Death Whispers In The Wind

Chapter 12

Sheriff Castor concentrated long and hard, exhausting a great deal of energy to be able to dig down deep from somewhere within himself and muster up all the strength that he possibly could in that very moment. Channeling this strength, he eventually managed to overcome his stigma, a stigma that had instantly crippled him and all his super fast reflexes and had suddenly consumed him within a moments notice once he'd gotten light of his wife's capture.

In his current old age, It'd be a horrible burden of recurrence, a glaring and unavoidable weakness that sometimes sprung up to the surface and usually happened when Castor found himself in any situation with a modestly significant level of legitimate danger.

He'd pull himself through it though and slowly regain some composure from his somewhat self-imposed nervous breakdown and stave off enough of his sudden state of debilitating shock in order to turn himself over to Calvin Bannister.

As he carefully stepped out onto the street and cautiously made his way across, walking at a brisk pace towards the entrance of the church. The first thing that instinctively came to mind and what Castor desperately wanted to do was to put a bullet in the head of Calvin Bannister, as Calvin wisely stood behind Ellie and was effectively using her as a human shield, he had the long barrel of his gun pressed firmly against her head.

"I'm warning ya', Sheriff... don't do anything fucking stupid or I'll send a god-damn bullet right through her skull, you hear me?" Calvin stressfully warned.

"Yes... " Sheriff Castor quietly muttered.

"I didn't fuckin' hear you!! What was that?"

"Yes!" Castor spoke up.

"Now toss your fuckin' firearms over here.... unless you want your lady dead!"

Sheriff Castor had no choice but to comply to Calvin Bannister's order to disarm, as the gang leader had begun to bark orders at him. He unfastened both holster straps to his 2 trusted weapons and then hastily tossed his pair of revolvers aside, where they landed in a small shrub that'd been planted in a straight row with a few other shrubs near the double-entrance doors to the old church.

"They came in through the window, we didn't know what to do. I'm sorry, Castor." Ellie said apologetically while sobbing.

"Don't worry, sweetheart... it's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong, okay?" Castor muttered as calmly as he could muster, trying his best to reassure her.

Castor and Ellie kept firm eye-contact with each other, both their eyes welled up with tears at that precise moment, as they expressed and shared an emotionally-charged and altogether common feeling of sadness, guilt, anxiety and above all else.... the feeling of fear.

Calvin closely observed the Sheriff's behavior and witnessed the intimate look of concern that was so clearly expressed and plainly obvious as it was written and stitched permanently across Castor's face. Bannister then took stock and noticed both their body language and quickly realized the likelyhood the woman he's coincidentally taken captive is of great importance to Castor and maybe, just maybe he found himself incredibly lucky enough that he captured this woman whose actually Sheriff Castor Feenix's wife! It dawned on him the sheer odds of that happening were almost impossible and yet, became ridiculously possible. Calvin had experienced an epiphany.

"Gotta be shittin' me! This is- -this is your wife.... ain't it, Sheriff? Calvin inquired with a wicked laugh, slightly amused.

Castor didn't speak or utter a single word and remained tight-lipped, ignoring Bannister's question, while he still continued to keep eye-contact with his wife, Ellie.

"Sheriff, I'm gonna shoot your pretty little wife, right in her god damn pretty little face... " Calvin calmly proclaimed.

"Don't!! Please... please don't hurt her!" Castor quickly pleaded.

"This is perfect, just perfect... I'm lovin' this! Seriously what are the odds? What's better than two for the price of one?" Calvin beamed.

"What the hell you going on about?" Ephram asked, fairly puzzled.

"This is the Sheriff's wife, dumb-shit! Its almost like... this was meant to happen, seems like destiny has paid me and Ephram a visit here tonight."

"Wait, whose destiny?" Ephram inquired, still puzzled.

"Must you irritate me right now, huh? Destiny is something that- -Fate, I'm talkin' about fate, you moron... it was meant to be. Ya' know, us finding her? Forget it, ya' fuckin' moron! Just shut up cause you're ruining the moment!!!Enough of this bullshit... string her up!"

In an instance and within a split-second, Father Franklin suddenly sprang to action and quickly tried to wrestle away Ephram's rifle. Calvin quickly pulled away and immediately turned his gun on Father Franklin and pulled the trigger- -BAM!!

Calvin fires off a single gunshot that tags the pastor, the bullets' velocity being so incredibly fast, it creates an exit wound the size of a silver dollar on his upper back, around his shoulder blade. The path of the bullet first enters and tears straight through the pastors' right shoulder, it stops Father Franklin in his tracks instantly, as the gunshot wound sends him to the ground.

"You stupid son of a bitch!!" Castor screamed.

Sheriff Castor took the pastor's diversion as the opportunity he needed, knowing it might be the only chance he gets to save his wife, he knows he has to act or they're all dead!

Castor reacts without hesitation. After the sudden gunshot hits Father Franklin, he sees an opening the moment Calvin has taken the gun off Ellie and had pointed his pistol in the pastor's direction. Only a few short seconds were available in this limited window to catch him off-guard. Castor lunged forward.

Castor charged Bannister, quickly shoving Ellie out of the way as he tackled him to the ground, taking the gang leader by surprise. The force of impact knocks the wind out of Calvin's lungs.

Momentarily out of breath, Bannister loses his grip on his gun and drops it in the midst of their scuffle, with both men now on the ground, each man attempted to frantically kill the other one. Their altercation, however brief, would still consist of the two rolling around in the dirt as each man managed to throw a couple punches while scraping, clawing and trying to wrestle each other into a choke-hold, a mad-dash race of them fighting for their lives!

The fight would only last around a very fast 140 seconds or so before it came to a screeching end. Castor managed to connect with a fast hard left hook and the punch quickly dazed Bannister for a few seconds, just enough time to reach for his gun!

Castor leapt over Calvin and scurried as fast as he could, it took the Sheriff a mere 5 seconds to reach the spot where Bannister's gun had landed, he reached down and as he went to pick it- - POP!!

Another spontaneous gunshot, the sound of the speeding bullet traveling through the air can be heard for only a very brief second. The bullet hits Castor just beneath the ribs, the gunshot instantly stops Castor in his tracks, immobilizes the Sheriff as he falls over backwards, resting on his back and looking up towards the night sky. He saw a rare window of opportunity and tried to grab the gun, only to fail. Castor was now wounded and bleeding, understood his current situation and didn't want to admit he was unable to fight back.

Castor's wound started leaking profusely, he glanced down where the bullet had hit him and noticed he was losing blood fast. The Sheriff's mind began to race, he tilted his head and saw that the pastor, Father Franklin, was but 10 feet away and also lying on the ground, trying helplessly to tend to his own wound. In the next instance, thats when Castor witnessed Ephram approach the pastor one second, standing directly behind him as he knelt down fast and scooped him up to his feet, only to then witness within the next second as Ephram quickly wrapped a noose around Jeebs neck, the rope tightened as it lifted his whole body into the air where it'd begun to strangle the pastor.

Castor was losing consciousness from his bleeding wound and his eyes started to drift closed, he fought to keep them open and would lose that battle.

The very last thing Castor saw before he fell unconscious was the pastor getting strung up and he thought he saw his wife with a noose around her neck too....? His eyes closed and things went dark.