Jonah Hex
Chapter One
The heavy odor of lust wafted off of him, mixed with the rank fumes of sweat. She could tell by the ash on his breath that he was a heavy smoker, and by the fumbling of his fingers as he had undone his belt that he was drunk. The heavy odor of lust wafted off of him with the rank fumes of sweat. She could also tell this simply because these were the qualities of the only men she saw these days.
"That'll cost you a dollar," she said with her light, Native American voice, unemotionally as she got out of the creaky bed and stepped back into her white dress.
"Ah, darlin', I was thinkin' you might cut me some slack considerin' I just gave you the best day of work you'll ever get," the man replied from the bed. "Maybe you should be the one payin' me."
"Give me my money or I'll…"
In an instant she was slammed against the wall with brute force.
"Maybe I'll just give you another on the house," his fowl breath whispered into her ear as his hand paved a path up her bare leg to the hem of her dress.
"Give the lady her money and get out," spoke a steady voice behind them. "Now."
"That voce belong to a face?" she heard the man on her ask, as she was finally let free.
The woman turned as well. In the doorway stood a man wearing a light blue Confederate uniform, complete with a wide brimmed hat, with a double holster belt holding dual pistols. The only thing besides his outdated Confederate outfit that she hadn't seen anyone wear since the Yankees won the Civil War only a few years ago, was the side of his face to her left. Burn scars covered the entire flesh of the side of his face, forming craters where the skin had been eaten away. The eye on that side of his face was pulled into a wide oval that he was surely blind in. His mouth was stretched into a permanent, angry sneer on that side. A single strand of skin connected the upper and lower lips of his growl.
"Not a face you were hopin' for," the strange man in the doorway answered.
"What's it matter to you whether or not this red skin whore gets her money or not?" the still naked customer questioned.
There was no humor in the Confederate's disfigured face as he replied, "I just don't care to see a man without his manhood."
The naked man was confused. "What the hell are you…?"
Before the customer could finish, the Confederate somehow had both of his guns drawn in the blink of an eye, and two shots rang out simultaneously as the naked man fell to the ground screaming. The Native American woman turned from red to green as she saw a puddle of blood form beneath the naked man's groin.
When she looked back up at her savior, his pistols were already replaced in their holsters, and he kneeled down besides the pile of the man's clothes. Taking a wad of cash from a pocket of the man's trousers, he tossed it to the prostitute, stood, and left without a word.
Leaving the moaning man on the wood floor, the woman sped out of the second floor room onto the indoor balcony and looked down on the saloon, where the man sat at a table hidden in the shadows with an entire bottle of beer.
A fellow whore in a matching white dress joined the Native American on the balcony.
"Annabelle?" the Native American asked.
"Yes, Mei?" Annabelle asked.
"Who is that man?" she questioned, pointing at the mysterious man in the corner.
"That?" Annabelle's voice seemed shocked as she saw the melted face that Mei was pointing at. "Why that's the bounty hunter. That there's Jonah Hex!"