"Children Of Sunset" BoyxBoy

Children Of Sunset 1

I'm sort of starting from scratch here on Wattpad, as the system decided it wanted me to update my password, and that's only going to an email that I no longer have access to. But I really do LOVE all of you guys who sent so many great comments and added my stories to your reading lists! THANK YOU!!! To the thousand or so of you that voted and left comments, I love you for it! I'm sorry that we have to start over from scratch, but I'll wiggle my way through it somehow! Hehehe! This is a vampire story that is meant to be an old Western! It's one of many spinoffs from my big "Gone From Daylight" vampire series, but you can enjoy it all on its own! Cool? Let's rebuild! And make things better than ever before! Love you all! Seezya soon!"Children Of Sunset 1"

I may have only been close enough to catch a short glance at her over the shoulders of a few townsfolk...but it wasn't hard to tell that she wasn't livin' no longer. Something about the way her body was fixed. Stiff, and locked into a lifeless position. She was so cold that it gave you a chill just by fixing your eyes on her. And Lord, was she ever pale. More than white. Darn near blue.

It was Old Man Creedy, done found the body not long after sunrise. One of our school teachers, Ms. Samson. Such a pretty woman. Not much older than my own mother, God rest her soul. But to look at her now, cold and lying in the dirt just across from the old saloon...it's almost like she ain't never had an ounce of life in her at all. So strange.

And those eyes. Dead eyes. Blank now...but before she went to Glory...you could just tell they must have seen something mighty frightening. What could have done such a thing to a sweet lady like Ms. Samson?

My best friend, Willie, was on his tiptoes, trying to get a closer look at the body. But he wasn't no bigger than I was. Heck, at 14, he was a year and a half younger than me. I don't know what made him think he was so tall this mornin'.

"She sure was pretty. Wasn't she, Deke?" Willie asked me. "That's the third one in just a couple of months, ain't it? What do you think it is, keeps laying good folk out in the dirt like this every few weeks?"

Still trying to keep a low profile by hushing him up, I said, "I dunno, Wille. I reckon she wandered out of town one night...got herself bit. Big snake or somethin'."

"Big snake? That don't make no sense." He said, still talking louder than I wanted him to. "Can't be coyotes, neither. They would have ravaged her but good. Not leave her looking as pretty as she does."

I was able to stare a bit closer, and I saw a series of bites on her. Looked just like snakebites to me...but bigger. Wider apart. Her frock was torn. Dirty. And the bite marks were in three different places. Two on her leg, two on her wrist, and two sunk deep into the side of her neck. Always in pairs. Two, two, and two. If that ain't some kind of devil rattlesnake, then I don't know what is.

It was then that I heard a shuffle in the crowd standing around her body, and I saw my daddy approaching with an undertaker and a strong hand or two to pick good ol' Ms. Samson up and carry her out from the center of town like that. My daddy's been sheriff for long as I can remember. Nearly gave it up when Mama died from sickness. Come to find out...the townsfolk didn't trust nobody else to take up the duty. The mayor is about as crooked as a bucket of fish hooks, and most everybody else got more bad deeds behind them than good ones. Never stopped them from shoving a few splinters into my daddy whenever trouble was about, though.

"What you plannin' to do about this, Sheriff?" Came one voice out of the crowd.

"I'm countin' three bodies now, Sheriff. And I ain't seen a single person swing for none of 'em." Said another.

Daddy put his hands up to settle folks before they started too much of a ruckus. "Now look here...I want to assure you people that the law in this town is doing everything that it can to keep you all safe. I've got to work out what happened here and why, but as of right now, I ain't seen much more than you people have. If you ain't figured it out yet, I don't know how you expect me to know anything extra."