Okay do I even need to say that I'm sorry? I know I need to stop doing this. But anyway, this was something that I wrote for my history summative and I turned to a BTR story. I will try to make this story as historically accurate as I, no promises though. So enjoy.

Slaves for Life

Chapter 1

The sun reached its peak, making the work for those outside very hot, and the tasks that the slaves needed to complete for their masters by sundown harder than they already were. They all knew that these tasks needed to get done, or the punishments were severe. Whippings and beatings came to those whose chores were not completed to their master's standards. There was never a day that went by that at least one slave didn't get a whipping or beating. They knew that they couldn't run away from their master and their duties, for they knew that they would then be considered a criminal. Slaves that ran away were considered criminals because they had stolen themselves from their masters. That was something that no one wanted to be considered.

Kendall knew this all too well; his father had tried to escape from their master many times before, trying to find a way for him and his family to escape. When he had returned to the farm where the family worked, Kendall had noticed that he wore a metal collar around his neck that he had been branded with an 'F'; the mark of a criminal. That was something that nobody wanted to bear. Even though none of the slaves liked the back-breaking labour that they were forced to endure day after day, no one wanted to be considered a criminal. It would surely ruin their chances of having any sort of freedom from their master, given that their master would grant them that freedom. Most masters didn't; none of them wanted to lose their slaves and have to do the work themselves. They were perfectly content with living a life not having to do a thing but run their business in the forum.

Kendall knew that his life was hard and unfair, but there was nothing that he could do about it. He had been born a slave, and didn't have a choice; he had to be a slave. That was it. He wished that it didn't have to be this why, but that was the way it was, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't break the law or go up against his master. If he did, then he would surely get beaten, and there was no way that he could just kill his master. If that happened, then he and his whole family would be sentenced to death, and he didn't want to do that to his family. He loved them too much to put them through that. But there wasn't a day or week that went by that he didn't think about killing himself. That was the easiest way out of this hell, and that's what a lot of slaves did to themselves. It was the quickest and easiest way out of this hell that they were in, and Kendall wanted to do that, but he couldn't bring himself to leave his mother and father to care for the every need of their master, Antonius.

Antonius was a vile man, and he loved humiliating and belittling them until they felt like nothing. He gave them the most agonizing and breaking tasks to complete around the farm. He loved the physical and emotional pain that it caused his slaves. Some masters were sympathetic towards their slaves, and even thanked them every once in a while, but not him. Antonius believed that the slaves were there for their personal uses, so he would never have to lift a finger to do anything, except tend to the carpentering business that he owned. Of course, a lot of masters were like that, but he was different; yes he punished his slaves with beatings and whippings, but a lot of the time he beat them for his own personal enjoyment. Not a lot of people did that, and no one knew that he did it. And he planned to keep it that way. If any of his slaves told a soul that he was beating them for his own amusement, then he would kill them.

Slaves were easy to replace; all he had to do was purchase another one from the Slave Auctions, or Antonius could be the cheap person he was and sell a slave, even though he had a lot of money. If it were up to her, Kendall would make it so that everyone was equal –so there were no slaves, upper class, or any kind of social class in general. He would make it so that everyone was equal, but there was nothing that he could do. He was a slave, no one would listen to him, and if he even tried to go against anyone's word, he would be punished.

Kendall was brought out of his thoughts when he heard his father, William, yell behind her. He turned to see that he had fallen down again. The heavy metal collar that he was forced to wear made it difficult for him to work, let alone even stand, and get the things that he needed to done. He felt bad for him, he really did, but at times he couldn't help but be angry with him at the same time. He had ran away and brought this on himself. He cringed at the memory of seeing his father for the first time when he had been captured and returned to the farm. That had not been a pleasant day, and it wasn't something that he had cared to remember.

He quickly made his way over to his father to help him up before their master could see that his father had fallen again. He didn't want him to get punished for falling again; it had been happening often, so often in fact that Antonius started whipping and beating his father every time that he fell. If it was any other slave, he wouldn't have cared, because it happened to everyone, but because William always fell he would get whipped.

"Are you alright, father?" he asked as he helped him to stand on his own two feet again. William nodded his head as he dusted himself off and resumed his daily chores. He didn't really speak to anyone anymore. Ever since he had been returned, Kendall had noticed that he had become a lot quieter and hardly spoke to anyone anymore. He spoke when someone asked him a question and when Antonius spoke to give him an order.

Antonius entered the garden then, just having come from the carpentering business that he owned. He had other people that ran the business and other slaves that worked for them, and were taken care of in the city. Sometimes those slaves would come to the farm to give Antonius a message. When that happened, it usually meant that Antonius had to go to tend to the business, and he would stay in the house that he owned in the city. Those were the times that Kendall enjoyed, not having to worry about being punished, as long as the chores were his standards, Antonius was happy.

It also meant that his father could get somewhat of a break while Antonius was away from the farm. He knew how much William struggled to get his chores done and meet Antonius' very high standards. There were days that his father looked like he was about to drop dead from exhaustion and the sheer weight of the collar. The collar made it difficult for his father to do a lot of things, and that included sleep.

"Slaves," Antonius spoke in a loud, commanding voice. "I will be away from the farm for five sunsets. I expect all of your daily duties to be done and up to standards, or there will be consequences for those whose aren't."

And with that, he left the garden to get ready to leave for the town tonight. When Antonius was in the house and out of earshot, Kendall ran over to his father. He smiled at him as he started to work again; he knew that he was happy about Antonius being gone from the farm on business. That meant that he would be spared the punishments for falling. He sighed. That look was no different than that he gave him every other day.

He really hated this, not only because of the work that he was forced to endure and the punishments as well, but because of what it had done to his father. Before he had ran away and been captured, he was so full of life and had always tried to remain optimistic about his situation, but he guessed that now that he was known as a criminal and had been threatened with the punishment of death if he had tried to run away again, had changed him. Before all of this had happened, he used to tell him stories about what his life had been like before he had been captured in a war.

Unlike him, he had been captured and brought to Rome to be sold as a slave. And surprisingly enough, Antonius wasn't the first master that he had worked for. He had worked for someone else before he had come here; his old master had been killed. William had been hoping that he would be set as a free man, but of course, that didn't happen. He couldn't pay the price that his master had paid for him, so it had been on to the next master.

The system wasn't fair at all to Roman slaves; to be set free a Roman slave must pay his or her master back the same amount of money that their master had paid for them. But since most slaves were captured in battle and all their belongs had been taken from their homes, most slaves had nothing. A slave was considered lucky if they had a trade of some sort. Then they would be sold in the forum for a higher price. They would be even luckier if their master let them keep a small portion of their earnings, but that almost never happened.

Kendall slowly made his way to where he had left the basket of vegetables that he had been harvesting for the master's dinner that night. He really hoped that he and his family would be lucky enough to get a little bit of food, but because they were slaves, and because of his father, that almost never happened. Most nights, they went to bed hungry with no food in their stomachs. A lot of the slaves that worked for Antonius went to bed with at least a little bit of food in their stomachs, but it wasn't much.

Antonius had just under five hundred slaves that worked for him, both on the farm and in the Roman city. The slaves that worked for Antonius in the city all had a trade in carpentering, while the ones –like Kendall and William– who worked on the farm, had none. Antonius tended to treat his slaves that had no trade worst then the ones that did, because the ones that did brought him all his money, and money is what he loved the most. He was very greedy, as were all wealthy Romans, but Antonius was one of the greediest that Kendall had ever seen, and it disgusted him to no end.

The slaves did all the work, and he got all the money.

Kendall was brought out of his thoughts when he felt his father gently nudge his shoulder. He tilted his head towards the entrance of the garden, telling him that it was time to head inside to slave quarters. That seemed to be the only thing that their master had provided to them willingly; the only act of kindness that he had ever shown to his slaves.

Once Kendall entered the slave quarters, he smiled at his mother, Jennifer, and made his way over to his bed and sat down. He watched as his mother gave his father a gentle squeeze of reassurance, before she returned to what she was doing. Kendall could see that she was folding Antonius' laundry that he would need for his trip to the city in neat piles. William watched his wife intently for a while before he moved to the other side of the room, nodding to some of the slaves that were gathered over there, talking quietly.

"Kendall," his mother said to his quietly, bringing Kendall out of his thoughts.

"Yes, mother?" he asked quietly, looking up to meet his mother's concerned gaze. Almost immediately, Kendall knew what she was going to ask; it was about his father. She did this every day. Since she didn't work in the garden with her husband and son, she had told Kendall to watch his father, and to let her know immediately if Antonius did anything to him. She hated that man with a passion and didn't like what he did to the love of her life.

"Did Antonius hurt your father?" she asked in a stern, commanding voice. Kendall looked into his mother's eyes and saw anger and determination.

"Once," he answered before bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them. He looked over to the door where he saw his standing, looking out into the garden where they had just come from.

"When?" was her mother's next question. Kendall sighed. This happened every day, and he knew that his mother did it for the sake of his father, but Kendall was getting tired of it, though he would never admit it in front of his parents. He really wished that he had someone to talk to about this, but he had no one. Those were the times that he felt the loneliest; when he had no one that she could to talk to about his father and the struggles on the farm.

"First thing this morning, when we first got out to the garden to start out morning chores. He fell when he dropped the tools that he needed to plough the dirt," he answered before returning his gaze to meet his mother's. For a brief moment he saw a look of sadness flash across her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a look of anger, one that Kendall knew was directed at Antonius.

His mother hated that man with her entire being, but she didn't dare tell anyone that for the fear that Antonius might overhear her. She had been careful with her actions around Antonius ever since her husband's return to the farm, and she had cautioned Kendall to do the same.

"Mother?" he asked in a small voice.

"Yes, Kendall?" his mother answered her son, her gaze returning to the laundry that she still held in her hands.

"Will it always be like this? Will it ever get better?" The questions were so quiet that his mother almost missed them. She smiled sadly as she made her way over to Kendall so she could wrap her arm around his.

"I'm afraid so. We are slaves for life."

What do you guys think? Don't worry James, Logan and Carlos will in the next chapter.

~Ajay