(The second edition of me bingewriting a oneshot for Halloween)

(And y'all are getting it way after :>)

Iskall was just finishing putting up Halloween decorations on the interior of his cave base when he heard the sound of a rocket firing. Less than a moment later, a red blur shot past him and flew into the wall, ricocheting off and landing in front of him, causing him to jump back in surprise.

"Grian? What on Earth are you doing here?"

Grian rose to his feet, brushing dust off his trousers and trying to regain what little dignity he had remaining before speaking. "Iskall, you gotta help me. I think Mumbo might be a vampire."

Iskall stared at him for a few moments. "Exactly how hard did you hit that wall?"

"No, I'm serious! Think about it; he's tall, pale, wears all black-"

Iskall cut him off. "You do realize none of those are actually vampire traits, right?"

"Yes, but it makes him the perfect candidate," Grian continued, speaking quickly. "Plus, earlier today he dropped a shulker box and the materials spilled out. But when he was picking them up I noticed he was counting them under his breath."

"...So?"

"So, vampires count things! That's how you escape them, by throwing rice or marbles in front of them." Grian extended his arms as if that made perfect sense.

Iskall couldn't believe what he was hearing. "He was probably just making sure he had everything. Where did you even get this idea from?"

"He said a bat flew in his face when he was off-world."

"And you think that bat was a vampire?"

"Yes!" Grian said emphatically. "Bats have such tiny teeth, he wouldn't even know if it bit him!"

Iskall sighed. "Does he have any legitimate vampire traits? Like pointy teeth or drinking blood?"

"Those are all in the later stages of transformation. Iskall, we gotta do something. The safety of this whole server, including Mumbo, could be at risk here. We have to tell Xisuma, he's the only one who'd know what to do!"

"With what evidence? You sound crazy."

Grian snapped his fingers together. "You're right, we need evidence! C'mon, we're gonna go spy on Mumbo." Before Iskall could argue he grabbed his arm and ran out of the cave.

<~~~>

"This is ridiculous. Why are we even here?" Iskall asked. He and Grian were crouched behind a fallen log near the huge bridge leading up to Impulse's fortress.

"Because," Grian explained. "I happen to know Mumbo's coming here to help Impulse move stuff in." He gestured to the piles of shulker boxes outside the main doors.

"So, you've been spying on him all day?"

"Pretty much."

"What do you plan to do, exactly? If you are right, and I'm not saying you are, would Xisuma be able to do anything about it?"

"He knows a lot more about admin magic than I do," Grian said. "If there is a way to change someone back from being a vampire, he'll know what it is."

Iskall rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the fortress. At least it was a cool day, the cloud cover offering a light mist of rain. He noticed someone moving toward the bridge. It was Mumbo. He was glancing suspiciously at the clouds, as if worried.

"I think I see him- What is that smell?" Iskall turned around and saw Grian was holding several cloves of garlic. "Where did you get those?"

"Unimportant." Grian crouched lower so only his eyes were above the log. They were fairly close to the bridge entrance, and when Mumbo was about ten meters away from their position, Grian rose slightly, threw one of the garlic cloves, and dropped back into cover.

His aim was surprisingly good, the clove missing Mumbo's arm by centimeters. It did get his attention however, and he stopped walking only for the next clove to hit him in the shoulder.

He didn't stop to figure out where the projectiles were coming from, instead running onto the bridge to get away as more garlic was hurled towards him.

After it was obvious his target was out of range, Grian stopped throwing garlic and turned to Iskall with a triumphant smile. "Repelled by garlic."

Iskall shook his head. "That proves nothing. You were throwing things at him, so he ran."

"Fine," Grian sighed. "We'll get closer and I'll prove you wrong."

Slowly, The shorter Hermit led the way across the bridge, and they managed to stay out of sight of Mumbo and Impulse, who were both at the entrance, talking. Their conversation became audible as they got closer, and Grian and Iskall made their way behind a large stone statue to listen.

"...for offering to help," Impulse was saying. "Many hands make light work, and I'm sure it'll go twice as fast, now." He was already holding two shulkers stacked on top of eachother.

"Sure, it's no problem," Mumbo said. He picked up maybe half a dozen of the shulker boxes, holding them with surprising ease. Impulse raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Grian turned to face Iskall. "Super strength," he whispered. Iskall rolled his eyes.

Impulse went in the gate, but Mumbo stopped right in front of it. "May I come in?"

"Vampires have to be invited in," Grian whispered.

"That's just being polite," Iskall argued back.

Grian didn't respond. In fact, he didn't seem to hear Iskall. He was staring wide eyed, his face as white as a sheet. He grabbed Iskall's arm and shook it.

"What?" Iskall turned to look. He couldn't see what had Grian so shocked. Nothing had changed. Impulse and Mumbo were still at the doorway in front of a wall that must have been made of some sort of metal. It was so shiny, Iskall could clearly see Impulse's reflection in it.

But not Mumbo's.

Impulse laughed. "Uh, yeah. You can." The two went inside and Grain didn't move, watching until they were out of sight.

"That... That's not possible," Iskall muttered. "No, that doesn't make any sense. There has to be an explanation for that!"

"There isn't," Grian said quietly.

The two made their way back down the bridge in silence. Iskall only spoke when they had reached the fallen log Grian had been throwing garlic from.

"Well- what are we gonna do? Should we get Xisuma?"

"I- I don't know." Grian seemed genuinely scared. "I think we should confront Mumbo first. Just to be sure.We'll follow him back to his base and figure it out from there." He picked up a large stick off the ground, and took out his sword, sharpening it into a point.

"You don't actually plan on using that, do you," Iskall asked.

Grian shrugged. "Just a precaution."

A few minutes later, they saw Mumbo coming back down the bridge. They stayed out of sight until he was a little ways away, then began to follow him. He definitely seemed to be heading in the direction of his base.

After maybe half an hour, the clouds broke, opening up to let the sun through. Mumbo glanced up and suddenly veered off to the left, heading into the cover of a forest.

"C'mon," Grian whispered and ran to the trees, Iskall following close behind. It didn't take long for them to lose sight of Mumbo after he disappeared behind a tree. "Crap, he's gone."

"He can't have gone far," Iskall said. "Vampires don't teleport, do they?"

"No..." Grian trailed off when he spotted a cat weaving its way through the trees. He rushed forward and picked it up, the animal meowing loudly in frustration. "Aha! You thought you could escape us, didn't you?"

"Grian, that's just a cat."

"But... shapeshifting," Grian argued. The cat escaped his hold and ran off into the trees, and he watched it leave with some disappointment.

"We might have lost track of him, but he's likely to have reached his base by now," Iskall reassured him. "We'll go find him there."

It didn't take much longer to reach Mumbo's giant vault, which still didn't have a roof. Though the sky had filled with clouds again, so it wasn't unlikely that Mumbo would be there. Grian stared up at it, thinking.

"Ok, here's the plan," he said after a while. "You go in normally and distract him. Talk about redstone or something, I don't know. I'll sneak in through the back and see what I can find."

"Isn't the whole reflection issue enough evidence already? And why do you want me to distract the vampire? What if he attacks me?"

"He won't," Grian said, then corrected himself. "He shouldn't. But if he does, you have full permission to beat him up."

"Well that definitely makes me feel better," Iskall muttered.

"Just keep him distracted." Before Iskall could argue, Grian had run around to the back of the base.

Reluctantly, Iskall went up to the entrance. The wasn't really a door, just a hole in the wall. He doubted it would be a good idea to just barge in, so he knocked on the side of the wall. "Hallo, anyone in here?"

He nearly jumped when Mumbo suddenly appeared around the corner.

"Oh, hey Iskall. What are you doing here?"

Iskall immediately realized he hadn't thought out what he was going to say and struggled to think of a response. "I- uh, realized I hadn't seen you since you came back from your trip. How've you been?"

Looking past Mumbo, he could see Grian was snooping around the hilariously out-of-place looking kitchen area which, just like everything else, was under the open sky.

"Oh, well I'm doing great," Mumbo replied. Behind him, Grian bumped into a chair, catching it before it fell, though his feet scuffled on the grass. Mumbo started to turn around.

"I uh, also wanted to ask you a question," Iskall said quickly, not at all sure his voice wasn't betraying his nervousness. "About redstone. See, I'm designing this contraption and it isn't really working, so I was wondering if you could take a look at it..."

Grian opened the small fridge and gave a short yell of surprise, stumbling backwards and tripping over the chair he had previously caught.

Mumbo turned around, surprised. "Grian? What are you doing in my fridge?"

"What am I doing in your fridge?" Grian said accusingly, kicking away from the chair and jumping to his feet, brandishing his sharpened stick. "What is a bowl of blood doing in your fridge?"

"Blood?" Mumbo walked over, reached into the fridge, and took out the bowl of clear, red liquid, shaking it. "It's Jello! Why would I have blood in my fridge?"

"Because you're a vampire!" Grian said, still not lowering the stick. "That's why you were avoiding the sun all day. And why you ran from the garlic."

Mumbo looked at him as if he were crazy. "I lost my sunscreen. You know how easily I burn- wait, you were the one throwing garlic at me?"

"Well this didn't go to plan," Iskall muttered under his breath.

Mumbo turned to him "You were in on this too, weren't you? Oh my gosh..."

"Admit it," Grian said loudly. "You're a vampire! I bet if I stabbed you in the heart with this stake, you'd die."

"Of course I'd die! Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?"

"Then why don't you have a reflection?" Grian accused. "There's no other explanation."

"I have a reflection," Mumbo said incredulously.

"Prove it."

Mumbo sighed. "Fine, have it your way." He went to a row of chests and pulled a hand mirror out of one. "See? I have a reflection- oh my gosh, where am I?" The last part was yelled as he looked in the mirror and saw nothing there.

"There's no possible way," Mumbo muttered after staring at the mirror in disbelief for half a minute. "This makes zero sense!"

Grian lowered his weapon slightly. "Wait, you actually didn't know about this?"

"Of course not! How would I have known I was turning into a vampire?"

Grian shrugged. "I dunno, I just assumed you did."

"Well, this has all been crazy," Iskall said. "But shouldn't we be figuring out what to do about it?"

Grian nodded. "You're right. I'll go find Xisuma."

"You think he'll be able to fix this?" Mumbo asked.

"He did turn Cleo human for the Demise games a few years back," Iskall suggested. "I guess this shouldn't be any different."

"Okay. Iskall, you stay with Mumbo." Grian tossed Iskall a clove of garlic. "Make sure he doesn't try to eat anyone. If he does, use this."

"I'm right here, you know," Mumbo said.

"Right. Mumbo, don't eat anyone. You'll be back to normal in no time at all." Grian grabbed a few rockets from his inventory and shot off.

<~~~>

Xisuma was in the Shopping District buying jack-o-lanterns. His plan was to anonymously leave one at each Hermit's base on Halloween, to add to the spookiness. But he nearly dropped the shulker box when something flew past him and crashed into the wall of Giga Jacks.

"Hey, X-eye-soom-uh!"