If Jesse didn't know better, she would have swore that the amulet was hers.
It felt right in her hands, like it was solely built to mesh and to be in her grasp. Even when it was in inventory mode, the tiny jewelry felt warmly familiar. It was irrational, and her friend, Romeo, thought it was stupid, but she just couldn't shake the feeling off. Even now, sitting crosslegged on her dainty lapis blue bed, the sensation rose in her again and she wallowed in it.
A band of rigid obsidian was covered in soft gold plating. Five crystals were imbedded into the amulet, each different colors. It had a few chinks and dents in the metal. It was made to last, that much was obvious. The girl scratched at the lapis blue gem in the center, frowning lightly. Sometimes, when she flipped it out of her inventory, she would catch one of the crystals glowing. The intensity would differ, but it would glow all the same.
Cyan, white, emerald. The only one she had never witnessed shine was the bulky red gem. Something prickled uncomfortably in the back of her mind every time she looked at the faded surface. She could only glance at it for so long before looking away.
Jesse leaned back on her bed, inspecting the amulet closer. It hadn't changed at all from the last time she had marveled it, which was about a week ago. She huffed and flopped back against the silken sheets, one hand tangled on the front of the jewelry. The amulet meant something important, that much she knew. It had to. Her friend had acted so bizarre around her when she had proudly revealed it to him. That, coupled with the stinging sensation that it was important to her specifically, only reinforced her conviction.
The question was "why?". That was a puzzle she couldn't solve. She wanted to bring it up with her friend, but seeing his previous reaction toward the amulet, she didn't particularly want to show it to him again.
He was a trustworthy friend, don't take her wrong. Jesse loved to spend time with him and his zany antics. Most of the people who fled from him thought he was insane or destructively childish. She couldn't fault them for that- he did have a temper shorter than a silverfish and a tendency to lock anyone who disagreed with him. However, a little prodding from Jesse and the anger would melt away and the people would be released. He wasn't unreasonable- just eccentric, the girl thought, staring up at the marble ceiling. Just a bit strange. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing terrible.
Though... sometimes she would wake up on her lovely bed with the thought that Romeo was an enemy she had to destroy. She would find herself absentmindedly reaching for her enchanted shovel, her eyes staring vacantly at the picture they had taken together during an arena scramble. She had emerged victorious that day, killing more than 500 individual mobs with barely a heart of health. Her friend had been overjoyed that she had succeeded, peppering her with compliments and gazing at the arena almost wistfully. It had been one of her proudest moments.
Jesse's eyes flitted to look at that photo. Romeo had an arm wrapped around her shoulders, his metallic skin reflecting the light emitted from the fires surrounding them. He had a proud grin plastered on his face. Jesse was holding her shovel tightly, a pained smile forced on her lips. Her position was stiff and deep cracks ran across her visible skin, thin plumes of smoke leaking out. Her eyes appeared be begging the camera for something, though Jesse didn't remember what. Her brow furrowed, attempting to remember.
One, six, ten seconds passed. Nothing.
A shuddering sigh escaped the girl's lips. It didn't matter anyway. She glanced back at the amulet, brushing her thumb against the ivory crystal.
A pop was heard at the end of her bed. Jesse glanced in its direction, unsurprised to see a pair of glowing crimson and gold eyes smiling back.
Romeo brushed off some of the pixels on his arms and gave her a wide grin. "Jesse, I have some fantastic news!" he said, his metallic voice accentuating his excitement.
"You found a way to eat ten cakes and lose weight?" The girl snarked drily, matching his grin.
He gave a small huff and strode closer to the bed. "That's called exercise. No, no, I got something better."
"You sure? It's really hard to beat cake," Jesse replied, sitting up. She carefully blocked the amulet from view with her thigh.
"Hm. No. Cookies destroy cakes," he stated. "Less sweet with more flavor. Sort of like you."
"I'm hurt. Aren't I sweet enough?"
"Not sweet enough to let me finish." He gave her an annoyed look before bouncing back into excitement. "Guess what I made."
Jesse shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "You tell me."
Romeo almost rolled his eyes, but decided to render his energy into creating a small hologram in front of the bed. It was mostly transparent and it flickered in sync with Romeo's heartbeat, causing tiny ruptures in the structure shown. The hologram was bathed in crimson light.
"An arena?" Jesse asked unnecessarily.
"With over 1,000 mobs and 12 bosses to defeat," Romeo elaborated happily. The arena itself looked impressive, composed of what seemed to be obsidian blocks. It was wide with tiny holdings where mobs could hide and shoot. Jesse shuddered. If he decided to use skeletons, the entire event would be a nightmare.
"Wow, that's great. When are we gonna battle there?"
Romeo let the illusion fade, tiny gaps of static sizzling in the air. He waved a hand through them. "In an hour, preferably. The town citizens are a bit peckish for violence this week. A good fight should calm them down."
They would probably prefer to violently assault Romeo, but Jesse bit back that thought. He didn't deserve that. "Sounds great," she managed. "Gonna come pick me up in an hour?"
He looked slightly disappointed. "Fine. I'll be pestering those losers."
"Don't call your citizens 'losers'," the girl chided. This time Romeo did roll his eyes.
"Bye friend," he said before disappearing into a glitched mess. The silence in the room was immediate.
Jesse sighed and fell back onto the bed again. The girl wasn't looking forward to the mess that was the arena. It was going to be a living hell. The only solace that she could find was that Romeo would never let her die. He was a stubborn eccentric a bit too bent on fighting, but he was loyal. He had always kept his friends safe either above ground or in the Sunshine Institute. That much, she was assured. It still didn't make up for the lost hours of fighting.
After thirty minutes of lazing, the girl decided that it was about time to put on all her weaponry and armor. Jesse begrudgingly stood up from her comfortable bed, hooking the amulet to her belt. She then collected all her gear from the plain wooden chests huddled in the corner of her room. Jesse's armor was simple- a deep blue with cyan trims- and her weapon was the aforementioned enchanted shovel.
Satisfied, she looked at the mirror and examined herself. She looked fine, as usual. Her long black hair was a bit tangled, but otherwise presentable. She ran an armored hand through it, her knuckles catching on the kinks.
It was then that she noticed that a blue light was reflecting off her elbow and onto the mirror. She glanced down and saw that her elbow was grazing lightly over the top of the amulet. Jesse blinked, unhooking the amulet and gazing intently at the center.
The center gem was glowing. It pulsed erratically, the light fading in and out. Jesse touched the gem gently. It seemed to brighten, and the girl widened her eyes. In fact, it didn't seem to stop. It was slowly illuminating the entire room, drowning it in a blue light.
It was then Jesse heard the loud thunk of guard boots on the tiles outside her room. A lighter, unfamiliar set of footsteps seemed to drone nearer. Both sets were coming from the end of the hallway and quickly advancing toward her room. She could precisely hear when their feet made contact with the marble and redstone blocks. With every advancement, the gem brightened even further. The girl narrowed her eyes, drawing out her weapon and shoving the amulet back onto her belt.
There were muffled pants and exclamations to stop and surrender. Those light footsteps were obviously much faster than the guards', and they appeared right before her doorway just when the guards were halfway down the hallway. They were average sized feet, that she could tell. The person behind the door appeared to be meddling with the doorknob, muttering under their breath.
Jesse coiled into an attacking position a few blocks before the door. With a faint click and a pleased murmur, the door swung open and then shut almost immediately, a thin frame slipping through the narrow crack. It was a seamless, graceful movement and had Jesse blinked, she wouldn't have caught it.
What stood before the door was a man. A very tall, apprehensive man in a strange black and blue attire. He was facing away from her, so she could only see his pinned black pony tail and the glittering potions wrapped around his waist. She could identify a few like the potion of stamina and the potion of speed, but the rest were lost on her.
Jesse bit the side of her cheek as adrenaline drained into her. The girl tried to quietly creep forward, but the man immediately jumped at her first step. He sped around on his heel, a cloudy potion gripped tightly in his hand.
Both of them froze. Jesse could now see the man had a combed black beard and two striking blue eyes. They were wide with surprise, tension, and the slightest bit of- joy? Jesse crinkled her nose at him. He seemed highly familiar, though she didn't know why.
"Jesse...?" he muttered.
Ah. He knew her. Her mind sped to the most probably reason for the familiarity. He probably must have been a citizen of Beacontown, and she must have never bothered to meet him properly. It was common nowadays, with new citizens travelling far and wide just to live in the town.
"That's me," she simply replied, neither tightening or loosening her grip on the shovel. The man met her gaze steadily for a few seconds. The silence was abruptly interrupted by a pair of fists slamming against the wooden frame.
"Come out with your hands up!" a rough voice snarled. "We know you're in there, and the window and doors are blocked!"
The man looked mixed between glaring and giving the girl a pleading look. "Jesse I... I can explain," he muttered quickly. "I wasn't doing anything illegal this time, I promise."
This time, her mind echoed back. The nagging sense of familiarity grew. "Were you?" she said tightly.
"Chief, are you in there?" the guard's voice interrupted.
"I am, just a sec," Jesse replied.
The man looked confused, glancing back at the door. "You control those guards?" he whispered.
The girl's eyes narrowed further. Maybe her previous assumption had been incorrect. Her name was tightly associated with 'Chief' around the town. "You didn't know?"
The man shook his head. "I thought Gabriel was the Chief, not you."
"Who is Gabriel?" Jesse asked, her eyebrows creasing. The grip on her shovel slighted a bit.
He looked further disturbed. "What are you-?"
"Chief, we need to arrest the intruder. He entered the tower without you or the Admin's permission."
"He did, did he?" Jesse glanced over him. It would have been surprising, had she not been there right then. The man was as thin as a twig and his arms obviously could not support that much weight. He wasn't a warrior, that was for certain. If he had been caught by the guards...
Though unnerved and obviously confused, the intruder insisted: "Let me stay, Jesse, I can explain."
She tilted her head to the side. "And you can't explain behind bars?"
He scowled. "I can," he growled lowly, "but I... I don't know what's going on here. I'd rather talk to you face to face."
Jesse bit back a retort. She pondered for a short bit, leering at him with slitted eyes. She gazed deep into his lapis blue eyes. After a few shouts coming from the guard, she decided. She could interrogate him by herself. If not her, then Romeo. The guards were useless, anyway.
"Hide," she commanded him, lifting her shovel. The amulet dug into a chink in her armor, the gem still sparkling.
A hoarse scream echoed out.
2,000 words and counting. Yes. This is an achievement. Hallelujah.
Just a lil blurb. I'll continue it if it gets at minimum 5 favorites and 10 reviews.
No point in continuing a blurb if no one likes it, after all.