• Prologue Autumn 120 AD

    I roused from a harsh slumber to realize that I was tied securely to a tree and that I was not alone. Before me stood the man that I wished to never see again. “Vladimir Diavolo, I personally warned you to never return to England, and yet, here you are.” he stated.
    “Michael, you haven’t changed a bit since I last saw you.” I said, “How is dear Zonte?”
    Michael glared at me before answering stiffly, “Zonte is dead. You killed him yourself. Now, why have you returned to England?”
    “Ah, I did kill him. The memory dawns upon me now. He and I, carrying broad swords left from the war, in the beginnings of a duel. I got the first strike in of course, and he failed to do anything. You should have taught him how to duel better, Michael, after all he’s your brother, and the outcome would have been different for him. Well, not too different, he still would’ve died then and there, but he would’ve died with honor and dignity. After my first strike, his heart was laid on the dirt far from its home, its body. What did you do for the burial?” I inquired.
    “Never you mind!” He shouted in frustration. “Even after I told you to leave England and never come back, you returned. I want to know why and when, or you’ll pay dearly, that I promise. So, why have you returned to this place?”
    I scanned the area for any sight of my wife and son, but there was no sign of them. “Where are they? What have you done to them?”
    “Who? Who are you searching for?” He asked with a smirk. “Oh, do you mean the woman and child we found in your residence?” He caught my dread filled expression before answering his own question. “They are safe at the moment, but if you fail to cooperate, they will pay in your place. Now, with knowing that, answer my questions. Why did you come back? When did you return?”
    I didn’t want to give in to him, for he was only a bully with too much power, and yet I didn’t want to cause my beloved family harm. A war was being fought in my mind, a war whether to tell Michael what he wanted or … well, not tell him anything at all. I could tell him a convincing lie or an unbelievable truth, yet with anything I say, he won’t believe me until I have lost almost everything, that much I know of him. He will make me suffer, he does that with all of his victims, and he will take away everything that I care about in this world, just to get what he wants.
    I decided to tell him the truth, though he‘ll never believe a single word out of my mouth. So that my family can be killed by the beast that Michael always was. So that they will know the truth. “In truth, I never actually left, I just moved from town to town, never staying more than a year, so I guess that I stayed too long in this one, and my reason is obvious. I stayed in this town for my blushing bride.” I openly stated.
    He looked at me with those unbelieving eyes of his, and told me “You already know that I won’t believe you until I see you suffer, so say what you like.” With that he called “Marcius. Darius. Bring them out.”
    I then saw two burly men drag my wife and son out of the forest, which stood behind me. They looked unmarked by wounds, but they were both gagged with dirty cloth, and bound tightly, too tightly, with wet leather strips. The leather would soon dry and tighten, tearing into their already tender skin. It would cause them pain, and it would torture me greatly, with just watching their pain.
    He asks the same question again and again, and I give him the same answer. I watched my family as the leather slowly tightens against their delicate skin; I saw their faces and expressions when they tried to mask the inevitable pain from their features, just to make me think that they weren’t in pain, which I knew they were. It saddened me and yet, it gave me a small amount of joy to know that they were brave and courageous. Eventually, Michael gave up on that method, so he reverted to a different one, one that would cause great pain.
    “I see, your going to be stubborn with me. I don’t have to worry about that. I have different methods, you will see.” He then grabbed my son by the arm, causing him to flinch, and took out a cleaver. He threw my son to the guards and declared to them “Grab a crate or table, and bring it out here, in front of our dear Vladimir, who is not cooperating. Then securely hold the lads arm on it.” Once Michael finished, they did as he said with out hesitation.
    Once they returned, and followed their directions, Michael picked up his cleaver and said “Are you going to change you answer? No? Well, then I will make you.” With that said, he chopped my sons arm off.
    My boy screamed in agony, my wife cried out in torment, and I stood, paralyzed with regret. Regret for not leaving, regret for endangering my only kin.
    “What that’s not enough for you? Well, then, you’ll have to see this one.” He grabbed my bleeding, moaning boy by his waist, took out a dirk, and ripped open my boy’s back, deep enough to show the spine. Everything went quiet, my son unconscious from the pain, and then Michael ripped out the spinal chord. It came out easily, and completely, even with the tiny brain attached to it, killing my only son instantly. Tears came unbidden, streaming down my face. “Any words? Possibly thoughts or feeling about this?” he said sarcastically. “It will get worse for you and better for me. Just hang in there and…keep watching” While smiling he paused to give me a chance to speak, but I was unable to find words, any words at all, I was rendered speechless, so he grabbed my wife and continued “Oh well, at least I can have a bit of fun before I have to kill her.”
    After saying his last word, he cut off her clothes, and played with his new ‘toy’. Soon he became bored with her, so he jerked down his breeches and raped my woman before me. I fought the ropes that bound me while he did so, and shouted while I had my breath, causing the biggest guard to gag me. I saw that my beloved wife was fighting Michael as much as I was the ropes that restrained me from her, but Michael wouldn’t stand for the resistance. “b***h! She clawed me! Did you see? You’ll get what coming to you, little whore.” he spat.
    He withdrew brutally from her and grabbed his dagger, cruelly slicing her throat on the way. He cut out her heart, and then tore into it with his teeth, like the beast he was before speaking. “You’ve seen enough, I guess, but remember what I have done this day, never forget it.” He then turned to the burly men. “Release him. Now.” They did so, and followed Michael out of town.
    Once I had ungagged myself, I crawled over to the dead bodies of my life, my love, my only family. I clung to them for dear life, trying to make myself wake up from this nightmare. When I couldn’t awaken from this reality, I clutched to the bodies even more and screamed with all my anguish “Carlotta! Royse! Why? Why?!!”