Karma (Sequel to An Old Friend)//Grumbo\\

5

          "What the hell?!" Iskall yelled, and Mumbo just stood in shock, unsure of whether he was about to puke or scream. He did neither, however, as Iskall began to shake him, snapping him out of his shocked state. "Mumbo, what do we do?" He asked desperately, but Mumbo didn't have an answer for him. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. "What just happened? What was in that needle? Where is he?"

        "I don't know!" Mumbo yelled, overwhelmed by the questions. Iskall put his hands up in surrender, muttering,

        "Sorry. Sorry. I just don't know what to do." He spoke sadly, and Mumbo sighed. 

        "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. I just don't know what to do either." He bent down into a squat and put his head in his hands, thinking hard. While he did, Iskall began to survey the small wooden table. At first, it looked like just the sign and tv was on it, but as he looked closer at the cracks in the wall behind it, he noticed something off. Most of the cracks in the walls were dark and shallow, but one behind the monitor seemed to reflect light. He pushed the tv aside to look into the hole and saw a very tiny camera. 

        "Mumbo..." He tapped his friend's shoulder, and Mumbo looked up reluctantly. "We're being watched." Mumbo stood quickly in confusion.

        "What?" He followed Iskall's stare to a crack in the wall before his eyes landed on what the Swede had seen.

        "This must have been how he knew when to start the video. He could see us." Iskall said absently before Mumbo got an idea. 

        "Where does this camera lead? It has to somehow connect to wherever he is watching from." Mumbo began to grab for the camera. It was small but had a wire coming out of the back of it, going through the wall. Mumbo traced where the wire would go, landing on Sam's bed. He walked over to it, Iskall following intently when they found it. A small latch, hidden in the shadow beneath the bed. 

Grian, like always, woke with a start. He was held in place again and began to hyperventilate. Except, this time was different. Usually, when he came back, he would hyperventilate, but once the shock wore off, he would usually be angry. But this time, as the shock began to wear itself down, he started to cry. He couldn't stop himself, the tears just kept flowing. One thought ran through his mind as he laid in wait for Sam to enter. The fake Sam had never lied. Everything it had ever said had been the truth. Could it be the same for the fake Mumbo? He continued to cry uncontrollably until finally, the door to the room swung open. Sam stepped in, holding his normal empty syringe and smiling more than usual.

        "That was great!" He laughed as he placed the needle into Grian's arm and began to draw out blood. Grian was still uncontrollably crying, but managed to choke out,

        "Please. Just stop. Please." His voice was fragile and quiet, but Sam just snickered. 

        "Nah! That would ruin the fun! But don't worry, now that I know what gets to you, I'll be sure to make you crack!" He walked over to the other table and placed down the blood sample, picking up a new, already full needle. Grian continued to cry and began to scream as Sam neared him. Sam had always given Grian time to think and rationalize between injections, but this time he was going back to back. The sharp needle pierced Grian's skin, that was now running out of places on his neck for it to go, and he sank in defeat. He continued to cry before drifting off into unsatisfying "sleep". 

This continued on for a while, as Grian had no way to tell time, it had felt like forever for him. He would die back to back, sometimes being killed by Sam, sometimes by Mumbo or his other friends, and the worst, sometimes even Taurtis. And then a lot of times, like the first time he had been injected by this new version of the serum, it would fake him out. Sam would come in in a huff that the serum failed, but then he would still die. After a while, Grian couldn't even tell what was real and what was the serum. All he knew to be real was the horrifying thought that he was never going to escape Sam.

Sorry this chapter took so long! I was super overwhelmed by school stuff and just completely lost direction for this story. Honestly, when I had first thought about this book, I hadn't even come up with how Mumbo and Iskall would find him, so this chapter is pretty much every detail that I didn't know what to do for, hence the amount of time it took to make it. But, no more excuses, it is finally here now! I don't think there should be too many chapters left, at least 3 more, but depending on how long the ending/epilogue will be, it may be many more. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I hope you have a good day/night, and you are lovely.