As Hans ran through the darkness of the cave, guided only by his knowledge of its maze-like configuration, Lea's shrieks turned to cries for help. She's calling your name. She needs you and you're not there. The thought of losing Lea was enough to send Hans over the edge. I'll find her. I will. But where is she? Though her periodic outbursts helped, she was moving, and the prince couldn't reach Lea's location before she screamed from a new, different place. I need light. But there wasn't time to go get light, to get help. By the time he could return, the girl would be swallowed by the cave's depths forever. I have to find her. Calling out, he desperately tried to calm Lea.
"Lea!" he screamed, his voice echoing through the cave and bouncing back from the darkness, "Everything is going to be okay. I just..." he trailed off, unsure of what to say. "I just...I can't find you." Comforting the girl would have to wait. All that mattered was finding Lea, "I need you to..." What do I need? "Just keep yelling." The girl must have heard him, because at that moment she started crying out, her voice faintly echoing towards Hans' ears. She's far away. And getting farther. He sprinted in the direction of her voice, fighting to keep within an audible distance of her shrieks. He continued to run through the darkness in her direction. He was getting closer. Her voice was getting louder and-
He fell to the ground with a hard thud, having run face-first into a wall. Hans fought to stay awake, the world around him growing distant. He threw a hand to his head. It felt warm. And wet. Ignoring the searing pain in his head, he stumbled to his feet and tried to resume his pursuit of the girl. Lea's voice was growing quieter now.
"Lea," he screamed, frantically trying to reach the girl. The pain in his head was growing stronger. The sound of the girl had completely disappeared, and all of his worst fears were being realized. "I...I can't hear you, you have to yell louder. You have to-"
His body returned to the ground with gruesome force. He had collided with another rocky surface, and his right knee was growing numb, trying to fight the agonizing pain of the impact. As the prince lay there on the cave floor, he was slowly losing his grasp on reality. Everything was growing faint, the throbbing in his head growing stronger. He was fighting just to stay awake. He let loose an agonizing shriek.
"Lea!" he screamed, his voice echoing all around, "I can't..." he trailed off, a sob finding its way from his throat. The cave seemed darker now. He was losing consciousness, and with it any chance of finding Lea. "I can't..." he tried again, but he couldn't say the words. I can't hear you.
Then, a sound filled Hans' ears. Had he tried, the prince would not have been able to orchestrate a sound more beautiful than that of a conch shell being blown in the recesses of the cave. Lea's resourcefulness had given him hope, and along with it, a rush of adrenaline. Using the walls for support, he climbed to his feet, making his way in the direction of the horn-like sound. With one hand on the wall and the other hand extended in front of him to prevent another crash with the surrounding stone, Hans limped through the cave. She was getting louder.
"I can hear you!" he shouted, the fear in his voice being taken over by hopefulness, "Keep it up! Just keep-" he was interrupted by the abrupt stop of Lea's blowing on the shell. "No, don't stop. Do it again!"
Silence.
Infuriated by the catastrophic intensity of the situation, Hans' pace became speedier and speedier as the necessity of moving fast began to outweigh the need for caution. Making his way to where he had last heard Lea, he called out once more.
"Lea?" he cried. He stopped, waiting to hear her voice. He did.
"Hans!" she shouted, "There's a man. He-" her voice was cut short. She was close. A...a man? No, there couldn't be. The island was entirely empty except for-
"You!" he screamed into the darkness, fully enraged by the realization. Letting go of the wall, Hans disregarded the pain in his knee, initiating an all-out sprint in Lea's direction. But...it's been over a year. How did he survive? It didn't matter; the fury building in Hans was soon to be unleashed on the man who had so carelessly taken Lea. His jaw tightening, he continued his charge in the girl's direction. Then he saw the faint glow of a torch ahead, and stopped in his tracks. He heard the man's whispering voice, directed toward Lea, and began to slowly move toward the pair.
"It's a dead-end. Do you know the way out?" the man said, trying to charm the girl. It didn't work
"Yes," she deadpanned, "but I won't show you unless you let go of me." Hans noticed the man had a firm grasp around Lea's wrist with his right hand, his left holding the torch.
"How stupid do you think I am? I let you go, and you'll just go running into the dark." Hans was closer now.
"You're right," the girl conceded, "at least give me back my shell."
"Why?" he asked in an obviously rhetorical way. The girl, however, still answered.
"It's special," she said. Hans could see the girl's face, tears now beginning to build up behind her eyes, "I...I need it. It was given to me by someone special." Hans could have sworn she looked in his direction, but only for a quick moment. She turned her gaze to the man holding her wrist. "I promise not to make any noise, just give it back." Hans was getting dangerously close now, just a few more steps...
Hans' knee buckled, and the sound of the prince collapsing onto the stone floor alerted the man of his presence. Hans gathered himself and made a move for the man, but he wasn't quick enough. The man backed against the wall and held the torch just inches from Lea's face.
"Don't come any closer!" the man yelled at a now upright Hans, "Just...just stay back!" The man's face was a blend of fear and anger, but Hans wasn't focused on his expression.
"You," Hans said, calmly enough to bring a surprised look to both the man and Lea's face, "I know you."
"I'm shocked you remember," said the man, "after you abandoned us on the beach." A genuine look of surprise appeared of the prince's face.
"Abandon you?" he asked, trying to understand the man's words and prevent the situation from escalating out of control at the same time, "I...I would never."
"Liar!" screamed the man, holding the torch closer to the girl's face, "The other man, he said you abandoned us...he said..." the man, unsure of his own words, was dangerously close to hurting the girl.
"He lied to you," spoke Hans, hiding the intense amount of nervousness he felt behind a calm and collected tone, "He sent me away, he abandoned me!" Hans was telling the truth. After Southern Storm had wrecked at sea, and the first of the four survivors died, one of the remaining two men had threatened Hans, demanding he leave. He had.
"But...he said...he said you left us," the man spoke frantically, waving the torch around Lea's face.
"Don't hurt her!" Hans yelled, making no attempt to hide his fear. The man only laughed.
"Does she know what you did? What a bad man you really are?" the man asked, grinning. He looked at the girl, now addressing her, "Little girl, did you know this man," he said, pointing at Hans with the torch. Hans moved to take advantage of the man's actions, but Lea beat him to it.
The young girl threw her free hand at the torch, grasping it. In an instant, Hans threw a fist at the man's shoulder, causing him to release the torch. In the next moment, Hans shot his other hand into the man's neck with a speed and ferocity he didn't know he had. The man gasped for air, but Hans didn't let go. Fighting to survive, the man's arms and legs began to frantically spasm, trying to grab hold of Hans, of anything they could. The prince pressed harder.
"What did he mean when he said you were a bad man?" Lea interrupted, staring at Hans with bright blue eyes that seemed green by the light of the torch. He looked to Lea and then back to the man, a look of disgust appearing on his face as he threw his hands back, releasing the man. He returned his eyes to the girl.
"I...I tried to hurt some people," he said, regret in his voice. Lea could hear the beginnings of a sob as the prince closed his eyes, hot tears running down his cheeks. She interrupted.
"Well...did you?" she asked, "Hurt them, I mean." She looked at Hans, and he couldn't help but burst into tears.
She approached the prince, attempting to comfort him, but the man on the ground reached for her. Hans opened his eyes, and in a blind rage he grasped the man's throat harder than he had previously. Much harder.
"Don't touch her!" he snarled, tears still running down his face. The girl backed away from the man on the ground and stood, wiping the dirt from the back of her shorts. Hans looked up at Lea and saw a look in her eye, one he had never seen. She was angry.
"It doesn't matter if you hurt those people before," she said to Hans, staring at the man on the ground as he gasped for air, "but this man," she paused, correcting her mistake, "this monster," she said, returning her eyes to her prince, "I want you to hurt him. Hurt him so that he can never hurt anyone else again."
With that sentiment, the girl turned and began to make her way into the cave's darkness, leaving the torch for Hans. When he was sure the girl was gone, the prince spoke.
"The other man, where is he?" asked an enraged Hans, loosening his grip enough to hear the man speak.
"He...he died. A few months back. Now, please...just let me go-" the man's words were interrupted as the hands around his neck released, and Hans turned away. Gasping for air, the man continued to speak, "Thank you-"
He didn't manage the last word as Hans whirled around, grabbing the man's head and plowing it into the jagged edge of the cave's rocky walls with a force of equal intensity to his emotions. Standing, the prince wiped the blood off his hands and onto the dead man's clothes, grabbed the torch off the ground, and made his way into the darkness of the cave.