A Beautiful Western Story

Chapter 3: Thief of Thieves

    The grandpa walks out into the backyard in the cool morning. With his eyes closed, he takes a deep breath, taking in the fresh air. He opens his eyes to find his grandkids wrapped in blankets sitting near the fire pit.

"It's 5 in the morning niños(kids)" the grandpa says.

"We know, you said we'd start early we want more of the story so tell us more," the boy says, "the fire pit is ready just light it" he adds with a smile.

The grandpa shakes his head with a smile, "You kids are something else" he walks over to his chair and sits down. He lights the fire and clears his throat.

    The bandit rode off into the desert again, every time he looked back he saw bounty hunters catching up to him. He held the right side of his waist where he was shot. The bandit, desperately trying to get away, rode into a sand storm. The bounty hunters stayed back, from the distance the bandit could hear one of them swearing their lungs out.

"That crazy son of a bitch ran into a storm?!" Charles says kicking sand.

"He ain't gon' live too long I's reckon," one of the men says.

"Quiet!" Charles points his gun at the man.

"I's only sayin' we's gon' ca-"

Charles shoots the man in the head.

"Charles! What the hell is wrong with you!" Another man drops to the dead man and holds him.

"Calm down Bill, he was your slow brother anyway" Charles reloads his gun and puts it away.

"Why you sick son of a-" Bill charges Charles with a knife in his hand.

Charles moves quickly and punches Bill in the face knocking him out. He then walks over to Bill's brother's horse and pulls out his canteen. He opens it, drinks some water, and walks over to Bill. He turns Bill over on his back and pours the water onto Bill's face. Bill wakes up gasping.

"That little trick you pulled, I should kill your sorry ass for doing that. Just 'cause I killed your retard brother, I'm going to ignore what you did" Charles drops the canteen on the sand and walks back to his own horse.

Bill gets back up and wipes the sand off his face. He picks up the canteen, closes it, and walks over to his horse. He puts the canteen away, then he walks over to his brother's horse and takes off the saddle. He walks back to the spot where he was punched and drops the saddle. He then walks over to his brother's body and picks him up. He carries him to where the saddle is and lays him down next to it.

"If you make it out of the storm, here's some things to keep you alive," Bill says under his breath.
He walks back to his horse and hops back on.

"You know your brother ain't gonna have none of that where he's going right? I'd take it for myself" Charles tells Bill.

"Thank you for your opinion, satan, I think my brother's things are fine where they are" Bill responds with a dry tone.

"Hm," Charles lets out a scoff.

As the bounty hunters ride off, Bill looks back, "Jesus save this thief too"
he says to himself as they ride back to the town.

Back in the storm, the bandit keeps riding farther in, he keeps looking back, but now he can't see anything. His horse couldn't see either, it ends up running into a rock breaking it's leg. The bandit falls off the horse landing on his bad side. He winces in pain but forces himself to get back up. The horse neighs in pain, crying. The bandit walks over to it and strokes the side of his head.

"Descansa amigo, gracias(rest, friend, thank you)" the bandit stands up, pulls out one of his revolvers, and cocks the hammer back, "I'm sorry" the bandit looks away and pulls the trigger.
The sound echoes around him, the horse's blood splattered all over the sand. The bandit puts his gun away and plops himself in the sand. He stares down at the horse's body as the sand hits his back like little needles. He rips one of his sleeves and wraps it around himself to cover his wound. He crawls over the horse's body and lays his head on its stomach. He lowers his hat over his face and he drifts off to sleep.