• It was a rainy day at the manor, unforgiving, unsympathetic in any way of the losses in its wake. There lay three men in the field outside, and beside them a woman with a man knelt beside her writhing in grief. Benjamin Tiller was the man, and the woman he held, his late wife, Katherine. The water on the men's armor glinted in the light of Tiller's torch, and the sword beside him shone a crimson glow. Tiller could only sit and stare at his beloved who once, only seconds ago, was thriving with life. “How could this happen,” Tiller thought, “why did this happen?” The feelings, unbearable, Tiller's thoughts drifted off.
    Tiller thought back to when he and Katherine where just acquaintances, how they had so much in common and where so happy just being near each other. They would go to shows in town, and have dinner together, or they would go to their friends' houses and attend their dinner parties. When they had no place to go, they would go on walks just to be with each other. Then one day, he asked her to marry him, move out of the town and settle down on a beautiful lot, full of trees and rolling hills. It was the happiest days of their lives, newly wed and more in love than ever. Every moment that went by just seemed to strengthen their love. The years would go by and Katherine would become pregnant and have a beautiful baby boy, but the world is a cruel place.
    The expression on Tiller's face was misconstrued and indistinguishable. He couldn't take the grief filling his heart and the memories, while good and true, were all the more a kick to the face. Tiller screamed out in anguish, thinking, “Why did this happen?” This question riddled Tiller more than anything, who would do such a thing and why? His mind flashed back to a few images caught in his mind. When Tiller was last in town a week ago, he was in Fletcher's shop, putting up his wares for sale. Fletcher was a close enough friend to Tiller as to let him sell wares through his shop for free, so long as he didn't have to hunt Tiller down to give him his revenue. The thing that caught Tiller's eye was a man he had never seen before in town, Fletcher knew nothing about him, and the man came up to the counter with a sword. The man shot a glance at Tiller through his dark beady eyes, but didn't hold any sort of eye contact with either men. He bought the sword and left without saying a word. Tiller looked out the window and saw the man talking to someone in the streets and saw them pointing towards the shop, and then out in a direction that didn't make sense considering there were no buildings that way. Tiller then realized “I should've known, but who would have done anything.”
    Tiller carried Katherine to a spot in the workshop, and proceeded to search through the other men's belongings. Tiller got to the last one and found a few pieces of wrinkled paper, and returned to the workshop. Once he opened up the papers and looked through them, his theory was confirmed. There were some papers that looked like they were from a log of sorts, they detailed the confines of Tiller's property and what time would be best to rob the estate. Tiller's hands started trembling as he continued through the papers, they had a meeting place in case they ran into any problems, “Then why didn't they just run?!” Tiller yelled, “It wasn't enough for them to take my work, but they had to take the one irreplaceable thing in my life away from me?!” Suddenly Tiller thought, “A few of them did run though... maybe I should meet up with them...” Tiller went over to the bodies and stooped down to pick up his blade when he saw the upstairs window. “I can't... I can't go to jail over this, I'd be leaving Christopher to a life without any parents...” Tiller's hands tightened and started shaking more, and grasping his sword, Tiller thrust his sword into one of the already dead men beside him. The rain was still pouring and getting even greater. The men had given a good fight, but nothing was to match Tiller's anger as he saw Katherine fall lifeless to the ground before him, in that second the men almost fell dead at the mere sight of his rage, but now they lay lifeless, and the others fled when they could. Tiller went inside and grabbed a clean white sheet from inside, and covered the body of Katherine in the workshop. Tiller attempted to hold back his tears as he moved back inside, for the sake of his son, and checked to see if he was alright. Christopher was soundly asleep in the crib he had made him just months ago, tears were wanting to come to Tiller's eyes, but he couldn't hold back the smirk on his face. “He'll see her again,” Tiller said both hopefully and somberly, “we'll both see her again.”
    The next afternoon came and a funeral was held in the field. There were no large decorations, there were no large crowds, there was the priest, Tiller, Fletcher, and the coffin that carried the body of Katherine. They had a simple speech and a small message, but it was still heart-wrenching. Tiller swore to raise Christopher to be an upstanding person like his mother would have had him be, and to show the same love and sternness she would have, and Fletcher swore to be there for Christopher if anything should ever happen to Tiller. The funeral concluded, and Tiller was left alone, just staring at the fresh grave of his love. Tiller couldn't cry anymore, he decided to not cry over the loss, but rather, he decided to look forward to the day he would meet his love in the sky and await there son, together.