"Enjoying yourself?" Soren asked Issac who he is carrying bridal style on the front porch of the house while they waited for Araya to open the door.
"Surprisingly, yes," Issac said, pressing the white handkerchief, now stained red, against his eye. "Even with the pain, I am feeling at the moment."
"Consider yourself lucky." Soren laughed. "Do you know how many women want me to carry them like this?"
"I feel incredibly honoured," Issac said, narrowing his eyes at him as the doors finally flew open.
Despite his teasing, Soren held Issac as gently as he could, even as they entered the house.
"Zadie, I need you to get the serum and needles. You remember where they are, right?" Araya asked as Zadie took off to the basement.
"Where do I put him?" he asked, standing awkwardly in the living room.
"Just hold him like that," Araya shouted, running up the stairs to her room.
"Oook," He said, looking at Issac starting to frown in pain. "Hurts that bad?"
"What? Listening to your voice?" Issac asked, looking at him as sweat dotted his face.
"Now is not the time to be trying to roast me." He said as Araya ran down the stairs with a long, rectangular plastic, about the same height as Issac. "And my voice isn't that bad. Right?"
She placed the plastic on the couch and turned to Soren, "Place him there."
Running to the kitchen, she began to wash her hands as Zadie ran up the stairs with two small boxes in her hands. "I got it!"
"The tools!" Araya shouted from the kitchen as Zadie placed the boxes on the table and took off again.
Soren placed Issac on the couch as gently as he could as the handkerchief, unable to absorb more liquid, began to drip.
"It's on your suit," Issac said, reaching out and trying to wipe the blood away. "Sorry."
"This old thing?" Soren said, taking the coat off and tossing it away to another couch. "Don't worry about it. Let me see."
He pulled the handkerchief away and whistled, "That looks awful."
The skin around his eye socket had eroded away to the point that they could see the bone of his eye socket.
Around the glass eye is what looked like muscles, throbbing and bleeding down his face and onto his shirt and the plastic.
"Does it hurt?" He asked, slightly smiling.
"What do you think?" Issac asked, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Right. Sorry," he said, pursing his lips. "It's just ... this is the first time I am se-"
"I understand." Issac patted his shoulder. "Humans are curious creatures. Please wait over there until they call you."
"Ok." He moved away as Zadie appeared beside him with Araya. "Uh … call me if you need anything."
He sat down on the couch opposite Issac as Zadie began to fill a syringe with many, many bottles of liquid, mixing them together while Araya stared at Issac blankly.
"Is everything alright?" Zadie asked, removing the air bubbles from the injection.
"I-I am not going to be able to do it." She said, pointing to the muscles puckering around the glass eye. "We are going to have to cut it out."
"Should I prepare the sedatives?" She asked, looking at the needle in her hands. "Stronger ones I mean."
"I think you have to," Araya said, turning to Soren.
She did not need to say anything as Soren got up from his couch and walked to them, folding his shirt sleeve. "Do you have a scalpel?"
"We have all the tools here," Zadie said, opening a box of freshly disinfected surgical tools. "They are clean, don't worry."
"Ok." He walked to the kitchen and washed his hands in a heartbeat. "This is not the cleanest environment for surgery. But … beggars can't be choosers."
Soren turned to Araya holding Issac's hand in her own trembling ones and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I will take care of your brother. Promise." He said, grinning at her. "You can wait over there."
She looked from him to Issac, who offered her a tired smile, and then to him again. "I will leave him to you then."
"Do you have gloves?" Soren asked as Zadie pulled out a packet of latex gloves that Soren wore without touching the outer part of the gloves.
Taking the small torch, he looked around Issac's eye, whistling again, "Yup. Really, really bad. It is almost like it is alive."
"You seem like you are enjoying yourself." Issac retorted as Zadie began to inject the area around his eye socket to numb it.
Issac closed his left eye, holding his breath as the pain first came then followed by numbness. She then injected the muscle around the glass eye.
"I kind of am." He chuckled, picking up the scalpel in his hands and looking at it as it glistened in the light. "Oh, this is sharp. Nice."
Once the injections are done, Issac slumped on the couch, exhausted as he attempted to stay awake once the pain numbed.
He looked at Soren closing on his face, almost laughing, "Get that look off your face."
"What look?" He asked eyes widened with excitement and a Cheshire cat grin on his face. "I am feeling nothing."
"Don't lie to m- Ugh." Issac's face twitched as he felt the cold metal penetrate into his eye socket and began to move all around in there.
"Painful?" Soren asked, watching as blood oozed from the eye socket onto his shirt, pants and the plastic below him.
"No. Just weird," Issac said, relaxing again. "You didn't even ask how deep you should poke that thing in."
"Oh right!" He turned to Zadie, "How deep do I-"
"It does not matter." She said, staring at Issac's face as a waterfall of blood flowed from his eye. "Just hurry up."
"OK." He turned back to Issac as he cut around the area again. "It feels like all I am cutting is muscle though. Wouldn't that damage some nerve ends?"
"They are not muscles connected to my body, so you don't have to worry about that," Issac explained nonchalantly. "You are still confused aren't you?"
"How is the muscle not connected to your eye??" He asked, mouth agape. "Why is it even there?? What is up with your body?? How deep can I even go?"
"You will know."
"How??? If I damage a-"
Sighing, Issac grabbed the boy's hand and shoved it deeper into his eye until he heard a clank.
"What the hell??" Soren moved the scalpel around in the socket, the only part of the scalpel he could see is a small portion of the handle. "There was nothing there."
"Please hurry." Issac put his legs up on the couch. "I need to get out of these dirty clothes."
"Ok." Soren cut out the muscle and, finally took the scalpel out to pull the glass eye with the muscles stuck to it and still twitching. He stared at the eye, excitement written all over his face. "The muscles are still alive."
"Soren." Issac scolded, grabbing the man's attention again. "There are still some in my eye."
"Oh right." He placed the eye down and took the torch and forceps to look into Issac's eye socket.
At the very bottom of the socket, he spotted something glasslike as it reflected the light from the torch all around the empty socket.
There is literally nothing in here. He thought, looking at the circular wall of bone around this glass thing. Incredible.
He used the forceps to remove the muscles around the bone and they came off like leeches on a human's body, with a little bit of a tug.
So many questions.
________________
"Done," Soren said, taking one look inside his eye socket and nodding. "Yeah, all clean."
"Thank you," Issac said, stretching as they looked at the twitching muscles on the tray. "I will explain this to you."
"You'd better," Soren said, picking the muscles. "And I am taking these."
"If you can keep them," Issac said as Zadie handed him a wet cloth to press over his numb face.
"Issac." Araya walked to him, holding her glass eye in her hands as she pulled the orb from her socket and his. Though Issac's one is not clear anymore. It is almost a dirty purple colour.
She rubbed the orbs together as the colour of Issac's orb change back to clear while she breathed a sigh of relief.
"What are you-" He turned his head to the tray and watched as the muscles began to shrivel and then turn to dust. "Oh. That was not something I expected."
"Many don't." Issac chuckled, putting the orb back into his eye, Araya doing the same though she suddenly had heavy bags under her eyes. "You should rest."
"Who will clean-?"
"I will take care of it," he said turning to Zadie. "Could you-"
"Come on, Araya," Zadie said, pulling the girl up. "I need a change of clothes too."
"You are going to sleep here?" She asked, half asleep. "Yay."
The two watched as Araya and Zadie walked to her room.
Once they were gone, Soren turned to Issac, "Explain. Now."
"Ok. Ok."