It was dark and storming in the night. The sun had just set behind a small buggy riding through the wilderness. In this vehicle slept Daniel, a man being chased by an intangible darkness that seeks to destroy him. Driving the buggy is his Lord Alexander Brennenburg, the man providing him shelter, and protection from the darkness inside of his castle. A man of royal descent. Lightning cracked across the sky as Daniel whimpered in his sleep, waking up from his often-recurring nightmare of the darkness stalking him.


"Don't worry, Daniel, we are nearly there." Said Alexander, keeping his eyes to the road in the dim lighting. "And we'll be one step closer to vanquishing that darkness we have on our tails."


Stretching, Daniel sits up in his seat and watches the countryside flash by his window. He had been used to this kind of restlessness for a while before Alexander took him in. After that fateful adventure in Prussia, he had never been so terrified, and it seemed to be that Alexander was his escape from it all, if even for short times.


The lightning cracks, and for a split second, in Daniel's window, a figure with a disfigured head, and a missing jaw bone making his mouth gape down to his chest appeared in the window. Daniel jumped a bit, but by now, he was used to the scares this curse had brought upon him.


"The man we're after is a rapist. He was seen forcing himself upon a younger girl. We are to take this man back to the castle, and continue our...procedures...." Alexander hinted, and laughed a bit to himself as Daniel shivered at the thought. Even if these rituals would eventually get rid of the darkness, he felt that no one should have to endure them... And then, he remembered they were criminals. Criminals who killed, raped, and stolen from others. It at least made it feel justified.


"We're coming up to the house. Be prepared, Daniel." Alexander warned, and picked up the small pistol he kept on his dashboard. Daniel opened up the glove box, showing a small potion, a cloth, and a knife. This potion was meant to be placed over the victim's mouth, causing him to suffer from amnesia and pass out for a few hours. The knife was for anyone who interfered with the capture. By this time, Daniel knew how to use his tools to his advantage, and knew Alexander only used the pistol in serious situations. Alexander would subdue the victim with strength that seemed to be far beyond his potential, and Daniel would slip the cloth over the man's mouth....


"We've arrived." Alexander announced, and so they both slipped out of the buggy, facing towards a large farm with a small field. Beside it was a small house with the lights still lit. They wanted in the shelter of the barn, in the loft in the hay. "And now we wait..." uttered Alexander. And so they waited a while as the rain dropped on the roof of the barn. Eventually, a man with a lantern opened up the doors, coming in to dry off and tend to the animals. As he ventured to the back of the farm, he heard a grunt behind him. He quickly turned, but it was too late. Alexander was already onto him, grappling the man's arms behind his back, rendering him immovable. Daniel moved up quickly, sticking the potion into his mouth, causing him to slowly fade into unconsciousness.

The man began to blink as he slowly came to consciousness, finding himself in a prison type of setting. He began to panic as he realized he had no idea who he was, where he was, or what had happened in his lifetime. Shortly after, the door on the other side of the room opened, and Alexander stepped in with Daniel. The two went to a different cell than the man, and a woman began to scream. They carried her out of the cell, completely tied at her ankles and arms. The door slammed after them, and footsteps were heard as they walked away. After a few minutes, the man began to calm down, until he heard the woman scream.


Alexander and Daniel looked up to see the woman, completely naked, with her arms behind her back, clutched to a pulley on the ceiling controlled by a lever on the wall. She also had what seemed to be 20kg weights chained to her feet. She was pulled up towards the ceiling again, and her shoulder blades began to reek with pain. The woman continued to scream loudly, until finally, her arms and shoulders gave out, and she passed out from the pain. She was then lowered to the ground, and carried off by the men who had brought her there. They came through the door again, and sat down the the unconscious women on her cell bed. Daniel slipper her another potion, and in that instant, the memories of the pain and torture were wiped.


The man looked up to see that the men were now heading to his cell. He began to back away into the corner of the cell. Panicking, he kept asking questions like "What are you going to do to me?" Or "Please! I Beg of you!" All of which were futile. Alexander had cupped the man's throat with his own palm, choking him after a few seconds. The man passed out and became limp.


The man awoke, but it wasn't possible to see anything but the brown leather bag that had been placed on his head. By the way he was hanging, he believed he was hanging upside down by a rope they had attached to his legs. Daniel and Alexander stood nearby, but away from the body itself. Two other men carrying a large saw stepped in. They quickly took the long, spiking blade over to the naked man hanging, and started from the top. Instantly, the man began to cry in pain from his pelvis being penetrate by the swift motions of the blade. Carrying on through him, the saw continued through his stomach, his chest, and eventually to his neck, finally causing the man to become silent. The men brought the say out from him, and began to let the blood drain to the floor and into the vent in the floor.


"This should be enough for now." Alexander said, nodding to the men to unhook the body from the leverage. The two men followed behind Daniel and Alexander until they reached a room with a table in the middle, and a circle with alchemical symbols surrounding it underneath. As the two other men sat the body down, they left the room. The door seemed to slam shut by itself behind them.