Seto stared at the pile of ash that had served as the focus for his spell. Oh no. She was there, she'd already begun, she'd destroy Sky. Worst of all, though, was that he could do nothing about it.
A slight cough drew Seto away from musing on his failures. "I'd hate to interrupt anything," Herobrine said lightly, his smooth, silky voice laced with menace. "But do you care to tell me who you called, just then? And don't bother trying to lie, because it won't work, and then I'll have to punish you."
"Actually, I don't," Seto said. He knew it was stupid to try to resist, but it kept him from going crazy. It was in his nature to push back against authority, and if he lost himself, he'd have lost everything.
"Pity," Herobrine sighed, though his white eyes shone with anything but. "You're sure?"
What would it matter? Herobrine knew, anyway, he just enjoyed torturing Seto, enjoyed breaking the will of his victim. It would be so easy to just surrender to Herobrine's incredible power and escape the pain. He shivered at the thoughts that were running through his mind. He couldn't give up.
"I asked a question," the tormentor said lightly.
"I believe my silence can be construed as a response?" Seto raised an eyebrow. This was another of his small routines, another one of the few things that kept him sane. Sassing Herobrine… that would be fatal for everyone but himself. And soon it would be fatal. Herobrine had been hinting that unless Seto caved to his demands, the prisoner would die.
The god smiled, his perfect teeth glinting. "Of course. How silly of me."
Seto felt his muscles go limp as Herobrine froze him in place. There were no chains in the this prison, and Seto was fairly sure that he could have slipped between the bars of his cage. But that didn't matter. No one left without Herobrine's say-so.
His pulse accelerated wildly as his torturer approached, head cocked to the side in a pose reminiscent of the way a cat sits, staring intently at its prey. And just like with what was happening in the world above, to his friends, there was nothing Seto could do to stop what happened next.
Herobrine spoke a word, summoning more power with the syllable than Seto could with an entire incantation. He then simply pointed his finger at Seto.
Pain exploded behind Seto's eyes, and he cried out in agony. The world disappeared, falling away to a universe of dark red, pure, undiluted pain, punctuated with flashes of white, blinding light. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel anything but this excruciating new reality.
As quickly as it had begun, the torture stopped. Seto lay collapsed on the floor, panting, exhausted. That… that was pain.
"I'm sorry I had to do that," Herobrine said, his voice low and soothing, despite the cruelty its owner had just inflicted. "I truly am. But you leave me no choice."
Seto did not respond from his position on the floor. He could hardly figure out how to get his thoughts in a straight line, let alone coordinate the movements of the hundreds of thousands of cells whose motion would be required to speak.
Herobrine spoke a word, and Seto felt a touch of energy pour into him, giving him the strength to sit up. It didn't, however, take away the lingering ache that permeated every inch of his body. "Now we can talk, like civilized beings," the god said, a dry laugh filling his voice. "Beings. That's the only word to describe us. You and I, we aren't like the humans. Like your so-called friends. We're more powerful. We deserve better than them, Seto. We're superior beings."
Seto knew by now that this was the real power of Herobrine. He could convince you that his madness was sanity, or at least that's how it felt to Seto. Herobrine spoke to Seto's own hidden doubts. Hadn't he felt, at times, that Sky and the others were lesser? Hadn't he noticed the admiration, the fear that the others showed to him? How could he not?
Herobrine's words were so powerful, so logical. So twisted and insane.
"But back to my question. Exactly who were you calling? What did you tell them?"
Seto shook his head stubbornly. "Bloody irritating of you, you know," Herobrine said mildly. "It doesn't matter whether you tell me now, or after I explain in what appears to be the only language you understand why you should tell me." That language, of course, was pain.
The god snapped his fingers, and the agony was back, roaring in Seto's head. This time it was white, all white-hot, blazing anguish. He couldn't feel his mouth opening in the scream that, dimly, he knew was coming from himself, only hear himself howling.
As he fell to the ground yet again, Herobrine stepped close to the cage, sitting cross-legged on the other side of the bars. "It's really your own fault, you know. Why do you do this to yourself?"
Seto could only make a choked whimpering sound, his face pressed against the stone floor. Holy shit. This hurt. Hurt didn't begin to describe what it was that Herobrine did to him.
"My bad." The same trickle of energy came into Seto, letting him pick himself up off the floor. Instinctively, he pulled as far away from Herobrine as he could.
"I d-do th-this for my f-friends. I w-won't—c-can't—betray them."
"They're your friends, hmm? The friends that didn't come to save you—yes, I'll admit that you'll want saving from me—those friends? The friends like Mitch, who think that you are hardly human? Those 'friends'? And you're worried about being the traitor?"
Herobrine continued. "Seto, they should be kneeling before you, your loyal servants. You're more powerful than any of them. They don't deserve your friendship. What have they done to earn it?
"One day they will see. Seto, we can show them. We should rule them. They are the sheep, we are the wolves. Should wolves be forced to walk among the sheep, as brothers?"
For those of you who have read Sunset, which is the plotline that this fits into, I hope that this was sufficiently creepy. Basically, this is what is happening while Sky, Ember, and company make plans to rescue Seto. And I think you can see why he needs rescuing. Comment about what you think of Herobrine. I tried to make him a fresh character, rather than just evil. Thanks!