Lost World

Ladies and gentlemen... the West

"Peter! You said you would help me and look at what you've done! You've done nothing but left me worse off than before! Trust is something hard to come by in a world we're living in... you were all I had... you were the only chance I had left... and look what you've done... "

I guess I should explain a little more before I let you listen a little more into that conversation now shouldn't I? An explanation to how things progressed this far might be needed correct? You wanna know my story? Fine. Be prepared for what you're going to find out though. People are not always as they seem, and I sure as hell am no exception. Neither are you.

Take the year, 1854. A western Sahara background. Small towns. Good food, dust... a lot of dust... and a good and large population of criminals running around.

Yeah. Western civilization, if you could even call it that.

People were civil until you owed them something. That's always how it went. Didn't matter what it was either. Could have been a piece of Straw for damned sake! If people weren't given what they were owed, all hell broke loose.

Murder.
Beatings.
Kidnapping.
Theft.

Yeah, civilization, right?

Let's begin a story, shall we? Maybe for all of you who don't understand the civilization of the west just yet.

Patrick Murphy. As "good" of a man you could get in the west. Successful, as in the fact that he didn't run around the towns trying to pick battles with every single person who appeared a "challenger". Successful, as in this man didn't have to rob little pubs in order to make some form of support he could live on. Successful as in, he didn't want to get killed.

Good enough of an example for "success" right?

Well, good. Let's move on then.

Patrick Murphy had a wife and two children. Had a business, most reliable banker in town. Had property. This man had everything, he was living the life any man would dream of.

Then there was Vincent. No. Not the artist. In that case he might as well have been named Vincent Van No.... either way... Vincent was a criminal, someone who wanted profit for only himself.

One day these two men had their paths meet. Vincent wanted what Patrick had. He wanted all of it.

Now, I'm not positive if many of you know this, but back in the 1800's, in the west, there were often challenges that took place between two men... but these are nothing like you would expect.

These challenges seemed innocent enough, but darkness lurks in everything. In everyone. Might I add again... ESSPECIALLY IN THE WEST!

Would you like an example? I'm sure you're aching with anticipation!

Vincent challenged Patrick to a horse race. Simple right? Two steeds running around like the wild stallions they are... dust... so much dust... flying into the air as the horses hooves pounded against the ground. That's all it could be right?

Wrong.

Vincent was a criminal. Criminals never tell their plans, especially when they want something. Especially when they want everything.

So Vincent took poor ol' Patrick out into the desert to have their race, and all was well at first, as a matter of fact Patrick was winning that race! His horse was running as fast as he could and he was loving every second of it!

Ol' Patrick could taste a victory! But criminals always have a plan. That's right. Vincent was one of those people.

Catching on yet?

No? Fine.

Vincent had his gang of lollipop suckers hanging around one of the turns of the specified "racing track"... more or less a straight setting of dirt... and whoever they saw pass it first, if it was Vincent they would leave him be, if it was Patrick... yeah, a brutal death would await, and that's exactly what happened.

Of course, no matter what happened, ol' Patrick would have died anyways that day, because Vincent never lost a challenge. He never let his challengers live either. He had the title criminal for a reason you know?

Remember Patrick Murphy's family? His two kids? Yeah. I'm one of them. Abram is the name. Pollyanna is my sister.
My momma is Susanne, and my father was Patrick.

But remember... Vincent always gets what he wants.