The Butcher and the Butterfly (6 page)

Samson leant
forward. His face almost touching the face of the Watchman. The two
men’s eyes met and Stephen fought hard not to break the lock.
Whatever the Sorcerer was looking at, looking into, he wanted no
part of it but knew he couldn’t look away.

Within a heart
beat the Sorcerer stood. ‘Good, good. Chop, chop now. No dallying
on this one old boy. Two days should suffice,’ the Sorcerer looked
out of the window and inhaled hard, ‘Yes, two days will be plenty.
This town won’t know what hit it.’

Stephen took a
deep breath; this bath had turned into a nightmare. He had no more
words for Samson so simply nodded. The Sorcerer nodded back.

‘I know it can be
tough, Stephen, trust me, I know. So as a measure of good will as
it were, and as a little extra for me, do take it upon yourself to
fuck the living daylights out of that young filly, Susie.’ Samson
closed his eyes and continued to talk, only this time his voice
seemed far off, distant, ‘Yes, have your way with her. You will
need to buy her with coin but don’t let her know that. There has to
be a certain amount of love in one of you. Yes, that will do it.
That will be a fitting end…’

And with those
final words the Sorcerer disappeared.

Stephen looked
about the room and eventually sunk back into the bath. The room
remained empty apart from Stephen and the random voices from
outside. He thought back over the brief and eventful visit from the
Sorcerer and chuckled to himself.

Buy her with coin
the sorcerer had said.

There has to be a
certain amount of love there.

Riddles weren’t
the Watchman’s favourite but a few coin for a night with Susie
seemed okay. He could make any girl swoon and if needed fall in
love with him. Especially way out here when the closest thing to a
good looking man was the sign above the barbers.

Before his water
got too cold, Stephen washed himself quickly. His time was coming.
His time to shine and his time to prove himself were almost upon
him. But before that he had to buy a girl and find a Tommy.

6

Before leaving the
Travellers Last, Samson Little, wanting to play a little game,
hovered above the young girl Susie. She couldn’t see him, no one
could for he was hidden in the darkness that Arda produced. He
uttered some ancient words and scattered dust from his pockets over
the oblivious girl. The particles covered her body and bored their
way into her skin. She scratched a little, but that was all.

Samson sniggered
at his own majesty and then was gone all together.

Susie pictured the
Watchman, Stephen, and from that moment on she was besotted with
him and would be until the end of her days.

7

In the summer, yes
this desert swept town sees seasons, the sun stays high but sets
quick. As it drops it cast the world in long orange shadows which
suck the heat from the soil and chills the air. At around six
o’clock, with the Watchman up in his room in the Travellers, Cathy
and John stand upon an overlooking mound of hardpan known to the
locals as Hangman’s Hill. The view isn’t all that impressive; harsh
desert to the south, east and west with a filthy little town to the
north. But it wasn’t the quaint view the two lovers were here to
discuss. It was something far worse.

‘So they are
coming tomorrow? They know what they have to do?’ Cathy said
looking at the soil beneath her feet.

‘Yep. First
thing.’ John replied.

Cathy inhaled
deeply exhaling as she spoke. ‘And she still doesn’t suspect
anything?’

‘Nope. Even if she
did I don’t think she would say anything anyway. Too much of an
image to protect. You know how she is.’

John turned his
attention from the town and gazed at his lover. He held her hand
using the other to lift her head so that he could see her better.
He continued. ‘Not long now and we can end the secret meetings and
the quick fumbles. Not long now and we can leave this fuck awful
town and settle elsewhere.’

Cathy smiled and
nodded but she wasn’t convinced and John picked up on this. ‘What’s
the matter?’

‘The Watchman,
John. A fucking Watchman in Rockfall. Don’t you think it a
convenience that a Watchman turns up one day before the Quints do?
Especially after that fat fuck Jameson caught us the other
night.’

‘Maybe. Maybe not.
And we don’t know if we were seen. He was as pissed as old Morey on
a Saturday night. Anyway, we have come too far to stop now.’

Cathy released her
slight grip and run both hands through her hair. ‘We have to be
careful, John. Tonight I shall watch him like a hawk and you do
likewise. He has given me some coin for a night with Susie so that
should keep him occupied once the lights go out.’ She turned and
now she held his head with both her hands, ‘You suspect anything we
tell the Quints to fuck off back to their hidey holes and we wait
for the Watchman to leave before we try again.’

John didn’t answer
but pulled her in tight and they embraced watching the last of the
suns light disappear over the horizon. Above them Old Lady and her
Nine Daughters twinkled in the night’s sky and the Hunters moon
shone light a second sun.

8

Two miles to the
north, in a dark hut, sat a dark woman thinking dark thoughts.
Patience had long since lost the looks that Cathy still clung too,
and with those lost looks went the men wanting to dip their pink
stick in her. But she now had other things to keep her sweet. It
was one of these sweet things she cradled now, its pulsing yellow
glow shining in her lifeless eyes, its weight making her ancient
muscles strain. But she cared not. The yellow ball between her legs
was enough to keep her ancient womanhood sweet; for the time being,
anyway.

She watched the
townsfolk from time to time, especially the two up on Hangman Hill.
Watching them two fuck reminded her of times long past when she was
the temptress and men yearned to get into her panties. She spat out
a wad of phlegm and rubbed it into the dirt with her foot. So many
men but none of them ever came close to taming her. None of them
could ever replace the fulfilling power of the magic she gave up
everything to master.

The orb pulsed and
it flashed images of the weary traveller into Patience’s mind. I
bet he could have tamed her. A Watchman from the South; a real man
for once in this town of runts with a real man’s intentions. He
excited her, filled her with a yearning she hadn’t felt in many
years and probably would never feel again.

She squirmed in
her chair and adjusted herself so that the ancient orb sat in her
lap, her hands free to grab a knife, roll up her right sleeve and
cut the skin deep. Raising her arm she put the cut to her old dry
lips and drank deep, the blood dribbling down her chin. Her eyes
rolled back in their sockets and she began to mumble to herself the
yellow light flickering with every word.

Her eyes returned
and the pulsing stopped. The old witch licked her lips and unrolled
her sleeve; the blood already starting to clot on her arm. Coughing
hard; for she hasn’t spoken in a while, she looked down to the orb
and stroked it caringly.

‘Someone comes to
pay us a visit, Petra. An Oath Bearer, do you believe! And he seeks
the gun of my father.’ Her voice was low, almost lost to the sound
of desert crickets and wild cats screaming at the Hunters moon. ‘He
comes to me but he knows not what I am or what I can do.’ The old
woman smirked and closed her eyes mumbling an ancient rite until
the moon was high and the night was fully upon the town of
Rockfall.

She hadn’t noticed
that behind her, in a cupboard unopened in decades, an ancient soul
contained in an ancient weapon was awakening. Jonah has arisen.

9

The young woman
Susie didn’t really belong in this town. Were she born just a few
hundred miles in any other direction she would have been treated
like a piece of fine silk and only the richest, most influential
men would have stood a chance to bed her. But she hadn’t and so any
thoughts she had of being treated like a princess had to be
shelved, kept away from the folk of this desert town.

She had freshened
up after completing her daily routine, a routine she completed
every day and would continue on doing until the day she died no
doubt and as the two lovers embraced on top of Hangman Hill so she
opened the doors and letting in the first of the revellers. There
were the usual faces; Morey, Keef, Toby, Mad Margaret and Mo and a
few others that only came here once a month and only when they
needed too, the beer being at its cheapest was also a help. The
first Friday of the month was always busy in the bar, the beer and
whiskey flowing freely allowing the full range of debauchery
Rockfall is capable off to be set free. It was a tradition that
went back to the days of Rockfalls original settlers and was a
celebration of the barrelling and the selling of oil.

Susie hated it.
Like she hated most things, no everything that this town had to
offer. Most of the time she would prefer to be anywhere but here
but on these nights she would even take the sweet freedom of death
if it meant she would be free from this place. Much like the other
girls in this town she hadn’t had a great upbringing and couldn’t
rely on an education to get her anywhere. What made it worse for
her was that her parents had died when she was young leaving her in
the care of the only woman that would take her in; Cathy. She had
been raised fairly enough but it was when the blood started to flow
from between her legs that Cathy had shown her true colours.

As Susie served
Keef his usual frothy beer she felt in her pocket the solid gold
coin that Cathy had given her and signalled that she would spend
another night underneath another man as he thrust himself into her.
The only saving grace she had was that at least this man, this
Watchman from the South didn’t look as dirty as the others, didn’t
look as dead as the others she has had to please in the past.

As she tried to
clear her mind and maintain focus on the jobs at hand the batwing
doors burst open revealing John and Cathy, and much to Susie’s
disappointment, Jameson the local Sheriff. They trundled into the
bar one after the other, Cathy leaving the two men after she had
shown them to their table in the corner under a huge painting
depicting the town in the grand days when the black oil flowed
freely from its hills.

Cathy joined her
behind the bar and the usual conversations started about the state
of the town, the way in which the sand is starting to take over,
the deaths, the births, the bored young lads becoming trouble,
Tommy the simpleton and on rare occasions Patience, the recluse old
woman, would even be spoken of. It was all very boring to Susie,
but to keep away from becoming gossip herself, she joined in with
nods and grins where it mattered. Even flattery when it suited,
especially for Jameson, the fat bastard. Thank fuck, Susie thought,
that she was the property of a Watchman tonight and so wouldn’t
have to put up with his sweaty, bloated body grinding up against
her and as if on time there came footsteps on the stairs and her
man for the night came waltzing down from his room.

He was a good
looking man; even if a bit travel worn, with the air of a city man
and the grace of a dancer. As he walked down the stairs he drew
attention from the fifty or so folks in the bar. They no doubt
already knew who he was and what he was but it wasn’t every day
that a Watchman comes into town, especially since no crime had been
committed. Hushed voices became whispers and Susie served a few
more patrons as the Watchman glanced around, found a spare table in
the shadows of the stairs and sat himself down.

Susie looked over
to Cathy knowing what she must do and Cathy gave her an approving
nod. Pouring a fresh beer, followed by a chaser of whiskey she
carried the two glasses over to the table much to the chagrin of
the sheriff. Her hands were shaking slightly, more than they would
if this was a regular paying customer. Her belly twisted in knots
at the thought of talking to this stranger. Cathy had warned her
before about city men, about their strange and bewitching ways, but
she had blown them off, but now, with a city man right here in
front of her she could see what Cathy meant; there was something
strange and bewitching about him and it tugged at her
womanhood.

The Watchman
acknowledged her with a nod and a smile and she placed the glasses
down on the table offering him first the chaser, which he drank in
one gulp and then the beer which he merely placed to one side.

He looked at her,
those deep set eyes boring holes into her soul. ‘Thank ya, Susie.
Busy night?’

Susie swallowed
hard, her tongue swelling to twice it normal size. She was all of a
sudden aware that she had no answer for him; there were no words
ready to come out. It was as if he had asked her to explain why the
stars twinkle or why the wind blows. Time was speeding by now and
it was becoming awkward.

‘Take a breath,
Susie. I’m not here on official business.’ He smiled and the
bewitching had begun.

‘It’s not that,’
Susie exhaled and now fully capable of speech, ‘This is the first
time I have spoken with a man from the city. Plus, usually when the
coin is spent on me.’ She trailed off quickly.

‘I understand.
It’s usually toward the end of the evening. I just thought it would
be nice to have some company and maybe learn a few things about
this place before I move in.’

Move on? Susie’s
belly dropped at the thought. It was like she was fourteen again
and trying to hold back the crush she had on an older boy. What did
it matter that he was leaving, what did she expect, that they would
fall in love and he would live here with her forever. Or better
still; run away together.