Grove was a typical town in the rural American West. Except that Mayor Vicks had just shot and killed Sheriffs Micheals and Markson.
"What are you gonna do about replacing them?" asked the local preacher, a Reverend Milner.
"I'm gonna appoint that Augustus fella and that Ozric fella," Vicks answered without giving much thought to his answer.
"Augustus, the cattle thief?" Doc Lewis gave the mayor a look of concern. "And the village idiot? You sure you want to make those two sheriffs? Aren't there more capable men out here that are more deserving and, quite frankly, respectable?"
Vicks turned to the doctor and looked at him like a man would look at an ant. "Lewis, I'm the Mayor here. What I say goes, is that understood?"
Doc Lewis shrugged his shoulders. "All I'm saying is that those two aren't particularly sheriff material and I think most of the town would agree with me."
"Tough shit," Vicks said. "I'm the mayor, you're the doctor. I don't run around telling you how to do your job, so I'd expect the same kind of respect from you." He walked away to christen his new choices for sheriff.
Reverend Milner clapped a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "I understand your concerns Doc." Lewis, staunch atheist, was surprised by this show of support from the man he had had several arguments with during the course of his tenure as doctor of Grove. "Those two are going to be trouble."
Within a matter of days, the reverend's prophecy was fulfilled. High on the authority given to them, Augustus and Ozric treated the other townsfolk with derision and scorn. A rancher complained to the mayor that his youngest daughter had been raped by the two sheriffs and they had stolen two of his horses. The owner of the saloon pleaded with the mayor after they ransacked his supply of liquor. More atrocities were committed by these men than could be recorded in the annals of Grove's history. The two man took whatever they desired of everyone and demanded respect from the townsfolk. After a raid on a ranch a couple of miles out of the town from a rogue group of Apache, the lawmen refused to form a posse and give chase. Fed up with this, Doc Lewis arranged for a town meeting at the town's church.
Doc addressed the crowd that composed the vast majority of the town. "It's time we get a new mayor. Obviously Vicks isn't going to do anything about the problems he's created by anointing these fools sheriffs." The crowd cheered in assent. Vicks stood in the back of the church, giving off an attitude of indifference toward the growing displeasure drifting his way from the town.
Then the unthinkable happened. Augustus walked straight up to Doc Lewis and stood within inches of his face. "You don't like me much, do you doctor?"
Lewis looked down into his eyes. "No, I reckon I don't. You're a cattle thief and a disgrace to this town. You've made us the laughingstock of everything west of the Mississippi."
Augustus nodded and started to walk backwards. "If that's the way you feel, so be it." With a flurry of motion faster than the eyes of most of those gathered, he drew his gun and shot the doctor between his eyes. Doc Lewis didn't even have the chance to look surprised as he dropped dead on the church floor.
The crowd began screaming and running towards the exits. They realized they were stuck with these two bullies as sheriffs indefinitely. Reverend Milner stood aghast over the body of the doctor.
"Murder! In the very house of God and before a hundred witnesses. Hell and damnation await you, Augustus!" he cried.
The sheriff gave him a quizzical look. "You telling me I'm not already in Hell?" he asked before he brought his pistol back up and aimed at Milner's head. Milner looked up towards the ceiling, ready for the embrace of God he knew with certainty he would soon feel with his imminent death at the hands of a madman made sheriff. Augustus sneezed and holstered his pistol. "Too bad you didn't shit and piss yourself. That's what I was hoping for." He walked out of the church.
Later that night, in a drunken stupor, Ozric knocked over his lamp and was soon lost in a blaze of fire. The fire spread through the town quickly, as if spurred on by the vengeful spirit of Doc Lewis. Augustus fled into the countryside as soon as he realized the town would be consumed by the flames. Every house in the town burnt to the ground and in the end, only Reverend Milner and Mayor Vicks were left alive, surrounded by the ashes of Grove and its citizens.
Vicks looked at Milner with clear desperation in his eyes. "What am I going to do now?" he asked.
Milner laughed. "If I were you, I'd start digging. The blood of an entire town is on your hands because your head was swollen with pride. At least you'll have one of your idiot sheriffs to keep you company in Hell." He left the mayor in the midst of the town and walked in the direction the sun would soon rise from.
