She left the city as the sun split the sky and earth with the start of day. A new day. Her horse Saturday, a normally timid creature, carried her away from the dark spires of her home with a terrible vigor. He would fly til muscle broke and lungs emptied. She was grateful for the creatures loyalty. Did it understand what she had done, why she ran? He must, why else would he try so hard? She worked to free herself from the ripped and bloodied duster she was once so proud of and threw it to the ground. She grunted and her vision went white for a second. Her hand flew instinctively to the wound on her shoulder. It would need treatment but that was for later. She grabbed for her bag and pulled out two silvery revolvers. They were marked with a Scorpion brand on the hilt. They were spent and broken besides. For one the cylinder no longer held its place and the other had backfired. She tossed them away. She threw clothes, bullets and anything else she could do without to the ground. She kept what little food she had and enough medical supplies to tend her wound.
They would chase after her. His loyal hunting dogs riding the best horses, but she had once been in their place, and Sat was faster. She would escape but could not say where. She spared one glance at the place that had always been her home. The City, a series of tall black towers, like Obsidian knives cutting the landscape and thrusting towards heaven. How could there have been a time when she didn't see them for the Oppressive symbol they were? He would be watching from the center Tower. She was to far away. He couldn't see her at this distance, and yet... she whipped her head back to the front. The Scorpions Nest, a vast uncharted desert. It was said that was where he was born. It was the one place his Dogs might not dare look. They said when he left the dessert to claim his birthright his brother stayed behind and built his Garden. They said if you reach him he will free you, he will save you. Well she needed saving.
She left two to die in the street and one to die in his bed cursing her name. Three crimes. She left with a horse that belonged to her benefactor. Another crime. She committed so many crimes that day but none of that mattered for she had committed the worst possible. She left. She left and he would chase her across the world to see what was his returned.
She road til the night came and hours after until she could push Saturday no long. She poured disinfectant on her shoulder, wincing at the sting and bandaged it up. She then lay down exhausted and slept without a thought. The second she woke up she gathered her things and did it again. She rode and rode and rode never stopping for anything if she could help it. Chewing bread and dried meat as she rode. A familiar pattern that lasted days. She didn't know how long Saturday lasted before collapsing never to rise again. She had lost count of time by then. She stayed with him for half the day. She thought it was least she could do. No one should die alone. Not even a horse.
When all was said and done she left the creatures remains and continued on foot. She walked and walked and walked till the days were all a blurry hot mess. She ran out of food. She walked. Her skin began to burn. She walked. She left her bag behind. She began to see things. Things that weren't there Water at first but they grew. Sometimes a giant house made of marble and covered in green red and blue. Plants, and flowers. Sometimes it was the Towers stretching out before her, confusing her. They weren’t really there. She knew that. She knew that. So she walked until the day came when she woke up and could not make her body stand. Where was her reward? She had done the right thing hadn't she? Hadn't she had done good? Good people didn't die abandoned in a hellish place place like this. They died surrounded by family and friends after a long life of doing good. Good people didn't die like this, it wasn't fair. No one should die alone. Not even her.
She closed her eyes and prepared for the inevitable. The quite darkness that awaited her. For a second she opened her eyes glanced one last picture of the world. Two figures in white approached her. Blasted mirages, just let me die! She thought as she passed out never expecting to wake up again.
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