Excruciation

"Eh?" he said as he looked at Ajani with a raised eyebrow, "My name Brandon, I am a sailor. Nothing more." he flopped down on the sand near the water, "I feel drained, maybe we should rest before heading to town."

They didn't believe him. There's no WAY he's just a sailor! He must be hiding something. But what could it be? I don't know, but maybe he could help us find Kagirinai! "Hey, Brandon, would you like to join us? we are trying to find someone, and we could use your... talents."

"My talent is always knowing where I am." Brandon said as he laid on the sand with his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, "Anyway, sure, I can help you but you need to regain your energy, I can't be giving you mine all the time."

"Fine" I just hope those beasts don't find us. Same. They laid back, and closed their eyes. The nightmares began.

Brandon had a funny feeling about Ajani, *Who the heck is Kagirinai?* he thought as he laid there.

"NO!" They woke up, gasping, sweating in the cold desert night. "N-no... n-never ag-gain! J-just a-a d-dream..." Why?!? Why wont they end?!? I don't know! Shivering, they stood up, letting the cold night breeze dry the sweat from their limbs. Fucking Mastermind... Fucking Kagi, hiding Brianne...

"Ah!" Brandon was startled awake, "What the hell?" He said as he stood then looked to Ajani, "Had a bad dream?" he asked.

"Th- they never end... W-we'll n-never be free..." They started to cry, big fat tears of pain and sorrow. Look at us, look at what we've become... I know, right?

"Wow, wow, wow, what are you talking about?" Brandon said as he hugged her. *What the hell is she talking about?* he thought to himself.

They stiffened at his touch. "No! Don't touch us!" They shrugged out of his hug, and started walking out of the oasis, pausing only to grab their blades, bags, and several canteens full of water. As they exited, they called over their shoulder, "Are you coming?"

"Why is it that i find the crazy ones?" Brandon said as he went to Ajani.

"Crazy? If you went through what we did, you wouldn't be here right now. You call us crazy, but you don't even know..." Feeling energized from the nights rest, they began exercising their powers. They fired lightning bolts into the sky, made metal blades out of the sand, and animated skeletons that were lying around. They hooped onto the broad shell of a long dead apceros, and beckoned to Brandon. "Hop on."

Brandon went hopped on, "I have been through a lot as well..." he said not sounding too happy about it.

"Have you been tortured? We have, to the point that would drive any lesser man insane. Have you been possessed by a demon, and have it live inside you? We still do. Have you seen to one you love turned to stone..." Their voice broke, and a tear rolled down their cheek. "We have. Now we need to find the one that did it, and kill him. But first, we must find Kagirinai!"

"As a matter of fact yes, I have." Brandon said then took out a locket, he opened it up to show Ajani the pictures, "My mom was killed, I was tortured by some mad man and I am possessed by an earth demon." he closed the locket, "I have been in hiding ever since I escaped, I almost died when I did."

"Oh, yeah? What can your demon do?" This was mostly Kamsa talking, wanting to know what other demons had been locked in mortal shells.

"I don't really know, I am able to suppress it cause if I don't, it could escape and I go nuts. Sometimes that happens. When it does, I blackout. Most of the time I wake up to find me in a jail cell." Brandon stared ahead in the distance.

"Wow... Sucks for you. Our demon can do... this" They raised their hand, and flexed. The bones erupted out of her hand, and they wiggled the bare bones, the flesh and muscles hanging limply. "Cool, eh?" They pulled a knife out of their bag, and cut off the dangling flesh. THey then wrapped the skeletal arm in a scarf. Noticing his dumbstruck look, they said,"What? Oh, don't worry, it'll grow back in a few hours."

Brandon blinked, "I...oy...I don't know what to say about that." He said then looked away, "I just hope we get to town soon."

"Same." They had a strange feeling that something... epic was about to happen.

Brandon was still tired, he yawned, "So who is this Kagirinai? What does he look like?" He said looking to Ajani.

"Vampire, head of the family Kasai." They told him of how they had met Makai, and then Kagi. They told him of the battle, of how they were bonded, everything. They didn't know why, but they had come to trust him, incomprehensibly, as they had only known him for one day.

"Mmm, I think I heard that name somewhere before...about 18 months ago." Brandon wasn't sure but he did remember he heard that name before.

"What, Kasai? Interesting." The own was approaching, so they made a sling for their bone arm, and wrapped a long scarf over her hair, hiding most of it from easy view. "We should get ready."

Brandon knew people in town were suspicious about others, he covered his face so all you could see was his eyes and then they headed into town. As they walked along with the people, some glared and sneered at them, "Come on, lets go to the inn just in case we can't find him." he said quietly to Ajani.