Mind's Eye (Closed for BeautifulDream)

Scuttle Buttin'

Demons at bay
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Posts
15,881
Oh I've got you in my mind's eye
My day might be coming but yours is coming first
I'll knock you out of your daylights
And when you come for me some night
You'd better bring a shovel
Be expecting the worse...

Alain Brautigan was getting old. Not compared to the old man who served whiskey and other spirits in the tavern, nor to the undertaker that had dressed for burial many a man that had stood at the other end of a dusty street from Alain, but for a man who lived by the way of the gun, he was old. Leaving his prime.

There were no national figures kept for such a thing, but the average lifespan of a gunslinger in this day and age was 22.5 years. Alain celebrated his 32nd birthday three months ago by killing a man that looked as if he was barely able to shave. He'd tried to stop it, he often did when they were so young, but the man was hellbent on reaching the end of his path as quickly as possible, and Alain had a reputation to uphold.

His gun didn't even clear the holster before Alain's bullet pierced his heart, and a second was dead center through his forehead before his body even realized it had ceased to function properly. The man was buried in a simply marked grave in a graveyard just outside of the dusty town of Devil's Basin, in the same place Alain himself knew he'd end up someday.

There were likely many keys to Alain's continued survival to an age few in his line of work saw, a simple quirk of genetics gifting him with heightened reflexes, excellent vision, and exceptional hand-eye coordination among them. For his part, he credited it to steadfastly avoiding alcohol, and never allowing himself to truly care about anyone. Alcohol dulled the senses, and it was those very senses that kept him alive. Gunslingers that drank were gunslingers that died. Maybe not right away, maybe some even managed to survive long enough to make a name for himself, but in the end all of them fell to someone who had not yet stained their body with drink.

And caring caused hesitation. When you thought about those you might leave behind, those who would have to fend for themselves in a dangerous time if you were gone, and realized that the man standing across from you may have those same people himself, then you hesitated. When you hesitated, you died. Despite knowing it was inevitable, he had no desire to make that train arrive any quicker than it had to.

The rumor that had begun to circulate in the last few days was that someone else was coming down the line to try to make that happen, however. It caused the same quick glances and whispered conversations as he passed people by that it always did, and not for the first time he wondered how this sort of news spread. All too often, it was the man himself that got the ball rolling, announcing to anyone that would listen that he was going to Devil's Basin to kill Alain Brautigan. He'd grown to have less concern for encounters that started out this way. People that knew how good they were had no need to try to get into the head of the man they sought. It was the person that would one day show up unannounced to challenge him that made it hard for him to fall asleep at night.

Still, he prepared just as he always did. Oiled the sandalwood grips on his guns. Cleaned each of them thoroughly. Checked each bullet to make sure it was without visible defect and ready to fire when called upon. He worked out every morning: pushups, situps, pullups, just enough to keep him lean and limber, not so much that a bulk of muscle would slow him down. Speed, not strength is what kept him alive.

It was possible that Alain was the best gunslinger alive. The man at the top that all others were aiming for. He no longer left Devil's Basin to make a name for himself, and he no longer needed to. Men came to him. Someday, another would put a bullet through his heart and make a name for themselves. The man who killed the best of the best.

Whoever it was that came to challenge him would've been disappointed that it wouldn't be him, if it was possible to feel anything after being gunned down.
 

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Jumbled Jane! Jumbled Jane!
Do you know where you are, Jane?
Do you know who you are, Jane?
Crazy Jane!
Stop spreading those lies!
He doesn't touch you at night!​

A pathetic excuse of a man. Even at the age of eight, Jane Winters knew he was worthless. Why her mother sought to have him replace her real father, she didn't know. Her real father was kind and caring, but her real father was dead. Buried somewhere six feet under, only memories of him lived on. She quit talking when he died. The only words she spoke was to herself. Repeating his words, his reassuring worlds. Telling herself things were okay. Daddy was there to save her whenever she needed it. Then, when the bastard came into their home, she stopped entirely.

They questioned her sanity. Why would a young girl be so quiet? It wasn't right. She had nothing to say. To anyone. Her new brother, the bastard's son, teased her about it. Tried to get something out of her, but she merely shrugged him off and remained in her own world.

The bastard was always annoyed with her silence. In the end... he did get her to speak.

He got her to scream. He got her to cry.

The taunted played over and over in her head. She hadn't heard the song in years, but she remembered it all too well. Jumbled Jane, that was what they called her. Crazy, liar, whore. They pointed their fingers and laughed. They chanted and danced. Jumbled Jane telling more lies. She wasn't really crazy. She was hardly even jumbled. In all seriousness her head was actually on straighter than most people's. But, she was still called Jumbled Jane. Those who knew her, those who were barely met her all heard the stories about Jane and her jumble mind. Jane and her lies. They all heard how Jane went around saying her step father touched her.

He did touch her.

She hadn't told a single lie.

That's why they called her Jumbled. Because, when she started talking 'nonsense' about how her father had violated her after saying nothing for years, she had to be making it up. Her brother made everyone believe she was crazy to keep his father from jail. It was believable. A girl who has watched her real father die, who never speaks? Obviously crazy.

She turned her head slowly, eyeing her piece of shit step brother. Making mental notes of the resemblance between him and the man who started it all. and After the death of their 'father,' he had taken over the role of violator. And, he was far worse. Daddy dearest hurt her, but at least he did take little care. Richard liked to make her bleed. Richard liked to cause her pain. She hated Richard more than his father.

She was torn. Tomorrow he could die. Tomorrow he could live. If he died, who would take care of her? If he lived... she was still his prisoner. She didn't know what was worse. At nineteen she couldn't fend for herself. She needed Richard, yet she hated him.

"Jane, eat your food."

Jane looked away from her brother, obeying without a word. Lifting the spoon to her lips, sip at the stew. Tomorrow, at noon, in front of the town, Alain Brautigan could change her entire world. She dreaded each passing second.
 
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