Six Guns Straight From Hell - Tales Of Horror And Dark Fantasy From The Weird Weird West

by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks

  “Got to get justice for that family. It was worse than what an Apache leaves after they get done torturing a man,” Grady shook his head. Ty nodded. He’d come upon on more than a few that the Apaches and Comanche’s had worked over. A chill went down his neck. It took a special kind of devil to be that mean.

  “You had no doubt it was Lupo?” Ty asked.

  “Not a one. I saw his face, blood dripping down his chin, smeared around his mouth. He had torn their throats out as they screamed. There were bodies everywhere.” Grady took another long pull at his beer.

  “Lupo’s been mostly a loner as long as I’ve knowed him. Never seen nothing out of him to make me think he’d do something that horrible though.” Ty shook his head.

  “Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.” Grady sighed.

  “Doesn’t mean he did. Is there any chance you might have seen someone else and mistook them for Lupo?” Ty looked at him.

  “None. Besides, he was asking after the family the day before. Folks I talked to said he seemed pretty desperate to find them. Once he did, my God!” Grady looked into his beer.

  “You willing to talk before you shoot him?” Ty asked.

  “I might be.” Grady shrugged.

  “What kinda fancy, damn loads are you carrying there?” Ty asked noticing the cartridge tips in his belt.

  “Silver bullets. I ain’t taking no chances.” Grady looked him dead in the eye.

  “Silver Bullets?” Ty looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

  “If Lupo needs killing, those are the only kind that will get it done.” Grady replied, his eyes looking haunted

  “Why do you say that?” Ty asked, not really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

  “Silver is the only thing that will kill a werewolf!” Grady replied solemnly.

  “A what?” Ty couldn’t believe his ears.

  “A werewolf. A man that turns into a beast under the light of a full moon.” Grady replied.

  “If I hadn’t just bought you your first drink I’d have to swear you been drinking afore you got here.” Ty shook his head.

  “Nope, after what I saw, I went down to New Orleans, talked to some of the voodoo women there. They told me all about werewolves, though they called them by their French name, Loup Garou. After what I saw that night in Kansas, I believe Lupo to be one.” Grady drained his beer.

  Ty could see the determined look in his eye. “I reckon we need to ride then, I was about fixin’ to leave anyhow. Lupo has him a cabin outside town a ways, out near the timberline. I’ll take you out there because I want to know if you’re right.” Ty said, standing up. He led the way outside into the rain. Thunder rolled across the sky as they saddled their horses in the livery stable. Ty could see Grady’s horse had some traveling behind him and wasn’t the best to be riding on a night like this but there wasn’t no stopping the man. Grady had the scent and was on the hunt.

  “You take the lead.” Grady said, and Ty nodded. After all, he was the one that knew where they were going. Ty touched his spurs to his horse and headed out into the storm. Thunder rolled across the sky, but the rain was starting to let up. Grady knew that if he had things figured right, they needed to get there before the storm ended while the clouds still covered the full moon. “You really believe me?” Grady asked, kicking his horse up to where it was trotting beside Ty’s.

  “I’ve seen a lot of things over the years, Grady. I’ve lived among the Indians and I know their ways and their legends. Folks who turn to wolves are part of it.” Ty shrugged.

  “That’s why you don’t seem too surprised?” Grady looked at him.

  “That’s why.” Ty nodded. Grady nodded his head in response.

  “Lupo never stays around all that long when he’s here. From what you say, could be a good reason for that.” Ty shrugged.

  “Seems like he’d leave afore the killing urge took him over.” Grady agreed.

  “Makes sense. Doesn’t seem like he’d want folk around here to know he was some kinda haunt.” Ty replied.

  “How long you figure the rain will stay?” Grady asked, noticing that it had slowed down a good might.

  “Not much longer. I figure we ought to get there afore it does.” Ty replied.

  “Once the rain is done and the clouds part, well, it is a full moon tonight.” Grady shivered.

  “I’d forgot about that,” Ty nodded. “But it’s okay, Grady. That’s why I came with you.” Though the closer they got to Lupo’s cabin the more uneasy he was feeling. Ty began to think it might have been smarter to come out in the morning.

  The rain had turned to a mist-like drizzle, barely enough to call it rain at all. Ty looked up at the sky and he knew Grady was doing the same. How much longer would the clouds last? That was the question on both their minds.

  If Grady was right, and the moon came out, they wouldn’t be facing the gunfighter named Lupo. They’d be facing something far, far worse.

  They reached the cabin, and from the lit windows they could tell that there was a fire in the hearth within. Together, they rode up and got off their horses. Ty noticed that Grady had the hammer thongs off his guns. If Lupo wasn’t what he thought, that could mean real trouble.

  Ty sighed as he tied his horse to the rail in front of the house. He thought about what he knew of the man named Jededia Lupo. He had come west on a wagon-train. His parents had built a homestead in eastern Colorado. Then Indians, or somebody at least, had attacked, killing them both. Lupo had escaped, barely able to walk. His left leg injured at the time.

  He had been raised by a Shawnee medicine woman. She found him after the attack and took him in. She raised him until he was nearly twenty. The Medicine woman had been killed in a raid by the Crow. From that time on, Lupo had been mostly on his own.

  Lupo and Ty had rode together some over the years, and he had to admit that he liked him. Lupo was a good man. That was but one of the reasons it made what Grady had told him a bit hard to swallow. Ty walked up to the door and knocked. Grady was standing behind him, next to the horses. Ty was willing to bet he already had at least one of those short guns out of the holster and ready.

  “Who is it?” a familiar voice called from behind the door. Ty knew it was Lupo at once.

  “Remus. Ty Remus!” Ty replied. The door swung open and Lupo stood there, calm as could be.

  “What are you doing here, Remus?” Lupo asked, his voice as cold as a winter night.

  “Got a feller out here that wants to talk to you about something that happened down Kansas way.” Ty shrugged.

  “Have him step into the light.” Wolf commanded. Ty didn’t even think of disobeying.

  “Grady, come up so’s he can see you.” Ty called over his shoulder.

  “I kin smell him and that’s close enough. Marshal, you made a mistake. I didn’t kill them folks, but I tangled with the ones that did.” Lupo called out.

  “I saw you, Lupo. I saw your face, covered with blood, still howling at the moon.” Grady shouted. Ty was right, he did have guns in both his hands, ready for anything that happened. Grady raised his revolvers. Ty saw his fingers start to tighten on the triggers.

  “You can’t believe I’d ever hurt those kids. It was me that got them out!”

  “What do you mean?” Grady asked, hesitant somehow.

  “A man like me’s got enemies and those poor folks were doin’ me a favor, protecting what’s mine….” Lupo let it hang.

  About that time, the clouds slid away from the face of the moon. Grady saw the look on Lupo’s face and his lingering doubts vanished. Lupo began to change. Ty slapped at his own pistol but it was no use, because the hand that tried to grip the pistol wasn’t a hand anymore. It was then that Grady realized that Ty was one of them, a werewolf!

  Ty spun on Grady, lurching in front of him as his pistol fired. Something slammed hard into his gut, but Ty raked out at him with his clawed fingers. The marshal fell back, dropping one of his guns as Ty ripped at him with his claws, searching for his throat with the
fangs that had distended from his jaws. Finally, Ty sank his fangs deep, ripping the man’s throat apart! Hot blood coursed down his throat. Pain exploded through his body. The silver bullet was poisoning him.

  Behind him, Ty heard Lupo growl, but Ty knew that it was not aimed at him. Instead Lupo was concerned, worried about him. They were old friends. Usually, Ty was the one to stay around and make sure that no trail would lead back to Lupo. Not this time. This time Lupo was on his own. “Ty took a deep breath and let it out. It was no longer up to him. Ty had taken one of the bullets meant for Lupo, and he was dying, the silver death coursing through his veins.

  “Lupo!” Ty gasped,

  “Remus.” he responded.

  “Get her out of here. Keep her free.” Ty gasped. Lupo knew he meant Sally.

  “I will.” he whispered.

  “You should check on your kids more often,” Ty gasped past the pain. “This whole mess should never have happened.”

  Lupo looked at him, his cinnamon colored eyes meeting Ty’s. “I will, Remus.” he nodded.

  “They need to know their father. They need to know who and what they are…” Ty looked at him.

  “They will,” he promised.

  “It’s getting dark, Lupo,” Ty cried, pain twisting his guts

  “Goodbye, my friend.” Lupo whispered.

  Ty heard the mournful howl of the wolf and then the darkness took over.

  I'm Bill Craig, raconteur of the amazing adventures of Jack Riley and the Fantastic Adventures of Hardluck Hannigan as well as The Decker P.I. Mysteries and the noir thriller The Butterfly Tattoo. I have always enjoyed westerns and I have always enjoyed werewolves, so this gave me a chance to put the two together. I've been writing my own stories since the age of six and my five year old son and I frequently tell stories to each other and he has unfortunately inherited his love of horror from his mother and combines it with my love of adventure so who knows what sort of tales he may one day pen...

  On the Road to Bodie

  by

  Lyn McConchie

  When Manny McGovern died in the cave-in of his worthless mine soon after the gold rush in Bodie, California, there was little choice for his Mexican widow and his daughter. Maria went to work at the Bodie laundry for old Wang Sing, while his daughter Ines went to work for Elijah Smith on his ranch seven miles out of town.

  That was a hard life for a girl of thirteen. Elijah worked her day and night, or if not night, then late into the evening until the child was dropping from exhaustion. Her food was simple, basic - and never quite enough for a girl growing up. He never laid a hand on her for he was one of those iron-fisted, righteous Christians who would have scorned to use a servant that way. But Ines feared him more than the devil anyway.

  Once a month, she took her day off, walking early into town to spend a half-day with her mother, before walking home again in the cool of the evening. And a fourteen miles walk was no less tiring than her work. And always her mother fed her, held her against her heart and mourned that she could do no better for her daughter.

  “Once we had land, a land-grant given before Texas was a state, but the deed was lost when my grandfather was murdered. Our family became poor when we could no longer prove what was ours. Once I could have given you clothes to shame any woman in this town even those women whose men found gold. You could have gone to a good school with the nuns then married well. Now we have nothing and who will you marry?”

  “No one, mamacita,” A glimmer of fun stirred. “I will search the tailings and find a golden nugget, I will buy you a house and stay with you always, we will be two old ladies together. We will find a good cat for the mice and wear purple dresses on Sundays.”

  Maria stifled a small laugh. “Ah, si, a good dream. Well, it is true that now and again I find a pinch of gold dust in the pockets of the shirts I wash, never enough to free us from this place though. But what I find I save and it may be that one day I will have sufficient to take us back to Texas.”

  “Texas?” Ines knew the dream but it was always pleasant to hear her mother tell it again.

  “Texas, yes. To the land we owned until the deed was lost. No one farms that land yet. If we came with the deed we could take it up. Be landholders and hire kin from beyond the border to work it for us.”

  “We would need money to stock the ranch,” Ines said, practically.

  “Si, but the lands were great, we could take a loan from the bank for that. Or we could sell a portion of the land to buy what we need and owe nothing to anyone.”

  “I think that would be better.” The girl's voice was thoughtful. “I have seen here how people hate those who have too much. It makes them a target for thieves. Better to sell half the land and buy what is needed in cattle and gear. Hire men who are recommended as trustworthy, owe nothing to the bank, and make friends nearby, go to church, and speak politely to all. That way if any come against us there are those who will speak for us and come to our aid.”

  Maria looked at her almost respectfully. “You have an old head on those young shoulders. Si, that is a good plan. When the deed is found that is what we should do.”

  “Mama? Why did my papa's family not assist us when he died?”

  Maria sighed. “Ah, my Manny was a fine man, a loving husband, a good father. But his family did not like that he married a woman of Mexico, nor were they pleased when he said he was coming here to find gold and be rich.”

  “Did you write to them that he had died?”

  “I did and heard nothing. I sold his claim for what I could, I have the money still, one day it will be yours so that you have some choice in what you will do.”

  That part Ines knew, and knew too that the claim had not proved out, it had been all but valueless. What her mother had received would be barely enough to take them back to Texas on the stage. And what would be the use of returning to a family that had no interest in them, or to land they could not prove was theirs?

  That evening she walked back to the ranch, slept deeply and rose to work again. Elijah was gone and his foreman was in the house. John Garton was as Ines was by basic breeding, in his case the son of an American and his half-Mexican wife. Thus he was three-quarters American and proud of that, despising his mother's mother's people. But Ines he did not despise, she was growing into her dresses, filling out and John had begun to notice. She was young, but she'd make a wife - if she was well schooled to respect her husband and to follow his orders.

  He made advances and was denied. He went away smoldering that she dared to reject him. But he could bide his time, Elijah Smith would not be always at home. A year later Elijah was gone briefly and John moved into the house again, he sent at once for Ines.

  “Why do you send me away? I have a good job, I earn well, I would marry you before the priest if that is what you want?”

  “I do not want to marry you.”

  “You are a child, you do not know what you want,” John said contemptuously.

  “And do you wish to marry a child?” Ines's tone cut with the implications.

  “I will marry you. You have the folly of a child, the mind that does not see what is good for it. But you are a woman in body or so says American law. And I will have you. I'll speak to Elijah on his return and he will give you to me.”

  “He is not my father, he can give me to no one.”

  John smiled then. “Can he not, pretty Ines? Remember the girl who had your job before you came here? You'd have heard, she lay with a cow-puncher and the boss fired her as soon as he heard. He said he wasn't having a whore on the place. How if I tell him that you've lain with me and that I wish to wed. He is a church-going man. He will command that you marry me or leave. And if you leave the ranch branded a whore, who will have you in Bodie? Who will give employment to Garton's whore?”

  What he said was true. But the thought of taking him as her man sickened her. And, if she could hold him off for long enough another might take his fancy. She might even speak privately to Mr. Smith and have
him order Garton to leave her alone. She summoned courage.

  “That may be, all of it, but I want time to consider. My mother must hear of your offer, if she bids me accept you then it may be that I shall. And my father's relations should know, they have a large ranch in Texas and would surely wish to come to a wedding.” None of it was true but she was fighting with what weapons she had.

  John Garton guessed at her desperation, believed in his eventual success - and his smile was ugly. “Very well, I shall wait until you have written to your father's family and until you have discussed this with your mother. I give you three months. After that look for me, I shall be your husband yet.”

  Ines walked steadily along the road to Bodie a month later. She had written the letter to the McGovern family and would post it in town to catch the stage that evening as it came through. Elijah Smith would be home in two more weeks as well. She had two strings to her bow of hope and she prayed that one or the other would save her.

  The letter went as she'd planned. She'd written carefully, in her best handwriting, a plea that her father's family should come or send for her and her mother. Even if they only gave the two of them the same work as they did now but in Texas, it would be far better than what John Garton planned.

  Maria held out no false hope. “You could not bear to marry him?”

  Ines shuddered. “To the center of my bones he disgusts me.”

  Maria nodded. “We have sufficient money saved. We would take the stage to Texas perhaps, it might be that if we were standing before them, your father's kin might help?”

  “And if they still will not?” Ines asked quietly. “Then we have spent all we have, we are stranded in another place and without work. What do we do then and where would we go?”

  Maria nodded slowly. “Yet there is this. At least we would still be together and - John Garton would not be with us.”

  It was desperation and Ines felt it, that her mother would willingly throw away all they had to save her daughter. But there were still the other possibilities. They waited, but no letter came nor any rider from Texas. Three months passed and it seemed clear that no one else would save them. What could be done they must do themselves. Ines gathered her courage and asked for a private word with Elijah.