Hello readers.

Chapter's here. Let's read.

(Sorry, I'm tired and hate writing these beginning author's notes)


Chapter 44: ...Must Fall Down

Have you ever wondered what it's like…

To fall from a great height?

Have you ever had that urge in the back of your mind, when you stand at the edge of a really high cliff…

What it would feel like to jump?

Or maybe, as you stand at the top of a pool, and the water is a quite the distance away…

What are those moments before you hit the water going to feel like.

Would you feel… excited?

Maybe terrified?

People have their own reasons for it. Sometimes, they know that jumping off would spell nothing but bad things.

Other times, people put safety precautions in place, so that they can act on that rather insane urge.

And then… there are times like what happened to me.

Suspended fifty blocks above the ground with Diana tied to me and me knocked out unconscious from a lack of oxygen.

Needless to say, we were falling.

I don't pretend to know what happened. I pieced together what happened next through Vivianna, Aira, Silk (who witnessed the whole thing in horror), and, to a lesser extent, Diana.

At fifty blocks above the ground, we started to fall. Diana was screaming her head off, latched onto me with her face in total horror.

At forty blocks, Silk knew something was not right. She tried to climb down the roof as quickly as possible, but even she knew that she'd never get to us in time.

Thirty blocks away, I regained partial consciousness. All I could see, hear, or feel was the wind whipping around me, the screams of Diana, and blurry images of the world around me. It didn't make any sense.

Twenty blocks away. Aira and Vivianna both knew that I was in no fit state to save myself and Diana. Aira shouted something I couldn't hear properly.

Ten blocks. At that moment, I knew something was wrong. The scream had finally registered as a bad thing in my head. I blinked a few times, clearing my vision slightly, and then looked down.

Five blocks. All I had time to think was, 'Why does the ground look like it's moving really fast towards me…?'

One block.

'OH SHI-'

I barely had time to swear in my head before I felt my arms raising without my input.

And just like that, Aira had taken over my arms and just BARELY managed to stop our fall.

My nose was a HAIR'S length away from the ground.

For a moment, nothing moved. I could've heard a pin drop onto sponge, that's how quiet it was.

I was breathing quietly, the full gravity of the situation (no pun intended) suddenly crashing down on my newly awakened self.

Then came Silk.

"GUYS!" she screamed, her feet pounding into the ground.

And then Aira let go of the wind.

I collapsed face-first into the ground, Diana tumbling off me with the string broken and frayed.

Silk quickly ran for her friend first, quickly unloading a dozen questions from, 'Are you okay?!' to, 'What the hell happened up there?!'

Diana was too busy panting on her back to answer. I think she was just more than relieved to be reunited with the ground. To be honest, I don't blame her.

Eventually, Silk saw me roll over onto my back as well, my forehead glistening with sweat and my throat still aching from Diana's arms pressing into it. My heart was beating at a thousand beats a minute.

"What the hell happened up there, Cameron?!" Silk yelled at me, hands on my shoulders and shaking me.

"Everything… hurts…" I managed to say.

And then I passed out again.

...


I woke up moments later in my dream world.

I had maybe a split second to realize where I was before something blue and fast shot out of nowhere and grabbed ahold of me.

Vivianna had me smothered into her arms, constantly repeating my name while visibly shaking. Aira was nearby, shouting something I couldn't entirely make out.

"You just about hit the ground at max speed-"

"Oh Notch, thank above you're okay-"

"-can't believe you almost died-"

"-so dangerous, can't believe I thought of it-"

"Guys!" I shouted, just enough to get attention. They both quickly stopped talking and looked at me.

"I get it." I admitted, raising my arms up. "That's was stupid and reckless, and I almost died. I get it. Can we please focus on something other than that, cause I don't want to black out AGAIN while I'm here."

Aira looked especially shaky. "I-It's my fault… I suggested that we do it… I thought we had flying down again, but…"

She quickly grabbed onto me and didn't look like letting go. "I'm so sorry… if I hadn't acted when I did…"

I slowly hugged my arms around her. "I-I know… I know… Thank you, Aira… you saved me and Diana. I… thank you. So much."

For a while, we just let the remaining terror cool off. Both of them held onto me as though they had just seen a nightmare and needed something to hold. I didn't mind one bit, of course. I was just more than happy that I was still around to see them.

Eventually, Vivianna looked at me. "I… Cameron, I… I'm sorry for reacting like I am, but… there's more to it than you think."

"Eh?" I asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Vivianna's face slowly became partly hidden in shadow from her hair. "You have to understand… we're here in your mind and body. We're tied to your life essence in order to help you and stay alive. That means… if you fall out there… we go too."

It hit like a minecart to the gut.

I paled, trying to get out, "B-but… couldn't you just… I dunno, escape whenever you wanted?"

"It's not that simple." Aira spoke up, her eyes closed and facing to the side. "It requires both parties to want to part in order for us to leave. If either side doesn't want to separate, then nothing happens."

"Not to mention we'd need the proper conditions in order for us to even survive again. You'd have to be nearby a freshwater source I could live in in order for me to leave, and Aira would need a very large area of unblocked air, so any indoor area wouldn't be acceptable conditions." Vivianna added on.

"..." I was silent for a moment while I processed this new information. "You… you both decided to help me… knowing that any moment you could join me in the afterlife?"

They both nodded quietly, not saying anything.

"W… wow…" I murmured very quietly. "I… that's… wow… I had no idea…"

The area was quiet for a few moments.

"Wait wait wait! What's happening in the real world right now?! I passed out, right?" I shouted, remembering.

Vivianna and Aira were slightly startled, but Vivianna closed her eyes for a moment.

"Erm… it looks like not much time has passed…" Vivianna told me. "Silk's currently trying to wake you up while Diana's slowly sitting up…"

"I should go back then… before Susie literally loses her mind about me again." I remarked.

The spirits nodded, though slowly.

I slowly started thinking about waking up. But just before I started to feel that familiar tug of returning to consciousness…

"Cameron… please… stay safe out there… we can't save you all the time…" Vivianna slowly whispered, her eyes…

They… they were shiny.

"I… I don't wanna leave you…" she whispered, just barely loud enough for me to hear.

I paused for a moment, stopping my return to the real world.

I slowly reached out and cupped my hand around her shoulder gently.

"And I don't want to leave you." I whispered back, just loud enough for her to hear back.

Suddenly, she couldn't hold herself back.

In seconds, I suddenly felt myself being squashed into a massive hug from Vivianna, her form gently shaking. She made no sounds, but if I had to take a guess, I could imagine her eyes were slowly leaking at that moment.

I embraced her back, gently murmuring soft words that I hoped would calm her.

"I'll be back later…" I whispered softly. "And I won't be this reckless in the future."

Vivianna seemed to respond a little more positively to those words, and in moments she let me go.

And thus I returned to the normal world...


I woke to the feeling of someone lightly slapping my face.

I slowly opened my eyes to see Silk standing over me. "C-Cameron?! Wake up!"

I groaned gently and sat up slowly. "Erugh… wh-what?" I mumbled groggily.

"Oh, thank Notch above…" Silk breathed, helping me slowly sit back up. "You're up…"

And then she grabbed ahold of me by my throat and started shaking. "WHAT the ACTUAL hell, dude?! FIRST you make my friend scream and carry on like a lunatic, THEN you pass out in the middle of the air, and once you land, AGAIN you pass out on me!"

"Gah!" I choke out. "C-can't… breath…"

Silk realized her mistake and let go, instead favoring to shake my by my shoulders. "Are you gonna respond anytime soon, or am I gonna have to FORCE the answers out of you?!"

"Erm… Silk?" Diana called out somewhere behind me. "I don't think shaking him like that is helping any…"

"It's not hurting!" Silk replied angrily.

Somehow I managed to remove her arms from my shoulders and stand up before she could leap for another sensitive part of me again. "Oww… yu ade ne ite my tonguu!"

Silk let out a huff. "Well SORRY, but I'm trying to figure out what the hell happened up there! You've left me hanging far too long!" she replied.

"It's been, like, five minutes since he passed out…" Diana mumbled while I slowly nursed my tongue.

"Well, it feels like he's been sitting there making us wait for months now!" Silk replied. "I want answers already!"

For some reason I got the sense that that line was supposed to have some sort of ironic effect. I dunno.

Anyway, I started speaking again. "Look… Diana, she… she got scared, and… things happened." I explained.

"WHAT kind of things?" Silk asked.

I started naming off things that certainly didn't help when I was trying to get us down to safety. "Let's see… grabbing around my neck, screaming in my ear, refusing to remove her arms lest I be able to breath, wildly shaking, tilting and rocking… just to name a few."

Diana slowly looked away, both embarrassed and ashamed. "..."

"Since when did you have a fear of heights…?" Silk slowly asked, turning towards her friend.

"...since I was young…" Diana murmured, looking more and more ashamed by the minute. "I… I never liked heights… not one bit."

"Is that why you always were murmuring under your breath when we did jockey practice…?" Silk asked quietly, suddenly realizing.

Diana nodded, unable to make an attempt to glance at us.

Silk looked a little surprised. Guess the concept of 'fears' never really came up when they talked much.

"O… oh…" Silk slowly murmured.

It was a rather uncomfortable silence for a while after that.

Finally, I got sick of the quiet and slowly sighed. "Well… now we know. So… let's just head back home and forget that this ever happened, hey?"

Thankfully Diana and Silk agreed with me, and we all went inside.

I quickly collapsed into an armchair, mopping off my forehead once more. Between the stress of falling nearly to my own death and the worry of nearly losing what little trust Diana and Silk may have had in me before this, I was seriously starting to wonder what the heck was going on in my life anymore.

Life was becoming more and more stressful the longer I lived it. On one side I've got my friends and everyone I'm trying to take care of, on another I've got my sister and my best friend over at Blockington I care about, and then on ANOTHER side, I've got that Herobrine guy and Notch knows WHAT else is happening around me.

'*internal sigh* When did life get so confusing…?' I asked myself.

Then Andr came up from behind me. "Cameron… are you okay?"

I glanced over my shoulder. Andr was gazing at me with worry. "Oh… hey, Andr. Yeah, I'm fine, just… tired. And stuff."

"Did you go on another intense training session again?" Andr asked me, sighing at me. "I thought Susie said that you weren't allowed to do those anymore without her go ahead…"

"No, I didn't… I just have a lot on my mind…" I mumbled, resting my head against the chair.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Andr asked.

"No… no." I responded.

Andr gave me a curious look. "That was a bit too quick of a reply. Are you sure you don't want to talk?"

"I… I'm sure, Andr…" I murmured.

"..." Andr gently stared at me.

"Really, Andr. I'm just tired." I responded, gently patting her hand.

Suddenly, I felt myself moving without moving. The now familiar feeling of teleporting. As soon as it came, it faded, and now I was in Andr's room on top of her bed.

I blinked. "Why'd… why'd you teleport us to your room?"

"Because here, it's more private." Andr responded, staring straight into my eyes more. "Cameron, please, you need to tell me what's on your mind. Take it from me, holding in your thoughts never works well…"

I was quiet, trying to decide if it would be worth it to try and hold back.

Andr took my silence as reluctance. "Cameron, please!" she lightly pleaded, shaking me slightly. "You've been so… different ever since you came back. You… you don't seem as focused as you have been. You really need to tell me what is wrong."

I lightly sighed. "You wouldn't understand…"

Andr leaned back a little. "Try me."

I sighed again. "Do… do you think… this is getting a little ridiculous?" I asked honestly.

"What is?" Andr asked, confused.

"Well… everything." I summed up. "Between me getting kidnapped, getting control over elements, almost meeting death several different ways… isn't this all getting a bit out of control?"

I slowly fell over until I was on my back, staring at the ceiling. "I've… I've had a lot on my mind ever since Diana and Silk came with."

Andr slowly glanced at me in a strange way. "Like… as in…?"

"What? No, Notch no. Those two are just friends to me." I responded.

Andr stared at me a little, as if to gauge if I was lying. Honestly, I couldn't tell myself if I was lying or not.

"You are right, though… it's hard for me to relax nowadays…" I responded quietly. "Every little noise somehow reminds me of that place. The creaking doors, the echoing murmurs of people talking… it's hard to relax when stuff like that always brings bad memories back…"

Andr slowly held my hand. "Well… I guess that does make sense…"

"I don't even… know what to do now that I'm back. I was only gone for a week, but… it feels like it's been forever since I last was with you and Susie… it's strange…" I slowly explain, my eyes closed.

"..." Andr was quiet for a few moments while my words sunk in.

"A-Andr?" I murmured, glancing over at her. "Did I weird you out again?"

"No… it's just nice to finally get the truth out of you." Andr murmured, smirking at me at that last bit.

I offered a weak smirk back. For a moment, our eyes were locked at each other.

Then, all of a sudden, the door opens to Andr's room.

"Cameron, you better be in-" the voice of Silk calls out, before she steps in.

Andr slowly gazed at Silk. "What's up with you?" she asked.

Silk glared at me. "I need to speak with the boy."

Andr slowly grew her arms around me and pulled me closer to her, in a protective manner. "You can say it to both of us." the endergirl responded.

I cautiously tried to look behind me at Andr. "Erm, I'm okay with stepping out though-"

"What is WITH you people?!" Silk complained. "Why is it so hard to have just a talk between TWO people? Why does there HAVE to be a third?!"

Andr slowly glanced away, murmuring something under her breath. Even I couldn't understand it.

"..." Silk tapped her foot on the ground, seemingly waiting for Andr to speak up.

"..ay… n't… you…" Andr murmured, still where I could only make out scraps.

"Oh for the love of Notch, speak UP woman!" Silk complained.

Andr slowly shook, and then, in a quiet voice…

"Maybe because I still don't trust you…" Andr explained.

Silk's face slowly grew red in anger. "What."

"Maybe it's because I still don't completely trust you." Andr continued, making eye contact with Silk again. "Sure, you brought them back, but I don't know you. I don't fully understand you, and I CERTAINLY don't like that haughty, get-my-way-always attitude you have right now."

At this point, I was paling. I wasn't sure which was worse: seeing Silk's face grew more and more red with anger from Andr, or the thought that the two might start a fight very quickly.

Andr's arms grew a little tighter around me. "I'm keeping him here until I'm sure that you don't want anything… inappropriate out of him."

Silk started shaking. I knew that if I didn't step in SOMEHOW, things were only going to get even worse.

"Ladies, please… I don't want ANOTHER fight to break out. PLEASE, just everyone, calm down!" I insisted.

Silk stared at me, staring into my eyes. "Oh, I'll calm down. If your FRIEND will allow you to talk to me. Alone."

I looked back at Andr. She returned my gaze with a look that asked, 'Are you POSITIVE that you're okay with this…?'

'I'm sure.' my eyes told her.

Andr sighed, then slowly relaxed her arms and lowered them. "Fine. But if he doesn't come back in five minutes, then I'm coming to find him."

"This won't take long. Geez." Silk responded, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me into her room.

Diana wasn't here. "Where's…"

"She's downstairs, relaxing after the little 'adventure' you both had." Silk responded gruffly. "Sit."

Wondering where this was going, I sat on Diana's bed. Silk sat on hers, crossing her arms and glaring at me.

A moment passed and nothing was said.

Before long, I couldn't help but ask, "Well… what am I here for…?"

Silk sighed quietly. "Well, first, I just wanted a second to calm down from your friend there… what is it with your friends, dude? They're all so defensive of you."

"Can't really blame them, myself…" I murmured under my breath.

"What was that?" Silk asked.

"Nothing, nothing." I responded. "But seriously, why am I here? If it's about what happened out there, I already told you-"

"No. It's not." Silk explained, and suddenly… I noticed something.

She looked… conflicted.

"I… I found somewhere."

For a moment, I was confused.

Then words struck like lightning.

She… she found a new home.

"You… you did?" I asked, blinking.

"Yeah… I think so." Silk responded.

I… grew conflicted myself, for several reasons. "I… well, that was quite fast."

"Yeah… it actually happened the day that… well, we fell out."

"Oh, when we weren't… seeing eye to eye?" I recalled.

"Exactly. Um… after you left last night, I started… striking up conversations with spiders. One, erm… one mentioned that it was thinking about heading for a spider-skeleton faction a fair distance away. Like… a-good-month's-worth-of-traveling sort of distance… and well, I was… considering it."

The air was quiet. It was like Silk had just dropped some TNT on the ground and we were waiting for it to blow up.

I tried to stay positive. "Well… that's… that's good, right? I mean, that's gotta be a good place to go, right…?"

Silk seemed to shrug a little. "I… I haven't told Diana yet about it, because… well, I'm waiting to see if she can… find anything."

I could instantly tell that she was bluffing. "Well… then why'd you tell me?" I asked.

Silk gazed at me as though the question was ridiculous. "Because like it or not, you've started to grow on me. I can't just… make a huge gamble on my life like this without telling someone I know and trust first."

I was quiet for a moment, until I realized her wording.

"So… you trust me… even more than you trust Diana?" I asked hesitantly.

I expected Silk to start yelling at me that I was stupid for thinking that. But, instead…

She looked down at the ground a little, her cheeks growing a little red. "I… in some cases, I… I actually do."

Now I was blushing a little. "O-oh… um…"

We just kinda avoided eye contact for a moment.

"Well… I… guess I should leave you to it." I mumbled, standing.

Silk looked concerned. "W-wait! Y-you didn't tell me what you think I should do!"

"You actually want my opinion…?" I whispered.

I was silent for a moment, my back facing her. Then, I glanced behind and murmured, "Well… I don't think I'm the right person to decide for you. You should just do what you think would be best."

I opened the door and left, but not fast enough to hear her whisper, "But… but I don't know what to do…"

Slowly, I trudged back over to Andr's room.

Andr was standing up, seemingly about to head out. "Oh! She let you go. I was about to come."

I mumbled something in response. I'm not sure what I said, exactly. I was far too distracted by my own thoughts.

Andr's head tilted. "Cameron…? Are you alright…?"

"Err, yeah… yeah. Silk just kinda… dropped some info on me." I explained.

"What kind?" Andr asked.

"Erm… she kinda made it clear it was private… she hasn't even told Diana yet, even, so…" I hesitantly told her.

Andr's hands went to her hips. "Cameron, hiding secrets doesn't work on me. What did you two talk about?"

"I promise, it wasn't a big deal." I lied. "If it ever DOES, I'll tell you. Okay?"

Clearly Andr didn't like that, but there must've been something about my face that told her I wasn't going to budge. She sighed. "Fine. Are you still willing to spend time with me, though?"

I nodded, grateful she let the subject drop, least for now.

Time passed a bit slow after that. I mostly stayed upstairs in Andr's room, because she insisted that I hug and kiss her for as long as possible.

Once I left, I holed myself up inside the nearby sickbay and leaned against the door. They… they might be leaving soon.

What was I supposed to be? Glad they were leaving?

Because I definitely wasn't.

I… I was rather upset about them leaving. I wanted to change that, somehow, someway. But… that would be extremely hard. Susie would never go for it. Andr would be far too protective of me on top of that. And plus, there's no guarantee that Diana or Silk truly want to continue living here.

I would never have admitted this before, but I secretly was hoping that they would stay much longer than the week we agreed.

Was it because I liked them? Maybe. I won't deny that.

But it was possibly much more than that. Anywhere else, there was always the risk of them being judged as human-mobs. Here… they were free to be themselves without the fear of being ridiculed or… you know… death.

I sighed. 'Maybe… maybe I should tell Susie about this tomorrow. She'll probably want to be the one to travel with me first, after all.

While we're traveling around would probably be a good time to ask her about this issue. She wouldn't grow as upset if it was just us alone talking, after all.

"I actually almost forgot about traveling around for a cave… maybe I should enter ours again, just to make sure it's actually drained." I murmured.

I headed off and out, and very nearly made it to the forest before yelling came behind me. "Cameron, wait!"

I turned around to see Susie running after me. "W-where are you going? You just left the house without a word…"

"I wanted to keep going into the cave again. I just want to make sure that it's really getting empty before we go gung-ho about finding a new one." I explained, leveling my iron pick.

"Did you remember to bring snacks?" Susie asked. "And a spare pickaxe and an emergency set of armor just in case?"

"Geez, what's with all the concern?" I chuckled. "Normally you don't ever worry this hard."

"Well…" Susie murmured, her cheeks growing darker green. "I just don't like seeing you disappear without warning… not anymore."

"Well, can't you come with me this time?" I asked.

"I can't… I was about to do some work in the sickbay." she lightly sighed. "But… please, just don't be reckless, okay? Come up the moment you feel overwhelmed or in danger. Please?"

"Yes, I will. You know I always try to." I laugh. I gently wrap my arms around her and squeeze her a little tighter. It seems to ease her nerves slightly.

Susie slowly hums in my hug. She tries to snuggle deeper into my arms and does not make any attempt to pull away.

I gently release her a little, carefully stepping down just a little so that I can gaze into her eyes easier. "I'm not going to do anything stupid, okay? Just a little exploring, and then I'll head up. I'll barely be gone an hour, if that. After that, I'll help you make dinner, if that's alright."

Susie looked slightly happier, though still very clearly worried. "R… right… see you soon, Cameron…"

She slowly trudged off towards the house, but not before glancing back one last time before ducking inside.

"She's still so worried about me… before I barely even needed to call out that I was going on a mining run before heading out…" I murmured to myself, heading for the mine.

"Well, to be fair, the last time she left you alone she found that you had been kidnapped. So I think she has a fair reason to be afraid." Aira spoke up to me.

"Well, yeah, I get that, but still… shouldn't she know at this point that I'd come back no matter the cost?" I asked.

"People do and think strange things when they care about someone." Vivianna called out. "Neither of us knew in advance that we'd spend our days in your head, after all. Yet both of us cared enough to make that choice."

I shrugged gently, quickly descending into the mine.

Days and days of use and foot-traffic have worn steps into the stone itself, and over the days beforehand I've worked to make several useful amenities into the cave itself. It has a small rest area near the entrance that people can use to make sure they're geared up and have everything ready, and doubles as a place to dump items to take home later, that sort of thing.

I ducked inside really fast, just to make sure the place was tidy. It's not uncommon for someone to forget something inside while they visit.

I was almost finished, when I suddenly noticed something. Tucked into the corner of the room, almost completely hidden from view, was a small lockbox that I instantly recognized as Diana's.

I hesitated. Why would Diana just leave this lying around in a place like this?

I picked up the box, noticing the new heft. It felt as though she may have put more items inside since the time I snooped around.

I set it inside my bag and continued on my way, with the express notion to return Diana's rightful property the moment I find her.

Thinking she might be in the caves, I carefully round any corners I take, cautiously. In a place like this, anything that moves could either be friend or foe, and I would like to make sure it IS actually an enemy and not a friend.

I reach the familiar split in the path, halfway in. The left path was completely tapped of resource, but the right still had some distance left, from what I knew.

I headed down the right, hoping that if Diana WAS down here, she'd have taken this path too.

After several uneventful minutes, however, I reached the end of the torchlight. The path curled around a blind corner, into the darkness.

I was confused. I was sure Diana was here, possibly a little further in than I remembered. If she wasn't, then where was she?

"Could… could she have gone in the other path?" I asked myself. It seemed unlikely, but not completely unreasonable…

I doubled back, soon taking the leftern path at the split, heading deeper and deeper. This part of the cave almost reached bedrock levels, but that also came with the risk of sudden and random pits of fiery lava. Most of the pits had already been taken care off, be with a water bucket or with some strategic placement of cobblestone, but still, it was hard not to be wary as the lava slowly bubbled around me while I traversed through the area.

Carefully stepping off the last bridge, I continue towards where the cave gently curls upwards. Not long after this would be the end, meaning if Diana wasn't here…

I jumped up the to the top and quickly looked around.

Just like I had thought, Diana WAS here. She was standing in the center of the area, looking around thoughtfully. A stone pick was resting on her shoulder, and Diana kept looking around the area slowly, carefully. Every now and then she seemed to perk up a little, looking carefully at a spot on the wall, before slowly nodding and continuing to look around.

"Diana…?" I called out, lowering my sword.

Diana jumped up a little, then turned. "C-Cameron! What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well, I was planning on exploring the mine a little more, because I wanted to see just how long we might have left in it." I explained. "But then I found something in the safe room up there, so I figured someone was here."

"What… what thing?" the skeleton girl asked.

"This." I responded, tossing her the lockbox.

Diana's eyes widened. "O-OH! Oh my Notch, I… I didn't even realize I forgot this!"

She suddenly grew nervous. "Erm… you didn't… by chance, LOOK in this… did you?"

I shook my head no, which was true. Since I found it upstairs, I had not looked inside the thing at all.

Diana looked relieved. "Oh… thank Notch. Well… thanks for returning this to me, anyway."

She tucked it away. I then asked, "Well… if I can ask, why were you down here in the first place? I thought all the ore in this part of the cave was tapped."

"It is." Diana agreed. "But… well, I felt that I could at least look a LITTLE more before calling it completely quits."

"Like, you mean like digging around the area just a bit more to see if anything's around?" I asked.

"Exactly." Diana agreed earnestly. "I mean, we could be standing just on top of diamonds for all we know, but unless we actually break this stone below us we'd never know."

I understood her logic, though it didn't exactly seem like a very effective use of time. "Well, I suppose I should head off back towards the other path, then. Want to get something done before heading back up."

I started to double back towards the path behind me, but then Diana suddenly yelled for me. "W-wait, Cameron!"

I glanced back. Diana looked quite ashamed. "Erm… well, I… I'm sorry… about what happened before. With the whole choking you and falling thing… I… I'm sorry about that."

I offered a sympathetic smile. "S'okay. I shouldn't have really forced you to do anything if you didn't feel comfortable with it, after all."

"I know, but… I still felt as though I was going to like it, at least a little…" Diana murmured, kicking a pebble. "I mean, I saw Silk's face, and… she looked like she had a blast, so… I thought I could get over my fear for once and… enjoy the experience."

I turned back towards her and got closer to her, giving her shoulder a gentle pat. "Well… no one's perfect. Just… don't beat yourself up too hard about that, okay? It's gone and done, but… hey, now we know for the future."

Diana gazed into my eyes. I gazed back.

For a moment, the connection felt… nice. Comforting.

Then we both remembered who we were, and we quickly broke eye contact.

But, if I hadn't looked away a second earlier…

I might've noticed Diana's somewhat heavy blush, and the way her eyes refused to look away from me.

"Erm… well, I'll leave you too it, then…" I murmured, starting to back up the path towards the split.

Suddenly, I felt my arm getting yanked back. I turned around to see Diana holding me back by the hand, her cheeks flush.

"Ummm… Di-Diana?" I asked gently.

She didn't say anything. She didn't look away. Hell, she barely even MOVED. For all I could tell, she suddenly was turned into a statue.

But she did not let go of my hand.

She slowly took a step closer to me. Then another.

Until there was hardly any space between us. Just the two of us.

Alone.

I started growing incredibly nervous.

"C… Cameron… I…" Diana started to say.

Then she gave up, and threw her arms around my neck.

My face both blushed and paled at the same time. "D-Diana?!"

She started to lean forward a little, her eyes sparkling in the torchlight.

And I notice her lips are slightly pursed. Just barely.

Her face is an inch away from mine…

Her eyes close gently, her arms growing tighter around my neck…

I'm both on the verge of panic and total surprise, unable to react…

She almost leans forward enough to connect…

And then…

Then…


*dopey little smile*

Aren't I just evil? ;D

HAH! I TOTALLY GOT YA~!

Now we shall see what fate has in store for our plucky young protagonist in the next chapter.

You know, after I disappear for a month again, because that's how I do things. You know me.

Erm… dunno what else to say here… eh, guess I've got nothing important to say then.

I suppose this is ButterHunter, and until next time then, dear readers…

Stay awesome! =D

(best cliffhanger I feel that I've done in a while, how was it btw? Scale of 'Meh' to 'FFFFFFUUUUUUU.')