Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 The American Civil War still was months away and it had been weeks since
John brutally slayed Clarisa.Anti-slavery fighters were popping up all over
the place.  A neighboring plantation had been hit the previous week andhad
suffered hard.  The owner was shot in his bed, his wife forced to strip
before being tied to a pillar in front of the house and burned alive.  The
two boys on the plantation were quick to join the fighters while the three
girls ages 15, 16, and 18 were stripped of their clothes and dragged off
when the fighters left.

   John now kept a gun by his bed, and held his wife tightly each night. 
His son Jonathan had ran off and had not been seen or heard from.  His
daughters he had moved into make-shift beds by his own.

   It was a quiet night in late February, the Hotchkiss family had just
bedded down for the night.  Outside a dozen men entered the property.

   "Jonathan, this is your place isnt it?"

   "Yes it is."

   "Who lives here?  How many men?"

   "My father.  My brother has been gone since my father told him to leave
and not come back."

   "Women?"

   "My mother, and three sisters."

   "Your sister's names and ages?"

   "Madeleine is 15, Victoria is 16, and Gabriel is 18."

   "Do you care what happens to them?"

   "Not a care in the world.  There is a gun by my father's bed...he know's
how to use it too."

   "Henry and Mark bring the girls out...Patrick, Nathan...make sure to tie
the husband and wife to their bed and then burn the house.  Every one else
head north to the next one."

   On the second floor Gabriel awoke to a thud coming from downstairs.  She
got out of bed moving into the hallway, and upon rounding a corner, a large
hand covered her mouth, dragginger her outside.Two more men burst into the
bedroom, but John had awoke and had his gun ready.

   "Dont shoot mister...you're outnumbered!" Henry said as he leveled his
shotgun.  "Put the gun down!"

   "Get the hell out of my house!"

   "Put the gun down!  I will fire!  Mark, Patrick...get those girls
outside with the other one...I told you to put the damn gun down!"

   "Get out or I will fire!"

   "Do it!" Henry dared.  BANG!  Nathan crumpled.  "You yellow bastard!"
Henry said pointing his revolver.  BANG!  BANG!  BANG!  Three times in the
legs forced John to drop the gun, his wife beginning to bawl.  "May God
help you both!" He said dragging Nathan out before shutting the door,
barricading it.  He then lit a candle before lighting some paper he then
placed strategically.  The house engulfed with flames and screams from the
bedroom, Henry carried Nathan outside.

   "How bad is he?" Howard asked.

   "Shotgun to the belly...he done for." Now Howard was filled with rage as
he turned to his three captives.

   "How many slaves your daddy got?"

   "Five" said Gabriel.

   "Do you know what we did with the girls on that other plantation?" None
of them gave any answer.  "Ill tell ya...we took em to the woods.  We got
the middle one...held her hands out to her sides.  Then we cut off her
dress, and forced her to face a tree.  They owned ten slaves.  We doubled
it...20 lashes with the whip.  When that was over we took an old knife
handle.  We spread her legs good and wide and gave her a goin in with that
handle...God, she moaned like a whore!  We dont like whores!  We hung
her...then we stripped the other two...had a little "fun" and then shot
them in the bellies.  We dont know when they died cause we left...but
theyre dead.  You the oldest?" he asked Gabriel.

   "Yes" she murmured.  A man approached her, cutting the her nightdress
down the middle.  Her proportionate breasts shown in the moonlight.  The
man grabbed them before pinching the nipples.  "Ahh!  Stop it!" Her screams
were futile.  Her breasts were handled in every way the men could think of
before they moved to her womanhood.  Fingers from five 4 men parted her
smooth outer lips, violating her worse then she ever thought possible.

   As she moaned Howard dropped his pants.  Walking over to Gabrielle, he
signaled the others to go for the other two.  No he shoved her to the
ground, her bawling becoming worse.  Forcing her legs apart, he wasted no
time in forcing himself into her.  "NOOOO!  Stop...uhg..." Finally he had
had enough, his rod drained of its fluids which now mingled with small
amounts of blood seeping from her deflowered slit.

   "On your knees!" he yelled.  She hesitated but complied slowly.  He
moved behind her and pointed the weapon at the back of her head.  BANG! 
"Ok boys you've had your fun for the night" he said to the other men who
were violently forcing themselves into the other two Hotchkiss girls.  A
knife was drawn and ran across Victoria's throat while Madeleine was gagged
and blindfolded.  A rope was placed around her neck, the other end over a
tree.

   "No!  Please!  Dont...pleagsed" her words mashed as she was pulled into
the air.  The Hotchkiss family, or the ones who remained on the plantation
had, in the fighter's mind, gotten what they deserved.