Chapter 11

Nether Realm

As soon as the now three teenagers entered the stronghold, Simon punched a wall.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Simon cried with anguish.

"Simon, you couldn't have stopped Riddle from kidnapping her, nobody could've!" Lewis tried to convince him.

"You did the best you could've! You saved my life! We'll save hers, Simon. She would be so proud of you." Lucy added.

"But it wasn't enough," Simon panted angrily. "I'm weak. Anyone worthwhile could've stopped that… that –" Simon swore at the top of his voice.

"If he hurts her in any way, he's dead." Simon said, dropping himself in a chair heavily. He breathed in slowly.

"Sorry for acting like this, guys, it's just –"

"We understand, Simon." Lewis said. "But I'm off to bed, it's a bit late."

"I guess I am, too." Lucy said. She hugged Simon. "We'll find her, and we'll wipe any trace of Riddle from this island, and history."

And with that, the other two went to bed, Simon soon following.

~O~

Simon didn't sleep well that night. He had hours on end to imagine what could be happening to Sasha while he slept comfortably. All the things he refused to imagine while conscious bounced around in his tormented head as he slept. Riddle could be torturing her, brainwashing her… even killing her. Simon awoke more than twice in that dark night.

He was grateful when the sun peered through his glass window. No more need to sleep, sleep-deprived as he might have actually been.

As Simon walked down into the kitchen, he expected a sizzling crackle emitting from the room, but as he entered, there was only silence. No Sasha to be there in the morning anymore. Simon shuffled over to the chest and drew out a couple of porkchops from the chest cabinet to the left of the furnaces. He opened the furnace and forked porkchops and coal into it, and sat down grumpily at the table.

About five minutes after the pork began cooking, Lewis and Lucy emerged from the staircase and sat down at the table with Simon, who refused to participate in their conversation. He was more satisfied with sitting in silence waiting for the pork to finish.

Another five minutes passed of Simon thinking of the traumatic black smoke into which Sasha had disappeared into before the furnace spat smoke, signaling that the porkchops had finished.

Simon withdrew the charred pork from the furnace spitefully and swore to himself quietly when he noticed how burnt it was.

"Sorry if the porkchops are terrible this morning," Simon said to Lewis and Lucy. "I'm not used to cooking."

"It's okay, Simon." It was almost the exact same story of yesterday. Simon was being foul, and he knew it perfectly well. It took true friends to tolerate him in these terrible days.

Simon had the crazy idea of taking up all of Sasha's responsibilities now that she was… away, to say the least. He almost thought it was like replacing her, calling her dead, and moving on, but he moved further past it to think of how Lewis and Lucy still needed some strong leadership.

After breakfast, Simon announced a mining trip, and he almost told Lewis to retrieve the tools. For some reason, Sasha had always been the authority on Minos, and it wasn't abnormal for her to give instructions, but for Simon to tell Lewis to do something without choice didn't seem appropriate.

Gathering up the tools, Simon set off into the cave with his friends, the couple.

"Have you changed your mind about leaving Minos, Simon?" asked Lucy suddenly.

"You think?" Simon responded immediately. When he had first re-met Lucy, he thought of staying on Minos for the rest of his life. Sasha's disappearance and Jade's death were two grim events that made the darkness of the disgusting island show through.

"Once we save Sasha, I'm getting off this damn island." Simon said darkly. The group of three hit the fork in the cave.

"You lead the way, Simon." Lewis said. Simon had half a mind to turn to Lewis and yell at him to stop feeling sorry for him. Deciding it was unjustifiably rude, he pulled out Sasha's map. Knowing Sasha's fingers had run along this map, he felt hope surge through him.

"The zombie spawner is this way," Simon said with an edge of strength to his voice. "I reckon we take out as many spawners as we can find, so we can reduce the monster population."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Simon?" Lucy put in. "We've gone from five to three in one day because of spawners, it'll clearly be more difficult." Simon was annoyed because of how correct she probably was; now that he was taking on Sasha's job, he had to put more sense into the choices he made.

"I think we should go regardless," Simon answered. "Zombies won't be goring us with arrows through the neck, so we'll be in less danger of death with that upside, and…" Simon withdrew his new diamond sword. "I think we'll have a bit of an easier time with killing the hordes of zombies off."

"I see your reasoning, Simon. Let's go."

~O~

They had no proof that there really was a spawner where the map had said, due to the fact that they hadn't seen the cobalt colored cage that created the zombies. But the zombie army they encountered had given them hope that there was something worth searching for behind the slimy walls of the cave.

They knew they would soon arrive, as the cave formed paths like the ones very close to the spawner in question on the map.

"Creeper!" Lewis suddenly yelled. Simon heard a deafening BANG behind him, and he dropped to the floor and covered his head. Rubble flew everywhere, and dust shook from the ceilings, obscuring his vision. He couldn't spot Lucy or Lewis. There was a heavy clang of metal. The dust showed no sign of clearing out. Silence, but Simon was still blinded.

"Lewis? Lucy? Are you okay?" Simon yelled. He was answered by more silence. Simon swallowed dust as a result of opening his mouth. He heard the muffled voice of Lewis.

"What?" Simon said. He ran to where he thought he heard Lewis, but he ran straight into a pile of rocks stacked into the cave roof. Not small rocks. Big boulders blockaded Simon's path back. He pressed his ear against the cold, hard rock.

"We're fine, Simon." Lewis said behind the wall. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Simon coughed. "How am I going to get back?" Simon paused, then found a more concerning issue.

"Are you guys going to be able to fight off anything that tries to get you back there?"

"I –I don't know, Simon!" Lucy answered. "Lewis's sword broke when he tried to kill the creeper, and we don't have spares. He's lost his pickaxe, too!"

"Hang on, then!" Simon said, readying his pickaxe. He swung it like a baseball bat. It connected loudly with the rock, and part of the wall broke. Simon suddenly realized he could've crushed one of them.

"Stand back, too!"

"Okay," Lewis said weakly, but his voice was a lot more recognizable with the new hole in the wall.

Simon continued to batter the wall for ten minutes, but to no avail.

"I…can't get anything else down," Simon panted. "Lucy, you try." Lucy had not been attacking it for ten minutes, though, so she broke the central rock in four swings. Simon helped her and Lewis through the small fence of rock.

"I've got no tools anymore," Lewis said. "I'm useless!"

"Not necessarily," said Simon, using his wits. He guided Lewis through the tunnel further. Zombie moans echoed off of the walls. Finally, Simon reached the area he had fought with a few zombies before. Lewis's old pickaxe and sword were both cold and impaling zombies that had been dead for days now.

"You forgot your tools when you ran from the huge zombie group, and so they're still here." Simon explained, pulling an old pickaxe out of a dead zombie's head. He handed it to Lewis. "Here."

"Erm… alright."

"Where are the zombies, though?" asked Lucy.

"I…" It was a good question. "I don't know. They should be here."

"Let's just keep going." Lewis decided.

~O~

After a twenty-minute period of wandering, they found no avail to any sort of spawner.

"Why can't we find it?" Simon said, frustrated.

"Did you know that there was an actual spawner?" Lewis asked.

"Well, I thought –"

"Did you see the spawner?" Lucy pushed.

"No!" Simon burst out. "I'm wrong! I'm always wrong!" In his fury, Simon struck the wall with his pickaxe. The wall cracked and crumbled. To his shock, there was something behind it.

It was another cave, but there was something glowing at the end. A mysterious purple light emanated from the back of the cave. Simon slowly began navigating the tunnel, marking each twist and turn on Sasha's map.

"What is this place?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know," Simon answered. "Let's see where it leads, though."

Once they reached the end of the cave, Simon saw a six feet tall wall of purple. It didn't seem like it was any sort of matter.

"What is that?" asked Lewis.

"It doesn't look like anything normal," Simon said obviously. Black surrounded the strange purple nothingness. He slowly approached it. Simon extended his arm to touch the purple substance, but Lucy slapped his arm down.

"What are you doing?" demanded Lucy. "It could be dangerous! Who knows what it may unleash if you touch it?"

"We'll never know unless we try," Simon answered.

"I second that," Lewis supported. "Anyone want to go first?"

"I'll do it," Simon said solemnly. "What else have I got to lose?" Lucy watched silently with her hand to her mouth as Simon walked into the purple material.

~O~

Simon was instantly overwhelmed by the sudden burst of heat that washed over him after stepping into the purple mesh. He cried out, wondering if he was dying. The minute of heat came and went, and Simon looked around his surroundings. They had changed drastically from the normal cave he had left in. Wherever he was, it was clearly not the same world it was before. The purple substance was a portal.

Simon was encased in a red stone rather then the standard gray zone. It was completely bright, but there was no apparent source. Simon walked through an alcove that was barely large enough for him to fit through. What he saw made him almost cry out.

He was in a living hell. Lava poured from crevices in the roof two hundred feet above Simon's head into an ocean of the same thing. There were glowing stalactites lining the red ceiling, and the ground had random patches of mud on it.

"Where am I?" Simon asked himself. He looked to his right, sweating profusely. He saw a zombie with some sort of defense. To his horror, he realized it was a golden sword. The zombie approached him slowly, and Simon noticed his face was not the usual decrepit human's.

The zombie was pig-faced. It had a tear through its torso that no other average zombie Simon had seen before. The pig zombie was now inches from Simon, but it had made no move to attack him. The pig zombie sniffed Simon's neck curiously, snorted, and walked away.

Simon was overjoyed that the pig zombies didn't appear to be hostile unless, he assumed, attacked. He looked back to the lava sea, and suddenly noticed a flame flying straight for him. Instinctively, Simon slashed his diamond sword at hit.

The flame bounced off his sword with all of Simon's effort, and flew back across the see. Something was clearly attacking him.

A flying creature glided into view and shrieked. Simon covered his ears; the creature's yell was unbelievably loud and terrified as if he had been more hurt than Simon. It was a white squid shape creature who showed no sort of device to fly, but mysteries on this island weren't the most strange thing to find anymore. The creature was positively ghastly.

Simon realized that he had to report this nether realm of hell to Lewis and Lucy. He ran back into the portal to his comrades.

~O~

"It's a living hell." These were Simon's first words as he exited the nether portal.

"What do you mean?" asked Lucy.

"Fire and lava everywhere," Simon explained. "Neutral zombies, and hostile octopi!" Lewis gaped at Simon.

"Sounds like you were tripping out, man." Lewis said.

"Fine then!" Simon said. "Come with me; you'll see!" Simon grabbed Lewis and Lucy by their arms and forced them into the nether portal against their will.

~O~

As soon as they emerged from the portal, Lucy screamed, and Lewis fell over onto the red ground. They both succumbed to the shock of massive heat immediately. Once they had both recovered, Simon led them to the lava sea. They both stared into its fiery depths; they were clearly speechless that Simon was telling the truth. He showed his two friends a pig zombie, and no strange squids seemed to appear.

"Where are those squids you were talking about?" Lewis said curiously.

"I… I don't know." Simon said back.

As if on call, a squid flew through the air above them and shot a fireball straight at the blood red stone. Simon pushed them out of the way and leapt to cover.

"It's ghastly!" Lucy cried.

"My exact thoughts!" Simon yelled back through the explosion and flames.

"So what do we do about this ghast?" asked Lewis.

"I don't know," Simon said carefully. "But their fireballs bounce off of sword blades." To show them, Simon picked his tools up and brushed himself off. He walked directly into the ghast's line of sight. Instinctively, the ghast fired a fireball straight for him. Simon swung his sword at the ball of flame and rebounded it off his blade. The ball soared from the flat of his sword back to the ghast. It collided with its face; the ghast gave a tortured scream and fell down into the lava sea, disintegrating as soon as it came in its contact.

"Wow," said Lucy.

"Those things are pretty damn creepy," muttered Lewis.

"I've yet to find anything worthwhile in this place," Simon explained. He pointed up. "…with the exception of those glowing rocks." Simon climbed up to high ground with his pickaxe and broke the unfathomable rock. It cracked in two, its contents spilling all over the nether's floor.

"Take it home," Simon said to his companions.

"Gotcha," Lewis said, shoveling handfuls of the glowing dust into his pockets.

Finally, with Lewis and Lucy accompanying him, Simon left the nether to the stronghold with the strange new nether weighing heavily on his mind.