She smirked down at me, her boot on my chest and one of her pistols aimed straight at my head. Her blonde hair waved in the wind, though her face was covered in the shadows of her Stetson hat.

"Gotcha now, honey," she whispered. Her voice was lower than I'd expected. Hoarser. As if she didn't use it very often.

The last of the wooden doors of the nearby houses slammed shut. Nobody in town wanted anything to do with this. Nobody would come to save me.

"Don't do this, Delilah. Let me go."

Ignoring my pleading, the blonde woman put two fingers between her lips and whistled hard. It wasn't long before a man on a brown-and-white spotted horse trotted closer. I tried to wriggle away, but Delilah only shoved her foot down harder, pushing the air from my lungs. A groan escaped me.

The man, Lucky Levi, stepped off his horse and stood over me with his thumbs hooked around his belt. Despite his age, his hair was already greying. He looked down at me through dim, dull green eyes.

"Well, well, well," he said, spitting into the sandy road beside my face. "Thought you could hide, did ya?"

I glared at him, but with a boot on my throat, there wasn't much more I could do.

"Ahiga will always find you." He gestured with his hat in the direction of the tinted man at the top of the nearby hill. Ahiga lifted his spear, staring into the setting sun.

"What's he doing?" I spat. "Tracking the next one?"

"Ahiga is always tracking. You can never outrun us, Willa. You might as well join us now, because you will, eventually."

"Never," I said with gritted teeth. "Not after what you've done."

"Suit yourself. But know that this will only get worse," said Levi, shrugging. He turned around to walk back to his horse, the metal spurs of his boots clanging.

"We will give you some time to reconsider," Levi added. "You belong with us, Willa. You and your power." His horse whinnied as he turned it around and shouted, "Yeehaw!"

Delilah didn't let go until her boss was out of sight. Then she lifted her boot, swirled her pistols around her index fingers and holstered them. With one more grin, she snapped her fingers and disappeared into thin air.

I scrambled to my feet, coughing, still feeling the pressure on my lungs. Yet the heavy weight on my heart lifted as I watched the dust, kicked up by Levi's horse, slowly wane.

They don't know where I live, I thought, relief flooding over me. Good thing I was in town when Ahiga hunted me down.

The house was all I had left. All my memories were there. Everything I had left of my Jack. The veranda we'd built together. The kitchen table where we'd had dinner together every day when he was home. The letters he'd sent to me when he was away.

I couldn't lose it. I wasn't ready to let go of the memories. But with Lucky Levi after me... Perhaps it was better to go into hiding for a while. Leave the house behind until I was sure Ahiga wasn't tracking me anymore.

Just when I turned around to go home and get the necessary supplies, a lightning bolt lit up the darkening sky. The blood froze in my veins.

No.

In a split second, I found myself racing across the plains, sand wafting up all around me. My legs stung by the time I'd reached the edge of the hill, almost as much as my lungs did.

Please let it be something else. Please...

When I could finally see past the hill, I stumbled to a halt. My heart, already broken by Jack's passing, shattered to pieces.

It was all ablaze. All of it. Every part of the wooden house was burning. Even the veranda was already too far gone. Thick clouds of smoke rose into the night sky.

I sunk to my knees. "No..." I uttered. "No. No, no, no!"

The veranda, the kitchen table, the letters... All of my memories with Jack incinerated right in front of me.

I closed my eyes. My fingers burrowed into the sand of the plains.

I'm sorry, Jack. Tears flowed freely from my eyes. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry.

"You have nothing left to keep you here."

The voice turned my grief to rage in a single moment. Bile rose in my stomach. My eyes snapped open. This was his doing.

"Nothing tethering you to the past," Lucky Levi continued. "My lightning made sure of that. Look forward instead. Come find us when you are ready. We will be waiting for you."

With a final whinny, his horse turned around.

I lifted my head, barely able to see him through the red haze that clouded my vision. This was his doing. It is time to avenge you, Jack. I took a deep breath and screamed. All my grief, my hate, my rage, it all came together into a single scream.

The sheer force of it lifted both Levi and his horse off the ground and sent them tumbling to the ground several yards away. Levi clamped his ears with both hands, groaning. The horse whinnied in fear, struggled to its feet and sprinted off.

I stood up. Anger boiled inside me, spurred on by the heat from my burning house.

Before I could reach him, Delilah popped up out of thin air next to him. Levi grinned at me, despite the blood trickling from his ears. "That's what we're looking for. Calm yourself down and join us."

"When I find you," I growled, "I will kill you."

Levi smirked, before Delilah took his arm and whisked them both away.

"I will kill all of you!" I screamed into the void they left behind, as my home blazed on behind me.

I will avenge you, Jack.

Round 1.2

Prompt: Write a fantasy story in a wild west setting using at least 3 out of 8 specific pictures. The pictures I used are shown below. 

Wordcount: 992 words