"Just let me know if you see Reuben anywhere," Jesse said to Petra, aware of the odd looks people were currently shooting the duo– they were soaking wet and leaving a very wet, shiny trail behind them. The two of them were currently walking into Endercon, the bass of the music that they always played drumming through the ground even at the very entrance.

"He's gotta be here somewhere," Petra said reassuringly, reaching out and squeezing Jesse's shoulder.

Jesse just made an anxious little sighing sound, reaching up and brushing her hands across the glass surface of her heart. Not that she could feel the heart through the denim of her overalls, but the fact that it was there, no cracks, no damage... well, that was a major relief. "I hope you're right," she said in reply.

Petra gave a vague nod, before pausing and giving Jesse a slightly nervous look. "So, when we're making the deal," the redhead spoke, slowly and carefully as if she was trying to avoid offending Jesse, "I need you to... let me do the talking, okay?" And she shot Jesse a quick grin that was tinged with a good amount of nervous energy. "I just... don't want anything to screw this up." Another short, nervous pause. "Or... anyone."

"Sure," Jesse agreed, feeling a huge rush of relief enter her system. At least Petra wasn't throwing her into the deep end of a pool and telling her to learn how to swim. She could just watch... and maybe pick up a few things. "I'll let you handle it."

"And, if you want to be really useful," Petra added, "try to look intimidating."

Jesse almost came to a halt, but the walking was letting the water in her shoes stop squishing around, so she didn't. As it was, her walking stalled for a moment, one foot pausing before it came down all the way, before calmly resuming its pace, skipping a beat as casually as she could. "I... think you should know by now that I'm about as intimidating as a potato."

Petra teasingly flicked her still-really-wet hair at Jesse in response, making the shorter girl duck with a little yelp of laughter as Petra proceeded to basically flick a thimbleful of water at her.

"Jesse!"

Jesse looked up at the shout to see Axel, the shouter, and Olivia walking towards the duo, looking immensely relieved at the sight of Jesse being alive and well. If a bit wet.

Jesse glanced down at her wet shoes, feeling the water squish in them as she shifted her weight. Make that a lot wet.

"And..." Olivia came to a stop, looking confused. "Petra?"

Jesse gave a little wave. "Yeah, she was taking a scenic walk in the woods at night while I was looking for Reuben," she remarked jokingly, making Petra flick her wet hair at Jesse again.

"Couldn't find him, huh?" Axel asked, mouth thinning into a grim line as his dark eyes scanned the group and came up short one tiny, pink pig.

"He'll turn up sooner or later, I just know it!" Olivia assured Jesse, although from the shaken expression on Olivia's face she was doing her best to convince herself of the fact.

Jesse nodded at Olivia and gave her a weak little grin. Since Olivia had said it, it was going to be true. It had to be true. She wasn't going to believe otherwise until solid proof came up. "I found him, but... before I knew what was happening, we were under attack by a zombie horde. I told him to run," she explained, hand tightening over her heart nervously, "it was for his own good."

Axel paused, before frowning and glancing at Petra curiously. "What were you doing in the woods, Petra?"

Petra and Jesse automatically glanced at one another. They both knew that neither of them actually knew what Petra had been doing in the woods– as Petra had put it, she'd gone into the woods on a gut feeling. They also both knew that that sounded sort of hokey, so Petra said, dismissively, "Nothing, just... drawn by the sound of Jesse's high-pitched screams."

"I nearly ate a spider before she found me," Jesse agreed.

Olivia and Axel both made a grossed-out sound– and believe me, neither of them were as grossed out by that as Jesse was– before pausing and turning to get a better look at their build, the Enderman towering so high above them that its shadow nearly eclipsed the ground. "But, hey, we won!" Olivia said, in a voice that was so bubbly that it was extremely clear that it was fake.

"Abandoning friends in their time of need paid off yet again," Axel muttered, much more glumly.

Jesse frowned. It wasn't their fault that Reuben had gotten lost.

"I still wish that I'd gotten that part in the back to look better," Olivia mumbled, her own bubbly tone fading into the normal pessimistic-but-loveable Olivia tone, her eyes narrowing at the build.

"I could've fit in more fireworks... somewhere..."

Jesse fixed a grin on her face and stepped over in front of them, giving them a happy grin. "Aw, c'mon, I'm proud of you guys!" she told them cheerfully, forcing herself to move her hands so that they weren't guarding her heart anymore. After all, Reuben had to turn up somewhere, and they had won, and they had done a good job on their statue.

Axel and Olivia both turned to look at their short friend. When it became clear that she was being sincere, Axel let a reluctant but soft grin come over his face as he reached over to rub her head. (Jesse avoided the rub easily– since he was leaning over Olivia to rub her head, she just had to duck out of range.) "Aw, shucks," he said, letting the reluctant grin grow a little bit.

"Don't make me blush," Olivia muttered, giving Jesse a grin, before letting it fall. "Seriously. Don't."

Petra cleared her throat, drawing Jesse's attention back to her. "Hey, Jesse, it's time to see about that... thing."

It actually took Jesse a full second to realize what that meant, but then her eyes widened as she figured out what Petra was talking about. "Oh, right, the... thing."

"Subtle."

Jesse looked over at Olivia with a little grin. "Yeah?"

"As a punch to the face," Olivia finished, flatly, making Jesse hide a huge grin at that. "Axel and I were gonna head into Endercon anyway. See you in there?"

"I heard somebody saying there was free cake by the map booth!" Axel said cheerfully, as if that decided it. Olivia gave her eyes a cheerful roll and turned around, following him into the convention. Petra waited until they were out of earshot, before stepping closer to Jesse and lowering her voice.

"Hurry– we're supposed to meet in that alley over there."

Jesse twisted to see the alley in question. It just looked kind of dark– but hey, dark equals no fire, which equals most probably safe.

Probably.

She allowed Petra to take the lead and walk into the alley, the light levels fading the moment they stepped in more than three feet. In the center of the alley was an area large enough for up to maybe five people to meet comfortably in there, lit by only a few redstone torches. This forced Jesse to perpetually squint if she wanted to see any details of the area.

Petra abruptly came to a halt, making a confused humming sound. "That's... weird. He said the dark... creepy alley close to the gates, but he's not here. Maybe he's late."

Jesse gently eased her way into said dark, creepy alley. The redstone torches threw dramatic shadows over Petra's face, her face a pale oval in the near-blackness of the alley. "You sure this is the... dark, creepy alley he meant?" she asked.

It was a valid question– when one says a 'dark, creepy alley', that narrows down the list of alleys to about half the total alleys in Endercon. And you'd be surprised as to how many there were.

Petra frowned, her expression darkening slightly in confusion. "Huh... I was." She considered this for another minute longer, before clapping her hands together and looking right at Jesse. Or, at least, Jesse was pretty sure that's what she did. "Okay, new plan. You stay here, just in case this is the spot he meant, and I'll look around. I guess I could've heard him wrong..." Petra's voice paused. "Then again, I've never gotten a meet-up spot wrong before."

"Okay," Jesse said agreeably, "I'll hold down the fort."

"Thanks, Jesse," Petra replied, already starting to walk away, "I'll be back before you know it. If he shows up while I'm gone, just stall for me."

And then she was gone.

Jesse stood still for a moment, allowing the faraway sounds of Endercon to whisper through the alley as her vision slowly adjusted to the darkness. As it did so, she spotted something that she hadn't noticed before– a chest.

She crouched by it, frowning slightly as she examined it. Who would stick a chest in the alley? Was this someone's storage area or something? Did the guy Petra was trading with arrange a meeting in a different alley, then?

"Ahem."

Jesse wished she could say she'd simply stood up and turned around. As it was, she'd let out a very high-pitched squeak, leaped to her feet, and turned around in a single breath, eyes flicking around wildly and searching for the source of the voice. At first, there was only the darkness of the alley.

The sound of shoe heels tapping on the ground greeted her ears as she nervously took a step back, her calves running right into the chest behind her. In the span of two blinks, a man seemed to materialize out of the shadows. His black hair almost blended in with the darkness of the alley, and– it was hard to make out in the light– but the man's robes went down far enough to show the tips of his black, scuffed shoes, and somewhere around his midriff something glinted in the dim light. He had a beard as black as his hair, which was painfully obvious against his pale face.

Which wasn't that obvious in the shadowy light. He was still half in the shadows, and the dim light was really not helping matters at all.

"And just who are you?" he asked, voice so icy that it sent little chills crawling up her spine.

Jesse was frozen with fear. The way he'd just appeared, almost out of the shadows... her mind was racing. Was he a demon? No, he couldn't be, he would be in the Nether otherwise and wouldn't have had to ask Petra to get him a Wither Skull. A witch? No, same problem, he could've just gone to get one himself. Heck, a witch wouldn't even need a Wither Skull. A reaper? No, that was even more ridiculous.

"I'm waiting."

Maybe he was just good at theater. He might've just set up the alley for maximum dramatic flair. Jesse wouldn't know.

"Answer me!"

Jesse's tongue finally unfroze. "I'm–!" She cleared her throat, trying to lower her voice back into a vaguely normal register, "I'm Jesse."

"I'm supposed to meet with Petra, not a–" A pause. Jesse couldn't see his face very well, so she had no idea why he'd paused. "Not whatever you're supposed to be."

Jesse was tempted to reply, "A human being," but she felt like that might be a little rude, and besides, her tongue was still currently tied up in knots.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just walk out of here right now!"

"I'm– I'm with– Petra," Jesse stammered a little bit, but managed to keep her voice relatively calm. Go, you!

"My deal is with her," the man snapped, "not her partner."

Jesse stumbled over her words a little in her haste to calm him down. "She'll be here! I'm, I'm just... she was worried that she'd gotten the meeting place wrong, so she wanted to check and make sure she was correct. I'm just here in case you showed up after she left. Which, uh, which you did... a-anyway, she's got the skull, and she'll be back any second now."

The man was silent for a moment. The pallor of his face in the dim light was the only thing that told Jesse that he was still there.

He finally let out an irritated huff. "Well, as long as she's coming... I suppose it wouldn't kill me to wait a minute longer."

An awkward silence lapsed over the alleyway, the only audible noise being their breathing.

Jesse finally cleared her throat a little bit, gesturing up above her head and hoping he could see the movement. "Um, so, why's the alley so... dark?" she asked at last, meekly.

"It just is." Jesse flinched a little at the knife-sharp tone in his voice, and decided to just keep her mouth shut tighter than a stubborn pickle jar lid from that point on.

Another several seconds passed, in which Jesse's vision was slowly beginning to adapt so that she could actually see the man. His dark hair drooped to his shoulders, and the glint at his midriff that Jesse had seen earlier was actually a dark stone surrounded by a gold border, attached to a dark belt.

"Ivor."

Jesse breathed a silent thanks to whatever deity existed as Ivor spoke, sounding much more pleasant as Petra walked back into the alley, bumping her shoulder into Jesse's. "Ah... here she is."

"Sorry I'm late," Petra responded, her own voice light and pleasant, "but, good things are worth waiting for. I've got what you asked for."

"You didn't mention a partner when we first met," Ivor replied, voice darkening again, as he shot Jesse a sort of glare, and Jesse winced. "And I don't like surprises. If these are the sorts of people you associate with–"

Okay, well, Jesse didn't feel like that was fair. She'd been polite, and she hadn't said anything out of the ordinary. However, the tone of his voice... it was brimming with something that Jesse couldn't quite identify.

"Perhaps we should call the whole thing off."

"My friend is fine, right, Jesse?" Petra blurted out, sounding a little nervous but still cool and calm as usual as she turned a sharp look that threatened a bruise or a possible broken bone if Jesse didn't agree immediately. "There's no problem here. Let's not be hasty, okay? This is just a little misunderstanding."

Jesse nodded quickly, putting her hands up in surrender. "I'm cool if he's cool," she said, meekly.

Ivor didn't agree with the statement. But he didn't snap or anything, either. He just stared coldly at Jesse.

"See? You're both cool," Petra said, placatingly.

"Proceed, then," Ivor said, in a voice that was almost eerie.

Jesse shivered.

There was some rustling as Petra withdrew the skull from her pocket, extending it to Ivor. Ivor reached out and took it, examining it carefully, and slowly letting a strange smile come over his face– but not exactly one of happiness. No, it contained an almost satisfied anger.

"I'll take that diamond now," Petra finally spoke, as if reminding Ivor of the deal.

"Take it. You've earned it."

Jesse hesitated, before glancing at the chest currently behind her legs. Was that Ivor's? Had he just put the diamond in there?

She shifted aside, allowing Petra to get down and open the chest. The redhead groped around in the chest for a moment, before her shoulders tensed– Jesse could feel that even from up here. "This... isn't a diamond."

Jesse felt something block her windpipe– for a second, she couldn't breathe. "Um... what?"

Petra straightened up, her expression practically blazing with anger, and she pushed the object that she'd just withdrawn from the chest at Jesse. The shorter girl nearly fumbled the object before her fingers tightened around it– and then her eyes widened in realization. She recognized that shape.

"Lapis?"

"Of all the dirty, underhanded tricks to pull," Petra nearly snarled, "I can't believe that guy got one over on me." It might've been Jesse's imagination, but Petra's eyes seemed to be glowing with fury, like red-hot embers in a fire. The color of her eyes wasn't the normal dark brown, either– they looked red.

"Petra...?"

"What?" Petra blinked, or Jesse blinked, and Petra's eyes were back to normal, dark brown, if not a little angry.

Probably just a trick of the light, then. It was pretty dark in here. They'd probably just caught the light weirdly.

"... um, never mind."

Petra gave Jesse a strange look, before making a disgruntled sound and beginning to run after Ivor, Jesse hastily moving to follow. "Screw this, we're going after him."

They burst out of the alley, Jesse flinching a little as the light abruptly assaulted her eyes, turning a corner and racing to find Ivor. "I'm either getting that diamond, or I'm beating the tar out of him," Petra snarled, with such ferocity in her voice that Jesse nearly balked.

Well, but then again, when Petra got cheated out of her deals, she could get pretty nasty. A couple people had learned that the hard way. Jesse had learned the easy way, thankfully.

"Um, that... works?"

They attracted some weird looks as they burst onto the streets, looking around. "Do you see him anywhere?" Petra asked, eyes scanning the landscape intently.

Jesse looked through the booths and the people, but there was such an explosion of color and milling around and weirdness that she would've had better luck spotting an exact tree in a forest. "I think we lost him," Jesse replied after a moment, shaking her head.

"Well, then we're just going to have to find him again." Petra turned, eyes narrowed in anger. "Go!"

Giving Petra a nod, Jesse split away from the red-haired girl, moving into the crowd and slowing to a more normal walk to avoid attracting everyone within a twenty-yard-radius's attention. So, now it was up to her (partially) to find a kind of creepy guy wearing robes that she didn't know the exact color of, a belt with a dark-colored stone with a gold border, and black hair.

How hard could that be?


A/N: Pretty hard I think xD

Welp, chapters are gonna start getting longer. Expect things to start going extremely wrong in... three to six chapters. xD

And seriously... I guess I did a good job on making some of the curses/ways to break the curse very hard to guess. Also, cutting things off here, only ONE curse in the ENTIRE series/book involves romance to break it, and it's not Jesse's.

LunarTheMooncake: Oh. Uhhhh, yep. xD

CamronXTheXGamer: That's for me to know, and you to eventually find out. :3

TheAmberShadow: Actually, none of them, I'm surprised. / Haha, yep, that's gonna be fun for me to write. x3 / That IS a factor, but that's not it. / I always thought it was a temporary thing– like, just a quick base for when she heads to the Nether to get stuff or something like that.

NovaAurora10: (thumbs up) / (simply smiles)

homeworkoverload: (Pats) Yep. Yep it is. / Bleh. (shrugs) / It's not actually the correct answer though so... xD / (hugs)

Intalesoffates: Thanks! It took me a while to come up with completely, and I'm glad that so many people seem to be so invested in it. / Haha, yeah, that's the immediate thing I thought of for Aiden. / You have one and a half correct in that list of ways to break the list, but I'm not telling you which ones. / Aw, thank you! I'm glad that you think they're good– it's taken me a while to build up to this point, and I'm hoping I can get better as well.

WitchOfLesbian: Nope, not at all. There's no way that witch would allow Jesse's curse to be so easy to break. xD / Uh, nope, that's not correct either. xD Aiden DOES get... kinda redeemed? I try to do that most of my stories, since I can't help but feel bad for the villains. And also the way I write things, they're not actually all that bad. / (grins) You do realize that things are extremely similar to canon because it's still the first episode, right? Once we get to the Nether, THAT'S when things start changing pretty drastically. / Nope, his and Jesse's curses are... ... well, actually they're technically a little connected, but it's not that. xD / (thumbs up) / (pats) / Thank you! I hope you continue to read the story, and enjoy!

Princess of Muffins: I will say this much, over 20 people have the curse. Good luck guessing who and what xD / (squints) Actually... ... actually, scratch that, not gonna say anything. / Probably just because he was a jerk. The witch's don't like people being jerks, as you can probably tell from the prologue. xD / Hmm, d'you think?

NoItsBecky: (chuckles) / Lol, yep. / You find out later.

Toni42: Lol, nope, she just really loves water. (Well, as far as I know, you can't catch on fire when you're in the water. xD) / Nah I'm excited to write it so xD

AquaK13: Well, they HAVE known each other for a while. / (laughs) / (chuckles) I think so too. It's not a bad song, though. / Yeah, that wouldn't be very good.

Guest: Almost nothing is known about his curse except that he's cursed. xD

x.X. A.L. X.x