El Bolero de la Chica Loca de Demonia

All she ever knew laid out before her about the spirits she communed with. "Well..." The small dog nudged his nose against her head. "...I guess I should be glad you aren't capable of talking here." Elaine blubbered off something into the oblivion of the world she faded into. "Eloquent." Nothing within the symbiosis the two entities shared could ever tell Elaine what the power she inherited truly contained. Elaine rose up with her legs still on the ground. Around her she noticed a series of animals that she never saw before: a raccoon dog, a badger, and a skunk. "Well you're either probably wondering why you see more animals than normal, or possibly you have just given up on thinking at all and exist in a state of quantum intelligence where your brain both exists and doesn't exist at the same time, minus the former of course..."

"Why don't you shut up Aggro." Elaine said with her hands propping herself up. "I want a new animal that follows me around. You suck."

"Well. Funny you should mention that." Aggro moved back over towards the animals that came with him. "Apparently you actually have some tangible reason within this realm. Normally we just watch you enter and exit from time to time, and occasionally I follow you out since I made a terrible decision I have to oblige. But not anymore. You need to go home and learn how to actually hone your skills."

Elaine moaned.

"Yes. You have to do something that doesn't involve shooting and then asking questions. But now..." Elaine dozed off and gazed at the green ethereal state around her. "...Elaine listen, listen to me." He regained her gaze. "But, I need you to actually learn how to commune with us without near death experiences or overdosing on backwater pills. Can you do that so that you can save that poor girl on the roof from oblivion?"

"Eh." Elaine said, as the world faded into an iris view of the green lit realm. Her eyes opened to the sky above her. The hardness of the cement pavement etched into her back. Lack of comfort brought her back from the ethereal world; maybe she did need to learn how to focus this thing she could do. "Hey I need to go to Montana. Who wants to drive?"

“Yeah. We both need to get there, but I need to take care of some things first.” Clayton stood up and tossed his ancient weapon carelessly off to the side before offering Elaine a hand to get up. However she managed to get up, he handed her a cellphone immediately after. “Now listen, there’s one number saved on there. I want you to call it as soon as you get to Montana, and I’ll be there before you even hang up so we can sign those papers or whatever… and give Ileana the kind of funeral she deserves, okay?” any elation Clayton felt was gone at the mention of her name. The “if only” began to whirl through his mind again. They probably would for the rest of his life.

“She’s…” Clayton sighed, "She’s gone, Bones.” he turned to face the skeleton, “I’m gonna go take care of her body. You make sure Elaine gets to Montana as soon as possible and I might just forgive you for whatever this whole situation was.” Clayton did not want to blame Bones, but part of him felt a lot better shoving the blame onto him, even if he knew it was preposterous. He turned and walked off on his own; confident they would be able to make their own way out. Once he was a good distance away, Clayton began to check his own cellphone for a signal. Apparently his phone company did not cover ancient cities sealed off in their own dimensions.
Once he stepped through the portal again and back into Mexico City, he was back at full bars. He was so focused on rapidly punching a number into his phone he almost did not notice how the temple around him was sunken into the ground and nearly in ruins.

“Louie… Who do you think this is? ... Yeah … Listen, I know this sounds crazy, but there’s some kind of gateway to El Dorado that’s opened in the city because of that damn skull thing you sent me after, and… No, I’m not fucking with you… Listen, midget, I’ve got a map of the place and if you wanna be the only one with it when the archaeologists or whatever find out about this, you’ll do me a favor. A girl died tonight… a nice girl… Yeah, and I’m gonna need you to send someone to pick up her body for me… Because I’m gonna give her a funeral. It’s not something I’d expect someone like you to understand. Just do it.”

”Funeral?” He began, before Clayton turned to him and explained... well, explained everything. For one said moment, Bones eyes wondered onto Elaine and he wondered if she was the trigger finger. No, no she wasn't, because is she was, the Grifter would have probably abandoned whatever crazy situation this was and just stayed with the body. He did however wonder about what kind of papers the two of them would be signing, but Bones kept his yapper shut and just watched him wander off to sort out his own things. He glanced at Elaine for a moment, before he smiled and said softly, ”So, tell me. Where did you learn to shoot?” The skeleton didn't shut down the moment she started talking, but instead actually started talking back. He paused as he walked through the city back to the entrance, grabbing a brick of gold as he went and wrapping it some material left over by the Aztecs. He figured he could sell it back in America and use the money for the poor tenants that the damn Landlord left behind. And as Bones looked over the empty city he was more than one hundred percent sure that no mortal would set eyes on it again.

When they passed through the portal it flickered and died this time, the gate's magic seemingly gone along with the Priest King. Bones figured not too many people would mind, seeing as it was never really much in the first place. The Fountain of Youth and El Dorado, all rolled into one, was not something the general public or even the select few should have. If anyone found the place, they could ransack the gold from the stairs and the ante-chamber easily enough. And maybe some lucky son of a bitch would work out how to open the door again in a few hundred years, but it wouldn't be in their life time, that was for sure.

Oh god he hoped it wouldn't be in his life time.

On they went, gabbing away without really saying anything that made sense, all the way back to the bus terminal. Bones got dressed again and then ordered a Taxi from there to the border, where he made a phone call to a friend on the other side of the state line and was allowed to get back out of Mexico into the United States. From there he simply got in his Buick '51 and drove to Montana. They laughed a couple of times, and Frankie gave her his phone number and address (against his better judgement.) And in return, she only shot his car about seven times.

Salida del sol, Puesta del Sol

Sunrise, Sunset.