"Just 175 days left of school." I say as I set my backpack on the hanger next to the backdoor. I let out a sigh of relief as I finally get to take off my mask. It only covers the left side of my face, for specific reasons. It has good ventilation too, so I don't need to worry about getting sweaty from wearing it a lot, but I don't have a need for it at home. I should probably introduce myself before I forget. My name is Aidan. I am 15, almost 16, and about 5 feet 4 inches tall. I'm between thin and skinny, which is a mystery to me as to why. I don't eat much, mostly snacks throughout the day instead of meals, but those usually consist of crackers and other junk. I have blonde hair that I keep about an inch past my ears. I keep the front pushed to the left, so that it doesn't cover my eyes. Speaking of which, my eyes are grey, with some blue. I'm caucasian, I live in the state of Illinois, and I just started my sophomore year in highschool. So here I am, back home from the first week of three more years of torture.

I head upstairs to my room cause my friends and I are planning on playing zombies. I open the door to my room, and the first thing I notice is the man sitting at my desk staring at my PC. He's got brown hair a light tan, and he's wearing a light blue shirt with blueish/purple pants. He looks about 20, and half a foot taller than me. I immediately cover the left side of my face with my mask. I don't like people seeing this part of me.

"I gotta say, Minecraft is a lot different from this point of view." he says, not looking away from the screen.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my house? And are you playing Minecraft on my PC?" I respond.

"Humans ask way too many questions. If you ask me, it's kinda annoying. But to answer your first question, well, I'm pretty sure you can figure out the who I am."

He turned in the chair, and stood up to face me. My attention was immediately pulled to his eyes. I can't look away. His eyes are pure white, and have no pupils, or veins, or anything. Just white. And as I continue to look, I realize they give off a bit of a glow.

I had an idea as to who he was, but it shouldn't be him. It can't be him.

"I-I have no idea who you are!" I don't know how to respond. He's grinning. He can tell I'm nervous.

"Oh, I think you know exactly who I am. And you don't need to hide your face. I already know everything about... that." He says this while making a gesture towards my face, still covered by the mask.

I don't know what I'm supposed to say, but if he already knows, then there's no need to keep hiding it. I set the mask on the desk, without looking away from him. I know who he is. But that scares me. "H-Herobrine?" That shouldn't have been so difficult to say.

"Bingo!"

I can tell this is amusing to him. I have so many questions, and it's just making everything more confusing. And there he stands, in the middle of my room, with a grin that could scare just about anyone just from a glance. His whole character is creepy. Suspicious. The kind of character someone has when they know something you don't. They have something planned, and they know everything will work out in their favor, and knowing that, they keep that same grin Herobrine has, because he loves keeping you confused and in suspense.

"How is this possible? You don't even-!"

"Exist? Well, there is so much you have to learn about your world, and mine. Besides, if I didn't exist, then how can you explain all of this?"

He makes a good point. "Why are you here?"

You play MInecraft, so you should know how easy it is for the game to get boring, even with mods, right?"

"I guess. Where are you going with this?"

"I want to bring you back with me into Minecraft, you know, to change things up a bit, and for entertainment. Now-"

"Yeah, I don't think so. I have a life here that I would like to keep. Friends, Family. All of it. I'm not sure what your plan is, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of leaving my world behind to start a new life inside my favorite game. Wait a second. That doesn't sound so bad.

"Let me finish." I'm not gonna force you to go, but hear me out before making a final decision. If you agree, you will stay there for two Minecraft years."

"Two years?!"

"LET ME FINISH!"

That caused me to jump. His voice boomed and echoed, while also causing the room to shake a bit. I could tell he was getting annoyed, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"I said two MINECRAFT years. Time runs differently in Minecraft, so what seems like an entire day, will only be about 20 minutes here on Earth. So two years there, would only be 10 days here. After that, I will return you home."

Ten days? If that's all it is then it should be fine. Plus, It's no big deal if I miss a few days of school, right? It only just started, so I wouldn't miss much. Plus, it'll probably be fun. "Fine." I say to him. He seems surprised with the sudden answer.

"Are you sure? Once we arrive, I will not take you back until the two years are over."

"I might as well. Ten days isn't so bad. Besides, how often do you get to live inside a game?"

"Fair enough," he replies. "You ready?"

"Wait. My friend. Z-"

"Ah yes. Him. I've left a note on the fridge to him and your parents. You left to find yourself. You are going through alot right now and need a break. You will return soon, so don't worry, yadda yadda. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah, I guess." I look down at my left arm. I start to think of him, and I can't help feeling guilty. He only got here a year ago and that whole time we've stuck together. I can't imagine leaving him. He'd definitely search for me. It's only ten days though. It won't be that bad. "Ok. Hang on." I'll apologize when I return. I go and grab my sports jacket that I had neatly and professionally tossed in the corner of my room. I also grab my favorite hat, which has the Cubs logo on it, my sunglasses, my phone charger which I put in the pocket of my jacket along with the glasses, and headphones. "Let's go."

"Leave the phone and charger," he says, before I can put the headphones away. "There's no reception, and no way to charge it. Besides, you can live without it."

"Fine," I reply, taking the phone out of my pocket, and setting it on the desk, along with the charger.

"Another thing. There is no respawning. Once you die, that's it." He looked a bit concerned. But kept his sinister grin.

"That's fine. I'm sure it won't be that bad." I'm trying to sound confident but I'm actually a bit scared. Most mobs in Minecraft are hostile, and deadly. I know the game well enough to survive, but I'll still have to be careful.

"Oh, and one more thing." I turn to him when he says this, and I notice that he looks concerned. "Bring the mask. You won't be the only human there."

"How many are there?"

"Just two. Brothers. Dradd and Vex."

"Dradd and Vex? What kind of names are those?"

"No idea," said Herobrine. "They thought it would be best to go by their game usernames while in Minecraft. Maybe you should too."

My username? I guess it would be a good idea. They could be a bunch of creeps, and I wouldn't want them knowing who I am. "Alright. I'll just go by Zero while I'm there."

"Sounds good," he replied, while giving a slight smile. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

He raises hands up to my head, and I step back, cautious. "Stand still," he says. I do as he says and he places his hands on the sides of my face, holding me so I have no choice but to look into his eyes. He doesn't blink. Not once. I'm starting to feel drowsy. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep, but before I do I hear him say one last thing:

"See you soon."

I begin to wake up, and I have to open my eyes slowly because the sun is so bright. Once I get used to the light, I stand up, and the first thing I notice is that I'm on a beach. Then I realize everything is made out of blocks. The trees, the ground. Even the sun. Everything is made out of blocks. The beach is nice, and the ocean reaches as far as the eye can see.

"This is nice." I say, taking in the beautiful scenery. I'm someone that loves taking in my surroundings. I'm always amazed by the simplest things.

"Your right." The sound of Herobrines voice resonates behind me, the soft, calm, and deep feeling to it sending chills down my spine. "Let me fix that."

I turn to look at him. He grabs my shoulder, and next thing I know, we're in the end dimension.

"Ah, that's better." He says, enjoying the dark scenery.

I look around. The End looks different than I remember. It's still a huge floating island of stone, and it's got the huge obsidian pillars, twice as tall as they are in game, and one of which we're standing on. But there's also a city. A city with skyscrapers that only reach about half as high as the pillars. Looking down I can see the streets filled with a Individual purple glows, and it doesn't take long to realise the glows are eyes. The eyes of Endermen. I here a loud roar, which shakes the pillar Herobrine and I are standing on. I turn around only to see the Ender Dragon flying straight at the pillar, meters away from crashing into us. "Take us back! Take us back!" I scream, obviously not wanting to die within my first few minutes here.

"Of course!" he says, laughing. He sounds so evil. I swear, that laugh is going to haunt my dreams.

Now we're in a forest. All I see around me are trees. Trees for miles, and a mountain range to my left. "Oh." I mumble, disappointed. I would have prefered the beach but I'm not in the mood to argue with him.

"Alright, I can't stay long, but before I go, I need to teach you some of the basics."

"I already know how Minecraft works."

"Yes, but this is different from what you know. There are many mods I've installed and many of the rules are different. Try opening your inventory." There's that grin. I'm really starting to hate him.

"I can't." I have no idea what to do. This would be so simple if I had a keyboard.

"You can. You just don't know how. Clear your mind. Imagine the insides of your pockets, and suddenly being able to see the contents right in front of you. Imagine pressing the E button, and seeing the inventory open before you."

I sighed, closed my eyes, and did just as he said. It took a few moments, but when I finally opened my eyes, there it was. My inventory. I also noticed it was completely empty.

"There you go!" he said. But something seemed off. His grin was replaced by a smile. He no longer held a sinister look. Instead, he seemed joyful, and enthusiastic. Wasn't he supposed to be some evil God? Driven by destruction? I realized, he didn't seem that way at all. "Aren't you supposed to be evil?"

He twitched when I said that, and the smug grin left his face. He looked angry and hurt. He was upset. "I am not… Evil." He said quietly. When he paused mid sentence, he looked as though the thought of being evil hurt to think about. His back hunched down a bit, and he held his head in his hands while staring at the ground. He repeated that sentence over and over, before suddenly standing upright, and returning that creepy grin to his face. "I'm not evil," he repeated once more, this time with a normal voice. Why does everyone assume that? Yes I have a… twisted, personality, and a strange sense of humor, but I'm not evil. Really, I'm not that bad of a guy. I just enjoyed screwing with the players, and because of that, my brother banned me from interfering with them, and made up the lie that I was removed from the game."

"When you say brother, you mean Notch? Markus Persson?"

"Yes, that's right.

"So I can trust you?"

"Yes, you can. I know most think of me as a danger, which I guess I am, but I'm not a danger to you. I promise. Understand?"

"Yeah. I understand." I believe him. Mostly. I'll still keep my guard though. This is a lot to take in. He's not evil. He's just misunderstood.

"Good," he said. " Now let us begin."

He explained a lot about the world. There were hundreds of mods installed, but I might only notice a small amount of them. The physics were also similar to Earth's. Baby animals take a lot longer to grow, but still faster than normal. Certain animals will run if I approach them. Since there's no health bar, poison can kill me. I'll get injured the same as on Earth. My inventory will weigh me down. Almost nothing can float, except for the Aether and the End. Trees will completely fall if part of the trunk is destroyed. I can't punch blocks either. I'll only end up hurting myself. So much was different. I realized this was probably going to be difficult after all. He gave me an ax to start so I wouldn't have to punch trees. On top of that, he gave me a few apples, a torch, and a dresser, which he said I'd find out why later.

"Alright," Herobrine said. "I need to go. I trust you can survive a few nights at least."

"Hopefully longer than that," I replied. He chuckled.

"Oh, I should tell you. Dradd and Vex live in the mountains to the west. Dradd has been here two and a half years, and Vex has been here three. Your chances of survival will be much higher if you find them."

"Alright. And thank you, you know, for helping me. Instead of just dropping me here with no knowledge of this place and leaving."

"Of course," he replied with a chuckle. He then turned away from me, and kneeled down, placing his hands face down on the dirt. After a few seconds I heard rumbling, and the ground began to shake. I stepped a few meters away, and suddenly, obsidian started to erupt from the ground around him. Finally, the rumbling and shaking died down, and the pieces formed together to create a 4 by 5 frame. He stood up and snapped his fingers, and the portal lit, filling the frame with a purple light. It was a nether portal. He walked over to it, stopped, turned to face me, and spoke in a voice that was no longer soothing and joyful. It sounded demonic and demented. His face was crazed and insane. It sent chills down my spine.

"Good Luck"

He started laughing like a psychopath, and leapt through the portal which immediately crumbled into dust behind him. I gulped, but regained my confidence after a few minutes of standing there rethinking every choice I made leading up to this moment.

I noticed a hill to my left in the same direction Herobrine told me to go. I climbed to the top to get a better view of my hill reached just over the forest canopy, and I could see the mountains in the distance, but just barely. Behind me, the sun started to set in the distance. I looked around, taking in the scenery. As I stand here, I feel the breeze on my skin, and the air is crisp, and fresher than any on Earth. C'mon Aidan, this will be fun. It's a new world. A new life. I stand up tall, and I take a deep breath. "Where do we start?"