"The Endless Sands" (Chapter 1)

When entering the seemingly endless sands I was approached by a man.

He was dressed to withstand the heat and sand.

He had a sword by his side, and his face was covered by a veil.

He approached me without fear. I hadn't been approached with out fear since, too long..

He lifted his veil. He was handsome and looked wise beyond his years..

"You are new here I see"

I nodded.

"You'd better dress more opropiotly for the vast sands" He said.

"Not necessary. I'll be fine.."

He laughed.

"As you wish. Just so you know.. People like you end up dead here sooner

then they would have hoped for my friend"

"Who says I care about dying?"

I looked deep in his eyes. The look I head in my eyes must have scared him.

He put his veil back before his face as soon as he could.

I scoped out the vast sands before me.. The Sahara I had heard so much about

must seem a joke compared to this.. Then in the distance I saw it.

A massive structure, high walls, majestic towers, no windows,

A castle, in the middle of a desert?

I walked towards it.

"Don't go there"

My "friend" put his hand on my shoulder.

"If you want to live"

I looked at him, again my look must have scared him because as soon as I looked at him

he took his hand off my shoulder.. He tried to put up a brave posture,

but I could see the fear in him. He was just like all the others.

"If you insist on going then I will go with you. Enough blood has been spilled already"

As I resumed my walk towards the castle. My "friend" followed me.

Blood? What was he talking about? I was eager to find out more.

"Blood huh, from who?'"

"The people who tried to overtake the Master of that castle. And those who just came to close"

Before I could ask about who this lord thought he was..

"Don't come any closer"

A dark and foreboding figure stood 70 feet before us.

He, like my "friend", was dressed for the desert. Except he had no veil

and his hands were hidden under long sleeves.

His face was scared from battle and badly sunburned, the flakes of dead skin still on his face..

"Don't come any closer or I will kill you and your friend"

He had the kind of voice that would have mere mortals run for their lives.

..But I was no mere mortal..

"Why? Afraid I might put a dent in your precious little sandcastle?"

"I will not warn you again"

I sneered. This could be fun.

I looked over at my "friend" who had already taken his sword.

He looked over at me and shook his head.

"This is not a good idea"

"He look like a big wimp to me"

"See those Roman numerals on the castle walls?"

I could see it now, the castle walls were full with them. Not an square inch was empty.

"Those are the number of people he has killed. Go one step closer

and he will end of your life"

I looked at the Master of the castle, he was breathing heavily.

I sneered again, and put one step closer.

"Come on then, Master of the pretty little sand castle"

"There's no more room on my wall"

His hands came from under his sleeves..

They were blood red, his nails were twice the length of his fingers.

He put one nail against his to his forehead, and slowly cut the Roman numeral one into it.

"One"..

The blood dripped past his cheek. He licked the blood of his nail.

Then before I knew it he had his hand around my "friend's" neck, choking him.

His arm had stretched out all the way to reach him.

What kind of freak was this?

"Let him go!"

The Master started choking my "friend" harder.

My "friend" let go of his sword..

"I'm the one who is closet to your castle, let him go!"

Al of his attention was on my friend

I Took my sword out and rushed towards the Master.

With one slash of my sword I cut of the arm that was choking my friend

..No blood… No blood came out of the wound!

Then ever so slowly, one drop appeared..

Blood started to gush out the wound. I looked over to my "friend".

"What the ?!"

The cut of hand was still choking my "friend",

The cut of arm had started to rap around him constricting him like a snake.

I rushed toward him

When I got to my "friend" he was almost totally covered by the arm's coils,

only his face was visible.

I hit the snake arm with my sword, the resulting cut didn't bleed blood, but sand.

"Help me"

Then in a flash the snake arm tightened it's grip around my friend so hard that blood and guts spat out his mouth. The arm drained him like a towel right before my eyes..

When every possible drop of body fluid had been drained from my "friend's" body,

the snake disintegrated into sand, flue back to the Master, and reformed into the arm it was before.

"One"

I did not fear death, but..

So?

Ready to die?

I did not want to end the way my "friend" had..

The Master raised his bloody fingernail to his forehead once more…

And cut the Roman numeral two into it.

I braced myself for the worst..

"Two"

His hand raced towards me..

And before I knew it he had me, his hand around my throat.

I could feel he enjoid this, He lifted me off the ground and firmed his grip.

I knew this was it, he wasn't going to give me last words.

The Master tightened his grip even more. A glow started to surround my body..

Then I could smell it, that smell, that sickening smell.. What was it?

Smoke started to form from the Master's hand. Was this another one of his tricks?

As the smoke increased the smell started to turn more pleasant..

But it was the exact same smell that sickened me a few seconds ago.

It was the smell of burning flesh!

The Master's hand was burning.. The energy surrounding my body was scorching his hand..

He tightened his grip. The amount of smoke increasing swiftly.

Then suddenly, he dropped me in the sand. The burning had proven to much.

His arm quickly turned to normal size.

I looked at the master, and knew his death was going to be horrible..

I kneeled down, took a hand-full of sand and made a cup with my hands.

Blew into my cupped hands and sealed them tightly.

All the energy moved from the rest of my body, and concentrated on my hands.

The energy of my breath combing with the sand.

"What are you doing? This is no time to play in the sand kid"

My hands were glowing as brightly as the sun..

"DIE!!!"

I opened my cupped hands and thrust them towards the master.

The sand, my breath, and the energie had created the full power of a sandstorm.

It raced towards him.

"What, you think a sandstorm is going to kill me?"

Before he knew it he was in the middle of the storm..

I sneered.

"Fool. Its sand now..

Before he knew it he was in the middle of the storm..

But I can change every grain of sand in that storm

into anything I want."

The sand storm changed into a storm of glass. The master closed his eyes, but to no avail.

Shards of glass pierced his eyes, resulting in a agonizing scream.

The glass storm gained in intensity. First tearing into his clothes..

"You wont get way with this"

Then tearing off pieces of his skin..

Resulting in more screams..

The storm intensified briefly, as did the screams.

Then the storm settled. The master was naked , sitting on his knees.

Every inch of skin striped from his body.

The pain of having been being skinned alive paralyzing him.

"You bastard look what you did!"

I walked up to him..

"I'm fucking blind!"

I grabbed him by his skinless neck. And put my index and middle finger before his eyes..

"Oh don't worry about that"

I pressed my fingers to his eye-balls.

Pushing the pieces of glass that stuck out of them deeper into his eyes..

"AAARG!"

"Be glad you won't be able to see what I am going to do to you."

I took his hand..

"Badly in need of a manicure aren't you?"

"FUCK YOU!"

I laughed..

"Call me what ever you want, but you are at my mercy now. Pissing me off

is only going to make things worse. If the pain becomes to much..

All you have to do is beg for me to kill you. And it will be over"

I took out a pocket knife and pushed the tip of the knife under one of his finger nails.

"And it will be over. Lets remove this thing shall we?"

And slowly lifted the nail from the finger.

Another agonizing scream emerged from the Master

"Oh don't be such a Baby"

I proceeded to remove his finger nails, very slowly, one at a time.

Each removal was accompanied by a scream.

When I was at number ten..

"Please"

Damn! I wasn't done jet. If he would beg me for the end of his life now..

I would have to end it.

"I'll give you anything you want"

I smiled and removed his last finger nail..

"AAAAHRG… Just don't tell anyone about this castle"

"What makes you think you have the right to kill people?

Just because they get to close to your precious castle?"

I'm obligated to…

I put my knife to his throat.

"What?"

"I have to keep people away.. If I have to kill a few to do so, then so be it"

"A Few? There are thousands of marks on that wall"

I put my knife to his stomach..

"Your rain of terror will end soon.. No more innocent people will die by your hands"

He laughed..

"You kill me and millions, not thousands will die"

"You can still beg me to kill you if the pain becomes to much"

With one swift movement I cut open his stomach.

"Don't pass out from the pain now."

I put my hand inside the wound..

"This wont be fun with you passed out"

And dug around his intestines..

"Please"…

He didn't actually think I was going to let him off the hook by killing him already did he?

"Don't let people near that castle."

The truth was I enjoyed this to much to let him off easy.

I grabbed his small intestines. And started taking out as much of them as I could.

Relishing the screams and the look on the Masters face as I did.

When I had rolled out enough of his small intestines, I opened his mouth wide..

"Dinner time bitch!"

And forced them down his throught. I closed his nose and shoved him so full of his own guts he couldn't breathe.

I leaned into his ear..

"Don't worry it's over now"

I put my hand around his throat.

The energy all went into the hand I was choking him with.

As I choked him harder my hand started to burn straight trough his flesh, eating it away like it was paper. In seconds I was holding his spinal cord, my hand barely giving his head enough to balance on to stop it from falling from his torso, and broke it.

The energy slowly subsided as I looked at the Masters gutted and beheaded body..

I looked over to where my "friend" had lost his life..

How many thousands before him had died that way? And for what?

Because this sick-o in the sand before my feet got his kick that way?

I gave my friend an proper burial…

I used the bones of the one who killed him to make a cross.

And said an incantation to help guide his spirit to the spirit world..

After the burial I looked at the castle.

I had to find out. What could be so special about that place?

I stood before the castle entrance and hesitated.

Something told me not to go in, but I had never followed that feeling before and I wasn't going to start now.

The walls on the inside were covered with Roman numerals.

Death was all I could feel. How much people did the sick-o kill?

Part of me wished I hadn't killed him jet so I could torture him some more.

Just as that though went trough my mind the roman numerals turned blood red.

A female voice echoed through the hall…

"You are the one who avenged us, we who have died by the Masters hand.

You are now the Master of this castle."

The Roman numerals started to disappear.

"Don't be frightened we mean you no harm.

Come to the east wing tower and I will reveal my self Master."

Master?

What was she on about?

I knew there was no way back.

All my life I had run when things became difficult.

But now I had gotten myself into a mess I could not run away from.

I had to face my new destiny.

What that destiny was?