Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. I finally figured out my Internet situation: I can now only post past 3:30, so that's it. Anyway, I don't know about you guys, but I only have eleven more days of summer vacation and then... *shudder* School starts again. That means that I might not be writing as much due to homework and other things. Just getting that out there as a warning.

Anyway, for now let's just get on with things; replies to reviews!

Replies To Reviews

YoshiEmblem: Don't worry, I figured out my Internet situation already.

Kyle McShade: Well I'd love to hear your, er, outline, so if you could private message me that would be great.

Volcanic the hedgehog: Hate to see so many people out of action, right?

Nwinds: Alright, I'll answer your questions in order cuz there are a lot of them. 1. Ok then, I wasn't offended in any way, really. I took it as constructive criticism. 2. I realized that too, so I just had a little blurb with Mark explaining to them all about the problem. 3. Well, I basically don't have Internet access until 3:30 (I don't know where that stands in your time zone, though, so it might be different for you).

CSICreeper: Dude, you're eleven! You're a baby, man. (No offense. :P)

Enderdude: Well... *looks down guiltily* Your real mother was Queen Enderdragon: She gives birth to all the Endermen, and she just... Assigns parents... I'm very sorry. ;-;

Alright, let's get on with the story!

Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from VOiD. Last time on VOiD we watched as the group woke up to find Adrian M.I.A., and later when Mark was searching the woods below he found Adrian crumpled into his ball form, stuck in between two trees with a TON of splinters in his back. After getting him safely up the hill they discussed about who how someone had gotten him down that hill in his ball form, but they could not find any solution. Then night came and went, and the following morning they found Gabe to be missing this time! When they went down into the woods again they found Gabe, who was beaten up and bloody. They carried his unconscious self up the mountain's snowy slope and dropped him down there, discussing even further about what happened. Still with no solution whatsoever, they were forced to take shifts in the night in order to stay safe. Now we watch as Mark and the gang are attacked by a horde of flying arachnids; the supposed suspects of Adrian and Gabe's near-deaths.

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 19: Airborne Arachnids

Mark had a dream that night, but it actually turned out to be another black and white vision. He was watching Raven, who was sitting up in the cold of the night, watching over their camp. Her eyes were drooping like she was struggling to stay awake. Then she really did doze off, falling right down next to the bonfire without another movement.

A few moments later, three large figures moved somewhere nearby in the darkness. They came into view by the light of the white bonfire, and Mark's stomach churned when he saw a trio of giant, bloody-eyed spiders crawling into their camp. One of the spiders crawled over to Vanessa, the other one over to Lucas, and the third to Bonbon. Immediately his companions awoke, and things turned in slow-motion as they fought the mutated spiders, punching and struggling to break free of the spiders' grips.

Just as other people were waking up, the spiders lifted their backsides and each of them shot their own line of web into the air. As though their lines had each hooked onto something invisible, they lifted themselves up into the air and made their getaway. All the others had awoken now and were shouting and trying to kill the spiders, but the airborne arachnids were already too far for them to reach. Vanessa, Lucas, and Bonbon's cries echoed through the night as they were being carried away to their deaths, and Mark just stood there, shouting in boiling anger. Then, the vision before his eyes became misty, and then all that was left was darkness.

Immediately afterwards the horrible vision, Mark awoke. Without thinking he jumped out of bed and whirled around.

"LOOK OUT VANESSA!"

To his horror, he could see the same spiders from the vision swooping down. Screaming filled the air as his younger sister was jumped by one of the spiders. He ran forward and raised his diamond sword, ready to stab the monsters that dare take his sister and his friend. But just then, one of the spiders leaped over the bonfire and landed on top of him, screeching and hissing and spitting in his face, the black blood from its eyes dripping onto his face. Mark grunted and stabbed it in the jaw, sending it straight through its head.

He heard shouting come from his fellow friends as he was shoving the dead spider off of him. He could see them stabbing at the airborne arachnids, and he hurled himself forward, joining in and slicing the air to demolish the spiders. But he couldn't reach, for the spiders had already gotten away. Only Bonbon remained since he killed the third spider, and she lay badly shaken and shivering on the ground in a ball of fright.

As Mark watched the spiders carry away his sister and best friend through the air he just shouted out in anger and listened to his head pound. He hurled his diamond sword in their direction and didn't care when it missed by a longshot. He swore at the spiders, too angry to calm down, infuriated especially because his sister had been taken from him. As Mark sank to his knees in grief, he noticed something on the ground next to him. He glanced down at it and a sickening cold feeling swept over him. It was Cantatis, which lay open in the snow. That meant...

Mark didn't waste any time and started screaming at the top of his lungs.

"EVERYONE UP! VANESSA AND LUCAS ARE GONE AND WE'RE GONNA KILL THOSE SPIDERS THAT TOOK THEM! QUICK! BEFORE WE LOSE THEM!"

People were staring at him like he was dangerous—which at the moment he was—and nobody actually moved. A few moments later, Mark shouted again.

"I'M NOT LEAVING THEM! LET'S GO! C'MON!" he screamed, waving his arms at them all.

"But what about Gabe, Rexum and Adrian? And the other animals? They can't all—" asked Kelsey concernedly.

"Ok, you can stay here with them in case of emergency, but I need SOMEONE to come with me!"

But to Mark's utter horror, the only person left there was Raven. As realization was dawning on her, she glanced slowly around to see if anyone else was able to come with instead. But in truth, she was the only one. Immediately, Kelsey stepped in and said,

"No, I'll come, I changed my mind!"

Mark caught her glancing quickly at Raven many times in a row. To her, the idea of Mark and Raven being alone ANYWHERE sounded like a nightmare to her, even if it did seem ridiculous that anything would happen between them. But then Raven stepped in and said,

"Actually, I've been waiting for a chance to kill something for a while, so I'd rather come."

Kelsey shot her a nasty look from the side, and Raven glared back. A few intense moments went by, but then Mark decided to break the tension.

"Er, Kelsey, maybe she does deserve a chance to stretch her legs. Right?"

He knew that he had said the wrong thing, because Kelsey just stared at him with an icy look, determined to keep him away from other girls. Honestly, Mark would easily take Kelsey over bringing Raven, but he only had a few hours left before midnight would come, and if he didn't somehow kiss Raven while Lucas was watching he'd be in big trouble.

Mark just sighed, considering his dilemma, and then decided.

"Kelsey, you know that Raven absolutely despises being with us. She hasn't gotten a chance to do anything appealing since she joined our numbers. If, er, killing is, um, something she enjoys..." Dang it that came out so bad. "Then she should get a chance to get out. Otherwise, er, otherwise we're practically torturing her by cooping her up."

Kelsey looked from him to Raven, going back and forth between them, but finally she just grunted and sat down in the snow.

"Fine. Raven," she muttered jabbing her thumb sideways as Raven as though she were an ugly animal. "Can go with you."

Frantic to get going and help, well, mostly his sister, but Lucas too, Mark clapped his hands together and said,

"Let's go! I'll ride Felix, you ride Elmer."

Once Mark and Raven had mounted their horses, they galloped down the snowy hill in the same direction that the spiders had escaped to. Once they entered the forest they were forced to go slower to avoid crashing. Through small glimpses in between trees, Mark stared at Raven, who looked extremely out of place being on Elmer—who was a gleaming white stallion—with her dark and creepy appearance.

They continued dodging trees for a while, and Mark stopped for only a moment to pick up his sword, which he had thrown far into the trees from earlier. They continued moving, and then they burst through the other end into a small stretch of desert soon after. There was snow covering even the sand, so as they trotted along on their horses the steps were muffled. Then, just as they stepped off the snow into sand, Mark noticed something black moving near the edge of the beach, but then it disappeared the next moment.

"There!" he whispered loudly to Raven, pointing in the direction of where the dark figure had been moments ago.

He kicked Felix's sides and off they went, hurtling towards the edge of the beach. In a matter of seconds they reached the water, and Mark pulled back on the reins to slow the undead horse to a stop. Moments later he heard Raven slow down on Elmer from behind.

"Where are they?" she muttered.

Mark looked around, left and right, and even looked down in the water. He lifted his head for a moment and stopped. Everything was deadly quiet, too. When he looked in all directions a second time, he noticed something odd: There weren't any other mobs around, not even the usual Creeper.

Suddenly, something sticky wrapped around his arm and he screamed as he was yanked into the air. In his moment of fear, he heard Raven scream out as well. The spiders were taking THEM! All of a sudden, the web around his arm broke off, and he was sent plummeting to the ground. Before Mark had the time to panic his head hit the ground with a dull thud, and he instantly blacked out.

Meanwhile, somewhere up above in the Overworld, Norman and Liz were running through a stretch of plains with their minds solely on finding the whereabouts of Mark and Vanessa. A few minutes of intense running later, both of them stopped to take a rest. While they were sitting there in the grass gasping for breath, Liz smiled and leaned over to kiss Norman on the cheek.

"Remember back when we used to have boundless energy in the old days when we were fighting the Glitch? Those were good times."

Norman smiled and nodded, still taking deep breaths.

"Yeah, I sure wish I was still like that now. I miss the old gang; Quinn and Bailey and Joe and Calista... Even Danny!"

As they were resting, Norman was looking around for some sign of a village when he looked farther into the dark of the night and noticed a glow coming from far away. It looked like a huge cluster of lights. Lights! He stood up and pointed at the glow.

"Honey, look!"

Liz turned her head, noticed the glow, and stood up as well.

"It must be a village!" she said quickly and excitedly.

Norman started walking towards the glow.

"And if there's a village there's people! People means information!"

They speed-walked in the direction of the glow. Bit by bit it came into focus, and soon they could see individual lights. But when they got even closer, Norman started to speed up—he noticed that this village was a lot different from the others he'd seen. This village wasn't even touching the ground! In fact, all of the houses seemed to branch off of a large mountain that stood behind it. With his curiosity increasing, Norman increased his walking speed to the point where he was already running. For the first time in a while, Liz was the one who struggled to catch up.

Norman stopped just twenty blocks from the many structures built into the mountain. He craned his neck to look up and see all the houses. He could see one very large building made of Nether quartz at the very top of the vertical town. Ladders and wooden pathways connected all the houses, and even at night he could see people bustling around the place, going into libraries and shops and blacksmith workshops and even bakeries.

While he was gazing up at the peculiar village, Liz came running up to him with short breath. She gasped for air as she also looked over the village from top to bottom.

"Genius... *huff* Architecture!" she said in between breaths.

Norman walked over to the ladder that hung one block from the ground and started to climb. Liz groaned a little behind him, but nevertheless followed him as he went up. As Norman was emerging onto the wooden walkway people immediately started staring. He had barely stepped onto the wood when an elderly man approached him while hobbling along on a cane, extending a crooked hand.

"Norman Cobweb! I can't believe I am meeting you in my lifetime!" he said with a wheeze.

Liz popped up onto the platform a moment later, and the old man said an excited hello to her as well. Then more people started gathering.

"Norman? Norman Cobweb?"

"That's Norman Cobweb!"

"He's here again? Really?"

"Let me see!"

"Look, Lizzy Cake's here with him too!"

"Look at their fingers. They've got the same wedding rings! They're married!"

A few confusing moments later, somebody could be heard trying to push their way through the crowd.

"Excuse me, coming through. Pardon me, sorry. Please, move aside..."

Someone came through the crowd. It was a man that neither Norman nor Lizzy had ever seen before. He was a well-built man on the taller side, and he had neatly combed black hair and chocolate-brown eyes. He was wearing a green suitcoat and a pitch-black fedora. Behind him Norman could see a Creeper standing there, and for one sudden moment Norman caught a glimpse of the nametag, but it flashed by too quick for him to read. The black-haired man stared wide-eyed at Norman for a moment, looking him up and down in a hasty manner.

"By Jove, it is you!"

Norman opened his mouth to say something, but then the man turned around and cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted towards the back of the crowd.

"Honey, you've got some very important visitors!"

The man stepped aside as another person burst through the crowd a few seconds later. This woman was wearing a lime-green dress with white lace, which matched her bright green eyes. Her blonde hair was tied into a long ponytail, which still touched her back. For a moment, Norman didn't recognize the woman, but it only took a few seconds for everything to click.

"B-Bailey?" he stammered.

Bailey's eyes brimmed up with tears as she flung herself into a Norman, crushing him with a hug.

"Norman, I'm so glad to see you!"

This was the second time that she'd crushed him with a hug—the first time was twenty years ago when they rejoined in that one forest. Bailey finally let go—and Norman continued onto bending over and rubbing his back and groaning with stress—and she hugged Liz instead, this time more gently. When the hug-fest was over Bailey jumped back and stood beside the black-haired man, who was supposedly her husband.

"Leland, I'd like you to meet Norman and Lizzy Cobweb." she said, gesturing at the two of them.

Leland walked forward and smiled pleasantly, shaking both Norman and Liz's hands.

"I am very pleased to meet you! Never in a million years did I think I'd be standing here shaking your hands."

Norman stepped forward and said to Bailey,

"So, what are you doing here?"

"Well, after you guys all left for Earth, all the rest of us guys were granted a lot of money from Notch for our services, so I used MY share to build up a new village that's safe from zombies, and so far it's been a success. Leland here is the mayor, so I'm the mayoress—yeah, I didn't know there was a such thing either. Anyway, we're pretty peaceful here considering nothing ever attacks us. Even the spiders leave us alone!" she declared happily.

It was almost as though she had jinxed them right then and there, but a few moments later somebody screamed,

"SPIDERS!"

Everyone started shouting and turning around to look at the plains beyond. Norman fought his way through the panicked crowd to the edge of the walkway in order to see what was going on. When he got there his stomach sank, because sure enough there was a horde of oversized spiders covered in black blood scuttling towards their village, their hissing and spitting piercing the night's quiet atmosphere.

Norman had been too close to the edge, though, because in the chaos of the crowd behind him somebody rammed into him from the side, and he lost balance, falling over the edge of the platform. He only had to fall for a short distance, but he still grunted when he slammed into solid ground. With his head pounding and limbs shaky, Norman stood up and shook himself off. Liz came sliding down the ladder moments later, and she rushed up to him to see if he was ok.

"Liz, I'm fine..." he muttered, still brushing dirt off of his scuffed hands and arms.

The massive outbursts of hissing and moving legs was what brought Norman back to his senses. He looked out at the spiders approaching and grimaced both in disgust and in pain—Liz had grabbed his arm fearfully, and her nails were digging into his skin. On instinct Norman whipped off his old Blockpack and searched around inside it. He barely had to look, because two seconds later he emerged holding a long weapon in his hand.

It was a long shovel with a spade made of pure diamond, which glimmered brightly with enchantments. This was Shatter, the weapon that Norman used those many years ago to survive and thrive during his time in Minecraft. He reached again into his Blockpack and took out another item. This one was a small cube that fit in the palm of his hand, and it was patterned with red and blue letter M's on each face, and had a red/blue magnet attached to the top face. This was the old Magnomatic, the magnetic weapon that he used to help defeat the Glitch twenty years ago. It could be attached or taken off of the spade of Shatter, and he preferred to leave it on, so he pressed it hard onto the tip of the diamond spade and it was instantly attached.

Now that Shatter and the Magnomatic had been combined once more, Norman turned and faced the spiders. It had been a long time since he last fought a swarm of mobs, but he knew he could go off of pure instinct if he needed to. He was about to go running to battle when Liz tightened her grip on his arm.

"Norman, you're not going out to fight them."

Suddenly, she grinned and lifted HER weapon: The enchanted diamond sickle named Shine, which was capable of slicing any enemy to ribbons in a matter of moments.

"Not without me by your side, you're not."

Norman felt a grin spread across his face as well.

"Just like old times, right?"

"Just like old times."

With that, the two of them ran towards the army of mutated spiders yelling battle cries of unmatchable proportions. Norman could feel old energy becoming new again as it surged from Shatter into his hands and arms. He lifted Shatter up into the air and slammed it down on the ground, and it sent a magnetic wave through the ground that rocketed the front ten rows of spiders into the air, disintegrating them. In his head he thought,

"These things must be glitched mobs. No wonder the magnetism rips through them. This should be a piece of cake!"

Norman continued on with swinging Shatter to create a torrent of magnetic waves that bombarded the spider army, disintegrating every single arachnid there. Suddenly, after about two minutes of nonstop spider assault, the creatures stopped, just froze right then and there. Norman also stopped to catch his breath, but also to see what they were doing.

Suddenly, all of the spider rose into the air on black threads and formed a great big hissing cloud of monsters. The blood that poured from all their eyes gushed heavily onto the ground below, burning up the ground on impact. Norman stood there in horror as he watched the glitched mobs, but as they were getting closer he angrily swung Shatter in their direction, sending even more electromagnetic pulses. But this time, whenever he destroyed a big group of the spiders, even more materialized in their place.

Then screams started to come pouring down on them and rumbling filled the air, and when Norman whirled around he saw the entire population of the mountain-bound town fleeing from the other side of the hill to get away from the raining blood. Liz grabbed Norman's hand and ran towards the mass of people.

"C'mon, Norman! We've got to get away from those spiders!" she shouted urgently.

Norman gripped his wife's hand and ran as fast as he could. Soon they entered the chaos within the crowd of panicked townsfolk, their own footsteps masked by the furious pounding of more feet on grass and by the screams of the people around them. While they were running, though, Norman found himself being bumped into too hard, and his grip with Liz slipped, and their hands were pried apart. Norman pushed against the crowd and tried to find Liz's head.

"LIZ! LIZ!" he shouted, still searching for her face.

But already he was separated from his wife. He didn't know for how long, but at least for the moment he was, in a way, alone.

Mark woke up with a really bad headache. He was in the dark for some reason and REALLY drafty, and when he tried to think about what was happening it hurt his brain. He didn't even know where he was. All he knew was that... No, wait... His head hurt too much to think. He tried to move around, but for some reason his arms and legs were stuck to the wall behind him with something sticky. Sticky... It was sticky like spider webs...

And then he remembered what had happened earlier. He was being lifted into the air by a black line of spider silk when it slipped off his arm and he fell and... And hit his head real bad. Then he remembered about the black spiders...

Cold swept over him like a tidal wave as realization set in. He was kidnapped by a group of bloodthirsty mutated spiders that wanted to burn his flesh with the blood from their eyeballs and then feast on his vital organs!

With the sudden flash of images rolling through his mind, Mark struggled furiously at the webs that stuck him to the wall. He still couldn't see through the dark, so he had no idea what he'd do if he actually broke free. He could be in some God-forsaken cave for all he knew.

During his moment of dark thoughts he heard a hiss come from the darkness beyond and he froze. The hiss echoed again a few seconds later. Mark, who was becoming more panicky by the second. Suddenly, he felt something cold drip on his arm, and he immediately thrashed, stabbing at an awkward angle with the sword in his hand. There was a screech and a lurch, and then a thud. Mark struggled harder against the webs, inching his diamond sword and cutting at the webs. A few minutes of awkward cutting later, Mark's sword arm broke free of the webs.

The moment his arm was free he heard another hiss in the dark and quickly sliced the webs cover his other arm. He rocketed out of the way just in time as he felt a spider's leg graze his as he made his getaway. Running blindly through the pitch-blackness Mark swung his sword wildly to keep any pursuing spiders away from him. While he was running he felt his shoe snag on something and he fell forward, leaving his snagged shoe behind. But instead of slamming into the ground he just kept falling through the darkness.

While falling he hit something slippery, cushioning his fall, but then he slid off and kept falling, smashing through what felt like branches and leaves.

"Ooh! Ow! Ah!" he cried.

Finally, he plummeted down to the ground and landed splat in the middle of a huge mud puddle. Sitting up shakily and soaked in mud, Mark looked around him to see he was now in a forest. There wasn't any snow, but instead a drizzle had been cast over him, and everything was wet. He stood up, wiping mud off his face and shivering badly. It was deadly cold, too, and he was missing one shoe, so his right foot was soaked to the bone.

As Mark was squinting to see through the rain and the trees, he saw something moving in the distance. Then it came closer and closer, and he saw long, black legs scuttling in his direction. Mark whirled around and ran, splashing through puddles and slipping on grass. The hissing and spitting coming from behind was getting closer, and he heard intense rustling on either side of him.

Suddenly, another giant black spider leapt from out of the brush and tackled him to the ground. He yelled and brought his sword upward, spearing the arachnid. He could still hear more spiders approaching, so he quickly pushed the spider off of him and jumped to his feet. He ran through the trees at top speed, his lungs burning, his throat tight. Just then, Mark took one more step and fell right through a huge pile of leaves. Screaming at the top of his lungs he fell down into darkness again, and unfortunately for him he once again smacked into what felt like webs. Suddenly, a torch somewhere nearby flared and the room was lit. He heard a grunt from next to him, and when he turned his head suddenly he saw Raven in his same situation, stuck eagle-spread to glistening black webs.

When she turned and noticed Mark she screamed,

"Mark! Help me!

"Hey, maybe if I wasn't stuck I would!" he retorted.

Just then, a hiss sounded through the room. Mark could see Raven's lip quivering.

"What was that?" she said frantically.

The hiss continued to sound through the room, and then a few seconds later the web below them began to vibrate, shaking both of them. Just then, the webs at their feet sprung up and burst as a MASSIVE spider rose up before them. This spider had eight black eyes, all of them punctured and oozing that black blood. The legs were so long that they touched the walls on either side of the room. It hissed again and clicked its menacing fangs at the two of them.

Raven was so afraid that she was crying, her dark makeup washing away in a mess on her face. It was strange to see her like that, since she seemed to unemotional all the time.

"Oh geez." he thought to himself. "She must have really bad arachnophobia..."

Then the spider hissed again and his head snapped back up to the creature's ugly face. The massive spider leaned towards Raven first, snapping its jaw, dripping saliva on her. Raven was absolutely wailing now, her makeup all over her face. It was actually a really depressing moment for Mark, because he HATED seeing girls cry—his friends always made fun of him for it, too.

Just then, Mark remembered that he still had his diamond sword, and he gripped it tight, edging it slowly along the webs. He split them one by one, freeing his sword arm, and soon enough he had regained movement of his right arm. Slowly and quietly he reached over and cut his other arm free. As soon as it was free his anger took control and he leapt forward, yelling at the top of his lungs. Before the huge spider could react he slid underneath its abdomen and stabbed upward with his sword, but then scrambled out of the way to avoid the acidic spray of blood that rained down from out of the wound.

The spider screeched and spat, thrashing around the room in pain. Mark ran over to the panicked Raven and quickly tugged on her webs to get her free. But as he was doing this, the spider fell over and smashed into the webbing with all its weight and the web floor beneath their feet broke apart. Mark and Raven fell—him shouting her screaming—down through the floor, but then landed on hard stone floor with him on top of her. For a moment, Raven just stared at him, and Mark's immediate response was to jump right off of her, but before he could do anything, she actually SMILED and pulled him into a kiss!

Mark's insides turned to stone for a full three seconds as he was being held against his will kissing Raven, her hands all over his back. This wasn't the way he had intended things to go! He wanted something so much more subtle just to satisfy Lucas! But RAVEN couldn't be enjoying it! Just as sudden as it had started it ended, and they heard somebody shout above them. Mark pushed himself off of Raven, his lips smeared with black, his inside still stone-cold, and looked up.

He could see Lucas about fifteen blocks up, staring down at them through the hole on the surface. He had a broad grin on his face and was winking obviously at Mark. Mark didn't even know what to say, he just stared with his face stuck in the horrified expression that he'd been wearing. He felt Raven touch his arm and he jumped, backing away from her. She looked at him with that mischievous smile still on her face.

"Raven, I have a girlfriend." said Mark, shaking his head.

Raven walked towards him and said,

"Yeah, but a moment ago I got a good feel of that body of yours, and MAN... I must admit I might be craving you..."

Raven couldn't have said anything more horrifying. Mark looked in his hotbar for some blocks to use to get away from her and out of the cave, and thankfully found some extra wood. He immediately did the jump-up pillar routine, jumping up and placing a block as fast as he could in order to get away from Raven. While he went higher and higher his mind was racing.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no... This cannot be happening!" he thought to himself.

When Mark finally got out of the hole he jumped up onto solid ground and became thankful that it was no longer raining. Lucas just grinned at him, but then he got a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Bro, you such a FA-LIRT!"

Mark punched him back—only his was meant to hurt—and muttered,

"Shut up."

But Lucas just laughed and continued.

"Man, it took forever to get away from those spiders what with your sister panicking and muttering nonstop about dying. I was able to beat them up eventually, and we just fled into the forest—she's still catching up, but she'll be here in a moment. Anyway, I saw this hole and when I looked down in it the first thing I saw was a huge dead spider sitting fifteen blocks down on the ground. Then I looked over and saw YOU making out with Raven!" he said, not bothering to keep a straight face.

This got him laughing, and that exact moment Vanessa walked in on the scene, gasping for breath. She collapsed onto her knees and gasped,

"Lucas... *huff* You need to... *huff* Slow down!"

Mark looked down and noticed Vanessa sitting there, and he immediately threw his arms around her.

"Vanessa! I thought you'd die back there with the spiders!"

Vanessa, highly embarrassed, shook him off and said,

"Alright, alright, stop hugging me already."

A few moments later, more people burst through the trees. It was Gabe—who looked very pale and sick, but nevertheless awake and alert—and he was riding on Felix. Following him was Kelsey riding Elmer, who just looked frantic. She leapt off Elmer and threw herself on Mark.

"MAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAARK!" she wailed, crying into his shoulder.

Mark comforted her, rubbing her back slowly and muttering slowly.

"It's all right. I'm ok."

When Kelsey let go of him words started spilling out of her mouth.

"When you were gone for an hour we started getting worried! Gabe woke up and I told him about what was going on and he insisted on going to find you because he thought you were in trouble so we ran through the mountains and into that desert back there! Felix and Elmer were running around frantically like they were spooked like heck and so we took them and entered the forest that was nearby looking for you. We saw Lucas and Vanessa somewhere inside and quick caught up with them, and now..."

But then Kelsey stopped and started staring at Mark. He became aware that she was looking at his lips.

"Why are your lips smeared with black lipstick?"

Mark hastily wiped it off his face with his sleeve—which was a very difficult feat, because it seemed plastered to his skin—and muttered,

"It's, uh, nothing. Nothing, really."

Just then, Raven came up out of the hole and jumped onto the grass. Kelsey took one look at her for about a second and then looked back at Mark. Her eyes grew wide and she took a sharp intake of breath, and tears brimmed to her eyes as realization entered her mind. Mark grabbed her shoulder and said,

"No, it's not what you think!"

But Kelsey shook his hand off and backed away. She tried to form words, but then the tears she had been holding back spilled onto her cheeks and she just ran away, crying loudly into the forest so that it echoed both in the trees and in Mark's mind. This was the worst situation Mark could have dreamed up. Several of their members were badly injured or sick, everyone was cold and going hungry and without shelter. And now... Now the person that mattered most in Mark's life hated his guts. With all this clouding his mind, Mark couldn't think properly. He just sat down right there in the dirt and fell silent.

No... Nonononononono! Has it really come to this?! ...I'm so cruel! X3

Well, while you're all hating me I'll try and distract you with QAA I guess. (Man, I kinda hate myself.)

Dear Notch: Don't take that kind of tone with me! I can delete my Mojang account like THAT! *snaps*

Notch: Do not back-sass me; I am a God! Mm! *snaps back*

To the Glitch: Let's see how you can deal with this! *Flies as fast as he can and flies into The Glitch's mouth* This is it! Dragon fist! *a giant dragon comes out of his fist and keeps growing until The Glitch explodes* You're just like Frieza! You're a tyrant that rules over a race of people and treats them without respect! This battle is over!

The Glitch: *the bits of the Glitch all over the place swirl together and form the Glitch as it was before, and it cackles* I must say, I am deeply disappointed! I thought you might be some fun to toy with, but... You're just too pathetic for me. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

To the Glitch: Chill bro. Get some hoes, a show with a lot of seasons, and relax. Like a boss.

The Glitch: I am THE boss, brotha! *spreads wings* COME AT ME BRO!

To the Glitch: *straps on mind control device and makes it wet itself*

The Glitch: *instead of strapping on it disintegrates* PUNY MORTAL! NOTHING CAN TOUCH ME UNLESS I ALLOW IT! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

To Kelsey: Kelsey since your Christian did you ever listen to Skillet? if you did and you were still alive (Sorry but it had to be said) We would be friends! I would say BF & GF but you're in a Relationship and I respect that.

Kelsey: *sniffles, pauses for a moment, and then,* BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! *sobs on and on* MAHAHAHAHARK DOESN'T LOVE MEEEEEEEEEE! *continues to sob*

Well, after a terribly depressing chapter, I must ask a few questions to you all. What do YOU think will happen now that a new horribly horrible love triangle has formed around Mark, Raven and Kelsey? Who will Mark choose? Does he want Kelsey, who represents a pleasant angel, or Raven, who is the tempting devil? (I KNOWWWWWWW) Find out next chapter in VOiD! But for now, this is Pastrinator64, and I'll see you later with chapter numbah twenty!

*throws sugar bomb, disappears in a cloud of fine white sugar*

Byyyyyeeeeee...

~Pastrinator64 [~]