It is time fooor... Hicks story :D! Lets skip the chit-chat and get on with it, let's see how Hicks ended up the way he is now ;)
*** Chapter One : Red Like Blood ***
A female coyote was standing in the kitchen of the little shack-like house, peeling potatoes and humming a little tune for herself. She brushed some of her ashblonde hair out of her face and washed off the potato in her hand before gingerly placing it in a pot. She picked up the next potato and began to peel it too.
But then she stopped and flickered her pointy ears. The house was a bit too quiet for her taste. She sighed, took off the dirty apron she was wearing and walked into the other room, where she and her husband were sleeping and put her hands on her hips. There was a piano in the room too, and the little puppy who previously had been playing on the piano, was now sitting and playing with a butterfly that somehow got into the house.
"Hicks" She said, and the little puppy instantly turned and swiveled his overdimensioned ears at her, one of the ears were still drooping and gave him a lopsided look. "I can't hear you playing?"
The puppy, hardly older than eight years old, groaned in annoyance. "Mo-oom!" He winced. "I HAVE been playin'!"
"Then play some more! You need to practice"
"Why?" He grimaced at the piano. "It's boring!"
His mother tugged her mouth up in a smile, she couldn't help it. "Because it's important, dear. Music helps you to grow..."
"You said the same thing 'bout broccoli, but I'm still small!" Hicks muttered and turned to the piano, clinking down one of the tangents with a bored grimace. "I want pa to come home now..."
"He'll be back just in time for dinner, dear, as always" She turned back to the kitchen to continue preparing the dinner. "Now, keep practicing or I'll tell pa!" She heard another groan from her son in response, but just as she put her apron back on she heard her son start playing a little simple tune on the piano once again. She smiled and picked up the half-way peeled potato to finish it.
As she had said, 'pa' entered through the door just as she put down the pot with steaming, newly boiled potatoes on the table. His timing was impeccable, as always when he'd come back from his 'work'.
"Pa!" Hicks happily exclaimed when the large, light haired coyote male entered through the door. He jumped down from his seat by the table and ran straight into his fathers arms, just as his mother turned around and acknowledged her husbands arrival. "Pa!"
"Oy!" His father laughed when his sons sudden attack nearly knocked his breath out. "Watch it there ya lil' tyke!" He said jokingly with a grin and quickly ruffled his sons ashblonde hair before turning around to take off his saddlebag, which he carried over his shoulder and take off his coat.
When he put the saddlebag down on the floor, his wife heard a heavy clinking sound, like metal hitting metal. She gave him a worried look, but he didn't seem to notice it when he walked up to her and planted a kiss on her lips.
"I've missed'cha, Carla dear" He said lowly. She replied with a small smile as he began sniffing the air. "Mmm, smells delicious!" He turned to the kitchen table. "What is it?! I'm starvin'!" He grinned as he took a giant leap for the table and in the same swift movement slumped down on his chair, eying the pots. She sighed when she saw that he was wearing his gun and gunbelt to the table, but seeing as he just came back she decided not to say anything.
"Potatoes!" Hicks said and gagged, Carla rolled her eyes at her son. "Potatoes and corn, as always!"
"Hey, I haven't had some o' yer moms potatoes in a week! I for one don't mind!" His father drooled and reached for the pot of boiled potatoes. "B'sides, ya better feast on this while we have it, Hicks, b'cause as of t'morrow, no more potatoes an' corn!"
Hicks curiously perked his ears, making them both stand up straight for once, while Carla once again gave her husband a worried frown. "Eugene, whaddya mean by that?"
"Oh you'll see later!" Eugene mused and winked reassuringly at her.
The Red family continued their dinner, while Eugene was telling them what he had seen and been through during the week he had been gone on another one of his 'oddjobs'. When they all had finished up, he brought his saddlebag back to the table.
"I got a lil' somethin' for ya, kid!" He grinned and tossed a long, wrapped up little package to his son, who caught it in the air and eagerly ripped the paper off.
In his hand, he held a knife. His eyes widened as he grabbed the hilt and pulled it out of the scabbard, and grinned when he saw his reflection in the shiny, sharp steel. "Oh boy! Thanks, pa!" He beamed at his father. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
Eugene chuckled. "Don't mention it, Hicky" He glanced at his wife, and his smile faded when he saw her face had gotten paler and she was eying the knife with a disapproving frown. He turned back to his son. "Why dont'cha go outside, find yerself some firewood an' try carvin' somethin' real nice with it, eh?"
Hicks nodded and within a matter of seconds, he had bolted outside. Eugene chuckled once again at his son, but then his wife solemnly got up from her chair and began take the dishes from the table. Her jaw was tightly clenched as she stacked the three plates in her hand and walked over to the kitchen bench.
"What's wrong, Carla?" Her husband asked, and she hesitated for a minute, leaning over the dishes on the bench.
"Where do I begin?" She began with a hopeless tone in her voice. She turned back to Eugene with a sad frown. "You're giving our son a WEAPON?!"
"It's just a knife!" He replied with a shrug. "An' I doubt he'll use it to kill anyone!"
"That's not what I'm thinking; what if he hurts himself with it? He's just a child, and you can't just leave a child alone with a knife in his hands! It's dangerous!"
"Ya can't just chain him to the piano forever either!"
"I will NOT allow our child to grow up without music!"
"An' I ain't gonna allow our child to grow up a wimp!" He folded his arms across his chest. "He needs to learn how to handle knifes an' guns; he needs to be able to defend himself! Ya never know what'll happen in the future, an' I'd say that he's better off with a knife against a bunch of attackers than with a notesheet!"
"You're sounding like you want our child to grow up an outlaw?"
"I won't allow him to b'come an outlaw either, but just b'cause our son plays by the book doesn't mean the people 'round him always will!"
Carla opened her mouth to object, but quickly changed her mind and shut it. Instead, she looked out through the small kitchen window and saw Hicks sitting on the chopping block, carving into a small piece of firewood. She gulped nervously, seeing for her inner self how he accidentally slips with the knife and cuts up his hand instead. But luckily, it never happens.
"Where did you even get the money for it?" She asked instead, her voice was lower now.
She didn't hear him reply, instead she heard him pick up his saddlebag and turn it upside down, emptying it of it contents and making a lot of noise while doing so. She turned around and gawked speechless at the mass of golden coins and bundles of money that just poured out of his bag. When everything had been emptied on the kitchen table, he let the saddlebag drop to the floor and grinned at her.
"As I said; no more potatoes an' corn!"
She didn't know what to say at first. But then she walked to the table and ran a hand over the money, feeling the cool coins rattle under her fingers. They were real. "W-where did you get all this?" She asked, still stunned.
"Where do ya think? I've earned 'em!" He answered and smirked, but she only got a horrified look on her face as she turned her head at him.
"Y-you gotta take it back!" She told him, and he staggered back in surprise.
"What?!"
"It's blood money, innit Eugene?!" She glanced at the money, shuddered and backed away from it. "W-we can't accept it...!"
Eugene was silent for a while, but then he let out an annoyed and defeated growl. "Wow, really Carla?! You're serious right now?!" He gritted his fangs and clenched his jaw. "Have ya seen what our farm looks like nowadays?! It's a mess! It's fallin' apart an' we ain't had any good rain for years! We had to sell our livestock to survive an' for god knows how long, all we've managed to grow is potatoes an' corn! We don't even have money to send Hicks to a school, but now when I've finally got enough hard-earned money to solve our problems, you're tellin' me to give it back?! What's WRONG with ya, woman?!"
She didn't answer him,only kept staring down at the floor. She knew all those things all too well, but just thinking where he got that money made her uneasy. She knew someone had to die for that money.
"I... I give up!" He flopped down on a chair with his back to her, burying his face in his hands. "I give up! All I'm tryin'a do is to be a good husband an' father. I just wanna take care of my family! Y'two are ev'rythin' I got, an' I wanna give y'all the very best, but I can't! I can't b'cause no matter what I do, you're always findin' faults in ev'rythin'!" He paused and let out a defeated sigh. "I just give up..."
He didn't react when Carla carefully walked up to him and put her arms around his neck and leaned the side of her head against his. "I'm sorry, Eugene... I didn't mean to make you upset..." She said lowly and glanced at the money. "I love you, you KNOW I do... But it's those men you work for..." She paused when he shifted, lifting his head up and glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "I always get this ominous feeling when they're nearby... And that child that rides with them... I've never seen such evil eyes on anything living before!"
"Joey? Don't worry 'bout him, he's just our mascot, sort of!" He said reassuringly and calmly stroke her right arm with his hand. "An' it ain't like we're doin' illegal stuff, like ridin' 'round shootin' people an' rob banks!" He said with a chuckle, but there was something odd about that chuckle. Like he wasn't really meaning what he said.
Carla nodded and hugged her husband tighter, but she wasn't sure she wanted to believe what he said. Suddenly, the door opened and Hicks stepped inside, holding the knife in one hand and a block of wood in the other.
"Umm, pa?" He asked and both his overdimensioned ears drooped.. "Can ya help me? This is a lot harder than it seemed..."
Eugene chuckled once again and got up from his chair, gave Carla a light peck on her cheek and walked out to the farm with his son. She smiled a small smile as she began to take care of the rest of the dishes, but she couldn't stop glancing at the money. With a small shudder, she decided to stuff it all back into the saddlebag and stashed it in one of the cabinets.
The farm was on the edge of the Mojave desert, close to an old quarry. Red, dry sand with a few, pale green tufts of headstrong grass that grew here and there and an occasional tumbleweed would sometimes pass. It was a calm, but harsh and unforgiving place, and because of this, they were the only farmers around. The closest town, Bedrock, was at least half an hour away.
The well between the shack-like house and the empty, ramshackle barn was practically dried up, and the fences that once were large paddocks, was now falling apart along with everything else. Except for one small corral, which was inhabited by the one remaining critter of their once large herd of livestock; Eugenes pale brown roadrunner named Lucky.
And they were sitting outside Luckys corral while Eugene showed his son how to carve with the knife. While listening to his fathers instruction, Hicks couldn't help but to glance with wide eyes at the revolver he was carrying. He carefully touched the handle.
"Can I hold it, pa?" He asked, and Eugene was at first confused as to what his son meant, but then he noticed how fascinated he was with the gun.
He smiled, drew his gun and gave it to Hicks. "Just be careful with it, it's loaded!"
"Wow!" Hicks said as he got the heavy revolver in his small, pawlike hands. He tried to lift it, but it was heavier than he thought, so he gave it back to his father. "Can I shoot with it someday?" He asked eagerly.
"Sure" Eugene nodded. "In fact, when you're old enough, I'm thinkin' of gettin' ya one o' yer own!" He glanced at the house before turning back to his kid. "But don't tell yer ma, alright? She'd skin me alive if she ever found out!"
Hick giggled and shook his head. "Nah, I won't!"
…
That night, as the stars twinkled on the late night sky, Hicks found himself tossing and turning in the bed. They only had one bed and one bedroom, so he was always sleeping between his parents. But this night, he just couldn't seem to fall asleep. Instead, his attention was drawn to his fathers revolver, which was gleaming and reflecting the fullmoons light from the gunbelt his father had flung over the back of a chair.
Both his parents were sleeping heavily, and the temptation to sneak out to practice with the gun was extremely high! He knew an area where his father used to go and shoot, but he himself was never allowed to go there. If they had found out that he had been sneaking out in the middle of the night WITH the gun, they would get angry, even furious at him! Most of all his mother; she'd fly through the roof! But that was what made everything even more alluring.
He silently and carefully got out of bed, he HAD snuck out in the middle of the night before so he knew how to move to not wake anyone up, and walked up to the gunbelt. He quietly drew the gun and looked at the long, shining barrel with a wide grin. Some nights he'd snuck out because he just couldn't fall asleep, but now he wanted out and try to handle a gun. He knew he should probably wait until his father was willing to instruct him, but right now he didn't have the patience for it. He NEED to know what it feels like to fire a revolver!
Carrying the gun with both of his hands, he quietly sneaked out through the door and into the nearby quarry. He instantly found his dads practice grounds; a dead, fallen tree with a couple of glass bottles neatly rowed on the grayish trunk. Hicks grinned and took a deep breath as he slowly raised the gun with both of his hands. He aimed at the bottles and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.
With a disappointed sigh, he turned the gun around so the barrel pointed straight up at his face. Maybe there was something stuck in the barrel? Or maybe it just wasn't loaded? But there was nothing in the barrel, and he saw the ends of the little bullets in the cylinders. With a shrug he pointed the gun at the bottles again and pulled the trigger, but once again nothing happened.
But then he noticed the little point sticking up from the cylinder; the hammer.
He looked at it for a while, then he had to use both of his thumbs to pull it back. He then pointed the gun at the glass bottles a third time, shaking slightly since his little arms were getting weary, and pulled the trigger. It was harder to pull this time, and when he did, a deafening bang came from the gun and the muzzle flared. The recoil caused the puppy to fall backwards, still with the smoking gun in his hand. Still dazed from the impact, he slowly sat upright and rubbed his head. He looked over at the bottles and noticed that one was missing, and instead there were shattered glass spread around the trunk. He grinned happily again.
But suddenly, he heard another gunshot and felt the fur on his neck stand straight up. He tried telling himself that it was just an echo from the cliffs, but then he heard two new consecutive gunshots and he tensed up. They came from the farm! His legs were wobbling and his heart hammered in his chest as he slowly got up and made his way back home.
Lucky was hysterically running around in his corral, making terrified squawks. Hicks got back just as he saw four men break into the house, while two stayed outside; a tall, longlegged lizard and a pale haired, young coyote boy. The boy didn't seem to be older than twelve years old. Scared, yet unnoticed, Hicks hurried to scurry into the condemned barn and peeked out through the crack made by a missing board in the wall, watching with a hammering heart the scene unfold in front of him.
He heard noises coming from the house, and he could swear he heard his mother scream. Shortly after, three of the men dragged his father out in front of the house, while the fourth was holding his mother in a tight grip with a gun pointed at her temple. His little heart came to a complete stop and for a moment he even forgot how to breathe when he recognized the men; they were the men his father worked with! It was the exact same men he'd sometimes ride away on another oddjob with! But he only knew the name of three of them; a heavily built, blue eyed porcupine everyone referred to as 'Bullseye', the lizards name was Harry Cold and the boys name was Jonathan Garcia, nicknamed 'Joey'. But for some reason, he couldn't spot Bullseye in the gang.
"Eugene!" Carla screamed when her husband got kicked in the back by one of the men, forcing him to go down on his knees. "Wh-what's goin' on?!" She sobbed, but the rodent-like creature holding her at gunpoint growled at her to shut up.
Eugene didn't answer his wife, instead he stared up at either Harry or Joey. "W-why are ya doin' this...?" He asked lowly, so low it was almost impossible for Hicks to catch what he said. "Wh-where's Hicks? What have y'all done to my son?!"
Suddenly, out of all the people, the boy walked up to the other coyote and roundhouse kicked him in the face. Blood gushed out of his mouth as his head violently jerked to the side and he fell onto the dusty ground, his wife screamed in terror behind him. Eugene spat out the blood and shaking got up on his knees again.
"Where's the money?" Joey asked calmly, and when Eugene didn't answer, he growled and stomped on the grown coyotes hand. Eugene roared in pain when he felt the bones in his hand snap, but he couldn't pull himself free from under the boys foot. "Where's my money?" The boy repeated.
"IN THE KITCHEN!" Carla screamed with a shrill, terrified voice. Joey snapped his head to her, and she sobbed. "I-in one of th-the kitchen cabinets! I-in a saddlebag!"
Joey nodded at one of the men, a chubby toad, to go back into the house and bring back the money. The boy finally stepped of Eugenes hand and the adult instantly withdrew it and cradled his broken hand in his other hand. He threw a sad look behind him at his wife.
"I-I'm sorry, Carla..." Eugene said to her with a thick voice and shook his head, his light, lank hair fell in his face and almost covered up his dark brown eyes. "I'm real' sorry!"
Soon, the toad came out with the saddlebag in his hands and tossed it at Harry, who caught it in the air and opened it, letting the young coyote boy inspect its contents. When he made sure all the money was still there, he made a notion with his head at the roadrunners, tied up outside the house, as a sign for him to leave it there. Harry nodded and walked towards the roadrunners to leave the bag, then he returned to the boys side.
"C-can we have our s-son back now, Joey?" Eugene pleaded, and held his hurt hand in a firm grip. "I-I'm sorry 'bout the money, b-but PLEASE, don't hurt my family!"
Hicks was frozen in fear. The men his father worked with sometimes came to the farm to pick his father up whenever they needed him for a job, and they had always scared him. He didn't dare to speak to any of them, but he had never thought that they'd actually do something like this! And what was up with the boy?! Before, they had always just treated Joey as a tag-along, letting him ride in the back of the group and he had never been especially talkative. But now, everyone was acting as if it was the boy who was the leader and followed every single one of his commands! He couldn't be more than twelve-thirteen year old, yet still had the adults full respect! Hicks knew there was a good reason to not like that boy, or any of the men for that matter!
"You know how hard it is to piss me off, Eugene..." Joey said and turned back to the adult coyote. His voice was cold, emotionless, even for someone who was so young. "But nothing piss me off more than when men I trust stabs me in the back like this!"
"I'm s-sorry!" Eugene clenched his eyes shut and hung his head. "I-I'm sorry, Joey... B-but look at our farm! It's fallin' apart! A-an' my son haven't even been able to go to school yet! W-we needed more money! I-I didn't think-...!"
"You didn't think I'd notice if you stuffed your pockets with more money than what we bargained for?" Joey cut him off and finished the sentence for him. He winced and nodded, a few tears even managed to escape down his long nose.
"P-punish me, do ANYTHIN' ya want with me, but PLEASE, don't lay a finger on my family!" Eugene carefully looked up at the boy again. "Th-this isn't their fault, it's mine! All mine!"
"Don't worry, punishing you is the reason we're here" Joey said and Harry stepped forth, drawing his gun and pointing it down at the kneeling coyote. His dark brown eyes widened underneath his pale bangs.
"Sorry, Eugene. Nothing personal" The lizard said and pulled the trigger, shooting him in the chest.
Carla screamed a bloodcurdling scream as her husbands body jolted back and fell backwards onto the dusty ground. He wasn't moving, and soon a pool of blood formed underneath his body, the red fluid quickly got absorbed by the dry sand.
"EUGENE!" Carla screamed again and managed to break free from the man who held her back. She ran up to her husbands limp body and picked his head up in her arms, brushing away strands of hair and dirt from his face while tears streamed down her cheeks. He was still breathing in staggering, uneven and obviously painful breaths while a thin stream of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. "E-Eugene! No!" She cried and pressed her forehead against his. "D-don't leave us! Don't go, Hicks and I need you... I need you!"
Euguene tried to smile and say something, but it came out as an incoherent wheeze and it ended in him coughing up blood. He drew a final, pained breath and closed his eyes, dying in his loved ones arms. Hicks became aware of what happened when he saw his mother starting to cry hysterically, before suddenly tilting her head backwards and howl. A coyotes howl of sorrow.
Hicks was like frozen to the ground, tears was dripping on the ground below him as he silently watched from the barn. He wanted to cry like his mother, run up to her and his fathers body and join in the howling, but he couldn't. His body refused to obey his commands and he went into a state of shock, not noticing that he cocked the hammer back on the gun he was still holding.
When the female coyote finally stopped howling, and instead went back to crying over her dead mate, Joey turned to look at Harry. The lizard watched with a tightly clenched jaw at the scene, still holding the gun he just fired at his friend.
"We don't leave witnesses" Joey said and looked back at the couple, Harry nodded again. The thin lizard walked around them and pointed the gun at the female coyotes back.
"Y-you... Monster..." She said between the sobs and tilted her head up to look at Joey, hate and rage glowed in her chestnut brown eyes. "I hope that whatever demon that spawned you feels remorse for giving birth to something as foul as you, fiend!"
"Don't worry, she does" Joey said in his usual, cold voice and the second after, Harry shot her in the back. Her body jerked upon the bullets impact, then fell over her husband, just as dead as him.
Hicks had finally somewhat broken out of the shock, at least enough for him to hunch over and start crying. He slammed his free fist into the ground as he cried, seeing for his inner self over and over again as his parents were shot and killed. But suddenly, someone grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up as he howled in fear.
"Well, well, whaddo we got 'ere?" Someone said, and Hicks tensed up when he recalled that Bullseye, the big porcupine, hadn't been among the men who killed his parents.
Joey ordered the adults to set the house on fire as Bullseye approached them, carrying the armed puppy with one of his hands. He hadn't noticed the revolver the puppy carried. "Lookie what I found in the barn, chief!" He announced with a grin and threw him down at the ground, just next to his parents.
But just as Hicks landed on the ground, he accidentally squeezed the trigger and a fired a bullet at Bullseye. The porcupine tensed up for a second as he felt something hit his leg, then the pain exploded and he fell to the ground, screaming in agony and clutching his bleeding knee.
"SONNOVA BITCH!" He howled while the men, except for Joey and Harry, began to chuckle around him. "THE FUCKIN' KID SHOT ME!"
Hicks stared with wide eyes at the porcupine, squirming in pain, and then at the gun in his hand. With a shudder, he quickly tossed it away and turned around, noticing his parents. Their lifeless bodies were stacked on each other while the fire quickly consumed the house in the background.
"P-pa?" He squeaked, but his father neither moved nor replied. "M-ma?" His mother didn't show any signs of life either.
Harry turned to Joey, who watched the cub with an emotionless face. "Joey, what do we do with the kid?" He asked, and Joey was silent for a moment.
"We don't leave witnesses" The boy repeated, and Harry nodded solemnly once again.
The lizard drew his gun again and walked up to Hicks. The puppy looked up at him with large, tear-filled and fearful eyes. They had the same chestnut color as his mothers eyes had. Bullseye continued to howl in agony behind them, but Harry ignored the noise.
"Sorry about this, son" He said lowly as he once again raised his weapon. The cub started shivering in fear but didn't dare to say anything. Harry took a deep breath, then he squeezed the trigger and fired the third and final bullet at the last Red family member.
And THAT my friends, is how to get an archenemy for life ;D! I'm not sure how long this will be, probably just about the same size as (Du)Rangos story (but definitely NOT like Bentleys mastodon of a story o_o)
Anyway, allow me to introduce a new villain; Jonathan 'Joey' Garcia. Somewhat based on a real person, this guy will make the Gajerra brothers look like Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Alice in Wonderland...
So, I hope you'll enjoy reading about Hicks story, and I'll finish the next chapter as soon as I can ;D! As always, a little review is always appreciated ;3