Down by the Crossroads

[WhiskyJakk]

They say you can hire the pale riders if you’re desperate enough. They can smell that need, you see, and they only come if you stink of fear and it’s clear you’ve got nowhere left to go. If you’re lucky. If you try to call them and you’re moved by greed or desire they may come anyways, but you won’t like what you find. Someone tried to own them once, and they don’t cotton to it. Not one bit.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

He was killing angels. They came to the slums to feed the kids, wash the feet of the sick, and generally make everyone’s life just a little bit less hellish. They were angels, and he was killing them. The papers told enough so that the truth was clear; he was a Ressurectionist and he needed to die. But the occasional ugly murder of some dumb soul foolish enough to go to the slums wasn’t enough to bring the Guild crashing down on him.

All of that said it was clear enough the Guild would be there soon. The killings were getting more ballsey and the last victim had been some rich snobs’ son; cut to pieces and remade into a crow of red skin and wet bone. The papers said it was crudely animated and that the thing had tried to flap its dead wings, scraping them forlornly along the cobblestones. That rich snob wasn’t taking kindly to it and was asking powerful friends to have something done.

The Guild would come and that was something the Old Man couldn’t have. In his study he chewed his pale lips and rustled the newspaper in his hands, occasionally closing it with a grunt and then snapping it back open to that same page. A Death Marshal had made official comment on the issue of the Slum Angel Killings, as they were known. He was curious and he thought it might just be some Ressurectionist scum perfecting his craft on people who tried to make a bad place tolerable. He had other more pressing duties, but he’d like to take a look. Soon. He had promised on his badge.

The Guild was coming. The Death Marshals at that! He Old Man reckoned he had one, maybe two more splayed flayed corpses before the Guild was in his little corner of the slums in force, all coffins, guns and ignorance.

They didn’t understand and so they would destroy. That was what made them meat, like the rest of the human race. They had understanding, but they lacked will. They lacked will, sure enough, but they could ask questions and they could kill. They could end his carefully constructed plans and burn down his rats nest house of lies. They lacked will, sure, but these things they could do.

This piss-ant fresh meat Ressurectionist want-be-be was going to bring the hammer of the Guild down and it would be enterprising and cautious Ressurectionists like the Old Man who would pay the price.

This couldn’t stand. It was time to wake up the Boy. His Boy. There would be thunder and gunsmoke, screaming and dying, and then the problem would be solved. The Slum Angel Killer would be dead, his Boy would be fed, all fat and gross on death, and life could return to its methodical march to the grave. Life could return to normal.

He rose from his stool, came from behind the bar and locked the door to his saloon. The Drunken Ass would be closed for the night. He hobbled along, muttering ugly nothings to himself, and made his way to the cellar. He kept beer and whisky down there, and he kept the Boy down there. His Boy, sure enough. He’d born the Boy into life and then born him into death. The Boy was his son twice over and his rightful property. Not for the Old Man the moaning hordes of the undead. One perfect creature was enough. Born of love and sacrificed, along with that love, on the Old Mans’ bloody slab. Sacrifice was the key; of this the Old Man was certain.

He lit candles as he walked down the creaking stairs and looked at the Boy, all cold and perfect on his stone bed. His calvary hat covered his face, the hawkish nose so much like the Old Mans’ own, and the moustache and beard, and the two rows of sharp teeth. The Boy had a grin like a shark, and twice as soulless at that. The Boy had a horseshoe moustache and soul patch, too. The Old Man often regretted not shaving that off. Now he would return to that state no matter what happened to him. So long as the Boy had enough flesh to eat and parts to sew on it didn’t matter what happened to his gaunt frame, he’s return to that same perfect state with the same stupid moustache and beard.

The Old Man thought the facial hair made him look like a vagrant. The Boy thought it had made him look every inch the perfect cavalry officer. He did look the daring horseman, the perfect pale rider, but it wasn’t that stupid facial shrub, it was the seeping gut wound that had killed him. It was the thundering twin irons he carried on his hips and the cavalry saber that he never washed the blood off of. These things made him perfect. He was death, the consumer, the destroyer of worlds.

The truth was plain in his ravenous mouth and the six shooters gripped in cold dead hands. He had started life as his fathers’ boy, ended it as the Old Mans’ Boy, and had become a perfect murderous implement. The Boy was worth any stinking horde of crude puppets and now it was time to wake him up again.

The Old Man spoke the words and those ruthless gray eyes snapped open and an abyssal hiss escaped the thin lips, breathed past the knife teeth like the earth’s moan through a stalagmite riddled cave.

His son, the Boy was awake. Death had come to the slums again, and this time, for the first time, it would seek out someone who just plain had it coming.

To be continued.

[Nathan Caroland]

Very nice. Looking forward to more.

[WhiskyJakk]

Very nice. Looking forward to more.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm a pretty poor writer, but I'm enjoying the setting a lot. It's one of those fun settings that lets someone do almost anything.

[Angus Khan]

I like it! You're right about the world of Malifaux... it has so many ideas which can be explored.

Can't wait for the next installment!

[Zee]

Great job! It was really enjoyable to read.

[WhiskyJakk]

2 Years Later- Some Folks Just Plain Need Killing

Erzibet shivered every time the Rider looked at her. His face was shadowy, just a murky blob underneath the gray cavalry hat. She could see his teeth, though. The shadows seems to crawl under the hat and skitter about unnervingly, but the rows of sharp white sharks teeth stood out just fine. The lamp light didn’t illuminate his face and didn’t paint his teeth yellow; his face was a black blur and his teeth were perfect and white, gleaming and damp with spittle.

Every now and again his horse would shuffle, it’s shod hooves clopping on the street. He hadn’t said anything for five minutes now, just hissing and whispering to the female thing on the horse next to him; very much like him but very much different. Her face was all murk and terror, too, but somehow everything about her was more feminine. Her teeth were more a snakes than a sharks, and where he reeked of blood, horse crap and gun oil, she reeked of blood, horse crap and… was that lilac? The other Rider hissed and giggled, fiddling with her hood. Yes, she was more feminine, but not softer. She just seemed… swifter and better formed perhaps.

Erzibet finally got her nerve up and cleared her throat.

“I don’t have time for this,” she stammered, “Will you kill ‘em or not?"

The female rider crowed with laughter. He just chuckled, a wet burbling sound. It sounded a bit like a creek meandering over rocks, but that was not what sprang to mind. She thought of blood washing over cobblestones and shell casings.

“Sure, we’ll kill ‘em,” he said, his voice crawling with death and thick with phlegm.

He cleared his throat, but when he spoke again it was pretty clear it hadn’t accomplished anything.

“They got it comin’. But do you got the blood price?” he queried.

Erzibet tossed two silver coins on the road, looking this way and that, concern for her life creasing her face.

“Ain’t that just cute as can be?” the female Rider tittered, “They even got little skulls and crossbones stamped on ‘em. Now where did you get that done?”

“Never you mind,” Erzibet snapped, fear finally getting its’ claws well into her nerves, “You got your blood price and it was offered at the crossroads at midnight.”

“You want it fast, or slow and funny?”

“I want ‘em to die slow, ma’am. I want ‘em to die slow and beg and beg. I want ‘em to die slow for what they done to me and mine.”

He slid off of his horse and scooped up the two coins. “Done and done,” he gurgled, doffing his hat to her like any good gentleman would. She stared into his leering face, screamed and ran.

[Justin]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm a pretty poor writer, but I'm enjoying the setting a lot. It's one of those fun settings that lets someone do almost anything.

Don't sell yourself short. You set the mood perfectly.

I enjoyed both installments.

[Epic Jimbo]

I liked it so much, you have inspired me to take a crack at it.

[WhiskyJakk]

I'm glad some folks are enjoying it. I'm cracking away at it as quick as my infant son, work and college (and painting) allow for it.

[Epic Jimbo]

I understand fully.Just don't stop the presses!

[Nathan Caroland]

You've kept us waiting .. put the kid down and pick up the pencil.

[WhiskyJakk]

Good, bad… I’m the guy with the gun…

-Ash

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The Old Man was crouched over the angel’s corpse, muttering to himself while his horrible son stood in the shadows, Peacemaker in hand. The Old Man looked up from the gas lit corpse, sprawled in its own blood and guts, and scowled at the Boy.

His brow knit further as he realized that the Boy was chewing his lower lip with his pointed teeth. A dollop of thick, dead blood ran down the Boys chin into his beard. The zombie, and the boy was just a churched up zombie for all of his airs and all of his powers, looked nervous. Of all the damnable fool things.

“What the Hell is wrong with you, Boy?”

The Boy blinked, startled. Startled!

“Hrm? Nothin’, Boss. Nothin’”

“Well, keep your damned eyes open. Guilds liable to be here soon, whelp.”

The Boy nodded. Good enough for now. It would have to keep until they were back at the pub. They could fix the problem easy enough there. He turned his attention back to the ruined corpse. The runes he could see on her wrists were familiar enough. Any Ressurectionist would recognize them. Any Ressurectionist could have carved them into her. He lifted her stiff chin and blinked. Over her jugular a rune he knew too damned well was cut into her smooth skin.

The Boy was watching with obvious interest now.

The Old Man coughed into his handkerchief. “Boy… Let me.. Let me see your neck, Boy.”

“No, Pa.”

“The Hell did you call me?”

“You ain’t the boss no more, Pa. She’s gonna set me free.”

The Boy raised the Peacemaker and placed it under his chin, grinning wickedly. His teeth glittered like damp jewels in the yellow light. “He’s your geas, girl. Kill him and set yerself free.”

The boy pulled the trigger. Time seemed to slow down for the old man. He was about to bark an order, to make the Boy lay the pistol down, when he say the weirdest damned thing. A gust of blue smoke blew out of the Boys mouth as his cheeks puffed out and his brains sprayed out through the top of his hat. The hat still firmly on his head, the smoking corpse fell on its’ back, booted feet jangling and clashing their spurs along the cobblestones.

The angels eyes popped open then, all golden and snake like, as she breathed a sick corpse smell into the Old Man’s face. He staggered back, staring at the Boy, ordering him to get up and defend him; begging him now. The Boy just flopped about on the stones and gnashed his teeth, chewing through his own tongue.

He backed away from the corpse as it staggered to its feet. He babbled and grabbed at his chest, all of his spells and powers seeming useless before the abomination shuffling to its’ wobbly feet, sloshing its’ innards onto the ground. His breathing was coming hard or not coming at all it seemed. It felt like a horse was standing on his ribs. He fumbled for his pistol as gory talons grabbed for his face, the pain in his chest making the situation impossible.

He staggered back screaming and pawing at the flap of meat hanging where his check used to be. He swung his pistol, a sorry holdout .22, and shot the thing dead in the face. It yelped, more in surprise than anything it seemed, and lunged for him, jaws yawning impossibly wide it snatched him up in uncaring hands.

Rancid breath blasted into his face and he wondered if it was going to feed what was left of him to the Boy to patch him up.

Then the world went all red; a pastiche of pain, shrieking and regret.

But it was far too late for any of that.

Edited December 28, 2009 by WhiskyJakk