In the late 1800’s, thousands of Americans headed their wagons west to a new world in the new world with the promises of gold and riches.  A place where a rich man would be reduced to rags and a pauper to easy street.  Franklin and Julia White, a very young couple with nothing but their dreams of the good life, were seduced by these possibilities. 
     In the spring of 1890, Franklin and Julia had set foot in Colorado Springs with their children Stephen and Solomon, both infants separated by 9 months.  Frank staked his claim and built a small shack on the land to begin his operation.  But the White’s happy dreams of gold and glory were shattered by reality.  Franklin had not struck gold for a year.  During that strike, he made a total of 100 dollars, which he used to pay his promissory notes which were passed due.
     The constant failure caused Franklin to work as a carpenter and drown his sorrows in a bottle of booze while he gambled his meager wages in five card draw trying to get rich quick another way.  Julia worked as a seamstress to make a few extra cents, most of which she secretly saved so that her husband couldn’t drink and piss it away.
     Life was hard, but being young children, the darkness was driven away by innocence.  Franklin knew he would have to teach his boys how to survive.  He had left his dreams at the bottom of a bottle and knew his boys would have to live like working men too.  After nine years of failure, he began to teach his sons how to fire his guns and how to hunt.  Stephen also began to learn his father’s trade.  While Stephen took to these, Solomon did not.
     Solomon was different than most of the children.  He was quiet.  He could show up and have a seat with everyone and no one would notice him sitting.  His expressions were blank but you could tell he was paying attention to everything going on around him and he was thinking about how it all came together.  Stephen on the other hand was very eager and enjoyed showing off in the spotlight.  They both had pride in their hearts, but one was quiet about it. 
     Before Franklin could show his boys all that he could, he suddenly died in a collapsing mine; his own mine.  The day after the news was delivered to his family, Julia took her life with a rope and a tree branch.  She was overcome with grief and the inability to take care of two boys as far in debt as they were.  Her last thought were of her boys and how the state would care for them better than she could.  Stephen and Solomon gathered their belongings and went with the men from the state to be placed into foster care of the late 19th century.  Solomon packed away his father’s six gun inside of his clothes and kept it with him in secret.  He still has the six gun.
    They were taken to Myron Staton’s house for children and the infirm.  This place also housed the insane.  A lot of children ended up at the Staton house.  A lot of miners found their end in the mines and others took their own lives in failure and depression.   Like most orphans in a dark world where they must fend for themselves, they ran in gangs. 
     Colorado Springs was founded to be a place for tourists.  Many people came for the mountain atmosphere and many recovering from Tuberculosis found it to be a holiday hot spot to recover in.  Stephen and Solomon rolled with Valley Park 57’s and they were good at lifting wallets and other small trinkets that could make a dime for them.  Stephen started to get a reputation for being true to his 57’s and for being able to defend his turf from outside leeches.  A few years later, Stephen became the leader of the Valley Park 57’s, and he made it because of Solomon.
     Solomon wasn’t as strong or as charismatic as Stephen was, but Solomon knew how to get his brother into the seat of power and he knew how to get what he wanted from the seat of power that Stephen held.  No one knew any better.  They all thought Solomon was protected by his big brother.  They didn’t know that all of Stephen’s great ideas were actually Solomon’s and that every success was because of the younger brother.
     These successes brought a twist of fate to the White Brothers.  Their success was infringing on the newspaper turfs of a certain individual.  Sol and Stephen decided that having a legitimate face would lessen suspicions around them and just about any kid could sling newspapers on a street corner.  Especially when their antics made the news and antics sell papers.  And with the defending and gaining of turf, a neutral newsie on a corner was not immune from the rule of a 57.  This is what was causing discomfort in someone else’s side.
     Inquiries were made and Stephen and Solomon were found out.  Before the call to have them taken care of was made, Devlin Forsythe had intervened; he was interested in what he was being told. 
     That is how it began.  Devlin stalked Stephen for many weeks; watching his charisma and his success.  Forsythe had staged many small instances of tactful tribulations to the Valley Park 57’s.  Solomon directed his 57’s through them all to the satisfaction of Forsythe’s expectations.  It was time to take Solomon into the world of the night. 
     Forsythe ended the campaign of the Valley Park 57’s.  Stephen died in the jyhad and Solomon was arrested.  The rest of the 57’s were either arrested, killed or scattered into the streets into hiding.  Solomon was all alone and ready for Forsythe to ride in as his savior.  He was released, his record forever erased and given the “good life” and a finer education.  Then as the years went by, he gave his blood and his dark gift.