Sam's Back || Book 1 of 2 in the Sam's Back series

7

Sam grinned at the look of terror in their eyes. They were both quite tall, both well dressed, one had a moustache and the other had a scar across his eye.

"Gree-on! Your friends are here!" He called happily, disappearing from the door. After a moment he reappeared, "don't you want to see him?" He asked when he hadn't been followed.

Grian's friends glanced at each other before stepping towards the door to follow.

"Oh, just a sec," in a quick movement he punched the scarred one in the face and in the confusion pulled out some rope and tied the moustached ones hands together behind his back. Then as the one he punched recovered he also tied his hands up. It was a quick, flawless move that he'd done many times before to different people. "Sorry, just security reasons y'know." He smiled, before lowering his voice, "don't try anything you'll regret. I'm Sam, by the way, I didn't introduce myself did I? In here!" The last part he said enthusiastically.

Sam opened the door and picked up the knife he'd left on the bed to prove his power to the others, before rolling his eyes at the pathetic mess of arms and legs on the ground.

"Get up!" He shouted at Grian. He was unresponsive. Sam sensed someone move behind him and turned around, bringing his knife to the moustached one's neck. "I said don't try anything." He said.

Mumbo gulped at he observed Sam's actions. His eyes were hungry, feral. He could tell he was not afraid to kill people if it came to it. In fact, it looked like he wanted to kill people. He stepped back.

"I said get up!" Sam yelled, turning back to Grian and bending down to grab him and lift him up by the arm. Grian woke up, having been unconscious, and immediately put his weight onto his own legs. "I thought you knew not to do that!"

"Sorry." Grian said, glancing at Mumbo and Scar and feeling instantly guilty that they were now involved. Sam leaned forward.

"Tell them or anyone anything about me and I won't hesitate to kill them and the rest of the people on this server permanently." He whispered so that only Grian could hear. "Do you understand?" He asked, louder this time.

"Y-yes." Grian replied, nodding.

"Good." He said, bringing the knife to his neck and tracing the blade gently across it. "Tell me who your friends are."

"Scar and Mumbo." Grian replied, he'd learned not to hesitate when there was a blade next to his important veins.

"Hello Scar and Mumbo." Sam never took his eyes off Grian as he said it, and he traced the knife down to Grian's chest. "Welcome to the show." He pushed the knife forward into the blonde's heart, and he let out a yell of pain. He pulled it out again when he sensed Scar and Mumbo moving towards him and held it out as warning. Then he left the room slowly and locked it.

Once Sam was gone, Mumbo and Scar went straight to Grian's side.

"Grian!" Mumbo said, putting his arm around him. Grian leaned onto his shoulder and held where he'd been stabbed, gritting his teeth. Mumbo's heart broke when he realised the hermit was waiting to die. How many times had this happened? "Who is that?" He asked, panicked.

"Grian?" Scar asked. Grian shook his head before falling unconscious against Mumbo. "Oh god," Scar said, covering his mouth. Seeing his friend covered in blood made him feel physically sick. "He's gonna die." He said. Mumbo tightened his grip around the bruised gremlin. After a few painful minutes, the body and blood disappeared and Grian woke up on the red bed that was in the room.

Grian looked at them.

They knew what he'd been through now, they would feel sorry for him. He didn't want to be the 'poor person who was tortured' again, but he supposed it would've happened sooner or later. They looked back at him silently, and he noticed that Mumbo had a couple of tears rolling down his face. Guilt tightened his chest.

"We'll get out of here." Scar said, hoping to bring some optimism even though he wasn't feeling it himself. Grian stood up and sank down against the corner of the room, hugging his legs to himself.

"Who was that, Grian?" Mumbo asked, questions filling his head. Grian ignored him. "Sorry," he said, "but either way Scar's right, we'll find a way out of here."

"Yeah," Scar said, "we can help."

"There's no point." Grian mumbled.

"Of course there is!" Scar said, but Grian had already resigned himself.

"I'm sorry you're here." Grian said.

"Don't be, we're the ones who came." Mumbo said, Grian just sighed.

***

The sun was beginning to rise when Sam next entered. Mumbo had managed to undo the rope tying his wrists together, and he launched at the bunny-hatted man (he'd worked out why a white bunny named Sam made Grian so upset). Sam had been expecting it, though, and he grabbed Mumbo, injecting something into his neck. Scar was waking up after dozing off, and before he could do anything he too was injected.

They both fell unconscious, leaving Grian to watch as his friends were dragged out of the room. And it's your fault, he thought.

"It's your fault they're like that, Gree-on, if you hadn't run away to this server then they'd be just fine." Sam said as he came back in.

"I know." Grian said.

"Now, back to where we left off." Sam pulled out a flint and steel. He lit part of the ground, taking advantage of the fact fire didn't spread on the server and pulled Grian to his feet. "I thought I'd give you some variety." He smiled sweetly.

***

Mumbo woke up first. They were in a similar room to Grian's, except this one had two beds (one for him, one for Scar) and looked a lot less decorated. There was concrete instead of wallpaper and the wooden planks on the ground were slightly more splintered. It had been made in a rush.

Their armour and inventories were also gone.

He heard something bang loudly against the wall; Grian being thrown around by Sam. Rage flooded through him to no end. Then he heard a scream. Then he heard yelling.

Scar woke up and looked across at him with concern for the actions they could hear taking place next door.

"Our spawns have been set." Mumbo said, feeling the mining fatigue set in. "And we can't break the beds." He added. Scar nodded. Grian yelled out in pain. "We need to do something." He said.