Two Hawks By Nightfall

Note: After much delay and writer's block moments, I finally got my next chapter done. This is kind of crazy because I had a total different idea when I finally set down to write it this week, totally different story. Then this popped back into my head and I ever ended up at a totally different place with the story going off the lyric than I intended when I wrote the first few paragraphs. So this was quite an exercise for me. I also decided to go back to writing in Word first which seems to help for some odd reason, I guess I don't feel the pressure of the post button like I need to finish it now.


"But I can't stop staring in those evil eyes" - Monster by Lady Gaga

Night descended upon the sleepy town as if someone spread out a giant afghan that settled gently down to the ground. The two young men adeptly used this environment to their advantage as they slipped through the shadows of the lightly burning street lamps. They had crafted their plan on the hilltop, though Snake knew better than to ever think it was fool proof. Red and he had carried out enough of their schemes already in their young lives to know to be ready for the worst.

They reached the general store that sat across the dusty, rugged street from the jail. The three guards were on their confident march around the building made of weathered, graying wood. Snake eyed the old pine keenly, knowing that would be their advantage. Whoever constructed the small jail had not yet learned the lessons of other towns as they began building such important structures out of cobble stone, river rock and mortar.

To the left of the jail sat a beautiful, new bank. ‘Stillman Bank,’ the large wooden sign hanging on the front almost glowed in the darkness from the fresh paint. Snake looked back up behind him to confirm that Mr. Stillman also owned the general store they crouched next to. To the right of the jail was a rather plain looking townhouse, weathered in similar fashion as the jail.

Snake looked over to Red as he crouched, leaning against the side of the store. He was squinting rather extraneously in the darkness. The site did nothing to calm Snake’s reservation on a night time raid. A quick tap on the shoulder from Snake caught Red’s attention. Snake gave a quick tap of his index finger against his nose and flicked his head towards the street. Red nodded back rather meticulously as he rose up out of his crouch.

They checked both directions down the street to make sure the coast was clear. The guards just finished their march around the front of the jail and had made the turn to the back side. Snake broke first across the street to his assignment next to the bank. Red followed quickly behind splitting over to the townhouse. Snake leaned tight against the side wall of the bank clinging to ever inch of darkness he could. He started the count in his head as he pulled out his right hip revolver first, spinning the chamber to double check a full load before holstering and checking the left. Snake still carried that youthful hope in his gut that it wouldn’t have to come to that this time. It would be the first.

He could hear the door to the jail open as they guards performed their shift change. Like clockwork, after their 30 rounds of marching around the jail, one member would switch out with a guard from the inside. The old wooden door creaked back shut with a slam that seemed to echo louder than any gun shoot in the dead of the night. He could even hear the plodding steps as the guards began their march again.

Snake held his breath as the group came in his direction. He laid his body as flat as he could against the bank wall. There was a gap of at least 10 feet between the jail and the bank, but Snake didn’t want to chance anything. If they saw him on their turn around the jail, this plan would fail before it even started. His count on their steps was continually interrupted by his pounding heartbeat as it reverberated in his head.

That all came to a halt as Snake was sure his jaw fell all the way to the dirt ground. Red was creeping up behind the three men, his back to the street and guns pulled. And those eyes, those supposedly impaired eyes. Red held them keen, sharp like the hawks that soar across this plain hunting the tiniest rodents from 500 feet in the air. Snake could not stop staring directly into them, getting lost in their depth. The cool wit that seemed to almost ooze out of them.

Damn it! The curse slipped from his lips as he drew his two pistols. Red already had the three men down before Snake was able to get the twin Colts out of their holsters. It wasn’t the three marching guards he was worried about though. His timing was perfect to gun down the two men that ran out of the front door of the jail with panic stricken looks now forever hardened into their cold, stone faces. Someone from the inside kicked a foot out of the way as he slammed the jail door shut. The three locks being engaged clanged out into the night.

Red stood up to face Snake; he was wearing a slanted smile that spread from ear to ear. That smile would irk Snake at times boiling his blood until it followed up to his ears making them hotter than the flames of hell. Yet, it was the single biggest feature that endeared Red to him. It meant Red was feeling it; his mind was flowing with ideas and his aim was pure. It meant more trouble.