THE Chronicles of L.J. Stevans: Part 4. Getting to Know L.J.

                                                                                     
                                                                                       by David VanCura
Hello again world,

     So far I must say recalling the past has been.....interesting to say the least. The fears I may have had, just a few years ago about going public with my story, have diminished greatly. As I advance in years, I have a greater appreciation for my life. Stories that people may hear and pass on about me are one thing. However, I feel as this is the right time to share my past with you all, set the record straight and work to preserve our past for future generations. I can only hope that my past exploits will teach and entertain...... for those of you interested anyways.

     Being able to reconnect with people from my past can be a wonderful but dangerous thing. Not everyone I have encountered in my travels hold me in as high regards as Alexandra does. I have been a lot of places, helped as many as I have been able to along with helping myself along the way of course. I have never had one true focus in my life, there have been many, love, revenge, money, and the search for the truth.


     After my Mother was murdered before my eyes, I knew I had to make the difference in the world, that I was incapable of in that moment. Fear froze me for the first time that day, when I needed to act most I could not and it haunts me to this very day. I knew from that day on that my life would be a lonely road, but one I was more than willing to walk. The biggest problem with helping people in perilous situations is that in most cases, though you may have helped the person you were intending. You also have just made another enemy with the people you stopped. The one thing I certainly did not need was more enemies but if I were to be ready for the road ahead I needed to right the wrongs that were within my reach. But that comes later, to understand the things to come we must return to where it all began.

      Even by the age of 14, I was someone who had a tendency to discover things. Most people talked to me openly, even though I was just a boy. Not being able to say anything but the truth was nothing but problems for me during adolescence. Even more so when others started to figure out affliction. It didn't take long for my family to exploit this. They would all ask me questions about one another, which was my first inclination that something was.....off about them. A family with that level of mistrust even for one another is never a good one. As a boy it was more difficult to pick up on the things transpiring outside the house with them. I learned the older I got the more I would become aware to such things. Due to the fact that I was the only male child, grooming me for my future and role in the Family would begin soon.

     That all changed when I began hearing rumors from school and from around town that my Mother got around behind my Fathers back. Things I wish would not have passed through my ears. Once I learned about my Mothers perceived infidelity I knew it was just a matter of time before I was asked about it, and once that happened I knew my life would shatter like a mirror.  When my Uncle Thomas asked me about my Mother, for the first time I struggled against my nature, I wanted to lie, but there was nothing I could do. If a question is asked I must answer it with 100% truth, no exceptions. It's like a reflex, that's the best way to describe it, like a rubber mallet to the nerve in your knee. So like a mirror my life would indeed shatter. Though I tried to pick up the broken pieces of my proverbial mirror, every shard I grabbed would have a different reflection in it. Reflections of all the people I would later find to be involved in her Murder.

     After I was cast out by my Family, I, in a way started to collect others. Officer Jack Hundley, the man who arrested my Father for the slaying of my Mother was not only my first real father like connection, but would also become my first teacher about the ways of the world. Aside from becoming a second Father to me he also had a  love for my Mother and knew her in a way I never could. I knew her as the quiet yet loving person she was in our house. She appeared as almost a picture perfect counter part to my Father. It wasn't till after her death that I learned it was all smoke and mirrors. My Mother was not like the rest of my Family. All they wanted from life was power and control, two things they would do anything to achieve. They didn't care who they hurt as long as they got what they wanted. All my mother wanted, however was out. That's where Jack came in. He and my Mother fell in love while working together to take the family down, they were growing too powerful and becoming far too big a problem for the region. Jack opened my eyes to this, and it was from the knowledge he gave me that I would base the rest of my life on.

     To think, that it all would begin because I came home early from school. If I had not my life would seemingly have turned out much different and I would not be the man pouring his life out to you today.


     A crime of passion is what my Father claimed after his attempt to cover her death as a suicide failed. It turns out this was not how my mother was supposed to die. The family, I would soon discover had a plan for her, one that would exclude them from suspicion. The exact details, to this day are hazy at best. What I do know, however is that my Father, at the mercy of his emotions jumped the gun. All he needed was for me to corroborate his story and when I did not do so, a crime of passion became his excuse.

     This is where the power of my Family started to become apparent. Even with all the things my Mother and Jack had on my Father, and ecoupled with the murder of my mother, he still was only given 20 years at most of confinement in an almost resort of a prison. As angry as Jack and I were over this, at least we had a time frame. We had 20 years, just 240 months. A mere 7,304 short days to prepare me for the war we both new was coming. In the meantime I was going to be a thorn in the side of my Family at every turn.

     A war indeed would come, one that still rages on today. I still do not have all the answers I have searching for. If the truth is to be completey clear many more tales still must be and will be told. And even more must still be lived. I may have decided to take you back and enlighten you to my beginnings, but the end is still a ways off. For now, however I hope some of the questions you no doubt have are answered. More answers still must be brought to the light of day. In the end the darkness will be lifted...... Till next time.
                                                                                       L.J. Stevans