Engels,  Short Story

The Gun in the Mist

When I woke up I was lying face down in the dirt. I tried to sit upright but my body ached all over. My lips were cracked and I had the taste of mud in my mouth. I badly needed a sip of water. It slowly came back to me. Joanna, my wife. She was dead. Murdered by a group of savages with no motive other than to still their boredom, or their lust, or whatever. They fuckin’ killed her.

I remember sittin’ at the dinner table at home, after a long day’s work. She callin’ me sheriff and my full name and all that. ‘Sheriff Jacquin Black,’ I knew what that meant and what we would be doin’ later that night. We were happy you know, the two of us, although livin’ in this godforsaken town. As a sheriff I did the best I could but justice and peace were difficult to maintain. Especially with the few people I had to work with. It made me grow bitter and made me reach for my gun sooner again and again. They said that in this place good men died and bad men thrived. People talk a lot you know, they talk away. I worked hard every day to keep evil at bay. And my Joanna was always there, sweet as honey. Always there to keep me goin’, keep me sane. I mean the beef she cooked was horrible but still it was somethin’. And now she’s fuckin’ dead.

But how did I go from sittin’ at the table to bleedin’ to death in the gutter?

It must have happened yesterday. They came into the house, shot me on sight. It was a bad aim, hit me right in the arm. I saw one of their faces, and I knew him. Saw him at his son’s funeral. His son dead because I shot him when he exited the drugstore, cradlin’ his loot. Leavin’ the premises and a gurglin’ dyin’ man behind the counter.

Was this his revenge or was it coincidence? Maybe they did have a motive after all. They grabbed Joanna by the hair, dragged her to the bedroom. Two of ‘em pushed me outside with my face in the dirt. Not so different from my current situation. They put me on my knees and I heard a shot. But it weren’t me who got shot or I wouldn’t be tellin’ you this story. I do not remember anything after that, until I woke up here in the dirt.

I tried pulling myself together. The morning dew was thick, like a blanket of mist covering the land all around me. The sun was slowly risin’, not that I could see it but I noticed the mist turning a bright yellow. I needed water badly. I picked myself up and started walkin’. T’was the only thing I could do, one step at a time. But the more steps I took the more used I got to my situation and I recognised the place where I was. Just outside of Jimmy’s ranch. I started walkin’ towards my house to see with my own eyes what had happened and to make sense of things. But mostly to find Joanna and see what they had done to her. I could barely see twenty feet in front of me. The mist was clearin’ a little. It smelled like gunpowder. My home took shape in front of me. The fuckin’ guts of those motherfuckers. There were three of them last night and one was now sittin’ here on my fuckin’ porch. I came up to him and he didn’t flinch, I saw empty eyes like he had lost everythin’. Well, not everythin’ cause I was ‘bout to take the last thing he owned. That be his soul. He looked up at me and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’, without a sound. I grabbed my gun out of the holster and shot him in his balls. The sound clapped around in the hills and woke up probably every man and woman in town. I didn’t care. This was personal and this would be quick. The man fell sideways screamin’ in pain. I walked up to him and shot him two times in the head to silence him. I stepped over the body and kicked the door in and there was a second one already comin’ towards me with his gun drawn. The morning mist was blowin’ in from behind me and started to fill up the room. My silhouette was painted on the far wall. The man was frozen in time and as if in slow motion I aimed my gun at his gut and pulled the trigger twice. Five bullets gone, one left. The man was blown backwards and smashed into the cupboard. His eyes showed nothing but horror as he looked at his hands holdin’ his intestines. They say it’s the most painful place to get shot, takin’ in account the long time it takes for you to die from it. I watched him for a few seconds and drank in his fear. The last man would be in the bedroom I figured. It was a bad strategy to kick in that door when the person on the other side by now knows what’s comin’ but at this point I wasn’t really thinkin’ straight. Or maybe I didn’t care. I kicked it in. Heard a blast and felt the buckshot go right past me. How do you miss with a shotgun? You don’t have to aim. The room was empty except for this old man. I looked into his eyes and saw hurt. I saw grieve. My wife wasn’t there. The man’s eyes widened. The shotgun fell to the ground ‘She vanished,’ was all he could say. I had one bullet and wasn’t goin’ to miss. I also wasn’t goin’ to let him suffer cause he already had. A father shouldn’t have had to bury his own son. I aimed the gun and shot him in the head. He folded backwards and lay there in a cushion of his own brains. Part of his head was missin’ and the bedroom that needed a paint job finally got what it needed. The smoke from my gun filled the room and the rest of the house. I couldn’t see shit and my eyes pricked from the gunpowder. My ears were ringin’. My heart was calm though. Where was Joanna? I stepped outside, figurin’ there would be a crowd by now but there was no one. Then a strange feelin’ came crawlin’ up my legs and throughout my whole body. It started aching. I looked down and noticed I was shot. And not once. I counted twelve bullet holes. At first I thought it was the shotgun but the blood was already dry. How was I still functioning? Did they get me yesterday? The sun burned down upon my head and I looked around. I would have to find Joanna. I wanted to take her in my arms. To kiss her on the lips. To hug her and lie to her that dinner was great. And that we would leave this fuckin’ town and all the scum behind and know that she would be smilin’ the broadest smile she’d ever shined. I started walkin’. I walked and walked, with my gun still clamped in my hand. Where would she be? I wondered as I set out into the mist that encumbered me and took me in.

***

At the graveyard, not far from their house, Joanna was standin’ upright, but barely holdin’ on as she picked her kerchief from her coat. Her sister was trying to sooth her by gently stroking her back. Joanna rubbed away the tears from her eyes as Jeremy spoke.

‘We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of sheriff Jacquin Black who lost his life yesterday. He fought for this town until his last breath. He leaves behind his wife Joanna Black and his brothers in arms.’ Jeremy tried not to show any tears but it was hard for him since the sheriff was his mentor and he just wasn’t in time that night. The only comfort he had was that he was able to save Joanna by the hands of those outlaws. When he had heard the first shot he’d ran outside out of the sheriff’s office where he was guarding the cells. It was two streets away from the sheriff’s home where the shots came from. He ran as fast as he could and heard shot after shot as if his feet made the sound when they hit the ground running. He came up to the cabin and noticed two men standing over a body on the ground. He shot both men who had been emptying their guns in the corpse lying in front of them. The corpse wore Joaquin’s jacket, they killed him. He heard Joanna scream from the house and ran in. In the house he found Bill Hicks with his pants on his ankles, not having a clou that Jeremy had shot the men outside. Jeremy fired a round in the man’s head. Joanna was crying in the corner of the room. How would he tell her?

An hour later when Joanna was with her sister, Jeremy was in front of the porch and looked down on sheriff Black’s dead body. He stood there staring for quite some time and wondered how he would end up himself. He knew that he would have to take over his role. To be the new sheriff, trying to save this fucking town from itself. But this town was far from saving. No man alone could fight this evil for this evil was men. It was in their nature. It would always be.

Jeremy looked at Joanna and his heart wept. ‘And so we say goodbye to Sheriff Jacquin Black, may he forever rest in peace, but more likely, taking in account the person that he was, may he forever wield his gun to protect the innocent in the mists of the afterlife.

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