It went on for days. Hours of endless torture, of screams echoing through the dungeon. Sometimes Lea found himself screaming, too, the tears pouring down his face unchecked. He wanted to clasp his hands to his ears, to try and block out the sound of his friend's agony, which tore through Lea like his heart was being ripped from his chest. But the chains on his arms were just short enough to prevent him from doing so. All he could do was sit and listen, and beg in vain for the men in the next room to stop.
What possibly made it even worse was that he had no idea what they were doing. In all their years of friendship, Lea had never even heard Isa raise his voice, much less scream in pain, so whatever they were doing had to be horrendous. He also didn't know why they only seemed interested in Isa. Every time he heard the footsteps on the stairs, his heart would race and his stomach would twist itself into a knot, with a mixture of dread and hope, waiting for the time that the cloaked men would stop at his door instead. But every time, they walked straight past him, and it would begin all over again.
After they left on the first day, Lea called out to his friend. "Isa!" he choked out. "Isa, can you hear me?" The room had gone so quiet that he feared Isa was dead.
"Lea..." It was more of a groan than anything, but it was enough.
"Oh, thank goodness," Lea sighed with relief. "Isa, I'm so...so sorry..." He trailed off, overcome with emotion.
"No..." came the barely audible reply. "This is...not your fault. Got it...memorized?"
At that Lea couldn't help but smile a little. He knew how his personal catchphrase tended to irritate Isa. "Yeah, I got it."
That was the last time that he heard Isa speak. From then on, whenever the tormentors would take a break, Lea would talk to Isa as much as he could, but he never got anything more than a moan or a grunt in return. Still, he kept up his one-sided conversation, trying his best to keep their minds on something other than their current situation. Mostly he reminisced about happier times together, about every prank and adventure and funny conversation that he could recall them having. Half of the time he didn't know if Isa could hear or cared, but every once in a while he would hear some kind of noise of approval or agreement that motivated him to continue. If he was honest, he needed the distraction just as much or more than Isa did, anyway, to keep him from going crazy in the dark silence.
"You gotta stay strong, okay?" Lea found himself urging after a particularly long day. "I know it's hard, and I bet you wanna just give up..." his voice caught in his throat, and he had to pause. "But you gotta hang in there. This can't go on forever. Sooner or later, somebody is gonna figure out that we're missing, and come looking for us." He hated how empty that sounded, even to his own ears. Neither of them really had any close family or friends anymore besides each other. Isa's mom, who raised him, had died the year before, and Lea's dad barely even noticed his existence most days. They had never really hung out with any other kids their age, other than Lea's girlfriends, and he had just broken up with his most recent one a few weeks ago. Besides, even if someone did eventually miss them, who would think to check the castle dungeon, or be strong enough to take on the men that lurked inside?
"Plus," he added, shaking those thoughts away, "One of these days they're going to give you a break and switch to me instead."
Isa groaned slightly, and it almost sounded like the word, "No."
"Yep, they will." He had begged and pleaded for them to do so, and even tried taunting them to make them angry at him as they walked past his cell, but to no avail. "Anytime now. And I don't wanna hear any protests from you when they do."
Just then, footsteps sounded on the stairs again. "Already?" Lea growled, clenching his teeth as anger and hatred washed over him. As the three men passed him with their usual disinterest, he lunged forward as far as his chains would allow and shouted, "Why can't you just leave him alone?"
The key slid into the lock once more, and turned with a clank. Lea hung his head in despair. "Hang in there, Isa!" he called out. "Just hang in there!"
Bracing himself for what was to follow, Lea was surprised to instead hear the men talking among themselves. "As I stated before, I believe he is ready," said one voice.
"Yes, you're right," answered a second voice, this one undoubtedly that of the Superior. "The time has indeed come to extract his heart."
Lea's stomach lurched. "What?" he exclaimed. "No! What are you...you can't do that!" Extract his heart? What did that even mean? Scrambling to his feet, he pulled against his chains as hard as he could, the iron cuffs cutting into his wrists mercilessly. "Isa!" he screamed. "Don't you touch him!"
There was a flash of light, a crackling sound like electricity, and a strange aura of both light and darkness filtered out into the open area of the dungeon. Lea watched, transfixed, not knowing exactly what was happening but feeling a growing ache in his chest. After several long, agonizing moments, everything faded away, and there was only the sound of the three men's voices murmuring for a few more seconds before they vanished into their "black holes", as Lea had come to call them.
The silence that fell was deafening. Lea swallowed hard and tried to find his voice. "Isa?" There was no answer. He tried again, louder this time. "Isa, can you hear me?" It was not the first time that he had not gotten an answer right away, he reminded himself. But he knew in his gut that this time was different. "Isa...please..." His legs buckled beneath him, and he crumpled to the ground, sobbing.
Part 3 coming soon!