Rei . ☆

"H-hello?" Sketchbook hesitantly whispered out.

"Sketch?" came another voice from right beside her.

"Larry!" Sketchbook called out his name in a relieved sigh, but it was soon overshadowed by the unmistakable tremble of fear. "Wh-...where do you suppose we are...?"

"I don't know," he replied, "but I have a damn good feeling of who brought us here."

To their surprise, another voice shortly cut in:

"You're so smart, Leonard."

At the utterance of that last syllable, the lights came to life, revealing both the room and the gravity of their situation.

The room was big, and not unlike a basement built from concrete. The chairs and the table they sat in were steel, just as the chains that bound them. However, nothing about this was more horrifying than what was in the center of the room.

Strapped tightly to a metal platform that was adjusted vertically...was Colin. He looked unconscious, so he must have been given heavy sedatives...both Sketchbook and Larry were mortified into silence until Antonio strode in from behind the mechanism that held their best friend.

"You fucking bastard!" Larry yelled, "Let Colin and Sketchbook go! They didn't do shit to you!"

"Larry, no!" Sketchbook plead, terror in her eyes as she snapped her head to Larry's. "No! I'll stay here, you can't put yourself in danger-"

"Oh, now, now, children, quit your bickering..."

Antonio strode towards them, mania in his eyes and teeth on full display in a grotesque grin.

"None of you are going anywhere! Not any time soon..."

As soon as Sketchbook's eyes locked onto him, she fell into a dead silence, stuck in a thousand-yard stare.

Sensing Sketchbook was too afraid of Antonio to speak, Larry didn't hesitate to interrogate the man in her stead. "What do you want from us this time, you fucking freak?!"

"Oh," the word was drawn out in an excited shudder, "we're all going to play a very special game this time!"

Antonio gave no room for a response, continuing on, "I want to see just how strong that bond of yours to each other truly is! I want to see how far you would go!"

"I want to see if you would rip each other's eyes out and claw your own organs out just to keep Colin safe!" The frantic joy tightly held their tormentor's voice in a chokehold as his body visibly shook with near-madness.

"But first," Antonio stopped in front of the table before his gloved hands abruptly crashed down onto the metal table as he loomed over them. He smiled wider when they jumped. "First, I'm going to tell you the rules!"

Larry bared his teeth in snarl, "No. We're n-"

"LET. ME. SPEAK."

Antonio's sudden and demented aggression immediately wiped the scowl off of Larry's face. He quickly realized that the blight upon his friends' lives was much more erratic and dangerous than usual. He'd have to force his rebellion aside and tread carefully this time.

"Your friend over there is completely unconscious, and will be for a while! I found a way to shut off his mechanical brain entirely. But," Antonio interjected, "I ensured that I did no harm any of his memory, drives, motherboards or processors..."

"Now, what I want you two to do, is follow a series of little challenges I've made for you! You have a time limit to complete them...and every time you run out of time or refuse to play along..."

He leaned in closer, "...I'll corrode a bit of his brain. Once it is fully corroded, your poor cyborg friend will die...and I won't revive him."

Sketchbook broke into heavy sobs and Larry actually found himself shaking in disgust and terror at the prospect.

"You're fucking sick!" he screamed, the fear and panic on full display as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Oh, shh-shh-shh-shh..." Antonio gave a sickening chuckle, "That's only if you misbehave, my darling! If you play my game all the way through and correctly...I will let all three of you leave."

Larry's soul ached with agony as he heard Sketchbook weeping during the half-minute of silence that followed...so, he continued to speak when she wasn't able.

"How-...how many challenges do we have to do...?"

It twisted Larry's stomach to see Antonio's expression gain a hint of hedonistic satisfaction.

"However many I decide. Am I understood~?"

Larry looked towards Sketchbook, who tearfully nodded, still hiccuping through her crying. Larry looked back to Antonio and nodded shakily, his agreement tumbling out, "Okay...fine. Anything for him..."

Antonio stood upwards, "A wise decision, dear friends!"

"Ah, one more thing," he added. "We will also have an audience...would that be alright with you~...?"

Antonio didn't wait long enough for a response before he let an unhinged laugh escape him, turning his back to them and starting to walk away.

"I'm only asking to be polite, of course. I don't care if it's alright with the both of you or not~..."

Sketchbook was trying her best to quit the tears and patch up her resolve while Larry did his best to emotionally support her in his sympathetic silence.

"I'll give you a day's grace period before we start," Antonio chimed in again, opening the exit to that hellish chamber.

"Savor it while you can."

The heavy door shut and a sturdy deadbolt locked it in place.

As soon as he was gone, Larry leaned on Sketchbook's shoulder.

"It'll be okay, Sketch. The three of us have survived him for this long...who's to say we can't survive this...?"

Despite Larry's encouragement, he sounded unsure of himself, but Sketchbook appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

"You're right. I-...I just hope we satisfy him enough for him to let us out...all we can do is try," Sketchbook replied feebly.