{HermitWorld}

Grian still hadn't been sleeping well. And the structures continues to appear with no explanation or anyone admitting to having built them.

Everyone was extremely confused.

Mumbo just wanted to help Grian sleep better.

Grian was often barely awake for regular meetings, near fell asleep during any meal of the day quite frequently, and had dark circles under his eyes showing his extreme lack of sleep. And yet, despite how tired he was, he could never sleep good enough.

He knew Elise was the cause of this. When he woke up some mornings, Grian would remember the dreams, or rather nightmares, he'd had about what happened with Elise. He remembered every detail of what she used to do to him, and how she nearly got away with it.

He remembered how awful she was to everyone.

And he had nightmares about what could happen in the future.

Grian remembered one night particularly, every detail in the nightmare.

{In the dream}

Grian woke up, actually having had a decent sleep for once. He woke up next to his love, who greeted him with a warm smile.

"Good morning, Gri~ how'd you sleep?" Mumbo kissed the smaller man's forehead.

"I actually slept wonderfully!" Grian squeaked. He was quite happy.

"That's great! What do you want for breakfast?"

"Whatever is fine, doesn't matter to me!"

"Alright, well... How about I take you out this morning?"

"Really? I would love that!"

The two of them got up and out of bed, quickly dressing to head out the door. Grian still just couldn't believe how lucky he'd gotten to have such an amazing boyfriend.

Mumbo took Grian's hand, intertwining their fingers together, and they walked to Bdubs cafe.

They walked in, and Bdubs greeted the two with a frown.

"I'm sorry, boys, you're not allowed here. It's against out rules."

"What? Since when?" Grian gave Bdubs a confused look.

"Since Elise bought out my shop. You two aren't allowed around anywhere, she's taken over most shops and banned you two. The only thing she hasn't gotten to yet is the mayor's spot."

Mumbo and Grian looked at each other.

"We still have our shops, she can't buy those from us..." Mumbo whispered.

"Well, bye then Bdubs..." Grian waved, and the two walked out the door.

"How could they let her buy them all out? I thought they were smarter than that! She just wants control and power..."

"Hey, it's okay, Gri. Like I said, we have our shops and she could never take those away from us."

Suddenly, the two heard rockets from above, followed by a perfect landing made by the one and only Elise.

"Oh, well, good morning boys! Didn't expect to see you here."

"What do you want?!"

"Oh, I'm guessing you just found out that you're banned around here." Elise gave an awfully evil smirk, chuckling to herself.

To her delight, she laughed alone.

"Yeah, well, we don't really care. So long as you don't have us you have only control over the others and their shops. It doesn't matter." Grian had a bad habit of causing trouble between him and Elise. It was never on purpose, but it's happened often.

"Actually, speaking of which, Mumbo I wanted to talk to you about your concrete shop!" Elise smiled at Mumbo.

"Forget it, you're not getting anything from me."

"Oh, but I will. I promise."

Grian couldn't help but notice Mumbo immediately seemed a bit off as soon as she said promise.

He remembered actually seeing Bdubs a bit different as well...

Was Elise using some kind of spell?

"Mumbo, Mumbo look at me! Stop, she's tricking you!" Grian begged, waving a hand in front of the moustached man's face.

"Face it, Grian. I've won. You may as well give up."

"So, that concrete shop, it's all yours if you want it! I'm not making much from it anyways." Mumbo smiled the same warm smiled he gave Grian that same morning.

"Perfect." She turned back to Grian. "Now, I have control. You won't dare rebel against me, I have the only person who you love and that will ever love you in the palm of my hand. Give it up, now."

{Back to present time}

Grian refused to give up. He would never let Elise win.

He couldn't.

---

Xisuma was trying everything to get the perfect plan to get rid of Elise forever. To the point that she would forget everything; almost as if she died and started life over. But there was no way for him to do that.

And it was impossible to invent some kind of "forgetfulness ray" like they see in the movies.

Or was it?

After all, they did have a Ren and a Doc in HermitWorld.

The two went mad about things like that! They loved to try and build whatever they could come up with.

"Ren? Doc? You two home?!" Xisuma pounded on their front door. "This is really important!"

"Oh, hey X! Sorry, was just busy adding the finishing touches on our advanced technology backyard." Ren smiled.

"Would you and doc be able to do me a huge favour? Please?"

"Ren, let him inside! Don't make him stand out there." Doc shouted from rooms away.

"Oh, right, duh, I'm so sorry! Come inside, please."

Xisuma stepped inside slowly, following Ren through a long hallway to where doc was.

"Doc, can you and Ren do something for me?"

"What is it?"

"Well, you know how Elise is back..."

"Yeah..."

"Well, I was thinking, there's no way I can just kill her, make her forget everything and start all over."

"Okay..."

"So, do you know if it's possible to make some kind of forgetfulness ray?"

"Well, it might take a lot of work and some time, but it's most likely possible."

"Would you be willing to make one for me? Grian is losing sleep from stress which is causing mumbo to panic tons, and Elise still thinks they're gone. If they get out somehow and Elise hears or sees them, it'll be impossible to stop her from doing what she can to get to them."

"Well, Ren and I can do our best. It may not be ready for a month or so though."

"Just, as soon as you can get it done it would be great..." Xisuma sighed heavily.

"We'll do our best."

"Thank you!"

And with that, Xisuma was off again to go tell Grian and Mumbo the good news.

"Grian, Mumbo!"

Mumbo opened the door. "Xisuma, we need to talk."

"Yes, I know. Elise is back. You're not happy about it, neither is Grian. But I have great news for the two of you!"

"What could it possibly be? Our lives are a mess! We're trying everything to stay out of Elise's way so not to have anything happen, but we're scared to even step out our door!" Grian was on the verge out tears.

Mumbo hugged him from the sides continuing to talk with Xisuma.

"Ren and Doc are working on a ray to make Elise forget everything. Forget the past, the problems, what she's done. We can send her off, and you'll never have to worry about her again."

"Really? Do you know how long it'll be?"

"Well, it won't be overnight of course. Nothing ever is. It could take a couple months, but they've agreed to work as hard as they can to get the machine done as soon as possible."

"Grian did you hear that? We're never going to have to worry about Elise again! Just a little while longer..." Mumbo kissed the blondes head while hugging him more.

Xisuma smiled at the two. "This'll all be over very soon. I swear."

---

That night, Grian still had troubles falling asleep as usual. Even though he now knew the whole Elise situation was going to be over soon enough, it would still be some time before it was all really over.

Around 3 am, Mumbo had woken up, not able to go back to sleep after lying there a half hour. When he turned over to see if Grian had actually fallen asleep, he noticed he wasn't there.

Mumbo went out to the kitchen to get some water, as well to see if Grian was there, but he wasn't.

And then he heard it. Building noises.

The loud placing of blocks, the mining sound when something wasn't right. He'd also heard glass breaking? Probably also misplaced.

Mumbo figured this was where all the structures were coming from. Whoever was out there building was the cause of it all.

So, naturally, as anyone would in this situation, Mumbo stepped outside and looked around.

He was shocked when he found Grian building a mini Statue of Liberty.

But he then noticed Grian was completely asleep.

Closed eyes, snoring, and yet placing blocks like it was nothing.

He figured he'd leave Grian and tell him everything in the morning.

---

"Morning Gri! There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Okay, what's up love?"

"You know how you haven't been sleeping well?"

"Yes..."

"And how all the structures around have just been popping up?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I figured out why!"

"Really? What is it?"

"Well, I woke up around 3 in the morning, and noticed you weren't sleeping beside me. After that, I heard building noises. I went to investigate, and you'll never guess who I found?!"

"Uhhhh... Jerry?"

"What? No! Who's Jerry?"

"Oh, no one. Just made him up."

"Gri it was you!"

"What?!"

"Yeah! You build a small statue of Liberty last night!"

"Really? You must be joking!" Really, Grian couldn't believe it!

"No jokes, darling!"

"So I've been sleep-building?"

"Yes, and you're incredible at it!"

"Well, we finally figured everything out!"

"Yeah. Now to tell everyone else..."

"Or we could just not..." Grian smiled.

"Nah, we probably should."

They both laughed a bit. Grian had a feeling he might actually sleep for a night, now knowing what was going on.

Guess who got another chapter before I go camping again YOU DID

cause I'm bored lol

And I also have two camping trips coming up which is at least a two week wait for y'all!

I hope this makes up somewhat for the time I'll be gone.

Hope y'all enjoyed this chapterrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Have a good morning/afternoon/evening/night!!!! Love you alllllll