[Confirmed hiatus, I guess??] The Fall Into Darkness - HermitCraft fanfic

Chapter 36 - Alive?

(Forgot until now, T/W for small mention of blood)

POV: Grian

Location: Iskall's base

I stared wide-eyed over at the ghost of the past that I thought I had gotten rid of. I wished he was a ghost but I knew that Sam was standing right in front of me.

He let out a chuckle. "No words for your best friend?"

I gritted my teeth, anger rising inside of me. "What did you do to Iskall?" I hissed.

His smile was unnerving as he glanced back at my friend. "He was the only person I had while we trained as Listeners," he said. "I owed him a debt and I figured I should probably revive him."

"Any costs?" I asked.

"I didn't put any spells over him besides the resurrecting one," Sam said, looking back at me with a look of slight betrayal on his face. "He's exactly the Iskall you remember."

"Then why isn't he awake?" I challenged.

An amused look grew on the face of my former friend. "Because he's been dead for like a week, he still needs time to recover," he said, crossing his arms.

"Are you the reason why we got attacked by Listener Shadows?" I asked.

He tilted his head and shrugged. "I may have accidentally opened the server up to the Shadows when I joined. But don't worry!" he added with a smile. "I can get them back out again."

I growled and said, "You'll be doing that next." I heard a beep and pulled out my phone. I just noticed there were a few missed calls from Stress and Mumbo. I tapped on Stress's icon and held my phone up to my ear as it rang.

She picked up and immediately yelled, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

I held my phone away, wincing at how loud that was. "Calm down," I said. "I'm at Iskall's base. Could you get Taurtis and Xisuma and come here?" I asked, keeping an eye on Sam so he wouldn't try anything funny.

Stress let out a breath and replied, "I guess I can do that."

"Thanks," I responded. "See you soon."

"See you."

I lowered my phone and hit the end call button. I then looked back up at Sam and crossed my arms. "You should know that I don't trust you. I'm bringing a Watcher and an Admin to keep an eye on you," I said coldly.

An infuriating smirk was on his face as he responded, "Okay."

Soon, Stress arrived with Taurtis and Xisuma and gasped quietly when she saw how ragged I looked.

I glanced back at Taurtis and Xisuma. "Watch him," I told them, tilting my head at Sam. Xisuma immediately went to stand beside Sam while Taurtis hesitantly followed, pulling him off to the side of the room while Stress ran to Iskall's side, her eyes wide with surprise.

"How is he alive?" she asked in confusion.

"Sam decided to resurrect him," I responded. "They were friends while at the Listener Seminary."

"Well, he's out cold and I don't know when he'll wake," she said, looking up from him.

"He'll wake up when his body is recovered from being dead for so long," Sam commented from the side. I shot him an angry glance and walked over to Stress and Iskall.

"I'll watch him," I offered quietly. She glanced up at me and nodded. She stood and walked over to Sam, Taurtis, and Xisuma.

"I'm assuming you caused the invasion of Listener Shadows. Can you fix that?" she asked Sam, crossing her arms.