I’d been awake from hibernation a few hours before the black dog arrived on my porch as I was smoking a cigarette, rocking back and forth slowly on my chair.
He’d approached like a dark mirage on the desert plain. He was now sitting before me, tongue hanging loose and dripping on the porch’s wooden slats. His eyes were black and glistening.
He was my master. Beelzebub.
“You have been summoned, Verdugo.” His words were hollow, yet soft, in my head.
“How long have I been sleeping?” I asked.
“But a year.”
“Not long enough. What’s wrong with this place? Why can’t humans just take it easy for a while?”
Beelzebub was not one for small talk or to answer any questions. “You are to go to the border town of La Ventosa—the ‘Windy One.’”
“Doesn’t sound like a vacation.”
“You have rested. Now you must serve.”
“Who summoned me?”
“A young woman.”
“Why?”
Beelzebub was silent.
“Fine,” I said. “It’ll be done.”
“Head northwest.”
Beelzebub turned on his heels and went back the way he’d come, walking in a straight line until he faded away.
***
Back in the house, I tied my hip holster containing my Colt Dragoon around my waist and put on my long dark brown coat, hat, and face cloth to cover my slavering insectoid mandibles, and went out.
Nothing but a flat desert landscape all around. Above, a cloudless sky.
I put my fingers to my mouth and whistled. It wasn’t long before I heard the thundering gallop of Oscuro approaching.
She appeared as out of a fever dream and came to a halt, letting out a sigh through her steam-filled nostrils.
I stroked her head and nose and flattened her dark mane before putting my head against hers and closing my eyes.
“It’s good to see you, old girl.”
I saddled up and took off, heading northwest in search of La Ventosa.
***
I rode for hours across endless desert scorched by a sun that I couldn’t feel, but neither hunger nor thirst came to me. It never did. I had no need for nourishment of any kind when I was day-walking. Not anymore. Not until hibernation, at least.
I reached a small pueblo of square, one-story buildings, squatting in the dirt. The air was dry and completely still. So, I hadn’t reached Ventosa yet.
I dismounted as peasants moved around myself and Oscuro, keeping as far away from us as possible.
I looked around. There was a building marked cantina, yet it looked identical to the rest.
I tied Oscuro to a nearby post and whispered to her that I’d be back shortly.
I entered the cantina and was met with the dumbfounded expressions of black-mustached midday drinkers. The ones huddled together muttered under their breath in Spanish. Those alone pulled the brims of their hats over their eyes, looked down into their drinks, and sat completely still like clay statues.
I approached the bar—my boots thumping on the stone floor—with a little man standing behind it who seemed to shrink the nearer I got. I feared he’d shrink into himself, leaving nothing but his dark, widening eyes looking up at me in sheer terror.
“¿Qué le gustaría?” he asked wobbly. What would you like?
“Nada,” I replied. “I just need to know how to get to La Ventosa. Is it far?”
“No está lejos.” It’s not far.
“Which way?”
“Al norte de aquí. Unas cincuenta millas.” North from here. About fifty miles.
“Gracias. One more thing—on the Mexican or American side?”
“Americano.”
I nodded and left.
***
The wind started to pick up the farther north I got. Thick clouds of dust were blowing about in every direction, obscuring my vision. I rode slowly until I saw several dark figures ahead surrounding a larger shape in the center. The one in the center was static, but the others moved a little, to-and-fro and back and forth.
I came closer until I saw what they were—a blackened tree with three bodies hanging by their necks from the twisted black branches. A man and two women. The man was middle-aged, as was one of the women—specks of gray in their hair. The other woman was younger. They were all bloated, and their black tongues were sticking out. Their eyes had been pecked out by vultures already. The younger woman wore a skirt, which was bloodstained between her legs.
I kept my hand on the holstered Dragoon as I made my way past the tree and the swinging bodies.
The dust cleared momentarily, then it started to rain, as I saw the painted wooden sign announcing La Ventosa. A small town stretched out ahead with a larger building—a bodega—just beyond.
The streets were empty. The air was stale. There was no sound other than the rain pattering on the rooftops and thumping into the dirt as it grew denser.
I tied Oscuro up under a canopy so that she’d stay dry.
I made my way through the main street and towards the saloon, which was straight ahead.
Inside, a few miserable-looking patrons sat at the bar. Dolled-up whores in colorful frocks dangled from the balcony. One—a young and dark thing with a more modest dress—made eye contact with me and started making her way along the balcony and down the stairs. I evaded her eyes and approached the bar, ordering a whiskey. I didn’t need it, and alcohol had no effect on me, but I needed to keep up appearances, not attract undesired attention, and attempt to blend in. I only wanted to be viewed as the poor old man in a tattered coat seeking shelter from the wind and rain.
Before I knew it, the girl had sidled up next to me. Close. Too close for comfort.
The bartender plonked the whiskey down in front of me, causing the contents to jump and spill onto the bar top.
The girl turned to face me. “I imagine you’re very handsome under that rag.”
“I assure you, I’m not.”
She smiled warmly. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
“Maybe I was—once. Before I sold my soul to the Prince of Darkness.”
She laughed. “You’re an interesting character, stranger.”
I shrugged.
“What brings you here to this quaint little town?” she asked.
“Business. Just business.”
“Not much of a talker, are you?”
“Nope. And you are?”
“Helps to pass the time. But I’m more a girl of action.”
“That so?”
“Yep. I can show you if you like?”
“Hell. Why not?”
“Good boy. Come on.”
I finished my whiskey before I let the girl take me by the hand. I was surprised she didn’t react to the fact it was as cold as frosted stone on a winter’s day.
We went upstairs. The other patrons paid me little mind as we passed them by. I heard a man groaning in one of the private rooms. The girl took me to the one at the end of the walkway. She motioned for me to go in. I did. She followed, shut the door, and locked it with a key.
She turned to face me. She no longer wore an amiable expression. She was dead serious—her pupils dilated and wide.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Like I said, just passing through. On business.”
“Take off the rag.”
“Why?”
“I just… need to know something.”
“If you insist.”
I removed the face cloth and allowed my mandibles to extend. They started to drip, so I wiped them with my coat sleeve. The girl took in a sharp breath of air as if she were stifled and put her hand to her mouth. “It really is you. You came.”
“You’re the young woman who summoned me?”
“Yes. But I didn’t think you’d come. I was desperate. I didn’t even believe you were real. Just a tale to terrify little kids. My parents told me stories about you. Verdugo, the executioner. The one who walks the line between life and death at the border.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear in those childish stories of yours. I’m just here to do what it is you summoned me for.”
“I prayed—wished—for you to come.”
“Be careful what you wish for. It’s what you truly wanted?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“This town is being terrorized by monsters. It’s under siege. Beasts of men. Pincho and his gang.”
“Pincho?”
“He’s taken over this town. Uses it as his home base for his dirty dealings across the border. Paid off the sheriff to turn a blind eye to the corruption and murder.”
“Where’s the sheriff now?”
“On vacation. Damn son of a bitch. He’s left his people here to rot. And we’re so close to Mexico—and so far away from civilization—that nobody notices or gives a damn. That’s why I spun around like a madwoman in the dark with exactly one hundred red candles lit, saying your name over and over again a thousand times.”
“The candles didn’t have to be red…”
“Well, you’re here now.”
“I have to ask you this—what is thy bidding?”
“Huh?”
“If I don’t ask you that, I can’t fulfil your wish. Your desire.”
“Oh. Well. I want you to kill Pincho and his men and bring peace and justice back to our town. This is where I grew up. It’s all I’ve ever known. And I won’t see it go to hell because of some banditos.”
“I don’t know about peace and justice. How do you want me to kill them?”
“How? I don’t know. Make them suffer, I guess.”
“Make them suffer? Is that all?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“It’s quite a mild request, compared to others I’ve received, if I’m being honest.”
“I’m not a sadist, Mr. Verdugo.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Well, what would you prefer to be called?”
“Just ‘Verdugo’ is fine.”
“OK. Verdugo it is.”
“Much obliged.”
“Aren’t you gonna ask me mine?”
“If you insist. What’s your name?”
“Gabriela.”
“Pleased to meet you, Gabriela.”
“You’re pretty nice. For a demon.”
“I’m not a demon. I consider myself more of a psychopomp.”
“A what?”
“I escort the dead to the afterlife.”
“But you do kill, right?”
“Indirectly. Mostly.”
“Indirectly?”
“Let’s just say that accidents happen.”
“I’m a little confused.”
“Don’t worry about it. Your wish is my command.”
“Do you have to say that phrase, too?”
“Unfortunately, yes. I’m gonna get some rest. Meet me tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.”
“Here? You’ll definitely come back?”
“Yeah. I’m at your service until this is done, young lady.”
***
I paid for two nights—thinking that’d be enough—at the local hotel with a handful of gold coins, the only currency I possessed. The clerk looked thrilled enough. Beelzebub had provided me with enough gold coins to last several lifetimes. I hoped there would be enough for the innumerable lives I had ahead of me yet. Perhaps humans would find a way to make peace with one another in the future so that I wouldn’t need the gold—but I doubted it.
Sleeping undisturbed forever was nothing but a pipe dream.
I entered my room and took a bath. Little good that’d do.
I stood in front of the mirror afterwards, the water dripping from my naked, gray, cadaverous frame and from my long, thin, ashen hair, forming a pool around my taloned feet. My ice-blue eyes were the only part of me that remained from my human days. But the light in them was fading with each passing century.
I let out a sigh at the sight of myself before turning away.
I sat down on the edge of the bed and lit a cigarette, waiting for first light to come.
***
“How many of them are there?” I asked a plain-faced Gabriela, who looked naturally beautiful without a ton of makeup plastered on her face. She had a darkness and a sadness around her eyes, which had been belied by her mask the previous night. She wore a simple white nightdress.
“Seven.”
“That figures.”
“Pincho only came with four others, but two young good-for-nothings joined him after they realized they could fulfil their twisted desires and compulsions without consequence.”
“They’ll get what’s coming to them, don’t you worry.”
“Good.”
“What are their names?”
“Well, there’s Pincho. He came to town with Arturo, Cesar, Flaco, and Manuel. The guys from the town are Lefty and Abel. They’re always together, but always bickering, trying to get one up on one another. They do nothing but look to stir up trouble in the town. If Pincho isn’t with my sister, he’s either in the sheriff’s office or off making deals in other towns on either side of the border. Arturo and Cesar are his personal bodyguards. Always with him. Flaco is usually poking whores or stuffing himself silly with food here. And then there’s Manuel. He mostly keeps to himself. Doesn’t talk. Only to animals. And he hates animals. You’ll find him minding Pincho’s horses in the stables.”
“Got it.”
“One more thing—I didn’t tell you last night. But this is personal for me.”
“Why?”
“Pincho’s living in my old house. The bodega on the other side of town. Just outside. He took my younger sister as his mistress. She’s only nineteen. He said he’d kill her if she didn’t oblige him. She resisted, but Pincho isn’t a man of his word. He has no honor. Instead of killing her, he killed my parents and my other sister, after—”
“You don’t need to tell me everything. I saw the bodies on the outskirts of town. You can cut them down and bury them when this is done.”
“That’s why I’m working here now. I didn’t want to. But I had no choice.”
“I understand.”
“Verdugo. Please. Make them—”
“Suffer. They will.”
