If you have been following the Busted Gulch story here at the Storytellers Saloon then you know Ruechari has been selected for a special destiny...yet to be revealed. Having grown up in the KitKat Nation. Chief DamagedGoods was the only father she h...
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It was cold. It was dark. Not even a sliver of light to be had. His body ached along with his head and that's when Reaper remembered he was dead.
Buried alive, in a manner of speaking. He used his powers. He called his minions but it would be hours before he could surface. Ruechari would be miles away by now. He reached out for her presence but could feel nothing.
She took off. Brazen as could be, just as the fight with the Kid had started. He felt the pull of her trying to break free. That's when the first shot hit, burning a hole through his chest. The hold was broken once Billy shot a second-round into his head. He felt her slip away.
He touched his face. His body already began to heal. Part of his curse, to be forever alive and forever dead, yet not immortal, the immortals still possessed their souls.
Some received the gift as a reward for a job well done. They are asked to continue to fight for good as they had done in life. Others were given the gift as a way to redemption. Failure meant going to hell. Failure was not an option.
He was a soulless minion of the Wraith, who caught him in a moment of weakness.
In life, Reaper was a lawman bringing justice to some of the gamblin' towns that sprung up all over the west. These towns possessed only one purpose, to remove the pay from the pockets of the miners and the naive passerby. They were godless, lawless, places that needed shaping up.
He had come up upon some Cowboys, a gang that ran rampant, killing anyone who dared defy their wishes. He called them out, he had his posse, but it wasn't enough. One by one they laid waste to his deputies until he was the last one standing.
Each of the six men left a bullet in him. Gasping for breath, blood oozing from his body, they left him for dead and that was when the Wraith appeared. Like a walking horror story dressed in black robes, a silver scythe in hand, his face shrouded from view, he was the embodiment of hell itself.
"I offer you vengeance over those that did this to you. I offer you life. You will never die, but you will now and forever answer to me," came the gravel like voice that slithered through Reaper's brain. "Do you agree?"
To his disgrace he did. Feeling his life expiring, fearing the death that was about to claim him, he agreed with a nod of his head. The Wraith ripped the soul from his body. He cried out and the Wraith took his soul into himself. All that he was in life was now gone. He was an empty shell left to do the bidding of hell.
A blast of air reached him in his coffin. Dirt caved in as the lid had smashed. His body was lifted into the air, though no hand touched him. Reaper faced his tormentor.
"I'm not pleased, Reaper. Not pleased at all."
Reaper thought he felt pain before it was nothing to the torment that the Wraith was about to put him through.
His body felt on fire, he could feel the flames licking at this skin, the torture was relentless and there was no relief not even for a second. Reaper burned in fiery torment.
"Please, it's not too late. I can get the girl back. I can get your totem," Reaper shrieked between gasps.
"Why should I believe you, Reaper? You've let the key slip through your fingers twice now. First with Shari, then with Boni, now I am to trust you to bring me Ruechari's soul? If you lose her again I cannot raise my army of immortals. I need her soul to work the totem but the key will only work once she has become Shaman."
The Wraith lifted his hand and Reaper's body was raised again into the air. Reaper felt the fires of hell burn once more. Reaper screamed in agony.
"I have no key, no totem, no army, you have failed me, Reaper. Tell me why I should let you live?"
At this moment Reaper wished to die but his death meant hell. Ruechari was his one chance at redemption. He wanted that chance.
"She has been having visions. I just need to stay the course and she will begin to believe. She will become the Shaman of the West. Once she does I will be there with her at the Indian Burial Grounds. I will find the totem. I will take her soul for you," Reaper wheezed.
The Wraith released him. "It pains me that I am dependent on you, Reaper. For those that come to me must do so willingly, but that is the brilliance of you. However, I no longer trust you can handle this on your own. The powers that defy me are growing and I will not have them getting stronger."
Reaper watched horrified as the Wraith began raising the dead, all those that surrounded them on Boot Hill. The icy fingers of his powers stretched out touching other cemeteries through the ley lines that lay down deep within the earth.
He would be calling the worst of the souls to do his bidding.
They gathered around him like a moth to the flame. "Go, destroy. Leave none alive."
An army of undead left the hill and headed for the town of Swamp Gold.
"That should buy you some time," the Wraith said to him. "This is your last chance, Reaper. Fail me again, and I will not be so forgiving."
Reaper nodded he understood. Fires began to erupt throughout the town. Reaper saddled up, he cringed as he heard the screams of the townspeople echoing on the wind.
