Drawing a Blank

"We got this..." she echoed. She took a deep inhale and breathed out. "Alright, we can start getting the supplies ready. Go on and grab some, using the inventory is pretty easy."

I opened up one of the chests to the right of the door and a grey window filled with items popped up inside, with another one in front of me. I looked over to see Delaney's hands tapping on the icons in another of her chests, automatically moving them to her box, and I started doing the same. We were loaded up and I was ready to go through the door, but as I opened it, a thin boy popped up in front from the other side and finished opening it for me, thrusting the door's knob out of my hand. I stepped back, not expecting anyone to have followed us, especially not Justin Doyle.

"What are you doing, Justin," I commanded of him. One does not simply like Justin. You're either his best friend or annoyed to death by the scampy, flamboyant sophomore. Or you don't know him. Or you're Delaney and don't care, although, that's pretty interchangeable with not knowing him.

"Wow, rude," he said, in his scoffing voice that sounded like he was trying to be 'queen of divas.' He looked back behind me. "Is that Delaney Keane?

"Hi Justin," she chirped.

I snapped at him, "You followed us?!"

"Yeah, free country."

"Well technically, we're not in any country right now," Delaney stated, matter-of-factly.

"So," he began, "what the heck is all of this? You said this was 'your world?' What's that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"Uhhmmmmmmmmmmm..."

"Delaney?"

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

"Delaney, why are we in Roblox? How did you even do this?"

"Hecking ummmm it's Minecraft. Uh, you're really putting me in an awkward situation here, to be honest... just... um," she started to panic a little, "go back to the forest real quick... we're trying set up and get organized... and all that. We'll be right over; we were just heading out. For now, try and get people to make themselves some shelter. You know, houses and all that."

"Well, why? Why should we do it? From what it seems, this is your fault, and what was that about some stalker guy?"

His inquiry made Delaney's face turn red again, and she shifted back in discomfort.

By then, I'd had enough of Justin, and trying to stay calm, I nudged him away. "OKAY Justin, let's all just go up, got it? We're right behind you, let's just GO." Justin begrudgingly walked back across the spruce bridge, and once he was out of earshot, I turned back and saw Delaney with a stony expression on her face. "What's wrong? I asked. "Was my pep talk not enough?"

"No, it's just that... my situation puts me in the shoes of a leader, but I don't want to be the person on top, Grace. This world was always mostly for singleplayer; I never let people on it through the school wi-fi, just friends and sometimes my brother. I don't think I'm going to be able to handle this, and I get the feeling everyone's gonna be trying to swarm my base for their own good rather than try to go it themselves."

"Well, you can't expect them to get along with no experience completely on their own. But I told you, we'll be fine. People will understand eventually."

"But when it comes down to it, I'm selfish. I don't want to be a leader. There's too much responsibility, and everybody crowds you. I don't like the idea of all the interaction, and I can't stand the idea of having to help when I'm not sure if it would do anything."

"Well, that's a massive load. You know this game well enough, heck, I haven't played by myself in forever, Aliza hasn't played in years, and I don't think Olivia's ever played it, so if anyone's qualified, it's you. You need to suck it up and take it head on, and it's not like you're on your own; I'm here, too, and so are Aliza and Olivia once we find them. Plus, these are high schoolers we're talking about. They may be crazy at times, but most are more than capable of managing themselves."

She smiled, reassured again, and we headed back outside to the dark oak forest with the supplies and chests in tow.

Night was approaching, and a basic camp containing about a quarter of the students had been set up in the forest. Some must've been set up in other areas, presumably led by other frequent players of the game. People hunkered down with each other and their coveted food supplies, and quite a few farms had even been set up, too. Delaney had been able to convince Justin that the 'stalker' she had been talking about was a part of the game, a creeper, so there were no worries of immediate mass panic, at least for the time being. Word got out on the possibility of death, though, but that didn't seem to come as much of a surprise, after all, we were still people in this game, and we felt every bit of pain that registered on our gauges. It was mostly the terror of monsters and survival that got people going.

People were angry, yes, because according to them, "being on her game must mean she'd had something to do with it," but just as many took her side, if not more. What would be the end game in pointing fingers at the innocent, after all?

That idea slowly settled in as people prioritized making shelter, but as night fell and the teens took cover in wooden and dirt hovels, only some with beds, people wondered: if not her, who was responsible?

And why were none of the teachers in here?

That night, I camped in Delaney's little spruce wood guest room. It was a small, separate building next to a field; a little cube not dissimilar to her house.

Dusk fell, and as I laid on top of my blanket in the coolness of the biome's air, I found myself unable to sleep. Maybe it was the events of the day, or maybe it was the pouring rain, but I simply stared at the wall on the other side of the room. Moonlight streamed in through the oaken door. I stirred in my bed, moving the sheets back and forth. I heard unearthly wind howling outside, and with that came a sound like chimes and a siren song.

I found myself pulling up the hood of my cloak and walking outside into the wind, taking a breath of the cold of the taiga. My jeans were already getting drenched, but I didn't mind, I was distracted. Something drove me that night to follow the wind's chimes to the camp across the river, to wander the alleys created by the now quiet, stagnant compounds of improvised shelter, and as I got closer and closer, the wind felt warmer and warmer.

There was a voice, a humming to my dulling senses, and shadows lept across the walls as I walked the camp in a slow stupor. At one point, a shadow found itself across from me in an alley that was not but a block wide, staring at me with dark eyes. It laughed, giggled, and it melted into the earth below.

A hand reached out across my shoulder from behind me, from nowhere, from darkness, and the arm that followed felt real and wrong. I snapped out of my waking dream and darted my eyes over to the hand in fear, but it simply whisked itself away. Nothing but shadows on these walls.

There was a flicker of green, a predatory eye catching the light of the moon, but that, too, was nothing but shadows.

The shadows whispered, they surrounded me, the strange chiming got louder and the wind stronger, howling, hot and energized. A feminine voice seemed to manifest from those shadows, some counterpart to a good I had never bothered to see.

It seeped into me, a wicked black void, a deep, penetrating empowerment, like something new surged through me, like I could destroy anything that I had a hatred for, like I could weather away all that I disapproved of.

I lost vision in my right eye, and everything looked glassy. There was a quiet, persuasive voice, and something primal in me wanted to follow it.

That night I blacked out.

I woke up the next morning with the events of the night seemingly nothing more than a fever dream, one that I would undoubtedly not remember anyway as anything more than a surreal and distant thought. After all, my vision was fine, and I was perfectly dry. I wonder if Minecraft has more of these dreams in store for me?

I walked outside to a beautiful, clear morning, one with a still rising sun.

I spoke aloud to myself, "Alright-y, maybe I can get something done today."

The campers had decided to meet today with Delaney, and hence me, to try and figure out how to eventually escape the game. 'I must be late,' I thought, because as I came up upon the bridge, I could see on the other side that there was a crowd already gathering towards the front of the camp. As I started walking over, a petite ginger-haired girl with braids walked up to me with a gravely worried expression on her face: my friend Jillian.

She stared at me teary-eyed, and hoarsely whispered out, "Where's Delaney?"

"Is she not already there?" I asked. Good to know I wasn't the only one not up, but Jillian's mood had me deathly concerned. She was kind and empathetic, so seeing her like this hurt.

We turned back to the other shore and rushed up to Delaney's oak shack. I opened up the door and found her camped out in the corner, sprawled face-down over her bedsheets. We went over and shook her awake, Jillian especially worriedly. Delaney jolted awake, slowly lifting herself up to her elbows and turned to face us looking through her awfully long bedhead with her strangely purple-tinted eyes.

"Does someone need something?" she slurred out.

Jillian just limply pulled on her by her hand and led her out of bed and through the doors. We made it over the bridge and up the opposite bank when Jillian slowly halted and simply pointed towards the crowd, putting her head in her hands.

Us two anxiously slipped through the clots of students and came towards the front to find something horrifying:

Justin's body, cut in half across his waist, leaning against a dark oak tree, darkly bloodied and singed.

A few in the crowd were looking in their or their friends' chat boxes, including Delaney, who was giving a death stare at her's that spoke of deep thought and confusion. I took a look at the chat log, as well, scrolling through the messages to find his cause of death that had everyone intrigued.

998anxel_Xx was slain by a zombie

SquareRootOf-1 hit the ground too hard

{TonightsArmy} haha get rekt

{TonightsArmy} wait shit do we not respawn

{Hw231} no

{TonightsArmy} shit he's dead

TonightsArmy was shot by a skeleton

~Justin~ was slain by

zshriboxd45 drowned

Nasya hit the ground too hard

...

~Justin~ was slain by

...

The killer's name was blank. Around me, I saw onlookers recoiling in horror of the first death, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Delaney running back across the bridge to her base.