*** I got bored. And when it says, "a hood that covered his entire face," think of the what the Dementors from Harry Potter looked like or a Grim ^_^ And I can't stress this enough when I say, this is a major SPOILER for the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. So read at your own risk. If you've played the game, you know what this is :) and some of this writing is EXACTLY from the game. So I say, I do not own anything from Frictional Games, or Amnesia, this is just for entertainment. ***

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    The dungeons of Brennenburg Castle were filled with prisoners. They were said to commit unforgivable crimes, such as murder or kidnapping. It was midnight, the cold air seeping through the large windows from the large room. There where medium sized cells with rusty, yet strong enough metal bars with the people in them, awaiting their unnecessary torture. The walls and floors were made out of cobblestone or brick. They were dirty; the once beautifully clean stones are now yellow, covered with some moss, even a few bloodstains here and there. But the stains looked stretched, as if a mutilated body was dragged in and out of their cell multiple times.

    Many of the frightened prisoners were cowering in their cell corners, trying to cover their ears from the screams of agony and pain coming through the pipes that linked to the walls of their cells and the torture rooms. It went on for hours, until it finally ceased. The prisoners thought that soon, the person would be returned by the servants of Alexander of Brennenburg, but throughout their sleepless night, the body was never put back in their cell. The prisoners knew that they had finally killed this particular person, who was a kidnapper, and she was forced to endure an unimaginable amount of pain, just as they were.

    A few nights had passed by after that, and some of the prisoners were hoping that they could be released if they pleaded about their innocence long enough. Most of them were actually seeking death, so they will not have to go through torture anymore.

    One night, just after midnight, two men had come in, along with some of Alexander's servants. The one called Alexander, was in his normal attire, but the other man next to him, just a bit shorter, was wearing a jet black cloak, with a hood that shadowed his entire face. They walked down the cells as the frightened prisoners were attempting to hide in a dark corner, so that they won't be picked for the torture session. One man though, was angered, and yelled into the pipes every hour or so, that he was innocent. He couldn't stand the blinding pain he had to go through almost every day. He actually didn't quite know if he was tortured or not, but they scars and marks all over his body made it clear, plus the agonized shrieks coming from the pipes.

    He couldn't remember because after every torture session, he was forced to drink a strange liquid made from the Damascus rose oil, known as the Amnesia Potion. But he knew that he couldn't take it anymore. Infuriated, he went over to the bars of his cell and yelled at the two men walking by, directed at Alexander.

    "You're crazy, you know that?" he said through gritted teeth. "How can such a man do things like this? If you are even an actual human!" Alexander turned to the man next to him and they exchanged a few whispers. The prisoner had a strong feeling that the hooded figure next to him wasn't even a real human either, he had never even seen him, perhaps this was the one who will torture him. He spoke up again. "How much more, Baron?! How much more am I supposed to withstand? Kill me already - kill me!" he growled at them. Alexander turned to the four servants behind him.

   "This one, prepare him." he said. They nodded and unlocked the cell doors and seized the struggling man, even though all of his strength has been drained out of him the day he arrived there. The servants stunned him, put him in chains and brought him out of the cell. Alexander held up a hand for them to stop walking once they closed the cell door.

     "Hold a moment," Alexander said with his deep slightly hoarse voice, "let this one take him to the torture room, he has to learn." he told them, gesturing to the man next to him. The servants nodded and gave the dazed, weak man to the man who was standing next to Alexander. He was just able to walk. The man in the cloak took hold of the prisoner's shoulder and the servants left, with Alexander and the man leading the prisoner to his torture chamber with them.

    When they were out of the cell area of the dungeon, the servants walked a different path while Alexander and his apprentice took another, towards the Transept.

    The Transept was a large, circular room, with large windows along the walls, with the pale blue moonlight shining through, making the room itself look blue. There are cages hanging from the ceiling, some with dead bodies inside them, bodies of people who were left there do die by disease or hunger. In the middle of the room, there was a long, spiral staircase going up to the floor above it. And there were many doors along the walls, each of them leading to a hallway were at the end of that hallway, is a torture room. Each of the doors led to a different horrific place were nothing but human pain and suffering took place.

    The two men led the prisoner to the room that was on the opposite side of the entrance to the room. The dazed prisoner came back to his senses and realized what was happening. He tried to struggle against the strong figure pushing him to the room, but he was too weak, and attempting to stop walking only led to him tripping onto the cobblestone floor face first, where his cheek had been cut open and some blood started to draw from it.

    The man in the cloak yanked him back up and forced him to walk through the door, the chains that were binding his hands back and the ones attached to his feet to unsure he doesn't run off, were chiming loudly as he tried to resist as best as he could.

    Alexander opened the door and the man in the cloak pushed him into the hallway, where there were many turns going left and right, the path hard to see from the few torches dimly lighting the way, but the two men knew exactly where to go. The prisoner was certain it wasn't a real human, for he seemed to work for Alexander, and Alexander was nothing but evil, torturing people beyond their breaking point, completely inhuman, and surly this "apprentice" wasn't even a real human either. As they walked down the hallways, the prisoner began to beg and plead for his life, trying to talk over the loud chiming of the chains that bound him.

    "Let me go you brute!" he yelled at the cloaked "man" pushing him to the room as the door drew nearer. But suddenly, a huge shock came to him. The figure in the cloak turned to Alexander, and spoke with a complete human voice,

    "The Cradle is ready." he said to Alexander. He sounded to be around his mid-twenties. That's way he was a tad bit shorter than Alexander. The prisoner couldn't believe what he had heard, no way can a real human being do something like this.

    "Good." Alexander replied. The prisoner was shocked.

    "You? You are a man . . . how can you partake in this?!" he said to the person behind him, who opened the door and pushed him inside the barley lit torture room and the prisoner stumbled down to the floor. The person in the cloak lowered his hood and reveled a completely normal looking man, with short brown hair and dark brown eyes. He looked at the prisoner with a confused look, then turned to Alexander.

    "Is he alright?" he asked him as he pulled the prisoner up from the ground and begun to lead him to the torture device at the end of the large room.

    "He is one of the wicked. Don't pay his lies any attention." replied Alexander. He prisoner once again ranted on about his innocence, begging for his life.

    "I'm not a bad man. It was an accident." he said, his voice cracking as he begun to sob.

    "He set a man on fire." hissed Alexander to the man pushing him to the torture device.

    "It wasn't my fault! Why won't anyone listen . . . ?" the prisoner choked out through his crying.

    "That's horrible." said the man forcing the now heavily struggling prisoner to his soon to be tomb.

    "Of course - we are dealing with monsters here." said Alexander as they stunned the prisoner again, leaving him dazed so they can hook him up to the torture machine.

    The torture machine was some sort of small metal pyramid on a wooden stand, with a very sharp tip, and chains that are meant to hold a body above it, and the body is to be lowered several times onto it so they get stabbed with the razor sharp tip of the impaler. It was a Cradle.

    Once the prisoner was secured on the chains, he came to his senses and begged for mercy, crying uncontrollably.

    "No, no. Please. I'll do anything! Whatever you want!" he screamed, trying to escape the ropes that held him above the impaler. "Anything! I'll do anything! I am innocent!" he sobbed.

    But the two men ignored his cries, and the man wearing the cloak walked over to a wheel which began to slowly lower his body down, where it would be stabbed and mutilated.

    The arsonist kept crying as he was slowly lowered on and off the impaler. It didn't take much to break him. They had meant for him to die, but the torture was working beyond their expectations.

    It wasn't the method, it was the arsonist, he was different from the others. They could make him forget again.

    When the prisoner finally died, Alexander called for servants to take the body away. Alexander led the torturer out of the room and down the halls and back to the Transept. He led him up the spiral staircase in the middle of the huge, circular room. The torturer looked slightly pale, but he tried to keep a neutral face.

    "I know, I know. It's a bit taunting to the mind the first few times, but trust me, it's for your own protection." he said to him. He nodded, and waited for Alexander to continue, which he did. "And besides, these people are monsters to the world, they deserve to go through pain, they deserve to die, and their blood being spilled helps you, too."

    "I understand." he replied to Alexander.

    "I assume you are ready for your second ritual, are you not?"

    "Y-yes, I am. But, how exactly does the ritual work?" he asked Alexander curiously.

    "The Guardian of the Orb will take your sacrifice, one life for another. And in turn, it will withdraw the Shadow, giving us more time to complete our plan to rid you of the Shadow." he explained.

    "Right, of course." he said.

    They reached the top of the staircase onto the floor above it, where it looked nothing like the room below. It looked completely normal. Just the kind of rooms expected to find within a luxurious castle. The wonderful carpets, the portraits on the walls, the beautiful paint designs. Alexander and the other man continued to walk, down the hallway that begins just behind the stairs. They headed for their rooms, but before they went their separate ways throughout the castle, the man said something.

    "Alexander?" he asked. "When do you think this will all end?" Alexander just sighed and slightly shrugged.

    "I don't know, Daniel, but be glad that our plan is working perfectly. Soon, maybe, just be patient. And when you get the chance, study the torture devices that you can use by hand. You do well with the machines, I'll give you that, but last time your first torture session was very, messy. I will give you notes on everything to do next time." Alexander said. Daniel nodded and took off to his room in the castle.

    He was stressing about when this will be all over. His dreams at night were unbearable, most of his nights being sleepless.

  "Ever since that expedition in Egypt," Daniel thought to himself as he approached his door, "everything fell apart. If only I hadn't touched the Orb." he opened his door and threw off the cloak he was wearing over his normal clothes.

    He knew he shouldn't blame himself, but he couldn't help it. He has already tortured two people and sacrificed another, yet the Shadow is still after him.

    "Oh well, all of this killing will help me, and Alexander. They don't deserve to live, anyway. They're murderers, cold-blooded, heartless people. Why should I show them any mercy?" Daniel thought to himself as he began to write in his journal.

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*** Like I said, I got bored >.< but don't think I'm not writing my upcoming story! I'm working on it. I was thinking about writing all of the story first, then publish it, but then I thought the wait will be too long. But still, I'll write like the first five chapters then publish them. And if you didn't read the top note and notice I said spoiler alert, that's your fault xP. And yes, Daniel is crazy O_o but I think he was kinda brainwashed after all of Alexander's talking, s yea. Hope you enjoyed, I didn't cause I wrote this in the dark . . . wait, is that my dog scratching the door, or is that a monster . . . ? D:

Keep

Calm

and

Always

Carry

a

Chair. ***