Wanted Man

-Jack’s Point of View-

Cold. Cold, wet, and utterly exhausted. I was tired of running. I guess I misread the part of the deal when I signed up for this shit. Oh yeah… I didn't fucking sign-up. If I had any choice in the matter I wouldn’t be here right now. But then again, I didn't have a choice either. My blood boiled every time I thought of why I was here in the first place. My pa had never been a good man. He would swindle people out of money at the saloon, and take home any lady he found there. So my upbringing was less than perfect. But when I tried to tell him how I felt.. how I felt about other men, he beat me until I felt like dying. Which probably would have been better than what I’m doing now. He hooked me up with some other kids my age, 16,and at first I thought they were alright. Nothing particularly wholesome, but nothing too horrid. That was, until my old man gave me his “test”.I could remember everything clearly, even from so long ago. I was supposed to go into town with Frank and Joe. I had to prove I was a real man and to do that I needed to participate in a duel. I’m sure you all are laughing at the fact that I was scared shitess, but we’re talking life or death here! I had walked into the center of town and into the nearest bar. I knew someone would probably make a remark about my appearance or attitude being a little more feminine, but I couldn't help myself.
“Hey.. Lookie here.. It’s one ‘em queers” a man not much older than myself sneered, spitting into my face.
I felt my face flush with anger as I balled up my fists.
“Aw, look fella’s she’s blushing! What are you gonna do, madame?” he asked, cackling in satisfaction.
I saw red and couldn't contain myself. I swung my fist, hearing the sickening crack of my knuckles smacking against his jaw. He toppled off of his stool, scrambling to his feet.
“Why you!” he growled, cradling the side of his face before running at me.
So I’m a pretty small guy. Like, I’m tall and stuff, but as far as bulk and muscles go.. well lets just say I got the short end of the stick.
He barreled into me, shoving me to the floor and dealing a few hard hits to my stomach.
“Tom! Thomas Gaskarth, knock it off!” the bartender yelled.
‘Tom’ whipped his head around, his face still contorted with fury, “This mistake of God and all things holy swung at me Jed! What was I supposed to do? He deserves it, and more” he said, looking down at me as he spat the last few words.
“Take it outside then Tom” the bartender said tiredly, almost as if this was a usual happening.
Tom grinned evilly as he grabbed my collar, jerking me to my feet.
I couldn’t help but get the feeling that he had done this before to another unfortunate soul. Just before we reached the swinging doors that led out to the street, another boy ran up, clutching onto Tom’s arm.
“Tom! Don’t do this! What if you get killed? And he just messed up this one time.. Let him go Tom” he begged, pulling on Tom’s sleeve.
“Stay out of this Alex” Tom growled, yanking his arm away from this Alex.
“Please stop!!!” Alex continued to scream, pulling hard on my arms that had been hanging loosely since resistance seemed relatively useless.
As our skin made contact I felt sparks spread through my entire body.
“Tom! Control your brother!” one of the man said, laughing alone with the rest.
Tom set his jaw and yanked Alex outside as well.
“Alex!” he hissed, whirling on his brother as soon as we were out of the saloon.
“I’m just worried about you..” he murmured in response.
Tom’s gaze softened a bit, before he patted Alex on the back, “I’ll tell you what, you can stay out here with me. You’ll be the one to count the paces.
Alex’s eyes widened and he started to shake his head no, but Tom interrupted saying that he knew Alex would do great. His eyes started to sparkle with the few words of praise from Tom. It was sick how much he looked up to his wretched brother. His brother would was going to kill me soon.
I swallowed the bile that was rising in my throat. I had to do this. One way or another.
Tom dragged me out to the center of the street and snatched my gun from its holster. He pulled the barrel of the gun out, empting all of my bullets, except one. He gestured for me to do the same to his weapon and once the proper procedure was done, we stood back to back on the dueling grounds. I could see Frank and Joe watching from the windows of the bar. Funny how they hadn't even lifted a finger to help me in there. Dirty rotten bastards.
“Its twenty paces.. Ready?” Alex’s small voice called out. We both made small noises of acknowledgement.
He started counting of the paces, “One. Two. Three. Four. Five”
I felt sweat start to form at the base of my neck. I was so dead. There was no way I could outdraw Tom.
“Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven” Alex continued and I just felt my anxiety begin to rise.
What was I going to do? I couldn’t die.. I was to young.. This was bad.. I had to do something!
“Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen..” Alex said, and when he reached sixteen I knew it was time. Fuck these rules, today was not my day to die.
I spun around but before I could fire, Alex screamed for Tom
He whirled around just as I pulled the trigger. He was pushed back by the impact of my shot, causing his bullet to pierce through the glass of a near by lantern. Bits of fire dropped down onto a pile of dry grass. It ignited quickly, creating a blaze to my right. Tom wasn’t moving as he lay on the ground and I knew my bullet had stayed true to my aim.
“You killed him!” Alex screamed, jumping forward and grabbing a long cattle branding tool that had been laying on the steps.
He plunged it in the fire and swung at me, smacking me across the chest with it.
The searing pain and force of the impact was enough to knock me to the ground.
“I’m going to make you suffer before I kill you!” Alex hissed, his eyes aglow with fury and pain.
He brought the hot iron down onto my stomach pressing a long burning line up my abdomen. I struggled to get up by he stepped on my arms with one of his feet. He pressed down hard and the agony was unbearable. I thrashed, kicking one of his legs out from under him. The iron flew out of his reach as he tumbled to the ground. I scrambled to my feet and started running blindly.
“Get him!” Alex screamed into the coral, and soon men were pouring out of the building.
“Jack!” a familiar voice yelled. It was Frank. He was riding one of the horses from the stables, and joe was following behind him on another one.
“Get on” Joe yelled, grabbing my arm and lifting me onto the back of his brown and white animal.
I pressed myself low on the animal as we ran from the angry mob.
And now here I was.. Ten years later and still on the run. I couldn’t honestly say I hadn’t done anything else bad, because when you're a criminal you do what you have to when it comes to survival. And some petty thievery was more fun than you’d imagine.
But since this storm had moved in we’d had nothing but rain for the past 4 days. That made travel unbearable, and the horses became so skittish with lightning.
I had enough money to stay in an inn, so I’ll be damned if I was going to pass it up. Only thing is… the place we’re near is relatively near my old town. Yes, it’s a little pathetic that I didn’t know exactly where my home was, but I never was in town much anyways. I hadn’t been back here since my early days. Oh, and when I said we’re I mean Chance and I. Chance is my horse. I’m still with my main group comprised of Frank, Joe, Sawyer, and Billie. But we tend to branch out and do our own thing, occasionally meeting up to make sure everyone is still alive. Plus we’re a makeshift family. We share our spoils, which honestly haven’t been much lately.
My appearance has changed a lot since then. No longer was I so so skinny. I was thin still but I could look threatening when I had my gun pressed to your head. I spiked up my hair since hat’s had never done anything for me. Lard was not an appetizing smell though so I spend more than I probably should perfumes I’m vain, but hey, I’ll meet my special someone soon. If I ever stay in the same place long enough.
I was almost in town when my horse took a stumble. I almost slipped off him and toppled to an embarrassing fate. I hopped down to examined his feet.
“Shit Chance!” I exclaimed as I saw how lose his horse shoe had become.
“We can get that fixed, the blacksmith is just up the road” a voice said.
I turned to see that the beautiful voice belongs to an equally beautiful man. He stuck his hand out to me, “Alexander”
I grasped his hand, feeling electricity course up through my body, causing me to stutter a bit, “J-Jay”
His grin widened at my fumble. Well that’s just great. His first impression is that you’re a blumbering idiot.
“Lets get that fixed” he said, motioning to my horse. I nodded and we started walking to the blacksmith’s.
“Anything in particular bring you here?”
“Oh well I just wanted to get a room at the inn. I’ve been out for the past week in all the rain and I think I may come down with something if I don’t get some food and dried off” I replied.
His faced looked shocked at my suggestion of staying at the inn, “Oh no, Jay, you should stay with me! They don’t have any idea what they’re doing down there and you need honest rest, not a sleazy saloon.”
I couldn’t deny that he was attractive and he was offering me a bed in his house? It was quite an appealing offer...
“Well, if you’re sure the Mrs. won't mind..” I said, trailing off.
He let out a laugh that was pure music to my ears, “Oh no. I’m not tied down. It’s just me.”
I tried to keep the look of delight from my face.
“Well then I guess theres no harm in staying with you” I said, thinking of all the delicious things I could do to him...
Once we had dropped Chance off, we decided to just go back to Alexander’s home.
“So where’ya from?” he asked as I started walking away from the smith’s shop.
“Oh, just around..” I said casually.
“A real traveler then? I’ve never been out of this place..” he said
I felt bad for him, and I was just about to ask why he had never left when a man tipped his hat to Alexander mumbling “Sheriff”.
“Wait.. What did he just call you?” I asked, sure my face had paled far to many shades to be healthy.
“Sheriff.. I’m the sheriff in this town, you see”.

Notes

Title Cred: Wanted Man by Frankie Laine
Well hello there! This is one of my brand new fics and its a Western!
I have no idea where this came from, but I really wanted to do it.. So I did it!
I realize that this chapter is really long but it has a lot of back story and such. Its like the Prologue and Chapter One combined. So yeah, most chapters won't be as long.
This fic will get updated every Tuesday and most likely on Sunday. Hopefully there will be other random updates during the week since I'm in love with my own idea (conceited, I know).
But for now, Comment/Rate/Subscribe and we can be besties.
Oh, and y'all (see I'm getting into character.. AND THIS IS MY SELF PROMO, prepare yourself) should check out my other work I would recommend The Way We Feel but I've got other fics and more to come as well.
Love you all =^.^=