Warnings- None really. 

Main Characters: Rob (He is a cowboy in the Wild West now. Deal with it.)

(Inspired/Based on the animation below. Please watch before reading! I would actually even suggest listening to it while reading this. The music goes along with it very well!))

https://youtu.be/MgNo8EoNxmo

Rob had been traveling through the desert for hours. He squinted his eyes against the glaring sun, hanging high in the sky, reaching up and adjusting the cowboy hat upon his head in an attempt to cover his eyes. The stallion that he was riding was trotting slowly, seeming warn out from the long travel, the hot sand below its hooves licking at its dusty brown coat.

Sighing, Rob took a hand off of the reins to reach for the canteen attached to the saddle, disappointed to find that it was empty. How much longer until another town pops up? He thought, a worried expression on his face as he tugged at the blue bandana around his neck. It's been five hours since I left the last one... and I don't think my horse can take much more.

Rob looked down at his horse, whose sluggish movements sparked Rob's worry. Rob considered himself a wanderer, drifting between towns as he pleased, usually staying a few days before leaving again. He would occasionally take up a bounty for outlaws, as a way of getting money for staying at inns in the towns he came across and for buying supplies. His revolver was holstered at his waist, but he had run out of bullets a few towns back. He made a mental note to get more at the next stop... if he ever got there. Most towns were only an hour or two apart from each other, by horseback, and even though Rob has grown used to these travels...

Rob was yanked out of his thoughts by a loud whinny from his stallion, and he looked up to see a small town in the distance, and a big smile grew on Rob's face as it grew closer. His horse even seemed to speed up a bit towards the town. As he approached, Rob noticed the railroad tracks that ran along the outer left side of the town, stretching across the sand. He also noticed that the town had a strange sense of emptiness to it, with no people wandering between buildings and in the streets like most of the ones Rob had been to.

His horse whinnied unhappily, and Rob took a hand and stroked the stallion's neck, also feeling uneasy at he entered the town. As they went by, Rob saw an old wooden sign staked through the ground, the wood chipped and rotted. It read NO RETURN in black painted letters. Rob gulped, but continued onwards. It wasn't an option for him to skip this town and go onto the next... He had no idea how far away it was, and regardless, he knew his horse wouldn't make it.

He kept going until he came across a saloon, where he hopped off of his horse and tied the reins to a pole by the saloon, the stallion bending his head to drink out of the trough next to it. Rob knew but the horse was spooked, but Rob forced himself to leave him by the pole, and he headed into the saloon, pushing the swinging wooden doors open and stumbling inside.

The saloon was mostly empty, aside from a group of scruffy looking cowboys playing cards at one of the bigger tables, most of them shooting glares at Rob as he walked past them towards the bar. There were posters on the walls holding rewards for missing people and outlaws, but Rob paid no attention to them. There wasn't much he could do without any bullets in his gun. Rob hopped onto one of the stools at the bar, whistling to catch the attention of the bartender who was washing glasses from across the bar.

"A whiskey for me, please." Rob said, "Some water as well."

The bartender nodded, turning to the rack of drinks and alcohol behind him on the wall. The bartender was skinny, wearing a red and black vest over a gray shirt, with messy brown hair and an earring in one ear. He passed Rob his drinks, and he swiftly gulped down the whiskey, and was about to move onto the water when he noticed that the bartender hadn't moved, glaring at Rob with narrowed eyes.

"You've made a mistake in stopping here, traveler." The bartender said quietly, his voice sounding tired and sad, contrasting with the frustrated look on his face.

Rob raised an eyebrow. "Why would that be?" He asked, before taking a quick sip of his water.

The bartender's eyes dropped to the floor, a grim expression on his face. "This town has been cursed by the devil himself."

Rob held back a scoff. "Sorry man, I'm not much for believing in superstitions."

Sighing, the bartender looked up at Rob again, the two locking gazes with one another. Rob opened his mouth to say something, but found himself unable too. It was the look in the bartender's eyes that startled him. The brown eyes seemed lifeless, empty... and soulless. "Believe what you will." the bartender continued, and he pointed outside of one of the saloon windows toward the railroad outside of the town. "There is only one way to leave. A train passes by the town just before sunset. It makes no stops. If you want to keep your soul, you better catch it. You only have one chance."

The bartender leaned closer to Rob, the frustrated look on his face turning into one of pleading. "Don't make the mistake that we all did. You make it onto that train, or he'll keep you here forever."

Rob gulped, his eyes wide. Feeling gazes landing upon him, he turned on the stool to see that the card playing cowboys had turned to stare at him, and Rob felt a twisting feeling in his gut to see that they all had the same sad expressions, their sunken eyes also seeming empty and lifeless. What's wrong with them? Rob thought, The looks on their faces... They look like are people who don't have anything to live for anymore. I'm not sure if the bartender was speaking the truth, but something definitely is wrong here.

Rob, now feeling nervous, hopped off of the stool, and avoiding eye contact with anyone, he slowly made his way across the saloon, aware that all gazes were still lingering on him. Swinging open the doors, Rob left, and went to untie his stallion from where he had left him. The horse was swinging his head around, looking startled. Rob tried to calm him down, reaching up to stoke him, but the horse wouldn't stay still.

Rob groaned in frustration. He couldn't even hop onto the horse with the way it was thrashing about. Trying to think of what to do, he remembered that he had forgotten to pay for his drinks from the saloon. Rob sighed, but despite how badly he didn't want to enter the bleak saloon again, he reluctantly went back inside.

But upon entering the saloon, he found that it was completely empty. No cowboys, no bartender... The cowboys' cards were splayed across the table, the chairs around it thrown and upturned, as if there was a fight. Though, Rob thought, he hadn't heard any fighting when he was outside, but the signs were definitely there. Uneasy, Rob walked up to the bar and swung back unto the same one he had been sitting on before, noticing that his glasses of water and whiskey were still there. He leaned over the bar, looking for the bartender, and even called to him, but he got no response.

"Are you looking for someone?"

Rob jumped in his seat, startled by the new voice. He spun to see that someone had taken up the seat directly to his left, the person sitting right next to him and leaning with an elbow propped up on the bar. He was wearing a long sleeved black shirt underneath a dark, scarlet red vest, the rest of his clothes being black. He was tall, with tussled blonde hair, his startling blue eyes sending icy chills down Rob's spine.

"W-What?" Rob stuttered. "I-I was just looking for the b-bartender. I forgot to p-pay him."

The stranger laughed, before speaking in a chilly, accented voice. "Sorry. I'm afraid that Mitchell had to... go for a moment."

Rob opened his mouth to reply, but the stranger continued instead. "So, traveler, what brings you to this ghost town anyway?"

Rob narrowed his eyes, feeling uneasy around this newcomer, but he still spoke, keeping his voice calm. "I'm just a wanderer. I left another town earlier today and wound up here. I would have left, but my stallion needed a break, and I needed supplies. I'm leaving in a bit though."

The stranger hummed in response, his gaze finally leaving Rob's face and towards the glass of water that he hadn't touched. He reached out and grabbed it, staring intently into the water with narrowed eyes. "This town does seem to attract people like you. However most of them choose to stay. It's like there's just something that cannot let them leave." With a laugh he added, "It must be because of how quiet it is here."

Rob cleared his throat, catching the stranger's attention. Rob just wanted to leave as soon as possible, so he decided to play off the conversation as calmly as he could. "Yeah, maybe that's why. This town is quite eerie here. Anyways, I think I should be heading out. I want to make it to the next town before it gets too dark."

Rob moved to hop off of his stool, but the stranger grabbed his arm, stopping him. Rob shivered at the stranger's cold skin, and watched with wide eyes as he spoke. "Why don't you stay? There's plenty that I- this town, has to offer. You only have to ask. Riches, knowledge..." The stranger continued, letting go of Rob and lifting up the glass of water and placing his other hand over it, Rob shocked to see the clear water turn red, turning into wine. "...and eternal life."

Rob was silent, and when he looked back from the wine up to the stranger, his eyes widened when he realized that the stranger's eyes had turned into a blood red color, his pupils slitted and a wicked smile on his face as he asked, "So what do you say? How about you stay here instead?"

"This town has been cursed by the devil himself."

"Don't make the same mistake that we all did."

"There is only one way to leave."

"A train passes by the town just before sunset. It makes no stops. If you want to keep your soul, you better catch it."

"You only have one chance."

Rob was pulled out of his thoughts by a loud whistling sound, and turned to look out of the saloon's window to see that the front of a train pass through the town on the railroad that Rob had seen when he came to the town. His eyes shot open, and he leapt off of his seat, ignoring the stranger's angry shout and running out of the saloon, not pausing for a moment when he heard the doors slam as the stranger followed him out.

Rob ran over to his stallion, and untying it, he hopped onto the saddle, scrabbling for the reins and pulled tight on them, making the stallion rear up with a loud neigh before the horse started to run. As Rob rode past buildings, he could see the railroad tracks, and the train, from between the spaces between the buildings. Pulling as hard as he could on the reins, Rob steered the stallion between a bigger space, and now in the open, he pulled the horse up to the side of the train, the horse galloping as fast as his hooves could.

The train was moving quite a bit faster than Rob's horse, and Rob turned his head to see that the back end of the train was quickly approaching form behind them, and Rob prayed that there would be space for him and his horse to jump onboard.

There was a sudden noise from behind him, and Rob whipped his head around toward the town, hearing a screeching, inhuman scream echo through the town, and a dark red smoke begun to envelop the town, before it shot towards the train, seeming to wrap around the sides of it like a cage. Rob cursed loudly, willing his stallion to move faster as the red smoke began to catch up to them.

As the end of the train came into view, Rob nearly cried out in joy to see that the part of the train was an open cargo hold. Rob, realizing that he was running out of time as the train started to pass him and as the smoke continued to advance closer.

With a loud yell, Rob yanked the reins, his stallion making a mighty leap towards the cargo hold. For a second Rob thought that he had missed it, but the stallion's front hooves hit the metal, and pulled itself inside.

Rob sighed, relieved to had made it inside safely. He hopped off of the stallion, who promptly laid down next to him, and walked to the back of the hold, gazing out behind him. The smoke had disappeared, and as the train moved, he could see the town slowly receding in the distance, disappearing from his view.

Rob let himself fall over, lying on his back and drawing an arm over his eyes, taking off his hat and throwing it next to him.

He knew that he was finally safe, but as he watched the town disappear, he could have sworn that he saw the stranger standing at the town entrance, watching Rob's escape with malice in his blood red eyes.

Word Count: 2,304