Hey y'all, it's Ender! I hope you're having a great day and I hope to make it even better with this new chapter! 1,593 words this chapter. NOTE: I don't own Minecraft, Mianite, any YouTubers mentioned, and really, I don't own anything except this story.
Chapter 4
"User? User, c'mon buddy. Let's go build something with the others," Twisted pleaded. User stared blankly at the ground, his hands trembling slightly. He had been like this all afternoon, not moving or speaking. Twisted was getting extremely worried, to say the least.
In fact, he was worried about everything that seemed off with User. He had barely eaten anything these last few days and was growing incredibly scrawny. He hadn't wanted to go hunting either, something that Twisted realized was horribly wrong.
And lastly, User was quiet. He was never quiet – always talking, or laughing, or singing. But ever since he had been brought back from the land of the dead, he had been becoming more and more reclusive, and almost refused to talk with anyone. When he did speak, his voice was muffled and slightly shaky, as though he was terrified for his life.
"User? Look at me, okay?" Twisted begged, blinking. User didn't move or give any response that he had heard.
Twisted swallowed and reached out, resting his hand on User's shoulder. His best friend's reaction to the contact was, to say the least, frantic.
"No, no, no!" User screamed, his head snapping up to stare fearfully at Twisted. Twisted jerked back in shock, staring at User with wide eyes.
"Please no! Don't kill me!" User lunged backwards and pressed himself against the wall, shaking violently. Twisted quickly realized that User wasn't entirely focused on his present surroundings.
User's light brown eyes were dimmed and he was looking through Twisted as though he wasn't even there. When Twisted tried to walk over to him, User shrunk down, as though trying to make himself appear smaller.
"What's wrong?" Twisted asked, walking over to User very slowly so as not to alarm him. "Why are you so scared of me?"
User teared up, and without answering, turned and ran out the door, fleeing off down the neat gravel path. Twisted's eyes widened with surprise and without hesitation, chased after the wizard.
User kept tripping over small rocks in the ground and swerving around empty spaces, as though he was in a different layer of reality. Twisted frowned, concerned that he wasn't gaining on User, but his friend was running far too quickly to be caught, even with his clumsy progress.
"User!" Twisted called, seeing the steep cliff that led down to the ocean right ahead of User. "Stop! You're going to -"
User glanced back fearfully, and as he did so, he tripped over a small stone and fell, flailing, down the cliff. Twisted's heart caught in his throat and he darted over, panic making his breath come in short gasps.
Twisted breathed out a shaky sigh of relief when he saw User swimming clumsily through the water, looking slightly scraped up but no worse for the wear. Twisted descended the cliff slightly more cautiously, diving into the water once he got closer to the bottom.
User was at the other side of the little estuary, but was having trouble climbing up the muddy bank. He kept slipping back down, unable to hold onto the soft dirt.
"User!" Twisted swam over to him, disappointment weighing him down as User whipped around and stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. He hunkered down with his back against the embankment, ignoring the fact that he was getting mud smeared all over his spotless jacket.
Twisted felt silt under his feet and stood up, brackish water dripping from his clothes. He waded over to where User was trembling, curled up defensively against the bank.
User was a pitiful sight – his normally spotless jacket stained with dark mud, his hair plastered to his forehead with saltwater, and breathing heavily from panic and overexertion.
"User, it's okay. It's me – Twisted," Twisted talked softly, sitting down in front of User when he reached his terrified friend. User pressed his back against the slick bank as far as he could, not taking his fearful light brown eyes off of Twisted for even a second. "I'm not going to hurt you. There's nothing to be scared of here."
User was silent, still shaking violently. Twisted reached out slowly, watching as User's scared eyes followed his hand. Twisted gently rested his hand on User's shoulder, stifling a cry of despair when he realized how tense his best friend was, as if prepared to be hurt or killed.
"It's alright, User," Twisted whispered soothingly, retracting his hand. User whimpered, blinking rapidly. Small waves swirled around him, creating an almost mesmerizing effect from the brownish water.
It pained Twisted to see User so afraid of him, even though he knew full well that it was nothing he could control. Something had happened to User in the land of the dead – something that had terrified him to the point where he couldn't even live his life normally any more.
The sun had sunk almost out of sight by the time User finally relaxed. He blinked once, twice, before finally focusing on Twisted. The distant look had been dropped from his eyes, but it had been replaced with a shattered, despairing, gaze.
"Twist – Twisted?" He whispered quietly, his voice almost inaudible. Twisted smiled faintly, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was still very wrong with User. He seemed too frail – too broken.
"It's alright, User," Twisted murmured, trying to reassure himself. "You're safe."
User trembled for a second more, then practically hurled himself at Twisted, sobbing hysterically. Twisted hugged the wizard tightly, closing his eyes mournfully as he listened to User's heartbroken crying.
"I – I'm sorry," User sniffled. "I – I th - thought I was b – back in the l – land of the – the dead again, and – and…" he broke off as a violent shudder ran through his body, choking out muffled sobs.
"Shhh. It's okay. You don't have to talk about it," Twisted whispered, not caring about anything else other than calming User down. "You're here now. You're safe."
"But I'm n – not," User whimpered. "I – I can't keep liv - living like this."
Twisted hugged User a little bit tighter, ignoring the mud stains on User's dark blue jacket. "I'm here to keep you safe. I promise you now, I won't let anything else bad happen to you."
User pulled away, his head hanging. "I – I wish you could," he choked. "But I'm – I'm already broken."
"Then I'll pull you back together," Twisted smiled reassuringly. User gave him a weak smile in return, but his eyes still harboured a haunted look. "C'mon. Let's go back up to the house. To home."
"Home," User murmured, saying the word as though it were foreign to him. "Wh – where is home anymore? My home sh – should be in the land of the d – dead right now."
"No," Twisted said firmly, wrapping his arm around User's shoulder's as he helped the shaky wizard up. "Your home is here. With us. With me."
User shrugged Twisted's arm off. "If only that were t – true."
"It is true!" Twisted struggled not to raise his voice. He wanted so badly to scream at User that he was being senseless, that he was safe here. But he knew it would only scare his friend even more.
"But I was d – dead!" User argued, hauling himself up the bank. "If it weren't for you I would be just another lost soul, roaming around with no purpose other than to kill newcomers to the world!"
"Wait, what?" Twisted asked, shocked. User had never told him about this.
User flinched, and he stumbled, falling down to the ground again. Twisted clambered up the bank, panting slightly from the effort and moved to sit next to User.
User wasn't attempting to move, just lying on his stomach and crying softly again. Twisted swallowed as he looked at User, and not for the first time doubting that he would be okay.
"What's going on out here?" A shocked voice sounded from the doorway of Syndicate's house and Twisted looked up, meeting Syndicate's surprised gaze. User jerked back fearfully, almost knocking Twisted over as he rammed into the half-wizard.
Twisted instinctively put his hand on User's shoulder, as if meaning to protect him from any sort of harm. Syndicate stared at the duo before walking over to them and leaving the warmth of his house.
"Is User okay?" Syndicate directed the question at Twisted, his voice holding a note of concern. Twisted wordlessly shook his head, feeling User start to tremble again. Syndicate blinked understandingly and knelt down next to them.
"Do you want to stay at my house tonight?" Syndicate asked User gently. "You look like you could barely walk three meters without collapsing and your house is up a very steep hill. You're in no shape to go anywhere at this point."
"Thank – thank you," User stuttered weakly. He allowed Syndicate and Twisted to help him to his feet, but he was leaning heavily on Twisted as they made their way slowly over to Syndicate's house. Syndicate opened the door and told User to go upstairs to his bedroom – the mortal would sleep in his vault tonight.
"There's a second bedroom on the third floor for you, Twisted," Syndicate smiled. "If you need anything, just let me know."
Twisted watched as User took a deep breath when Syndicate started to go down the stairs to his basement. "Tom," User called out, using the mortal's first name. Syndicate paused and looked back up at User and Twisted.
"Tomorrow - tomorrow, I want to tell you what happened to me when I was dead."
OMG, NO, DON'T DO IT! LOL, Orespawn references! XD
Random Observation: OH, I JUST REALIZED WHY ORESPAWN SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADDED TO MIANITE! No seriously, there's a sword in Orespawn that you can get from the crystal dimension - it's called the Kyanite Sword! HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN, HUH?! XD
ironhideandratchet4ever: Yah, brah, killing Tucker is very cool! ;)
RusYRP: Undoubtedly so!
DiamondScribe: Are you forgetting that I'm a Dianitee? ;) In my eyes, Ianite is a *gets bleeped out* goddess! Oh, and I also finished the entire story last night... oh gosh, less than a week before the Mianite Collection ends for you guys... it's already finished for me.