I’m starting another alphabet legacy. This one will be plotty. Or at least I’ll attempt for it to be plotty. My founder is Tristan Raivata. This is his story.

“Tristan, I love you brother, but you’ve got to get your life in order!” Bryce yelled. While he loved his brother, Tristan really needed to get his own place. He had been crashing at Bryce’s house for the past 5 years. Ever since their parents kicked them out of their house. Bryce took him in when that happened because Tristan said he was going to actually try to get a job.

“I’m working on it, Bryce,” Tristan sighed, “I just haven’t found the right job for me yet.”

“For five years, Tristan?” Bryce countered, “All I’ve seen you do is party and date. If you don’t start actively looking for a job I will start charging you rent. Very high rent.”

Tristan stormed out of the house, tired of this ultimatum that Bryce gave him every year. He sat down on the grass outside of the house and fumed.

“Uncle Tristan, why are you mad at Daddy?” Lyra asked, sitting down next to Tristan.

“I’m not mad at your daddy,” Tristan said, “I’m mad at myself because I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“What are you supposed to be doing?” Lyra asked.

“Finding a job,” Tristan answered.

“Boring!” Lyra yelled, throwing her hands up in the air, “And you’d have less time to play with me if you got a job. Maybe I can get Daddy to not be mean to you until I grow up.” With that Lyra got up and ran inside.

Tristan sighed and wished his life was as simple as Lyra’s was. He figured he’d start looking for jobs again in a few days. He had a few parties this week to attend. Not to mention a date with a very pretty lady on Friday night followed by a party.

“Italian food is my favorite, how did you guess?” Hailey Burns asked, giving her order to the waitress.

“I’ll have the lasagna,” Tristan told the waitress before answering Hailey, “I just had a hunch that you like Italian food. It’s one of my strengths, being able to guess a person’s favorite type of food.” Tristan had really just done a lot of research on Hailey on her Facebook and saw that her favorite type of food was Italian. But Hailey didn’t have to know that, now did she?

The pair talked about anything and everything, but mostly Tristan kept the topic focused on Hailey and didn’t give more information than he was asked about. Tristan never did like telling everything about himself on the first date and he felt like having more than one date with Hailey, since they were getting along so well.

“I had a great time tonight, Hailey,” Tristan said, “I’m hoping we can do this again some time soon. How does next Friday work for you?”

“I also had a great time,” Hailey agreed, and thought for a minute, “Friday should work for me. I’ll let you know if for some reason I can’t make it.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll see you next Friday then,” Tristan said as he hugged Hailey good bye.

“Until then, good bye,” Hailey said, returning the hug and walking inside of her apartment.

By now it was 9 pm and the party was in full swing. It was Tristan’s favorite time to arrive. Not too early, but also not too late. He walked in and greeted his best friend, Kevin Turner. Kevin pointed out a very pretty lady that had come to the party single and suggested that Tristan be her date for the party.

Tristan laughed and headed over to at least keep the lady company. She could always be his girlfriend after he ended things with Hailey. And they say the best girlfriends are the ones that you are first friends with. “Hi, my friend tells me you came alone,” Tristan said, “I’m Tristan. You are?”

“I’m Natalie and yea, I came alone,” Natalie said, eying up Tristan.

“Mind if I hang with you for the party? I also came alone, but this is my friend’s house and it would be rude to hang with the host all night.” Tristan flirted

Natalie appeared to be in thought for a minute and said, “Yea, I suppose we can hang out. But don’t get any thoughts of us becoming a thing. I just got out of a rough relationship and I’m not ready for another relationship right now.”

“Don’t worry, that’s the furthest thing from my mind,” Tristan assured her, “I currently have a girlfriend, she just couldn’t attend tonight and told me to come anyways.”

Tristan and Natalie spent the rest of the night hanging out. It was 3 am before Tristan escorted Natalie home and it was 3:30 am before he arrived home himself. He walked into his house and saw that the lights were still on. Hmm, that’s odd. No one else is usually up at this hour. I hope nothing bad happened, Tristan thought to himself as he walked into the house. He noticed the disheveled state of the place and realized that something bad had happened.

“BRYCE! ALYSSA! SEAMUS! LYRA!” Tristan yelled out, trying to see if anyone was home, “IT’S ME! TRISTAN!” He ran upstairs to his niece’s room and saw that she wasn’t here. And she was always in bed by 10 pm. She just couldn’t stay up past that time no matter how hard she tried.

He ran back downstairs and that’s when he noticed the note on the kitchen table. He went up to it and picked it up. It read: If you want to see your family again Tristan you’ll be at the park by 3:45 am. Hopefully you get home from partying before then. If not, mentally prepare yourself for the brutal murders of your family. And we’ll make sure the news breaks the story before the police find you.  -Krasnyi Utrom

Tristan looked at the clock. It said 3:32 am. “Shit!” Tristan yelled as he ran out of the house and towards the park. For once in a very long time, he wanted to be really early. Not just a minute before or right on time or even “fashionably late.” He wanted to be very early.

Tristan arrived at the park at 3:40 am. He sighed in relief as he walked through the park hoping the group would be there shortly with his family. It had gotten chilly all of a sudden, which was odd for a August evening. He wasn’t sure if it was actually the weather or if it was just the situation that him chilled to the bone. He eventually arrived at a set of swingsets and decided that this was as good of a place as any to wait for the kidnappers to arrive. He sat down on the swingset and waited.

At 3:45 am exactly, three people approached Tristan and the one in the center said, “Ah, I was so hoping you wouldn’t be here. Murder is so fun.”

“Let my family go!” Tristan yelled.

“I never said I would release them if you showed up now did I?” the blonde male sneered.

Tristan balled his fists and tried to contain his urge to kill the man. Killing him would surely end badly for his family. His brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece were all counting on him to save them and he didn’t want to get them killed over his own temper.

“Let my nephew and niece go now then,” Tristan countered, “They’re only kids.”

“Oh, I think I’ll keep all four of them,” the leader said, “Give you four reasons to take my offer on how to get them released.”

“Spit out this offer,” Tristan spat out, “What do I have to do?”

“First you have to give up your immortality,” the guy stated, “Second you have to found a family that lasts for twenty six generations not counting your own. Each generation must be named by a letter of the alphabet in order. Third you and each heir have to have at least three kids unless you, the heir, or the spouse die. Fourth you have to have twins at least once every eight generations. Fifth only males may be deemed the heir. Keeping up so far?”

“Yea, twenty six generations not including my own named alphabetically. Only male heirs, three kid minimum, must have twins every eight generations. And I’ll be mortal,” Tristan repeated.

“Good. Sixth you and your heirs may only have kids with their true love. Seventh you and your heirs must send me a report of what’s happened since the last report. Eighth all graves must remain on the lot at all times and you may not block off the ghosts from accessing any part of the lot. Ninth we’ll have your last name black listed from all places of work, so you’ll have to either start your own business or find some other way to earn money. And finally no calling the cops on us. Ever. No matter what we do to you or your family,” the guy stated, “So, do you agree?”

“On one condition,” Tristan choked out, “I am allowed to see my family and talk with them one last time. Since I’ll be giving up my immortality, I want to see them one last time. Plus, I don’t want to go through with this only to find out that they are already dead.”

“I suppose that isn’t an unreasonable condition,” the leader stated, “Follow me.” The leader and the other two people walked off the way they arrived. Tristan followed behind, tears going down his cheek.

They got to the location where the other Raivata family members were being held and the leader showed Tristan in.

“Don’t tell me they got you too,” Bryce sighed.

“Not really,” Tristan said, turning to the group, “Can I talk to them in private please?” The leader nodded and the three kidnappers walked out. “In order to free you guys I have to found a legacy with a bunch of restrictions. The only thing is, I also have to give up my immortality. This will most likely be the last time I see you guys.”

“And if you don’t Uncle Tristan?” Seamus asked. While Seamus never really got Tristan and the two constantly argued, he didn’t want Tristan to just give up his immortality to free him and his family.

Tristan swallowed, “They’ll kill you guys.” At that point, Tristan broke down and cried. He blamed himself for what had happened and was not ready to be this mature. He was only 22. He was his parents miracle late in their lives.

Bryce hugged his much younger brother and said, “Thank you. I know what you’re giving up to give us our lives back. And considering your reaction earlier when I told you to get on with your life, I’m pleasantly surprised. And very proud.”

“Uncle Tristan,” Lyra said, tugging at Tristan’s shirt, “Will I ever see you again?”

Tristan closed his eyes and sighed. He bent down and hugged his niece, “I hope so, but I might not be able to. Remember that I’ll always love you, Lyra. Always.”

“All right, you’ve talked with them enough,” the leader said as he barged in, “You know they’re alive now. It’s time to go. We’ve arranged transport to your new house. It’s far away so don’t even think about trying to rescue your family.” The other male of the group grabbed Tristan and dragged him out of the house away from his family. Tristan said his goodbyes quickly as he could as he was dragged out.

As he sat in the car on the way to his new place, he  thought to himself, Well, this will get me moving on getting on with my life. And I’ll show them. I’ll found this legacy and it will thrive.