The Man Who Came Out West

 

He came west to be alone. Something out there disagreed.

This one is still in the very baby stages of plotting.

Elias, a war veteran, said he went out west for peace.  

Of course, men always say that.  They say it like peace is a place you can ride off to.  Like it's waiting out there just past the next horizon, sitting quietly and patiently beneath the glittering stars.

Elias believed it too.

Packed with what he had left, Elias bought a train ticket and rode out until the war felt far enough behind him.  But the war doesn't stay where you leave it.

It follows.

It stares at a man in the doorways.  It watches the way his hand hovers just a little too close to his pistol.

Out west, the land stretches out wide and empty.  It's a place where a man can disappear if he tries hard enough.  Or, or a place where something else can find him.

Something lives out there that doesn't care about borders or battles.  It's something that recognizes Elias and answers.

Elias came out looking for peace.

What he finds instead is something that knows his name.