tw: death, stabbing, body part mutilation, imprisonment, panic attacks

wc: 1.1k, wow

Grian watcher angst! Requested by Hermitdere32 (thank you for the support throughout this journey so far!) but I probably would have done it sooner or later anyway :P This doesn't have a happy ending sorry lol. 

Enjoy!

Grian strolled nonchalantly through the streets of Hermitville. It was a quiet afternoon. The sun shone brightly amidst white clouds, the sky bluer than forget-me-not flowers. 

It was perfect. Grian closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of... magic residue?

His head snapped to the left, where he picked up a trace of magic. Panic rose in Grian's chest and he quickly ran in its direction, his Watcher uniform melting over his normal outfit. He was almost there, he could feel the Watcher's presence-

He burst through the bushes to see a Watcher raise its bedrock knife over an unsuspecting Mumbo Jumbo.

"NO!" Grian screamed, lunging forward, trying to get there before the Watcher could bring it down. He was half successful and managed to save Mumbo from getting stabbed in the back, but he couldn't stop the course of the knife entirely.

A gasp of surprise and agony escaped Mumbo's lips. The redstoner looked down, ever so slightly, staring at the blood seeping on the side of his shirt. Mumbo let out a scream of pure pain and fear.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Grian shrieked, grabbing the wrists of the offending Watcher. It merely smiled, still holding the bedrock dagger. Mumbo looked faint from the amount of blood gushing from the wound

There was a flurry of motion, and suddenly the Watcher was gone. Grian stood there, stunned, when a slow pain started working its way into his eye. In a flash, the pain began to sear, and Grian shrieked, bringing his hands up to press them to his bleeding eye. 

He fell next to where Mumbo lay. Blood poured from between his right hand's fingers, but he suddenly noticed something else.

A bedrock dagger clutched in his left hand.

Voices came from somewhere far away as Grian's left eye vision swam. He blinked, then cried again from the agony of his eye.

"Mumbo!"

"G-Grian?"

~~~

Grian cracked his eyes open. His right eye's agony had been dulled to a throb, but he could tell it was from painkillers. But he didn't have much time to think about that.

His left eye was fine, but his right- it just- it wasn't working. He couldn't see anything from it. It wasn't darkness, it wasn't white. It was simply... nothing.  Panic twisted his stomach.

When he tried to stand, his legs gave out under him. He looked up, his left eyesight blurry, and saw... bars?

"Help!" he cried. No response.

"I can't see!" Grian screamed, a tear escaping his normal eye. He began to pull at the bars, pound the floor. He couldn't walk, he'd fall over. He would reach for something and miss. His breath began to come in short gasps and his skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Grian groped uselessly at the bars, crying for someone to help.

Finally, someone came. Someone... dressed in black. Who dressed in black? Mumbo did, but this person seemed uninjured. Impulse? No, this person was wearing a long-sleeved black cloak and pants. It looked like a mourning outfit.

"Please..." Grian rasped, his voice hoarse from crying and screaming. 

The person grew close. Scar? Grian thought. Why was he wearing that?

It was indeed Scar, although it didn't seem like the man was having much of a good time recently. His green eyes were red from crying, bags sagged under his eyes, and his hair was unkempt.

Scar reached through the bars. Grian reached for his hands, wanting just a bit of assurance, a bit of hope...

and received a resounding slap across the face.

Grian stared at the wall to his right, stunned. His mouth moved but failed to form words.

"That's what you get!" Scar cried. "You murderer! He's gone! It's all because fo you!"

Grian slowly turned his face back around. Blood was rushing to his cheek. "M-Mumbo's... gone?" Tears began to fill his good eye. I was too late.

"What, were you trying to just injure him?!" Scar screamed. 

"Did you come here just to yell at me?" Grian asked quietly. All of his hope, his happiness, his dreams, shattered on the ground, then were stomped on and burned.

"Xisuma needs to talk to you, and Stress needs to do something with your eye," Scar spat. "Hopefully rip it out of its socket."

Grian flinched. That wouldn't be an unfamiliar experience.

The bars creaked open. Ropes were tied around Grian's hands, but he wouldn't have tried to run anyhow. Scar dragged him to his feet, but Grian stumbled anyhow, his legs weak.

Without a word, Scar pulled Grian along the corridors into a room Grian had never seen. Xisuma was sitting inside. His armor was black.

"Grian," Xisuma said, his voice devoid of emotion. Scar pushed him heavily into the seat and rebound his hands behind the chair. Stress came in from another room with some healing supplies. The flowers on her head were dying.

"While Stress does her healing, why don't you... explain." Xisuma nodded to Stress, who moved towards Grian. Unlike normal, her movements were stiff and rough, causing Grian to wince or stifle a cry of pain more than once.

"Who were your Watcher parents?" Xisuma asked. It seemed like a random question, but many Watcher families pinned blames on the older ones who were unable to teach the younger children properly.

"My parents aren't Watchers," Grian said, coughing hoarsely.

Xisuma gave a low, dry, painful laugh. "What would they be?"

"I was turned into a Watcher against my will," Grian said defiantly.

"Impossible," Xisuma said, uncharacteristically unyielding. "If you won't answer that one, then say why you had to- to-" He swallowed. "Do what you did."

"It wasn't me!" Grian protested, and a sting went through his eye. He cried out. Stress said nothing, simply bandaged it once more and left. 

"Who was it?"

"I-I don't know!" Grian nearly screamed. He couldn't remember. Why couldn't he remember? What was happening?

Xisuma stared at Grian coldly. "One of our hermits has been MURDERED, and you're the only person who could have possibly done it."

He gestured towards Grian's outfit. "You're a Watcher. You're one of them. It only could have been you."

Grian tried to protest, but nothing came out. Xisuma shook his head. "I'm sorry Grian, but forgive and forget doesn't apply in this situation. You have to pay back what you did to Mumbo-"

Grian's heart dropped.

"-And banishment isn't enough. Life time imprisonment isn't enough. I'm sorry, but execution was what some of the hermits wanted."

Panic. Grian's heart began to race. He tried to kick, tried to do something. His head spun. It was useless. 

Grian passed out.

~~~

"...Which leads to the execution of Grian," Xisuma announced, tears running down his face. All of the hermits were crying. Nobody strongly wanted it, but they knew it was perhaps the only solution.

Grian kneeled in front of them, his hands tied behind his back. His eye had been wrapped up, dried blood staining it. His good eye was darting nervously from hermit to hermit, looking for someone to stand up and say no.

But nobody did.

Xisuma typed something into his communicator and raised his finger over the enter button.

Tap.

Grian Charles Xelqua was killed permanently.

The sky tore open, and thousands of Watchers flooded in, the only protection between the hermits and the Watchers finally gone.

yes, thats where it ends. no, it has no happy ending. sorry. Grian and mumbo are dead and so will the hermits be soon..............

unless y'all want me to do part 2...

ANYWAY

hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! If you want to give me a request, you can comment it on the request chapter at the beginning of the book or shoot me a message. If you liked this, please vote and comment :3

have a good day or night, wherever you are!

-Ete