The Man in Black
The sun crackled angrily from the sky above, as tumbleweeds roll through our old western town of Rocky Gulch. Dirt and dusty roads as far as the eye could see. The usually hustling citizens of this town were now watching silently, for in front of Sally's Saloon, two men are squared off and poised for attack. One seeking justice, the other out for blood; I am one of the two men. My name is Johnny Buffalo and this is how it all began...
I lived in a rustic one-story wooden house just outside of town; I had built it with my own two hands. It wasn't much, but it was only my wife and I. Joy and I had gotten married 6 years ago and we still lived each day without complaining, though it was always a struggle. It started off like any other day on the ranch, hot and humid. I had been out fixing the damaged fence for my cattle, but this was only the clam before the storm. I had a feeling that something bad was waiting to happen. How right I had been. It was then that I saw the dust in the distance clouding as if men were approaching not too far from the house. I wiped the dust and sweat out of my tired eyes and put my hand over them to shade my vision. Five men on horseback appeared over the hill. I knew why they were here. A few months ago I borrowed money from these men to pay for my cattle, but I couldn't earn enough profit to pay them back. I had been putting it off for so long and now they wanted their money and were ready to collect it.
"Joy, get in the house!" I yelled over my shoulder to my wife. "What's goin' on?" She had tied her fair brown hair up and wiped her forehead, confused. "Go inside and gather your things, I will be there in a minute." She then went inside without a question. Only four men circled me on their horses, dust blurred my vision. I thought there were five. One of the men dismounted off his horse and approached me. The scarred up man looked me square in the eye and said "Where is the money Johnny?" The others seemed to look down at me as if they were on a pedestal and I was their prey. "I don't got it. Please, give me a few more days this drought has been hard on all of us." "We will show no mercy this time around Johnny, you had your chance." I should have known better, these men did not know pity. I then heard a blood-curtailing scream coming from the house that seemed to slow down and blur the world around me, as my heart raced faster.
I was right there had been five men. I turned towards my house. It was at this point that I saw the leader of the group, a man dressed all in black. I knew he was the leader by his violent scowl on his face and by the way he carried himself. I watched him drag my wife out of our house and throw her to the ground. She was struggling to get out of his grip. Blood spattered as he beat and kicked her to the ground.
My anger and adrenaline was pumping, I had pulled out my gun ready to shoot this man and help my wife. It was then when the three men got off their horses and the fourth grabbed me. They roughly pinned me on my stomach to the ground. "Leave her alone! I'm the one you want! Get your hands off her!" The man in black had not listened and instead picked her up by her baby blue dress collar, she was fighting hard to get out of his snake like grip. As he yanked her on her feet, Joy turned around and spat in his face. My heart stopped as he pushed her on her knees in front of me. "Joy!" I remember yelling out to her. Bang! My vision was blocked with red as something warm had dripped down my face. He had shot her. It was her blood. "Come on men our business here is done!" The five men then got on their horses and road off. When they had left I sprung to my feet and ran to my wife. I slid down on my knees scattering the dirt and pebbles. I held her tightly in my arms. I knew she didn't have much time. "John..." she whispered with a faint voice lightly coughing up blood. "I'm so s..s..o..orry." These were the last words I said to her. I felt her lifeless body give out in my arms. She was dead. A roar of sadness had split through my throat and my head lifted up towards the sky. I remember crying to the heavens. My joy was a goner. Picking her lifeless body up, it sagged in my arms, I looked toward the way those murders had ridden and vowed vengeance against the man in black.
The next day I went into town knowing that the man in black was going to pay for what he had done. Pushing open the wooden doors, I stepped inside Sally's Saloon; I spotted him there at the bar sitting on one of the many wooden stools taking shoots. As he was going for another drink, I pulled out my gun and shot his glass to get his attention. He turned around and put his dark leather hat on. "Only one of us is leaving here alive, " I had said to him as I pointed to the door. "I'm going to mark the ground red with your blood, just like I did your gal". I swore that those were going to be the last words he ever spoke.
This is how I found my self in front on the saloon. My heart was racing and my palms were sweaty. I looked into his cold deep eyes; He looked like a dark abyss waiting to suck in my soul. As we drew our guns I felt something fall out of my pocket; it was the picture of my beautiful Joy. As I looked down at her smiling in the picture, I felt horror, for I knew that the fact she was dead would forever haunt me, and that there was nothing I could have done to save her. When I looked back up at the man in black, I felt a drop of rain on my forehead; the drought was over. My finger was on the trigger; I fired just as he did. As the storm cloud rolled over and the thunder began, our shots echoed though the town of Rocky Gulch.