I stared up at the ceiling of my room, unconsciously following the long crack in the sky-blue paint with my brown eyes. I was lying still on my bed, my arms tucked behind my head and my feet with boots still on crossed carelessly on the blankets. The radio next to my pillow was humming songs but each one sounded the same in my thoughtless daze. The large window that took up most of my front wall opened up to a window-well that was dug into the ground, allowing the lazy, orange afternoon light to flow through and light my room. Dappled spots of shade moved around the surface of my green and blue walls as the trees outside swayed in a late summer breeze.

I sighed, finishing tracing the crack, and turned onto my right side to stare at the wall. It was the first day at home after I was released from the Hospital, and I didn't feel like doing anything. The doctors were baffled as to my strange, unexplained coma I had fallen into, and my even more curious recovery, and refused to let me out until more tests had been made despite how hard I argued. Of course they found nothing of use and only succeeded in wasting their time. I could have told them what had really happened, but what were the chances of them believing me? And, if they did happen to take me seriously, I would undoubtedly become no more than a "lab experiment"and would be held even longer in the hospital.

After I had given up and let the doctors do their tests, I let my thoughts wander and tucked myself into my mind, not caring about my surroundings. The days spent in Minecraft were etched permanently in my memory and I let the experiences run through in my mind. The names of the players who saved my life ran over my tongue every few minutes, and especially the name of the one who was the biggest mystery to me. KillerXXMobz, or who I came to assume, Herobrine… If what he said was true, then he had been watching me ever since I first arrived in Minecraft. As a chicken he followed me everywhere. A creeper would have been a more accurate disguise, but of course it's one of the most hated mobs and thus not the smartest of appearances.

I grinned at the thought of Mobz, looking like a creeper, running through the survival homes of Sky's server to avoid the horde of players behind him, but I sobered up a second later after remembering how I had been chased that same way myself. Unhappy with the newest thought, I turned my attention elsewhere.

"How could he be a chicken in the first place? How'd he manage to catch me when I fell from the castle?... Who is he?"

These questions went around in my head for possibly an hour and I couldn't think of any explanation for any of them besides the simple answer of him being what I was. He was inside the game, or was most of the time I spent in Minecraft… proof being his ability to pull the sword from my chest and speak so only I could hear him.

"He's like me… a- oh what did he call me… a 'drifter'; someone who can go into the game..."

His last words rang ominously in my mind at the thought of my last moment in Minecraft. "All in due time my young drifter… I will see you soon."

"What did he mean by that?" I asked aloud to the wall, "He'll see me soon... that can't be possible. Not unless he happens to be inside the game when I next go onto Sky's server... but I highly doubt he'd stick around after showing everyone his real skin. Sky wouldn't take kindly to a real, dangerous glitch in his server such as Herobrine."

I turned around to lay on my back and once again trace the crack in the ceiling. Vaguely I registered my favorite song begin to play on the radio but I dismissed it and focused on clearing my head so I could think better. There were so many questions buzzing around my head and very few I had answers for. Everything was suddenly seeming more complicated then I had thought. I had obviously taken the simpleness of life for granted, for now I felt overwhelmed with the newness of not being able to understand what was happening to me. Before now, everything was easy, laid out, explained... like the first time I ever played Minecraft, I knew what I was doing and easily adjusted to the ways of Minecraftia.

I sighed and lazily swung myself around to face the rest of my room. Eying the small, black radio, I reached over and turned it off. Eventually the rest of my body followed to get up and off my bed. It felt strange to stand. For the last few days I've done nothing but sit or lay down, and the few short periods of walking around was incoherent as my mind was tucked into myself as well as exhausted. With my mind alive I now registered the weakness in my legs and the effort it took to keep my balance. The coma I had been in really took a toll on my body.

Jerkily at first, I made my way out of my room and towards the stairs that went up to the first floor. As I walked farther, my legs strengthened and I was able to walk up the stairs normally. The large, pastel-green painted entry opened up around me and I welcomed it's friendliness. A few steps to my left took me around the railing and into the kitchen where my family was sitting together eating lunch. At my entry they all paused and looked up at me, worry in my parents eyes and excitement in my brother's. I forced a smile to put them at ease. There was no need to worry them with my troubles.

"Well look who's returned from the void," my brother chimed cheerfully before taking a large bite from his sandwich, "Finally decide to come back up to the Overworld?"

Despite my troubled thoughts, a real smile spread over my face. My brother just seemed to have this way of cheering me up whenever I needed to feel better.

"Yeah. I've returned..." I murmured, rubbing my eyes to clear my vision and pull myself out from my head.

"How are you feeling?" My dad asked, a worried look still in his hazel eyes.

"I'm ok." I answered plainly.

"Are you hungry, honey? I could make you a sandwich." My mom offered.

"Uh... no. No I'm okay," I answered, waving her to stop from reaching for the bread, "I'm not hungry."

"There's a first." my brother mumbled around another bite of his sandwich.

"Are you sure you're ok?" My dad wondered, meeting my eyes, "You've been in your room ever since we came back from the hospital."

"I'm fine, Dad, really. I've just had a lot on my mind..." I broke away from his gaze to look out the large, kitchen window to the yard outside.

"Well," my brother spoke up after a minute had passed without conversation, "If it's ok, I'm done with my chores, and I think Tena needs some downtime; she needs something to get her mind free of what's bugging her," he shoved the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth and pushed his chair out of the way so he could drop his plate in the sink and stand next to me. Despite being a few years younger than me, he had grown to stand two inches taller, and often enjoyed reminding me of the fact whenever possible. "Could we play Minecraft together? Please? She needs the adrenaline rush of being chased by a mob."

I watched my dad glance at my mom. For a second they looked at each other, silently, as if telepathically, making a decision. My brother and I proceeded to stare at our parents, eagerly waiting for their answer. Finally my mom nodded.

"Yes!" my brother cheered before grabbing my hand to drag me to the computer room, "You don't know how long I've been waiting for this! Prepare yourself, sister!" He pulled me into the dark green painted computer room and sat me down on the wooden chair I always used. "Get on and do whatever you want for a few minutes. I have to prepare something." as soon as he finished, my brother walked to the other side of the room to his own computer, immediately typing something and clicking with his mouse.

"I guess I have the time to change my skin..." I thought after a minute of staring blankly at my screen. "Having lived inside the skin I have now... I don't like it as much as I thought. I hope there's one already made that I like... I don't have any time to make a new one..."

I entered the correct URL and started to browse through the most recent skin creations. There were plenty of youtuber variations, animal costumes, and randomly colored skins, but nothing really caught my eye. In hopes of finding a good skin, I typed up "girl" in the search bar.

Still nothing seemed to be what I was looking for. I skimmed through five pages of skins before giving up on that particular search and typing in something else with similar results.

"Hey, I'm ready now," my brother called from his side of the room, "Go on and enter the bottom server in multiplayer."

"One sec... I'm trying to find a skin." I replied over my shoulder without turning my eyes form the screen.

"Hurry up."

I nodded and went back up to the search bar. "There's nothing good here... I might have to just make my own another time..." I stared annoyed at the screen. "Why can't people just make skins that actually look good?"

With curiosity, and needing a last ditch effort, I entered "Huntingwolf" into the search bar. The site took a moment to load, and I immediately expected there to be an empty page. My heart skipped a beat when a single skin appeared labeled "For You".

Hurriedly I clicked on the skin and had it pop up larger for me to see it better. It was a girl with long, slightly curled, purple-black hair, vibrant green eyes, and tanned skin. The clothes were ones that resembled a hunter; dark green leggings and short tank top that only went halfway down the front of the skin, revealing the stomach and lower back, long black boots, long, green arm-guards, and a lighter green, short, hooded poncho that covered the shoulders and fell to only a few pixels above where the shirt fell.

Overall, the skin was beautiful. Careful shading gave the skin some depth and the highlights in the hair were just perfect. The skin looked just like a drawing I had made and scanned to complete on Photoshop...

I blinked suspiciously with the thought. Now that I looked at the skin, and thought about the drawing, the two were practically exactly the same. Either a huge coincidence, or something I did not what to think about.

My eyes scanned the skin over again then fell lower on the page where the skin description was placed.

Made this skin for a friend of mine of whom I met in Sky's server- I hope you like it, and I can't wait to see you in it. Nice drawing, by the way. It was very helpful.

I sat back, shocked and a little scared, all worries about my Minecraft experience resurfacing to trouble my mind. If Mobz could do what I could in the game, then he had searched through my files in the split second he had touched me and I exited the game. He indeed planned on seeing me again. How? When? Where? I had no idea, and really dreaded the answers.

"Are you done yet? Come on, I'm getting old over here." My brother complained, thumping his head against his keyboard.

"Yeah, yeah, one more second," I pushed my thoughts aside and quickly downloaded the skin, uploading it to Minecraft before my logic could argue. "Ok, The last server?"

"Yup."

I scrolled down in the multiplayer list until the last server appeared. I double clicked and waited for the world to load, apprehensively staring at the brown and green pixelated screen half expecting it to jump out and claim my mind again. To my relief the world opened up on the screen and acted like any normal game. No loading errors. No downloading characters. Just normal.

I sighed and finally let my focus spread to the world around the screen. My mouth fell open and I looked around, speechless, at the large building I was in. It was a huge, cavernous room with a domed glass ceiling, dark oak walls, quartz floor, and glowstone lights. Crafting tables, chests, furnaces, jukeboxes, bookcases, and an enchantment table decorated the area. To my left and right were doorways, one leading outside to a dark oak biome, and the other to a taiga biome. Doors stood on my front and back as well, leading to more rooms.

"J-Jack, what is this?" I asked in amazement, making my avatar turn in circles to see the entire room, "I-is this the-"

"It's our new private server!" My brother answered, laughing at my reaction, his avatar running towards me from an adjacent room, "You like it? I got our cousin Tommy to come over while you were at the hospital and set it up for us. And you remember that one guy I accidentally told you about two weeks ago? We've been building this place together while you've been gone, sneaking in the time whenever possible. It's my present to you for your birthday!" His red and dark grey knight avatar punched excitedly into the air, the name tag, ScipioXFrost, spinning about seemingly as excited as it's owner. "Oh, nice skin by the way. It really suits you."

I murmured a thanks until my brother's words sank in and I stopped and blinked with surprise and embarrassment. I had completely forgotten about my own birthday. It was still two days away, but soon enough to be thinking nonstop about it. "Th-thanks!" I replied to my brother after he had settled down and was waiting for me to say something, shifting to stand a pixel from my face.

"You forgot didn't you," he snickered, bobbing his avatar's head to look like he was laughing, "How do you manage to forget your own birthday?!" He turned and ran to the next room, head looking upwards like he was rage quitting on me.

"I was sucked into Minecraft and put in a coma for the past few days, Scipio!" I shouted, running after my brother and punching at his back, "Don't judge!" I hit his back after his sprint failed and felt satisfied as he turned red with the damage.

"Wait wait wait… what? You were sucked into Mine-"

"SH!" I interrupted my brother by punching at his avatar's face, "Mom and Dad would think I got brain damage if I claimed I had been in Minecraftia the whole time I was out. I'll explain this way…" I quickly started to type and soon had an idea of how to explain the experience through the server chat, "When we were logging into the server, my character wouldn't load and I was pulled in to compensate. Apparently I'm a 'Drifter'- someone who can go into Minecraft."

I paused after entering the message, and listened as my brother quickly started to type.

"How d'you know?"

"I was told so by… um… another drifter…"

My brother's typing paused briefly with surprise before returning with even more haste. "There's more? How'd you figure out he was one? How'd he know you were one? What was it like?"

I sighed at the onslaught of questions, but quickly started to answer each. "Yes, there's more. I didn't figure out until he saved my life. I guess he just knew I was one. And it was…" I entered the message there, in need of more space, as well as needing to think chow to describe it.

"Yes?…"

"It was.. exhilarating." The word came out my fingers before I realized what I had typed, but they weren't done there. "There was wind, and smells, and sounds, and textures… Minecrafters were talking and moving like normal people... fighting was complicated... and pain was always a threat."..."Think the youtube videos we watch together."

"Really?"

I glanced over my shoulder to see my brother staring at me with wide, curious eyes and I nodded seriously. He turned back to his screen and started to type, but a message appeared before he was done, cutting him off.

"Long time no see, Wolf. That your brother with you?"