[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Crooked Stories Theatre, where each week we bring you strange and quirky tales, stories with a small twist and odd setting, a unique character.
[SPEAKER_02]: It could be a drama, a light horror, a sitcom, really any kind of story, as long as it's just a bit crooked.
[SPEAKER_02]: Today we're excited to bring you part 7 of our 8 part supernatural western drama Devils Do.
[SPEAKER_06]: Swear that she'll be cared for.
[SPEAKER_06]: I swear it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll play you for.
[SPEAKER_06]: No doubt.
[SPEAKER_06]: We'll be judged by this moment.
[SPEAKER_05]: Someone's been following us.
[SPEAKER_02]: How in the hell did you get tangled up with him?
[SPEAKER_02]: And now we present Devil's due episode seven, The Collection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nathan pressed the pistol against Walt's forehead.
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to know why.
[SPEAKER_05]: Why?
[SPEAKER_05]: Why Walt's all of it?
[SPEAKER_06]: Walt's scared at his bloody hands.
[SPEAKER_06]: I killed your grandpa, but I'm guessing you already know that.
[SPEAKER_06]: Come off it, Walt.
[SPEAKER_06]: Killed?
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, it sure is how I felt like it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I lost your mom, too, and I gave him a poker.
[SPEAKER_06]: I had to win and hand the whole time.
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's the truth.
[SPEAKER_06]: The whole time.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hey, you didn't know that, did you solemnly?
[SPEAKER_05]: That why you're here neither.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, he ruined my mom's life.
[SPEAKER_05]: If it wasn't for him, she might be alive now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Your mom's out of favor.
[SPEAKER_06]: I wouldn't know about his fault.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_06]: If we're searching for true fear.
[SPEAKER_04]: Walt looked to Solomon.
[SPEAKER_04]: There was a look at his friend's eyes.
[SPEAKER_04]: He has a tation.
[SPEAKER_04]: Solomon's mind ran fast with uncertainty.
[SPEAKER_04]: How much did Walt know?
[SPEAKER_04]: It was obvious of course at Walt knew about the 18-year lie.
[SPEAKER_04]: Clearly Rachel had not died giving birth, nor Nathan that day, but the wagon?
[SPEAKER_04]: Did Walt know about that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or the poker game?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, there was no way he could have figured that out.
[SPEAKER_04]: Solomon decided to hedge his bets.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry, Walter.
[SPEAKER_06]: I couldn't have you hanging around.
[SPEAKER_06]: He was too disruptive.
[SPEAKER_06]: What are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_06]: Solomon told me your mom died 18 years ago.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, maybe he's lying to you too, Nathan, because, well, the truth is, your mother's still alive.
[SPEAKER_06]: What?
[SPEAKER_06]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Solomon had no idea what to make of it, but at least his hedge had paid off.
[SPEAKER_04]: His friend knew of only the one lie.
[SPEAKER_04]: And now Walt was threatening to toss all reality and credibility aside.
[SPEAKER_04]: I saw her with my own eyes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Road right past you outside the church.
[SPEAKER_05]: No, Walt.
[SPEAKER_05]: I saw her with my own eyes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Just dead from the field.
[SPEAKER_05]: Who saw her dead?
[SPEAKER_06]: He helped me bury her.
[SPEAKER_06]: Next to Nigel.
[SPEAKER_06]: May they both rest in P. You told that particular lab before.
[SPEAKER_06]: Damn it, well, it's a truth this time.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, Dan, what's say we visit that grave you dug?
[SPEAKER_06]: To what end, what are you, what are you trying to do here?
[SPEAKER_06]: What are you getting?
[SPEAKER_06]: I can't explain it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I know what I know.
[SPEAKER_06]: At least I know what I feel.
[SPEAKER_04]: Solomon turned to Nathan.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was time to put this to rest.
[SPEAKER_04]: For good.
[SPEAKER_06]: We need to write out of here, just you and me.
[SPEAKER_06]: Forget the crazy talk for the past.
[SPEAKER_06]: Just leave your anger behind.
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, start a new life.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let your sweet mother lie."
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel had been watching the cabin closely, questioning her earlier decision to let Walt live even a minute longer than necessary.
[SPEAKER_04]: She had hesitated back at the campsite, unsure of his connection to her son.
[SPEAKER_04]: But, watching Nathan prepare to do the job she had passed herself with, watching him become a killer, she could not let that happen.
[SPEAKER_04]: After barely missing with the first shot, she was determined to hit the next.
[SPEAKER_04]: She'd have to wait a while longer, she realized when the man wrote up to the cabin and knocked on the door.
[SPEAKER_07]: I know you're in there.
[SPEAKER_07]: I can see your horses.
[SPEAKER_07]: I am here to execute the rest of a young man.
[SPEAKER_07]: Name unknown for the murder of James Gilliam, pastor of the heavenly blessings Baptist Church of Great Ben.
[SPEAKER_04]: The word execute stood out to Rachel, regardless of its intended content.
[SPEAKER_06]: We ain't done nothing wrong, especially the boy!
[SPEAKER_06]: We can explain!
[SPEAKER_06]: Not that you believe us.
[SPEAKER_07]: Don't know, don't care.
[SPEAKER_07]: I got about you and I am too collect.
[SPEAKER_06]: Look, move along now.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't think you want to be mixed up in this particular matter.
[SPEAKER_06]: It involves things of a spiritual nature.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'll give you a minute to come to grips with your predicament.
[SPEAKER_07]: But, know this, I'm prepared to burn this cabin down if it'll make you come out.
[SPEAKER_06]: Would you let him rest, Nathan?
[SPEAKER_06]: Make a run for it!
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe go see that grape, if you don't believe us?
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, if you insist, don't take it personally, we'll go right ahead.
[SPEAKER_06]: Given he's been lying to me for 18 years, and you only wrote with me in search of the perfect moment to kill me, a notion I presume you still hold.
[SPEAKER_06]: Seeing as how you just tried.
[SPEAKER_06]: We might be surrounded.
[SPEAKER_06]: Listen, by my count, there's three people after me.
[SPEAKER_06]: For if you count that bounty hunter outside.
[SPEAKER_06]: Who I'm guessing don't care which one of us he takes back as long as he can make his case.
[SPEAKER_06]: Of the original three young Nathan sits here, the preacher is Boon God knows where, and the third is his mother, who I'm betting is out there, so no, we're not surrounded.
[SPEAKER_06]: This is also absurd.
[SPEAKER_06]: Obserter not, the choice is, stay here, he gets Nathan, go, we all have a chance.
[SPEAKER_06]: Walt, locked on to Nathan.
[SPEAKER_06]: Nathan, you're own your own now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Make your own decisions.
[SPEAKER_06]: You can kill me, understand the quiver, but I aim to walk out that back door right now, your intervention otherwise.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm seeing that grave.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel caught her breath when she saw the three men working their way through the woods behind the cabin.
[SPEAKER_04]: And when the bounty hunter saw the same, she thought it best to pin him in place for Nathan's sake.
[SPEAKER_04]: The bounty hunter of duct has did the three men in the wood.
[SPEAKER_04]: Keep moving!
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel watched the men as they disappeared into the woods.
[SPEAKER_04]: Her son on his way, she turned her sights on the bounty hunter.
[SPEAKER_04]: At first, she couldn't locate him.
[SPEAKER_04]: She quickly realized he had slid around the cabin.
[SPEAKER_04]: She carefully snuck to the front porch and worked her way to the corner.
[SPEAKER_04]: Drawing her gun up, she turned the corner ready to fire.
[SPEAKER_04]: The bounty hunter absent, Rachel continued around the cabin to the back.
[SPEAKER_04]: Movement in the woods caught her eye.
[SPEAKER_04]: He was in pursuit of her son.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel worked her way through the woods, driven to protect her son.
[SPEAKER_04]: Shadow's dance between the trees as the wind and the moonlight collaborated to assault her heightened senses.
[SPEAKER_04]: Catching a glimpse of the bounty hunter, she raised a rifle and fired off her round.
[SPEAKER_04]: Anything to slow him.
[SPEAKER_04]: The men stinkively ducked on the distant sound of the gunshot.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's her and knowing.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't care who it is.
[SPEAKER_04]: I ain't sticking around to get shot.
[SPEAKER_04]: Solomon pressed forward.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nathan, though, was beginning to doubt himself.
[SPEAKER_04]: In certain glances over his shoulder as he fought the thick underbrush.
[SPEAKER_04]: The bounty hunter also pressed his advance, cutting through the woods with an unnatural confidence.
[SPEAKER_04]: He didn't concern himself with a shots fired by the woman chasing him.
[SPEAKER_04]: His eye was on the prize.
[SPEAKER_04]: The young man, somewhere in front of him, that is.
[SPEAKER_04]: until the shot ricocheted off the tree next to his head.
[SPEAKER_04]: He looked back, if we must.
[SPEAKER_04]: Spotting Rachel closing fast, he stepped into a small clearing.
[SPEAKER_07]: Are you sure you're concentrating on the correct matter?
[SPEAKER_07]: She watched, as he stalked her direction.
[SPEAKER_07]: Cock sure as could be.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hold there, I will shoot you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Come now.
[SPEAKER_07]: Surely there's no need for such violence.
[SPEAKER_07]: One more step.
[SPEAKER_04]: The bounty hunter continued to advance.
[SPEAKER_04]: The shot caught him straight in the gut and fell to the ground.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel approached slowly as blood poured from the man's wound, pooled all around him.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel, gun raised, carefully extended her foot.
[SPEAKER_04]: Kick him in the side.
[SPEAKER_04]: The bounty hunter's head snapped up.
[SPEAKER_04]: He looked her straight in the eye.
[SPEAKER_04]: I did, taking the boy.
[SPEAKER_03]: She could clearly see the slit form in the man's eye.
[SPEAKER_03]: Unless, of course, you can provide a suitable tentative.
[SPEAKER_03]: She stepped back.
[SPEAKER_04]: As the bounty hunter's head jerked finally to the side, his only twitched, his body controlled it as he slowly transformed into the fridge.
[SPEAKER_04]: The preacher's body jolted with every hit, still he stood and advanced.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nathan hesitated at the sound of the shot.
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe we should go back.
[SPEAKER_06]: Some part of you believes me knows if we can help.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, no, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_06]: Nathan, we get you out of here.
[SPEAKER_06]: Far ways we can.
[SPEAKER_06]: Walt tugged at Nathan's shoulder.
[SPEAKER_06]: He's right.
[SPEAKER_06]: She wants you to live even more than she wants me to die.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nathan hesitated.
[SPEAKER_04]: What if Walt was right?
[SPEAKER_04]: And his mom was out there.
[SPEAKER_04]: It seemed impossible, but then he had seen the impossible.
[SPEAKER_04]: He wasn't ready yet to go all in on the idea.
[SPEAKER_04]: Reluctantly, he turned and followed Walt.
[SPEAKER_04]: Behind them, Rachel stood firm.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had our fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's time for business.
[SPEAKER_01]: I began by reminding you that you invited me into this joint endeavour.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nathan has nothing to do with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Insurance, a brace against poor performance on your part, um, disappointed to cash it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't you just kill yourself?
[SPEAKER_01]: I prefer taking the souls, not lads.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not that I won't, if you insist, I could take them both.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walta and the boy.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then make haste.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll be watching.
[SPEAKER_04]: With that, the preacher disappeared.
[SPEAKER_04]: Rachel gathered herself.
[SPEAKER_04]: Finally, she reloaded her gun and started on her way.
[SPEAKER_04]: Walt got their first.
[SPEAKER_04]: He stood at the edge of his brother's land.
[SPEAKER_04]: Technically, his land now, though he hadn't set foot on it in the 35-plus years since he shot his brother, he could see the wagon up ahead.
[SPEAKER_04]: The years and weather had done their work.
[SPEAKER_04]: But the frame, the axles, even the wheels, were still intact.
[SPEAKER_04]: The thing that stood out the most to Walt though was the metal rod still jutting from the rear, mocking him in its majesty.
[SPEAKER_04]: He approached it slowly, reached out, felt its pointed end, so much damage it had brought.
[SPEAKER_04]: Walt dropped to his knees.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I'm sorry, brother.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried to do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried to give you peace.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried to be a father to you, beautiful little daughter.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried, I tried to give her a good home when I couldn't.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried to watch over, protect her.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just...
[SPEAKER_06]: A failed.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I didn't see her standing there.
[SPEAKER_06]: Ah, I swear, I would have never let her see what she saw.
[SPEAKER_06]: Her father, oh god, dying.
[SPEAKER_06]: Shot as she watched.
[SPEAKER_06]: the poor girl.
[SPEAKER_06]: It was mercy, but not for her.
[SPEAKER_06]: It was hell.
[SPEAKER_06]: I couldn't take it back.
[SPEAKER_06]: I tried.
[SPEAKER_06]: I did, but I failed.
[SPEAKER_06]: I thought maybe if she didn't have me, if she never saw me again, she'd have peace, and she needed a mother.
[SPEAKER_06]: Forgive me brother, please give me the peace I could never give her no no give it to him give it to Nathan He's carrying it all now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Help him let it go.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hey, he's a good boy.
[SPEAKER_06]: He's a great son You'd like him.
[SPEAKER_06]: He's he's a lot tougher.
[SPEAKER_06]: He looks I'll tell you that and match him
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll trust some more, okay?
[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, I'll do right, BIME.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'll do right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Walt gathered himself.
[SPEAKER_04]: He knew he couldn't stay long.
[SPEAKER_04]: He stood nearly bumping into Solomon and Nathan.
[SPEAKER_04]: He hadn't heard them approach.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nathan's emotion swirled at what he had just heard, how to make sense of it all.
[SPEAKER_04]: It felt sincere, sounded sincere, but all he'd been told by the people he trusted.
[SPEAKER_04]: Where are they?
[SPEAKER_04]: Walt Incapable, Solomon had buried Nigel, and according to his friend, Rachel too.
[SPEAKER_04]: They worked their way that direction, the occasional glance back to confirm the absence of the bounty hunter.
[SPEAKER_04]: As they rounded the corner of the barn, Walt saw Nigel's grave first, the wooden cross rotting and broken.
[SPEAKER_04]: He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Rachel's law.
[SPEAKER_06]: Son of a mom?
[SPEAKER_06]: God almighty, it's him.
[SPEAKER_06]: He did this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next, on Devil's Dewell, the meek shall inherit.
[SPEAKER_06]: Rachel, she made a deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your pure world, is that what you think there's no darkness in your heart?
[SPEAKER_01]: Your soul was mine, but it wasn't.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Devils do season finale, episode 8, less GB saved.