Desert Rain

The Devils Bounty Hunter

His name was Kaine Douglas Abon. At least that was what he was called in his former life before things reall got bad for him. He was an outlaw, one of the most notorious in the west, a mean gun toting individual who would not think twice about shooting anyone who got in his way. Life never gave him the chance most people had to live a decent and normal life. It was a series of misfortunes and tradgeties that had put him on the path that ultimately led to his destruction. It started with the death of his parents at the hands of a band of bank robbers. It was in the town of Big Whisky in Arizona. He was only a kid of 5 years. His father was a lawyer, his mother, a teacher. They had travelled far from the big city of New York to start a new life, to set up a ranch in the outer frontier. But all they found was death and destruction. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were cashing in their life savings when the gang of outlaws struck. Nervous and trigger happy, they came in guns blazing. Both of Kaines parents were brutally gunned down during the chaos and confusion, a scene that set the course of Kaines life.
He was orphaned after the incident, but grew up rough, forced to survive in a world that was both cruel and lawless. He learned how to steal and then at the age of 19, he learned how to pick up a gun and use it. By 25 he was a crack shot with a colt 45, able to fire with pinpoint accuracy. He had killed his first man by this age and when he was 27, he had hooked up with a gang of outlaws led by Josey Whales. Together he rode with them across the wild frontier that was America, robbing from coaches, banks and trains. He thought nothing of killing anyone who stood in his way. He had to make a living somehow in a world that he had come to know as violent and uncaring. He had learnt from Josey that the only way to survive is to be as cold and uncaring as the world itself. To treat others the way you would not want to be treated yourself. And so Kain Douglas Abon became one of the most notrious outlaws in the lawless land that was America's west.
For ten long years he managed to avoid the law, the various bounty hunters that had been sent to hunt him down. He even put many of them out of retirement permentley. So strong was Kaines hatred for life, of the world he grew up in, that it took him to many extremes, his most famous being the slaughter of his mentor, Josey and his gang. Kaine had felt that he had reached a point in his life where he believed he was better than the gang he had first hooked up with and killing them was no pitiful act for him. He had no need of a gang. He had stole so much money that he felt he could live a long and prosperous life. But the lure of one more robbery was too much to resist, especially one pulled off by himself.
His arrogance though would prove to be his undoing for something happened to Kaine that he never thought would happen. He met and fell in love with a woman and experienced feelings he never thought he would ever feel. Feelings he always believed were never meant for the likes of himself. She was a teacher who owned a ranch in Texas and he stumbled upon it one day. He had been injured from a previous gun battle with a bounty hunter who had originated from Birmingham, Alabama, a persistent bastard who had chased Kaine for five long years. This particular one was the worst of the bunch who went by the name Gabriel, Johnathan Wilbraham Gabriel. Once a lawman now a bounty hunter, a crackshot sniper, gunslinger and tracker who had nearly killed him on more than one occassion.
Kaine's wounds from his latest battle with Gabriel had been so severe that he knew if he did not recieve the help he needed, he would die. The woman who tended to his wounds was called Elizabeth Shawl.
She was young, pretty, skin as white as the moon, as soft as cotton and silk and hair that was as dark as night itself. She was a woman who was not afraid of hard work and she ran her ranch as a school to teach wayward youngsters, to help give them a second chance at life, a chance that Kaine never had. She knew nothing of his past, and the kindness she gave to Kaine while healing him softened Kaines cold and unfeeling heart, filling it with something he had never experienced for a long time.
Elizabeth spent a lot of time with Kaine, reading passages from the Bible which made Kaine question his own life, made him feel guilt and remorse for all the bad acts he had committed. It was from this guilt that he began to suffer bad dreams, seeing the faces of all the people he had killed, as if they had come back to haunt him. Though despite this, Elizabeth was always there to comfort him, and as much as he wanted to tell her the truth, that he was the famous and notorious outlaw Kaine Abon, he could not bring himself to do it. Elizabeth was like an angel to Kaine, and it was her love, her kindness that had somehow evicted him from his other life as a cold and murdering monster. She represented everything that Kaine was not, and without even knowing, she had made Kaine see the error of his ways. Kaine had fallen for Elizabeth, but he knew he could never have her.
He felt she deserved better and with his injuries now healed, he realised he could stay no longer, even though she had offered him a job on his ranch, the chance of a new life. He did not deserve it and from all the good work she had done for him, healing his wounds, feeding and clothing him, the truth had to come. It was the only decent thing he could do for her, even though it pained him.
He left her ranch one cold November morning, leaving her a note which revealed who he really was and all the horrible things he had done, the people he had killed. He did not even want to imagine what her reaction would be. But when Kaine left her ranch without so much of a hint of goodbye, he was a changed man. His heart was no longer filled with hate. Elizabeth had seen to that and filled it with joy and a love for life. Part of him hated her for it, for now he longer wanted to be a man on the run, a wanted outlaw. Neither did he want to feel the joy and love of life, or the hope Elizabeth had given him. The guilt he felt from all his past misdeeds far outweighed everything else he felt inside and it was his guilt that drove him straight into the path of his arch enemy, Jonathan Gabriel.
Gabriel had known where Kaine had been all this time and had watched his every move from afar on Elizabeth's ranch. He had watched him for many moons and had seen the change that had happened to Kaine and when Kaine had left the ranch, he followed him. He knew Kaine would offer no resistence, and just a Gabriel had predicted, Kaine surrendered himself. Of course, knowing that Kaine was a changed man, he offered Kaine a deal, that if he tell him where all the hidden loot Kaine had accumulated over the years, he would let Kaine go and give him the chance to return back to Elizabeth and start a new life. But Kaine knew he could not go back. His second chance at life had died the moment he picked up a gun and killed his first human.
He gave Gabriel what he wanted; the location of all his hidden loot and himself as a prisoner. After ten years on the run, Kaine had finally been captured. Two weeks later, he was hanged in the town of Dalton in Texas. It was only five miles from the ranch where Elizabeth lived.
His hanging was done at early dawn at Kaines own request. There was not many people present to see his execution, just the govenor of Texas, the bounty hunter, Gabriel, the sheriff of Dalton, Ken Whittingham, his deputy, Brett Homing and two other men who performed the hanging. There was no priest to prey for Kaines soul because Kaine refused one when offered. He only wanted to go meet his maker and pay whatever price he deserved.
Kaines body was put in an umarked grave and that was the only thing he remembered before waking up in six feet of dirt and clawing and climbing his way out of the ground. It was only then that he found he was no longer a living man, but a walking corpse whose decaying carcass was filled with thousands of tiny bugs, each one controlled by his thoughts, each one moving every joint in his body, keeping his rotting body from falling apart.
It was only a day later, after wandering the west in a confused and bewildered daze, that he came across the small strange creature, the Imp that had been sent to watch over him. The Imp told Kaine that he had gone to Hell straight after his death, but had been offered a chance of redemption in return for a favour. That he hunts down the demons and angels alike that no longer abide by the rules of Heaven and Hell, not to mention capturing and returning any lost souls that have managed to escape the pit. His greatest task that he had been given was the capture of a renegade archangel who was walking the wild frontier of the west stealing souls. He was known as The Preacher, one of the fallen ones who had managed to escape the fate of the pit that was Hell after the great war in Heaven, and was now posing as a messiah.
This angel alone, had the power to bring about armageddon, the end of Heaven and Hell which was why he had to be stopped at all cost. Kaine had been specially chosen for this task, yet he could not remember how and why he was chosen. Perhaps he had made a deal with the Devil. Maybe the Devil had seen something in him that set him apart from all the other lost souls in the pit. But one thing was for certain that even though his body was decayed, he was extreamly powerful. Not only did he have control over all the insects inhabiting his body, and those in the Earth itself, but also total control and dominion over all four elements, Earth, Fire, Air and Water. He had been given a steed to ride, a dead horse that was also held together by the insects of the earth, but was supernaturally as fast as the wind itself.
And so Kaine became the Dark Rider, the Devils own bounty hunter. For many moons he tracked down his prey, battling angels, demons, spirits and the undead alike and hunting down the man who was known only as The Preacher. He rode the night, and during the day, he slept under the soil and dirt if the Earth. In his wake, he brought storms, strong winds, bush fires and rain. His favourite kind of rain was the desert rain. In his previous life as a man, while riding through the Mexican desert, he felt this particular kind of rain. Warm and soft to the touch, it was a rain that was comforting to his soul, that empowered him. Filled him with a kind of peace that he had not felt in such a long time.
Tonight was like any other night for Kaine as he rode across the barren wastes of Mexico, hot on the heels of his only remaining prey, The Preacher. He remembered what the Imp had said about him. How he travels from town to town, coming to it's inhabitants like a saviour, promising them treasures and pleasures beyond their wildest dreams before turning the town against itself. He recalled the previous towns he had visited, each one the same, its inhabitants drowned in their own blood.
The Preacher had managed to elude Kaine for so long and he knew time was running out. For tommorrow his powers would be taken from him and his body would fall apart, reduced to a dead sack of meat and bones for the vultures to feed upon. At this moment though, Kaine did not want to think of that. He just carried on riding through the storm he had summoned and the rain it brought with it, the desert rain....