The Adventures of Dean and McJones

By: Grace Hicks

" It's time." Dean thought as they stared into the black abyss known as the Copper Cave. He could hear McJones gulp in terror as they waited for the other man to say something in reassurance. The silence was dreadful and Dean could feel the gooseflesh rise from his skin as he struggled to get the words out. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he managed to stutter, " Lets go McJones. You know that the Diamonds that PBG mentioned are just at the bottom of this shaft. If we make it back out and alive we will be heroes McJones! Just think about all of the glory and pride that we will get from the others. Do it McJones. Do this for our lost friend, Barry." McJones cringed at the thought of his newly dead friend, who died in this very shaft searching for the exact same diamonds that they all wanted to find. When there was no reply, Dean said sympathetically, "Look McJones, I know that you miss him, but the past is in the past. You can't keep mourning forever! You know just as well as I that Barry wouldn't want to see you like this! He would want you to keep your head up and live life to the fullest, so enter and exit this mineshaft with pride!" Finally, McJones muttered, "Fine. I'll do it for Barry." As the pair gradually walked to the cave, they were filled with great courage and bravery of what was to come. They thought they were ready. They thought they were safe, but oh were they wrong. Before the 2 friends entered, McJones remarked " Just don't die on me Dean! Promise?"

"I promise."

When they both entered the mine shaft, pickaxes in hand they stepped into a very bright light that almost blinded them and that hurt their very tender eyes from their age. Their vision cleared and what they saw as remarkable. There, before their very eyes, was a mine shaft filled with diamonds! The men's eyes gleamed with pride as they saw the diamonds lighting up the whole cave like a torch being lit for the first time. A glimmer of hope could be felt inside of McJones as he realized that he fulfilled what Barry had come to do, to find the lost diamonds. "So this is what happiness feels like." McJones said aloud as he began to feel a warm, soft, rare smile creep across his ecstatic face. Dean smiled back as he realized that McJones has come out of his great depression and finally began to get his life back. He finally had his friend back and he was as healthy and happy as he could possibly be. "Thank you Dean!" McJones yelped as his face began to become tomato red and which Dean saw a glistening tear of joy fall down his face. "Thank you so much!" he repeated as he bawled, choking on tears in order to not throw up. " Lets do what needs t o be done!" They began to chip away at the diamonds, which made a slight clink sound like colliding glass. The 2 began to make some progress with their work, chipping carefully with their axes in order to not damage the diamonds buried in the earth. When their job was nearly complete, the cave was almost completely dark due to the diamonds being taken out of the correct position. "McJones, can you please light a torch so I can actually see what I'm doing!" Dean muttered, slightly irritated. "Okay, take a chill pill bro, it's only darkness, it's not going to kill you!" McJones then proceeded to open his brown leather satchel and take out a torch, which was only a small, blunt stick with coal dust smeared on the top of it. "I almost have it Dean!" McJones muttered angrily as he scraped the top of the torch onto the wall of the cave. Sparks flew from the wall onto the torch as the torch came to life in McJones' hand. "Let there be light finally!" which was a satisfied remark from Dean. This is when the noises started coming.

First, it came from deep in the cave, but then it started to come from the other direction. The 2 could hear a low hissing sound all around them as they drew their swords, getting ready to defend themselves and if the creature jumps out at them, they will be ready. "Who's there?" Dean screeched intimidatly as the low hissing became louder and closer to the pair as they stood back-to-back, swinging their swords recklessly, fearing that the thing would pounce and kill them both in an instant if they weren't careful. McJones thought that he would die the same way that Barry did, a warrior's death. "I'm not dying today Barry! I promise you that I will live my life to the fullest and make you proud of me! For Barry!" McJones then thrust his sword forward with thundering force as a huge black shape plunged from the darkness. They could hear the sound of the sword strike the creature as it squealed in terror and collapsed onto the hard earth of the mine shaft. Dean and McJones studied the slowly dying body of the creature and recognized the 3 glowing red eyes of a huge wolf spider about the size of them both and was at least the weight of a snorlax. "Quick McJones, kill it!" Dean gasped, finally realizing what the spider was. "Look at it Dean! We would be monsters if we killed it! It's weak and hurt now so it can't possibly kill us, it doesn't have the strength." McJones retorted. "Well I Gu-" Dean was interrupted by an eruption of angry screeches coming from the dark hole of the cave ahead. A whole herd of wolf spiders burst from the cage that the darkness created and were all lunging straight for Dean and McJones. "Ahhhhh!"

[ From PBG's point of view]

"Ahhhhh!" "What was that?" PBG thought to himself as he was pacing around the cave, trying to figure out where Dean and McJones ran off to. They disappeared this morning, saying something about wanting to cheer McJones up about the loss of his best friend, Barry. Speaking of Barry, "McJones has been a wreck ever since Barry died. He has done nothing but sob and twitch all day long, and I kinda feel bad about it. I can't even help him because he just doesn't listen to me! He explains that I don't know what he's going through, and that I shouldn't even bother, because he was going to die eventually." PBG was interrupted in his thoughts by that same scream that both McJones and Dean uttered while running away from the spiders. PBG instantly recognized the voices and, in desperation, cried, "Dean, McJones, I'm coming!" PBG ran down the endless maze of the tunnels, desperately trying to locate the direction of the scream. After what seemed like hours, PBG heard a faint hissing sound slowly getting louder and it was getting closer and closer, till PBG couldn't bear not knowing what it was, so he turned around, and what he saw was the most terrifying thing he could ever imagine, a creeper, slowly advancing on him. With a scream, PBG bolted down the passageway, desperately trying to escape the creeper's wrath. PBG felt his foot hit an indent in the earth and he fell. When he tried to scramble to his feet, he was to late, the creeper was upon him. PBG closed his eyes tight and thought about what it would be like to meet death. "Would it hurt? Will I be happy? Will it be beautiful?" Finally, with a final prayer, PBG accepted death with open arms. "Goodbye McJones. I will miss you." KABOOM!

"Dean, watch out! Behind you!" McJones screamed as Dean was fighting a zombie pigman and was nearing a hole, about to fall into the black abyss below. Dean turned around in confusion at McJones as the zombie pigman took the moment to lunge at Dean while he was distracted. "Ahhh!" Dean screamed as the pigman struck him in the head with his sword, which was glittering with blood. Dean, glazed with pain, stumbled and fell into the abyss below. "No!" McJones cried as he saw Dean's black clogs disappear into the abyss. McJones stumbled over to the hole, but couldn't make out Dean's falling shape. "I can't lose you too! Please Dean be okay, I'm nothing without you!" Tears began to emerge from his eyes, trickling down the well of the hole.

Dean couldn't see anything it was so dark. All he could hear was McJones screaming his head off, but wait, was that a tear? "Oh no McJones!" Dean thought in his mind. It broke his heart realizing what McJones would be like if he died, a nervous wreck who will never move on with his life, someone who is just going to give up. Dean didn't want that. McJones didn't deserve this! He had to try and live for McJones! Dean then flipped around in mid air, trying to fight the gravity pulling him down to his doom. He could feel the wind in his face as the air rushed through his now spreading arms and legs. Dean was trying to float himself up like a flying squirrel, but with no avail. "Oh please God save me!" He wailed as he felt a blunt force crash into the left side of his head, puncturing his skull. Blood welled from the wound as he desperately tried all different positions to land in as he realized that he was slowly going limp, the blood loss being too much for him. Dean then saw a faint glow emitting from the entrance to the hole. " Maybe I'm saved, oh thank you McJones, thank you!" Dean ecstatically thought as the glow eventually was blinding. To his horror, Dean saw PBG, dressed in his link clothes, except that he had huge, fluffy bright angel wings, which made him have a sort of shimmering outline surrounding him, which also included a huge golden halo floating around his head. "Stop fighting Dean, it's your time, accept it willingly and you will suffer less in the end. McJones will be okay, I will talk to him. Do you have any final wishes?" PBG calmly said. Dean could feel the tears falling like a waterfall as he realized that he couldn't be saved, which he also imagined McJones' poor, broken, twisted face as he lost his last friend that he ever had. "I have o-one request. I-I want you t-to tell McJones to never give up on himself, and to honor my memory by living life to the fullest and to never give up no matter how dark things get!" Dean managed to stutter out the words as he finally felt himself collide with the cold hard earth below.

McJones hurriedly scooted down the rope he deployed as he proceeded down the dark abyss, knowingly going to see Dean's body at the bottom, limp and dead. Tears still welled from his reddening eyes and screwed up face as he thought, "Oh Dean! Please don't be dead, oh please! I don't want to lose you too! You're all I have left!" McJones then leaped from the last sliver of rope as he landed with a thud. Oof! McJones swung his head around wildly, desperately searching the room for Dean, still hoping he was alive. A glimmer of hope reached McJones' heart as he finally located Dean's body, which was sprawled out on the rocky earth near a boulder. Blood squelched out of his forehead in a river, creating a sea around him. Half of his shirt was ripped from his body and was scattered around him in little black and grey pieces, which were also covered with dark red blood. "Dean!" McJones called out, hoping that Dean would answer his plea. "Dean!" he tried again. When Dean wasn't responding, McJones swooped over to the now scarlet Dean as the tears didn't stop. McJones slowly put his finger on Dean's neck, checking for a pulse. It was too much for McJones to bear. Dean was dead. Overrun by emotion, McJones threw his arms around Dean and began to weep, which caused a wracking pain in his chest, which made him gasp for air only to be stopped by another uncontrollable sob as he cried till he was all cried out. McJones layed there for a moment, thinking about how he was going to continue with life without anyone. What will he do! His life was now officially over. McJones didn't find the strength to move, his muscles aching from the previous endeavor that he had just endured. "McJones." A heavenly, floaty voice called as McJones felt a very light thin hand being placed onto his shoulders. McJones turned around in grief as he saw an angelic PBG standing next to him with sorrow displayed in his eyes. "I'm sorry McJones, he's gone. He has a mes-" "Can't you see I already know that! Don't you see all the pain you and your stupid heaven has caused me! First you took Barry, then you, and finally Dean! Are you going to take me now to ruin my day even more? Go ahead and do it then, see if I care! I have nothing to live for anyway!" McJones screeched in anger as PBG's sorrow deepened into sympathy for his weak and crying brother. All of a sudden, PBG didn't want to tell McJones what Dean said, he couldn't take it. Taking a deep breath and mustering up as much courage as he could gather, PBG murmured, "If you will let me finish, Dean had one last wish for you. He wants you to honor him by living the rest of your life to the fullest and to never give up on yourself, your life will only get better. He doesn't want his memory to be tainted by your sorrow, he wants it to be worshipped in happiness and excitement. He wants to be remembered wisely." PBG saw McJones, his eyes glazed with pain as he managed to force out, "I will do it! For Dean, for Barry, for you! I will live my life to the fullest and remember all of your lives honorably. Thank you for saving me and giving me more opportunities to continue with my life. Thank you!" With those last words that McJones will ever speak to his brother, his brother began to fade. "Good." He simply said, fading into darkness.

Suffering, the word in which causes people so much pain. So much torture that they soon couldn't bear with the pain in which inhabits their heart as soon as the word of the Devil is escapes from the lips. All they could ever do is sit and wait for the tragedy of the story to stop, which in turn makes you think of what you could do to save the poor soul from the claws of injustice, from pain, and most importantly, revenge. This was what everyone had to bear as a man by the name of McJones Rylie told his story of all of his encounters with faith, destiny, and death cheating him out of the lucky card called happiness. Everyone squealed when the name Dean was spoken as the line was called out. "Dean, watch out!" Their faces shriveled up like prunes as they felt like death was grasping the ends of their throats and squeezing very tightly, causing the people in the big circle listening to the story to gasp for it may be last breath on the deathbed. This is what suffering is. This is what it can do to people. Now that you know what suffering is, listen carefully my children to this tale of struggling to get back on your feet, and how suffering affects us all.