Have you ever wondered what it's like to lose everything ?
Of course you have, you must've.
Surely you have wondered what it would be like to lose everything you own in a house fire while you're away eating Christmas dinner because you forgot to completely turn off that one faulty electrical appliance.
The one you knew you should've thrown out and stopped using ages ago, but thought "Ah what the hell. It's still working isn't ?".
Sure, you would feel responsible for awhile, perhaps even guilty, but you'll get over that.
After all, who cares if the insurance pays for everything that can be replaced ?
Material possessions mean next to nothing these days, whether you agree with me or not.
We always need to have the latest gadgets and the latest fashion statements just because society decides when something is out of date.
But when it suddenly comes to people, all of the sudden it becomes a whole different ballgame.
We cherish those closest to us; wife, husband, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister...
Perhaps even your elderly next door neighbour who always comes around for a weekly chat.
The thought or even the idea that they some day might die is unthinkable to us.
Better yet it tends to scare the living shit out of us.
Death is our greatest fear and our biggest enemy.
Mankind is always trying to prolong the inevitable with medical technology and so called youth elixirs.
But do you think we're winning ?
Hell no.
People die everyday, and for what ?
For nothing.
Plane crash, train wreck, the endless war in the Middle East.
Pick your tragedy.
Sniper in a restroom, 15 dead.
What do we do ?
Nothing.
If nature doesn't kill us than we end up killing ourselves.
But these things you already knew.
Though we often call certain people pure evil; Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jim Jones, Adolf Hitler even, they are nothing to what lies lurking in that dark corner in your bedroom or that murky alley you always try so desperately to avoid.
True, these people committed horrid crimes to Humanity, but pure evil ?
Hardly...
If anything they're nothing more but the predators among the prey.
An instinct that deep down we all possess.
Though admittedly, I too want nothing more but to see those fuckers burn in Hell for all eternity.
Let them feel what they put their victims through.
Heh, it feels odd saying those things.
Especially the burn in Hell part.
For you see, Hell isn't fire and ruled by little red devils with pitch forks.
Oh no, it's much more sinister than that.
I've been there, and I've seen what they do to you down there.
Them and their knives and their beasts.
All they care about is your pain and your suffering, all the while expanding and satisfying their hunger for knowledge about the flesh.
Who are they you ask ?
Creatures I hope you will never seek out.
Even after you've read this, I implore you NOT to seek them out.
And should you do find them, DON'T let yourself be tempted by their promises.
They all say it.
They all promise it.
Experiences beyond the flesh...
Sights no living mortal will see unless they have an invitation.
At that moment they don't realize that the invitation was the very puzzle they had just solved.
I too held such an invitation a long time ago, and I surrendered to their promises without a second thought.
Oh how I've come to regret it now.
The pain they inflicted on me cannot be described with words.
It wasn't all pain.
Though I've come to hate that seducing bitch with a vengeance, she sure as hell knew her way when it came to giving pleasure.
She was the third of those creatures to have a go at torturing me after the other two grew bored of me.
When I first saw her I truly thought she was the most beautiful thing around, but damn did her eyes deceive her.
They held a cruelty and a knowledge I didn't even dare to guess where it had originated from.
And she made me feel it too.
I was lucky enough that I found a way to escape their chains and barbed hooks, but do you think I've been happy to be back since ?
Ha, no fucking way.
Though I take each moment as a gift these days, I'm always looking over my shoulder out of fear they've found me.
An one day they will find me, believe you me.
They don't like escapees like me roaming around.
Probably because they're dead scared I might tell what will REALLY happen if someone solves their little summoning toy.
Ha ha ! They will fucking have their hands full !
For you see, I'm not the only one who escaped their bloody clutches over the years.
I am just one of many who found a way out and managed to elude them to this very day.
We're not scattered around though.
In fact, most of us have found one another and stuck together since.
At the moment we're quite a strong little group.
Armed or not, I strongly doubt they will be able to take us on, on their own.
We want them wiped out.
Destroying their little keys to their world just isn't enough anymore.
We want vengeance for what was done to us.
You see, we didn't just lose our souls when we solved the puzzles.
Some of us lost entire families too to them too just because they could.
So you think you know what it's like to lose everything ?
My friend you have no fucking idea.
No, no, don't start that "But I lost my family in a fire. I know what it's like to lose everything." crap.
You. Have. No. Idea.
At all.
Nothing can compare to the lasting suffering these demonic fuckers leave behind.
Although a tragic loss has it's lasting effect too, this is much, much worse.
Not a moment goes by I don't feel their hooks nagging at me like some eager child, hear their taunts and encouragements to continue my screaming while they tear out my insides, see their cruel smiling deathly pale faces looking at me with cold amusement.
Just imagine for a moment you experience those things over and over, every second of your life.
You can't right ?
Not without enduring it first.
But it won't be long now before I get to give what's coming to them.
We're preparing to go down there and capture one of them just so we can send those bastards a message they made a mistake in torturing us the way they did.
If they come for us, so be it.
We'll be prepared for their attacks.
And if I should die in the field, then it will be a release.
My name is Cedric Yeager, I'm 46 years old, and a member of a worldwide secretive organisation called the Harrowers.
I want vengeance for what those mutilated creeps did to me, even if it means my life...