What was he supposed to do now?
Caden rested his chin in his hand, only to shift upright again a moment later, too restless to hold still. He had already spent much of the money he had gotten for Herobrine, paying overdue bills and rent. His main job had hit a roadblock, and he had to wait for an outsider to fix an issue, so his other source of income had ground to a halt as well. It had barely been two days since he'd scored all that money, and already he was faced with the possibility of being broke once more.
His eyes focused on Steve's prison. Would he be worth…?
No, he'd already made up his mind to keep him. At least, until things got really bad.
Mousing over the icon, he opened the prison to find his captive curled up on the ground - fast asleep. His chest rose and fell with each breath, and Caden wondered once more if he needed to breathe. On that subject, did he need to eat?
Clicking away, Caden busied himself for a moment with getting into his minecraft source files and putting some food items in a chest. He added a couple bottles of water as an afterthought as well - minecraft avatars didn't need to drink, but, obviously Steve was more than that.
Once the chest was prepared, he imported it into the miner's small world and left it a few feet away from his sleeping place. Given that the rest of the dimension was bare and empty, there was no possible way he'd miss it.
Before he closed the window, he paused, taking a long look at the man's face. Even in sleep, his expression was pinched and anxious. He was far more sophisticated than the teen had ever imagined.
Almost - almost human.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Caden spun around, turning away. He- it wasn't a human. It was a little robot that was very good at making people feel sorry for it. Humans were wired to feel a connection to anything that looked like them, and that was it. Maybe it'd be better if he put him back in Minecraft.
...although, now it might be too late.
Pushing away from his desk, Caden stood, striding out of the room and leaving his computer behind. He needed to get something to eat.
"Stephanus." Steve looked up instinctively, though he knew he wouldn't be able to find the source of the voice. With a heavy sigh, he lowered the half-eaten piece of bread into his lap.
"What do you want, Caden?"
"I just want to talk." The defensive undertone was still there, but this his voice wasn't quite so closed off. He was listening.
"About what?" Steve sat up straight, peering around into the darkness. "All the terrible things you're going to do to me? How you're somehow justified in doing this because you're out there, and I'm in-"
"I'm not going to do anything to you." Caden interrupted. "I gave you food, didn't I?" Steve glanced down at the bread in his hand. He could've guessed. The chest containing food and water had been there when he woke up, and he had quietly praised Notch for the relief for his empty stomach and parched throat.
"You did." He allowed. "But that hardly assures me that you don't plan any harm."
"Take my word for it, then." The boy's voice sounded… heavier. Sadder? "I have nothing to gain from that anyway."
"Then you'll sell me to someone who will?"
"I'm not going to sell you."
"Why not?" A brief pause, then a hasty response.
"I just want to keep you. See how you work. I want to keep you for myself."
"And why not Herobrine?" The miner fired back. "Why did you send him away, and keep me? Why not the other way around?"
"Look, I don't have to answer anything from you." The forced rigidity was back in his voice. "Just drop it."
"Fine." Steve lowered his gaze to the food again. It was the same in appearance as the bread he baked for himself back in his home, but the taste was different. More flat, more dull. As though it was as depressed as he was.
"Would you like me to move you somewhere else?" The question was quiet, and so unexpected that Steve at first wasn't sure if he'd imagined it. Frowning, he lifted his gaze, instinctively scanning the void for any sign of his captor.
"What do you mean?" He answered slowly.
"Put you in another world. This one is… it's basically nothingness." Caden elaborated. Pointless, since Steve had been in here long enough to discover that yes, it was nothing. "I have some other worlds - other stages. I could put you in one of those."
"I want to go home." The reply slipped out before he could stop it. He hesitated, briefly wondering if he should cut himself off now, but pressed on. "I miss my home - my pets, I have friends there. If you're not going to do anything to me, just- why don't you just put me back?"
"I can't." Was Caden's quiet response. "I've already deleted your server. It's gone."
The piece of bread dropped onto the ground as Steve's grip went slack.
"Tell me you're not serious."
"Sorry."
"You're not sorry." Bracing a hand on the ground, Steve shoved himself up, stumbling upright as he glared up at the emptiness. "You- you deleted it. You deleted my home?!"
"I was trying to make sure that here was no chance you could escape. The server was a liability, especially while it was on my computer."
"My dogs. My friends. You destroyed them." Hot, angry tears pricked at his eyes, all traces of sadness replaced by burning, awful anger. "I've lived there for more than ten years, and you-"
"I'm sorry, okay?!" Caden snapped, cutting him off as he raised his voice. "I didn't know. In all honesty, if I hadn't done it I'd put you back now. I'd keep it on my computer, so I could watch you, but I'd put you back. I'm sorry."
"You're not- sorry."
Joe was gone.
"You don't know- you don't know what it's like to have your life ripped away from you." The tears started to overflow, trailing down his face and dripping off his chin. "You're not sorry. You don't even understand what you've done."
"You think I don't know what it's like to lose a home? To lose loved ones?" His captor shot back. "To be trapped and humiliated?"
"I know you don't know what it feels like to be caged like an animal." His breath caught, and Steve hiccuped, trying to force away the lump in his throat. "To be poked at and prodded. Treated like an object. And you don't care." Turning his face to the ground once more, he managed, "you're not sorry." Then, he fell silent.
He heard a soft tone as Caden disconnected from the world.
Sinking to his knees, Steve let his shoulders slump as tears streamed freely from his burning eyes. As if this wasn't bad enough, he - Herobrine was already gone, but now, now there was no going home. No home left to go to. Everything had been destroyed.
And he wouldn't be surprised if Herobrine had, as well.
