Chapter 5:

Where A Possibly Disastrous Deal Is Struck

Hell’s Horseman


Lozen woke up about five separate times, or at least could remember waking up five times. Her head felt like it had been split open, even while she was unconscious, and everything about her felt heavy, pained, or some grueling mixture of both, but though it all, she managed to gather a few facts. The first time, she was laying down on something and could bargirl hear the sound of horse steps beneath her.

However, she blacked out before she make anything out and when she woke back up, she managed to see something directly beneath or in front of her. The ground, though darkly lit, racing past her and she could vaguely hear someone saying "-think she called me a Chu-new-ca or something. I don't know, but it's better than-" and then immediately blacked out again.

When she awoke the third time, that same someone said "I don't know! Maybe she'll have a map or something." She could also hear the sound of something splashing and taste what she recalled as river water on her tongue, but again she didn't remain conscious for long. After waking up again, she was back near dry land and barely had a second before slipping back into darkness with hints of someone saying "I think she's starting to come-" The fifth time she woke was by far the best out of them because this time she managed to incite more sense than just sight or sound. That time, she knew where she was.

She was laying face down onto something back, a horse judging from the bones she felt pressing in her stomach and the gallop, and it appeared she had been strapped to the back. Her wrist ached from the ropes tied around them and her neck was ready to snap from dangling over the creatures side for so long, but the thing that caught her attention the most was the smell. Even through her headache and grogginess, she could smell something pungent radiating from all around her. It was more than enough to snap a little bit more of her awake and that tiny chunk managed to pull her head up to look for whatever else was going on.

The first thing she noticed was that it was nighttime with all the stars covering the endless sky and she was indeed strapped to the back of a stallion. Flat, sheer desert seemed to stretch on for miles in every direction and the ground around the horse she was tied to appeared to be illuminated by a faint glow. She glanced up at the rider and saw that it was indeed the same hellish creature as before, but much to her dismay, it was staring right at her when she looked at it.

"Great. You know, you people always wake up at the worst times and it's starting to get real annoying." It said before raising its hand up to bring a vague weapon smashing down onto her head. In the split second it took for the blow to make contact, she feared her head was actually going to split open and at least could hear the crack of the weapon striking her head before blacking out.

Then she slipped into the strange zone of consciousness between being asleep and awake where the head trauma prevented her from getting up and simultaneously kept her from falling completely asleep. She could barely make out her own thoughts and the only sensation she registered was that of her skull pleading for death, but thankfully that tiny branch of Hell didn't last for long. It wasn't long, at least as far as she could tell, before her mind resurfaced, but the process of waking the rest of her up was far more laborious than she would have liked.

Everything felt heavy or too painful to move, but through the murkiness filling her mind, there was one feeling that anchored her in place and it was ironically the one that caused her state. The pain her head throbbed, sending waves of agony rushing through her that draped every inch of her in the horrible sensation, but she was at least certain something hurt.

That pain cast light on the rest of her where nothing else did and told her that at the very least, she was leaning up against something with her back pressed against something harder than a mattress or even wood. It felt like stone or something similar and in addition to the feeling of something digging into her back, she could feel something else splatter against her front. Heat and as she realized that, she saw light seeing through her eyelids as well and heard something crackling close by.

Curious and a little concerned given what she could and couldn't remember, she fought through the pain to opened her eyes and saw the worst possible scene laid out before her. She appeared to be either a curved indent or crescent shaped wall in the middle of an expansive desert still covered in starlight. Behind her was the cavern and in front of her was a fire pit crudely constructed from twigs, but providing enough heat to banish the cold.

On the other side of that fire pit however, sat the creature with its legs crossed and the pinch it wore puked behind it into a cape, leaving the rest of it's disturbing figure in plain view. It didn't appear to have a hat anymore and it's shirt was covered numerous holes from which blue light spilled out of. Behind it, the dead horse lay, it's head resting on the desert and it's one good eye closed, but it's master was nothing like it. Its cold, featureless eyes stared directly at her with an expression like that of an angry child with its entire body arch forward to complete its angry yet naive expression.

"First, I would like to start off by saying that I am well aware I clobbered you like a misbehaving child, but I have been waiting for two goddamn hours just for you to do so much as flinch." It began in a completely disingenuous voice. "So I guess my only question is-" It's hands flew out in front of it for exaggeration. "What the hell took you so long?" Lozen's head was still too foggy for her to proplet grasp what was going on and could only offer up a confused "What?"

The creature rolled its eyes as best it could without any eyes to do so with before saying "And apparently you're still loopy. Great. Isn't that just the cherry on top a great big heaping pile of shit. Do you at least have a name, missy?"

Lozen raised her hand up to clutch her forehead and was surprised to find that they had been bound in rope, but wasn't conscious enough to start panicking. The ropes weren't even that tight so they didn't incite much fear on their own. Though they were still at least concerning. "Why am I tied up?" She asked in a slurred voice and the creature replied "So you didn't untie your feet and run obviously." Lozen glanced further down and saw that her feet were indeed tied up before saying "Huh." The creature then let out an annoyed moan before continuing "Forget it, I'm just gonna call you Runs With Pesterence. Is that a word?"

Lozen let out a small groan in pain as her headache worsened for a second, but she still managed to say "No it's not. My name is Lozen. Who are you?" The creature raised an eyebrow or at least the part of its face that should have had one and said "Really? Did you not hear not that whole long talk the pussy at the saloon said?"

Lozen tried remembering for a moment before saying "No. It's hard to think right now." The creature let out a huff and then said "Come on! You must have heard of me! Hell's Horseman?" It paused for a second and then resumed when she said nothing "The Angel of Anarchy, then?" She still had no idea what it was talking about. "The Devils Debt Collector? Bell Rows Butcher? Ghost Rider? Well, okay, maybe not that one. Fighting some hotshot out the west for the rights to that." Lozen let out an annoyed groan before saying "Look, I don't know who you are, so why don't you just tell me what you want?" The creature groaned again before saying "Great. I'll make this quick."

It flung its arms out to its sides and cried out the last part "What the hell am I?!" She thought this was a trick question or a bit of devil's mischief, but the creatures angered expression told her another story. "Do you really not know?" Lozen asked to which the creature replied while furiously shaking its arms "Yes!? Did the kidnapping not make that abundantly clear!!?" Her weapons didn't seem to at her sides, so she continued to play along "And how am I supposed to know? I just hunt people." The creature spat back "Don't play dumb! I heard you call me something at the saloon! Chun u Wu or something."

It was starting to come back to her after that and she said as she started looking around the fireplace for her weapons "It's just some old children story my grandmother used to tell me to scare me into doing my chores. Aren't you a demon or something?" The creature continued "What!? No! Although I'm pretty sure I went to hell for a few seconds." Its expression seemed to dim for a moment as it recalled that before its entire body jolted and shook itself out like it was trying to shrug off the experience. "Will you just tell me what I am before I start remembering other stuff."

Lozen searched around for another second longer before reciting the story as best as she could "Like I said, it's a children's story. Long ago, a great Arikata warrior lived in a village somewhere to the east with great skill with a bow and stallion that could outrun the sunset. One day the village was attacked and so the warrior rode with the others. The battle was more of a massacre than anything else. All the men died apart from the warrior who was left to fight for his people all on his own. He stood for an entire week, fighting off each invader one by one until he was eventually chopped down. His head was chopped clean off and taken by the invaders as a trophy. His body was left unburied as his villages was burnt to the ground and his people were slaughtered.

But he didn't stay dead. The warriors need for vengeance and the corruption of his corpse so great that not even death could contain him. His body had been left to rot and his head had not been returned. So when the blood moon rose, he came back from the otherside as a headless corpse.

He set out across the land, riding a deathless stallion that left the devil in its dust with a bow that could kill a man with one shot, trying to find the ones who had wronged him and take back the head they had stolen. And supposedly if you don't do your chores, he'll think you're one of the rotten bastards who took his head and shot you where you stand."

The creature stared at her for a moment afterwards before saying "Is that it? So, let me get this straight. This," It waved a hand around its body. "just happens?" Lozen replied "And how am I supposed to know? My grandmother once said it was the warriors need for revenge that brought him back, but I can't say that for certain. I think it was supposed to be some moral about not dying with vengeance in your heart or something." The creature swung its head all around before saying "Well, I guess that would fit. Not sure about the defiling thing, but the rest makes sense." Lozen's attention was caught by that and she found herself asking "Wait, is that what happened to you?"

A small grin crossed the creatures face when it heard that and it straightened out its posture before saying "I thought the skeleton wrapped in a ghost would make that obvious, but yes."

Lozen felt her mind erupt with questions as she heard that. This creature, or person she supposed, looked at least a decade younger than her judging from the spectral outline projected around his skeleton, so how could he have gotten himself killed? She considered just staying quiet for a moment, but not only did the creature seem more than happy to answer her questions, it didn't appear to want to kill her either. There had to be a reason for that and if there was, maybe she could use it. He had been trying to find the same bounty as her after all, so knowing more was probably for the better.

"And how exactly did that happen?" She asked, already having a few theories, one of which was confirmed when the dead man said "Well, that's a bit of a long story, but I'll try and paraphrase. I used to ride with this crew of gents who thought themselves the baddest folk in the west. We rode into hundreds of towns, stealing everything that wasn't nailed down and killing any folks that got in our way. Some called us the Red Dawn Riders cause everyday we came to town, we would leave something or someone there red if you know what I mean. We even managed to mass quite a hefty fortune. A literal metric ton of silver, of which we all got our equal shares. Until one day, I decided to take my due deserves. Our boss was a man by the name of Gregor Iscariot-"

Her attention snapped back to the creature as she heard that name, the sound of coins of bills either gently descending or clunking into a bag and the sight of happy face no longer hungry all flashing in front of her. However, something else rushed through her mind as she heard that name. A village from another time up in smoke and blood. It was a quick thought, one she swatted away like the meaningless speculation it was and focused on the matter at hand.

"Wait, you know Gregor Iscariot?!" She asked and the deadman glared at her before saying "Like I said, he was my boss. But in actuality he was a two timing, shit faced, mule-fucking sonofagun and I will but her him like the cowardly pig he is!!"

He then cleared his throat before continuing "But regardless, he was my boss at the time. Though, lets just say I didn't take kindly to our group dynamic, decided to take my fair due, stole a bit of everyone's silver, and ran as far as I could. Beatrice over here-" He gestured to the corpse like steed behind him. "Managed to outrun them for five days until I sat myself down by this tree out in the desert somewhere. Then, those bastards hunt me down, beat me blue and bloody, and shot me right in the head. With my own pistol! Now I get wanting to kill a man, but not with his own pistol! That's just throwing salt in the wound. But I digress. Some time later, I suddenly wake up looking like this with Beatrice not looking much better."

The horse let out a snort at that to which the deadman replied "You don't have skin and I can see your lungs! I would say that's a little worse than a clean skeleton wrapped up in a soul! Anyways, I woke up like this and somehow able to do this." He raised his hand up, grabbed at thin air yet somehow suddenly held the weapon she saw him use to take care of the barbarians at the saloon.

"And those jackasses stole all that silver too. So now I'm......excuse me." He cleared his throat and then continued in a much more pronounced bed voice. "I roam the endless wastes, even as the sun sets over the horizon, searching to the scoundrels who wronged me in life! In one hand I hold the weapon that shall deliver all of them to their graves and in the other, the reigns of the undead stallion who shall bring me to them! No matter where they will run or hide, I will come racing across the west, under star or sunlight, and I will take back what has been stolen from me as I lay my righteous vengeance upon them!!" The smile on his face was growing with every word while Lozen continued to question what she was watching. "I am the one whom hell could not contain, he who rides the Pale Horse of Death itself, Hell's Horseman!! My name is Judas Kreemly and it shall be known throughout the west!!"

He was staring up into the sky by the time he finished with his arms having slowly spread themselves out until they looked like they were ready the catch the rose he thought would be flung up to him. However, Lozen only felt rather confused by whatever the hell she was watching because it seemed more like a stage production more than anything, even considering this all should have been impossible. She had too many questions and observations to get through by the time the creatures proclamation ended and merely said "No it's not."

Judas, or whatever his name actual was, stayed frozen in his applause pose for a moment longer before his head snapped down from the sky and he simply asked "What?" Lozen clarified "Your name. That's not it. It sounds like a performer from those traveling shows." The deadman frowned and said "You're one to talk! Yours sounds like it's being rented for the night! Besides, even if mine's fake, it's not like you have anything else to call me, so deal with it."

Lozen thought about it for a moment, sighed, and then said "Alright, Judas. What now?"

The deadman froze up for another moment before asking in a much less focused voice "Pardon?" Lozen raised an eyebrow at that and raised her bound hands up before saying "What are you going to do with me?" Judas remained silent for a second longer before saying "Oh. Right. Forgot about that. Well, I'm pretty sure I could have inferred everything you've told me, but that's besides the point. I guess you're free to go." Lozen clarified "So you're not going to kill me? Or.....what do the Europeans say? Drag me to hell?" Judas replied "No! I don't even......." His voice trialed of glanced up as if in though before saying "No, I can't do that.........Maybe. Wait. You got a bounty on your head?" Lozen answered "No." Judas suddenly jumped into his feet, the bundled cape running down from his back still touching the ground, and said "Then I don't got much of a reason to kill you."

For a moment, Lozenjust stared up at the man or demon or whatever it was, trying to figure out if he was joking or not, but after he added in a sarcastic tone "Is there something on my face?" she concluded it was truthful. "Alright then." She said before shaking her hands and pulling either of them apart until the ropes around them unraveled like nothing. They clattered onto the ground around her as she easily slipped from them and with her hands free, she risky undid the knot that was supposed to have entrapped her ankles as well. She then pushed herself back onto her feet and said "Then I would like to make a deal with you."

Judas jaw dropped open as he saw that and asked "How did you do that?!" Lozen answered "I'm assuming you've never had to tie someone up before?" The deadman looked up again, this time as if in thought before saying "Huh. I guess not."

Unsurprised, Lozen continued "Look, I'm going to make you a deal. You can't die, have a gun that can kill anyone with a single shot, and a horse I'm assuming also doesn't die. You're about as close to......I think you people call it to the Grim Reaper and are a literal folk hero from where I come from. Best of all, you appear to be trying to find the exact same person as me, so why don't we make a deal." A humored smile spread across its face before saying "And why on earth would I do that? We're in the west. Any man can use a gun and a weird black dagger."

Lozen sat herself back down on the dust and pulled off her boots as she said "I know. Everyone has a gun, but I have been tracking these kinds of people for a very long time and your former boss is one of them." She pulled the sole out and then shook out the maps and bounties that had been stuffed under them, only the map of which she started unfolding. Judas circled around the fire until he was standing behind her and in the flickering firelight, joined her in looking at the many markings on them.

"On good days, I try and sell what I can to make due. I only hunt bounties when there's no other way to collect some money and this is how I keep track of them all. I've been all over Texas and the disputed territories and I've always found my target." She said before Judas asked "Did you kill my boss?" Lozen answered "No. I found others with a decent enough price on their heads before I had to confront them." The deadman nodded before saying "Alright. What about the rest of these guys?"

"Same story."

"Right. And why are these people in particular on your......kill shopping list, I guess is what you'd call it."

"They've got the highest bounties on their heads for miles around. Point is-"

"And where exactly did you find these posters?"

"I don't know. Here and there. Look, I think its bests that we try and find these people together. How long have you been searching for your old crew?"

"Of course they are."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing. And......." He mumbled something under his breath and forced Lozen to ask "What was that?" Judas mumbled a little louder, but not nearly enough for her to hear and again made her ask "Judas, how long have you been trying to find these people?" He swung his head back a forth at that, clearly debating what to do before saying "Six years."

Lozen froze in place when she heard that. She had expected this obvious moron leaning on his inability to die to not know a still as advanced as tracking, but six years just seemed absurd. There was only so much land in the state so she was amazed he hadn't even found them by accident. "Are you joking with me?" She honestly asked and the deadman said "Well I've been busy!"

"What could have been doing for six years?"

"Cultivating my image."

"So instead of hunting down those who you want vengeance on, you've been posing for posters and declaring your intentions wherever you go like a banshee?"

"Hey now! It took a lot to build up this renowned!"

Lozen just stared at the peculiar man for a moment before saying "Alright. Whatever you say. My point is, you may not be able to find them, but you can kill them. I may be able to find them, but these men, Iscariot and Lorenzo, have too many hires guns with them for me to even get close. But if we go together, we can find and kill them. You get your revenge and I get to keep the bounties. Does that sound fair?"

The deadman glanced over the map one more time before looking back at her and saying "And you're only after the reward, right?" Lozen froze up at that as a handful more images flashed before her mind before answering "Yes. As long as I get that, we'll have no problems." He glanced back and forth between her and the map for a moment before saying "A sidekick always helps. Alright, I'll play along with this. Although, I'm gonna make one slight alteration. You see all those other people? We're going after all of them."

Lozen was confused by this for a second, but she put the pieces together before long. "They're all apart of your old gang?" She asked, eyes widening in disbelief, and the deadman answered "Well, there were quite a few grunts, but these guys were the main ones. Though I'm surprised they even bother putting something on Little Moore's head. 500 dollars? That squirt wasn't even worth five flat." Lozen turned in her spot before saying "I'm sorry, but who exactly are you that you rode with some of the most sought after criminal in the country?!"

All Judas did in response was to give her a quick venomously angry glare and say "And who exactly are you to be an Injun woman willing to work with a dead man?" Lozen felt her heart skip a beat at that first part, but decided the rest was fair and must have made that acceptance apparent on her expression. Judas gave her a look that perfectly matched what he said "Yeah, I didn't think so. Let's just leave it at the obvious for now. Name's Judas, undead, got a horse that's undead too, and a shit ton of grudges. Sound good?"

Lozen sighed and said as she started folding the maps and posters back up "Fine. So it's a deal?" The deadman straightens himself out and started walking back over to his stead as he said "Yeah. You could say that. Beatrice, get up!" The horse snorted again with its eyes still shut and the deadman seemed to reply "No, I want you to do a dance for me. Of course we're leaving!!!" Lozen raised an eyebrow at that before calling after the man "Wait, you're not honestly expecting me to march on after some criminals in the middle of the night?"

Judas stopped right in between his stead and the fireplace as he said "Yeah. It's not like those guys are coming to us." Lozen as about to say something when something clicked in her mind and promoted her to ask "Do you sleep anymore?" Judas half heartedly responded "No and believe me, I've tried. I don't even think I can close my eyes all the way." Lozen suppressed a groan before she started pushing herself against the back of the groove surrounding the fireplace. "But I do." She said as she slid herself down to the ground only to hear the deadman say "Come on now! I've been chasing after these bastards for six years and I am not letting my best lead at finding them just fall asleep."

"When I came to that town, I was forced into the middle of a firefight after walking across this wasteland on my own two feet for a day straight and shortly after that, I was bludgeoned twice in the course of what I'm assuming was an hour. Unless you want me to pass out in the middle of another firefight, I need to sleep some of all that off."

"And what am I supposed to do then? Count the stars?"

"Maybe you could find wherever you stashed my weapons."

The deadman glanced over at his horse before saying in a voice that was anything but certain "Yeah, that might take a while." His steed snorted. "I'm well aware, Beatrice. You don't have to rub it in." He added before turning back to her and saying "I can promise I'll work on it, nothing more."

Lozen let out another sigh and settled into the dust and dry dirt. She pulled her hat over her eyes and felt the obvious start seeping into her mind. This wasn't the first she had to sleep in the middle of the desert, but her internal debate kept her wide awake. Her survival instincts told this was all a terrible idea and that she should just run and forget any of this ever happened. She tried quelling the questions thriving in her head when she felt them buzzing about with one anchor of a thought that always worked to calm her.

He wasn't going to kill her. Judas, or whatever his real name was, needed something from her and didn't seem to have a direct interest in killing her. Besides, it wasn't like he needed her asleep to do her in. And right now, with the silver gone, she needed a way to get that money fast. She couldn't wait around and patiently hunt someone, not while she had a better option. This entire thing may have, very obviously, get her killed, but the alternative was far worse. Her village would starve, all because of her. Simply staying alive and moving had barely worked before, but now she had a much better option. And this time she had someone or something else to be a hero and take the bullets for her.

Though, something about all of this didn't settle right with her. She knew it was probably the fact that any of this was happening at all. It wasn't every or any day someone saw a deadman walk and it wasn't as if he was average even taken all that out. He seemed to be under the delusion he was in a performance of sorts, but he didn't seem unstable........she supposed dangerous fit more aptly.

Although, another much smaller part of her that worried despite this. One that still pondered what exactly he was, but was also troubled by one tiny actions she couldn't quite understand. This thing had no quarrel killing all those men in the saloon for what sounded like an annoyance for him. and she had only told him about her skills. So why on earth had it decided to spared her before?

...

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