The Callous Heart
You do not know true suffering.
You do not know sure pain and torture.
For a physical piece of you to kill from the inside? You do not know what utter torture is until every bone in your body has been shattered, and your organs torn useless, where you were left to die alone- so alone in fact that it may be too much to bare in itself. No until you've been killed times over to the point where nothing matters do you know what agony is.
The Ice King had a heart like no other; one that loves yet is unable to be loved. It was one with a romantic name but is feared all alike, a heart that yearned for a love lost yet was locked away, neglected.
And that heart was angry, just as Ice King. How dare it be deprived of love, how could it be ignored and forgotten when around? It only wanted love, the heart. He only wanted love, the Ice King.
The King wrote his emotional and social issues in a diary, and confessed every thought to a flock of penguins. He had no wife, only a heart so alone beating for no one but Ice King. Over time the heart learned that there was nothing for it, so it must take instead.
Ricardio was angry at the world, but his world expanded no more than Ice King's chest cavity, therefore Ricardio was angry at no other than Ice King himself. Ice King was his everything- his captor, his creator. Without him Ricardio would cease to exist, without him Ricardio would be free to walk the outside world alone.
And the time he said "See you guys later," He meant it. He would tear the cage of ribs open that kept him prisoner and show everyone what greatness he truly was (what he could be with the help of Ice King).
Quickly the day came where his tolerance ran short. He was so fed up with everything, and you know what had happened at the cause of it.
Ice King was battling Finn and Jake in the Caves where there was no one for miles in any direction, where no one could get in… or out.
Ricardio had a very important job to do as a heart. He was to pump blood all day, every day, with no excuse for stopping; and let's make it clear that Ice King didn't exactly make his job any easier with the gallons of vanilla ice cream he cried over several times a week.
As Ice King fought the heroes, he was beating faster than he could handle which encouraged his anger to only grow. Ice King was so absolutely pathetic , just being named "His heart" was an insult. Over the short amount of time in his ribcage, he had grown enraged, enough to regain the strength to set himself free once again. And beating hard, he severed the arteries roughly that he named "Chains", and came up instantly with young hands and feet again.
A rumble- an obvious cry.
Ricardio was blind; no light ever reached his eyes through the layers of flesh. Blindly he used his new hands to grab the ribs that kept him and broke them apart.
Another tremor ran through the body, and then a grand earthquake came and thrashed him around the miniscule void- Ice King had collapsed.
Ricardio held tight to the shattered bones while ripping the muscle tissue open with it as if it were a knife. That was when he could hear voices, his anger spiked. He knew Ice King was fighting Finn and Jake, but hearing their voices through the last pieces of skin, he became enraged.
He tore through it, the blindness left far behind as light flooded to him.
"Ricardio!" Ice King yelled.
But thankfully for him neither Finn nor Jake were in sight, they had run off.
"I told you I'd be back," He murmured, eyes adjusting to the dim light of the pink cave, climbing the rest of the way out of Ice King's chest like some kind of alien offspring in a horror movie.
"No!" The phrase rang out for several moments, stopping only for him to take a breath, "Please!" That was the end.
Ricardio had only 2 goals for his life outside of Ice King: To show him what an evil heart he used to have, and to claim the heart of Princess Bubblegum as his own.
He stood above Simon from his stomach, the torso ripped open. How he was able to survive was the only mystery.
Blood began to flow from the opening and stain the tunic. Where he stood, he could see below the lung's sweet attempt to rise and fall. "You're pathetic."
Ice King could say nothing from then on, the only noise coming from him were raspy gasps with flecks of blood spat from his mouth.
In a dark way, it was beautiful; living in pitch black he came up to see the one he hated suffer. Because of that thought, he smiled. He wanted Ice King to cry, beg, and scream for him to stop (which he knew that he could not do).
First he kicked the crown off his head just out of reach, "You have a special place in my heart, Simon," He said with such venom that the man shivered, still unknowing what was coming to him, "I know you'll help me get what I want, won't you?"
Ice King's spirit fell once the crown was gone. There was no chance of escape Ricardio, there wasn't a chance of escape the caves without Ricardio.
He couldn't' say anything, no words could leave his mouth as he was unable to catch his breath; there was little he could do. He could hardly move, he couldn't even think clearly; there was no way he could panic as there was no heart rate to increase for him.
He couldn't speak, he was so weak, he should follow suit and retreat, but without a heartbeat…
He was not loved, and his heart had only true love for Bubblegum. There wasn't much of anything he could do, he would only have to endure what was coming to him.
Ricardio brought a foot down to his nose; the sound of bones fracturing was more than music to Ricardio.
Ice King squeezed his eyes shut; they always went for the nose.
He hadn't the breath to scream, he was unmoving and unable to defend himself form the heart attack.
"I promise you, Simon, I'm going to make you feel everything." He opened his mouth and let out his horrible laughter. The Ice King was a goner.
Ricardio then crawled back into what was his prison but did not rest there. He started to tear little pieces of the left over remains of major arteries that had entered him, and bunch them around his shoulders as they slowly formed tendons for arms.
This the Ice King could feel very clearly… But beg, plea, cry, or curse he could not. In his mind, believe it, he was very seriously begging for Ricardio to leave him alone (what good could come from this cold, empty heart?)
"I hope you know that I will never forgive you," He had started gnawing down into the diaphragm, "How dare you lock me away, you waste of a soul!" He shouted around the chunks of meat between his jaws.
No was no way to describe what our perfectly tragic hearted King of Ice was feeling, only the sad truth-
Ice King's heart tore through his ribcage, took parts of his almost nonexistent muscle, broken his nose, and began to eat away down into his center from the gap in his chest. That was only a beginning for what was his heart.
Ricardio made it through into what must have been dear Ice King's other organs. Their pinkish-white color coated with what seemed to be freezer burn. It was disgusting to him, how dare he be let named his heart.
Simon had been depressed for a long time (hitting Ricardio hard as well), going through several phases of bulimia, anorexia, and then all of the sudden over eating. He had dropped such an amount of weight so quickly that he resulted to using a tunic to hide the bag of bones he truly was. He was unloved, uncared for, without real company and terribly alone. He was so alone and deprived of everything.
He was so alone.
Walking the world alone.
Living alone.
Crying himself to sleep alone.
There was nothing for him, what was wrong with him?
Was he better off dead?
Ice King was the saddest song in all of Ooo, and even though it was just as defined as his ribs under skin what was wrong with him and what he needed, no one paid mind to it or showed any sign of caring.
"You're an animal," And Ricardio nestled himself up against the Ice King's stomach, working on collecting enough body mass tissue to make limbs of his own. The only problem he faced was that Ice King didn't have much body mass to start with.
Without a voice he was unable to scream, all he could do was cry. Tears were falling from his eyes- his insides were literally being torn apart and being molded into something more. He had no way of saying (or begging) for mercy. There was no need to; Ricardio wasn't for the world.
His goal at that moment was to destroy Ice King's future so he could thrive in his own.
Joints were formed from the stem cells in Ice King's bone marrow, muscles from his organs, making everything he needed just from out dear.
Hours drifted painfully to days, and by that time Ice King was so near a pitiful end that there was nothing Ricardio could do to make him face more pain. Ice King unwillingly sacrificed himself leaving Ricardio with whatever was left. He had then begun to stop hoping to live and instead for death to take him. He was barely breathing at that point (and even that was becoming too hard); if Ricardio let him die he would forgive everything that came from him, but why would the heart do that? The heart hadn't fulfilled his wish of suffering just yet.
Ricardio had constructed large blood vessels just to perform the task of a heart; this way Ice King could recover and have another round or two before Ricardio finally let him fall into an eternal slumber.
Yes, a sadist and insane, he would let his once captor die so he could burnt he world to the ground himself.
He had to have it all, he couldn't have enough. His greed derived from misery was great to work off of. Obviously to him through his eyes he had won the fight, but really he had only lost his mind.
Ice King would suffer slowly, he wanted to see those tears fall from his blue eyes, watch his lips tremble, and feel the horror of it all.
And at the time Ricardio gave him an artificial heart he had regained the ability to speak. But why would he? He was too afraid to begin with.
While Ice King went through his personal agony, the heart was constructing Zanoids and making his plans for Finn and Jake (who were undoubtedly still in the caves)
"This will all be over soon," He lied, a slick grin on his handsome face.
Ice King had his eyes only half open and unblinking; he was so close to the end that nothing mattered much to him anymore.
Ricardio's violent words and far from empty threats did not make it to him for all he was thinking about was how long would it take to die.
But he was already dead.
What Ricardio didn't notice was that there was nothing but a corpse he spoke to- there was nothing left but a mangled body and a mind hovering just over the final reprise.
"Soon enough you are going to die, Simon."
If he died, he and Betty would be together.
"Soon enough."
This one-shot would not be here without the encouragement of White-Wolf-Purple-Eyes.
I hope this wasn't too… disturbing in any way, which is mainly the reason I hadn't planned to post this.
(oh god what have I done…)
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-The MasterHama