The New World: Afterlife

Chapter 14

Jim was now the one trapped in a dungeon of sorts. It was completely dark, he couldn't even see his hands in front of him. That or he was also knocked blind somehow. His head still hurt quite a bit and he could feel cold metal cuffs on his wrists that he couldn't take off. Jim tried to make some light using his magic, but it wasn't working. He then tried to move and quickly learned that he was chained to a wall from his wrists. He tried to break free from the chains by pulling on them, but he wasn't strong enough. Jim was not going to accept his fate, he was determined to escape wherever he was without dying. He started hearing noises that sounded like footsteps from a small animal, like a rat. He felt a small creature sniffing his hand and he did not hesitate to grab it. It squealed as Jim gripped it tighter, it was indeed a rat. It was trying to free itself from Jim's grasp, but Jim had an urge to kill it. 
"Stupid rat." Jim muttered as he used his other hand to quickly twist its head around, breaking its neck. It quickly stopped moving and Jim dropped it. He wasn't sure why his first instinct was to kill the rat, but he didn't regret it nor did he feel bad for killing another being who was possibly trapped with him. Or maybe it had a family it was trying to provide for, but Jim still didn't care. He did think about eating the rat though, wouldn't have been the worst thing he's eaten, but he wasn't hungry enough to actually do it. A few minutes later he heard more footsteps from what sounded like other people, two to be exact. One of them asked "Did you remember to feed him like Lee asked?"
"I gave him a live rat." The other one replied as their footsteps suddenly stopped. 
"He's a human, not a vampire! He doesn't drink blood!" They exclaimed to the other one as they defended themselves with "Oh, I thought he was. Still, he could've eaten the rat."
A door then opened across from Jim and he was able to see some light. In the doorway stood two vampires, both with black hair and skin that was very light grey in colour. One had bright red eyes and the other had green eyes. The red-eyed one was wearing old chainmail armour while the green-eyed one was wearing armour made from animal hide. Jim's first instinct was to try to attack them, but the chains held him back. The green-eyed one jumped back while the red-eyed one told Jim "You don't scare me."
"I wasn't trying to scare you." Jim told them rather aggressively, he was angry. 
"I get it, you're angry because Lee sent you to the dungeon. We were subjected to a similar fate." The red-eyed one told Jim as the green-eyed one added "Except you're human, you won't last as long under normal circumstances."
Jim didn't say anything else as they started unchaining him from the wall but not from his wrists. He figured he could probably use the chains as a weapon. 
"Now come quietly and we won't have any problems." The red-eyed one told Jim as they each grabbed one chain and started leading him down a hallway. It was lit by small glowing magical orbs, there was no electricity in that section. The pain in Jim's head started worsening as they continued, eventually he was starting to feel like passing out again. Eventually the green-eyed one stopped to ask "Wait, are we taking him to them?"
"Where else would we take him?" The red-eyed one replied as the green-eyed one said "I thought Lee said to NOT do that."
"Do what?" Jim felt like he needed to ask. The red-eyed one only told him "Nothing you need to be concerned about." 
Jim didn't say anything else, he figured he'd have his questions answered soon anyways. They continued until they arrived in a rather open area that smelled heavily of rotting flesh. Jim could stand the sight of corpses but not their smell. At the other end of the room was some sort of makeshift throne made from animal bones, or at least Jim hoped they were. On the throne was a familiar figure Jim recognized from the flashback. It was Grognak The Untitled, though this time they were wearing clothes made from various animal skins sewn together. It somehow looked nice. The two vampires brought Jim up to them as they looked down on him.
"So, the Mad King is finally back from the dead. Waited long enough." Grognak said before adding "I guess you want me as your servant again."
"Everyone here has said something along those lines about me." Jim said back. 
"We ought to behead you too before you cause trouble." Grognak told Jim, who laughed a bit and replied with "You're about three-hundred years too late on that one."
"And it took you a millennium to finally return to Fecktopia." Grognak said before asking "But why? Why did you come back?"
"I don't know anymore, but if all of you could let me go that'd be great." Jim answered as his sudden enthusiasm quickly faded. The two vampires at either side of Jim started holding the chains tighter as Grognak told him "You're never leaving. At least not alive." 
"Is that a threat?" Jim aggressively asked as Grognak smiled and replied "It's a promise."
Jim had stated many times that he didn't want to kill or cause chaos anymore, but he was willing to make exceptions. He postured up and said "Very well, end my life if you can."
Grognak didn't say anything else, instead they also stood and postured up while also unsheathing claws. They were a vampire too, just better at hiding it. Jim didn't give time for the other two vampires to react, he freed his chains from them and used said chains against them. They quickly ran off, leaving Jim to deal with Grognak The Untitled. They tried to start scratching him, aiming specifically for his face. Jim kept shielding himself from them as he slowly backed away, realizing that the end of his chains were weighted, meaning he could use it like a bola as they were long enough to do that. Jim tried to stun Grognak with it, but he failed the first try. Grognak laughed at him and said "You're pretty much useless without whatever powers you had."
Jim assumed the cuffs he had on were the ones that prevent the wearer from doing any sort of magic ability, he had them on before. Jim didn't say anything back to them, he would rather save his energy for not dying. Jim tried again and succeeded, but Grognak turned into a bat to escape it. Jim lost track of them, but he could still hear them laughing at him from around the room.
"Should've become a vampire." Grognak told Jim, who was a vampire before but turned back to save his marriage. Also because he didn't like being one. They reappeared behind Jim and started sinking their teeth into his neck and their claws into his chest. It hurt a lot. Jim tried to get away, but they were holding him in place. He then let himself fall back, which caused Grognak to let go and stop biting him. He used it as an opportunity to stand back to take a moment to recover. He hoped he wasn't just turned back into a vampire. Grognak quickly got back up and took Jim's moment to just breathe as an opportunity to draw more blood from him. With one swift strike from their claws, they managed to scratch Jim's left eye from under his glasses, which ended up falling off his face and he lost them. Jim stepped back again with his hands over it, it was hurting more than the bite. 
"Have you given up yet?" Grognak The Untitled asked as Jim took one hand off his eye and grabbed one of the chains again. Jim was not ready yet, he took his other hand off his eye so he was holding both chains to try to use them against Grognak again. He threw one and it wrapped around their neck, Jim wasn't even aiming for it. Jim did it again with the other, it also wrapped around their neck. The odds of that were very low, but were in favour of Jim. Jim tried to pull them closer, but pulled too hard on the chains. He accidentally decapitated Grognak The Untitled. Jim stood in silence as Grognak turned into a pile of dust on the ground, not knowing how to react or feel about what he just did.
"Well, guess that's that." Jim said as he found his glasses again, but didn't put them on yet. He was still bleeding and he couldn't heal himself with the cuffs on. Jim couldn't break them off or find anything to pry them off, so he gave up on that. Instead, he started taking his sweater and shirt off, using the shirt as bandages for the open wounds. One around his eye that covered nearly half of his head and one around his neck that wasn't tight enough to choke him, even though he was probably into that like the weirdo he is. His next priorities were to find a way out of that dungeon, find Turg and never set foot in Fecktopia again.