The decision had been quick to come upon and smooth in its execution except for one thing, but that came later. The agreement was that Glenn Douglas and Madison Rye would ride West, to Lofton, and head for Reno, Hexx Sheriff and the one responsible for bounties on the both of their heads. Michael was running Hexx but Madison still not believe, in her heart, that it was entirely true. The boy had always been loyal to her, but more to the point, was that he had said he would join them to her on the phone and she had told him no. The next time they saw one another, Michael was engaged to Vara, a Hexx daughter. Even then, he had not let violence step into her house and the two had left. Word on the wind said that Vara and Michael had split. Vara had gone back to Cervenka's property (or so it was understood that she would) and Michael had lingered out West. After that, there was no more sign that Michael would return. After that, Lofton had come to Rhy'Din. The rest, history.
In the end, Glenn and Madison had different reasons for it, but the goal was the same: Reno had to be killed. It was Reno who had altered Glenn's life so dramatically by way of his son Grady and Reno who had forced Elijah Donaldson, her ex-husband, into an early retirement and a false death. Who held a town ransom for near on a decade. A week after receiving The Rhy'Din Gazette, the pair left Cadentia.
----
On that last mile, the sun was to set and they sat back in their saddles to watch it sink behind the town that spurned their ride and scorned their names. She could taste fear at the back of her throat, feel it winding like a snake in her stomach, but she used it, like the outlaw had said. Turn the hate into something good. Didn't mean her hands weren't shaking on the reigns. She fought the feeling. Her face cold. Her eyes filled with the setting sun and all the deeds that might be done. "I can smell the blood already", was all she said, speaking over the wind that came up off the hill and broke across them. A hand flew up to hold the hat to her head.
His hair was blown wild as the wheat fields they were likened to. His head canted to the side and his eyes cast a sly glance at Madison as she spoke. His hand held to the reins while the other rested on his gun with that comfortable ease of his and he clucked his tongue and tapped with his heel to keep King moving. "You can smell blood everywhere, Madison," he reminded her calmly as they rode out to Lofton. "Difference is, most places wait for dust to settle 'fore they start spilling it again. Lofton doesn't much care one way or the other. That works in our favor, though."
"Means we won't have to waste time with words." Her gaze slipped away from the horizon and towards Glenn, and she gave him her smile and with it, her word. "If I can avoid conversation with any of them, I'll be happy. Let's go." She clicked her tongue behind her teeth and Marigold started away, moving down into the valley and the dead grass and dusty wind. She squinted against it. Her heart racing in her chest. "Going to say it now. In case." The wind roared, her hat nearly blowing off, she turned around to look his way. "Thank you" within a broad, sunny smile despite the circumstances. She winked.
"Just pretend they're all apples on a fence."
He laughed. He laughed and he shook his head as they rode on. Lofton was drawing closer and with it danger approached and neither one of them were safe from harm, watchers had started the moment they'd been sighted on the horizon, even in the dark of night. That was one of the things that made these Hexxman something other than human. No one else had eyes like that. "Apples don't shoot back."
"They're just apples, waiting for our guns, honey" she retorted, lifting a brow at him that brooked no argument with her theory. "They don't deserve our fear or even our damn wrath... They're just scum and we're just cleaning them up." Crudely, as hooves hit the drag that led into town. Howls and yips lifted into the air. Doors and curtains closed around them. The wind howled with the dogs. "Awful quiet...." Marigold's ear flicking up and forward. Tail lashing the air. Madison dug a heel in firmly, slowing the mare down.
"It's cause they saw who you had on your tail," he replied with a wink. "Hexxmen or no, ain't no one on this earth who wants to tangle with Glenn Douglas," with a bark of laughter he rode to the center of the town and slid from the saddle with an easy grace. He drew his gun and he pulled the hammer back and whistled in a way that hung in the air, made the dogs bristle, made hair stand on end.
She brought coal black into rear; right onto hind legs, Madison hanging on, she tore the dragoon from her hip and fired it into the night. With Glenn, she let out a high pitched whistle of her own. It caterwauled off the buildings. Shook bones in graves. Mutt after mutt began pawing from the shadows. There were twenty of them, snarling and growling and frothing. Madison dismounted, barrel raised. "What a fine welcome you've for us both."
Doors opened on a cheap wood balcony, and out walked Reno. Out walked Reno to lean against the balcony. Chuckling, all gravel and tindersticks. "Hey hey hey, if it's isn't our two most wanted. Together. Looks like the dogs gon' be fighting for scraps TONIGHT!"
At that, coyote, wolf and mongrel formed their devastating chorus, that mourning wall of sound.
He wrinkled his nose at the dogs and he stepped around the white mass of beast flesh that was King and tilted his head back up to look at the balcony overhead and matched Reno's gaze with his own steely, blue eyed stare and determination. "You're the ugly sonofabitch what sired that bastard I shot a few years back, huh? I can see the resemblence, right down to the hole 'tween your eyes," he brought his gun up and took aim.
Reno raised his hands, not in defence, but in halt. "Glenn Douglas. You filthy f*cker. I'm the one with the bone to be pickin' here, boy. You killed my only goddamn son."
Madison joined Glenn, her gun levelwith his. Her breaths were deep and slow and shaken. She kept watch of the dogs. "But i'm willin' to talk this out..." Reno turned and moved back through the doors, down the stairs and out through the swing doors to saunter over and stand before them.
"Hey hey hey... we can talk about this sh*t. I'm willin' to forget."
Reno had a smile, perfect and white and straight. He tipped his white brim at them both. His skeletal features gaunt in the scant moonlight. He was an ugly piece of work. Ginger hair shaven off except for a crew-mohawk. But the white stetson hid that.
"How's about we all jus' go on inside, have ourselves a drink... and I'll send the dogs back."
Glenn arched a curious brow at the man. Don't mistake it for consideration. He was just bemused that the man had the gall to come down there, face to face, with a man pointing a gun at him. "Ain't interested in talkin', Reno. Never been my niche," he adjusted his aim, pointing right at the man's head. He held his breath, counted to three.
"Right here's good," he pulled the trigger. Reno's face blew off. The hat fell dead to the dust at his feet. Blood painted their faces. Madison's arm shook and she blinked rapidly, and turned at once, and began rounding off shots at the dogs. The rest of Reno fell to the ground a minute later. Hexxmen stormed from doors, the ones that hadn't gone to all fours. Though snarled they did. They yipped and screamed in inhuman voices. Badges on their chests gleaming wickedly. Madison stepped over Reno's body with a sharp intake of air, and shot a coyote in the brain.
He stood there for a moment. The barrel of his gun was smoking, his eyes were glassy, like he was somewhere else. The gunshot rang in his ears still but all the sound came flooding back right after and he turned and he squeezed the trigger another five times. "F*cking dogs," he snarled under his breath as he went toward Madison.
Legs wide, she fired true at the five that came padding her way, frothing and howling and barking. Gun trailed up to fire the brains out of a skinny Hexx aiming a rifle at them both. She ducked out the firing line of one and spun around on one knee, taking aim at the two mongrels that were aiming their mad run for Glenn Douglas. Killer of Hexxmen. Saint of Lofton. Blue eyes watched the outlaw from where she kneeled, as the two dogs fell back into their deaths.
"This is why I never agree to duels..." he grumbled as he ducked low under a hail of gunfire and loaded more bullets into the cylinder of his Dragoon. He counted to three and he sprang up from cover and he shot and six bodies slumped to the ground and spread their blood in the dust. Mutts first, four of them, whimpering as life drained from their bodies. The fifth and six were Hexxmen that had been foolish enough to try and outshoot this man who'd already proven his aim to be true on their fearless leader. "Shoulda brought some gas and a lighter and burnt this hell to the ground."
She was up and moving for her mare, mounting her in a mad leap over her side. The horse was already moving while Madison hardly had the time to seat herself, and as such, was lain out across saddle and Marigold's neck, blasting off a few rounds at the five Hexx that descended from the CLOSED saloon, their pistols raised. One got a shot just missing the mare's hoof, which sent her off in a mad gallop, bucking, trying to shake even Madison free. Madison struggled with the reigns, "Goldy, come on!", leg swung around as she righted herself on the saddle and pulled reign to bring coal black up behind Glenn, "Come on up", over his head she sent a scud into the open, raging maw of a dog with a missing eye.
He was reloading again when she rode up and he glanced up at her with a bemused grin. He rose, swinging up behind her and reaching with his free hand for the pearl gripped gun in her belt and he leaned back to slide it free. His thumb pulled the hammer back and with a gun in each hand, he let the bullets soar. This was the feeling Glenn remembered experiencing as a boy shooting cans out back, iron in both hands. It gave him power and all around him the living dropped like flies. "See your friend Michael in any of these faces?"
"Not a one." She sighed in the gunfire. The wind was still tearing but the wall of mourning had died away with this fading chapter of killers. A lump in her throat, she searched the buildings for any more men. The rest of the town was gone, probably at the town hall or in the trenches below their houses. They knew this would come. Their horses on the hill would have started a mass exodus. No one wanted to be around when the Hexx had a war. Not anyone except Glenn Douglas and Madison rye. They walked into the heart of the horror and blasted a pretty hole right out the back. Glance thrown to the body of Reno laying in the turning dust. She felt sick. She lifted her gun and fired a round at the last of the badge-wearers. A few lean dogs pawed around Marigold's legs, snapping. "I don't see him at all." Madison shifted in the saddle to turn around and look at Glenn. "Can't believe you did that." Wonder in cornflower blues. Blood on her face. Dust on her lips. "Bad apple." Corner of the mouth smirk came to brighten. She stole a kiss.
He leaned forward and he reached around, slipping the gun back into its place against her hip. "He was askin' for it," was all he said, complete with a smirk that twisted in amusement against her lips before he pointed down at the dirt around Marigold's hooves and he shot a dog in the spine to send the others scattering. "We huntin'?"
"There's a hotel called the Fox and the Fowl, it's a short ride aways. He used to stay there. Think we should go there." Eyes searched his. "He's not going to be far."
He gave her a long look and then nodded and gestured with the barrel of his Dragoon. "Best get to movin' then, 'fore we start attractin' attention." The Fox and Fowl was a weathered establishment that was sunken into the ground on a crooked corner. It's letters were bleached and so too were the types that frequented its old saloon. Tonight it was empty. Emptier than usual. Madison slid out from the man and the horse and as she landed puffs of dirt lifted into the air. She took off her hat and sighed. Wiped away the blood she could feel drying on her cheek. She cast Glenn a sideways look. "It's got three levels. Let's take one each and meet on the third?"
She moved for the porch quietly, her eyes still on his for agreement.
"Sounds good," he said, sliding fromt he saddle and holstering his gun. He nodded to her as he passed by and shoved the door open without a care in the world. He stomped along, his boots noisy. "I'll catch the second," he said as he went for the stairs with a hand on his gun and a smirk on his face. "Bet money we catch him with his pants 'round his ankles."
Madison stormed the lower floor behind him, moving straight into the kitchen for a scope. Bending to look under the table, throw open the cupboard, peek into the large ceiling to floor pantry, the cellar. Then she began for the rooms. "Probably. He always did put his c*ck before the gun." His laugh rang down the halls as did the loud bang of doors being kicked in. He arched a brow. Empty, each and every one. He stomped along noisily and kept banging through rooms and sitting areas until he'd gone full circle round to the stairs again and looked up at the celing overhead. "If he's here. He's there."
She met him at those stairs and looked up. "He's here." She mounted the stairs, filling her gun as she went. Chuckles throatily as she sweeps down the hall. He followed after her and checked his cylinder for bullets, grinned and spun it and then looked up as she met the landing before him. "Lead the way, Madison Rye."
The last door on the right. Sure and sure there was a sound of springs and a loud crash of wood on wood. She didn't take a step more. Lifted the gun and leaned forward. "MICHAEL?!"
She repeated his name firmly. Remained on the spot. "ONLY ME AND DOUGLAS. YOU COME OUT NOW, Y'HEAR. COME OUTSIDE."
"Come outside," Glenn repeated with a tilt of his head as he took aim at the door. "Or I'll come in there for you. And if that happens I ain't gonna be nice about it." He shot the floor right in front of the door as a warning. "And be quick about it."
"I ain't feelin' patient t'night."
There was no sound in that room. Not a sound at all. "He's awful jumpy, Mikey." She took a step forward, twisted the handle. "Michael. It's Madison. Come on out."
"Get outta the way," he said, taking a step back and bracing himself to charge the door down. She stepped away, let Glenn barge.
"MICHAEL, WE'RE COMIING IN, BOY."
He held his breath as he ran forward and charged through that door, the wood of the fram splintering as the lock was forced to tear free under the force of his shoulder ram. He stumbled in and brought his gun to bear.
Turns out the Hexx didn't need a noose if they had been standing. Turns out the kid didn't even know what had happened only minutes away, minutes ago. Madison's face pale and she whimpered, at once shoving the gun into its holster and moving towards the hung boy. The crash had been the chair falling from beneath him. He swung limply. Lips blue. Glenn tilted his head and stepped around the paling boy with blue lips and he took aim at the rope that held him from the ground. He clucked his tongue as he pulled the trigger and the rope tore and he fell just as Madison reached him, limp as a ragdoll.
Madison pulled him into her arms, a hand working around beneath the noose to yank it free. "Mikey... hey kid." She was crying as she worked at those deathknots. Pulling them free from his neck. The skin was broken. As the rope gave away she realised his neck was snapped. She crumbled to her knees, the boy with her. "Oooh." She held him against her, sobbing into his milk-thistle hair.
"Mikey..... Mikey...." tears stained his name.
He gave her thirty seconds. He counted each one out and then he reached down to lay a hand on her shoulder and he whispered her name. "Madison. We best leave, this ain't right..." the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, like this was all another setup to bring him down. He didn't like the feel of it. Maybe it was that she was hurt and he didn't know what sympathy felt like. He didn't know. "C'mon." The weight of his hand brought her back to the moment. They were in Hexx-governed land. Even with Reno dead, there were others out there. She had the urge to kiss the boy on the brow but it sickened her; that he was dead, and that she didn't know which side he'd really been on. Her eyes went to Glenn's as she nodded, wiping the water from her eyes. "Let's get."
She lay him out delicately, with a grate of her jaw, and stepped back, stepped into the light where Glenn's shadow grew into hers. He holstered his gun and reached for her hand. He gave it a squeeze and turned. They left through the same door they came from, all splintered and broken now to useless timber. They went down the stairs to the horse that waited outside, King came trotting up to stand beside the great black steed and he flashed the temperamental beast a curious look. "Back home?"
Nostrils flared as she turned to look back at the hotel, she could smell death, dust, blood, horror and grief, and then she turned again, to look back down the main drag and up it, to where Reno lay in the dust. She breathed it all in again, and returned that squeeze of the hand. "Home."
He took a moment to help her mount Marigold before he turned and climbed into King's saddle again and took hold of the reins. Glenn cast Madison a look that searched for answers to a question he didn't know how to word. He clucked his tongue and King started moving. A silent thanks with only a glance as he assisted her into the saddle. She needn't even direct the horse, who started into motion once King did. Madison followed behind at an even keel. Head bowed. "I never saw that coming." She finally spoke, to Glenn, to the dust, to the quiet road. To the stars that could not guide this night. She rubbed at her eyes. "You wanna stay with me awhile?" She looked ahead to him - silhouette, saint, sinner, friend, lover, hero.
He didn't even think. "I'll be stickin' around for a long while, I think," he didn't look back at her, either, just kept on riding, guiding King along with a little flick of his wrist here and there. The trip back was different. When they were headed for Lofton there was a weight on his shoulders, tension in his muscles. He knew death was coming. But now? He wasn't sure what to expect.
The decision had been quick to come upon and smooth in its execution except for one thing. Michael was dead. And with him, perished answers.
