The light shown down from the sliver of the moon hanging in the sky over the city on a crisp late March night. A trickle of water ran from the slowly melting piles of snow that had been deposited a fortnight before. In the air the sound of air horses' hooves on the cobblestones could be heard echoing down the street. The populace walking along in their long dresses and tricorner hats could be heard staying close together to fight off the early spring chill. A small but growing crowd began to congregate around one solitary sentry in a red and white uniform who shouted at the crowd that began to encircle him.

"Here now. On back to your homes! This is none of your concern. This here is the King's business!" he called in an uneducated London accent. Even with his rifle, the lone British soldier knew that he was could quickly be overpowered by the dozens of unarmed Bostonians around him. One shot. One shot was all he could fire before the angry mob would be on him.

The American colonists jeered and tormented him as they began to throw sticks and snowballs. The disturbance was the result of a disagreement with a British soldier and an American businessman just the hour before.

"Lobsterback!" they taunted him.

"Ah, go back to Liverpool," cried out another.

Still a third yelled, "Yer not from Massachusetts!"

The crowd became rowdier as the snowballs came more and more frequently and trash was added to the shower that belted the lone sentry.

"Here now. Away with you all!" he cried confidently for a massager had already been sent for reinforcements which arrived shortly. Six more privates and a corporeal hurriedly marched in with rifles loaded and drawn.

"All you people! Back to your homes. Disperse, I say," yelled the corporal of the guard while waving his sword over his head.

The angry crowd got rowdier as their numbers increased and several men from the docks showed up with large pieces of wood that were being used as clubs. Going to the front of the pack they waved their weapons at the platoon of British Regulars. The soldiers looked slightly nervous as the corporeal again told the Bostonians to leave. Church bells began to ring as more joined the mob that were threatening the Redcoats who had for too long been quartered in the private homes of the peaceful residents of Massachusetts Bay colony.

A large man with a club stepped forward and struck down one of the privates, who fell to the ground discharging his weapon into the air. The sound ricocheted around the square as the crowd momentarily hushed.

"Fire!" he yelled as he hit the ground. Five cocked weapons were discharged into the angry mob. Sounds of fright and sounds of pain cried out from the crowd in front of the Old State House. Fear gripped the mob as almost everyone ran from the square leaving only a few to tend to those who had fallen.

"Murderers! Heathen!" cried out one woman as the corporal quickly ordered his men off the street before the colonists returned with their own reinforcements.

Some tended the fallen while some wandered the square in shock after witnessing the confrontation was that became known as the Boston Massacre.

One lone figure who had watched the incident from beside the Old State House ran up to an unattended man wearing a long black cape and hood. Not too tall, the figure knelt next to him. Removing the hood the woman pushed back her long dark hair and checked his pulse.

"Rest in peace," she said as she closed the man's eyes and straightened out the body. "That's one for the history books," said Piper Halliwell quietly. She closed her eyes momentarily and said something over the body as another person joined her.

"Be there life?" he asked cocking his head to one side and looking straight into Piper's eyes.

"No. He has passed on," replied Piper cautiously shaking her head. She had to keep her contact short and brief with these long dead souls or else the world she knew might not be there on her return.

"Amen," another Bostonian said solemnly as he removed his tricorner hat.

Carefully Piper removed the dead man's hat and then reached around his neck pulling off a small medallion with an Egyptian jacket god engraved on it. "Blessed be!" she said to herself. "My long journey here is not in vain."

"Why hath thou taken it?" asked the old man.

Piper slowly stood up tucking the medallion in her cape. "Safe keeping for this man's family. I do not trust these foreign solders."

"But my lady. We are all citizens of the King," he replied.

A little smile came to her face. "Not from where I come from. Farewell!" she said "I must be in haste."

The old man held up his shaky hand in the direction Piper ran. "Wait! You must not defile the dead."

Piper did not stop passing the Old State House, running down an adjoining street and popping into an open doorway.

The man that stood next to Piper chased her, but when he reached the lone doorway she was nowhere to be found. He called out, but his words found no answer. The strange woman had vanished.