Hello my friends!

Stella wrote this chapter!

Enjoy~

Ezra threw one last fire charge into the village. Then he turned and ran off into the forest. He fixed his gaze on a tree with his piercing purple eyes, and concentrated. He imagined seeing what he could see from up there, other lower trees, the village and, hopefully, the three players he was waiting for. The ones his master, Midnight, had ordered him to trap.

When the three players arrived, he teleported to another, higher tree. The players didn't hear him, since in his years of serving his master he had learned to teleport without any sound. Even his older counterparts couldn't do that. They would always create a small 'poof' when they appeared. Ezra's skill had proven extremely useful when Midnight had chosen him, out of all the others she could have chosen, to become her personal bodyguard. Not that she needed a bodyguard. She was way more powerful than him. So she had him do all the jobs that were too boring for her. Like trapping players.

Ezra was shaken away from the thoughts by Midnight's voice ringing in his head. 'Focus on your mission, Ezra.'

Immediately his senses were slightly improved. Midnight had told him to focus, so now even his senses were more focused. The purple hue in everything he saw decreased, making the world seem too yellow for him, and the details became sharper. He could now hear the slight rustle of the player's feet against the grass. He could feel every imperfection in the branch he was standing on. However he didn't experience any change in his sense of smell, simply because he did not have one. But, most importantly, his head cleared. All that he could think about was his mission, and how he would accomplish it, because Midnight had ordered him to.

Ezra watched silently from the shadows as the three showed various emotions for the burnt village and its inhabitants. Shock, fear, anger, worry. Then he teleported behind the one that wasn't wearing the type of uniform the two others had, grabbed both of his arms, and teleported back into the tree. He wedged the diamond sword from the player's hand and placed it on his neck. All that in a fraction of a second.

"You two! Look this way!" His words had the desired effect. The players looked up at him, and finally realized their friend had disappeared from their side.

"See that tree to your right? Yes, that one. Place all of your swords, bows, or other weapons on the lowest branch." They hesitated. Ezra tightened his grip on the one he was holding, and he let out a strangled sound.

"Immediately."

Two heavily enchanted diamond swords and two just as heavily enchanted bows were placed on the branch.

"Your secondary weapons." The two players looked at him incredulously. They had both been thinking about how he certainly would not know of their secondary swords, so Ezra had easily found out that they did indeed have other swords. His telepathic abilities were very limited, he could only use them when Midnight told him to. And even then they were very weak. Very much unlike Midnight's.

"Arrows too." Two full stacks of arrows were placed next to the bows. Some of them fell off and clattered to the ground.

"Any fire charges, flint and steels, potions or golden apples." Six golden apples, two Notch apples, and a huge amount of various potions were placed on the ground under the branch, which was too full to take even one of them.

"Good. Now, walk away from that tree." The two players reluctantly obliged. They were startled when Ezra and his prisoner appeared in front of them. Ezra figured they weren't very intelligent. They had seen him, and even though a spell Midnight had cast was hiding his black scales, his glowing purple eyes and his long fangs were still very much visible. But now that they had seen him teleport they had no doubts.

"You're an enderman!" Ezra ignored the words. He was not stupid. He would not reveal any information to his targets. Not even if it was to correct something they had said.

Ezra took three leashes out of his inventory. The player's eyes widened. "You're going to leash us? Like we're animals? You little-" Ezra blocked out the surge of insults, and tied the leashes tightly around the wrists of the players. He summoned a surge of purple particles, and covered the leashes with them. Now only he could untie the knots or cut the rope. Then he turned around.

The player he'd first captured was standing there in a defensive stance. His hand was tightly gripping the diamond sword. Ezra silently cursed his stupidity. While tying the two players, he's forgotten about the third.

"Let- let them go immediately," the player facing Ezra stuttered. Ezra sighed. He quickly teleported to the player's right, shoved him off balance, and teleported to the other side. He pushed him again, this time making him fall completely. His teleportations were too fast for the player to even see where he was. It only took two more rapid shoves to make him stumble to the ground. Ezra calmly picked up the sword, tossed it to the pile of weapons on and under the branch, and tied the third player's wrists the way he had with the other two.

Ezra held on to the three leashes and pulled the players. They refused to move.

"Follow me or die," he, said, flashing his long, black fangs. The three still wouldn't budge.

"Follow me or they die." Ezra pointed his hand at one of the houses. The fire hadn't reached it yet, but it was clearly visible from here that the usual wooden door had been replaced with an iron one, only openable from the outside, and that behind the window a group of villagers, mostly children, were looking at their last chance of getting out being tied up. You wouldn't notice them, or pay any special attention to the house, unless you were pointed out that it was somehow different.

"If you do exactly as I say, I will open that door before the fire reaches it. If you don't do exactly as I say, that door will remain shut. Do you understand?"

"You monster! There are children in there!" Ezra glared at the one who had spoken.

"Stay silent." The three finally didn't speak.

"Good. You understand. Now, all you must do is stay completely silent. One sound, and I will not open the door." Ezra's prisoners nodded.

"Now, which one of you will give in the easiest? Hmm. Not you, I like the color combination of your shirt. Purple and grey go together almost as well as purple and black. And you, I don't think you would break easily. You seem way too stone-faced for that. So, you. Come closer." Ezra pointed at the one with the red and black checkered hoodie. He stepped forward, not wanting the house full of villagers to burn.

"Now, lay down. Looking at the house." The player obeyed. "Okay, now, remember, no sounds. At all."

Mitch bit his cheek hard when the weird enderman-like creature sank its long, sharp teeth into his left arm. He almost screamed out of pure agony. But he had realized what game this thing was playing. It would try to get any noise out of him. And he knew very well in what way. Mitch however decided that whatever the thing was going to do, he wasn't going to make a sound. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping it would make the pain fade. It did fade, but for a completely different reason. The thing had taken its teeth out of Mitch's arm. He opened his eyes, and could see Max and Danny stare at something behind him. He tried to turn around, but gave it up when he almost groaned from the pain. The two holes in his arm were throbbing like crazy.

"Healing… Swiftness… Leaping… Ah, here! Just what I needed!" The creature walked back into Mitch's field of view, holding three bottles he had taken out of the pile at the tree.

"Do you know about the differences in potion effects when applied straight into the circulation?" It chuckled.

"Oh, but you can't answer that. Well, I'm gonna tell you. The effect is extremely intensified. It means that one drop of poison-" He gestured at one of the bottles, which he had placed on the ground in front of Mitch "-can kill in only a few ticks. Now, that would be way too overpowered, wouldn't it? So, the potion researchers tested various things, until they found out that Nether warts made the potion effects not kill when in blood. So they made all potions require Nether warts. But, however much Nether wart you add, the pain the potion causes is still the same."

Mitch could see clearly the horror in his new friend's eyes. Well, Max's expression was purely terror, while Danny's was a mix of it and anger. But then he couldn't see anything, as his vision was filled by white. He felt like he was dying. Or no, Mitch had died many times before, and this was definitely worse than that. Now he wanted to die. Even if he somehow wouldn't respawn. He wanted the pain to end, at any cost. But in the cloud of agony he managed to form a thought. If he screamed, gasped for breath, or even whimpered, it wouldn't remove his pain. It would only kill those in the house. So he kept his mouth tightly shut, concentrating on his heavy breathing. In, out. In, out.

Then the pain ended just as suddenly as it had started. Mitch let the relief wash over him. 'This guy, thing, whatever, is a maniac. Totally insane,' He thought.

"Oh wow, you're a tough one. Not a sound!" Mitch glared at the face looming above him.

"Well, we can change that. You see, if you take a potion of Fire Resistance-" He picked up one of the two remaining bottles "-And corrupt it with a spider eye-" He dropped a round, red object into the bottle, "-It becomes a potion of Fire. Now, if you mix that with blood, it is definitely not a nice sensation. Unless you enjoy being burned alive from the inside."

This time Mitch could feel the potion being poured into his arm. Then he felt his arm heating up, and the heat spreading into the rest of his body. Mitch had been in some fires before, but this was much worse. This time the fire was inside him. His thoughts were clouded by the agony, but he managed to keep to his decision of not screaming. He pressed his face to the ground, which felt wonderfully cool against his burning skin. He struggled against his restraints, with no clear objective, other than making the pain stop. Now he could feel flames flicker against his back. Compared to the flames inside him they felt almost cold.

It felt like Mitch had struggled against the rope and the fire inside him forever when it finally ended. He almost sighed from relief, but then he remembered he should stay silent. He no longer remembered why, but he was sure it was important.

"Well, this is remarkable. You're still, even after a full length potion of Fire, not making a sound. Well, that doesn't matter. I still have this." He picked up the last potion. "Now, this potion is special in the way that the deadliness of it is in no way hindered by the Nether Warts, since it usually doesn't cause death while the effect is still active, but after it. Shall we go?" Mitch wanted to move, he wanted to crawl away from this maniac, but when he tried to a hand gripped his arm from the spot that had been bitten wave of pain stopped Mitch's movement. Then the hand moved and another potion was poured into the holes in his arm.

He was surprised when it had no effects at first. But then he felt a weird sensation. It was like a sword was slicing through his skin, everywhere on his body. He felt a large gash form into his calf, one below his shoulder, one across his back, and countless more. It hurt so much that the pain was actually numbing. Mitch was thankful for that. It allowed him to think clearer. This thing that was torturing him looked a lot like an enderman. And what weakness did endermen have? Mitch quickly checked his inventory. There it was! Exactly what he needed: A bucket of water. Now he just had to get it out and throw it on the enderman-thing. Which was the problem. His hands were tied, and even if he somehow managed to open the knots, he doubted he could move. He could feel blood, still hot from the second potion, flowing from the cuts on his body, soaking his clothes.

"He stayed silent! Now let the villagers go!" Mitch focused his eyes on the person that had spoken. He recognized him. It was Danny. Danny… A friend. A friend was here, he could help him. Maybe he could sleep now… Now that a friend was here… How nice it would be to just close his eyes and sleep…

Mitch was shaken from his blood loss-provoked grogginess when he realized what was behind Danny. The burning village, and the reason he wasn't allowed to scream. The house with the villagers was already burning.

"You spoke. So, just as I said, I won't open the door."

Danny looked incredibly angry. Max probably had the same look on his face. Mitch didn't really care to look though. He didn't care about anything. Maybe he could just die now… Maybe… Hopefully…

A shrill shriek pierced the air. It was followed by the noises an enderman makes when in pain.

ahaha what happens?!

I know. do you know? no, you don't know.

BBII