The two hands of the Devil

Chapter I – One way duel

They were staring each other right in the eyes, both ready to start the fight at the very first movement of the other. The air was tense around them, not a single wisp of wind as if even the weather was keeping its breath to not interfere with these two.

Suddenly, a movement! And here one of the two begin to shoot like a raving madman, as a vast cloud of gray smoke start to envelop him. But beside the smoke cloud, this one kept firing in all directions, jumping, rolling on the ground and moving away to not give himself as a stationary target.

When the smoke finally began to disappear, both figure were still standing. The first, covered in swear, smoking guns in his hands, as he stared darkly at the other one which, slightly inclined forward, dabbed at her nose with a napkin.

“Sovvy…I’ve got a bit of a cold.”

Around them meanwhile, there was the testimony of the shooting with a lot of doors, buckets, signs and even a coach, completely riddled by bullet holes. In that straight long road, there wasn’t any more anything intact.

The man with the smoking guns, sheriff star on his chest, started looking nervously around him. He saw figures moving within the shadows of the buildings and, already he thought that accepting that duel with that woman had been a grave mistake.

“So is like this, uh? Challenging me to a duel and then…and then calling an army to stop me!”

The woman, after a quite loud sneeze in her napkin, raised an eyebrow.

“Well…First, I haven’t challenged you.
It was you who told me to come meeting you here at midday. Yesterday night at the Saloon, remember?”

The sheriff became beet red, as he realized to have done a terrible mistake. The Night before, particularly drunk, he had got near this curvaceous gunner babe and he had proposed her a date at midday of the following day. Then after a night filled to the brim with cheap booze he had gotten really, and truly, drunk.

When one of his assistants had woken him up that morning, warning him that a tough looking gunner was waiting in front of the saloon, he had thought of some thug in seek of troubles.

The sheriff started to answer her back when the woman continued.

“And second, I haven’t called Them…”


The man looked at his surrounding and saw as a circle of people had begun closing around him. As more of them emerged from the shadows he started recognizing them as people who lived there in the city.

“Mistress Rockbottom!? What are you doing here…with a holed….pot? And you, Mister Burke, why is your hat…all riddled with…holes?
Oh…Oh! Er…”

As the ring of people tighten around the man, each of its components was glaring at the sheriff with hate and fury. Each of the villagers had lost something after the shooting and now they wanted payback. The sheriff began by rising his hands, still strongly handling his guns, trying to mutter some excuses, as pitchforks, shovels and clubs began to rise around him.

“W-Wait…Wait a minute! I’m the Sheriff, here! Put one hand on me and I’ll get each and every one of you in Jail!

Even if I had to call for The Army!”


At those words, the frenzied mob began to stop, as each of them imagined the coming of The Bandit Army. If them were coming, all they would have left were going to be broken bones and damages to repair. With hateful glares, each of the presents let fall of the weapon he was holding, as they dispersed, still glaring at the man that, not only had damaged them, but was even hiding behind the star he was wearing on his chest.

The woman gunner meanwhile, apparently forgotten, began to turn around and get back into the saloon as she felt herself being grabbed by the arm. Turning her head she saw the drooling face of the sheriff, at barely a few inches from her face.

His breath smelled of cheap tobacco and even cheaper wine. She even noticed, as she wrinkled her nose in disgust, that apparently the man didn’t know the concept behind the word ‘bathing’.

“And where do you think you’re going, Sweetheart? With all the mess you have forced me to face, you have to let me have some fun.

Don’t you think so, boys?”

The girl, that was already taking her guns out, had to stop immediately as she saw four other guys, each with a bronze star on their hairy chests. The deputies of the sheriff, she thought with disgust as she looked at them, as they got closer.

“Ehi, dolly. It’s not them you’ve got to have fun with…it’s me. But let me warn you, you don’t get me satisfied, I’ll let them join in the fun. Now, honey, before having our fun…why don’t you tell me that name of yours?”

As the sheriff asked his question, he brought one of his guns to the neck of the woman, letting the slightly hot barrel touch the jaw of the girl herself, letting her understand that a negative answer wasn’t going to be accepted.

“I’m…Miss Fortune…”

“But what a nice name…It is apt, isn’t it? After all you had the misfortune of meeting me and to shame me in front of my friends. But don’t you worry…I’m not one who remember this things over the years.”


With those words, he pushed the woman on the ground, kicking her guns away as his deputies came nearer waiting for the show to start.


“Now then, Boys. What do we want to do with the bitch, here? Shall we bring her into the saloon private rooms to stay comfortable?”

“Ehi Boss…” one of the four deputies interjected “…For a sow like this there is no need for a bed…She will probably enjoy it more here.”

The sheriff passed one of his hands on his sweaty face, as if he had to think about the proposal, but his eyes betrayed the fact that he had already decided.

“Well, now that my assistant here, Mr. Rotten-Teeth, has mentioned it, I would say we can just enjoy this gift from the Lord…wouldn’t you say so, Boys?”

As the five of them laughed evilly, the man knelt on the woman, as she begun kicking and screaming, trying to standing up. The five of them, not surprised by the girl reaction, began kicking her and beating her with their clubs, until they left her a bloodied mess on the ground.

As one of them kneeled beside her to gather his first taste, the slow sound of horse hooves seemed to appear from nowhere.

As all of them turned, they saw a huge figure moving toward them, riding a stallion of such a size that was way higher than the tallest of them. The lonely figure, the sun at his back, seemed to appear as a black oily shadow for their blinded eyes.

Still a chorus of laughter emerged from the five men as they realized that the guy on that horse seemed so wide to resemble an elephant riding on a pony.

“Ehi, Fatso! What have you done? Have you eaten all of your cows?”

“Yeah! The herd with all the cowboys, ah ah ah!”