Two separate taxi-stage coaches dropped Chip, me, and Diamond off outside the Sheriff’s Office. A dancing candle fire shone from inside the windowsill, and Deputy Jed Dunbar could be heard shouting, “Hallelujar.”

  The praises were thunderous enough that Chip and I exchanged curious expressions, then Diamond stormed by Chip, bumping his arm. We followed behind, creeping through the door. Our carefulness kept the squeaking down, but the sound remained audible for a prolonged period.

  Diamond had already gotten upstairs. This left nobody around but us and Dunbar, who was kneeling hinder sight first, on his knees, in front of the ligneous desk. Head bowed and hands raised, he breathed heavily, praying, “Thank you. You know your name.” He swallowed. “You healed me.”

  “Alright, Deputy, I have my kit,” I said, voice shaking.

  He stood to his feet, placed his hands on both pieces aside his chaps, then turned with an upright posture and no sign of injury. He maintained an intense glare that agreed with his handlebar mustache. “Don’t give me none of that negro medicine. I been saved and healed the right way.”

  “Jed, what are you talking about?” Chip said.

  “An evangelist from them second Great Awakening revivals come by here. Showed me the err of my ways. Then, he put his hand on my wound. Look at me.”

  “Absurd,” I said.

  “Hey, hear him out,” Chip interjected, for once taking the cooler stance between us. “Remember, he was right about the Ana tribe.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  I yelled, “I’ve been a doctor for ten years, and I’ve seen anomalies, but this man expects us to believe an evangelist came in here during the wee hours of the night, groped him, and his little peter flesh regenerated?”

  Dunbar took a threatening tone. “If there are dark entities out there, you better bet there are light entities, too. Don’t you blaspheme, boy.”

  I calmed myself down and said, “Time for me to hightail it back home to the ranch.”

  As fast as I turned, Dunbar drew his weapon.

  Click. “You hold your horses, negro.”

  I raised my hands and gritted my teeth. “Truly, you’re a brand-new man.”

  “You got one dirty mouth, quack. Fact of the matter is Mayor Heck witnessed this miracle before he went down to that crumbled Inn. He’s a witness that my nether eye is working and bigger than ever before. I am saved, and you gonna acknowledge the corn about it.”

  “Drop the gun, Jed,” Chip said.

  “By all means, I’ll prove I’m healed.” With his free hand, he reached down his pants.

  I turned with a look of horror on my face. “What the— No. What’s going on here is you faked the blood and screaming. You’re pulling the longbow, and you know—”

  Before I finished speaking, he proceeded to bare it all, having it as drawn out as his gun. Meanwhile, Diamond made a few steps downstairs.

  Chip gestured his hand up to stop her. “There’s nothing to see here.”

  Jed turned his revolver and his exposed manhood on her.

  Diamond placed her hands over her mouth and her face went red. “Wrong about nothing to see.”

  “Shut your big bazoo, you nanny street marm.”

  Chip lunged forward.

  “One more move, and she’ll be the pertiest dead meat you ever seen.” Dunbar exclaimed, while slipping it back in his pants.

  “You’re a lowlife, pulling a gun on the miss,” I cried.

  “Shad up! As far as I’m concerned, you’re still a prisoner here,” Dunbar snarled.

  “Let both of them go,” Chip said. “We’ll settle this, you and me, no guns, mano on mano.”

  “Your real close to aiding and embedding, Sheriff. Put it this way, Mayor Heck gave me a responsibility, because obviously, he can’t trust you. There’s a curse out there, and he haint having nobody here leaving until it’s resolved.”