No One gets Left Behind (Adopted from ZecoriTheWeirdOne)

Chapter 6 (22)

The pain in his stomach swelled, the cold metal inside refusing to move, blood staining his shirt, his vision blurring slightly. When it came back into focus, the pain had dulled down, the stains old and the figure standing in front of him had wings, not even looking at him but staring up at a flying figure, one he recognised but was too far away and out of focus to see. He had a mask plastered on his face, light brown hair blown back by the wind as he struggled to stay up, his wings slowing down as he started to fall, eventually disappearing behind the trees.

Taurtis let out a strangled cry, reaching his hand out as the figure turned back to him, pushing him down and pulling out the knife still wedged in his stomach and pushing it back in, starting to bleed again as it spread, the faded blood once again returning to a gushing red, seeping into the grass and forming a circle around him, the figure stepping back and carelessly tossing the knife to the side.

"Worthless."

Taurtis sat up in a cold sweat, hearing a cat meow nearby, jumping as he glanced at his cat, glaring weakly before sighing and clambering out of bed, pulling on his pair of headphones before muttering to himself, slamming them down back onto the wooden surface.

"What's the point in wearing them anyway? It's not as if there's any music here anyway," he muttered, ignoring the plastic cracking slightly as he walked away, tugging his hood up and tilting his head at Xenori.

"Are you going to lecture me now or something about how I shouldn't have done that?" he grumbled, and Xenori sighed, shaking their head as Taurtis stroked the cat.

"I mean, I know you're not real, but Pit's real, right? (Nope)" he asked, tilting his head at the cat as Xenori shrugged.

"Probably," they stated simply. "I mean, you can't really know anything for sure. I could go away tonight and betray you and everything you stood for all you knew."

"But you're not real," Taurtis pointed out, and Xenori grunted, rolling their eyes.

"Whatever." Taurtis smiled slightly, and though it was slightly forced it was surprisingly real. What had he come to, only smiling at an imaginary person he'd created because he was so alone. When he was younger he'd have probably been horrified, scared. Now he was only numb. And angry. Though admittedly the anger had died down a lot since he'd first arrived, simply due to time. Isolation started to get to him in the end.

"Why am I even surprised at this point?" He muttered, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear, it having grown unsurprisingly long after his first attempt at cutting it failed. Thankfully it had grown out of its jagged look, but it now hung limp almost to his shoulders, and it was yet another sign of how much time had passed. Grian would be almost 23.

He was probably happy with the watchers. They'd probably brainwashed him into thinking they were the right ones, and he was the one who messed up somewhere along the line.

Another burst of anger rushed through him again, leading to him punching the wall like he normally did, wincing slightly as the blood smeared across the wood, leaving yet another stain across the walls. He reached for the camera, scrolling through the many videos he'd recorded in the past year and a half, hearing his voice get duller and duller, forcing a smile as he switched to the record-setting.

"Hello! This is Taurtis again, and well, you know, still going insane," he started, rattling off a bunch of nonsense to the camera that he barely remembered saying, switching it off eventually before turning around, his vision clouding as he passed out on the floor, his fists still red with blood and the ground hard and splintered.

**

."Mumbo for Mayor?" He read out in confusion, glancing incredulously at Grian as the impish figure smirked, pushing the poster into his face.

"#MumboForMayor!" Grian shouted, running away as Mumbo chased after him, taking flight and diving out of sight, Mumbo catching a fleeting glimpse of his face, exhaustion and worry plastered over instead of his previous mischievous look, which thinking back seemed more forced than he would've thought. Mind you, there had only been a couple of weeks in which he seemed truly free of pressure. Then the evolutionists had come and suddenly he seemed to have a million pounds of pressure weighing on his shoulders at all times. He hadn't told anyone what happened, or what Netty said when Grian pulled her aside before he went through the portal.

It had certainly affected him.

"You okay there Mumbo?" Xisuma asked from behind him, making him jump.

"Huh, yeah. Sorry, didn't notice you creeping up on me. I was thinking about Grian," Mumbo apologised, watching Xisuma squint at the poster plastered on the wall of the newly constructed town hall.

"You picked up on it too?" He asked, and Mumbo hesitated before nodding.

"How stressed he is?"

"Yeah."

"It's probably nothing," Mumbo dismissed, not really believing it but needing some sort of excuse to cling to.

"I guess..."


"I could check on him if you like?" Mumbo offered, feeling his communicator buzz then sighed, seeing that Grian had left the game.

"Scratch that, I'll do it later. He's obviously gone now," Mumbo corrected, waiting for Xisuma to nod before flying towards his base, landing in his bed and closing his eyes, finding it hard to rest while he waited for Grian to rejoin, wondering what had happened so quickly that had made Grian so stressed.