And the blood runs through it - chapter 5

5 

A lone shadow, or what seemed like a shadow, stood at the edge of Ludlowville Falls located in Lansing, New York. Where he stood was on a large flat slab of rock. To anyone, not locale, it looked like it was put there by men but it had not. It was part of the stream bed. As with most falls the water followed the weakest part of the strata. Sometimes it went straight, sometimes it had a few twist and turns. All in all this was another part of Salmon Creek. 

The shadowy figure turned slightly to the left to reveal the person was male. Tall, thin, a head full of silvery gray hair neatly trimmed. Upon closer look the eyes looked far older than the body could possibly be. In fact his whole personae gave off the air of being ancient. Turning further to his left one now could see it was Aaron Misting. Now, with his back fully to the falls, Aaron looked at the pitiful remains of what had once been a fairly nice playground. Beyond this a dirt road, like path, followed to the fairly new tarmac of Ludlowville Road. And then he let his eyes wander over the old, and very sad, houses which made up the tiny village of Ludlowville. The row building, straight across from him, had been many things but recently it had been rebuilt into a furniture store it had once been a long time ago. 

All the house didn’t look great but they were all neatly kept. Aaron smiled. It had taken him nearly fifteen years to achieve this much but it was a definite sign of progress. This was his food source. In technical terms this whole place really belonged to him. The first time he had found this place he had fallen in love with the it. In particular, like all the people who lived here, it was the falls. Then the crick. And then…well the list went on for so long he knew he had to make this his home. He had bought the largest building in the village. An old abandoned church. Aaron had put a lot of money into the restoration but now the church was back to its original form. As were the people.

As, with the church, the people were so down, and out, that they could have been the very definition for the term. Again with a lot of money, as well as a lot of patience, they have come a long way. At one point they had wanted to make him mayor but he had politely refused saying the one thing he hated, more than anything else, was politicians. Any kind no matter the level. What they didn’t know was how old he was and how long he had to deal with idiots. That was in the beginning. 

Now with the current problems, he was worried about this village, and the thirty others like it. The man who had been killed down creek had been from here. After taking one final look around Aaron snapped his fingers. Six men suddenly appeared in front of him. Aaron looked them over for a moment before speaking. “You have one job and one job only. To protect this place no matter what. If you fail there is no place you can not go to where I will not find you.” 

The six guards only nodded before disappearing. Somewhere, out of sight, they took up their posts. Aaron, hesitating for a moment, started to leave. But did not. He kept looking around as if he was sure he would find the something which was bothering him. Finally, as satisfied as he would ever be, Aaron left to find his wife at some benefit in downtown Ithaca. This was the next big thing he hated. Having to deal with well-to-do’s who thought they were just so that because they had money. But Alithia said it was important to one of her many charities. So be it, he thought, as he left.