That night:
During their ride back, Ann woke up so they continued the little distance they had left on foot.
And when they got back, they determined that they just had to ask the man about Rans whereabouts. And of course, this man was, indeed, Philips Lanx.
After entering the gates to the Academy, they found out the directions to his residence. As they walked deeper into the school, the darkness surrounding them seemed to creep into their hearts with each breath. All the nearby houses were silent and all signs of activity had ceased long ago.
When they got to his house, they realized that while everything was silent and even the lights were off, the second story window had been left wide open.
So wide, in fact, it was as if it was left that way specifically for the purpose of letting someone… or something inside.
They approached the door and knocked. Its echo sounded off around them, as if to let the whole world know of the disturbance; and yet, no one came to answer the door.
Ann knocked again. Still no response.
She knocked a third time, then a fourth time and even a fifth time. Each knock being more powerful than the next, and yet, as if to scorn her, nobody still came to answer her call.
She kept on knocking and the wooden door started to waver from her brutal strikes of fear and terror, even Bob tried to calm her down as it was the middle of the night. However, she refused to listen and continued knocking until she knocked a hole into the door, causing it to split in half and collapse on the stone floor.
And now, one by one, all the houses in the vicinity lit up. This area was where the teachers stayed, so almost all of them were teachers. When they looked out the window and saw some "kids", they grumbled in unhappiness before turning off all their light orbs again. They didn't bother to see the mess they just made.
And they couldn't bother more about these two youths as they continued to recover and rest from yesterday's horde.
Ann blankly stared at the broken door, before biting her lips. This… wasn't the outcome she was expecting.
Where was the confrontation!? The blaming and the apologies!? The questions and answers!?
With the door out of the way, they both peered into the darkness of the house.
The interior isn't much different from a student's dorm, only having a lot more space. Yet, when they started looking around, they were completely shocked by what they saw!
You want to know what they saw? Fine, I'll tell you, but promise not to tell anyone okay?
What they saw was… nothing!
Literally! There wasn't a single belonging in the house that suggested a person had been living there. The only thing that took up space was the old furniture the Academy had probably placed in there years ago.
There was no clothing, food, drinks, light orbs, books, products of miscellaneous classification, you name it. The old furniture was also laden with dust as if the person that lived here never used them!
This… this was simply an abandoned house! Since when has someone been living there!? As far as these two could tell, no one had been inside this place in years!
Okay, okay, I exaggerated it a little bit. There was one piece of evidence that suggested a person had been in the house at least. Actually it wasn't suggestive, it was a fact.
And that was… the bed. Particularly, the sheets. The sheets were brand (spanking) new. It was as if someone took the original and replaced it with this one. The sheet itself wasn't damning, but the fact that everything in the house looked old and abandoned while this one sheet looked new was.
She looked at this one bedsheet and the look in her eyes continued to deepen by the second. Eventually the look deepened into an abyss that trapped all and she suddenly grasped the bedsheet tightly. The next second, a bright flash of light encompassed the entire room and extended out into the dark streets like a ray from the heavens.
A moment later, the light disappeared and the illuminated streets returned to darkness as its firm grasp on the powers of night loomed over all those below it.
Inside the room, her tight fist let go of itself as some of her boundless anger and frustration was vented.
Now on the bed, the bedsheet had completely disappeared, its ashes picked up by the wind and carried to who knows where.
Actually, not just the bedsheet, the bed, the nightstand and chair… everything was charred to ashes. The scratched metal mirror as well was molten into useless slag. The now empty and completely charred bedroom was silent as the completely unharmed Bob was at a loss for words.
He understood her pain and frustration more than anyone… truly, he did, but aggression and violence was never the answer (according to him). He tried to reassure her that Ran was totally fine and would show up any day now, but her mind was already closed off from the rest of the world.
The person, the only person who had a chance of knowing where Ran was had already run off… or had essentially turned into a puff of smoke as if he never existed. She doesn't know when he left, but the fact was that he did.
She exhaled a long breath through her nostrils before she turned around and left, ignoring Bob completely.
He continued trying to communicate with her all the way to her dorm, yet the only thing he got in the end was the door slamming in his face. Ann didn't do it purposefully on Bob, but to her, it was already as if he didnt exist. She only had one thing on her mind and that was Ran.
And soon enough, even Ran faded from her mind as she began running like a machine, run only by her instincts. Her mind had essentially turned off after a while and well… Ann as we know her had begun ceasing to exist.
At night, while everyone's lights were out and they got their well deserved shut-eye, a single dorm suddenly turned their lights on and occasionally, a particular smell would permeate out from within.
And at day, that dorm was completely silent, no one entered or exited, except for a robed figure who routinely knocked and pleaded for communication from whatever was inside.
This even got the attention of the students nearby as Bob would do the same thing every day, creating quite a ruckus.
This would continue for several days.
…
Creak.
A creak was heard followed by the opening of the door. The door shifted away the sand that covered the hard sandstone floor. Soon after, a dull orange light entered the room along with a red-robed individual.
As they walked through the dark room, they slid their fingers across the sandy sandstone walls with one hand while the other hand held an orange light orb. They seemed to like the gritty feel of sand rub against their own, callous, hand.
As the orange light filled the originally dark and long room, various ominous objects hung from the crumbling walls, held on there by old and rusted nails. They shone with a dull metallic light whenever the light hit them and what appeared to be dried blood caked some of their surfaces.
The robed individual walked past the objects and he smiled at them as if the objects were worshipping him and gave him all their heartfelt love. He bathed in their "attention".
The room itself was long, but it was really just a rectangularly shaped room and the entrance was at one of the short walls.
Similarly, long sections of the walls were carved into and smaller rectangles were carved out from them. The space in between acted as a shelf and more ominous objects were placed on some of them.
The individual resumed walking as his palm scraped some sand off the walls while whistling some tunes.
Though it might seem like they had been walking for a while, they reached the end of the room fairly quickly. And at the other end of the room, the robed individual stood in front of a metal chair who, incidentally, had an occupant.
Indeed, that occupant was our Ran Ran.
Chains wrapped around his forearms and legs, runes flashed periodically on its surface. But upon closer inspection, the chains reveal themselves to be fused with the chair. Or perhaps it would be better to say they were originally a part of the chair itself.
On Rans head was a vicious-looking, black, birdcage that ensnared his head from ever being able to get out. Spikes stuck out on the outside and on the inside, the spikes surrounded his neck like a venus fly trap; it only waited for the opportunity to finish the prey off.
And don't even mention the long spike that pierced into his scalp, ready to suck Ran of his juice if he ever chose to summon it.
The robed individual studied the quiet man (Ran) sitting on the chair. The individual appeared pleased with their latest "catch" as they smiled faintly while inspecting him. They approached until they were face to face so that they could more closely inspect Ran. And since they had removed all of his clothes, leaving him with nothing but his heart-printed underwear, and his pendant was taken away as well, seeing Ran in person wasn't a hard thing to do.
And there was some things that the robed individual noticed about Ran that suddenly made him nervous.
His eyes were tightly shut!
His slightly open mouth was drooling non-stop!
His forehead was squirming with bulging and throbbing veins!
His lips were a light-blue and his skin wasn't far away from that color either!
And upon checking his pulse, well… there was no pulse!
"Did… did he overdose? Did we just overdose him!?" A hoarse voice echoed through the room as the man's eyelids twitched incessantly.
At that moment, when the man thought all hope was lost and that he would definitely die from punishment, Rans eyelids also twitched. He slowly opened his eyelids to reveal a pair of muddled and bloodshot eyes.
His once clear and incredibly beautiful pair of eyes, his most defining feature, were now covered in fresh blood, turning them into something completely different.
His face and eyes were directed toward the man who had created the ruckus earlier, but his gaze was unfocused and slouchy.
His head slightly turned upward to try to meet the man's face with his own, but the birdcage did not allow too much movement, so it looked like Ran was looking at the man's chest instead of his face.
"Haha, yes! I'm not going to die!"
The red-robed man grinned cheekily as he looked at the barely conscious Ran in ecstacy.
After the man survived his supposed "impending doom", his face turned serious as he suddenly grabbed Rans shoulders and shook his upper body!
"Don't ever do that to me ever again! You hear me, boy?!"
The man's rage was vented as he shook Ran incessantly, the birdcages spike scraping and poking into Rans skin.
Ran: "..."
No response.
"Phew. Boy, we have a long day ahead of us. Why don't we get to the point right… guardian?"
Upon hearing the word "guardian", Rans body shivered slightly as he finally struggled to speak.
"W-what?"
His mouth barely sputtered that word as drool continued to trickle down his lips; he didn't even have enough strength or concentration to think properly, let alone have the ability to close his mouth.
"W-what? That's all you have to say? Boy, you know why you're here right? We all know why you're here!"
"Don't try to play koi with us, guardian! Where is it?"
Rans mind once again failed to follow the man's direction of conversation as the most intense headache he ever had was currently crushing his brain into pulp.
Ran: "..."
"Sigh, not speaking eh? Well, I did say we have a long day ahead of us."
After the man spoke, he snapped his finger and several other robes walked into the room.
One of them walked up to the first man and summoned a chair for him to sit on.
"Boss, is this him? I have to say, he looks nothing like his good-for-nothing father."
The lackey sneered and his eyes sparkled strangely as he studied Rans face.
Aw s**t! Don't tell me… he likes men!? Ran get out of there right now! Oh dear god what have I done!?
The other three lackeys grabbed some of the ominous objects on the shelves and surrounded the man in the chair.
"Boss, we're ready." One lackey spoke and he raised what appeared to be giant pliers!
"Good. Today, we're going for a classic. Boys, let's get dem nails!"
The lackeys saluted before surrounded Ran in all directions, assuming a position to control Ran if he goes out of control.
After all, only one is going to use the pliers so everyone has to be useful in their own way.
The one with those pliers approached and had one of the lackeys grab Rans right pinky.
He gripped the fingernail with his pliers before ruthlessly yanking!
Immediately, blood splattered on the floor as the lackey released, letting the newly torn nail to fall to the sandy ground.
Ran: "..."
Everyone: "..."
This… wasn't the expected outcome? Where's the bloody screaming and begging for mercy?
All the red-robed men looked at Ran, bewildered. By now, his drool had trickled down his legs and began to pool on the sand.
The lackeys looked at the supposed "boss" on the chair for an answer.
He merely waved his hand, signaling for them to continue.
And so they did.
After the pinky came the ring finger, then the middle and the index finger.
When they got to the thumb, they were all drenched in cold sweat as the man's hands, which had the pliers, started shaking.
This was totally unexpected! They all put themselves in Rans shoes and they knew they would struggle with the pain if they were not begging for mercy already.
In truth, Rans headache was so overwhelming that all those pain signals were completely engulfed by the aching brain.
It was already a miracle that Ran was even conscious, and even that was kind of iffy considering his current condition. He barely understood his situation, but he couldn't contemplate further than "they got me and now they want something from me".
Finally, after ten minutes, most of which was spent by the lackeys having trouble stomaching their own torture methods, the last nail on both of Rans hands were ripped off.
As the last nail landed on the ground, all the lackeys and even the boss let out a sigh as sweat trickled down their faces. They were experiencing more psychological pressure than Ran and some their hands were shaking and unsteady.
"Phew. Don't worry boys, he'll break eventually. But… that's it for today, we don't want to break him too early, right, haha…"
Though he laughed it off, his voice itself was a little unsteady and it appeared he was starting to lose confidence.
Right, haha. Boss, don't worry, we'll get it soon enough."
The lackeys spoke, but the continuous gulping of their saliva told a different story.
And so, to not "break" Ran too early, they would limit their torture to one method and session per day.
"Right. Get someone to heal him and place him in his cell."
The lackeys picked Ran and the chair up and transported him to a "comfortable" location. They exited the room with Ran and walked through the maze-like corridors as they transported him to his cell.
As they walked, the rectangular shelves that were carved into the walls each laid skeletal remains!
No, don't tell me they were in… a crypt!? Underground!?
Welp, he's never getting out of there.