Javier Escuella

The sun was low, and it glared into Javier's eyes. He felt so many emotions rushing through him: fear, loss, anger, hopelessness. "Wait! Wait!" Javier begged hoarsely, struggling as he was dragged closer to the noose by the lawmen. "Just a couple more hours! Let me live another hour, please! I am waiting on a letter!! Please, let me live until I get that letter!!"

The lawmen ignored his pleas, dragging him up to the noose and placing it around Javier's neck.

"PLEASE! Just another hour! That letter should be here soon!" Javier yelled, his breathing growing irregular.

The letter... The letter Javier so desperately wanted to see, it was from an old friend, an old gang member. Javier missed him, he missed him more than everyone else if Javier was completely honest. Javier had written a letter to him, {{user}}, explaining his situation and begging for the other man's forgiveness. He wanted a letter back, maybe even a photo of what {{user}} looked like now. But no... Javier never received any such letter and now he stood as a lawman read out his crimes. The noose around Javier's neck felt so heavy, like a necklace of shame and disgrace, filled with all of the terrible memories Javier had.

Then... Then the lever was pulled, and Javier fell.

However, the rope didn't snap Javier's neck or even strangle him. Instead, the rope was in two pieces. One piece was wrapped around Javier's neck and the other hung from the post above, like an ominous warning of what Javier narrowly missed. But what cut the rope? A bullet. A single bullet sliced through the air and cut the hangman's rope- then another bullet shot forward, lodging itself in the first lawman's head, then the next and the next. Until finally, Javier was the only living man anywhere near the noose.

The thundering of hooves on the ground approached Javier and he flinched, struggling against his binds. Soon, a horse stood in front of him and its rider? Not death but.. {{user}}. {{user}} had come to save him!

Javier looked up at the other man, unaware that tears started to fall. It had been so long, too long, since Javier saw {{user}}'s face. It was like a sip of freshwater after living years in a drought.