He looked at me, that insane innocence look once again about him. No more than a child in comparison to myself. But who knew how long he had spent in this place. It had robbed him of whatever sanity he still owned when he entered the Reaver.

How did he get here? All the others the Reaver had killed were no more than voices that cried out and retold their death scene for all to hear. For me to hear. I heavily doubted that the Ancient heard them.

I watched as he laid his head in his hands, rocking back and for worth. "Who are you?"

He looked up, and for a second I could have sworn that his madness was only an act. But only for a second. "Who am I? I don't know. I use to think I was pure and right. Now I don't know." He looked at the floor. "I don't think any knew after…"

"What's your name, then?"

"Izual."

"Izual." I liked the name. It seemed to suit him. "My name is Raziel."

Izual looked up at me and smiled. "I like your name. Tis a good name." The smile failed. That sadness seemed to deepen. And just behind it, a rage that would not be contained. He stood and held an arm out to me, as if to accuse me of some terrible deed. "You have never been told to do something and done it! You have never had your God then turn the deaf ear to you! You don't know what it's like to be like this! Why do you think I 'm here?! To listen to their endless complaints? Them!" He moved the arm to gesture to the walls. Apparently he could hear them. "I did what I thought was right!" He turned to face the walls behind him. "I hear you! I know what I did, what we did was wrong! Be silent! Stop telling your stories! Leave me be…" Izual dropped to his knees. "Just leave me be…"

"Izual?" He looked up. "I do know what it is to be betrayed by your god. Mine was my father. I was held in the greatest honor with him. For a thousand years I never left his side. And then one day, he ordered my brothers to throw me into the Lake of the Dead." I could feel my throat close with the memory. I closed my eyes only to feel those claws once again touch my wings. Only to feel the pain of the skin tare and hang limp against my back. "The Abyss…" I could remember the pain that its waters had inflicted on me. I didn't want to dwell on such memories as these, but I could not bring myself to send them from my mind.

When I did open my eyes, it was to see that Izual had vanished. I walked to the cross roads he had been knelt at and looked all ways.

"Izual?"

"Killed himself, he did."

I turned around to face nothing. Just another voice of the long dead.

"Not as dead as you may wish, vampire."

"Who are you?" I did not wish to be here in the first place, more so if there was a spirit here who could read my thoughts.

"One of Their victims. No more than a long dead corpse now. No more than a memory. Have no fear of me, vampire."

"Who killed himself?"

"The boy, Izual. Couldn't take it, now could he? No. The silence was too much for him. With the knowledge that he would never speak to his 'God' ever again. The curse was too much. Oh, yes. Did the job, it did. Found that blade. Fell on it, he did. Died. And now he's here. Here with all of the ones that Reaver killed. Poor boy." The voice laughed. The sound echoed though out the caves. "Got what he dissevered, he did."

The Reaver had killed all of these people.

"No, not people, silly vampire. We are not people. We are Hylden." There was a brief pause then, "Were Hylden, at least. You will go mad here. This place will kill all your hopes, dreams, and happy memories. If I were you, I'd be so afraid"

"You have told there was noting to fear," I said, turning around.

"I lied." Something akin to a soul with a face of a rotting corpse and wild white hair flew at me at a speed I had not seen before. It hit me and I blacked out once again.

______________________

When I finally a woke, it was to hear only more voices.

"I was guardin' the Chamber just like Lord Moebius has told me, right? Then I heard all this screamin' from down the hall, and suddenly there's this demon that comes chargin' at me. Real fast like. When he got within a hundred feet, there's this light blade thing on its arm, right? Pulls its arm back and BAM! I was killed."

"One of those fiends had some how found its way into our Stronghold. I don't know how many of my brethren it had killed before it got to me…"

"My Lord Mortanius had myself and several others guard the portal to the catacombs when out of no where came this blue demon that came charging at us at great speeds…"

I knew what he had done.

He laughed again. The sound worse than the first time it rang out. "All your sins remembered, huh, vampire?"

So it would seem…