Make My World Go Black

Chapter One

"Bartholomew Bogue?" Matilda shrugs nonchalantly while galloping beside Vasquez, Sam trotting in front of her, explaining to her their current situation, "Can't say I've heard of him."

"Sí," the outlaw responds next to her, he bounces while his horse walks over a rocky terrain, and then he digs out a new cigar, "Neither have I, Morena. But it surprises me that a businesswoman like yourself doesn't know about men just like you."

"One, that word better not be an insult," she glared back at his mock expression, "Two, I don't steal land. I buy land from people who are selling it."

Vasquez scoffs, ignoring her for the moment while sticking the cigar in his mouth and fishes for the matches in his pockets. When his hand comes up empty, he makes a frustrated noise that made Matilda roll her eyes in annoyance and dig into her own pocket. Vasquez looks up just in time for Matilda to shove a match from her stash into his hand.

"Go on, now. I'm sharing my matches which by god better mean you're sharing those smokes of yours."

As Vasquez reluctantly handed over one of his precious cigars to Matilda, Sam stops his horse and Emma stares at him expectedly.

"We're here," he informs as they stood on top of a hill with a couple of trees at the very border of Junction City. "Faraday won't be back with more men until tomorrow afternoon at the latest, so we'll camp out and meet him here. Let's get the horses tied up and start a fire."

The others nod in agreement and dismount their horses. They tie them up to the trees and start a small fire, Vasquez making his presence forgotten as he sits farthest away from their warm light when the sun starts going down. He sits up the whole night, his back to the tree they used to tie up the horses in his paranoid state.

Matilda sits by the fire for some time, talking with Sam and catching each other up on their adventures. They laughed and exchange stories, talking like they've been friends for years.

"So you've been just traveling across states for land?" Sam questions.

"Eh, here and there."

"From the places you've told me you been, it sounds like you're trying to get away from something."

She paused, looking up from the fire and looking dead into Sam's eyes. He doesn't flinch. He knows better not to. When she looks away, she lowers her voice.

"Just because you saved me doesn't mean you can bring it up again."

"It's over, Matilda. It has been for a long time. You know that. So why are you still running?"

Matilda bites her lip, letting her eyes burn under the flames gaze then Sam's, "I've never been a fan of ghosts. That's what I'm running from."

They do this for a time before it hits midnight and Matilda lays down close to a sleeping Emma to collect some warmth from her new friend.

There's a sun beaming down through the trees and the small group wakes to the light of the afternoon, not realizing they had slept for so long. Even Vasquez ended up snoozing peacefully for a while after Sam went to sleep, so it gave him enough comfort to let his guard down.

Sam goes off to sit separately from the others, staring down at the ground while involuntarily reaching for his neck, like he was choking. Emma goes down the hill to a nearby creek to fetch some water. Vasquez finds himself brushing his hand over his horse's neck, whispering to it in his native language, clicking his tongue.

Suddenly the Appaloosa horse strapped to the tree next to him nudged her nose against his lower back and he fights the urge to jump in surprise. He turns to glare and curse at the beautiful white and black-spotted beast, his hand resting underneath his own stallion's head.