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Liam sat alone in his small wooden cottage. The sun had just fallen, and he had returned from his work as a woodcutter for the Baron. The Baron was a man of expensive taste, and had ordered all local men who were otherwise unemployed into unpaid servitude cutting down trees for one of his many grand expansions to his castle estate. Everyone in the town was on the “Baron’s Registry”, so there was no use resisting or ignoring his decrees. That is what Liam had been doing for the past 6 months, working and sitting alone in his cottage. This night looked like it would be all too similar.

        Liam felt a rush of cool air, and all of the candles in his one-room cottage were extinguished. He rushed to put them back on, and as he looked around for an open window or door, he saw a skeleton sitting in the chair he had just gotten out of. The skeleton was wearing a brown robe, glasses, was wielding a scythe used in the fields and was smoking a pipe. Liam grabbed for his axe.

 

        “There will be no need for that, Liam Smith,” the skeleton spoke. Liam’s brain was in overdrive, dealing with all of the supernatural things that seemed to be happening.

 

        “Who are you and what do you want?” asked Liam, surprising himself with how steady a voice he kept.

        “I am Death, Liam, and I have come to offer you repayment.” Liam said nothing.

 

        “You can join her Liam, or you can avenge her. The Baron has cheated death; he has not paid for what he has taken from me.”

 

        “I want to avenge her.” Liam struggled to keep a firm grip on his axe as he felt his insides turn upside down. His head swam with visions and then everything went black. He felt himself slam into the floor. As he stood up and looked around, he realized he was in the Baron’s estate. He was in a carpeted hallway with a wooden table in the middle on one wall and a door leading to another room. He walked to table and examined the sheets there.

 

Subject#125: Ryan Axel-Death from a falling tree was raised later that night.

Subject#126-150: The killings from peasants refusing to work. All raised.

Subject#151: Sarah Smith-Killed and raised as punishment for her husband Liam’s insubordination.

       

        Rage swept over Liam, even though he knew it was too late to save her. Revenge was the only thing left in his mind. A map of the estate seemed to conjure itself in his head, although he had never been here before. The Baron’s bedroom was only a few rooms away. Liam ran out of the door and from room to room, swinging his axe like a berserker and felling guards left and right. He burst into the Baron’s bedroom, and before he knew it the Baron lay dead by his feet. He felt the turning in his stomach again and collapsed.

 

        This time he rose next to a section of the stone wall surrounding the castle. Death was sitting in a wooden chair leaning against the wall. Liam stood next to him.

 

        “Are you ready?” asked Death. Liam nodded, and then died.