Life and Death

Life and Death is a fanfiction by Japanlover86 featuring short stories about the Cap Family Ancestors during their lifetime.

Chapter 1: Cuong
A Vietnamese man and his younger brother walked through the village, The man, who was 18 years old and his brother 10, Starvation beginning taking effect on him, not only that he was tired and thirsty, he and his younger brother did not eat in 4 days

The older brother was in civillian clothing, a tattered Áo gấm, a Vietnamese men's traditional clothing

The youngest was shirtless and in tattered shorts.

" (Chi, mom......)" The elder brother, Cuong said, shivering.

" (Cuong?)" The younger brother, Duc said.

" (Yes, you're starving, I am too, but I can't find anything!)" Cuong said.

The two stopped in a forest.

"We should stay here for the night, it's getting late." Cuong said.

Duc nodded, and the two slept

During the night, Cuong was whimpering from hunger pains, which woke Duc, who checked on him.

Cuong seemed was more affected by hunger then I was, he was clearly suffering, Duc thought.

He then went back to sleep.

Cuong woke up then walked, he smelled food and found two South Vietnamese soldiers cooking meat over a fire, which made his stomach growl in hunger and he covered his stomach to prevent the South Vietnamese soldiers from knowing where he was.

He got out a dao blade, then stabbed both of them, then went off to get his brother.

" (Hey, we found food)" Cuong said

Duc got up to follow Cuong, to find two dead South Vietnamese soldiers, a campfire and meat roasting on it.

" (Eat up)" Cuong said

Cuong got the meat off the fire and split it up between him and Duc, Cuong ate patiently even thought he was almost starved to death and tempted to gobble it down like a maniac.

Chapter 4: Cuong II
Cuong, at the age of eighteen, was a handsome man and many women fell in love with the handsome yet sadistic Vietnamese man and could perfectly seduce and manipulate women, and was also a good poisoner, he could perfectly mimic a South Vietnamese accent to hide his North Vietnamese tone, and used the medium amount of English he knew to poison South Vietnamese patrons, he also had a no under-18 policy, because he couldn't risk poisoning small children and innocent teens.

The customer was a South Vietnamese soldier, his wife, and what he assumed was his brothers and sisters, father, mother, in-laws and a few others.

"Hello! What can I get you?" He said in his mock-accent.

"Er, I'll have Bánh canh, for me and my friends, I just got engaged and this seemed like a nice restaurant to celebrate." She said.

"How many?" Cuong said.

"There's 20, including me." She said.

"That will be 400 South Vietnamese đồng." He said as the woman handed him the cash.

"20, coming up!" He said.

Cuong went into the kitchen and shut the door behind him, then met with the other Viet Cong gurerelias, dressed in kitchen uniforms and chefs.

"Bánh canh, sử dụng chuột độc! (Bánh canh, use rodent poison!)" He mouthed at his colleagues, hoping the South Vietnamese patrons didn't hear him.

A male around Cuong's age got three canisters of rat poison, and the two women mixing the noodles and Cuong and another got the bowls out, then he poured three canisters of the rat poison into it, which was a white powder-like substance, which dissolved pretty easily, then another woman, a waitress, gave the patrons the rat poison-laced Bánh canh.

Cuong waited outside of the kitchen for the poison to take effect, then he heard a woman vomit, a few minutes later, he ducked, then went into the kitchen.

"The poison is taking effect, we must go." He whispered under his breath to them.

They nodded and went outside and sneaked out, they took off their clothing, burned them, and out civilian clothes on, to avoid suspicion, A female, Phan Ngan Chi, looked the inside, she saw vomit strewn on their pale faces.

" (What poison was that?" She whispered.

" (Some sodium chemical I don't really know, I cannot read English, it's a pesticide, my mom used it to kill people she hated, it's highly toxic and it is hardly traced, so, it cannot be tested under normal measures)" Cuong whispered back.

Then they giggled, as if they were joking to avoid suspicion.

The fact they were teenagers made this even better, the girls would behave like sweet young ladies and the man would behave in an innocent manner, this worked, no one knew they were Viet Cong, working for North Vietnam to overpower Ngo Dinh Diem government in the name of communism, Ho Chi Minh and for North Vietnam.

They were identical twin girls were Phan Ngan Chi and Phan Thi Cam, who were 17, the three boys were named Nguyen Duong Hien, Quan Dung Due and Trang Hung Phuc, who were 18, 17, and 16 respectively

The six got on pretty well with eachother, Ngan Chi was the quieter of the girls while Thi Cam was more outgoing, Duong Hien was shy, but very courageous, Dung Due was more gung-ho and had no regrets killing people with poisoned food, Hung Phuc was very calm and rather nice to his squadmates.

Chapter 4: Cuong III
Cuong grew up to be a very attractive man, something he uses to his advantage, he could manipulate female South Vietnamese into murdering unsuspecting soldiers with rat poison without him having to get any blood on his hands.

"You two, strip him." A soldier said to two others.

The duo manhandled Cuong, they took off his buttoned shirt, leaving him holding on to it with his hand, his trousers were pulled down, alongside the boxer shorts he stole, revealing his genitalia, and his checkered scarf and nón lá was thrown to the ground.

"Look, ALL OF YOU B*****DS! LOOK AT HIM" The soldier yelled to a bunch of Viet Cong prisoners captured.

He then laughed.

"Nice f***ing general for your terrorism, an 18-year old farmer boy." He sneered.

Testicle-stomping also was a painful method.

" (What are you going to do?)" He asked the South Vietnamese soldier.

The soldier then stomped Cuong in the testicles, causng a mid-to-high pitched scream.

Ngan Chi had her shirt ripped off and was punched in the face.

A few female ones were raped by their anti-communist captor.

After the humiliating ordeal, Cuong spent minutes putting his clothes back on.

He was later tied to a tree, he was later caught by a South Vietnamese soldier, he was in tattered trousers and was shirtless.

"Stay there, you son of a b****." He said

He was near a house, and after the soldier finished tying him up, he sat down.

A few hours later, he felt thirsty, hungry and desperate to use the toilet, he kicked the tree and the SV soldier, Khoa looked at him.

"I need to pee." He said, he crossed his legs together.

"Nah, just wet yourself." He replied

A few hours have past and Cuong was still desperate not to let his protesting bladder and stomach get the better of him

And it was starting to become very painful, he managed to move both hands out of the tight rope to clutch his bladder

"Bye, gotta go, Poison Prince." He said as he left the area leaving Cuong alone.

A few more hours later, he fell asleep until he heard a loud tinkling sound that went on and judging by the sound, it went out super fast, on the floor, he looked disgusted, he wet himself, and it smelled strong.

" (What a disgrace, wetting myself?)" He said in disbelief.

Then a loud rumble filled the area, Cuong realised that he was hungry, but he couldn't really move.

"Shut up...." He said with mild frustration in his voice.

After a day, the urine dried, but the smell remained.

"I feel disgusted." He said.

Then his stomach decided at that moment to voice out it's complaint.

"And hungry." Cuong said.

At night, Cuong could hardly sleep because of the smell and hunger.

He then heard a loud growling sound, then a baby cry, waking Cuong.

"Shut up, d***it!" He said in annoyance.

5 days later, The burning sun began to take it's toll, he was hungry, tired, and barely slept well all night.

He smelled cooking, which made him drool, he thought it was Gỏi cuốn, which was Vietnamee spring roll, which he liked eating more than rats.

He then licked the saliva off, then he saw two rats, he felt like eating them both.

Chapter 6: Jane
12-year old Jane was with her dad, and most of her extended family, watching a Easter Rising documentary, she held her Irish flag teddy bear.

It was 1966, the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising and the last one until forty years later.

Jane was only 4'11 at the time, she sat on her father's knee, her father Seamus was a tall man, he was about 6'0 with thinning brown hair and green eyes.

She was wearing a green pastel dress with white socks and black shoes, she had a tricolour bow in her hair and she was holding an Irish flag teddy bear.

The living room was decorated with 1916 memorabilia, picture of the rebels, and Irish flags and a banner that said "Remember the 1916 matryrs"

"Da, who was James Connolly?" Jane asked her father.

"One of the greatest matryrs of all time, if you were a boy, I would of given you the name James in memory, but since, you were a girl, we gave you a name similar to it." She said.

17-year old Raicheal, Jane's older sister was a little jealous of the attention she recieved from her father.

11-year old Liam, watched the documentary with his younger brother, Séan, who was only 5, who babbled and laughed happily

Séan was severely autistic and couldn't speak.

Seamus Jr, who was 18, was out getting food for the celebration, identical twin girls, Mairead and Aofie, who were 13 were dressed in Irish rebel gear.

"Where was he born?" She asked.

"1868 in Edinburgh, Scotland, very unusual for an Irish rebel, no?, well, lots of Irish rebels had connections to Britiain, Joseph Mary Plunkett was of Norman descent and his wife Grace used to be Protestant, and many of them married Protestants, Patrick and Willie Pearse were both part-English."

"I feel sorry for mister Plunkett..." She said.

"I know you do sweetheart." Seamus Sr. said.

When Jane's family was commerorating the Rising, her family from around Dublin come over.

"Hey sweetheart, I heard Éamon de Valera is planning on naming 15 train stations after the executed leaders." He told Jane.

"Oh my, that's so cool, but, I thought sixteen died....." She replied.

"Yes, but Willie and Padarig were brothers...." He said to her.

"Who was the youngest Proclamation signatory, dad?" She asked.

"Oh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, sweetie, he was only twenty-eight, your grandmother always described Plunkett "that he was only a baby when he died", not a literal infant, but, it is a term for a young person aged 14-30 who died during wartime, his poor, poor widow, Grace Gifford, she died 11 years ago, when she died, I whispered "Joe, she's here now, you have been waiting a long time", she is now in a better place, with Joe by her side, doing all the things young couples do." He told the young girl.

"When did she die?" Jane asked.

"December 1955, haven't you noticed something? Over fourty years ago in December in 1915, she became engaged to Joseph Plunkett, I imagine what was it like for him, waiting 39 years for Grace to come." Seamus said.

"Are all British soldiers bad people?" Jane asked.

"No, sweetheart, not all of them! In fact, your mother had some relatives fighting for the British in WWII, and even in WWI." He said to her.

Then he had a thought.

"Do you want to go to the parade in Dublin?" He asked her.

"Yes, what happened to the signatories before their sentence?" She asked

"Clarke was stripped, exposing his genitalia by an Army officer and was forced on a step, he was also made to sleep without clothes, I think, he also took MacDiarmada's cane to beat him with, Collims was beyond angry, the officer who did it was assassinated, Plunkett's condition worsened, the fact he was cold, hungry and thirsty made this even worse, the rebels were denied use of the toilet, water, and even food, Connolly was kept at a room due to his leg." He said.

"That's not very nice, why do that?" She asked him.

"The Brits were not nice to the Irish back then, and the fact it was during WWI made then even more annoyed." He said to her

"Okay.....Do you hate them now, Da?" She asked.

"No, not really, it was over 50 years, I wasn't born back then, I was born in 1930, amd sweetheart, I may have been a member of the IRA, but, I'm not like that actually." He said.

A few hours, the family were watching a 1916 documentary, when it finally started to talk about Joseph Plunkett's doomed marriage.

"BLOODY BRITS!" Jane's uncle, Eoin shouted.

He got dirty looks from both sides, Jane's uncle, David, looked rather annoyed, including most of her former British Army relatives and even her IRA relatives looked annoyed at him, David, being in a Japanese POW camp, he generally could tell British executioners of the rebels and the ones he fought with apart.

"Shut up, I'm trying to watch!" Jane said

There was also Somme decorations up, on of Jane's great uncles on her mother's side died in the Somme.

Mairead and Aofie looked outside, unlike their sister, they preferred to play with their mother than their father.

During dinner, Seamus Jr had three helpings of food.

"Seam, you're going to get fat, please." Lillie said in a concerned voice.

Mairead and Aofie looked on, their brother burped, and he covered his mouth.

Chapter 7: Scotty
Scotty was seventeen years old in 1917, and at his final year, he was bullied most of his life because of Scottish Gaelic and his inability to read English, which was a language he spoke at home and at school.

He read a book in the language until a boy came up to him and read it in Scottish Gaelic.

"Hey, stop babbling nonsense! Go back where you came from! This is an ENGLISH speaking country." He said to him.

Despite speaking perfect English, Scotty could not read English and only read Scottish Gaelic.

His parents came form North Uist, which was a small island that spoke the language, his father couldn't speak English and his mother couldn't speak it too well.

"I was born here." Scotty told him.

"Nah, you weren't, if you were, you would be writing in English." He said.

Chapter 8: Jane II
There was a children's fancy dress party in Dublin, Lillie sent her five eldest children, 7-year old Jane, 12-year old Raicheal, 8-year old twins Aofie and Mairead, and 13-year old Seamus Jr, who really hated the whole thing,

Raicheal was an Celtic princess, Seamus Jr was a Gallowglas, Jane was a 1916 Cumann na mBam girl despite her not being apart of the organisation itself, the twin girls were dressed in 18th century Irish dresses.

Jane didn't really mind the costume, it looked really nice, but she looked at concern with Seamus, who was angry at his parents for making dress "weirdly"

A girl dressed as a princess went up to her.

"My daddy chose the costume, I like the uniforms, he gets huffy if I don't wear it..." She said timidly.

Jane was shy and timid, she was also pretty gentle.

Chapter 9: Cuong IV
15-year old Cuong, 4-year old Chi and 9-year old Duc were in their farmhouse, the family grew their own food, it was 1959 in the Thi household

" (Cuong, Chi, Duc, this is my new boyfriend!)" Their mother said.

Thi Bui Kim Cuc was a beautiful woman, with short hair and a blouse and long skirt, the man she introduced, came into the room.

" (Hello there)" He said

Cuong looked at him, the man's face was covered in sweat and pimples, he was over above the average weight for a Vietnamese, who were pretty small.

" (You look like a frog)" Cuong said with snarkiness.

" (YOU TRY ANYTHING DUMB WITH ME, BOY, I WILL PUT YOU THROUGH A F***ING WALL!)" He shouted, grabbing Cuong by his shirt.

" (I hope you get killed by the Southerners)" Cuong said.

" (Cuong, please.....)" She said to her teenage Viet Cong beginner son.

" (Mom, he's ugly as h***, he looks like he just won North Vietnam's Ugly Contest)" He said

Chi was trying hard not to laugh at her brother, Duc stuffed a cushion into his face.

This was her sixth boyfriend, since her husband left her, most of them broke up with her because of Cuong's antics.

" (I'm so sorry, Cuong is.....)" She said.

" (Kim Cuc, I know your boy suffered, but this isn't an excuse for his behavior)" He said.

Chapter 10: Jane III
16-year old Seamus Jr and 10-year old Jane were playing together, Jane played with her doll.

"Seamus, darling, just because Jane has the same birthday as Connolly doesn't mean she should be indoctrinated, we should let our kids choose what they want!" Lillie, Jane's mother said

Seamus looked a little embarrased at his parents, he was in Na Fianna since aged 8, and Jane's sisters were in Cumann na nBam, Jane made the decision she didn't want to join because she believed physical force was wrong.

She had the courage to tell, she went up to her father.

"Daddy, I don't want to join Cumann na mBan, I mean, their uniforms are cool, but, I think what the IRA does is wrong....." She said.

Seamus Sr went down to her height.

"It's okay sweetie, it's your decision." He said.

She also decided to tell how Ireland should be reunified.

"I believe in a peaceful and humane way where no blood is shed." She said.

The loyalist attacks made her change her mind about how Ireland should be, she decided that violence was never the answer.

She had a hatred for none approach.

Chapter 11: Jane IV
It was 1965, 12-year old Jane was playing with her new teddy bear while her parents were watching TV.

She was with her 17-year old brother, Seamus Jr.

"Big brother, what's on the news?" She asked.

"That b**** Myra and sick b*****d Ian has been caught." Her father said.

"Daddy? What's going on?" She asked.

"Jane, sweetie, there was a couple that committed some horrible killings." She said.

Chapter 12: Jane V
In 1966 Jane was back at school after 1965's Christmas vacation.

Jane was now 12, her dad dropped ehr off.

"Bye daddy!" She said.