Chapter Text
Joel
Joel had told Etho that something was up. He had told Etho that this was not right, that this was not normal. Etho had not listened though, too full of pride to accept help.
Etho, before he had joined the server, had a…unique past. He was kidnapped by some strange organization, then used as a human puppet as a test for a new training method. They had embedded hooks all over Etho’s body, most of which still remained, from which they controlled him. And, while they were long behind Etho, he had begun to have dreams of someone completely different controlling him and putting in more hooks. Joel had told Etho that that was not good or normal, but Etho insisted it was fine. Just bad dreams, even though Etho complained about the pain as if it were real.
That Joel had paid more attention, this could have been avoided, but no.
Etho
Etho startled awake, a scream dying on his lips. All of his hooks hurt. His entire body shook with adrenaline.
He glanced at his comm to check the time. 4:57 am. There was no way he was getting any more sleep today, not with the fear coursing rampant through him. He pulled himself out of bed, changing out of his pajamas and grabbing a loaf of bread for breakfast.
He drank enough tea so he could pretend his shaking fingers were because of the caffeine, as had become his custom the past week or so.
By now, normally the phantom pains on his hooks had gone away by now. However, a spot on the lower left side of his ribcage stung like hellfire. It was a place he knew for a fact there had never been a hook, removed or otherwise.
Yet, when Etho took off his jacket and pulled up his shirt to check, one was there. How, how, how. Then, he remembered, in his dream, ‘dream,’ last night, the strange void-like creature that had been haunting him had tried to attach a new hook to his body. Shit, those aren't dreams. Oh devs, I need to find someone, he thought to himself, throwing elytra on and swinging his front door open to leave.
Something hit him in the neck, soaking through his mask.
“No, I don't think you're leaving,” a voice said softly from the side he had been hit on. It had the same voice that danced through his memories from the night.
Gem
The last week had been hazy for Gem. For a few hours, she would build her base normally, hangout with other hermits, live as always, then she would wake up six hours later in a pile of hay, covered in blood, in the middle of Grian's wheat field.
She was fine. She was normal. This was normal hermit behavior, waking up in random places with no recollection of the last several hours, positivity exhausted, covered in someone else's blood, with excessive amounts of string.
This was fine.
Yup.
Totally fine.
It was not like she was terrified about what she might have done or what was happening to her or why she kept doing this.
She's Gem. And Gem is great!
Etho
Etho was trying to see a face through his hazy vision, but what little features he could see just made him even more confused. The - person? Thing? Being? - had long, crooked antlers with points that looked sharper than daggers. They had long shadowy limbs, bright yellow eyes, and a long, ragged, ripped black cloak scattered with bloodstains flowed down their back. What was strangest to Etho, however, was that their face seemed to be made of void. Not just blank space, but void, like it went on forever with no end or ground.
What the….
"You are coming with me," the being said, and that was the last thing Etho heard before the thing took his conscience away.
***
Etho blinked his eyes open, his mind foggy from whatever the being had hit him with. He didn't feel any of his weight on his feet; in fact, he didn't feel most of his weight at all.
He snapped fully into conscience almost immediately and felt that he was strung onto something. Most of his weight was in his shoulders and upper torso, but he felt the pain everywhere.
No! his mind screamed immediately. I'm strung up again. They're going to make me dance. They're going to give me the commands again.
Maybe this is just a dream, he tried to tell himself. You can't possibly be back there.
But there's another hook on my chest that I know wasn't there before. This is not a dream. This is real.
"You have returned," the thing said. It walked in front of Etho, not making a sound as it stepped across the floor.
Etho opened his mouth to speak and found that his mask was no longer on his face. He snapped his mouth shut and turned his head away, though he could barely move through the strings.
"I have already seen your face," the thing said, mock pity in its voice. "Your hideous, sickening face."
Etho felt like he was being kicked. As if being strung up wasn't punishment enough.
"You can not get help," the thing mocked him. "Nobody is coming for you."
"Who are you?" Etho demanded, surprisingly strongly. "What are you?" The thing didn't respond, only chuckled.
"I'll be back," it whispered. It turned its back on Etho and climbed up a ladder, closing the trapdoor behind it.