The Hunter Now The Hunted {Blake, Daven}

The days were passed in agony, one by one, crawling by a snail's pace. It wasn't the physical pain that that bothered him. Liam could endure physical pain. Pain hardened his resolve, made him stronger, made him fight harder. It was the inaction that was killing him. He now knew for a fact that Daven was still alive, and he was somewhere out there, bringing evil to the world. Liam knew the type of evil that Daven was capable of, and he had to put a stop to it. The Council forbade him from hunting until his wounds had healed sufficiently, and the waiting was driving him mad. He had almost sought healing, but he refrained. His wounds, his pain, and his waiting were penance for the life that he took because he was too weak when Daven came for him.

He waited, he endured the passing of time. Liam studied the arcane arts while he waited for his wounds to healed, and when they were sure enough, he trained hard. He drove his body to get stronger, stretched scar tissue to the point of breaking, and tested the strength of mended bones. Abbot Chiun tested him personally and declared him hale so that the Council would lift the prohibition. Now that he was free to do so, it was time for the hunted to become the hunter. He'd found the means to find the needle in the hay stack in the Acolyte libraries. It was a spell meant divine the location of a person across great distance so that they could be found.

The key ingredient in the spell was something belonging to the individual that was being located. Liam didn't have any objects belonging to Daven, but he had something that he hoped would work. The Acolyte Cleric retrieved his destroyed clothes from the hospital after they had been removed from him. He'd studied them, searched their fibers and discovered the taint that lay on the ashen edges. It was strongest on the chest of the garment where the cross had been pressed into him. It gave him the lifelong scar, but the flames had been Daven's and left behind an oily taint. It was the one hope that Liam had of finding him again, so he waited until he could fight, and then preformed the ritual.

The tattered remains of his clothing were placed at the center of the ritual, and instantly they were consumed in a flash of white flame. The unearthly flame continued to burn within the rune circle and Liam looked into its depths. In his mind, Liam could feel himself being drawn to three places, the first was the spot where he was now sitting. The other two were elsewhere in the city. They felt far, but not so far as to be outside of Bastion's walls. The spell was working. He was drawn to himself because his blood was on those garments. The fact that there were two other sources pulling him in their direction gave him hope. One would be the body of the young man who died in their fight, the other would be the demon that had inhabited his body, and controlled the flames. There was no way of telling which pull would take him to Daven, so he had to seek out both.

The Cleric had prepared his equipment and prayed to the Divine Collective for the safety of his flock should he die this night. He stood from the spot on the floor where he knelt and left his room at the Grand Temple. He'd returned to Bastion from Librium to demonstrate to the Council that he was ready to be reinstated as a hunter, and to begin tracking his prey. His prey was still in the city, and now it was time to cleanse the capital of human civilization of this evil once and for all. Liam locked the door so that no one would disturb the spell circle. As long as it remained intact and he did not cast any other magics, he would be able to retain the awareness the spell gave him. He made his way to the closest point only to find a grave stone marked with the name of the young man who's life he had taken. He knelt down beside it, and offered a silent prayer for the young man's soul. He did not ask for forgiveness, however, he would earn it by destroying the evil that caused the young man's death. "I've found you, monster."

The body he held was beyond annoying as he was sick of playing the good guy role and getting nowhere fast. He was not cut out to play these games and his patience was wearing thin as was his ability to sit within the filthy meat sack he had chosen after his fight with Liam. He was getting far to antsy as of late and it was because of this that he had taken a huge risk in kidnapping one of the daughters of a man he 'worked' with at the BPD and he knew that the APB would be out a lot faster then normal because of who it was the missing person belonged to. He had gotten to her while she was out with friends and at seventeen she was a rather pretty little thing who was rebelling against her father by trying to get together with older men and act older then she was. It was easy to get her to the abandoned building as she thought they would be drinking and maybe even fucking but what she got was a real surprise when she was knocked out cold.

The young girl woke up in her bra and panties and was tied down to a steel chair in the center of the room with a medical table holding different instruments to her right and Daven across the room in another chair smiling. "Oh how good it is to see that your awake. We can finally play.." She went to scream but her voice was muffled and that was when the gag she had became very apparent stuffed within her mouth. Bones littered the corners of the room and upon closer inspection she could see they were human and varying in size. The stench was awful and made her gag and flies were abundant in the room but never seemed to touch the man slowly strolling in her direction. This was what he needed and what he craved because it had been far to long since he had time to kill and enjoy it as of late and so she would be his first piece of art in a long while.

The build up was the most important part of the process and so as he reached the young woman he leaned down and whispered softly to her. " I know you are scared and that you are wondering if you can talk your way out of this but I want you to know that you are going to die tonight. However before I kill you I am going to make you beg me for death through the use of pain." He picked up a small pair of pliers and smiled to the young woman before placing his hand over her own and holding it down against the arm. He moved the pliers foreword and clasped them down on the overhand of her index finger nail."This is really going to hurt my dear...please scream loudly." He held the grip and began to pull back with a devilish smile as tears streamed down her face and screams managed to be stifled by the dirty rag in her mouth.

He stopped for a moment before any real pain could be felt and shook his head as it seemed tears would almost be falling from his eyes. "What the hell am I doing? I am so sorry I am just gonna let you go. Oh my lord please forgive me!" She cried sobs of relief and the anxiety and fear seemed to leave her body as she slouched in the chair and waited to be released. However the next sound to echo the walls was a faint rip followed by her screams as he ripped the finger nail off in one clean swipe. Standing he leaned in and screamed in her face before laughing hysterically at her. "Did you really think I was going to let you go? Jeez your fucking stupid." with that he proceeded to rip the rest of her nails off one by one each time she screamed and cried and he laughed all the harder at her pain and sorrow.

Make-up was smeared all over her face and blood dripped onto her knees and down her legs as she sobbed and tried to beg through the gag to be let go. Setting the small set of pliers down he traded them for a scalpel which he held before her face and smirked. "I want you to see everything I do to you and so I am going to remove your eyelids...if you struggle to much I am going to nick your eyeballs." It took a bit of time but after twenty minutes he was holding two small pieces of flesh before her and wiggling them in the air. He tossed them to the side and there was a sickly slap as they stuck to the wall a few feet away and he traded out the scalpel for a larger pair of pliers before removing her gag and smirking. "I like those pearly whites my dear...I think I will keep them as a memento. As she screamed he jammed the massive pliers into her mouth and began to pull on the front tooth which caused her to scream out in pain before it all faded to black for her.