The two inquisitors walked through the front door, tired from their hunt. Jake sat on the cracked concrete, whereas Shino walked straight to one of the rooms, to cleanse himself from the filth. "What a long day." Jake said with a sigh.
"Another run in with the Shield?" Kyler asked.
"Yep. Talking about territory and stuff like that."
"Great. So we have territories now. Soon we'll need permits just to kill daemon."
"And we'll have to report our findings."
"We already do that."
"Not to them."
The back door opened, revealing the four recruits, followed by Martha and Barry. "Ah Jake," Martha said, "You're back."
"Yeah, we run into a daemon on the way but it was ok."
"Any word from Aaron?" Barry asked.
"Yeah," Shino said, coming out of the room wearing his suit trousers and a towel over his head, "Said something about wanting to see the beach."
"Everybody has to have a break once in a while." Kyler muttered under his breath. "Okay. Take a break, Martha and I will go on patrol now."
"Me?" Martha asked, "Why me?"
"'Have you killed daemon in a while?"
"Have you?"
Kyler looked at her and smiled. Rachel and Sarah headed for the showers.
"Hi," Brandon said to Blake, "I'm Brandon. Brandon Pratt."
"Blake Summers."
"So… I guess you're new to the whole action I guess?"
"Yeah, you can say that."
"Well, I can show you the ropes. Kyler and Jake are in charge of the theories, while Barry and Aaron are in charge of the more…rigorous training."
"Nothing I can't handle."
"Are you sure about that?" Kyler asked, interrupting the conversation between the two recruits. "Are you sure you can handle everything that's going to come at you?"
"Yeah," Blake replied Kyler, "I mean it's just about killing daemon, right."
Kyler smiled, approaching Blake. He stopped when he was directly in front of the boy, looming over him.
"Then answer this question, Blake. What is a daemon?"
Blake stared at him, confused. What is a daemon? What kind of question was that in the first place? Was it a test? Or was he trying to guess his response? Blake took a deep breath.
"Daemon are monsters. That's simple enough."
Kyler let out a small laugh, leaning forward, "Congratulations, Blake Summers. You would have died."
"What? What are you talking about?" Blake asked, confused. He turned to look at Brandon but even he didn't seem to know. He was as clueless as he was.
"What do you mean by 'I would have died'?"
"I mean that you would have died. Because by your judgement of seeing daemon as nothing more than just monsters, you've just limited your viewpoint."
"But aren't they monsters at heart?" Blake asked, "They do kill humans."
"Yeah," Brandon agreed.
"But then, that restricts you to only think that daemon act on pure instinct alone. Which is a lie. The daemon have more intelligence than the ordinary person thinks off. We classify them as monsters, because they look like monsters. They are monsters in appearance alone. Mentally, they are smart, cunning, and hence much, much dangerous than we give them credit for."
"But they are still no different from monsters. They feed on us." Brandon said.
"For survival."
"They've killed hundreds of humans."
"Hasn't humankind done the same thing to itself?"
"Yeah, but…"
Blake understood the direction Kyler was heading towards. Daemons were monsters, true. But they were as monstrous as human beings themselves. The only difference between a human and a daemon was that they never killed their own kind. Humans and daemon killed each other for the survival of their own race.
"So," Blake sighed, "Daemon are what, an intelligent race of aliens?"
"Never said that."
"Um… I kind of disagree." Brandon said. "You can't tell me that after all they've done, they can't possibly be monsters."
"From your standpoint, they are monsters, no two ways about it. But then, you have to keep in mind, they don't think like monsters. That's all I want to say." Kyler walked away after saying that, exiting the building.
"Yeah, that's Kyler Tason for you." Brandon said, annoyance on his face, "Always saying stuff like that."
"You don't like daemon?" Blake asked
"Do you like daemon? Like does anyone like daemon?"
"You'd be surprised."
Brandon looked at Blake for a while and let out a small laugh. He sighed. "I lost a relative to one."
"Ouch."
"I didn't really know him that well, but whenever I see that guy's son, well, I kinda get this feeling, this anger, and this hate towards them. If it were my dad that I lost to the daemon. That's why I became one."
"So it's more or less, revenge."
"You can say that. Why did you join the Inquisitors?"
"Just wanted to join. That's all." Blake said, "Where're the rooms?"
Brandon was dumbfounded, staring wide eyed at Blake. This guy was truly not normal.