The gunshot rang through the canyon, and Boots released his grip from Seth’s throat. He stood up and looked at the apparition lying on the ground before him. He wanted nothing more than to drive his boot into his face and squash him like a bug. But he didn’t. He restrained himself. For the sake of a feeling that Seth could never understand, the old man stayed his rage. Seth slowly stood up and dusted himself off, eyeing Boots cautiously as one unsure of his opponent’s next move.
“You best be getting gone before I change my mind,” Boots whispered.
The storm around him subsided, all its energy dissipating like a wounded dog scurrying out of someone’s front yard. Seth took a few steps back, sizing up Boots. He looked over the side of the canyon at the scene forming below, at the cop holding the pistol, at his champion’s bloodied and broken face. The fight here was winding down, and he could feel that he was on the losing side.
“All right, Boots. All right.” Seth spit the venom out of his mouth. It mixed with the last of the raindrops and spilled down the stone. “I’ll let you have this one. Cole was about used up anyway. No use for him no more. But look down there before you get all high and mighty. Look there, and you’ll see rage boiling. Only this is better. Ain’t twisted and sick. No, this pure. Justifiable. Took awhile to get there, but now it shows up. Once that gets unleashed, ain’t no going back again.”
The final number of shadows evacuated the ridge, off to their home on the other side of reality. Stillness fell over the top of the world.
“This is where you’re supposed to say your words . . . ain’t it, Seth? Something like This ain’t over or something like that?”
“You know, Boots. You know. What’s the use in saying it?”
“I know. I know there’s goin’ to come a time when you and me will have ourselves a reckoning. Where we’re gonna get this done for. Get this good and done.”
“You’ll never have it in you, old man.”
“I already do.”
“No, Boots, you don’t. You lack the will. The will to take charge. You’re at your best when you’re tucked away, hiding like a coward from all us boogeymen. You go on back now. Back to your trailer. Back to living alone and blaming the world for forsaking you.”
“You need to wish I’ll do that.”
Seth laughed as he took a few more steps back. “Keep humoring yourself, old man.” He spit again, then smiled an evil grin, turned, and walked away into the darkness, melting into the night.
Boots looked up at the now clear sky, the stars shining down and washing the mountain in soft radiance. He looked east across the desert valley, the stillness of the quiet wasteland. His corner of the earth.
“It was something once . . . ,” he whispered to himself.
He looked down into the canyon and watched the outcome of the battle from up on high.
Alone.