Heya dudes! This is a sequel to a sequel to a little story I wrote that found a bit of popularity, and probably the last book in this series. It's the sequel to Midnight, which is after Sunset. I (really, really, really) suggest you read those first, you can find them through my profile!

"What is that?" Ty gasped, staring at the black, slightly glowing stone.

"As you may know, the End is a plane of existence not tied to the moral forces of evil or good. It is a neutral plane, representing fear. This crystal is taken from the very heart of this plane's crust. If you touch it, you will enter a nightmare formed from your darkest emotions. All your fears, all your insecurities, all your jealousies, your hatreds, all the things you wish to hide will be revealed," Ember explained. "To surmise, this is fear itself."

Oh. That sounded absolutely wonderful. But it still didn't answer the question of why he was here. They'd said something about a test… "What test were you talking about? And I'm not touching that thing."

The girls exchanged meaningful looks. "Tough luck, dude, that's the test. You touch it, you go through the worst experience of your life, and you come out. Well, maybe you come out. You could die in the trance," Rose said cheerfully.

"I could… die? No way. I don't even need to take this test."

"That's true," Aradyn remarked coolly, though she sounded slightly disappointed. "There's a portal behind you. You can just walk through it."

"Of course, the portal leads to certain death," Ember added, crushing the spark of hope that had been clinging tenaciously to life all this time. "You'll be teleported to a random location in the End. Even if it doesn't drop you into the Void, you're too young to fend for yourself. You'd be eaten by a wild dragon or starve or freeze to death."

Ty stared at them. "Why the hell do I even need to take this test?"

"To prove that you are worthy to serve a god."

"What if I don't choose either and just sit here?"

"This place only forms at the new moon. You'd die when it dispels."

"You're bluffing," Ty muttered, glaring at Ember.

Rose smirked. "Care to find out?"

He swallowed hard. There was only one possible way out of this. "Em, please let me out of here. We agreed to stop trying to kill each other. Please, please, please."

She looked him in the eye for the first time. "Ty. I swear that I'm not trying to kill you."

Well, it doesn't exactly seem that way at the moment… "Can't we just all agree that I took the test and tell Herobrine that?"

"No," came the answering chorus.

"I'm not going to do it," he said flatly. "I won't touch that thing. I'm going to get out of this cage, and out of here."

"It's impossible," Ember informed him.

"How would you know?" Ty shot back.

"Because I tried. We all did. Everyone does."

The words left him cold. "E-everyone? You mean… m-more than you guys? People have d-died?" His panic was growing by the moment.

"Yep."

"How many people have ever passed this, out of how many?" Ty asked, horrorstruck. Life was going from bad to worse to a freaking nightmare.

"Well, the four of us, and then Seto, all passed," Wisp said. "I think… it was like eight people who didn't make it, right?"

"Well, there was Zach, and Ashlynn, and Camille… I think the other guy was Jackson, right?"

"Yeah, it was. Zach, Ash, Cam, Jackson… Then there was Sasha. She got really close," Aradyn commentated.

"She did," Ember agreed, sounding slightly subdued. "I wish she'd passed."

"I'm glad Aaron didn't even try. He was such a jerk."

"I know, right?" Wisp sighed.

"He was as bad as Jacqueline. Damn, that girl was a bitch," Rose groaned.

"Total bitch," Aradyn said, nodding. "Then there was Heath. That was sad. I'd thought he'd make it."

"Me too. He was just like you, Ty, except maybe a bit nicer," Rose told him. She wrinkled her nose distastefully after a moment. "And way hotter."

Ty was too busy panicking to be offended. Eight. Eight people had died doing what it seemed he had no choice but to do. Well, only seven, since Aaron had apparently taken the portal. The clearly fatal portal. "Is there anything else I c-could d-do instead?"

"No, you idiot."

"Rose!" Wisp called reproachfully. "He's plainly terrified. Ty isn't probably capable of using much of his brain at this point."

"That makes it sound like at some point he was," she retorted.

Ty tried to tune out their bickering as Ember caught his attention with a meaningful flick of her head. "What?" he hissed.

"Come here," she whispered.

He was about to say no when a little voice in the back of his head stopped him.

Literally, a little voice in his head.

You need to listen to her.

She's trying to trick me!

SHE IS NOT.

Yeah, right. Ty winced as Eguire growled loudly in his head.

Talk to her, you goober.

'Goober?'

Idiot, if that's what you prefer.

Fine. Ty reluctantly approached Ember, wrapping his hands around the bars and trying to suppress the instinct to run in screaming circles around the cell, throwing himself at the walls. "What do you want, except to see me suffer and die?"

"Ty… you couldn't be more wrong. I don't want you to be hurt."

"Then please, let me go," he begged, catching her hand and clasping it in his own like a lifeline.

"I… I can't. Listen, when you finish the simulation—

"If I survive the simulation," Ty corrected her.

"When you finish the simulation, because you will, I know it, you'll know more about yourself than ever before."

"Great. I'll be dead, but understand myself better than ever, because there'll be nothing left to understand!"

"I have no choice but to make you do this. If I let you go now, then there'd be hell to pay. Herobrine would kill you, Ty, torture you slowly to the edge of death and bring you back, again and again until you lose the will to survive. He might even get me to do it."

"And you care why?"

"I—" She looked around, as though hoping an answer would appear. "I don't know. But I do know that you have to take this test. It's your only chance to survive."

He stared at Ember, his stomach churning, his heart pounding. Dimly he was conscious that Rose and Wisp had abandoned their argument and were staring at him intently. Ty was certain that he wouldn't live to regret this, but what choice did he have? "I'll do it," he whispered. Ember squeezed and released his hand, picking the stone off of the pedestal with a cloth and offering it to him.

"Good luck," she breathed, and he reached out before his nerve failed him and touched the stone.

There was a flash of purple light, and as it faded, Ty looked fearfully around the room.

Nothing had changed.

Well... what just happened? Stuff did! Or maybe it didn't, as the case may be. Y'all just have to wait until the next chapter!

Ty: But I don't want to wait. I hate being in cliffhangers!

Me: Yeah, well, ha.

Sky: WHERE AM I IN THIS STORY?!

Me: Shaddup. You just have to wait.

Both: But we don't wanna wait!

Wisp: Hey guys! I heard there was an A/N! I brought soup!

SOTC: "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. His palms are sweaty/Knees weak, arms are heavy... That works.