He woke up again on a shore, checked himself and was completely healed, his bullet wounds turned into scars. The necklace was around his neck along with his gold coins still intact in his pocket. He walked away from the shores towards the land and reached a hill, where he could see a small farm not so far away. He walked towards the farm and approached behind the farmer, 45, that was feeding his stock.

"Oh you nearly startled me there. Can I help you?" asked the farmer nervously.

"I need a place to stay and rest please." begged Richard.

"You should go down to the town, maybe they can help you. They do community needs if you're struggling." he replied.

"No no, please. Maybe this will change your mind." said Richard as he offers the farmer a gold coin.

The farmer without hesitation, invited Richard into his home and gave him fresh clothes to wear. Him and his wife had a private conversation about his stay.

"Here, please sit down, this is my wife, Margaret. She made some warm food for you to eat." said the farmer.

"Thank you." replied Richard.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"It's Richard, Lawrence sir.” he replied as gulped his cup of water.

"I am Robert, so Where did you come from may I ask?" asked Robert.

"I prefer that you won't, please." said Richard as he was visibly disturbed.

"oh okay. Uh well, you can stay as long as you need, but in the meantime, I dont mean to bother you but maybe you can help me around here if you are looking for some work, I could use the help running this farm. Richard briefly felt nostalgic as he was reminded the first time Captain Howler proposed him a similar proposition. He nods his head and agrees. Within that moment, a young woman walks out the bedroom and stood before him nervously.

"I'm heading to work, is there anything I should bring back with from the store." asked the young woman her parents.

"This my daughter, Anne. This is our guest. Don’t be rude and greet him." said Robert.

"Good morning sir." she said as Richard was visibly mesmerized.

“Ma’am.” he said with a smile, smoothly keeping eye contact with her.

"Bread and some cake for our guest.” said Margaret.

"Okay, see you later, love you." she said as she walks out in a hurry.

"When you're ready I'll be outside." said Robert.

"I will prepare your room." said Margaret as she went to prepare storage room.

"Thank you." He replied while he continued to eat his food.

As he finished, he sat there, motionless thinking about his unforgettable experience. He leaves the house and helps Robert plant vegetation.

“Don’t you want get some sleep first.” said Robert as he saw him looking visibly exausted.

“No I’m good.” he replied as he could not get himself to sleep.

After a long day’s work, Robert was relieved that his stress was reduced thanks to more manpower on the farm.

"Today must be my lucky day. This is actually the first time where I finished twice the work in one day. Come Dinner is almost ready.” he said joyfully.

Richard decides to sit outside, and watch the beautiful Golden sunset. Anne returns from her work, climbing off a wagon and waves her colleagues goodbye. She arrives at the porch and sees him looking at her.

"Ma'am, will you care to join me?" he asked.

Anne, nervously hesitated and sat down an arm's length away.

"What kind of work do you?" he asked gently.

"I'm a nurse. Where did you come from?" she asked curiously.

"England." he replied.

She continues to remain quiet for a while, before she noticed him shifting little by little closer to her.

"What made you come here?" she nervously asked.

"Complicated, you see I'm a sailor or should I say I was." he replied as he kept eye contact.

Astonished, she was about to continue the conversation but was interrupted when Robert came out the house, which she instantly distanced herself from Richard. Robert brought out some left-over wine to enjoy with Richard, thanking him for the gold coin. For 5 weeks, him and Anne would only have an hour a day, where in that time they would secretly meet behind the house, having fun and getting to know each other more. The two were convinced they were soul mates.

“My father likes you but he wouldn’t approve this.” she said.

“I can handle your father. How hard can it be?” he replied as he lifted her with a hug.

“I highly doubt that.” she replied.

“what makes you say that?” he asked.

She dips her hand in the water bucket, flicks it at him and said, “You can’t even fold your clothes properly”.

“Oh so you’re stalking me now.” he said as he got closer to her.

“No! --I wasn’t Stalking. I was—uh” she uttered before she was interrupted.

“longing for me, I know. I wouldn’t be able to resist me either.” he said which caused her to blush.

Richard, for the first time since the Island incident laughed.

“You’re different.” she said as she looked into his eyes.

“Well If you must know, I don't know what you put into that stew but it was delicious-" he said before he was interrupted.

"No not silly- since you came here. You never told me how you ended up here." she said.

"-I get this, sensational rush of happiness every time I see you. When I look into your eyes, I see calmness, hopefulness, bringing warmness to my cold heart. I have no other way of putting this, I love you Anne!” said Richard.

Her heart melted with joy and replied, “I love you too.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

He gently holds her chin and leans forward slowly. Their eyes smoothly closed as time slowed down, each thinking about the sensation of their lips touching but was caught by Robert before anything happened.

“What’s going on here?” he asked visibly confused.

“I was just helping her with—uh wool-ling? Knitting yes.” replied Richard as her took the sheep fur and preteneded to do something with it.

“Dinner is ready come.” said Robert as he kept looking back while walking away.

They gather in the dining room and Richard decided to make an unexpected announcement.

“I'm going to be honest, I was at a low point in my life, and you took me in, fed me. I couldn’t be more grateful. Truth be told, I didn’t see any point in living, but then I met Anne, who is my whole new purpose, one I seek an ever-lasting joyful life with.” he said.

Anne was shocked and felt nervously overjoyed as she looked at her parents who were grateful and some-what confused.

"Mr. Roberts, Ms. Margaret, I love your daughter and I want to marry her." said Richard with confidence.

Anne was completely speechless. There was some hesitation, but Richard offered four cold coins and The parents approved. There was one more decision that awaited.

"Anne, Will you make me the happiest man in the world?" he asked with a soft and calm tone.

Everyone was waiting for Anne's answer. She jumps out her seat and hugs Richard while shouting, "Yes!".

They got married and moved into the Urban areas, some distance from the farm. Richard used his last two coins to buy a property and lived in it with his newly beloved wife. He was currently out of money and went to seek out a job in town where he was informed of a local Mine looking for new employees. The job was given and he would go daily to the mine to dig out valuable resources. As time went by, Richard got accustomed to his new life. A steady pay, a home and a wife to go back to, All a man could dream for. He arrives at his residence, enters and sees Anne stand before him in the middle of the passage. Richard walks closer and hugs her.

"Everything alright?" he asked nervously.

She smiled and calmly said, “I'm pregnant.”.

Richard picks her up from the ground and laughs with excitement.

"I'm going to be a father? I'm going to be a father.” he screamed while tears of joy ran down his face.

Nine months later, the day has come for a new life to brought to the Lawrence family. Anne was in the bedroom, with several woman including Margaret to help her give birth. Richard waited outside, walking up and down nervously. Motionless, he stood there as he could hear her screams. He holds his necklace tight, hoping for the best. Suddenly it went complete silent.

A woman comes out and informed Richard that Anne had a miscarriage. His heart fell down to the earth and rushed inside to check up on Anne. She laid on the bed holding and crying over her deceased baby. He sits beside her and comforts her over their loss. They took their time to look at the child before handing over to him. He prayed to lady of Sedall once more for her assistance. He pleaded for her to answer but there was no response. The family were weary of Richard's belief but just took it as a sign of grieving process.

After Anne was finished holding the dead infant, he gently wraps it with a cloth and walks out the house. They took the body and buried it at the graveyard. The week was hard for the couple. Richard would lack motivation at his work and Anne would hardly eat her food. He would try his best cheering her up but has to inform her some bad news.

" I'm needed for a double shift at the Mine and won't be able to return home until tomorrow night." he said.

She tried to talk him out of it but understood the work was needed to pay their basic needs. He leaves the house, climbs on a wagon with several other men and waves at her as he rides off to the mine. Anne feeling lonely invited some of her friends for an afternoon tea at her place. They had a good time, discussing and gossiping about a lot of things. As Anne went to the kitchen to refill the tea pot, one of the friends heard a voice in her head telling her to check the cupboard in the lounge.

She opens it and a pile of papers fell out. Drawing of hideous monsters, including written work describing ways of contacting the 'devil'. Anne returns with the tea but sees the neighbours horrified and walks out the door with haste. Anne, visibly confused looked at the papers and started panicking.

"Wait-- this isn't mine." She said as she drops the papers, locks the door and starts to panic.

News spread through the town and by dusk, a crowd gathered outside her home, with forks and torches, led by a religious preacher who exorcists ‘devil sympathizers’. Several men forced their way in and dragged her out the house. They transported her to the centre of the town, where they tied her up to a pole, piled wood by her feet and poured oil all over it. Anne pleaded for her life but the people were being exploited through their belief, as the preacher stated their actions were justifiable.

“let tonight show, the evil that roam this world will not corrupt us! This witch and along with her kind shall BURN!” shouted the preacher as the crowd cheered, screaming slurs and spitting on the ground. The preacher throws the torch at Anne’s feet, igniting the pile of wood into a giant blazing fire. Her screams would echo through out the valley as her flesh burns off her bones.

“Richard!” she cried out to him.

Nothing but the sound of crackles in the fire followed after. The people stare as Anne was motionless, officially deceased. The people went their separate ways and acted like everything was back to normal. Two days later, Richard returned from the mine, on the same wagon he rode off with. As they ride through the centre of the town, he sees the burned ground, unaware his wife was sentenced to death. He was dropped off at his residence, only to find it was closed down. He walked over to his neighbor's house and knocks on the door.

“Yes I’m coming-- Richard?” answered the neighbor nervously.

“I came back from work and saw my home vandalized? Is Anne here with you?” he asked.

The neighbor was anxious to reply and tried closing the door on him.

“Alan- Don't close the door on me. Where is my wife, Alan?” asked Richard in a more serious tone.

Alan told him the events that unfolded while he was away as well identifying those who were part of it and where to find them. Seething, Richard calmly leaves Alan and walks away. He walked back to where Anne was burned alive. Holding his tears in, he apologizes for not giving the life he promised her as he stood over the spread out charcoal.

Hours later, Richard patiently waited for every man who was involved to gather at their usual pub. He enters and spots the preacher along with the group of men who murdered his wife and walks over to them.

“Preacher?” he asked.

“Who’s asking?” replied the preacher.

Richard pulls out and axe and swings it at him, cracking his skull open and continues to swing it on the dead corpse back and forth until the men tried fighting him off. Richard suffered multiple severe stabbings and was losing a lot of blood which rendered his ability to move. The remaining men held him down and continued stabbing him to death. Within that moment, inches away from death, he felt some relieve of seeing his wife again.

With one last breath, he said, “I’m sorry Anne”.

Richard finally died and the men got off his corpse. As they walked away from the dead body, Richard came back alive, confused and enraged at the same time, he grabbed the knife and went back on a murdering spree. He leaves the pub with a pile of dead bodies in there, soaked with their blood, hunting the rest of Anne’s accusers.

He kills them mercilessly before he was confronted by George Nolan, the 1st Kal Blade along with his two sons, Elijah and William Nolan. George tried calming Richard down. During that moment, his sons would slowly circle around Richard, cornering him. Richard, drops his axe down and surrenders, but before he could surprise attack Elijah, George shoots him in the chest with his musket. He falls down, dies, comes back alive, still enraged, gets shot multiple times, dies and comes back alive, again.

“Tie him up before he moves again. We will take him back with us.” said George as they load him up on the back of the wagon and transferred him to the underground cell within the bunker.

For the past year, They would experiment with Richard, trying to make sense of his immortality. William, the younger brother of the two, would bring every evening dinner to the prisoner, showing more empathy than the rest.

“My apologies for your loss. I can’t imagine what you must be going through. We partly feel guilty because we weren’t around, there was -uh” said William before he was interrupted.

“That is enough. Stop speaking with the prisoner.” interrupted George as he opens a book.

He started reading words that sounded gibberish to Richard, but was casting multiple spells and killing him each time.

“This one is beyond curing. Only one solution remains.” said George.

They transported him once again to the local Mine where it was bought off and cleared out.

“Your existence shall disrupt society, and for that you can not walk the earth. For the sake of yourself and everyone else, here you shall remain till the end of time.”

They chained him up, several meters down and left the Mine, sealing the entrance for good. Richard lost sense of time, sitting in the dark, starving to death and being revived again, repeating the process over and over for the past three hundred years.

“then you came along and now here I am.” said Richard as the back-story ends.

Lauren just sat there, sad and speechless.

“Damn.” said Quade as he felt uneasy.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to watch TV.” said Richard as he goes to the lounge.

“It all makes sense, why he acts the way he does. Survivors guilt.” said Lauren.

“That was depressing.” said Quade as he stood up, scratching his head.

“I know, I could tell he was in pain but I didn’t think it was this bad, fuck.” she replied.

Quade looked at the branded tattoo picture and with little fear said,“This is not enough to clarify what we are up against. If Lady Sedall was a ruse, he might’ve signed his life away to something far worse”.