Eclipse: A TrollHunters Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Confusion

Jim groaned as the early morning rays filtered through his blinds, casting a golden glow across his face. He went to roll over, and found himself unable to. He was...stuck. His eyes shot open as he remembered. Gunmar. He tried to sit up, and found himself met with the same resistance. He looked around desperately, his breathing slowing as he found himself in...a hospital room? What?  He looked down, and found himself strapped to his bed, keeping him from getting up. He tugged against the belt across his wrist, and huffed when it didn't budge.

"Jim?" he looked over to the door, and found his mother leaning in the doorway, a tray of food in her hands.

"Mom?" his voice crackled and popped, and he had to cough after he spoke. She set the tray down on the side table, and rushed over to him.

"Careful, don't talk right now." she whispered, gently stroking his cheek. He stared up at his mother, eyes wide and confused. He opened his mouth to speak, and she pushed a finger into his lips. "I said not to speak." she whispered, moving down to unbuckle the straps holding him to the bed. He sat up slowly, rubbing his wrist on his leg, frowning when he saw how he'd nearly broke the skin in his struggle. She grabbed a cup of water, placing the rim against his lips, and tilting it so he could drink. He swallowed a couple times, though his throat felt like he'd gargled broken glass.

"How's that?" she whispered, gently rubbing his back. He nodded a bit.

"Better..." he whispered, and she nodded, moving to sit beside him on the bed. She scooped up his hand, gently rubbing the red skin around his wrist. "Why...was I...why was I tied down?" he asked, leaning his head on his mother's shoulder. She sighed, slipping her arm around his shoulders and gently rubbing his stump.

"What do you remember?" she asked quietly. "About last night?" Jim bit his lip when he remembered Gunmar crashing through his window and grabbing him.

"I...I got kidnapped?" he whispered. He had, that much was true. Barbara sighed, and shook her head.

"No...Jim." she whispered. "You didn't. You...you know you didn't." Jim nearly whimpered. How did she know he was lying? Did she see Gunmar? "You jumped out of your window." Jim paused. No he hadn't, Gunmar had pulled him out of his window.

"No I didn't." he whispered, and she bit her lip.

"Yes, you did. I watched you." Jim shook his head again.

"I didn't jump out of my window, mom." he said, his voice a little more snippy than he meant. Barbara sighed, and climbed off of his bed.

"You did, Jim. You shattered your window, and jumped out. I saw it, and so did Claire and Strickler." Jim stared up at his mom. They knew what Gunmar was, were they lying to her to protect her?

"I...okay..." he whispered, looking away. There was no point in arguing with her if her friends had lied to her for him already.

~~~

"I don't understand." Toby said as he and Claire walked through the streets of TrollMarket. "Why would Jim jump out of his window and say it was Gunmar?" Claire shrugged, tossing her staff in the air and catching it, twirling it around. It was all theatrics, but hey, Jim could do cool things with his sword, so why couldn't she do cool things with her staff?

"I don't know." she said, expanding her staff and nearly smacking a passing Troll in the face. She wasn't even fazed, and he let it shrink back down. "But what if...he wasn't lying?" Toby looked up.

"Claire, you saw the footage." he whispered. "He just went...he went crazy." Claire sighed and slipped her staff into her bag.

"I know but..." she tugged on her hair. "I...I don't like the idea of Jim going insane and jumping out of his own window." she whispered. "He...he's my boyfriend...and I..." she swallowed hard. Toby wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the words before they reached Blinky's library.

"Hey Blinky." Toby said, knocking on the door frame as they stepped inside. Arrrgh looked up from where he was trying to read a book, though he was holding it upside down.

"Wingman." the large troll said, and Toby walked over so they could do their handshake.

"Hey buddy!" he said, hugging his fist and looking over at Claire. Blinky was wearing his pair of six-lensed glasses and flipping through a book, licking his fingers every couple of pages.

"What're you reading?" Claire asked, looking over his shoulder. Sure, she spoke some troll, but this was a little more difficult to understand.

"A very old text." Blinky whispered. "I've been trying to figure out why the Amulet has changed in color." he whispered. "It is very peculiar." Claire nodded, and kept trying to read, though she decided to focus on the drawings instead.

"What have you found out so far?" she whispered.

"The only definitive information I have came from a very old rhyme, its as ancient as the amulet itself. It is highly probable that it was written by Merlin himself." Claire nodded slowly.

"So...what does it say?" Blinky chuckled a bit.

"It doesn't translate into English very...eloquently." he took off his glasses. "It talks about the different phases the amulet can go through. Merlin designed it specifically to kill Gunmar, and once that task is complete, it goes into a different phase. There are three main ones. Daylight, Eclipse, and Midnight." he flipped to a page with a crude drawing of the amulet, the stone being purple rather than red or blue.

"So he did kill Gunmar." Toby said, walking over to look at the drawing as well, Arrrgh right behind. Blinky sighed.

"It does appear that way, yes." Claire chewed on her lip. "The Triumbric stones were predicted to have another join their ranks once Gunmar is killed. As you know, Jim already has the BirthStone, KillStone, and the Eye of Gunmar. But his death was believed to create another stone. The DeathStone. That is what turned the amulet into its Midnight phase."

"But if he killed Gunmar...and the DeathStone was in the amulet...h-how did Gunmar abduct him?" Claire whispered, and Blinky only shrugged.

"I haven't the foggiest."

~~~

A/N

Confession time, I suppose.

I whipped this chapter out in about an hour late last night. So I apologize if its a little lackluster, I've been fighting a pretty bad bout of writers block, but I knew I had to get a chapter out to you guys.

You are all so supportive, and writing for you brings me more joy than you will ever know. Thank you for sticking with me this far, your comments, and your votes. I wish there was a way I could repay all of you for your support.

If anyone is curious, NANOWRIMO is going well for me, I have long since broken the halfway mark. Writing this book has been a nice break from me screaming at my original story. If anyone is interested, I'll post a little bit of my own original book.

Thank you for listening to my drabble, it means a lot.

Thanks for reading!

~TJ