The air was hotter and drier than most people who hadn't spent time in a desert would have experienced. It was, to say the least, extraordinarily uncomfortable, and yet Celeste was still glad it was a dry heat rather than a humid one. There was also an unexpected and very welcome breeze. It was slight, but enough that it offered some level of relief, which seemed surprising for a town that had all the trappings of hell on earth. Relief seemed like the sort of thing hell would do without, at least that was her immediate thought, but then she remembered something her husband had once said. In his younger days he had been a prospector and would travel around trying to find good sources of gold, and on occasion he did. In that line of business superstition and rumor lorded over many like the all mighty Himself, and for some even more so. If rumor got out a spot had gold it was a certainty that that area would be flooded with men of all ages trying to find their fortunes. Her husband told her of one such incident, a rumor had spread that there was guaranteed to be gold somewhere and of course he and a trainload of other fools grabbed their pick-axes and pans and set off. Her husband spent about a month searching with around a hundred or so other men without so much as a shimmer of gold. Feeling confident there was nothing to find he and several other men left, chasing other rumors or following their own wonky instincts. He spent around three months traveling around collecting gold where he could and by the time he decided he had had his fill he had collected enough gold to settle down and have an easy life. He always liked to joke that he had planned to spend the rest of his days getting drunk and trying out a new whore every night but some lady showed up and married him and dashed all those dreams. Celeste smiled as she remembered that old joke. 

	On his way home he was close to that spot he had been at all those months ago and decided to pass on through out of curiosity, see if there was anyone there had struck it big. Most of the men were gone, but there were a few stragglers left behind, still looking. In all those months of searching, they had found a combined total of a quarter ounce of gold once those that were left pooled it all together. They sold it so they could buy some rations and replace some equipment. It was always possible to find a little bit of gold just about anywhere her husband had explained at the time, but that did not mean there was some grander deposit waiting around. The men who were left searching were the most tired and rundown men he had ever seen. They looked sad and pathetic, and each one carried themselves like they were walking towards their deathbed. But still they searched, day after day, hoping to find that fortune they wanted. 

[i]"It was that bit of gold they found that did it. Hell, had I been there I might have kept looking too. Hope is a cruel thing when used against you. You get your hands on even a little bit of hope, and most men will stick it through the worst of the worst life can throw at them. That's the amazing and terrifying thing about man, the ability to push forwards when the only thing keeping them going is the flicker of light they remember almost seeing. Hope will pull a man through hell, and they'll gladly let it, when the sensical thing to do would be just give up." [/i]

	His voice was still so clear in her head even though it had been so long since she had heard it. If Fortune's End was hell, perhaps a little bit of relief, a little bit of hope, fit in just fine. 

	After Fredrick revealed her and the others were trapped in the town Celeste was struck stunned. She wasn't sure what the others said or did in the face of the news, she was in too much of a daze to comprehend what was even happening. When she snapped out of it she found herself outside by the blacksmiths having left the saloon without even realizing it. Evidently some part of her mind had decided she needed to leave and walk it off, a rather good idea as it gave her some time to herself to calm dow. With the initial shock having ebbed away she was able to rationalize enough to determine that she would focus on one problem at a time. She had made her way to Fortune's End for a reason and she would see to it that reason was fulfilled, anything else could come after. 

	Based on her conversation with Fredrick before his upsetting reveal it would be best to head to Fortune Found, however Celeste wanted to make a quick stop somewhere else first. She was very curious to speak to the man in the clock tower who fired a shot every our, from his vantage point he might have some form of insight into the goings on of the town or where she might be best to start looking. 

On her way to the clock tower she had to pass by the Mayor, who spoke to her as she passed.

"Good... morning, Celeste..." his struggle to speak made her very uncomfortable, it was like listening to a man dying of asphyxiation. Celeste stopped, but didn't turn to look at the shockingly loquacious mummified corpse. 

"Good morning monsieur Mayor."

"Off. To speak with. Thomas. I su...suspect?" 

"Oui monsieur. I hope that his unique view of the town will give me some helpful insights." A strangled sound came from the once-a-man as he attempted to laugh, but all he could muster was a dry exhale of breath that sounded like a tumbleweed being crushed underfoot. "Is there... something the matter?"

"Oh. No." the mayor lifted a hand a few inches, his wrist and fingers moved ever so slightly as if he was trying to gesture. The skin all over that area cracked and split revealing dry gray muscles beneath. He lowered his hand. "He just. Hasn't. Done much seeing. In some time. Is all. But don't let. That. Stop..." He stopped and took a deep breath for some reason, pulling in air with a strangled wheeze, "don't let that stop you. Go on ahead. I. Wont keep. Ya..." he lowered his head back to his chest and stopped talking. 

	Very uncomfortable, and glad the conversation was over, Celeste made her way to the clock tower. The tower was evidently still in the middle of construction, somehow, as there was a series of temporary stairs on the outside of the building that led to the top. Celeste suspect that the stairs being on the outside meant there was nothing on the inside and so made her way up the sturdy if still worrisome outer steps to speak with Thomas. 

	When she made it to the top she once again found herself stunned, evidently the town still had plenty of knew strange and horrible things to show off. At the top of the tower sitting in a chair under a roof where a clock should have been was a man whose head was missing several large chunks, so much so it looked like a lump of meat and bone atop an otherwise normal human body. In one hand the corpse held a pistol, a peacemaker not unlike the kind Celeste herself carried, and in the other hand was a pocket watch. The floor was covered in dried blood so thick it almost looked like a carpet, and one of the walls next to the man was covered in enough dry and hardened viscera. She tried to muster the ability to say something, scream, or move but she couldn't do anything. She didn't even jump as a slight ringing chime began to emanate from the pocket watch and the corpse began to move. It raised the pistol to what could be considered its' head, pulled the hammer back, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. A loud bang cracked through the town as part of the man's skull was blown away, showering the wall beside him with fresh viscera and the floor beneath with fresh blood that dried almost immediately from the heat as soon as it hit the floor. The corpse lowered it's raised pistol, then the remains of it's head turned to look at Celete. There were no eyes, or other facial features to really tell otherwise but she could feel it in her gut, the thing was looking at [i]her[/i].

Celeste began to sputter and back away, trying her best to speak up and say something ineligible. 

"Je suis tellement désolé! Je ne voulais pas te déranger! je reviendrai une autre fois! Ou plutôt je veux dire, je ne vous dérangerai plus, excusez-moi!" she couldn't manage a single word in English, not that it really matter as the orb of meat that was once a head didn't posses any ears. Yet despite that the corpse nodded, as if in understanding, then returned to the position she found it in when she had arrived. Celeste took several more steps backwards and bumped into the railing of the stairs which was slightly too low and she almost pitched herself backwards over it. She didn't, but the sudden feeling of almost falling snapped her out of her daze and she fled back down the stairs and rushed towards the saloon. As she passed the mayor he raised his head.

"You. Will want to get up. A little earlier in the day. If you want a. Chance to speak with Thomas, proper. Not much. Left of him. By this point..."

	Celeste didn't stop to talk, she rushed past him and back into the Saloon. She paid no attention to what might have been going on with the others and rushed upstairs to her room. She slammed the door closed and locked it, throwing her extra bar across the door to make sure it was as locked as it could get. She leaned her back against the door, and slid down it to the floor. With her good hand she pulled out the pistol at her waist and held it at the ready.