!"
I hear his voice say.
I had to stay on. If he caught me, he'd shoot me. He was chasing me against the odds because if I got away I'd ruin him. I just had to stay out front, not fall off, and make it to safety. I knew exactly how hard it would be for him to hit me with a pistol from the back of a moving horse. Especially with him riding bareback, especially if I were moving, too. The odds were in my favor. Unless I fell off.
As if on cue, Sunny stumbled again, and I lurched forward over his shoulder, saving myself at the last second with a grab for the horn. My heart seemed to bounce up my throat into my mouth, and I gasped for air, checking the horse with the lead rope as I pulled myself upright. My God.
I could hear crashing on the slope above me and kicked Sunny forward. I couldn't stop. He'd catch me.
I stay on and outride the outlaws.
~~~
Shatter doors shuck. A storm is coming in but not like rain. Something else. Perhaps dust. I needed to get in. Dark Spire wasn't the most inviting place. To start, no kids. Not really save a little tavern girl who seems to wear her skirt much too high and spit a bunch.
Then there were the buildings. The architecture almost looked cursed.
"Sir is there a place around here a person could...hideout."
He gives me a lookup a down and seems a bit worried, "You don't wanna be in Dark Spire. Yer nice little smile is around some outlaw's neck."
"If I had another choice I'd take it."
"Fine. Yer funeral, dead man."
"Name is Season Samuels."
"Eh, The dead got names now. Oh well, I guess. Not my concern. The only place might be no-good enough to accept someone like you is Peppers. Follow the red street east out of town for about 2 miles."
Pepper's Inn and Lubricant sat on a bunkered hill just south of the Valley. As "dark" as Dark Spire was, tucked away in the Sierra Nevada mountains, there was an ancient beauty about the landscape that could not be denied. I'd lived most of my adult life in the east, but the sweet scent of Juniper pines and dessert yarrow was as familiar to me as my very own name, and made me ache for the hunting grounds I knew as home. Troubled though I was by the circumstances I found myself in, I couldn't help but admire the harsh yet beautiful landscape of lush valley offset by the austerity of mountain range once known only to the Paiute, Miwok and Mono tribes. Like the Ahuli, they were ghost now.
As I walk in, and the tap room smells like cactus cider. It's warm. Nothing fancy. Nothing that some rich person from New York would look twice at, but this place was decent. I'd give it that much. As I walk in I'm greeted by a shirtless field hand. The environment just got much better.
"What's your pleasure?" Pepper's got the right spice," he states, "You new these parts. Haven't seen you before?"
"Never been here."
The town was something peppered out of a story one of my cousins told of the white devil towns out West. This young boy seemed so eager and yet his voice was forcefully attempting to change that.
"Here's the menu," he offers.
There were men and women named on the `so-called menu. Then I realized what was going on here, and what this place was serving.
I just stare at this so-called menu not sure what to think. After a moment or two, the field hand gets closer and helps me out. It isn't until he's right in my face that I realize just how young he is. He was a goddamn baby. It was sickening.
"You like your hole licked? I bet you'd like that licked. Seem the type. We can get your hole licked. Get your hole punted. We can get it plastered. We can also get you three boys at once. Or maybe you'd like a woman. We ain't got too many of them....
He doesn't ask me much but he makes a lot of decisions as he pulls back a curtain. Sure enough, there were some boys out there. They were playing something. A few women, or what looked like women, were to themselves and having some sort of conversation while the boys were busy.
"Prefer boys huh? I know just the thing."
I turn and see a woman approach. She has red lips and ruddy cheeks. Her blouse is a flowy black leather piece. She's the kind of woman who doesn't usually get put in some flowy dress. She was tough and fearless.
"No need to trouble you, ma'am. It's just raining nasty outside and I'm just trying to keep out of trouble."
"What about the masked man —- Luke?"
"Perfect Pepper," Luke says licking his lips.
So this was Pepper and this was her brothel. Pepper looks up at me, "Pay the night for one of my boys and leave."
Pepper opens a screen and I have no choice. She waits for me to enter cussing at Luke about something forgetting I was a customer for a minute. She was a real Calamity, Jane. The hard-cussing, heavy-drinking frontier woman. I follow her. Pepper is a well-rounded woman with confidence in herself. I can't help but see the shotgun strapped to her back that she carries with her even in an hour like this. This was no regular bed wench. That's for sure.
"He'll be in. He's just getting ready."
I nodded trying not to react too much. This was the so-called masked man. The only man I saw was Luke. There were signs of other boys but Luke was already so damn attractive.
The door opens.
"Luke?"
Whoever it is doesn't answer me. That's when in the darkness I feel a body come up to the chair I'm on. Tall, masculine but with a face concealed behind a mask. The mask of the Sea Dog.
"Ever hear the story of the SeaDog?"
"No."
"The Sea Dog was an outlaw. He was a dangerous pirate whose lover disappeared one day..."
"How'd his lover disappeared?"
"Some say the devil came and took his lover to spite the Sea Dog for excessive cruelty."
A man even the devil thought went too far. I shiver. Why was he telling me a story? The masked man begins to undress in the dark. I can't see much but he offers me his hand. As though knowing I can't see much In the darkness he guides my hands around a well-manicured and well-defined body.
My dick hardens.
"Do you want to hear the rest of the story."
Didn't know sex came with stories. I am interested though so I nod as he begins to give me a bit of a dance grinding on my body making me shutter.
"To make sure he would still be alive whenever the devil released his lover, the Sea Dog found him someone who could make him live forever. Having lived for centuries he amassed quite a fortune."
"You believe this fortune exists?"
"It is said to be a treasure of unimaginable wealth. Enough to live off of for a hundred lifetimes. Would you like me to taste you now?"
"Yes."
When my pants are off enough he swabs a wet tongue across my ass just to taste at first but then comes back in his tongue thrashing back and forth as though he enjoys the taste of me. My eyes close and I exhale so deeply that my leg vibrates and he has to grab it to keep me still.
"Wet down there. Just like the Sea Dog."
"Take your mask off Luke. I wanna look at ya...when you enter me."
If Miriam could see me now laid up on the bed with my puckering man hole waiting to be serviced she would have went crying to her grandpa. Her grandpa always thought I was a curious boy. Never knew just how bad it got.
Luke takes off his mask but it's so dark that only a shadow covers his face.
He enters me. Slow rhythmic. Perfect.
"You coming to the end of your story? I want silence to enjoy this."
My ass is throbbing. I'd enjoyed this experience more than I was willing to admit. After escaping outlaws, this was a perfect relaxation before I caught the next train back east. I wasn't sure how yet. That goddamn Outlaw hell spawn Maverick still had my coin purse. Plus the damn family I was going to help was non-existent.
He finishes "The Sea Dog having lived too long needed sleep and decided to bury his treasure in two different locations. He gave his map to two Indian tribes. One tribe was the Makawee and the other..."
Makawee. That was Kid Maverick's tribe.
That's when I notice the broad, sturdy masculine chest. I notice the relatively smooth Native body. I feel the veins up against his arms and the long confident girth of his manhood as it explores me further as though this is a place it's visited before. Then I hear the little snap of his teeth.
"No..."
"Calm down doc, we can at least finish can't we?"
It felt good. Too good and maybe that's why I know for sure I'm in danger. I hit him as hard as I can to get him off me.
Sure enough on the ground, there was Kid Maverick.
"You greasy, backhanded, swindling, sidewinding bottom feeder!"
"Good looking bottom feeder that had you moaning to high heaven a minute ago, you should add," the gunslinger retorts, convulsed with a deep belly cackle.
He was right. Goddamn Outlaw with his smooth skin, dark eyes, and perfect body. Then there was the dick. The wet extension that drove me crazy even when I didn't want it to.
"Where's my purse!"
I reach for his things desperately and rather pointlessly. He's a gunslinger. He'd been in fights with men who'd use me as a toothpick and a dick cloth. He seems to enjoy the back and forth though. Wrestling me down to the ground pressing his naked body on me for submission and holding me down with a satisfied smile on his face.
His mouth is inches away from mine. His breath smells like gin and lemons. His tongue wags so close to mine that he manages to lick it without missing a heartbeat. The licking leaves my lips wet, my dick hard and my blood temperature boiling.
"Listen!" He pursues, "Help me find the Sea Dog's treasure. I know the Ahuli tribesmen know the location of the 2nd half of the map."
"You don't know the forces you will awaken. Some things in this world need to be left alone."
"I can't. Listen I'm being kind to ya, doc, real tenderhearted."
"By rape?"
"Oh don't give me that. This was the most tender, kind dick you'd ever had."
"I didn't have any dick before! This ain't normal for me. Who do you think I am."
"You're an innocent man stuck out In this new world of wonder. So for that reason, I forgive you. But you never had a choice not really."
I pause.
"You going to hold me against my will."
"No...you're free to go."
I'm surprised when Maverick lets me go. I don't know how he found me here but I'm glad this time I'm not being tied up and thrown over his broad shoulders. For a moment I consider talking things out with him. Was I going to go on some wild frontier gold-seeking adventure? Hell no.
But I could at least explain that to him.
"Oh, Samuels..." he offers on his way out.
"What?"
"I was supposed to kill ya if you didn't come along willingly. But we got another Ahuli..."
"Lies...My tribe all died."
"What about those people who married in?"
Weird thing to say. He may have had a point though. If the Ahuli were dead not all their secrets were. My Miriam knew a few things herself. Every part of me focused on not looking back as I prepared to leave, because to truthful, if I looked back I would have kissed that goddam ridiculously attractive outlaw again. Or worse. That's when the door opens.
It can't be.
"Miriam?"
They got her! Somehow they got her. I try to take a step forward when I realize Miriam isn't alone. The guy Luke that I had seen earlier was there as well. Also, there was another guy. An Asian man who also looked familiar. Orientals usually, they kept to themselves but this fellow semed right at home with these men.
That's when I notice how comfortable Miriam is. She wasn't brought here against her will.
She wanted to be here.
"The name is Miriam Mooney...as in the Mooney gang."
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