The fateful encounter, in a lot of blood (Arthur POV)


The O'Driscoll camp was on sight now. But by the time Arthur and Dutch arrived, there already was a lot of coprses everywhere. A real bloodbath. A quick analysis from the outlaw confirmed that there were no bullet wounds. But there were no knife wounds either.

"The hell happened here?" Dutch asked, as Arthur wondered.

"Someone was faster than us, it seems" Arthur answered. "And whoever did this may still be here."

"Yeah. Keep your eyes peeled."

Arthur nodded and the duo split. Arthur kept looking in the camp, gun in hand. The more Arthur searched, the more corpses he found. It was a massacre, making the outlaw wonder who did this, and why. The O'Driscoll had it coming, of course, but…

In one room, Arthur heard some guy's screaming, and ran towards the scream, still wary. He arrived in the room, and saw a man on top of another, stabbing him. Arthur heard the man beg for mercy, but the killer ignored him and stabbed him again. Once. Twice. Three times. Four times. Five times. Six times. Arthur felt his eyes widen, as he saw blood splatter on the clothes of the murderer. Arthur cleared his throat, making the man stop his rampage, but he didn't turn around.

"Stop it", called Arthur. "I think he's dead."

The killer stabbed the guy one more time, like he did it just to question Arthur's demand, but then he stopped for good. Arthur looked at the guy, and the guy's hand, and saw the weapon. It was some kind of needle, long and sturdy. The man put it in some kind of quiver he had on his lower back, and he raised up, still not looking at Arthur.

"Who are you? You kill those guys all by yourself? And why?" Arthur asked.

The man turned towards Arthur, putting his hands up, and Arthur could see him better. He had long platinum blond hair, tied in some sort of bun held by needles. He had light gray eyes behind glasses. Like Arthur saw earlier, he wore a black smoking suit covered in blood. And he had some sort of quiver full of needles. Arthur saw needles like that before, but he didn't remember where.

"Why do you bother?" asked the man, with a thick British accent. "You don't like them as much as I do, do you?"

"How can you tell?"

"I know who you are. Colm talked about how much he hates you and your gang long enough. You're Morgan, right?"

"Yeah." Arthur nodded, curious about what Colm said about him. "So? Why you kill them?" asked Arthur instead, a little more impatient.

"Because they were arseholes. And because I was paid to do so."

Arthur frowned. So the guy was a hitman? He did seem to know the O'Driscolls at some degree, considering the tone he took to talk about Colm. Arthur didn't like hired killers much, but this one had a little credit to him. Since he killed a lot of O'Driscolls.

"I see" Arthur said. "Do you know about their plans, by any chance?"

"Rob some train, belonging to Leviticus Cornwall. The plans must be in Colm's cabin. Bastard ran off when he saw me killing his lieutenant."

"Shit", Arthur said. "Thanks for the information, mister…"

"Washington. Richard Washington."

Arthur nodded, and Richard explained where Colm's cabin was. Arthur thanked him again, turned back to go and find Dutch. He found the leader a little farther, looting corpses around the camp.

"Son", he greeted Arthur. "What did you find ?"

"The fella who killed them O'Driscolls. He doesn't seem to care about us though. Someone paid him to kill them, he said, and he told me about Colm's plan of robbin' some train. In Colm's cabin, right there. Colm ran off."

"Where's he now? The guy?"

"I dunno."

Dutch frowned, and followed Arthur in Colm's cabin. There, they found one more corpse, and some papers on a table. Dutch looked at them, and a few seconds later, a grin appeared on his face. Arthur knew what that meant.

"Well I'll be damned", Dutch claimed. "That's true. This is very promising, Arthur."

"Since Colm ain't gonna rob nothin' now he's alone", Arthur noted.

"I'd like to thank our new friend for the pain he spared us. Did he tell you where he's off to?"

"Nah. Maybe he's still there somewhere."

"We'll look for him a little, then we're back to camp."

Arthur agreed, but he was skeptical. He didn't share Dutch's enthusiasm for the guy, who brutally murdered that many people. Without a firearm and without breaking a sweat. He wasn't hostile, sure, but he was no friend either. Arthur could feel it.

Dutch and Arthur went out of the cabin, and found Richard right there, looking at the corpses. He had some kind of notebook on his hand, writing something. Then, he looked at the corpses more thorougfully, taking back some needles. Eventually he saw the two bandits, staring at him.

"Van Der Linde", he greeted Dutch. "I should've guessed you'd be here too. I'm afraid you missed your old buddy Colm. He fled like the bloody coward he is."

"Right you are, son. Who might you be?"

"Richard Washington, hitman. And sir, don't son me please. That's uncalled for." Richard said, putting his glasses up his nose.

"Yeah, sorry", Dutch snorted. "What are you up to now?"

"I can't see how that's your concern."

Dutch had a strange smile, surprising Arthur. It took him a few seconds to understand what was happening, and he didn't like it.

"It's not, indeed", Dutch followed. "But you know the saying : my enemy's enemy…"

Richard crossed his arms on his chest, and offered a strange gaze to Arthur. A gaze Arthur didn't understand. Before Richard redirected his attention to Dutch.

"Excuse me, Van Der Linde, but you don't know me one bit", Richard asserted. "I'm not the kind of friend you'd want. Trust me."

"Because you're a hired killer?", guessed Dutch. "We're all killers here, kid."

"No you don't… You don't understand. We shouldn't even have met. I'll leave you be, and you'll leave me be. It's as simple as that."

Dutch frowned, but added nothing. Arthur sighed, and Richard looked at him again. Arthur raised one brow, but Richard didn't say anything either. He just left the camp. Dutch followed him with his gaze until he disappeared.

"What was that about, Dutch?" asked Arthur, a little antsy.

"Nothing", eluded the elder one. "Let's go back to camp."

Arthur had a lot of questions, but he didn't dare to ask them. They met up with their horses, and went back to camp. Dutch immediately went to see Hosea, who was drinking some coffee. Arthur followed him.

"Hosea!", Dutch greeted him. "I've some great news, my friend!"

"I can see that", Hosea answered, greeting Arthur with a nod. "What is this about?"

"It's about time we steal some of Colm's plans. Look."

Dutch approached Hosea, and showed him the plans. Seeing them think about plans like that, Arthur just left. He was not being useful right now. He vaguely heard Hosea exclaim something, bu the couldn't understand the exact words. Arthur went to his tent, and sat down. He was soon joined by Charles, who came and sit next to him.

"Hey", Charles greeted him. "How did it go?"

"Pretty damn good", Arthur said. "We didn't have to kill anyone, some fella did before us."

"Oh yeah? Who was that?"

"Dunno. Some guy called Washington. Said he was hired to kill Colm and his guys, but Colm himself ran off. He dangerous, that for sure."

"More than any of us?" Charles asked, raising a brow.

"You should've seen it, Charles", Arthur explained. "This guy killed like twenty dudes with needles. Just like that. And he wasn't even hurt."

"Sound impressive indeed. What did you make of him?"

"He just left. I saw Dutch would've wanted to bring him here, but guy didn't want to."

Charles hummed, and Arthur asked him what he and Dutch missed while they were away. Nothing much, Charles said, shrugging. But right now, sun was setting, and the big family were about to have some dinner. Charles suggested he and Arthur went to hunt, and Arthur agreed. Charles stood up, putting a hand on Arthur's shoulder, and left. Arthur sighed, again, and thought again about this Washington guy. Something was off, Arthur felt it. And he also felt he would see the man again, someday.


Spoiler : Arthur will see Richard again ;)