OH NOTCH ICANT REMEMBER MY PASSWORD TO FANFIC . NET AND AUGH I NEED FF TO FORMAT CHOAPTERS ALSDJF AKLDJF PLEASE

NVM

I GOT THIS

YOU MIGHT ONLY GET ONE CHAPTER FOR NOW

ILL POST THE OTEHR LTAER IF THATS THECASE

AHH I FORGOT TO PACK SOMETHING

Games

Ch 35: Easier

"Right, so I'm going to act like you very nearly murdered me-"

"But then you pushed me away and the GameMaster held me against the wall and healed you-"

"And then I was able to unlock the door and escape your room."

"Perfect!" I praise him, smiling widely. "And you can tell Jason what actually happened sometime when the others are distracted."

"Awesome. We've got this," Ty says, nodding to himself and biting his lip.

"Hey, you'll be fine. Even if you bomb the acting part, they'll probably believe you anyway. At this point they'd take any extra reason to hate me."

Ty sighs, looking down at his feet. "I'm really sorry, Sky-"

"Ty, I told you, it's fine! I'm fine," I insist even though I'm not. I'm a good actor, though, and usually the only one who can see through my lies is Seto.

But Seto doesn't give a crap if I'm not fine anymore, so we're all good.

"Alright, you ready?" I ask him, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup, totally ready," he says, fidgeting intensely.

I huff. "Ty, seriously. You don't have to feel bad for talking bad about me to them. I don't mind. It's part of the act, right?"

"Right."

"So it doesn't matter. Just do it!"

He nods and walks towards the door. I give him a thumbs up and then back up against the wall, ready to spring across the room towards him as soon as he opens the door.

He opens the door.

I sprint across the room, scowling at all my ex-team members. Ty immediately slams the door shut so I can't get out, and I pound on the door, feigning rage.

"Ty! Are you alright?" Mitch asks as I put my ear up against the door to listen.

"OmiNotch, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Ian asks.

Ty goes through the story we made up, and the others gasp and curse me at appropriate times. "But, yeah, I'm... I'm okay," he finishes, and I silently applaud his work.

"Wow," someone breathes. "That's- I didn't think he would- wow..."

"Yeah, it's..." Ty sighs. "Yeah."

"Please report to the Spawn Area for your fifth Challenge!"

Ah, wonderful. I absolutely love Challenges! I was abused in the last Challenge, and it was so much fun.

"I didn't raise you to be a sarcastic piece of crap."

… Yeah, you did.

"..."

I roll my eyes and shove open the door, growling at Team Crafted and relishing in the way most of them flinch back.

Wait, what?

I mean, it is easier. Oh, it's so much easier to hate them (or at least pretend to hate them) than it is to try to keep being their friend. Their only response to me continuing to be nice was to push me away and make feel worthless and evil. Their response to this?

They leave me alone. I don't have to hear about how unwanted I am, or how much of a mistake I am. No one sneers at me about how I'm just like my father. No one will even make eye contact- Ty and Jason especially, as they're both afraid of blowing our cover.

It's so much easier.

"See, Skybrine? That's what I've been trying to tell you all along! It's easier not to have to deal with the pain of being verbally shown their opinions of you. It's easier just to growl and walk away."

… Yeah. Yeah, it is.

But my name is not Skybrine.

A proud grin covers my face as I run over to the Spawn Area. I'm ready for the Challenge. No matter what happens, it'll have to end at some point, and then I'll be fine again. And until then, I'll just growl and hiss at anyone who makes me mad.

Sounds like a plan.

"Welcome to your fifth Challenge!" the GameMaster announces when I walk into the Spawn Area. When he sees me, he frowns. "Oh, it's just you."

"Yeah, just me," I confirm, rolling my eyes. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"Well, I was at least expecting someone rather than something."

I frown and look down, regaining that familiar feeling, but then a voice suggests another course of action.

"Shoot back at him, son! You can't just sit here and take this!"

… Yeah... He's right. "What do you mean, some thing?" I turn my head from side to side as if trying to figure out what he's talking about. "Oh, you must be seeing your reflection in the arch! Just close your eyes and it'll go away."

The GameMaster glares at me. "Ah, yes. I suppose it would be wise to take your advice, seeing as you've had to hide from your reflection many times."

I nod, smiling. "Mmhmm, I have. I- Oh, wait. No, that wasn't a mirror I was looking at earlier, that was a picture, a picture of you! My bad. The 'close your eyes' thing will probably still help with the pain in your eyes, though."

He huffs. "There aren't any pictures of me in the Living Quarters, idiot."

"Oh, I know. I was actually just looking out the window at you, but I thought I'd try to spare your feelings by saying it was a picture. At least then you could blame the eye-scorching ugliness on a crappy camera, right?"

"W-Well- I- You-"

"Ocelot got your tongue?" I ask smugly as Team Crafted wanders into the Spawn Area, staring with confusion at the GameMaster's helpless expression.

He suddenly stops stuttering and growls at me instead. "No matter how many smart remarks you make," he hisses, "your old friends still hate you, your father is still Herobrine, and you are still an unwanted demon with a heart as black as death."

I flinch back at his words, biting my lip as I try not to let tears escape my eyes.

"No, don't back down now! You were winning! Take one more shot."

I smirk. "All the better to murder you with, my dear."

The Team stares at me with wide eyes while the GameMaster gapes at me.

"Ah, there we go. Well done, son."

A small smile creeps onto my face. My dad is proud of me for once, and I didn't even murder anyone! He's proud of me!

"W-Well, uh- Welcome to your fifth Challenge!" the GameMaster starts over, and I snort. He shoots me a glare, but I just raise an eyebrow. What's he gonna do? A replay of Challenge Four? I think I can survive that.

After all, I am the son of Herobrine.

"What's this Challenge about?" Jason asks, still sending me worried glances. I guess it's not exactly common for me to embrace my heritage.

"This Challenge is actually pretty fun," the GameMaster tells us. "It's basically just a game of Truth or Dare."

"Basically?" Ian asks nervously. "What does that mean?"

"Well, I mean, there are two extra rules..," the GameMaster replies, smiling creepily. "One: No one may skip a truth or a dare. And two: All truths and dares must hurt someone either emotionally or physically."

"What a brilliant game! Your father- mother and I used to play that all the time when we were younger."

What? I swear, you can be so weird sometimes.

"Oh, great," a few people in the team groan. Some of them actually send me terrified glances, as if they think I'll be giving them extremely harmful dares. Don't they know I'm not like that?

"You'll find throughout life, son, that it's easier to match people's expectations than it is to try to change them."

That's actually a really good piece of wisdom, but I don't want to match my ex-friends' expectations. I don't want to be the person they think I am.

"Oh, but didn't it feel good to burn William like that with your words? Didn't it feel good to growl and brush past your old team rather than take all the hatred and judgment that they constantly give to you?"

Yeah, it did.

"And remember how easy it was? You didn't hurt anyone doing that! You stood up for yourself, that's all. You have to stop letting the world walk all over you."

I don't let the world walk over me!

"You let your old friends walk all over you."

Well, what am I supposed to do?

"I've already told you! You have to stand up for yourself, Skybrine. You have to fight back."

I think... I think I could do that. But my name is not Skybrine.

"Whatever, this is good, this is progress. See, it isn't so hard being Skybrine!"

My name is not freaking Skybrine.

I snap out of my thoughts to a tap on the head, and then I glance up to see the GameMaster glaring down at me from his spot in the air. "Come on, Mister Lost-In-Thought, we have a Challenge to do."

Ah, right. I look over at the Challenge door- it currently has black and orange stripes, and "CHALLENGE FIVE" is written above it in neon orange.

"O-Oh, sorry- er, gimme a minute, okay? Maybe I'm not quite demented enough to look forward to these Challenges as much as you do," I spit, trying out this new 'stand up for myself' thing.

The GameMaster grumbles something and then walks into the Challenge Room without me, and I stride in after him with a confident smile. "Mitch won the last mini-challenge, but I can't think of any advantages to give him other than just making him exempt from the whole thing, so there are no advantages this round. Anyways, who's going first?" he asks once I've sat down next to Ty in the little circle the Team has made on the floor of the empty, dimly lit room.

Ty scoots away from me a little when one of the others gives him a confused look, but then he puts his arms out behind him and supports his weight with his hands, and somehow his right hand ends up resting on my left and I just leave it there because why wouldn't I?

"No volunteers? Fine, I'll go first. Jason, truth or dare?"