Tincture, A Weird West Trilogy

Book 3, Chapter 19: The Day Is Mine

At sunset, the old gunslinger looked upon a fallen kingdom and found himself unimpressed.   Music in Book 3, Chapter 19:   Cullah - Please Bring Me Shelter (CC BY

Book 3, Chapter 18: The Salvation of Fear

The moment cut his word in half, flickered lights before his eyes, then shut it all down with a deep dark absence of color so grim it was difficult to put word on.  

Book 3, Chapter 17: That Favorite Music

In the dark and rainy parking lot of the diner, Tom and Noah pulled the collars of their jackets up over their ears. Mark did not seem to notice the rain.   Music in

Book 3, Chapter 16: What He Has Left Behind

Be forewarned, I can still taste the ferment on my teeth. Conjecture and abstract thought do not, admittedly, serve much purpose in a guide to the mysterious world you an

Book 3, Chapter 15: The Rust In Our Blood

Abranyah blinked through the rain, peering down both ends of the street, waiting for activity.   Music in Book3, Chapter 15: Cullah - Please Bring Me Shelter (CC BY

Book 3, Chapter 14: This Is Where It Gets Weird

Bare-footed and with packs slung over their shoulders, Rhamuel and Abranyah made for the main gates of The Omaha Claim, fit to leave as fast as the dust would allow.  

Book 3, Chapter 13: The Danger We Suspect

In a sun dappled stretch of the Scar, endless as it had always been, a young woman found herself near done with what the dust had to offer.  So goes folk in younger years

Book 3, Chapter 12: Dead Bullet Come Supper

The diner was far enough away from work, but nothing felt far enough when there was going to be talk of confidential things.  Things some argue better left unexplained, n

Book 3, Chapter 11: Six More Things To Do

Knucklebones stepped one leathery bare foot into the plastic pool, bright and faded colors both rippling under the liquid. Filth bloomed in arcs from his foot, dirt and b

Book 3, Chapter 10: How Those Words Fall On Us

King's office was surprisingly empty for a man of his resources. There was no special reason for it—he was in charge of it all, the whole enterprise, but cared little for

Book 3, Chapter 09: Play It For The Box Man

We are always starving. It sort of goes with the territory—this being hungry in every odd tick of the day. An empty belly and its degrees of unpleasantness is better than

Book 3, Chapter 08: Send It To The Twins

Tom smiled and nodded with the applause, but when the meeting resumed he went right back to staring directly into the center of a donut.   Music in Tincture: Book 3,

Book 3, Chapter 07: We Are Strangers Again

Torches had never done Allgood much favor, but that they lit up a question or two in the good populace was useful. Two old branches lit the stench of thoroughfare just be

Book 3, Chapter 06: Witness To Our Song

Even in that too-bright light of the morning, Abranyah always struggled to wake with it. She preferred to sleep as long as possible, but the sun would eventually prove to

Book 3, Chapter 05: It'll Make Perfect Sense

An otherwise normal day in an otherwise normal life, time as it was. Tom had been fostering a general sense of unease for a while now, yet like a weird sort of depression

Book 3, Chapter 04: Two Arms Between Us

The ways a body tends to crave its own undoing is a humanistic riddle that I no longer wish to endure. A short way to speak it, I suppose: my empathy muscles have atrophi

Book 3, Chapter 03: In Fear and Sleep

Rhamuel kept folks on a spectrum of his own design, the range beginning somewhere around "tolerate," and ending near "abject avoidance." Abranyah once asked where the dis

Book 3, Chapter 02: King of the Game

This was the kind of fruitless nonsense that permeated The Scar—a seeming irregularity of principle and purpose to things. A body could rub a book to ash in their fingers

Book 3, Chapter 01: Carry Us In Pursuit

Old splinters whistle.  Everything across The Scar has aged long past the reek of decay, more so worn, faded, and abused by the transient miscellany that wandered throu

Book 2, Chapter 19: Amen All The Same

The tanker was always a curiosity for Rachel. "What are you looking for?" she asked. "You said you had an idea?" Arachal was bent over the front seats of his black Mu