“You always come back here.” The Coal Man chuckled as he stood on the dock in the Florida Keys.

  Yet again, Calvin’s dreams had taken him to an island off the peninsula. The sparkling waters of the Caribbean danced around. Calvin sat at the edge of the dock breathing in the salty air. Warm winds blew across his hat.

  “What’s the deal?” The Coal Man took a few steps toward him, “Why this place? Nothing like the Smokies.”

  Calvin’s head dipped, “I don’t know. But I come here a lot in my dreams. You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Now that’s where you’re wrong. I should be here, and you should be prepping to meet me. Or did you forget I’m coming for you? You been sleeping a lot less lately.”

  “Who says you’re even real?” Cal sighed.

  The seagulls glided through the air in that graceful way they always did. When they caught the right wind, they could fly completely in place for minutes on end, as if they were frozen in time. That always made Calvin smile.

  “Damned stupid thing to say. I’m a knight under our King, just like you.” The demon chuckled lowly, sputtering black dust.

  Calvin looked onward into the horizon, where the rich blue of the sky met the churning blue of the sea. He hated these intrusions into his dreams by this entity. The past four months had given him enough to think about already. He found he didn’t have the patience anymore.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Silent treatment.” The Coal Man leaned across the wood rail of the dock. “You’re not gonna make this easy, huh?”

  Calvin picked himself up slowly. He turned to the intruder, his green eyes sharp. “I have too much going on to worry about you or the Yellow King.”

  That struck a nerve with the undead Gun. His brow twitched as he attempted to contain himself. His usual carefree demeanor had darkened.

  “Let me explain something to you, since you clearly don’t understand.” Black dust spread across the planks of the dock, corrupting the blue waters underneath, “You only have ONE thing going on. That’s me, coming to get you. That’s your induction into the Cult, that’s you taking your place. This other bullshit with your deadbeat dad, those Posse patsies, and that little harlot witch has no gravity in your life.”

  Calvin listened to him, eyes locked. The black dust had spread over every inch of his island paradise. The sun had dimmed to a dull, sickly yellow, casting the waters in a tawny light.

  “When you take your rightful place, you can shoot your father dead. You could take down the whole Posse if you wanted. And don’t you worry about the witch, what’s waiting for you with us is far better. Easy answer. So you better start thinking about what you’re gonna do when I find you, kid.”

  Calvin Baird let a wolfish grin creep across his lips. He looked a lot like the deadbeat the Coal Man mentioned. His mind was on the training that Deadeye Rand had just given him, what he would need to practice from then on.

  “I know just what I’m gonna do when you find me.” His words were cold as ice.

  “That so?”

  Calvin and the Coal Man stood there in his dream, two Six-Guns marked with the influence of an impossibly old God.

  “I’m gonna kill you.”

  The words brought a smile to the Coal Man’s cracked lips. “Oh, I’m looking forward to it.”

  Though Calvin has never met Edel, the two are tied already. It's up to the Coal Man to shorten their strings and bring them together. He IS coming, and Calvin is going to have to decide what really matters to him.