Stories of Calik – Shawsworth Part Four

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Stories of Calik are Tales of a wild land filled with bandits, mercenaries, whores, rapists, assassins, murderers, brigands, outlaws, crooks and cannibals.

Other Stories of Calik in this Series:
Lata the Lawless
Stories of Calik – Shawsworth Part One
Stories of Calik – Shawsworth Part Two
Stories of Calik – Shawsworth Part Three

Eskwick froze on sighting the figure. He was nothing out of the ordinary, just another one of ‘them’.

‘Pull yourself together girl, it’s not a big deal’, said a voice in her head.

The general store was just three blocks away; once there she would be safe. At least one person in this god forsaken town was still decent in the form of Jenner, the general store owner.

Jenner took no shit from the miscreants, beggars, alcoholics and whoever else tried to cause trouble in his store. She had always viewed him as decent, treating her with kindness and respect.

He kept a finely honed sharpened machete behind the counter which was no stranger to removing the fingers of petty thieves’ intent on helping themselves to his goods.

He might have been the closest person to a lawman. An assertive, commanding figure of firm authority in a nest of delinquents and junkies.

The figure seemed to stride toward her with a meaningful glint in his eye. She averted her eyes, looked down and walked past him and the tavern, finally sighing relief on seeing the welcoming view of the store in the distance.

Nothing had happened and glancing back with trepidation, she caught sight of ‘him’ disappearing into the gloom.

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On reaching Jenner’s store, Eskwick could see everything was far from normal.

Glass shards were spread out on the dusty pavement area in a wide arc, the front door was swinging open to and fro in the slight breeze and mixed in with the glass was something that looked suspiciously like blood.

She reached for the door and quickly hurried inside as though someone might see her. A similar scene awaited inside and it was apparent the store had been looted and ransacked. There was no immediate sign of the friendly Jenner or anyone else.

Boxes of food were carelessly strewn across the floor, cupboards had been pulled over spewing their contents, anything made of glass was now glass fragments and Jenner’s desk and counter looked like it had been pulled to the center of the room and was upturned.

A sudden scuffling sound from deep inside the store alerted her.

Instincts told her to hide and quickly. The closest thing she could see was the desk and so she quickly moved behind the large wooden receptacle only to be greeted by a corpse staring directly at her.

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The gruesome visage of horror she looked on startled her, and it took every bit of muster and self-restraint to stop herself from gagging while staring wide-eyed at the chilling scene.

It was Jenner and by the looks of it he had both suffered greatly and struggled valiantly.

One eye was half pulled from its socket and was bleeding profusely, dripping slowly on to his chest as it welled up in the empty hole that it once housed.

The eye stared into the distance at an odd angle and she struggled to take her own eyes away from the terrible expression it bestowed.

His mouth was an overflowing mess of broken teeth, gums combined with an abundance of blood, yet the grimace on the lifeless face spoke of derision and contempt.

A large dirty axe protruded from his skull, likely the weapon that had made the killing blow.

Several fingers were carelessly strewn on the floor close to the body and it didn’t take much to figure out who they once belonged too.

Eskwick backed away from the grisly sight, visibly trembling, shaking with fear and inadvertently tripped over a large standing lamp which sent both parties crashing to the ground.

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‘Well, who’s this pretty little thing’, came a deep floating voice from the depths of the general store.

Dazed and incoherent, she tried and failed to stand as a looming tall figure advanced toward her.

Glass crunched and splintered as the thud of boots approached culminating in a towering menacing presence cloaked in black looking down into terrified eyes.

Original Fiction (c) Slobberchops, July 2019.

To be continued...

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