PART I-Prologue

17th March 1890.

They were survivors...

One could tell by their appearances. The men looked dejected, the women haggard and tired and the children even fainter and hungry.

The servants suffered a much lesser fate, after being used to harsh treatment, a week's long trek was nothing to break their hardened spirits. The stains of ashes and charcoal were visible on their skins and clothes, some part of their clothing torn in patches.

They had been traveling this route for so long that even the servants knew they had lost their original tracks without their masters telling but pride of the six men leading would never allow them to ask directions from their slaves and being beaten into submission by their masters with their whips on empty stomachs for voicing their opinions was a fate they weren't ready for.

Exactly six days ago now, their town had been razed and their homes burnt to the ground.

Not exactly home to some of the slaves because they had been moving from master to master over the years but most of the slaves and servants had been born in Langerworthy, knowing it as their home.

They had lost some of the escapee families on the way and had buried a few people who couldn't go on any longer.

Master Montreal, a tall, broad, olive-skinned man, who always had a cigar in his mouth and barely spoke to anyone, with a gruff, frightening voice and a hideous burn scar on his face, had buried his wife and daughter on the way. She had inhaled so much smoke from the fire and apparently had a weak heart. The wife was gone first and the two-week-old suckling two days after.

They settled for a rest after thirteen hours of trekking and grumbling when the blissful sound of a running stream was heard. A cry of surprise and happiness from Lady Richmond made the five men arguing upfront pause and look ahead before their angry faces broke into grins and tired smiles.

Like sheep without a shepherd, they rushed in the direction of the sound. Cheers broke out from the group as soon as they could see the water. They rushed and began lapping, the slaves doing the lapping, the servants helping out their mistresses, the boys doing their own drinking by squatting and scooping in their palms and drinking. The servants fetched the water with their hides and gave them to their masters.

As Master Wyatt Montreal's first son, Willian walked over to where his brooding father stood and handed him his water, master Montreal could swear he saw movements in the trees on the opposite end of the stream, then he sighted it moving with alarming speed into the thick trees.

"Get to your brothers and sister, order them to lie down now!" He ordered and moved towards the other five relaxed men.

"Flynn, Murphy, Milton, Ted! We need to read our guns, we are not alone here." Wyatt said thickly.

Flynn Jonas flipped his mustache and looked worriedly at the Asian man, Ted Soren.

"You were right in your perception after all Ted, for Wyatt to notice it too," Flynn commented.

"We need to pack up immediately." Master Milton Grey said in agreement.

"Begin to pack up!" He hollered at the servants and slaves while the mistresses conducted them not arguing with their husbands.

"You can't be bloody serious mate." "You want to believe these wankers when we could actually settle here." Terry Ambrose argued aggressively eyeing both Wyatt and Ted with grave contempt.

But no one was listening because soon after there was the nervous hooting of their horses and suddenly sporadic gunshots.

Present day...

15th, June 2022.

One hour & thirty minutes to the party...

Gerald Montreal was feeling comfortable, far too comfortable picking up a girl that wasn't his girlfriend or his friend for that matter, from the back of her workplace for a little rendezvous before he went to pick up his girlfriend.

Of course, he was cheating on his girlfriend, the bastard. After all, she hadn't been willing on giving in to his sexual advances and he couldn't stay celibate as well could he?

He watched the back door open and saw Liliane Johansen, Kennedy Richmond's girlfriend step out in a high waist skirt that stopped mid-thigh and a tight crop top and he was certain she had no panties or bra on.

Sure his girlfriend could pull the catwalk from the door to his car way better, but he wasn't a one lady's man and though he was sure Kennedy took care of Lily, sex wasn't in the package.

He and Lily were cheaters dating siblings. She jumped into the car with a sultry smile and they drove off.

After three rounds of sex in his car one hour and fifteen minutes later, he allowed her to enter her house, freshen up, change her clothes, and jump back into his car.

They were close to the party, he could very well see the lights and make out figures, like Tony Grey, his arch-nemesis and he could very well hear the lyrics of Harry Styles' "as it was." He turned to Lily with a wicked smile and began to move his hand under her skirt.

It was in the middle of her lustful pants and his lustful ministrations he heard her shout, "watch out!"

But it was too late, he had just knocked down a man lifeless with his bones crushed to the ground.