Missing (Third in An Old Friend Series) //Hermitcraft & Yhs Crossover\\

8

The moment Ren turned the screen to show the rest of them where the blinking dot of False's communicator was, they all looked at Grian in hesitant questioning. 

        "Grian, why does it say her communicator is here?" Mumbo asked, hoping Grian would have a reasonable, non-incriminating answer, but his face went white.

        "Uh, are you sure you read that right, Ren? Maybe you're holding it upside down..." He asked quickly but Ren didn't back down. 

        "Grian, why is her communicator here?" He asked again, in a more serious and slightly threatening tone. 

        "I don't know! Honestly. Hold on, let me think. I went into the Poultry Man cave since Yuki started taking people and they weren't there. I mean, no I didn't. I-" He began to backtrack but Iskall rolled his eyes. 

        "Not the time, Grian. Is there anything else under or around your base?" 

        "No! I mean, except for... for... O-Oh my god I know where she is. I know where she is! Oh, that's a good one. Right under our noses..." He began to mumble in thought before Mumbo interrupted him, bringing him back to reality.

        "Well, where?!" He asked suddenly, and Grian turned his attention back to them. 

        "The one place I haven't been to since I first got to Hermitcraft. My starter base." He simply stated and the rest of the boys thought for a moment about the underwater wooden ship enclosed in a bottle, sitting right outside Grian's base. "I have to get down there, now." He finished seriously. 

        "But wait, my hand..."Iskall raised his broken hand, showing how unusable it was. 

        "Yeah, and we have to get everybody over here," Ren added and Grian stopped for a second. 

        "Wait, you guys can't come down there with me." He declared and Mumbo looked at him confused. 

        "What do you mean? Of course we are going with you." He said matter of factly and Grian looked down for a second before looking back up at his disheveled friends. 

        "No. I can't let you... I..." He stuttered.

        "There is no way we are letting you go down there alone against a psychopath." Ren retorted.

         "But-"

        "No. Tomorrow morning, we are getting everyone up to speed, and we will all be going down there together. You can't refute it Grian. Also, can we stay here the night? I don't like the idea of you sleeping alone right above the enemy." Ren added and Grian sighed in defeat. 

        "Yeah, sure, fine." He replied and they all made their way to their own respected beds they had put down. 

Grian hadn't been able to sleep at all. Once he heard the quiet snores of his friends confirming their sleep, he quietly snuck out of his bed, grabbed armour from his chests, and walked outside into the cold night air. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and spun rapidly, nervous to find out who was sulking behind him. His body relaxed for just a second at the sight of Ren before tensing up again, realizing he had been caught. 

        "What are you doing out here?" He whisper-shouted at him and Ren replied snarkily, asking,

        "What are you doing out here, with all of your armor and weapons on?" 

        "Ren, I have to go alone. I can't let any of you..." He trailed off and Ren took a step closer to him. 

        "Let us what?" He asked, confused but also concerned. 

        "Get hurt! Too many people have been hurt and even killed because of me. I can't let that happen, not again. I need to do this alone." He looked down, trying to hide the tears he could feel welling up in his eyes. Ren took another step closer to him and placed a hand lightly on his shoulder. 

        "Grian, no one blames you for any of that-"

        "But I do! I look back at their pained faces, their blood pooled beneath them, the terrified glint in their eye that I know is there because of me! Iskall's hand wouldn't be broken if it weren't for me. Yuki wouldn't be so mad that she kidnapped our friends if it weren't for me. Taurtis would still be alive if it weren't for me!" The tears in his eyes began to fall as he desperately avoided eye contact with Ren.

        "Fine. Go alone." He replied seriously as he took his hand off of his shoulder. Grian looked up at him through blurry vision confused.

        "What?" He asked, and Ren sighed. 

        "If you're so convinced that everything that has happened to the people around you is your fault, and that you have to go down there alone, there isn't anything I can say to you to change your mind." He finished and Grian nodded. He turned to walk away as Ren said under his breath so that Grian wouldn't hear, "But if you happen to run into me down there, it can't possibly be your fault." He smirked to himself before running back inside to get his armor on. Grian, on the other hand, stood at the edge of the bridge surrounded by glass-covered water, looking into the impossibly dark water below him, reflecting the twinkling stars above in the small waves. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and jumped into the ice-cold water.

Yay, things are starting to get serious now. Also, this book just hit 1k reads! Hell yeah! Thank you all so much for getting this far into this series and sticking with it for this long, even through the sometimes long wait time between chapters or just how crappy my writing skills are. But, if you follow me and saw my announcement, you saw that I got some books on how to write good fiction, so hopefully, my writing will get better at some point. Anyway, thanks again for reading this chapter and this book, I hope you have a good day/night, and you are lovely. (Also merry kinda late Christmas to those of you that celebrate. And if you're Jewish, happy Hanukkah. And for my fellow witches out there, Bitchin Yule to you.  This is my gift to all of you: <3)