"And don't forget to come back down for dinner in about half an hour!" My mom said as I walked into my room. I had just walked upstairs and flopped onto my bed. The mattress as always made a loud sound from the old springs underneath that got louder each day with every flop. I probably shouldn't be doing it. Oh well.
My room wasn't exactly the highlight of our house. It was on the second floor and didn't have much other than a desktop, some furniture, a bed, and some clothes. The mattress was now beginning to sink lower, taking my body into the cushion.
It was normal. I freaked out when I first experienced it, but now, I use it to become more comfortable. I let the cushion sink my body more and more into it until it finally came to a slow stop. the cushion below me and around the sides of my body always reminded me of when my mother held me close to her when I was younger.
I let my heavy eyelids close and began to nap. As I closed my eyes, my vision became dark. It became pitch black as I closed them all the way. I was waiting to start dreaming. The darkness stayed. I'm not sure for how long. It was just my quiet room and the darkness. my light blue shirt and jeans the only clothing covering my body.
The darkness wouldn't go away. I was just waiting for it to leave and for light and color to take its place. I decided to just keep waiting. After an amount of time that seemed like forever, I finally saw something in the darkness. A man.
A man made of blocks. Reflexively, I tried to move towards him and found myself actually walking. I realized I was in a dream. And since I knew, that made it a lucid dream or something, right? The place was so dark, but the man and I were so brightly lit.
The entire time he just stood there looking at me. I began to notice something odd. His head was a block, and so was the rest of his body, but even they were made of blocks. He was close now.
The man himself seemed to wear a brown shirt, and gray pants that looked like they were part of his skin. He also appeared to have a goatee and tiny eyes. The man was looking down at the pitch black ground.
I took a few more steps forward until I was just a few feet away from him. "Uh, hey, what's your name?" I asked. The man looked up at me with a blank stare and lifted his arm. It was just a rectangular prism. There were no fingers. No knuckles. Just a stump made up of cubes. I looked around to make sure we were still the only ones in the dream still.
As I turned back to the man, there was an object at the end of his arm. It was a book made up of more cubes. I wondered how it was being held, since he had no fingers. It looked almost like it was glued to his arm. Suddenly the book opened. The pages flipped back and forth, as if the book itself knew it was on the wrong page. The man's expression never changed.
His arm never even flipped the pages. Eventually, the book stopped flipping around and stopped at the first page. Why would it take so long to go to the first page? The man dropped the book on the ground, leaving it open. I looked at the book's first page. I noticed when it was flipping around that the pages had block-like letters that were unreadable, but on this page they were so clear but were still made of blocks.
The page read: Steve was sucked into the world.
"Wh-What?"
Suddenly I felt an enormous amount of force pull my body. My body didn't move, however. Soon, the book began the float up in front of me. I realized it was the book pulling me. I felt some strange pain near my feet. Strangely, it felt like tiny cubes were being pressed hard against my skin.
I looked down and saw pieces of my flesh being taken away in cubes, which turned into shreds. What made my eyes go wide and a chill go down my spine was what I saw under them: More cubes.
They seemed to replace the flesh that was just there a moment ago. I began to become even more scared when I realized the cubes were moving up my body and more of my flesh was being taken into the book, creating several numbers in a very long, space-less line.
It wasn't long before the cubes were halfway up my torso. I looked at my hands and tried to tear away the cubes. They weren't moved at all. My shirt now seemed to be a part of my skin like the man in front of me. My body was becoming more and more stiff and it was now impossible to bend my body.
It was all happening too fast. I felt my heart turn into a bunch of pulsing cubes. My breathing and heartbeat became faster as I became more scared. Soon, I felt my arms begin to turn into cubes, the flesh still being collected into the book. The man still stood there, the same unchanging expression on his face.
I felt the cubes begin to move up my neck. I felt a tear escape before my face was turned into cubes. I felt the tear turn into cubes as well. Suddenly, the force stopped. I looked down, my body was extremely stiff. My hands were no longer there. I was shaped exactly like the man in front of me.
The book was still floating between us. There was now a new line other than saying that I was sucked into the world. It was just a jumble of numbers. My breathing was nowhere near calming down. Then, the force returned. Stronger. So much stronger that it lifted me off of my feet in an instant.
I was immediately being pulled face first into the book, I saw myself shrink and literally fall into the book, before the cover was slammed on my now tiny and cubified body.
This is all just a dream, I just have to wake up...
So wake up...
Wake up...
I awoke with a gasp, followed by incessant breathing. I looked around me. I certainly wasn't in my room. Or, maybe not even in my town. Or Earth. Everything around me was made of blocks. From the trees, to the water, to the very dirt that I was laying on.
I looked down at myself and looked at my hands. My body was back to normal. There were no more cubes anywhere on me. The only problem now is that everything else around me is a perfect cube, made of more perfect cubes, which are made of even more perfect cubes.
I looked up and saw the sun. It was just a bright and big yellow square in the sky that still somehow gave off heat.
I looked around myself and saw that I was in the middle of a forest. Leaves stayed perfectly motionless and the trees seemed so still and dead that they may as well be petrified.
As I looked around and saw nothing but more trees, I quickly started to panic more and more. "This is all just a dream. I mean, this is some other world."
I felt some strange sensation within my body. As if there was some bag near me. Well, not just near me, but inside me. I felt a strange sensation and felt a book within me. As I wished I knew what this feeling was, a book appeared in my hand. The same book that the strange man was holding.
"This makes no sense at all." I opened the book to the first page. The page still read the exact same thing saying that I was sucked into the world. I frantically flipped the other pages. On the second page, there was some writing. I heard a strange voice behind me as I began to read it in my head.
I turned around and saw nothing. I looked all around me and even peeked over some trees. No one was there. I sat down and began reading the second page, ignoring the voice this time.
"Steve, I know already that you think of this world as a dream. A delusion. A complex trick or prank. Anything besides considering it an alternate world. Steve, I'm only telling you this so that you don't try to kill yourself to try and wake up.
This is reality. A new world that I have created. I will not present any information to you in this book since I want you to discover everything on your own. This page is simply here to tell you that what you see and hear is as real as the things you see and hear on Earth."
As my finger stopped at the last word, my brain stopped processing the page. Real? This place? Wait, if this is another world, then, how do I get back home? How do I see Mom again? How do I see my friends, my family and the rest of Earth again?
My hands began trembling and my heart began racing as the idea of never going back home infested my mind. "No!" I stood up and punched the tree I was sitting against with pure anger. I barely felt myself hitting it. I hit it again and again, tears welling up in my eyes and blurring my vision.
I aimed at the tree and threw my fist forward to punch it as hard as I could with all my anger. To my surprise, I fell forward and onto the inside of the tree. Kind of. I stood up quickly and saw that there was a cube missing from the tree. Not only that, but that the tree was practically floating.
I looked at my hand and saw a tiny cube of wood in it. I had an idea. I thought of putting it into that strange place that I got the book from. It almost seems like a pocket dimension. To my surprise, it worked. I picked up the book and did the same with it. Having cooled down and looking at the close end of the forest, I was ready to move again.
As I began walking and somehow feeling grass beneath my feet, I looked up towards the sun and saw it about to set. I have no idea what this place is like when it's dark. As I finally exited the forest I saw what appeared to be a house. But if there's a house, then...
I began sprinting as hard and as fast as I could to reach the small house faster. The house was beneath a hill and surrounded by other hills. My guess was so that it could stay hidden.
My logic was that if there is a house, it means that someone built that house. And that someone lives in that house. Maybe someone who can help me. As I came to the door and quickly opened it, I saw that there wasn't much to the house.
The house was pretty well lit and had torches spread around the house. It seemed stupid to do so because of the obvious fire hazard, but this world may as well have new rules of physics within it.
The house itself only seemed to have a single room. It had a bed, a strange looking chair that looked like it was made of stairs, a strange workbench, a chest, and a tiny stone cube resembling an oven.
No one was here, though. But, it seemed that someone has to be living here. The place was spotless, and the torches would have to be lit again throughout time. I walked around the house, the wood creaking harshly under my feet. I was about to ask if anyone was home, but it was obvious that there was no one here.
I stepped back outside and looked around the surrounding area and saw nothing. It was hard to see even ten feet in front of me because of the now pitch black sky, the only light coming from the small house and tiny glowing square moon.
There was no one around. Maybe they had just abandoned their house. I went back in and sat on the strange chair. It felt strangely comforting. I took a deep breath and began to think about what I need to do next. If the person did abandon their home, it wouldn't be wrong to go through their things.
I looked over at the chest next to the bed and started for it. I opened it and saw several items, all made of tiny pixels. There were several objects that I didn't recognize. One of the few items that I did recognize was a book that looked exactly like mine. I pulled it out and sat on the side of the bed, flipping to the first page.
The page was nearly identical to my first page, the only difference being that instead of the name reading 'Steve', it read 'Sandra'. I'm guessing that means that Sandra must be the person who built this house.
I flipped to the second page and, again, the only difference between this book and mine was that the name was changed. I flipped a few more pages and saw more writing. This wasn't like the note from the strange man anymore. These pages were filled with tips, reminders, and the rules of this world.
This person has very clearly been here longer than I have. I began to wonder just how long Sandra has been here, and how many others were here. I closed the book and sifted through the contents of the chest even more. looking through it, I found a tiny sword that I thought was a toothpick at first.
I picked it up in my hand, and the moment I wrapped my hand around it, it grew to the size that someone would expect a sword to be. I put it into my inventory and kept searching. I found what seemed like an orange cap. It was tiny at first, but once again grew once I picked it up to fit my head.
I put it on and felt slightly heavier. I picked the sword back up, took the book with me, and went outside again. I just wanted to make sure that Sandra was still far away from here. I stepped out of the doorway and walked to every side of the house and checked all of the surroundings.
It was even harder to do this time with there being even less light than before. I climbed the hill and walked onto the stable roof of the house and looked above all of the trees. There was nothing. In that moment, I started thinking again.
So, what about Mom? Has she filed a report on my absence? What about Sandra? Does she have a worried family? And how many other people are here in this world? How many troubled families are out there missing their children?
I decided that this is not a good time to think about this and turned around and headed for the hill to go down it. Just as I turned around, I felt a sharp pain that stabbed me in the back. It only lasted for a moment, but the pain was massive and took the air out of my lungs in surprise.
I turned around quickly and saw a faint white figure in the distance, under a tree. It slowly backed away into the cover of night and trees. I remembered that I came armed. Ignoring the arrow in my back, I drew my wooden sword in a fit of adrenaline and rushed for the figure.
I ran through the rows of trees, every now and then hearing clanking and clacking as the figure tried to get away, each time he did only got me closer to him. Eventually I was running directly behind him. He was much slower than I was and his body seemed stiff and rigid.
I sprinted until I was right behind him and struck him on the back of the head with my sword. He fell to the ground and dropped his bow. He turned around, showing his face to me. What I saw is not what I expected. His face, and now looking at his whole body, was just bones.
I was being hunted down by a skeleton. The skeleton's legs launched forward and brought him to his feet. He drew from the air a gray sword that seemed to be made of stone. It was amazing to me how fast he was moving now. It's as if he was running so long just to tire me out.
He swung the sword, causing it to become a gray blur before I barely blocked it with my wooden sword. The wooden sword made a loud snapping noise and the top of the blade came off.
Now dealing with half of a blade and several splinters of wood covering the end of it, I thought the only way to end this skeleton creature was by stabbing him in the face. My left arm reached out and grabbed his skull, and as his sword was being brought up to my hand, I plunged the sword into him.
It didn't really go the way I thought it would though. The skeleton just bounced back and stumbled a bit when he landed, but overall he seemed completely unaffected.
The skeleton got into a stance, looking like he was to pounce, sword still in hand. The skeleton lunged at me with lightning speed and stabbed the sword straight into my chest. While it didn't go through, I felt an immense amount of pain, causing me to shout in surprise and jump back like the skeleton.
This time, the pain wasn't so temporary. It stayed there and began to spread throughout my body. The skeleton backed up and lunged again. I brought my sword to block him, but this time he struck too fast for me to block it in time, the sword slashing across my body, leaving a storm of pain behind.
I fell to my knees, unable to even walk anymore. While the pain was torturous, it still didn't cause me to scream, despite the fact that it did earlier.
The skeleton ran towards me, the sword in a stabbing motion. I closed my eyes, and waited for the pain to stop.
As I heard clanking footsteps rushing towards me, the pain came to a close. All of the tension in my body left as my body went limp, and I passed out.
A harsh ringing came to my ears as I regained my consciousness. My eyes opened slowly, adjusting to my new surroundings and the faint light. I sat up slowly and felt completely refreshed. I looked down at myself and lifted my shirt to see if there was a mark from the skeleton.
There was nothing. And no pain. I began to wonder if I had died or if I was dreaming. I looked around and realized I was in the house that I had gone in. If the person who lives in this house went through my stuff they would realize that I stole from them. I began to panic a bit and jumped out of bed.
I didn't feel any items in my inventory. I looked at the chest that was now opened and saw my stuff piled on top. I ran over to it and stooped to the chest and reached for the items. As I did, I heard a loud clicking sound and looked over to the doorway to see a girl standing there.
The girl was tall and seemed a year or two older than me, maybe seventeen or eighteen. She was very tall, appearing to be at least six feet tall with jet black hair going slightly past her shoulders. She had a tan skin tone and stared me down with harsh brown eyes. If there was one impression she left on me, it was that she was a warrior.
Her face was in a scowl, her body was tense. She looked like she was expecting a fight. I realized that it was her.
Sandra.
I got up and put my hands in the air and began apologizing. She walked over to me with a strange bottle in her hand. Her face went from a scowl to a look of worry and concern.
"Relax, I was getting some water for you. You were beaten pretty badly, the least you can do for me is do what I say, so get back into that bed." Sandra said while pointing the bed. I walked over to the bed and with trembling hands, I reached for the covers and got back into bed.
"You've stolen my things, haven't you?" Sandra asked as she looked down at me from where she was standing. "I was going to let you die because you did, but I've been lonely lately. You owe me your life now that I've saved you from certain death. You must do everything I say from now on."
I was in shock. This teenage girl has just claimed my life and is forcing me to do her every will. "So I'm your slave now?" I asked.
"It's a very crude way to put it, but in a way, yes. And I can tell that you haven't been in this world very long either. I've looked through your book and I see that you've written nothing. And that besides my things all you have collected so far is some wood." She approached the bedside and knelt beside me. Even on her knees she towered over me, blocking the torch's light.
"Throughout tonight, I will teach you everything you need to know in order to survive in this world. Hopefully by tomorrow you won't be so powerless." Sandra said as a strange and unnatural smile crept upon her cheeks.
