"Hey, Andrew," a voice called from far away. I was staring at absolute darkness, and from the ambient noise I assumed that I was in the mine. "Come look at this!"
"What is it?" another voice replied as footsteps reverberate down the tunnel.
"It's some sort of ravine. But look! Down there!"
After a pause, a third voice that I recognized to be Sparklez's exclaims excitedly, "Diamonds! Who would've-" A hiss cut him off. There was shuffling, shouting, and the occasional explosion to be heard, then after one final boom!, there was absolute silence, excepting some quiet groans and wheezes for air. I turned around and saw that I was, in fact, in the mine, staring at the wall. I coolly strode towards the group of miners and spent a brief second watching them wallow in their own pain. I step on the first one's chest- Andrew's- who had been futilely trying to climb to his feet. His eyes widened in fear, stared up at me, then glowed a brilliant white before they finally closed for good. I did the same for two others, but paused at the last one.
Sparklez.
I bent to his level, so close that I could smell his sweat. He was unconscious, which was disappointing for some reason. I opened his eyes and willed them to glow like the others, but when the light faded from his eyes, they didn't shut. There was a pulling sensation on my entirety, and when it faded I was looking through Sparklez's eyes instead of my own. For a brief second, I- Sparklez- look up and see a shady, mysterious figure looming over me, but then he explodes into dust.
Sparklez, who hadn't been permitted to mine but still dutifully showed up every day, sat in his usual; position at the lunch area. I saw him on my way into the mine- tunnel Delta- and remembered his limp figure with the glowing eyes. The picture haunted me.
"Punchy," I said quietly as we ventured down the new cave, "did I seem at all 'off' to you the day of the explosion?"
"You seemed the most upset about it if that's what you mean. Save Sparklez, of course."
"No, before that. No weird actions or language or anything else?"
"Well, I can't say 'before' only, but you weren't talking Steve-nese much." He shouldered his pickaxe and smirked. "And you ask, why?"
"Nothing, it's nothing," I replied with an attempt to smirk back. Frankly, I thought both of us were getting sick of talking about Herobrine so much. "Paranoid as usual, am I right? So, on the subject…"
"Here we go again," he said with an eye roll.
"I just wanted to ask if you've been possessed lately."
"Nope, nope, nope. I'm beginning to think that maybe it was just a seizure. Makes sense, right?"
"Yeah, that makes sense," I lied. He didn't seem like the type to suddenly get seizures, especially at such a convenient time.
Later at lunch, I walked over and sat by Sparklez. He acknowledged my presence with a nod. I had a theory to test today, and I fully intended to test it. I waved Punchy over and the three of us sat on the ground with our food.
"So," I began, pretending to be uncaring as I spoke, "do you guys want to go fishing tonight?"
"As if we don't have enough already," Punchy joked.
"Really, Punchy," I shot back under my breath, "we need to be friends with this guy." He nodded and rolled his eyes at my weird manners. "Anyway, I was thinking we could hang out, catch some fish, maybe hunt a bit- you know," I said back at normal volume.
"Sure," Sparklez replied a bit too quickly. I looked at him- he was definitely playing nonchalant, but that could just be because he hadn't been with friends since the explosion and was eager to get back to it. Punchy, as always, nodded his assent.
"Great. Walk home with me after work. I'll be ready."
