Death Whispers In The Wind

Chapter 5

They were riding steadfast and hard towards their destination, saddled on their horses as they headed for the small town of Huxebee Creek, Texas. Riding their steeds across the vast flatlands, set against the stark backdrop of a breathtaking and glittering star-filled night sky, complete with the soft hue of a glowing full moon. Riding non-stop throughout the night, the Bannister gang were thinking of only one thing, as hours passed while they made the trek towards their destination and whereupon their inevitable arrival, the one constant thought that remained amongst the three of them during the trip was revenge.

Calvin and his gang wanted one sole thing and it concerned a lynching and certainly making a spectacle of a murder, they could only think about killing, they were hellbent on sending a Sheriff to an early grave. They'd nearly wore their horses out from the trip, constantly pressing them onward, jeering their mustangs to go faster and faster, never letting up. 

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After 4 prolonged, ever-tiring and trying hours on horseback, the trio finally reached their destination of Huxebee Creek, Texas. Arriving in the pre-dawn early hours just outside the outskirts of town, Calvin and his two cohorts, Ephram and Seamus, brought their tired steeds to an immediate halt. The men lead their thirsty horses to a nearby watering hole, a large vacant trough was placed beside an old, run-down and dilapidated barn, the place had been built on the edge of town over 50 years ago and through the decades, suffered sporadic bouts of neglected upkeep, which left the barn decrepit and steadily falling apart in its current state.

The three men split up and each walked a portion of the perimeter and were circling around the town, the gang was preemptively staking out the entire town. Once they felt satisfied, the men regrouped back at the barn and formed a brash plan of attack. They returned to the saddles of their now rested horses and were ready to ride into town. The small, sleepy and quiet town lay not more than a few hundred feet from where they were standing. Each one cocked and loaded their revolvers, they were ready, ready to kill the Sheriff of Huxebee Creek, they were going to make a painful example of Castor Feenix.

"I ask of only one thing from you, gentlemen." Calvin muttered calmly to his associates and then asked, continuing.

"Burn everything to the damn ground! Got it? Leave nothing untouched, guys. I wanna fucking turn this town to ash, I will not be satisfied with anything less." Calvin declared strongly.

"What about the townsfolk?" Ephram curiously asked.

"Yeah, what about 'em?" Seamus quickly quipped back, clearly with a hint of disdain in his voice.

"What if they get in the way, Cal  and try to stop us?" Ephram questioned.

"Why? You worried about the 'plain folk', Ephram?" Seamus said, mockingly.

"You better mind your manners there, fuckhead. Otherwise, I'll shove this gun right up your damn ass and clean your insides out, ya' hear?" Ephram spoke clearly, warning Seamus.

Calvin Bannister and the two fellow members of his notorious gang, one of which being his so-called 'muscle' of the group, went by the name of Ephram Huckess, a big and burly beast of a man, a freak of nature who quickly grew to weigh an astonishing 375 lbs and stood well over 6 feet tall.

Ephram was a man of many mysteries, a man with a very muddled past, little was known about the big man. The story goes he'd been bouncing from job to job for years, a string of failed job attempts and then around the time he'd celebrate his 30th birthday, he came upon an old poster advertising Bailey's Traveling Circus, he thought it'd be the best line of work and awfully fitting for a man of his stature. The problem was the circus had already come to town months earlier, wherever they were now and whatever town they'd set up camp would be several miles away.

This hadn't deterred Ephram, it only increased his desire to track them down. Once he'd caught up with the traveling circus, he quickly lobbied for any kind of employment with the troupe of 'Carnies', which based on his sheer size and the lengths he'd gone to for a job, they rather hastily accommodated and hired him as a featured act of the carnival, promoting him as the 'world's strongest man'.

This is where he would meet Calvin Bannister some years later and shortly after their first introduction, Ephram would aide the gang in an impromptu heist, successfully robbing the same carnival he worked for, of all its profits. Sharing in the take of thousands, it'd be the most money Ephram could ever dream of making. After the robbery, Ephram would be brought into the fold, essentially joining Calvin's gang a mere week later from that fateful day when the two were introduced. 

The other member of Calvin Bannister's gang was just as dangerous, he was widely known as the 'Scottish Psychopath' and he looked every bit the part.

Seamus McInniss had enjoyed being an aggressive instigator of violent acts, at one time he'd been a bodyguard for a corrupted mayor only to wind up killing 'said' mayor while he slept, as Seamus had gotten into a heated altercation with him the day previous. He loved fighting and relished any blood lust.

Finally, in search of riches he could then only dream of. The day came where Seamus decided to give Unlicensed Boxing a go and for awhile, this worked and he'd made a very modest living, becoming a formidable boxer that kept an untarnished record for close to the better part of a year before he fought valiantly in a losing effort. The loss disturbed him deeply, so much so that he tried, without success, to murder his opponent that night, after the match.

His opponent, a fighter twice his size didn't take this attempt on his life lightly. The fighter would brutally beat Seamus senselessly to the point where he'd broken both his hands, feeling unsatisfied with the beating he'd given, the fighter then chose to mangle Seamus' face with a lead pipe unmercifully. When the assault with the pipe finished, it nearly killed Seamus and it left his face a bloody mess and moreover, horribly disfigured.

This pivotal event would eventually set Seamus on a path towards a life of crime. His career as a prize fighter was over. After the horrific incident, Seamus became even more unhinged which turned him into a full-blown, trigger happy professional psychotic. He became a welcome addition to the Bannister gang for his penchant for killing.

Calvin and his wily cohorts, what was left of his gang, once more were gonna make their presence well-known to the citizens and moreover, the Sheriff of Huxebee Creek. They were going to make Castor pay and pay dearly.

Only this time, the Bannister gang would hold the entire town accountable and what they had planned, would make sure that Huxebee Creek became just another notch on their belt, where they would leave their own particular stamp on the town, leaving their trademark signature as they had in almost every other town they came across. They swore to burn everything that was Huxebee Creek to the damn ground.

The three of them had saddled up and slowly rode their horses towards town. The men once again brought their horses to a halt as they came upon Main Street, where the road officially started at the southern end of town. Huxebee Creek's Main Street was the towns biggest road, as it were fairly wide and stretched miles long, beginning at the south end of town and running straight to the northern end of town, the road lead itself right through the center of Huxebee Creek. Perched and resting atop the saddle of his horse, Calvin Bannister took a long hard glance down the far stretching Main Street and then felt a sudden urge in that instance to reflect, his eyes still focused down the long stretching road while he softly spoke to Ephram and Seamus.

"This is something we should've done the first time we were here, boys. You see, it's mistakes such as these that will, in some form or another, cost you a great deal elsewhere. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to correct the mistake."

"Fella's, always appreciate the mistakes you've made... if it weren't for those mistakes that remind you of what's most important in life and if you wanna keep what's most important in life, never fucking forget those mistakes ever because the chance to do it all over again... don't come around too often these days."

Calvin, Seamus and Ephram had taken some old whiskey bottles and fashioned them into some makeshift Molotov Cocktails. They each took a bottle and lit them up as they strode into town.

"Let's tear this place a new asshole and shred it the fuck apart. Get his attention and then bring Sheriff Feenix to me and bring anyone that's with the sum' bitch too! I am going to let him watch while we systematically burn his entire town to the ground." Calvin shouted prophetically.

Chaos was about to unfold in the streets of Huxebee Creek.