A/N- AND WELCOME BACK YOU BEAUTIFUL GRACIOUS SHARK PEASANTS! OMG PRESTON HIT 4 MILLION IM SO HAPPY AND EXCITED. So, you may have noticed that I deleted one of my stories, called Hero's Sacrifice. This was because I had no inspiration for it whatsoever. My new schedule said that I was supposed to do a chapter for that, and I spent an hour writing one paragraph, then staring at the screen trying to figure out what to put next. When I did delete it, I was put into a good mood for the rest of the day, because it was really bad and cringy too. But anyways, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 400 READS ON THE MONSTER WITHIN ME! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! And thank you for the overwhelming support on this book as well! It's already at 1 fricking hundred reads!

Be sure to check out pinkstar_22, my real life BFF, and JKblitz, my sister who just made a Wattpad account! You can also check out Dark_Lord_25, pinkstar's brother. Thank you! But anyways, LEZZZ GOOOO!

Rob's POV

"Escape?" Preston looked at us, grinning, before turning to Jerome and muttering something to him.

Jerome squealed in excitement, nodding happily.

The duo's pendants started to glow, and my mouth dropped open. Jerome had squinted his eyes shut and was concentrating on a little sprout growing through some of the cracks in the floor of his cell.

Almost immediately, the sprout swelled to an enormous vine, filling their cave. Some of the guards let out shouts of alarm as the saw the vine, but they were too late.

"Fire!" Preston shouted happily, and his pendant glowed an even brighter orange. The vine got an orange tint to it and Preston and Jerome let out simultaneous squeals of excitement.

Preston stuck his hand out and the vine, and coils of lava sprung from his hand, spiraling around the vine. I guess that the orange tint meant that the vine was fire proof.

Jerome stepped up again, squinting at the lava vine. It slowly moved through his cell bars, easily melting them like they were made of chocolate (ALL OF THE FOOD REFERENCES OMG IM HUNGRY NOW). The guards were screaming now, but before they could alert anyone, the vine whirled around, slapping all of the guards.

The guards howled in pain and fell to the floor writhing in agony.

The vine weaved its way through the bars in our cell, melting them easily. They threaded into Mitch and Lachlan's cell now, and then the bacca concentrated and the vine disappeared.

I was still sitting there in shock, mouth basically on the floor. All of the other humans had the same expression.

The bacca and the lava mob had just combined their powers to do what non of us could have done on our own. They helped us get out.

"Escape?" a little voice squeaked happily. I looked down to see the lava mob standing right in front of me, a wide smile on his face, Flamey clutched in his arms.

In shock, I backed up wildly. The lava mob looked down sadly.

"Rob no escape?" he said.

His eyes stared to well up with tears.

"Oh nononono! Escape!" I said hurriedly, trying to comfort Preston.

As soon as he heard that, he stopped crying, looking up happily again. He looked back at the bacca, who had grabbed Mitch and was dragging him along to Vikk and Lachlan, trying to round them up too.

"Jerome, escape!" he chirped to the bacca.

The bacca grinned toothily as he started dragging the other three to us.

"Escape!" he squealed. Almost immediately, the bacca, the lava mob, and the tiny flame clutched in Preston's arms rushed out of the cells.

Oh no! They were going to get caught!

"Preston! Jerome!" Lachlan screamed.

The duo wheeled back, looking at us with concerned looks.

"Escape!" Preston called. We nodded.

"Quiet, though," I said, putting a finger to my lips. The two nodded before quietly sneaking out of the cell again.

This time they were army crawling away. Preston was leaving indents in the stone thanks to his lava.

Soon we had reached the stairs leading up from the dungeon to the main area of the castle. Guards were standing around the exit, armor (STOP AUTOCORRECTING TO ARMPIT GOSH DARN IT. I just read that out loud and I almost burst out laughing) on and swords in hand.

"How escape?" Jerome asked quietly.

I.. I didn't know.

"I don't know," I said quietly. I peeked around the corner to see one of the guards looking directly at me. He let out a shout of surprise while I let out a squeal of fear before ducking back again.

The others looked at my expression, immediately realizing what I had done.

"Rob!" Lachlan cried.

The guard who had seen me was running towards us with an army behind him.

I was too petrified to move as the footsteps came closer and closer.

"Rob!" the little lava mob squealed, as close as he dared to get to me. But even if I unfroze, it would be too late.

Because the guard had already turned the corner.

"It's the Elementals! They've escaped!" the guard who say me said.

The sound of his voice snapped me from my trance and I wildly scrambled after the rest of them.

"Rob!" Jerome called back at me. I sprinted, trying to catch up to them, the guards hit on my trail.

"Help!" I screamed. I could feel the breeze caused by the movement of their feet.

But everyone else was far ahead by now.

I was screaming, and more and more guards heard me and started chasing me. I wheeled around a corner, to see the little lava mob (POOFLESS FOR LIFE) standing there, glowing brightly. He had a scowl on his face. That was the angriest I had ever seen him. Flamey was by his side.

As soon as the guards turned the corner, they immediately backpedaled in shock.

Preston took a step forward, his eyes narrowed. Coils of lava were wrapped around his wrists, and flames were licking up his arms.

"Rob," he said, glowering at the men. Then he said something I don't think any of us taught him.

"Rob my friend."

And with that, he let out a scream, shooting fireballs at the men and slapping them with the coils of lava. As soon as the last guard fell, Preston and I took off running, up the stairs. Mitch, Lachlan, Jerome, and Vikk were waiting up there for us.

"Let's go," Mitch said, and we started running.

"Follow me, I know the castle," he said.

We did as he said, because it would make sense that he knew all the twists and turns in the castle considering he was the prince. We followed him through a couple pathways, through a few vents, and much more, until we got to the heavy doors. All of us, except Preston, shoved against the door, opening it a crack.

To reveal glowing white eyes.

Herobrine, Mitch's father, stalked inside the door as we shrunk back in fear, an evil scowl on his face.

"Did you really think that I would let you escape that easily?" he smirked. He looked at Mitch.

"You of all people should know that, Mitch."

"Don't call me that! Only my friends can call me that!" Mitch retaliated. King Herobrine winced, before the evil smirk wormed its way back onto his face.

"Oh, you will regret saying that, Mitch," he teased, grinning insanely. He shoved the door wide open. "I'll just prove it to you later."

He stepped aside, leaving the door open wide. We all gave each other cautious looks. What did he mean by 'later?' Before we could think about it too long, our thoughts were interrupted by a lava mob and a bacca running through the doors, screaming loudly, their arms in the air (like you just don't care).

We quickly followed after them, Mitch only staying behind to give King Herobrine one last look of betrayal before following us. Herobrine grinned nastily, and the doors shut.

As soon as we exited the castle, we charged into a clearing in a forest. Preston and Jerome fell over, panting hard. The grass around Preston started on fire immediately. Jerome let out a tired yelp and stuck his paw out, growing the grass back while also giving Preston a look. Preston let out an exhausted whine, and his pendant started glowing again. The grass gained an orange tint and Preston fell back down, yawning, snuggling Flamey close.. Jerome let out a yawn too, curling up in a little ball.

Within seconds, both of them were asleep, snoring lightly (UNLIKE MY SISTER JKblitz WHO SOUNDS LIKE A DYING ELEPHANT WITH ASTHMA WHEN SHE SNORES). I was still panting, breathing hard. Surprisingly, no one had followed us, not even any guards.

I looked over at the other guys. Mitch was wiping his forehead with his cape, and Lachlan was doing the same with the sleeve of his hoodie. Vikk was lying on the ground, panting heavily. All of our faces were flushed red. We could even see the red on Jerome's face through the little bacca's thick fur.

The only one who wasn't a tomato was Preston. The lava on his face was bubbling and hissing thanks to how hot he got from running.

I was exhausted too so I laid down next to the lava mob (POOFLESS FOR LIFE), careful not to touch him. He was emitting heat so I became warm just from sitting next to him.

The other guys were laying down too. I yawned, my legs still screaming in pain, and the other guys did the same. I laid down, stretching my arms and legs as much as I dared because of the snoring lava mob, and closed my eyes, entering a land of dreams, a land where everything was still perfect.

I was in a field, surrounded by my family!

"Mommy! Taylor!" I yelled, running to them happily. They were okay! I flung myself at Mommy to give her a hug.

But instead of running into her, I ran through her, feeling the cold surround me as I stumbled.

I felt a chill run through my body.

"Mommy?" I asked slowly, cautiously, as I turned around.

Mommy didn't seem to see me. She was opening her arms out to Taylor, who ran into them happily, snuggling against Mommy.

Now that I noticed it, Mommy looked almost transparent, like smoke. I looked at Taylor. She was the same. They looked like.. ghosts.

"Mommy? Taylor?" I screamed, terrified now. They ignored me. I ran up to them, waving my arms in front of their faces. They just snuggled into each other's embrace even more.

"MOMMY!" I screamed.

"Rob! Rob!" I woke up to see a worried lava mob shaking me.

Shaking me.

I screamed and crab walked away. The little lava mob got a hurt look on his face and plopped down, tears welling in his eyes.

Then I noticed the orange tint on my skin.

I looked back at the lava mob, who was quietly crying. He looked.. weaker. His glow was not as strong and he was leaning more on his knees. His pendant was faintly glowing. How much of his life force had it taken for him to be able to touch me?

"Preston?" I cautiously called, reaching out to the injured lava mob.

He just buried his head in between his knees, letting out loud, ragged cries.

"Rob mean," he cried, rocking back and forth on his heels.

I had hurt his feelings. I ran over to the other side of the clearing, looking for one of the guys. Jerome.

I saw him and quickly grabbed him, leading him over to Preston.

"I'm sorry," I said to Jerome, praying that he would repeat it to Preston. The bacca nodded solemnly.

"Preston?" he asked the lava mob, getting as close as he dared.

"Rob mean," the lava mob sobbed. Jerome fired a glare at me. I shrugged.

The bacca sat down next to Preston, quitetly whispering to him.

I could only get bits and pieces of what they were saying. Some of those words were Rob, nice, and hurt.

I had hurt his feelings. Immediately, a wave of guiltiness flooded into my head. What had I done to him?

I felt tears bead in the corner of my eyes, and before I could stop it, the dam broke, and tears started flooding out. My whole body was shaking as I cried. Nothing was able to comfort me.

I suddenly felt a warm hand on my back. I slowly looked up, tears staining my face.

"Preston?"

A/N- And there you have it! Be sure to check out my little sister, JKblitz because she just made her own account and posted some stories! Thank you all so much for reading and PEACE!