Gabriel
I knew pain.
I knew hunger.
But this… this was something else.
Isaac had left us without food for three days. No water, no rest. Just cold, dirt, and exhaustion.
We had learned to run with aching limbs. To fight with swollen feet. To strike with an empty stomach.
But then came the next trial.
And I understood that we had only scratched the surface of suffering.
Raphael
"Bury yourselves."
At first, I thought I had misheard.
Isaac stood over us as we lay in the mud, our bodies heavy from the last test.
"What?" Michael's voice was hoarse.
"Bury yourselves," Isaac repeated as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "You have ten minutes. If I can still see you after that, you're dead."
He pointed to the rain-soaked ground.
He was serious. Dead serious.
Michael
I wanted to argue. I wanted to call it madness.
But Gabriel was the first to start digging into the dirt.
So we followed.
It wasn't just the rain that made everything harder. The ground was cold, damp, clinging to us like a burial shroud.
After seven minutes, I was almost completely buried. Only my face remained uncovered.
Then I heard Isaac's voice.
"Breathe. No sound. No movement."
And then I heard the footsteps.
Not Isaac's.
Someone else's.
Gabriel
We weren't alone.
I heard boots moving through the mud. Men's voices. Deep. Quiet. The kind I had often heard in London's darkest corners—where crime was born.
"He's here somewhere."
My heart pounded faster.
Isaac wasn't just testing us.
He had sent us into real danger.
And if we made one mistake…
We were dead.
Raphael
I felt the rain on my skin. The earth on my chest.
I couldn't see them, but I could feel them. The men. Looking around. Weapons in their hands.
"If he's not here, someone played us."
The voice was close. Too close.
I wanted to breathe. I wanted to move. I wanted to fight.
But I knew that would be the end of us.
So I stayed still.
And waited.
Michael
It lasted only a few minutes.
But it felt like hours.
Then—finally—the men retreated. Their voices faded, their steps disappeared.
I waited until I was sure.
Then I slowly exhaled.
"Up."
Isaac's voice was calm. We dug ourselves out, gasping, spitting dirt from our mouths.
And then I looked at him.
"That was real, wasn't it?"
He smiled. For the first time.
"Of course."
Gabriel
"You want to be hunters?" Isaac walked past us, looking down. "Then learn that the darkness will always find you. And if you're not ready when it does…"
He stepped into a puddle, rain dripping from his coat.
"Then you die."
Raphael gasped. "You would have let us die."
Isaac stopped. "Yes."
No hesitation. No lie.
Just the truth.
And that was what made him so dangerous.