Emerging from the rabbit hole sometimes later the outlaw carried on crawling away to escape...
As the outlaw pulled his tired body through the desert to escape all that was after him, a buzzard circled overhead, ready to eat him as soon as he gave up.
Behind him, Jack the bushwhacker was staring mesmerised at the rock that wasn’t moving, while the Injuns grew bored and went back to their tepees to sleep.
The sheriff and his posse after drinking the coffee unrolled their bed rolls and turned in for the night ready to make an early start at sunup.
TIME
I cannot crawl any faster out of this place to escape my doom, said the outlaw crawling through the sand and leaving a trail that anyone could follow.
The time will be approximately 12 noon in no time at all, said the angel of death keeping pace with the outlaw.
Can you close the door on my past, asked the outlaw?
It is not my job to be closing doors after you, said the angel of death.
If you cannot close a door for me then what are you good for?
I can release you of all your troubles.
But I’ll just come back again and have to start all over, and then the same thing will happen again: I’ll be right here in the same place going through all this. No, I’m going to carry on until I reach the other side.
I’ll just wait then until you surrender.
You know, I had a friend who decided to end it for herself; the mail man found her cold with an empty bottle clutched in her hand and a rictus grimace on her face after meeting you.
Some people really don’t like me, said the angel of death.
Is it true that no one gets out of here alive?
Pretty much.
I have a suggestion, said the next part of midnight appearing on the scene.
And what would that be?
Give it time and see what happens.
If today doesn’t know then, how should I, said the outlaw crawling on into tomorrow.
Time is a riddle that unravels as you go into it, said the last part of midnight fading away.
And I, have other things to do and so will come back later when all your time has been used up, said the angel of death and went off in another direction.
DÉJÀ VU REVISITED
Not too long before the end of the world came along to eat everything up, the outlaw found him-self in the street of a town that looked familiar. A saloon was beckoning. The outlaw heaved his body through the double doors and then hauled himself up to the bar where he ordered a large beer and drank it down in one go and then ordered another one.
Over in the corner in the shadows sat déjà vu accompanied by a knife edge clock on the wall nearby that was making impersonations of an impromptu kind and had a dagger hidden down inside one of its boots just in case of mistaken identity.
After the third beer and a couple shots of whisky the outlaw was feeling much better than an hour before and so looked around the saloon to see what was going on.
The place was empty except for an evil looking clock in large numbers of slowly ticking time, and in the shadows of the table nearby a match glowed as if there was someone there lighting up a smoke.
With nothing better to do the outlaw wandered over to see if anything was happening there, but just as began to walk across the saloon floor, the doors flew wide open and Jack the bushwhacker burst in, angry as hell, and spotting the outlaw stomped over and picking him up and threw him straight through the doors of the saloon.
Here we go again, said the outlaw, landing in the dust where the story began not so long ago….
There are many doors in, and out, but the hardest one is pain that comes from a deep hurt that nothing can assuage nor make less of until the time has come for it to pass into your history, said the angel of death, and took a step nearer...
This is the end of this part, maybe there'll be another one soon...
The part before this one... https://steemit.com/powerhousecreatives/@wales/the-outlaw-finds-the-rabbit-hole
Image from Pixabay
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