Song 'Haunted' by Evanescence. I don't own it! But I hope it goes better with the story than the last one...


Mayra was a little disturbed. When Xervexagon had reached for his knife, she could have swore that he was staring right at her; his hidden eyes boring into her own...and the way he was trembling...it was like he was restraining himself.

Did he still see her as prey, even after she had put her trust into him? Was her trust even worth anything to the executioner? Or was she just an object he could play with whenever he was bored, and then devour whenever he lost interest in her?

She watched him make his way to the door, dragging his blade behind him. He turned around and looked down at her.

"Are you coming? Or do you want me to bring back the scraps of a grey child?" He asked flatly.

"I'm coming...keep your robe on." She grumbled, standing up to follow him.

"Why would I take it off?" He asked, genuinely confused. Mayra just laughed.

She nervously clung to Xervexagon's arm as he led her through the darkness. Although she felt a little uncomfortable touching him after he...he did that... she didn't want to risk being lost in the shadows and coming across something dangerous that she couldn't fend off by herself. Mayra wondered how Xervexagon was finding his way through the dark. Her eyes were useless in blackness this intense, so maybe he had eyes like a cat? But then how could he see through that helmet? Or maybe he couldn't see at all and somehow felt his way around?

Mayra suddenly stumbled and nearly fell, releasing his arm. After feeling around on the cold, hard floor, she found her balance and pushed herself up.

"Xervexagon? Where are you?" She called.

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'Blind...she's blind in the dark. Helpless and weak. You have her now.' Instinct tempted.

'No. She trusts me. I can't break that now.' Xervexagon declined.

'Why not? She's what you want. That's why you've been keeping her around, isn't it?'

'Yes, but if I take her against her will, she'll run away and never return. I'd have to track her down and bring her back, and always have to keep an eye on her. It would be too much trouble.' He explained.

'She's enough trouble already. Just take what you want from her and end it.'

'No.'

'She's standing right in front of you. Look at her. She can't see you, but you can see her. This is your chance.' Instinct persisted.

'NO.' He was finding it more and more difficult to refuse.

'You've never had a better opportunity. Take it while you can. Are you really going to pass it up?'

'Yes! Now shut the Hell up!' Xervexagon growled out loud.

"Xervexagon? Are you okay?" Mayra called out to the darkness, blindly feeling her way towards him.

'Look. She's moving towards you. She's asking you to take her. Do it. Take her. Kill. Eat. Rape.' Instinct demanded.

'No.' Xervexagon was trembling with temptation now. He hadn't eaten for nearly a day and still wasn't completely satisfied by the nurses...a dangerous combination for the executioner.

'She's coming to you. Getting closer...Kill. Eat. Rape.'

Mayra was only a few feet away from him. So innocent and pure...unbroken and intact.

'I have to control myself...but I can't...' Xervexagon's mind was fogging with hunger and desire.

'KILL. EAT. RAPE.' Instinct's voice was pounding in his mind.

Mayra was so close now that Xervexagon could feel the warmth radiating off of her. He could smell the blood coursing beneath her flesh. He deeply inhaled her scent. Oh, it was so intoxicating.

'So close...so unaware...so weak...' He was on the brink of madness from holding back.

She reached out her hand.

"Xervexagon? Is...is that you?" She asked, so blissfully ignorant of the monster that was surfacing.

He was trembling beyond control now, his bestial nature overtaking his usually rational mind. Her delicate hand was centimeters away from his stomach.

"Mayra...run." Xervexagon shakily ordered her. He couldn't take it anymore. He snapped.

"What?"

"RUN!!!" He roared, suddenly swinging his blade which Mayra dodged by a hair's breadth.

In shock and unable to see, she stumbled helplessly away from him and around the unfamiliar place.

"Xervexagon! What's your problem?" She shrieked in terror.

He only growled in response; his ability to speak and reason were consumed in the fire of monstrous desires that now raged through him. He was no longer Xervexagon. He was the Executioner.

Mayra was now crawling on her hands and knees, desperately trying to avoid the great knife's crashing blows. The floor cracked beneath the brutal strikes, each nearly connecting with her.

"Xervexagon, please! Snap out of it!!!" She cried.

His next strike was closer than ever, sending a breeze over her face. She rolled out of the way before he stepped on her and stood up with adrenaline charged speed. Spotting the tunnel of light that led to the stairwell, she pushed past him and ran like Hell. However, she misjudged the distance between her foot and the first step, and she fell flat on her face.

"Shit." She muttered, her lips on the concrete.

Mayra scrambled up the stairs on her hands and feet. But before she reached the final step, Xervexagon's enormous hand caught her ankle. She struggled uselessly, his grip tightening by the moment. She glanced up at the last few steps and saw a miracle. A grey child was descending towards her, arms reaching out to her as though it were sent to save her. She grabbed it's cold, dry leg and slung it down towards the executioner, hitting him in the head (or helmet, rather) with the poor creature. Xervexagon released Mayra to grab it and slash at it with his blade. It was enough of a distraction to allow her to crawl away and run to the nearest building.

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Xervexagon held the grey child in one hand and hauled his knife with the other as he ascended the stairs. Once in the open, he crushed the grey child's skull like an egg. Blood and brain matter oozed out onto his hand and he licked at it greedily. He set down his knife and tore the gurgling creature apart. Blood poured onto the ground and Xervexagon dropped to his knees and lapped it up like a dog.

'Look at you. You're on your knees and lapping at the ground like a dehydrated animal.' Instinct taunted.

Xervexagon only grunted in reply. He ignored the voice in his mind and cleaned the ground of the blood. He then began to devour the meat of the grey child. He ripped it into smaller chunks that he could swallow and creaked his helmet up slightly so he could slide limbs and organs into his mouth.

'You could be eating much sweeter meat right now. Human meat. But nooo...you wouldn't listen to me.'

Xervexagon snarled and snapped his teeth harder into the bony arm between his jaws. The bone shattered into sharp little shards but he swallowed them anyways. Once the grey child was completely devoured, a weak portion of Xervexagon's rational mind returned.

'Now that that part of you is sustained for now, you know what you have to do. Find Mayra.' Instinct demanded.

Something stirring within him wanted to refuse, but it was too deep for him to hear clearly. Instinct had finally regained control of him. All that was coming through to him was : KILL. EAT. RAPE.

Xervexagon picked up his knife again and began to follow the scent of his human.

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Mayra crawled and stumbled among the rubble of a half-destroyed building. Fallen bricks, splintery boards and sheetrock littered the place and made it treacherous. She found a mound of drywall to duck behind and hoped it would conceal her.

What was Xervexagon's problem?! He just attacked her out of the blue and she didn't even say 'Pyramid Head'! She couldn't think of anything she possibly did to provoke him. She didn't understand...

'Wait a second...could this be the same thing that had happened when I first met him, but worse?' It suddenly dawned on her.

'But then...what IS happening to him? He's acting like a monster!' She wondered. 'And I don't think singing will calm him down at this point...'

The horrific screeching of metal against stone slashed at her ears.

'Oh God, no...he's here...' She slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from gasping.

Xervexagon lumbered into the shadowy wreckage. Mayra watched him raise his helmeted head into the air and inhale deeply.

'Holy shit...is he...is he tracking me by smell?' She marveled. 'What the Hell is he?!'

Xervexagon easily stepped over the piles of brick that had hindered Mayra from finding her hiding place.

'Oh, that is SO not fair.' She complained mentally.

He continued to sniff the air, each few steps bringing him closer and closer to her.

'Fuck!!! What am I gonna do?! I'm cornered, and there's no where I can go where he can't get m-'

The church. No monster can enter the church. Not even Xervexagon. But she had no idea where she was or how to get there from here. And would going back to that cage of a building be better than dying?

No. She'd rather die.

Mayra pressed herself against the wall. Xervexagon was 15 feet away and getting closer. She didn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell against him. He was far too strong. Too fast. And no matter where she ran, he'd find her.

Mayra's hiding wall was smashed by the great knife that slammed down upon it. White dust billowed around her and she coughed. He had found her. He raised his blade high in preparation to bring it down upon Mayra. Her only option was to sing.

Long lost words whisper slowly to me

Still can't find what keeps me here

When all this time I've been so hollow inside

I know you're still here

Watching me, wanting me

I can feel you pull me down

Fearing you, loving you

I won't let you pull me down

Hunting you, I can smell you...alive

Your heart pounding in my head

Watching me, wanting me

I can feel you pull me down

Saving me, raping me, watching me

Watching me, wanting me

I can feel you pull me down

Fearing you..loving you

I won't let you pull me down

Mayra desperately hoped it had some effect on the enraged executioner. He was still as stone as she sang the best she could, never lowering his blade but not bringing it down upon her either. She was afraid to move at all in fear that she'd be sliced right down the middle. But she had to do something.

"Xervexagon?" She said quietly.

No response.