—It's too scary!
As soon as Jesse took a step out, fear overwhelmed her body and she immediately retreated back.
"What's wrong? Too scared?" The shrike mocked.
As much as Jesse wanted to go after Reuben, she couldn't find the courage to even enter the darkness, not after hearing the strange noises.
At least, she didn't want to go out unarmed.
"Face it milady, you're just a coward."
Jesse turned to face the bird with an angry scrowl. "No I'm not! It's just dangerous out there!"
"Uh huh, and yet you sent your equally defenceless pig outside to check for danger." The shrike tilted her head to the right. "That animal's stubby little legs can't make it run fast, now can it? It's also incapable of defending itself. If something dangerous were to ever approach it…
"It'll go splat before you know it!"
Those harsh words caused Jesse to flinch. It did have a certain level of truth in it, all the more making her feel guilty.
Jesse was at a loss; she didn't know what to do at all. If only Petra were here, what would she do?
Of course, she would tell Jesse to stop chickening out and press on while arming herself with her trusty pickaxe.
Arming herself, huh…
Jesse started searching the room for anything she could use as a weapon—preferably something sharp. Conveniently, she found a pair of sewing scissors tucked away at the bottom drawer of the desk. The blades looked sharp and clean as if it were perfectly new.
Jesse started opening and closing the scissors to test its durability, the snipping sounds strangely giving her a sense of security. She then continued to repeatedly open and close the scissors, filling the room with the snips of the twin blades scraping against one another while staring at the tool with extreme fascination.
…
—flashed out something shiny-blade glistened under the moonlight—
"Look! I stole this!"
...
(What… snap out of it!)
Immediately, Jesse halted her actions completely, leaving the scissors half opened. Since she already found a weapon, she should start searching for Reuben.
Taking in a deep breath, Jesse stepped out of the room. Immediately a wave of fear rippled down her spine, but she shrugged it off and pressed forward.
Jesse jogged while calling out Reuben's name frantically. By each passing minute, her cries became more desperate.
"Reuben! Reuuuuuben! Come out! It's not funny!"
After some time, it had gotten dark. The hallway was engulfed in darkness, with only glowstone lamps to guide her way. At night, the atmosphere was much more sinister.
Jesse tried calling out again, but her voice came out as dry rasps. It was then that she discovered that her throat was terribly parched after yelling so much. She desired to take a break and search for some water, but she wanted to find Reuben as quickly as possible so that she could return to the comfort of a safe, well-lit room. Eventually, Jesse's throat gave up on her, thus she side-tracked for a while to grab some water from the pantries.
Thankfully, Jesse had no trouble searching for a bottle of water. She chugged down the bottle's contents, enjoying how the cool liquid slid down her throat and relieved her thirst.
Knock.
Jesse jumped, nearly choking on her water. (Please let it be my imagination…)
Knock, knock, knock.
The bottle that she was holding slipped from her grasp, crashing onto the floor and spilling water all over. However, the mess that she made was the least of her concerns.
The knocking became more furious and came more frequently. Soon the entire room was filled with fierce knocking, giving Jesse a massive headache and a panic attack. She covered her ears in an attempt to block out the noise, but to no avail.
It was too much for Jesse to bear. She made break for it-only to slip and fall on her bottom.
"Owww…"
Jesse slowly stood up, cringing as she felt her soaked skirt weighing her down. She had forgot about the puddle of water in front of her. How stupid.
"Tch."
Ignoring the voice, Jesse hobbled out of the pantry room and out to the hallways. With her throat in better condition, she called out for Reuben again.
"Oink!"
An excited gasp escaped Jesse's lips. "Reuben?"
"Oink!"
The oink was soft, but it was definitely the sound of a pig.
"Reuben! I'm coming! Just hang on!" Jesse yelled as she sprinted towards the direction of the sound. Reuben continued to cry out for his friend, and as his sounds grew louder, Jesse pushed herself to run faster.
Finally, at the end of a long hallway, Jesse could make out something tiny curled up into a ball. Upon further inspection the tiny thing was pink, and that meant it was no other than…
"Reuben!" Jesse cried out in relief as she made a mad dash towards her pig, when all of a sudden, a sharp screech resounded and a tall, stick figure teleported right in front of her path. To Jesse's horror, it was an enderman.
Instinctively, Jesse bowed her head and shielded her eyes with her hands. She backed away slowly, and then she noticed from the position of the enderman's feet, it was facing the other direction.
Reuben tilted his head up. When he saw his friend, he squealed in joy and dashed towards her.
It might have been a case of the enderman mistaking Reuben's actions as an act of aggression against it, as the mob let out another one of its ear-splitting screeches and grabbed Reuben with its bony arms.
Reuben squealed in fright as he tried to wriggle out of the enderman's grasp, but this provoked it more and it tightened its hold onto the piglet.
Jesse watched through the gaps from her fingers. She needed to save Reuben… yes, the scissors!
"Don't hurt my pig!"
Grabbing the sewing scissors from her pocket, Jesse held its handle with a death grip and with all her might, impaled the blades into the back of the enderman. The enderman screamed in agony and dropped Reuben. Jesse quickly yanked the scissors out, only to stab the mob again.
It teleported away, which gave Jesse the chance to get to Reuben. She knelt down beside him as he quivered like a leaf in fear. To calm him down, Jesse hugged the piglet to her chest, not caring about the purple fluid that coated her hands after she stabbed the enderman.
"It's okay boy, I'm here, I'm here. Don't be scared…"
~Continue to Chapter VIII~
For those who initially chose this option, congrats! Moving on~