It ends in screams.

-         This is serious Jordan we killed a man, we gonah get hanged we are…

-         Shut up. Shut up. Shut up! The last one come of as a scream. Luckily for the two of them there was none around to hear them.

The house was a little further than the outskirts of the village. Usually none came near it without having a job to do with the owner, and that’s the way the cranky old man like it. That was the way our unlucky burglars also liked. Two young men, no more than kids really, that thought they could make some quick money for drinks and girls.

The rain should be their cover and when the theft was discovered a traveling circus that was to leave at the morning would probably be blamed as nobody in the village liked strangers.

Obediently Alex, shutted the fuck up. He was used to follow Jordan instructions as he always seemed to know what to do.

Their situation was grave. The old man was supposed to be gone for work at the next village and he shouldn’t have come back until after two or three more days. But here he was, dead, with Jordan’s cockcrow screw in his head. His blood making a small pool around him and stains on their cloths that looked huge in their eyes. Now, even if they left the rage for the murder would lead people to hunt the circus in purse of the guilty ones. And sooner or later they would be discovered.

-         We hide the body.

Alex’s eye shone and a glimmer of hope appeared in his face, Jordan had an idea, so there was still hope.

- Quickly go to his wardrobe and bring me any colorful cloth you find, I don’t care what it is as long as it is as bright as possible.

With a nob Alex went to the top floor to the old mans room, franticly he went through his cloths to find what was asked from him. It took him awhile or as it seemed to him centuries as the old man seemed to have nothing but grey and dark brawn clothes, even his smallclothes were black. Finally he found a piece of red cloth, not caring what it was (a tablecloth) he went down, trying not to stumble at every furniture that was on his way as there was no light to see beyond a small candle that he had.

Jordan had removed the cockcrow screw and put a big kitchen knife in its place making in the process a mess of the room. He took the piece of cloth and try to reap it, mumbling curses as it held tight, finally he gave up, took the screw, made a hole and through it managed to reap two pieces.

Alex looked bewitched as Jordan wet one of the pieces with blood from the wound and place it under the sofa at a place that would be easy to be find. He staffed the other in his pocket an thrown the other on the body.

-         Help me lift him.

-         What are we to do with him.

-         We put him a little back from the house so it seems there was an attempt to hide him, are you lifting his body or I do all the work?

-         I am lifting, I am lifting, what about us? Want we be seen going in to the village and what if someone notices the blood.

-         I have thought of that you imbecile, I have take some alcohol from the house, we drink some and pour on our clothes some so we wreck of it. We will enter the village through the other side and pretend that we are drank, we make noise and the like, hit some doors so we are seen and remembered. Just the two idiots drunken in the rain. Any clothe with blood on them we bury them, they will think we forgot them at the brothel or something, stop.  He left the body drop on the ground. They were wet to the bone and they haven’t been out of the house for over a minute.

-         Go to store room and bring a spade or even two if he has, we will need it.

-         Ok. And with that he left.

The store room was in the house under the stairs. He open the door and tried in the dark to find the spade, he couldn’t re-alight his candle cause his flint was wet. A thunder fell. From the incredibly big booming sound that followed one could assume it was close. He finally found what he thought was a spade but as he pulled he brought down on him half the store room. Grumbling and cursing he lift him self up, as he stretched his hand and place it on the floor he touched something most unexpected.

“Were the fuck is this idiot” thought Jordan, then he heard the crash, “oh great! Now all the village will be on its way”. He thought of going to see if he was alright when suddenly Alex comes almost running to him with the most astonished expression his face could ever take.

-         Jordan look! We found them!

-         We found what? What was that noise?

-         The, the…

-         Take a breath god dammit. Now tell…what…is that what I….

 Alex was holding up a golden coin.

-         Were did you find it?

-         In the storeroom when everything fell! Oh man and we though that the old leech had no money since we couldn’t find them!

-         The fucker had just hide  them really well.

-         How many days we can stay drank with this?

-         Stop, lets stop and think.

-         Ok.

-         First we have to do with the body, have you found a spade?

-         Yes.

-         Then wetake this body in to the woods and make a shallow grave as we planed, after that we gather the money.

-         Then?

-         Lift the body and walk.

Once again they started their way in to the dark of the night.

-         We hide the money, bury them and tomorrow we come and take it.

-         Oh man we going be so famous with the girls remember how…

-         No!

-         What no?

-         I will explain you later first we need to hide the body, a little further and it is fine.

As soon as they dropped the body Alex started digging. Jordan took the larger part of the red cloth and went back to the house, to gather the money. He was back as soon as Alex was done with the grave with enough money to by a title and land for them both, more money that he ever thought he would hold. They dump the body in there and stuffed in his hand the second ripped piece of cloth as if he ripped it while he fought.

The money was hidden along with the rest of the cloth, stuffed in to a bag and that bag buried at the burned remains of the old church at the cemetery. A place no one expect two fearless kids ever went.

Their plan worked perfect.

The very next day at the noon a neighbor went to see if the old man had returned early from his jobs so he could beg a loan. He saw the door ajar and found the bloodstains. Not long after a hunting party was formed to find the circus and drag the guilty ones to the gallows, the body had been found and the red cloth and wary should be anyone that wore red in there.

There were frowns as the two young men didn’t join them, and the bad way youth is taking was mentioned more than once, as the whole village had heard the previous night their drunken exploits and in the rain no les! They ought to catch a cold so they would learn a lesson!

Not long after the searching team left Alex and Jordan sneaked out of their houses meat up at the cemetery and dig out the gold. They left the red cloth there to rot. Before nightfall they were on their way to a new golden life.

When Lord Jefferson finally bough the Hansburg villa and the land around it he cause a stir at the circles of the town, after all there aren’t many men that can pay that amount of money and organize a dance with such easy. That dictates a big purse and a stylish person, probably of noble birth. Only the most important people were invited and the most of them went from curiosity for the new lord.

That dance was center of gossip for years to come, the food was excellent and what can anyone say about the music! The wine was old, served perfectly by servants dressed in latest fashion, the house was painted and re-decorated in such a small amount of time yet the work was superb. Craftsmen were brought from afar to organize the local workers. Everything spoke of money freely spend. The heart of the gossip was of course Lord Jefferson, such a well presented man as he was. He had come from the Capital, wearing the latest fashion and with his handsome face he would certainly break hearts. He was a young but well spoken man, well informed in the maters of state that came to make a name for himself and outgrow the shadow of his father. Alongside he had his faithful manservant  and friend Rafael whose life he had personally and heroically saved some years back from some bandits, Rafael humbled by that act of kindness throw himself at Lord’s Jefferson’s service and since then he followed him every were. The dance ended with an elaborate act from a fire breathing man and dancers that accompanied him. There was by then no doubt that Lord Jefferson would be welcomed in the local community as a long lost brother.

-         That plan of yours is crazy, sooner or later we will be discovered, posing as Lord!

-         Oh stop your whining, nothing can go wrong, I can pose as one of them easily and no one will ever admit not knowing or at least heard my father as that would make them look less at eyes pf their peers.

-         Well get killed I tell you, this is stupid, give me my share and I ‘ll be gone.

-         And then what? You get drank at the nearest bordello until the gold is gone and after that you go back to stealing? That is if someone doesn’t kill you to take your money. No here is better and safer for you.

It was the hundredth time they had this argument and at the end Alex had to admit that Jordan had a point. Because as you have already understand Lord Jefferson isn’t any one else that Jordan and his manservant is Alex. A year had passed since they left with haste from their village. They bought horses on the next town and after two days they trade them for another pair. By that point they had also changed their names and cloths.

It took them three weeks to reach the Capital and by then they had changed names, clothes and horses a dozen times. They even got a haircut.

            Once there Alex started his drinking marathon, but Jordan had other plans.

He spend the year learning, learning how to read and how to write, how to properly act, walk, dance, even found a teacher to teach him swordfight and he found it to be at his liking. He of course kept an eye on Alex, whose continue abuse  of alcohol might become a problem, it would take just on blunder on Alex’s part and the truth might be coming out, then there were only the gallows for them. So he arrange for Alex to have “private” parties, he found a deaf whore and made her his constant companion in the city, she was paid to keep him drank and give jolly feelings to his balls when needed (sparingly with all that alcohol consumption) so Alex without really realizing it ended up spending most of his times in a filthy room unconscious. The last part of Jordan’s plan to become a noble was to create rumors about his noble father. He started making deals in the city, buying and selling or renting houses and all was done in the name of Lord Yiorhanse Jefferson, people gradually accepted that Lord Jefferson didn’t want to be seen in public cause of his terrible illness that had deformed him, so he spent his days at his mansion leaving his son to take care details as money and income. A funny thing is that Jordan had a talent in real estate and trading so he not only didn’t waste his money but came with a profit even counting the expenses for that idiot Alex. Some times he thought about killing him, about getting ridden that liability of his life, it would be ease, a poison or even better a drug, the fool would even enjoy it. But thoughts of their past kept creping up to him and stopped each time short. Beyond that the past year was the best of his life.

            For Alex on the other hand started as the worst but got surprisingly better in the process. After the murder he kept having nightmares, when they began he tried to ignore them but to no avail. He used laudanum to put himself to sleep and it did help but the first weeks that they were on the run it caused problems cause at the morning he couldn’t wake up. On the capital he tried to drown those nightmares in alcohol, sex and a sporadic use of drugs and yes the nights become dreamless for him but also restless, from time to time he broke to tears especially if he was drank. Once a man made fun of him while he drunkenly cried so he in a fist of hate waited for him to leave and killed him in an alley, they saw him but he managed to escape. Jordan never learned about it, he was to busy with his classes and his tutors to pay any notice to his old friend. That night he had the best sleep he could remember. He thought for a moment that he was finally free from these nightmares but the next day they returned and they were worse much worse. So he killed again. To see if they would go away this time and oh sweet God how gloriously they did! His second victim was a prostitute, a woman old and ugly that no one missed. His third was a drunkard that he accidentally found at his way in a tavern through a dark alley. His fourth was a young boy that use to run errands to the stores and from there he had to hold himself, restrain his newfound lust as rumors for a monster that lurks at shadows spread, rumors of a cold blooded killer. He should keep it low, yes, let it quiet down, around that time he was introduced at deaf prostitute that he started to fancy, so he spent his day in the room with her, he only got out to take a bath and from time to time (not to often) join Jordan at his workout, a thing that quite surprise Jordan but he made no comment of it. The truth was that he didn’t like the workout it looked a lot like a job with all this sweating, but he needed to be strong for his next hunt, even with the alcohol and the whore the nightmares started to creep up on him again. Finally a poor fellow was caught judged and hanged as the responsible for the murders. Alex laughed really hard when he heard it, he even went at the execution and screamed at the top of his lungs for his death. That night he went out to kill again and that time he hide the body. The prostitute became a problem as she was attached to him and his fat purse but when he wanted to leave he purred some laudanum in to her wine and left for his job. He also started to get annoyed with Jordan, his friend had changed, he wanted to be a noble, a Lord of the land. He decided to leave him and asked for his share but Jordan always managed to change his mind always with his pretty words and arguments. Oh how he despised these newfound pretty words of his, it was with those that he manage to convince him that Lord Jefferson would attract unwanted attention to his life with two sons so close at age and that it would be better if he acted as his servant for the time being, him! him a servant! He still couldn’t believe how he said yes. That night he went and killed three people. He had to kill more often of late, as the nightmares were kept less at bay with each kill. He became worried when he heard that they would leave the capital for a lesser town, as there his killings would need to be more spare, but he couldn’t make an objection without having to admit a lot of things to Jordan.

            A month has passed since the dance at Lord’s Jefferson’s villa and it was an eventful one though it had nothing to do with the new noble of the town. First it was the death of the old Miller an old woodcutter that lived at the edge of town, it seemed as if he died at his sleep and it was two to three days before he was found, everyone loved him as he was a kind, if poor, man and always willing to stretch a helping hand. After that was disappearance of Jones Lumber kid, his daughter, the little angel of the village that seemed to have wandered in to the forest, everyone help at the search, Lord Jefferson himself came and ordered all of his staff to aid at the search, he provide food and refreshments at the searching parties at his own expense. After five days of search the people gave up, the parents were inconsolable in their grief. The last to be struck by this bad luck was the nice Lord Jefferson as one of his maids slip and fell from a window that she cleaned and broke her neck.

The people started murmuring of bad luck. None of course accused Lord Jefferson for bringing that luck, he was an excellent gentleman, he went frequently to the church and sit at the first row, he was always well spoken and complimentary and each time he went to the tavern he bought a round for all. How could this fine upstanding citizen have anything remotely to do with this tide of bad luck.

-         Send me.

-         Don’t be ridicules you know nothing about trade.

-         So? Does it mater? Isn’t it all a farce so we don’t get caught? We do have money to spare don’t we?

-         Yes we do Alex, that’s not the point.

-         Then what is it, my Lord? That last word was dripping with poison.

-         Look because we have money doesn’t mean that we should carelessly spend them, I just want to do some saving.

-         I am tired of this place, I can’t go out to get drunk, I can’t bring whores and every bloody one out there things that I am your lapdog. Enough with this. Send me so I can get drunk without embarrassing you, fuck whores without insulting your name and in the end let’s not forget those are my money to.

 The face of Jordan shoed no emotion as he calmly answered.

-         I don’t forget it.

And after a pause.

-         Ok if it means so much about you go. But at least try to make a profit ok?

-          Of late I come to think that you consider me an idiot. And with that he left.

To tell the truth Jordan wasn’t completely displeased that he was left behind. He had met at the dance the daughter of a local rich merchant and he found her quite to his liking. He went to the church just to see her and he hoped that maybe he could attract her interest.

The very next day Alex left with instruction of what to do, a couple of guards and enough money for the job and to spend for himself.

Time flies quickly for those in love and Jordan was very much so. As it happened the particular lady had thought’s for him, and before long they fond themselves married and throwing a huge feast with the whole town attending. It was a beautiful day. His new wife brought a light in to the mansion, she was beautiful and humble and smart, he let her teach him mathematics as he had only a base understanding of them and music. He felt a new man with here a better man. He of course continued his private lessons on manners and etiquette and the sword was never far from his hand. In all this joy he had almost forgotten about Alex and that business trip he had sent him and he was geniually surprised when he saw him return after six months.

It was a fittingly dark day when Alex returned, he had news of his arrival so he was waiting him at the entrance. He was surprised to see that the guards that he had sent with him were no longer there and that instead he seemed to have gathered a rather “tough” crowd. Any of those faces could easily fit in a wanted poster. There were five of them, four men and a woman. Alex climbed down from the cart and gave a greeting appropriate for a servant. Jordan greeted him and called him to his office so they could discus his journey in quiet, the rest he sent to the kitchen and gave orders to unload the cart.

After he poured a drink for them both. The sat and talked.

-         I see you have made changes.

-         Yes I have gotten married.

-         Good for you.

Long awkward pause.

-         Does she know about me?

-         What should she need to know about you?

-         That I am not your servants but your partner, if we are to have her strolling in to the house, which is mine as is yours remember? I don’t want here to be up to my nose to make me do this and that. I want accept that kind of treatment.

Jordan was a little worried, what had happened to his friend, were did hi find a spine?

-         So what do you purpose to do? He said after he thought a little.

-         You either move out of here, because sure as hell I want, or you give me a high status to my self for…. Ah! Let’s say for the great job I did to bring you money. I did get you know triple the amount of money you expected.

-         You what! That wonderful how you did it?

-         Lets not change subject.

Something was definitely amiss with Alex, was his eyes always so cold? Did he always stare you like that? Had always his voice that dangerous edge? Jordan begun to worry, big mistake, worry is a form o fear and psychopaths like Alex feast on fear and could smell it from a mile away.

-         Well I can’t simply name you a Lord, only the state has that power, and even though you could by a title there will be the question of were you got the money.

He made a pause to think. He didn’t want that man in to his house, but that man was too dangerous to let simply loose.

-         Here is what I think. You should make another trip or two. I will let the town know how good you are at this thing and that I let you keep the extra money you make. In a mater of two to three years you will be able to by a title with all the earned money, then we split the gold and we both go our separate ways, how does that sound to you.

A snicker came from Alex.

-       You want to get rid of me? Fine by me, I hate this town any way, make preparation for the next journey, I will leave with the boys in one month.

-       Now that you brought it up, who are those people? Where did you get them? What happen to those I sent with you?

-       They were killed at a bandit attack, I got those guys later, no if you excuse me I will go to eat, take a bath and sleep, oh and sent this brandy to my rooms its really tasty. And with that he left.

Lady Joahn Silerspier was the pride and joy of her little town and especially of her father who spoiled her in every possible way. That made here acquire a character unfit for a lady of her standing. She loved horse rides through the forest and hunt with her father, she learned to read and write as it was expected from all ladies but she took it further and learn mathematics and engineering and foreign languishes, she painted and played music which are as one knows scandalous endeavors for a ladies as only the lowliest of man associate with those arts. Other activities that were considered appropriate for her where… lets say not pursued with the same heat.

Here marriage with the new to town but so beloved Lord Jefferson send ripples of joy through the Town. After the marriage a feast was made where every one was invited to wish prosperity and joy at the new couple. One must notice that even thought all the faces were happy not all the smiles were sincere. There were men and boys that dreamt for a long time to propose to Lady Joahn and she was the center of envy for many women that dream of  place next to Lord Jefferson as a wife or even as a concubine, those hopes were crushed when one saw Lords Jefferson eyes, there was no room for anyone there but her.

At the same day of his arrival Alex took his companions and moved at an inn. That caused a number of rumors to arouse from him having a fight with Lord Jefferson, to Lady Joahn making the sweet eyes for him and arousing her husbands temper. But one has to mention that the last was told only by drunkards as no one else could even imply something like that for there beloved Lady, all of the rumors were of course dispelled when Lord Jefferson announced the success of his loyal servant Rafael at his mission and that from now on he considered him not a servant but a partner in job..

Before the end of the week, Raphael had bought one of the finest houses of town, slightly worse than a mansion, or a villa to tell the truth, and he had moved there with the strange people he acquainted. Large barrels of wine were sent there and the cook couldn’t stop making food for his bosses, notorious and infamous women went in and out in great frequency and before the end of the month the house was given the fitting name “Sindevil Palace”. To the months that followed, even at the absence of Raphael, the house was open to anyone that wanted to have a taste from anything forbidden.

The weeks fly fast when one is happy and Lord Jefferson was very much sow. His wife gave birth to a son, a beautiful and healthy boy, that would grow to be an exceptional man. His jobs progressed with at a good pace, both the trading jobs that he sent Alex and the fields that he personally oversaw. His only concern was that Sindevil Palace that Alex kept runing in to the city. He had at multiple occasions made clear that Raphael was his trusted right hand and what Rafael said was as good as if he has said it. So people were thinking that he was behind that abomination. Protests were made to him with stronger of them all the one from his wife and his father in law, but any time he went to talk to Alex about it (when he was here) he found himself sweating under his gaze and wanting to leave. It was the second year of the palace when fate forced his hand. Lady Joahn was taking a stroll in to the city along with a few friends of her when suddenly were approached by some vulgar men, that made some really inappropriate comments about the Lady and here company. After the initial shock civilians that had saw the scene went to the Lady’s defense and son enough a fist fight erupted. None was seriously hurt but heads need bandages and the people were angry. Later it became known that these people were a mix of regular costumers and workers at the Sindevil Palace. Angry for his wife treatment and seriously pressed by his surroundings Lord Jefferson finaly took action. He went at the palace with a crowd, mostly filled with his own workers and guards and some mean looking people of the tavern and after he evacuate the place he set it on fire.  The people that Alex had gathered where sent away and were told never to return.

The people loved him, his wife relived that he finally took action adore him and when Alex returned he was mighty pissed, word had reached him down the road so he stopped his journey short and returned so he had plenty of time to raise a rage. Their fight was heard through the house and almost came at blows but at the last moment Lady Joahn interfered, she was angry at how a servant dares to talk back like that to his master and benefactor how Lord Jefferson allowed it? she went on about how should Raphael be grateful for his Lord’s generosity and how he should strive to honor his names and not causing him troubles like he did, she could and would go on and on if Lord Jefferson hadn’t sent here out, she thought badly of it and was angry to him but with all here speech and rage she had failed to notice Raphael, who was standing in silence and just watched her with eyes colder than winter. Alex though did notice and decide right then and there that he would cut all ties with his old friend. He told him as much and he agreed to give him half (his share) of the gold they had stolen and half of his earnings since he became a Lord. They agreed to keep it secrete and Raphael would just disappear in thin air, at the next day they met at dawn, Alex took the gold and left without even counting, he knew that it was all there at the last penny and as promised he disappeared never to be heard for a long, long time.

A decade passed and Jordan didn’t thought of Alex for a single moment, he saw his son grow along side his wife and he was sad when they had to sent him to that school were students stayed to learn. Those were good years and nothing could make them better.

They say that thunder hits the taller trees, that’s also true for tragedy’s as the hit the harder those that are at the pick of their joy.

The first hit for Lord Jefferson came with his wife. As she was taking a stroll through the forest with some of her friends, and some guards of course, a pack of rabid dog’s appeared, even though they were quickly chased away she was bitten and fell ill, the doctors did their best they could but she succumb to the illness after a week. Jordan was devastated, he walked around the house like a madman, never stopping and talking to himself and at times he stopped, looked at the direction of her room and burst in tears. The whole town mourned with him. The funeral was held as for the young lord (Lord Jefferson’s kid) to come back from school, he was expected after a week, but he was late. A week and a half passed when a messenger arrived with news for Lord Jefferson. The carriage that his son was in was attacked by bandits. They killed everyone accept the kid whom they took hostage possibly for ransom. They were tracked by the city guards and were on the run with the kid for a couple of days. Finally the left the kid behind, but the kid wasn’t fine, he was under a shock and he was acting strange, any time anyone tried to get close to him he screamed. He had various cuts on his body and a broken leg, but nothing that wouldn’t heal. The grieving husband heard the news seemingly without caring, as if he had heard that this year’s crop was wasted and gave the order to begin his wife funeral.

His son he sent with a heavy heart to mental institution to be taken care off until he would get better and resume his studies. All the servants were gradually gone and only a woman was to bring him food once per day. All alone stayed in his mansion and no one saw him again.

The silence of the room echoed the silence of his heart. How long since the death of his wife? Three weeks? Four? A year? He couldn’t tell. As he couldn’t tell what day was it, or when was the last time he spoke to any man? When was the last time he bathed? The last time he shaved? Was it important? Once it was. To his wife it was. Maybe he would ask the woman that brought him food. No, he probably wouldn’t? How to talk to her? How to talk? Did he remember even that? He tried to make a sound, to say a “hi” but it died in his throat, what good was his ability to speak if she didn’t heard him? So he stayed still sitting on the chair of his office. Waiting.

A door was broken and a loud crash was heard as it hit the floor. Steps echoed to the once beautiful halls. He didn’t care, let them all come and take what they want. It didn’t mater any more. The steps stopped in front of his door. A moment of quiet and the door was lunged open. There stood Alex.

He took a slow, good look at his once friend. He had changed and it wasn’t cause of the years. A scar ruined half his face and the nose was almost none existent. He wore leather armor the kind that the bandits use, various knifes were at his belt along with a sword and a club. But most terrifying were his eyes, oh those eyes. So cold, so distant, so hungry for… you. For any and all the object’s that they gazed upon. Those eyes so full of evil, evil at its purest form, and madness was there to? Was it always there? Maybe. At least it was when they had their big fight, he could remember now, there was madness in there but then he couldn’t see it, maybe it was his happy life that hide it from him, his wife was alive then and his son healthy. Maybe now could see the madness in his eyes because of the madness that he saw in himself. Maybe that was it. They stayed still and looked at each other for what seamed to him to be days, but maybe was seconds. He didn’t lift from his chair and Alex didn’t make a motion to sit.

-       What do you want?

-       To see you suffer.

-       Are you happy with what you see?

-       Yes.

-       Well fuck you. I might be pathetic now, but I take comfort at the joy I have felt and that you never will, I might be mad, but once, for a while I was the happiest person alive, with my beautiful wife and amazing child.

-       Oh yes that bitch.

The eyes of Jordan throw thunders but he didn’t rise to the bait. So Alex continued.

-       It was, at the end of the day, her fault that you burned my house, ha! She even dared to speak down to me, that’s why I killed her.

The color left Jordan’s face at the heard of the last words.

-       You are lying. That can’t be true, she was killed by mad dogs.

-       And who brought the dogs? Who unleash them? A pack of rabid dogs roams the forest and none other was attacked in two days walk? Ha! I brought them and I can tell you it was a plain pain in the ass.

-       Murderer! Hate filled his voice, his muscles were so tense that he couldn’t move from the chair even if he wanted.

-       Why you are better? It was you that killed that old man remember? It was you that started my nightmares and here you were all smug in you new cloths and fancy lessons ordering my like a servant, and that bitch looking me with disgust, only if she knew what kind of man she had beside her. You don’t speak? Well that’s just fine, want to know something else? I also had your son kidnapped, another tough job for me to pull.

He started walking at the room while he spoke, Jordan eyes followed his every step, count each of his breath as if he was the center of all and for those moments he was the center of Jordan’s universe.

-       I needed two teams, the first did the actual kidnapping and left the trail for the men to follow, at some point they gave the kid to the second team that took it and had all the time in the world to toy with it. I was there you know, since I couldn’t actually see that bitches demise I had to se the breaking of her son and it was such a glorious sight, I even played with him myself, torture him until he cried her name, but it was you he asked the most, well what do you think about that? I sure laughed my heart out.

-       Damn you what do you want? To destroy me? Well you did, just look around you.

Jordan managed to sit straight at his chair and to look like the lord he once was or pretend to be. His clothes were shaggy and his face unshaved but his eyes now had the spark that his wife once saw and loved.

-       Look I am alone and broken and sick so finish your job and be gone. Do your act and bring my end.

-       Oh you end will come but not by my hand, I want you to feel as I did after you killed that old man, tormented by nightmares with only escape the alcohol, not being able to sleep starting to doubt your own eyes starting to doubt your world, hoping that all is a lie and that tomorrow you will wake at your mothers home, I want you to taste the despair I tasted to be engulfed in the same flames that I was burned. That’s what I want.

-       You are insane.

-       No, I was insane, I was driven insane by the nightmares but then I found the salvation the sweet salvation of death, only in the presence of death I would be free of my nightmares so I bathed in death I flourished in it and grow. Now I came before you to let you fully comprehend the size of your heresy, if you just only did what I told you if you only didn’t treat me like a servant if you only hadn’t heard that whore, your life would be as perfect as you remember it.

With a scream Jordan pulled his two knifes he kept under the table, once, not long ago, for safety, the first he throw at Alex and the second hold it in his hand with white knuckles from the tension.

Alex avoided the knife and draw his sword. Seeing that his attack was futile Jordan spoke.

-       I curse you demon, I curse you with all my heart, so you want to see me suffer well that want happen I will take at least that joy from you.

More than half mad, with a swift motion he cut his throat and fell to the floor bleeding and breathing at the same time his own blood. His last thoughts were on his son and how alone he might be, but his wife awaited him so he had to go.

-       Fool, fool, fool! The last came at as a scream. No you shouldn’t die, you don’t have that right. No! You must live, you must suffer!.

Finally after a while, Alex managed to calm his breath and started thinking. He made one final insult to the old, now dead, friend of his, he wrote a document using the pen and papers of the office that confessed how exactly Lord Jefferson had come up with his money and all the tricks he used to establish his name. Giggling like a madman stated at the end that he was now expecting the devil to come and collect his soul. He carefully took some of the blood of the wound and drip it on the paper so it looked like he was sitting on his chair or over it when he cut his throat. After he was done he marveled his work and started laughing.

-       Ha ha ha! Yes, I await the devil, hahaha, the devil come for my soul. Ahaha.

Still laughing he left the villa and went back to his band of outlaws. They weren’t his friends, those persons that lusted as he, the craved as he, that killed only with slightly less pleaser than he, weren’t his friends, how can a lion befriend a wolf? Even if the wolf obeys the lion is be right the better creature.

The idea first came to him years ago, at that first journey that poor old Jordan had sent him, a team of minds like his own, to kill and rape and plunder and most importantly not get caught. Be cause he was careful, oh so careful. He never attacked the same town again for at least a year. Never the same caravan route, and when they were checked they had Lord Jefferson’s sealed documents that proved their identity. Ingenious indeed. Of course the execution of the attacks were of great importance but he Alex had saw the best at work, inspired by the acts of Jordan that night with the storm he planed every step with caution. Attacks that could be blamed at anyone long after themselves had officially left an area, false evidence and accusation of others as they had pretend to be “victims” themselves. His men saw all that and were in awe of him, they were also afraid of him that was a given, but they followed him because they knew he has good. No! He was far from good, he was the best. He had lead them years now, lead them to murders and massacres and riches and pleasures none of them had ever dreamt, but most important was that they were never caught, never.

With all those thoughts in his head he went to his tent, took a bottle that was left and asked loudly to sent him his whore. Tonight he was to celebrate.

-       I await the devil ha!

Suddenly the temperature fall several degrees at once, he could see his own breath like it was winter, what sorcery was this? He tried to rise but found that he was unable to move. The tents curtain open and a figure entered. The devil smiled and he started to scream and didn’t stop. After two hours he couldn’t make a sound but his mouth was still open trying to force the pain out of him, his muscles tense like no man’s ever were. His men tried to make him sleep with drugs and alcohol, a mixture that would have knocked a horse out didn’t even made him flinch, they tried to make him sleep with a knock on the head and he didn’t even notice, they called a doctor and he said that he was mad, a priest and he said that he was possessed. After three days one of his men slit his throat because he couldn’t take it any more that silent scream of terror.