{"id":38608,"date":"2022-03-01T01:18:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T06:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=38608"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:38:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:38:06","slug":"hes-gone-by-annie-k-cowgirl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=38608","title":{"rendered":"He’s Gone (by Annie K Cowgirl)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary: Joe’s thoughts as he rides after Billy Chapin. A missing scene from\u00a0The Legacy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rating: K+<\/p>\n

Word Count: 575<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He\u2019s gone.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>Two simple, little words. <\/span><\/span><\/span>T<\/span><\/span><\/span>heir meaning, <\/span><\/span><\/span>however,<\/span><\/span><\/span> was anything but simple. Pain, a deep, agonizing pain followed them as they echoed within me like the tolling of a bell.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s gone.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>I dug my heels into Cochise\u2019s sides, urging the pinto into a ground-eating gallop as if by increasing her speed I could out run my thoughts. It had never worked in the past, but I foolishly hoped that this time it would.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

No such luck.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s gone.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/i>The words sliced into me, widening the wound in my heart, flaying the organ like a cat-o-nine-tails laid to the back of a wayward sailor.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s gone.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/i>It couldn\u2019t be true…but it was.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before Buck had limped into the ranch yard, before I saw the blood \u2013 so much blood \u2013 spattered across the empty saddle, I\u2019d known that something was wrong. I\u2019d felt it in my bones, in the very marrow of my being. Even before I\u2019d ridden off to join my brothers back home, I had known that something wasn\u2019t right. That was why I\u2019d hesitated when he’d told me to go.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“I’ll be all right,”<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> <\/i>those were the last words he’d said to me. He was wrong. He wasn’t all right. He was gunned down by some trigger-happy yahoo, and nothing would ever be all right in the world again.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was a poacher. One stinking, lousy, no good poacher. Pa should have had no problem with him. Pa…he was the strongest man I knew. He could do anything. He practically oozed confidence in every situation. Nothing seemed to rattle him. When I was a kid, he was my hero \u2013 heck, even now at the ripe old age of twenty-two, he was still my hero. And I\u2019d dreamed of growing up to be just like him.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pa. My pa.<\/p>\n

I should have stayed with him. I should have ignored his order, refused to go…but I hadn\u2019t. And now he was dead.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019d found the killer\u2019s campfire, a charred piece of a prison uniform, and the marks Buck\u2019s hooves had made in the dust nearby. That was all. There was no body, no sign of a struggle, just four sets of horse tracks spreading out in two different directions: pa\u2019s buckskin headed towards the ranch, and three others going the opposite way. There was no telling which one of the three was involved in pa\u2019s murder.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the riders split off, every man going their own way, Adam and Hoss had each picked a trail to follow. I was tailing the third.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s gone.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Grief and guilt welled up, threatening to drowned me. Pa\u2019d been gone before on business trips, but I\u2019d always known that he would come back. But not this time. This time he was gone, and he wouldn\u2019t be returning. With an effort, I pushed the feelings aside. Now wasn\u2019t the time to mourn. Now was the time for action.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Another quick jab of my heels, and Cochise fairly flew down the road towards Colby, leaving a cloud of dust in our wake. I fingered the butt of my six-gun as anger bubbled up within my like sulfur in a hot spring. Somehow I knew I had chosen the right path. The man I was following was a cold blooded killer. He had killed my pa; I would follow him all the way to the gates of hell if I had to, and he would pay. I\u2019d make him pay\u2026.or die trying.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

~ Finis<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: Joe’s thoughts as he rides after Billy Chapin. A missing scene from\u00a0The Legacy.<\/p>\n

Rating: K+<\/p>\n

Word Count: 575<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,41,1007,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-hurtcomfort","category-joe-cartwright","category-missing-scene","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-41-id","wpcat-1007-id","wpcat-61-id"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":1220,"today_views":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Joe_Racing_Cochise.jpg?fit=840%2C725&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36353,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=36353","url_meta":{"origin":38608,"position":0},"title":"Amy (by Annie K Cowgirl)","author":"Annie K Cowgirl","date":"April 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary: Gone was the awkward school girl I\u2019d once known. 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It was a piece of advice that I\u2019d nearly forgotten.\" A missing scene from the episode The Courtship. 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