Oh boy.

Midnight: ...

Hi Midnight.

Midnight: Don't "Hi Midnight" me. You know what you did. Or rather, what you didn't do.

I'm sorry I missed your birthday again and that I haven't updated this in about a year. What I'm not sorry for is your new character design and slightly different personality.

Midnight: sigh

What? I'm telling the truth.

Midnight: Just start the chapter already.

'No, there's no way!' I kept thinking to myself. But everything continued to point in that direction, the treehouse, the path, the competition, it all seemed too unlikely to be just a coincidence.

Clearly though, if I was truly inside the game, I was there before any main events took place, seeing as they were still setting up for the competition.

'There's so many questions that I have… Why and how am I here? Why am I here before the game starts? And how on earth am I supposed to get back home?'

Even with all these questions racing through my head, I managed to turn around and start walking back to where I came from, albeit not paying attention to what was in front of me.

So that's probably why, in my haste to get away from, well, everything, I bumped into a certain blond haired, blue eyed boy. It probably shouldn't have been enough of an impact to knock me over, but it did anyway.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" He said, not knowing that it wasn't even his fault.

"Oh no, don't be. I do- I wasn't paying attention anyway, so…" I mentally facepalm at my lackluster attempt at socialization. Lukas was grinning, and tried to hide it, but failed miserably. For a moment, my brain completely failed me as I tried to say something, maybe to escape the conversation or maybe to keep it going, but he spoke first.

"So, uh… what were you doing out here anyway?" I was afraid of that question. It wasn't like I could tell him the truth, he would think I was completely insane. So, I tried to think of a convincing lie, and then not make it awkward.

"Well, I was… um… I don't… actually remember." Cue more mental facepalming. I was ready to find the nearest hole and just jump right into it when another voice called from further down the road.

"Lukas, what are you doing?"

Lukas turned around, and I looked behind him to see the rest of his teammates walking toward us. Of course, they didn't see me at first.

"Oh, sorry, Aiden. I accidentally ran into her-" He pointed at me, "-and I was just about to come back with our supplies." Somehow, I was able to tell that he was lying. What I wasn't able to tell was why he was. He had no reason to, as far as I could tell.

"Who's she?" Maya asked, staring right at me. That brought everyone else's attention to me as well.

"I'm Midnight." I answer without thinking, not like it mattered.

We (And by we I mean mostly they) talked for a while. Questions were brought up and I did my best to answer them. They talked about the building competition and I tried not to sound like a complete idiot while I tried to remember what exactly happened in the game. Eventually, they started walking, presumably home, and with nowhere else to go, I followed them. Maya went home first, then Gill, next was Aiden, and then I was once again left with Lukas.

It was quiet for a while, though I couldn't decide whether the silence was serene or awkward, before I spoke up again.

"So… remind me when the competition is?" Lukas paused, as though he were trying to remember himself, before answering.

"It's in two days. We were all trying to figure out what we were going to build." Wait, but didn't he say he was getting supplies earlier? I brush it off in favor of giving him the idea I knew someone was going to get anyway.

"I think a beacon with some rainbow colored glass would look cool. Like, every couple seconds the color would switch. It would take quite a bit of redstone, but it would look awesome." He considered the idea, then nodded, smiling again.

"You know what? That does sound like a really good idea. I'll have to see if Petra could get us a nether star for the beacon."

We talked for a little bit more, before he finally headed home. And just like that, I was alone again. I was thinking about home, specifically, how I was supposed to get back.

I blinked, and the world around me changed in an instant.

Home.

I open my eyes, and nearly everything around me is blurry. A few specific things are crystal clear, but I can't make anything else out.

A nightmare.

That's what woke me up so late (Early? Time didn't seem to matter at that moment). An awful one, from how it felt. Terrifying figures surrounding me, representing my deepest, darkest fears. Even as I grew aware of my surroundings, seeming both familiar and new at the same time, I started to cry. Because even though I knew they weren't, the figures in the nightmare felt real.

I cried out for my brother, my dad, my mom, anyone. Seconds in reality took hours for me, and by the time my door finally opened, I was just sniffling.

He said something, but I couldn't hear a word, and yet I nodded anyway as though I heard exactly what he said. He, too, was blurry to me, though I could also attribute that to the tears still blurring my vision. I was on the verge of crying again when he walked up to me and hugged me, and I relaxed.

That was home.

And yet at the same time, it wasn't.

Ehh, I had trouble ending this.

Midnight: I mean, I don't think it's that bad. Hey wait a minute- Where's my sarcasm?!

Right there.

Midnight: You know what I meant.

You'll have to re-earn your sarcasm badge as time goes on. Until then, socially awkward. At least for the first part of season 1.

Midnight: And then...?

Not socially awkward.

Midnight: I should get Zenna from A New World here, than we can both teach you a lesson.

Oh shoot.

Midnight: Remember, I still have my axe.

Well, we gotta go, bye!

-LegendEmpress