Broken Leg

I held my breath as I took cover in the pantry, waiting for them to come to me. “For someone deemed the best shooting sheriff in all the west, you sure like the color yellow,” he chuckled as he strolled in. I tried to look through the cracks to get a glimpse of him. He was the only one wearing a cowboy hat. His skin had multiple burns. Almost second degree burns. “Now how are we supposed to settle things if you’re cooped up in that tight space there?” I froze. A shot was fired and the sound of shattered glass followed. I exhaled too soon. I felt a singe near my eye along with his gaze through the bullet hole.

“You’re a pretty good shot,” I managed to let out as a walked out.

“Clearly didn’t learn from you,” he walked towards me. I stepped back. “Hey, I just want to talk,” the masked men snickered.

“Really? I scoffed while walking further to the back of the saloon. “I must have misunderstood when you and your playmates were firing at my people,” I saw one of the bandits by the door aim for me. I fired and turned to sprint for the back of the room. As I got in, my shoulder jerked forward, forcing me on the ground. I saw my blood dripping on the floor. I held my bleeding shoulder as I weakly pulled myself across the floor. I reached a door and pulled myself up. Locked. I heard his spurs laughing at me.

“Come now, it’s not like anyone was hurt,” his eyes glanced over to my shoulder and smirked. “Well, anyone that matters,” I leaned against the wall as he stepped closer. She glanced at a dusty clock.

“What are you waiting for? High noon?” She let out a strained chuckle. He turned his attention to the time. This is my chance, I thought. Aim. Click. No! I reached for my holster for my third clip.

“I was waiting for you to realize…you’re out of your pride,” he stated as he showed me my last clip. “Now that you politely mentioned it, my gun does need a pick me up,” as he proceeded to reload his revolver. His eyes never left me. “Now, you brought up something quite interesting today. Do you know what that was?’ he paused. “The apparent safety of your people.” He walked to one side of the room. “Protecting people is your thing isn’t it,” he looked at me. “Where was that spirited attitude, when you abandoned the last one?”

“What are you talking about?” he slammed his gun against the wall. His eyes twitched.

“So you’re playing the ‘I’m Forgetful Game’? Well, let me help with your memory,” he laid down his gun and walked towards me. “Let’s talk about the story of a little town in a valley. This town was filled with innocent people. Just like this one. They were governed by a great sheriff that apparently vowed to always protect them. Sounding familiar so far?” He glared at me. I looked away. “Then this lovely town was visited by five strange riders,” I heard his footsteps retreat. “And these five riders…burnt this town to the ground. One by one. As a life fell, so did their legacy. But you wouldn’t remember that part.” It was hard to swallow. “What I bet you do recall is- no,” he smiled. “This is not an effective way to remind you,” he started to leave the room. I looked over to where he left his gun and crawled towards it. “You were one of the best…yet you left,” he yelled. Faster, I told myself. “You left with that backstabber-”

“To kill him,” as I pointed his gun at him. “I followed, to kill him.” The air was still.

“And how did that work out? Still killing him?” He continued walking towards the front entrance. My aim was shaking.

“Why-why didn’t you leave?” No response. “You could’ve left-,” He turned to face me.

“Leave? Just get up and leave the only home I’ve ever had? Leave the people that cared for me through the good and the bad?” he took a breath. “Leave to not notice that even through the massacre, people survived. Some did not.” My heart skipped a beat as he scoffed.

“You could’ve taken your horse.” He stared me down and smiled.

“You are quite right. I could’ve taken my horse and be safe at a distance. Return after the fire goes down,” He whistled. A beautiful blood hay horse approached him. “Just like this one right.” He brought the horse inside. I didn’t notice he bandits behind me that held me to the ground. ‘I just want to make sure we understand each other’ he left the horse standing in front of me. A shot was fired. The horse was startled. She raised her front legs in the air, and slammed them on my legs. The shattering of my legs seemed louder than my screams. “What was that? Why did I do that? Don’t worry I’m getting to that.” The bandits yanked my body to the wall. The pain started to fade as more blood seeped out of me. “I guess I should thank you,” he began. “You made me into this. And you can only blame yourself.” He whistled again. Another horse was brought to him. The rest of my blood started to boil. I aimed the gun at his head and screamed as I pulled the trigger. Click. I froze. “Now, now. You can’t rush this part.” He nodded at one of his men that had a bat. The man approached Satin.

“She has nothing to do with this! It’s me you want isn’t it? Let her go!” I fell over. The pain shocked through me.

 “You are right. It is you I want. I want you to remember. We can’t have you missing your lesson, now can we?” Satin tried to pull away. He started to pet her. “Easy there girl. This won’t be long.”

“Get away from her,” I begged. The bat was raised…and swung at Satin’s back leg. She collapsed in agony. My heart broke at her voice. My world. He knelt beside her.

 “You should thank your rider, pretty thing. Her lessons taught me that we can only grow, if they lost someone close to them. Guess that’s you isn’t it?” He turned to me and saw the look of defeat in me. He just smiled. This bastard is smiling. “Hurts doesn’t it? And you and I both know. There’s a little detail I haven’t covered yet.” He cocked his gun. “You know they say to shoot twice to make sure someone’s dead, yellow-belly” his eyes didn’t waver as he raised his shirt to reveal a bullet wound. “Guess you should not have hesitated back then.” 

Two shots fired.