A/N: 1,000+ views! Thank you all so much for this achievement :'D
And I apologize for the long wait. I just couldn't write for some reason (writer's block maybe?) and it just didn't feel fun to me for a bit, so sorry if this chapter isn't all that great. Also I'm tired and lazy and jeez I really need to motivate myself more.
Here's a somewhat longer chapter to make up for my absence.
Tyler's first instinct was to scream.
But alas, he could not find a voice to utilize.
Kneeling down next to his terrified friend, Jake snapped his fingers in front of Tyler to try and get him to at least blink. The bassist, a statue portraying the very emotion of fear, remained still and unblinking.
"Hey man, if you ain't getting up on your own, I'll hafta carry you myself." Jake stood up and extended a helping hand, waiting for Tyler to take it and help himself up. But the latter did nothing.
"Alright, then. C'mere. Ol' Jakey's gonna carry you."
But before the taller male could even get his hands on his friend, Tyler rose to his feet and composed himself, dry eyes adjusting to the environment he seemed blind to earlier. He said nothing; he simply sighed and headed straight for his dorm, which was not too far from Jake's.
And Jake was... confused, to say the least. What had caused Tyler to be paralyzed for two minutes? Was it something he did? Or did the presence of a gigantic fucking spider deter him?
...Probably the second choice.
Jake blinked a few times before rubbing his head in confusion. He checked his watch and saw that night had dragged on too long.
Suddenly his face sank. "Oh, shit, where am I gonna sleep?"
The bed sheets that had been cleansed of its blood were now hastily shoved inside a cabinet under the sink. He didn't want to see it, or smell it, or touch it, or have anything to do with it anymore. He was just so sick of it. Sick of his stupidity, his ignorant assumption that everything was normal, when in fact nothing ever was normal. He was blinded by false hope, only to be smacked cold and hard by the truth. The smack embedded itself in his mind, forever painful.
Tyler tossed himself onto his bed, which was now the classic red bed in Minecraft. But it didn't even matter anymore. What else mattered? Was the same thing happening to Desmond and Craig?
...Shit. Was it?
He took his phone out and first dialed Desmond's number, since it was on his 'most used' list. He waited and waited for the other line to pick up.
It didn't.
Groaning in exasperation, he tried to call Craig next. Hopefully he'd pick up.
Aaaand he didn't.
Great. Just great. The tired bassist shook his head to clear his thoughts. What now? What do I do?
The sweet tendrils of sleep tugged on his body, begging to be noticed, but he ignored them. The tendrils, upset that they did not receive their desired reaction, pulled and yanked on his mind, of which was clouded by rushing thoughts and frustrated emotions. As Tyler struggled to keep his eyes open, open and so very afraid of what might happen if he closed them, a wave of drowsiness crashed over him like a deluge. His head, weighted with the drug of sleep, hit the plush pillow with suddenness. Closing his eyes ever so slowly, the teen curled up into a comfortable position on the bright red bed, and finally drifted off into dreamland.
Tyler had never seen a landscape so white and bleak and devoid of any color. He couldn't even tell where the floor or ceiling was. It was just pure nothingness. But there, in the distance, he could see a distorted grey figure, as if it were the color of static.
"Come," whispered a low, gruff voice.
Despite the strangeness of it all, Tyler spoke. "Come... where?"
"Come," it repeated.
Tyler frowned and crossed his arms in suspicion. "I would very much appreciate it if you told me where to go-"
"Sheep. A flock of cancerous sheep, so arrogant and yet so dim-witted. You, lamb, may be an exception."
"'Exception'? To what? What are you talking about?" He was starting to lose his cool (and maybe even his sanity). "And sheep? What sheep?"
The voice, which was emitted from the eerie grey figure, seemed to ignore all of Tyler's questions. "Stray from the herd. The white is but a canvas of wool, stained with hatred and foolishness." With that said, the static-y form sank into the ground, leaving no trace of it ever being there.
Tyler, his arms akimbo and his brows furrowed, was struck dumbfounded by the strange human-like entity. I wonder...
He never thought he would hate the sound of his alarm so much.
Tyler jolted awake from the blaring of the clock on his desk and gasped for air, like he'd just had a nightmare. His eyes darted around the room in panic, and his palms were sweaty from the abruptness of his awakening. It was a dream, right? The world slowly transforming into Minecraft... it wasn't real, was it? Glancing down, he expected to see the lack of sheets on the bed, just how he'd left them yesterday afternoon...
...Only to discover that the bed cover was the same bright red as the one in the game.
"Fuck," he swore under his breath. This couldn't be happening, could it? Much to his dismay, there was still college to deal with, so with stiff movements, he got off the bed and went to prepare for school.
The second Tyler arrived back at his dorm, he received a call. He closed the door behind him as he answered his phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey-o!" Ah, the singsong voice of Craig Jackson. "Sorry we couldn't return your calls; we were just busy preparing somethin' for ya!"
"'We'?"
"Yeah, y'know - Desmond and I! Listen, if you're not too busy, mind swinging by Desmond's house tonight?"
"Craig, it's 6:45pm. Sleep is vital to me."
"Aw, c'mon! We've got a surprise for you!" The vocalist sounded like he was pouting. "Please? Pretty please?"
After a short debate with himself, Tyler agreed, much to his friend's excitement.
"Yeah! Didja hear that, dude? Ty's coming!" Sounds of fistbumping were heard. "Alright, well, how's about I come and pick you up? Walking will surely take up too much time."
"Sure."
Craig whooped and spoke with eagerness, "Awesome! Bring your bass, okay? I'll be there in 20."
This made Tyler smile.
The ride to Desmond's house was surprisingly uneventful, with nothing too interesting or explosive happening. Craig parked his car by the driveway just as the moon had fully shown itself in the night sky. Tiny stars twinkled in the blanket of blue, catching Tyler's attention, of which was stolen so rudely by Desmond's booming voice. "Let's do this!"
The three young men headed down to the basement, where Desmond had kept his "precious and especially fan-fucking-tastic" drum set. Switching the lights on, the illumination brought life to the dank room, which was once dull and devoid of any music. Now the band had arrived to fill its cement lungs with sweet melodies and fun times.
"This is the surprise!" exclaimed Craig. "Jammin' time!"
"Boy, Nate would have loved to play with us," said Desmond as he played with his drumsticks. "I miss the little guy already."
"Indeed," replied Tyler as he took his beloved bass out of its case.
"Well, at least I can still function as a guitarist," said Craig, running a hand through his curly brown hair. "It'll be like he never left."
Long into the night did the band play. The clock hit exactly 9pm when they finished performing their last song. Tired but satisfied, the three males decided that they should probably return to their dorms.
'Probably' turned into 'really'.
The drive home was slow, unsurprisingly. Each of them was tired from jamming way too hard than they should have, and they were just glad that they could still squeeze in a couple of hours of sleep before the next dreadful day of college. They had only a single emotion plastered on their faces: Craig was happy, Desmond was exhausted, and Tyler was sleepy. In fact, he was asleep the entire ride.
The car took a turn to an area in the neighborhood known to be dangerous at night. The route back home didn't include going through there, so why wasn't Craig following the usual path like he was supposed to?
And Desmond, half-asleep, noticed the wrong turn, so he spoke up with a hoarse voice. "Dude... what?"
But his friend said nothing, instead he drove on like he hadn't heard a thing. Little did Desmond know that Craig, too, was nodding off to sleep himself, so half the time he was aware of where he was driving, and half the time, well...
The road met an intersection, which was the last stretch of the bad neighborhood before reaching the safety of the urban district. Cars zoomed left and right, forward and back; with tired eyes, it was difficult to tell which direction any of them were going. Craig's car was going at a rather fast pace, almost as fast as the vehicles rushing at the intersection. The traffic light blinked red, signalling for the cars on Craig's lane to halt, but he made no sign of slowing down. They were nearing the crossroads now, and yet the vocalist did nothing to stop the car. Was he asleep?
It was as if time itself slowed down. They were mere meters away from touching the boundary of the intersection, and why the hell wasn't Craig doing anything? Goddammit, Craig!
Closer. Closer. A lone figure attempting to cross the road suddenly stopped in their tracks and locked their eyes on the car that was about to hit them. They had no emotion on their face, if they had one. It was too late now, the car was inches from the still form, centimeters even-
But the car phased through the figure it was supposed to hit. There was no time to worry about that, however - Craig was still snoozing mindlessly while the vehicle he should have been driving was now about to crash with a truck rushing towards them from the left road. And just as they were about to collide with it, the car screeched to a halt, jolting everybody awake from their undisturbed slumber.
Just in time, too - they were literally a foot away from the enormous vehicle. Now that was a close call.
"Dude! What the hell?!" yelled Desmond, clearly fuming at his rude awakening and near-death experience. Luckily he and the others chose to wear a seat belt; otherwise they would have suffered from whiplash.
Tyler was rendered speechless. His eyes looked scared and his mouth was agape. Too close, too close.
"I don't... I didn't..." Craig, on the other hand, looked like he was about to bawl his eyes out. He glanced down at his feet - one was on the gas pedal and the other was... "Not on the brake...?"
So what stopped them?
As they sat there, startled and processing what had just happened, the mysterious figure from earlier seemingly teleported to Tyler's side of the car and stared him down with blank eyes.
"Lamb," said the figure, "You are of no use to us if you are dead."
Tyler was scared shitless enough from the close encounter with death, and now some stranger who may or may not be a ghost comes up to him and tells him weird bullshit because what?
Why not, right?
Oddly enough, Desmond and Craig took no notice of the looming figure clearly staring their friend down through the window. Attempting to discern the true appearance of the dark figure, Tyler squinted his eyes and asked in a shaky voice, "Who are you?"
"Come," it replied with a familiar gruffness. "Sleep well, little lamb." And it walked away casually, leaving the bassist perplexed beyond words.
"Ty, hey Ty, you alright man?" asked Desmond, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Are you injured anywhere?"
Tyler shook his head and took in deep breaths, attempting to calm himself down. "I'm... alright. Just... just take me home."
Craig's eyes were welling up with tears at that point. The car was still stuck at the red light, thank goodness. "I'm so sorry I fell asleep! Seriously, I mean, if there's anything I could do to make it up to you guys-"
"S'alright man," replied Desmond stiffly. He was obviously not pleased with his friend's thoughtlessness about the whole driving thing. "Let's just go home and get some proper sleep, yeah?"
So they drove home without another word to each other.
A/N: I am hella tired, guys. I apologize if there are any errors or grammatical mistakes because I'm rushing to get this chapter out. My schedule is slowly becoming busier, so updating everyday will probably not happen.
Reviews of all sorts are always appreciated!