"He's always watching. Always."
Adam turned on the TV and flickered through the channels. His friends would be here any minute, and he had finished putting out food and sodas. Suddenly, a knock was heard at the door, and Adam rushed to get it.
"Coming!" He yelled as he ran from room to room to get to the door.
When he got to the door, he opened it to see Jason and Ty holding a box of pizza.
"We brought some prizza!" Jason said, as he calls it prizza.
"You guys didn't have to bring stuff!" Adam gestured to the food and sighed,
"Well, more for the party, I guess!"
Jason and Ty followed Adam to the living room and sat down on the sofa.
"Anyone else coming?" Ty asked curiously.
"Only-I think four more people." Adam answered, "I'll leave it a surprise for you guys."
Another knock at the door was heard, and Adam rushed to the door again. This time it was only one person, ChimneySwift.
"Hey Chim!" Ty yelled from the sofa and waved (It's either Jake or Mike, but IDK so Chim)
"Hey guys!" Chim replied, "Who else is coming?"
"Only a few more people." Adam said.
Adam closed the door and him and Chim talked on their way to the group on the sofa. Chim was about to say something, but he was cut off by another knock at the door. Adam smiled and whispered,
"Excuse me" As he walked to the door.
When he opened it, his friend Steven waved.
"Hi!" He said, and politely asked, "Can I come in?"
"Join the party!" Adam gestured to the group.
Steven followed Adam to the sofa and hit up a conversation. Steven was talking about an animation he's working on about what would happen if Dave lost his GameBoy. The group laughed when he told them the idea and Chim asked,
"What about if Bart took it and left it in Eddy's office?"
"Sounds good!" Steven said as he pulled out a notepad and scribbled on it.
This time they were interrupted by a doorbell. Adam looked at the clock that read: 10:00 and walked to the door. He opened it to see Taylor and Jordan.
"Always late." Adam stated.
"No. Fashionably late." Jordan smirked.
"Yeah, Adam." Taylor said as he pointed to his watch.
Adam just sighed as he showed his guests to the sofa.
"Let's see what's on TV.." Jason said as he grabbed the remote and pointed it at the TV. After changing it a few times, a news station came on and a reporter started talking.
It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act, would retreat into a fantasy world from which they could not WAKE UP. In this catatonic state, the victim lived in a world just like their normal one, except they weren't being tortured. The only way that they realized they needed to WAKE UP was a note they found in their fantasy world. It would tell them about their condition, and tell them to WAKE UP. Even then, it would often take months until they were ready to discard their fantasy world and PLEASE WAKE UP.
The group stared at the TV, hoping for more news, but the TV switched to static and jolted off.
"What's happening?" Ty asked frantically.
"I don't know!" Adam replied, as he was panicking, too.
Suddenly, the house started to shake and everyone fell to the ground and blacked out.
What seemed like hours later, everyone in the group woke up at the same time in a completely empty room.
"Where are we?" Chim asked, the first to talk.
"I d..don't kn..n..ow..." Taylor stumbled from fright.
During all of this, Steven looked around at everyone, and they all looked different. They all looked like their Minecraft players. Adam was wearing a black and gray suit with a budder (I can't say it, I'm sorry!) pendant with an amethyst in the middle, and red shoes. Jason was wearing a blue space suit and Ty was just wearing his same clothes, but was wearing glowing, green headphones. Chim was wearing a striped blue and teal hoodie, normal black glasses, had a redish-nose, one tooth, and different colored eyes, one green and one purple. Jordan was wearing a white, button-down shirt with a black jacket, black pants with a white stripe on each side, white socks, black shoes, and red was wearing a black suit, sleeves folded, revealing gray and black stripes, a pendant like Adam, navy blue gloves, a goatee, the bottom of the pants were folded like the sleeves, and red shoes. After the inspection, Steven looked down at himself: A blue and white collared and striped shirt, dark blue pants, gray shoes, and the strangest of all, a Nintendo GameBoy in his pocket.
The illumination in the room suddenly stopped, yells were heard in the distance, and the only thing visible in the darkness were two, glowing white, eye-like figures.
"What's going on?" Taylor yelled into the darkness.
"Who ever is doing this better stop it!" Chim was joining Taylor in finding the source.
Right after their standoff, they could see again, but they weren't in the same room as before. They were in Minecraft. Although they all knew the game well, they were the players. They had also been separated and forced to survive by themselves.
"Now where are we?" Ty asked as he looked around, but soon noticed he was alone.
"Where is everyone?" He yelled in to the distance.
He soon noticed everything was blocky.
"Minecraft? How? I don't remember turning my computer on-" He looked down for his keyboard but didn't find it.
Now he was just scared, as he remembered what had previously happened. The TV, then the room, then the darkness, then this...He looked up and the sun was setting.
He jolted to a nearby tree and started punching, knowing what would happen if he didn't.
As the sun had touched the horizon, he made his tools and started mining, and ignored the sounds of various mobs. Just to be safe, he dug a staircase down to avoid lava incidents. Ty noticed that the beginning of his tunnel had light emitting from it.
"Finally day. The night went by fast.." He mumbled as he headed to the surface.
While he was walking up, sudden lava poured down. There was a new light source, but it wasn't the lava. The lava soon reached Ty and burned on the touch, killing poor Ty. The last thing he saw was two white eyes, and strangely a redstone torch.
Adam woke up and was on the ground,
"What happened?" He asked out loud, rubbing his head.
He soon got off the ground to see a tree shading him.
"The tree-it's...it's...Minecrafty?" He questioned at he felt it.
"If this is Minecraft-I better get punching..."
He only noticed now that he looked like his Minecraft character, and one word came to mind.
Sky.
Being himself, as soon as he made his tools, he dug straight down. He didn't realize that death here meant death. Permanent death. While he was digging, he fell into a random cave system, injuring his legs.
"Owww.." He moaned as he tried to get steady on his feet.
He heard a sound that was very familiar. A quiet hissing. He quickly turned around, and was blown back. As scary as it was, it wasn't a creeper. It was a figure holding a redstone torch. Adam wondered for a second of what it could be, but the intensity of the moment brought him back to the present. The figure's face twisted into something that looked like a grin, but Adam didn't notice, as he was struck by sudden pain. He winced in pain as he fell to the ground, gasping for air, and blacked out. Never to wake up ever again. His time had ended.
Chim woke up and looked around. He took in his surroundings.
"Minecraft." He stated, "But how?"
He looked down, and he looked like his Minecraft character, as he was also blocky. He stared at the sun for a second, then, he soon headed for a tree. He soon made a crafting table and tools, but had to really carry them. He dug down in a staircase and figured he better start mining and make a cave house.
"I think it's about night now.." He mumbled as he crafted stone tools.
He placed his crafting table down and fell shut his eyes for the night.
In what seemed like 10 minutes, the sun had risen, and Chim had woken up. He started mining for minerals this time. After mining for a while, he found a lava pit under his platform, so he was being cautious. As he was examining it, he felt an breeze of wind. The next thing he knew, he was falling to his death. Chim's eyes widened as he saw a man on the ledge.
"No!" He yelled as he burned, the man chuckling. He was enjoying his slow, painful death.
"Where am I?" Taylor asked as he looked around.
He soon noticed everything was blocky and instantly knew that this was Minecraft, and looked around for trees. He started punching as he tried to remember what had happened. He then recalled the previous events of the room and the darkness. He also recalled before he woke up, he saw a paper on the ground, so he shoved it in his pocket. He checked his pocket for it and was soon successful. He carefully observed the paper, but the only visible text was 1's and 0's,
"A code, perhaps.." He said as he pulled a device out of his other pocket.
He had always carried around a language translator that also followed the HTML language. He bent down and gently placed the paper on the ground and hovered the device over it. The device beeped and hummed for about five seconds, and text appeared on the screen. As soon as he noticed, the device sent out a shock that knocked Taylor out. Before his world went black, he heard an ominous voice say something. A single word. Always.
Jordan woke up and was on the ground,
"Where am I?" He asked.
He looked around for any clues, and he saw everything was like Minecraft. Everything was made of blocks. He scouted the area for trees, knowing that he had to get wood to survive. He eventually found some and ran over.
"Better start now...It's almost sunset." He said as he started collecting wood.
He made himself a crafting table, sticks, and a wooden pick and was getting ready to mine. He turned around from the once-living tree to meet another's gaze. Two white eyes stared back.
In the distance you could hear a muffled yell, which was followed by a maniacally laugh.
Sounds of metal were heard as Jason got up from the ground he had awoken on. He had no idea of where he was, or where his friends were. He looked up and faced the sun and traced its direction. He soon found North and headed in the same direction. He collected wood from every tree he saw, not knowing how much or how little he might need. He was a just in-case kind of person.
"How long have I been walking?" He asked himself and looked into the sky. The sun was missing.
At that exact moment, he was surrounded by mobs, all ready for battle. He looked at the buttons on the wrist area of his suit and pressed one. Suddenly, a blue force field appeared around him, protecting him from the hostiles. He then caught a glimpse of two white objects, teleporting from place to place. It somehow eluded his force field and knocked him down. When he looked into his attacker's eyes, he could see repetitive 1's and 0's. His suit hummed and soon said in a robotic voice: Herobrine.
"Ugghh.." Steven moaned as he woke up groggily.
He had no idea where he was and where everyone else had gone.
"Did they leave me? Did I somehow leave them?" He was asking himself, unsure what to think.
He turned around and saw a pre-built wooden house with a wooden door. He shrugged and walked inside to see a crafting table, a bed, and a chest filled with supplies. On the inside of the chest, Steven found a note. It read:
WAKE UP This is only a fantasy that your mind has made up. Nothing is real. Don't believe these lies and please, WAKE UP.
He was stunned as he recalled the news report, and snapped out of it, knowing he had to find the others. The thing he didn't know was that they were all gone. Forever.
No one knew what happened after, and no one ever will. The only one who had an idea was Steven. He recalls all of this starting after his friend's party, the TV report, the room, the darkness, the Minecraft-like world, and the note. Although none of it made sense, one word still echoes in his head:
Always.