The Chronicles of L.j. Stevans: Part 10

                                                                        Part 10. The Sacrifice of Jack Hundley

                                                                            by David VanCura

My Dear Friends,

After everything that has taken place over the past few weeks, I didn't think my heart could sink any lower, but I was wrong. I have had to kill a member of the Family in Desmond and even though he was mere moments from ending my own life, his death weighs heavily on me. It is a shame my sister had to die in the manner she did, it is true she was not a good person by any standards but still, she was my sister. I do not enjoy taking lives, it sticks to me like the most humid sweat. When I started this Chronicle it was so I could re live the past to gain a more clear picture of it and help me plan for the future. I never expected to learn the things I have, but it is done and now I can only move forward. The time for action is growing near and after my latest horrid discovery this morning. After learning what I did from the sacrifice I would soon discover Jack made, I am looking to my impending confrontation with my Father and his Brother with a new anger ….a new fire....one that will only be extinguished by their final painful breath.

After the chilling letter my Father posted I knew the game had changed and since that day Jack had been acting very strangely. I now know why. Jack had been reading on my ancestors and more in general than I had ever seen him in our more than 40 years of friendship, and when he told me he had some more information to acquire I didn't give it a second thought. Why could I not see the signs, perhaps there where none to be seen because Jack wished it so. Or perhaps I just wasn't looking as hard as I should have been.

This morning I heard a faint scratching at my door, I thought it to be a stray animal that tend to visit my home from time to time. When I opened the door to find a blood covered Jack it more than set me on my heels. His face barely recognizable under the swelling and his blood soaked matted hair. There was a large gash on his left side from which blood flowed freely. Any other man would never have survived as long as he had but Jack, my best friend, my hero, a man like a Dad to me was no random person. If he was still living after all he obviously endured, it was because he found something and his secret mission he embarked on alone was not yet over. He collapsed into my arms, his breathing was faint but his voice did not tremble and he spoke with purpose. These would be the last words he would utter aloud but not the last time I heard his voice. He would see to that. “My Boy, listen to me” he said with focus in his Grey eyes. “Listen to the words I have recorded on this tape, it will explain all you need to know. Fight on, Logan, he cannot win.......” With those words he was gone. I held him as I watched the last glimmer of light fade from his eyes.

I found clutched in his hands a small recorder with a tape still in it. I will now write every word he said onto this tape. I will not change one word, on my bond and enforced by my inability to lie, everything you will now read is just the way Jack said it. If you are not one to believe in the fantastic, then you are now wasting your time reading on. Due to these words I now have a choice to make and maybe a sacrifice of my own as well. The transcription of this tape begins as such.....

…..Logan, I am sorry to have had to make this decision without you, however, after the things your Father said, I knew I must collect answers to my numerous questions. Time is short, fore I now stand in the Grand Library of your Fathers Mansion in Jacobs-town in the South, after the snowy mountain path. The location is only relevant due to the fact that I have succeeded in my quest for answers and you may need to know where it is when the time calls for it. Do not rush this place seeking revenge, word has already been sent to my Men to not allow this waste of an action......Pay attention now son. I found Your Fathers journals, he has collected many over his UN-naturally long existence and it is here I found what I was looking for. I simply could not take these tomes and return fore if I did then your Father would know of the things I have learned and change his time-line and plans accordingly or even worse, stop this knowledge from finding its way to you, and that I could not allow. This is the reason for the tape and my corresponding actions, please grasp that this was the only way. Here is what is important, your father has left you alive all these years for the simple reason that he had no other choice. You see, as we know your Father and Thomas age only one at a time but this alone could not account for their continued existence. Every generation they could only have one male child each and they must allow these boys to mature and grow to old age, they MUST allow them to live a full life........so that when the time was right they could absorb those life-forces and counter the aging process for them both, thus allowing them to go through the same routine in the next generation. The longer they let their boys live and more importantly the more they have them experience in their lives the stronger and more ripe the life-force would become. All the events in your life have been forced upon you in a sense so you could make the proverbial fruit more juicy. They use the formation of Family's and their misdeeds to drive you on your quests and eventually provide them with more fuel...... A ritual between the fathers and sons must take place where the sons must battle to their deaths.....the sons are always opposite of each other in almost every way and are drawn to one another at the right time. It says here that the sons must die in the presence of the Fathers and when the life is drawn from the sons bodies it will be absorbed into the Fathers. It says the battle is inevitable and has always taken place through countless generations. It does not say, however, that the sons had ever been privy to this information before the battle takes place and it is in this that we now have the upper hand........On the back cover you can see impressions were made on a page that had long since been removed, and from what I could make out from them it talks of a transference of immortality due to a reversal of fortunes but that is all I can make out.......

…......I know that my actions here have been detected, even I could not go unnoticed, it must be due to my age boy.....ha. I am putting this tape in a secret location on my person, one I do not like to use......remember Ever-Dusk out East, and the journals we need to get past the town Militia......oh my......those were the good old days were they not. You and I have traveled much together in these 40 years and I love you like a son. This is the last thing I can do to show that to you and offer a repayment for the many times you have saved my life over the years. This recording device will run until my last breath heed my words Logan.....use them.........

----------------A long silence ensues until----------------------

“EVERYTHING IN QUOTES IS SPOKEN FROM MY FATHER”

….....Were you expecting company Logan (My Father) or was all this for me. “I never thought you such a fool to come here Jack, in a hurry to die?” You killed my love your vile waste of skin, Lauren's death will be avenged tonight. You might as well as forget the boy, I will find a way to kill you here and now and save L.J. The grief of murdering his own Father. “You will find that most difficult Jack, you are well past your prime and I cannot be killed at all you old sagging bag of rotting bones, but still, this will be fun and you shall make a fine penance for the death of Bethany. I will be sure to send a message to L.J. In the form of YOUR MUTILATED CORPSE”...............

Grunts and the clanging of swords rang out into the ever present ear of the recorder, the battle raged for a long period only to be broken by the sound of flesh being sliced and then......

….................”HAHAHAHAHA fool …...oh your still live.....you are a stubborn old man......or perhaps you enjoy pain, in that case. GUARDS show this...... trespasser the error of his own stupidity and then dump him on the edge of my sons land....make him suffer.”...............

More grunts and moans of pain were all that could be heard until finally the tape ended the foul sounds that it was piercing my heart with.

I have lost another, and never has my heart ached...not since the day I met Jack.... the day my Mother was murdered, the day my soul last screamed with the agony of sorrow and loss.

So my life was just a way for you to continue your immortal existence Father, is that the case? Well what if I were to just end my life here and now...You would be gone soon as well correct? Maybe this is my purpose, simply just ensure your reign will finally be at its end! It almost makes my next course crystal clear........but I am certainly not a martyr Father. I never claimed to be, and while ending my life by my own hand would a solution I think I have a better one. I enjoy life Father and I can now see my true reason for being and that is to continue my life another generation at the expense of YOUR immortality. I will find my cousin and figure out this.....Reversal and soon I will take into my possession the only thing you will have left....your secret to eternal life.

                                                Enjoy the time you have left Logan Jeffery Stevans Sr.

                                        L.J. Stevans.