Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter for Hourglass! Sorry for making you guys wait, but for some reason I just wasn't inspired much for this chapter; funny thing is, about two hours ago I had such a big burst of inspiration that I felt like I was reenacting the scene from the SpongeBob episode "Suction Cup Symphony." Yep, there was a rainbow of inspiration flying out of the back of my head. XD
Also, how many of you have homecoming this weekend? My school has had homecoming stuff going on all throughout this week, so yeah! Plus, I'll be taking my girlfriend to the dance this Saturday, so that should be pretty cool! What about you guys?
Anyway, here are some replies to your reviews!
Replies To Reviews
Mmtunlight: Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't realize I wasn't being totally clear. Just look out for "OC" in bold during my intro or outro, then you'll see that I'm asking for OC's.
badgerman: Thanks! It's nice to get encouragement in these tougher times for FF.
pbtenchi: *eyebrow raise* Not that bad? Do you remember how things left off the last time they were together? Yeah, NOT pretty.
Nwinds: 1. Well, the least you can do is sound like you know what you're talking about. XD
2. Ah, don't sweat it.
3. I know, I realized that with the characters. Two of them are OC's, though, so that's one reason. Auconi and Alexander are the two I'm referring to.
4. Yeah, I realize that I don't implement rails much into the content. I guess it was just a day where I felt like, "eh, what the heck."
5. GAH! That was supposed to be a good line by the Glitch but I totally messed it up! I mean, I fixed it, but it's still bugging me.
6. (Answered in QAA)
7. (Answered in QAA)
8. (Answered in QAA)
9. Thanks! I'm just glad I got another chapter out. It's definitely one of the roughest times I've had with writing.
HikariShonenCrafter1: Aw! Well, I'm glad you like it! Have you read the first two?
Aaaaaaaaaand, done! Now that we've gone through that, it's time for the story to return!
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 14: Glitched Dreams
Jeff was glad to have both his legs back; he was now able to keep up with Morgan and JB. While they stumbled through the thick jungle, Morgan swatted the vines and leaves out of her face, grumbling,
"Sheesh! Doesn't Notch have a godly lawnmower that he can mow this place with? It's probably like his lawn or something."
JB smiled and shrugged at the same time.
"That's one way of looking at it. Still, I'd say we're already halfway there."
They still had about 750 more blocks to go, but at least they were making progress. After a few more minutes, Jeff looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was just rising above the tall trees and into view. If he had to guess, it was about noon. They'd started walking hours ago, so there must be another few to go before they reached...wherever it was they were going.
"Where exactly are we headed, again?" he asked.
Morgan glanced over her shoulder at him and replied,
"That old lady's house. The witch sister of that Matilda lady. I've got a couple questions for her, really."
She sounded a little faraway when she said that, like it wasn't something that simple on her mind. Jeff cleared his throat awkwardly and prepared to speak, but he was interrupted by an arrow whizzing past his face. Instantly, he jumped back and whipped out a spare stone sword he'd gotten from JB earlier, readying himself for another attack. He reached around and grabbed the two teens, stopping them in their tracks.
"Hey, what's—"
He put a finger to his lips to silence Morgan and nodded first at the arrow lodged in the wood of a tree next to them, then to the direction it had come from. Suddenly, a second arrow came whizzing by and he deflected it with his sword, leaping forward into the brush and giving a battle cry. His sword connected with bone and the monster before him crumpled to the ground with a grunt. He froze for a second and then stared down at the corpse.
"Wait, skeletons don't make that sound..."
Jeff wrenched the blade out of the skull of the zombie he had just slain, staring at the bow in its hands. That was very unusual.
"JB! Morgan!" he called out. "You might want to take a look at this!"
The two of them hopped up on top of the lower tree leaves, standing there and joining Jeff in observing the undead archer in curiosity. JB jumped down from the leaf blocks and bent down on one knee, getting a closer look. He reached for the bow—
"BOO!"
The zombie came back to (life?) and sat up suddenly, startling each of them. Morgan hid behind the tree, watching from a distance as the zombie lifted a clammy hand to its scalp and felt the wound made by Jeff's blade. Then he looked up at JB, Jeff, and then Morgan.
"HA! You guys sure were spooked!" laughed the zombie, clutching its stomach.
Jeff scowled and picked up the zombie by the collar of its trashed blue shirt, getting right in its face. After spending so much time face-to-face with zombies scarier than this thing, Jeff wasn't afraid of them.
"What's the deal, zombie? How're you still alive?"
The zombie froze for a second, looking fearfully into his eyes. Then, without warning, it let out a nasty cough and went limp in Jeff's hands. Jeff gritted his teeth and dropped the creature, just staring at its body.
"Maybe it's a glitch." suggested JB.
Jeff squinted at the corpse and replied,
"Yeah, that seems like the explanation to all this madness. Alright, let's just keep moving!"
He turned around and hopped up onto the tree leaves, following JB out of the empty patch of grass and back into the thick jungle. Suddenly, a loud rustling sound came from behind and he turned back, seeing the zombie somehow animate again and running for its life through the trees. Jeff whirled around and ran after it, chasing it down with all his energy. After a few seconds, the zombie looked back while it was running, black eyes widening at the sight of Jeff charging through the vines towards him.
"Gyah!" was all it could say, and it sped up the pace.
Jeff didn't recall zombies ever being able to run, but this also didn't deter him from his goal of catching this creep. The zombie full-on sprinted until they exited the jungle five minutes later, going into a clear area of just tall grass with a grove just thirty blocks away. The zombie was running out of stamina and began to slow down, suddenly tripping and landing flat on its face in the sand that surrounded the nearby pond. It scrambled to its feet and rushed forward again, Jeff now only a handful of blocks behind him.
Finally, once they were at the edge of the following woods, Jeff and the zombie stopped, breathing hard and sweating with the effort. They stood there, watching each other's every movement and waiting to get another chance to run.
"Oh, come on!" panted the zombie, shaking its head. "Dude, you can't get me! I'm like mean, green lightning!"
At random, the zombie moved its feet all over, running back and forth in a confusing pattern before trying to rush right past Jeff; of course, Jeff managed to stop him by putting out a foot and tripping him back into the sand. Before it could scurry away like the coward it was, Jeff lifted the thing to its feet and put the sword to its neck, holding its arms painfully behind its back.
"Alright, greenie! You going to...ugh...talk?" he said, still trying to get his breath back.
The zombie's eyes darted around for a moment, looking for a way out of this mess. Oh, he knew he shouldn't have gone so far into the jungle! The Mistress will punish me for sure!"
The sword got closer to the thing's neck as Jeff started to get tired of this thing's babbling.
"First, your name. IF you have one."
It swallowed hard, nerves overwhelming him. It was true, he was quite the coward.
"They c-call me Evan! I-I swear, I was just having some harmless fun, man!" stammered Evan.
Jeff shook him to get him to stop rambling and then said,
"Who's the mistress? Who are you working for? Are they the ones who taught you marksmanship?"
All the questions were making Evan think just how much closer to his re-death he was getting.
"Uh, well, the necromancer Maria is the Mistress, but she hates being called by her first name, so, um, that's why she made a new one for herself. Okay, so I'm just a pawn in her army, see, so she sent a ton of guys like me out to patrol the woods past here to make sure no one came within a good distance of her, uh, base. She's got these BIG preparations for some huge weapon that's gonna aid the Glitch in its army or something and I'm not supposed to tell anyone! ...oh, crap! PLEASE DON'T TELL HER I SAID THAT!"
Jeff sighed and threw Evan to the ground, who scrambled back on the ground. Then he turned to the forest and looked into it, getting a feeling; maybe this is what Matilda meant. He was supposed to defeat this weapon and her master, perhaps.
"Alright, Evan. You're going to lead me through these woods to the hideout, got it? I've got some business with the Mistress!"
He turned around to see Evan disappearing into the jungle again. He groaned and ran after the idiot. Up ahead, Evan looked back and grinned when he saw that Jeff was not even close behind him.
"Sucker!" he said with a snicker.
Moments later, he smacked right into Jeff, falling back onto the ground. In a matter of seconds, a sword was pointed back at his throat and he stared up at the guy in disbelief.
"But...but...but..."
Jeff hoisted Evan back up and pushed him back the way he'd come.
"C'mon, junior."
"Adrian...Aaaaaaadrian..."
Adrian opened his eyes slowly, drowsiness weighing down his eyelids. It seemed pointless, however, because he was surrounded by total darkness.
"Who's that?" he murmured sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
Suddenly, Adrian's vision cleared and he saw a pair of red eyes coming towards him in the dark.
"You know who I am..."
Adrian perked up in an instant, standing up off the ground and whipping out his frying pan. The only thing was, it had somehow gone missing; it wasn't in his Blockpack. Actually, his Blockpack wasn't even there! He braced himself, balling up his hands into fists.
"Glitch!" he muttered, fear coursing through him. "What're ya doin?!"
The figure stopped for a moment and blinked at him. Without warning, their eyes shifted, changing from blood-red to a calm brown. They looked exactly like his eyes, he thought to himself. The figure in the dark snapped their fingers—or at least it sounded like it—and a dull glow surrounded the two of them, illuminating them. This person, or thing, looked just like Adrian except his skin was black as night and the eyes held an unforgiving look of spite. Adrian backed away quickly.
"Ain't you the virus tha' the Glitch put inside me?"
Ben nodded and walked closer to him.
"You're correct! Being Lord Glitch's right-hand virus allows me to be able to do all its dirty work. And when I say dirty work, I mean the most FUN work. I have a message from my master, you see. Since you failed to complete your first evil task before you and your companions escaped the Aether, I will be taking over for a little while."
Ben lunged straight at Adrian and tackled him to the ground. A burning sensation filled Adrian's body for a full ten seconds before it disappeared, leaving him to lie there on the floor, panting like a dog. He sat up, clutching his chest and heaving. All of a sudden, there was no sign of Ben anywhere.
"Ben!" he shouted, his voice shaky. "What've ya done?!"
Adrian waited for a reply, but all he got was a sudden random urge to turn around. He did; sitting behind him was a floating screen similar to that of the one he'd broken during his encounter with the Glitch inside the Clock Chamber. It flickered to life, showing mostly black with a line of light through the center. It appeared to be showing someone's first-person perspective, because it appeared as if eyelids were opening to disperse the darkness and show the person's surroundings. It appeared they were traveling by minecart in the middle of a line of other people doing the same.
Realization set in: Ben was controlling his body now. Adrian stood up straight and ran up to the screen, pressing his face against it.
"HEY! GUYS! ANYONE?!"
Kelsey, who sat in front of Adrian, caught him looking at her and turned her head curiously.
"Adrian? Are you alright?"
Adrian cleared his throat—the Adrian being controlled by Ben—and spoke in his exact same voice, perfect with the accent and everything.
"Yeah, I'm good! I jus' can' wait ter kick that Glitch's butt ter the moon!"
Kelsey grinned and sat back in her seat, thinking of the satisfaction that would bring. Adrian pounded on the screen, yelling on and on in hopes that someone would hear him.
"KELSE! KEEEEEEELSE! CAN YA HEAR ME?!"
He waited for a long time, but finally he fell to his knees in defeat. He was trapped inside a dream and there was no way out.
Ben cracked his back while sitting in the mobile minecart. Ugh. This new body was so uncomfortably small. He was used to having limitless mobility, but now he had to work with human confines. He looked around at his passing surroundings. They were now in a plain 3x3 tunnel, speeding down the tracks towards Blocks Vegas. Ben sensed it was morning, maybe eight or nine o'clock. About twelve hours had passed since they got in the minecarts, so they were already halfway there.
Thank the Lord Glitch; the less time he had to spend in this stupid body, the better. The Glitch had told him that his duty was to do the work that Adrian failed to perform. Ben sat up straight in the minecart, opening up the Blockpack on his back and searching through the inventory. There it was: the Deathblock. The massive plasma bomb block that Adrian was supposed to use to terminate Liz. A grin spread across his—or technically, Adrian's—face as he realized what he was going to do. In a matter of seconds, he formulated a simple plan.
Ben raised a hand and shouted up to the front of the line,
"DARCY!"
Darcy turned around and looked at him, appearing mildly annoyed.
"WHAT?"
"COULD WE STOP FER A BATHROOM BREAK?! I GOTTA EMPTY THE TROUGH!"
Darcy rolled his eyes and stopped his cart, making everyone else nearly fly right out of their seats at the sudden halt. Astrid regained her balance so she wouldn't tip right out of the cart and looked over at Darcy.
"Hey! What's the big idea, huh? I was having the coolest dream!"
"The cowboy's gotta go." he replied simply, leaning back in his seat to make himself more comfortable.
Ben hopped out of the minecart and head down the way they'd come until he was out of sight. Then he broke some blocks with an iron pickaxe from his Blockpack and hid, around the corner he'd made. Now all he had to do was wait for Liz to take the bait. He waited for five minutes. Then five more passed. Soon, fifteen minutes had gone by and still there was no sign of Liz.
About sixty blocks up ahead, the group was waiting rather impatiently for Ben to get back. Alexander tapped an invisible watch and muttered,
"Geez, this guy must have some serious problems if he takes this long to jizz."
Liz looked over at Norman, who had the same look of concern on his face as she did. She let go of his hand for only a moment and started walking towards where Ben had gone.
"Alright, I'll go check on him."
She was worried that something had actually happened to him, so she quickened her pace to a jog, making her way swiftly down the tunnel. In about thirty or so seconds, Ben heard her footsteps. He unearthed the Deathblock from his pocket and looked at it with a gleam in his eye.
Once Liz had jogged past him, he came out of his hiding spot and followed her from behind, unnaturally silent as he kept up with her. He knew that the Deathblock would obliterate everything within a hundred blocks, so it was smart that he get them away from everyone else. It would just have to be her.
When he thought they were about 120 blocks away, just far enough away to keep the others from being hit but still close enough to sweep them off their feet, he took the cobblestone he'd gotten from making his little hiding place and covered up in front of him, sealing Liz away on the other side of a two-block thick wall. Liz stopped running for a moment when she heard blocks being placed and listened; she turned around to see that where she'd come from was completely sealed off.
Ben laughed maniacally as he placed the Deathblock up against the cobblestone wall and lit it, taking off in the other direction as fast as he could. It wouldn't blow until he was at a safe distance, so he knew Liz would never catch up in time. Far behind him, Liz could hear something hissing on the other side of the wall and instinctively ran away, staying at least ten blocks away. When she didn't hear an explosion, she went back to the wall and took out one of their new friends' iron picks, breaking away the wall and coming out the other end.
A pitch-black block with zero design sat there, pulsating with a red glow, growing and shrinking slightly as though it were some form of glitched TNT.
"The Glitch!" she said, her eyes widening in fear.
Liz made a beeline down the tunnel, trying to get away from the bomb before it exploded. She had no idea how big the blast of a bomb made by the Glitch could be, but her instinct wouldn't let her slow down to find out. Ben stopped running when he was just within render distance of Adrian's friends, walking casually instead. The others spotted him in less than a minute.
"Sorry ah took so long. Those biscuits n gravy wet down like quick-dry cement."
Auconi looked a little grossed out as he cleared his throat and said,
"Did not need to know..."
Ben got back into his minecart and looked around at all of them innocently, pretending to notice Liz was missing.
"Where's Liz?" he asked.
Norman stood up from the ground and walked closer to him.
"She just went to look for you since you were taking so long. Didn't you see her when you were coming back?"
Before Adrian could answer, Liz's screams echoed down the tunnel as she came into sight, about fifty blocks ahead of them.
"BOMB! THERE'S A BOMB! EVERYONE RUN! RUN NOW!" she exclaimed, waving her arms urgently.
No one could react fast enough; the Deathblock ticked for the final time and then exploded in a blast of swirling black plasma, engulfing Liz and everything within a hundred-block range. All of them were knocked off their feet and the minecarts were scattered everywhere, some knocking out their owners. The rumbling that shook the entire tunnel was powerful enough to make Norman sick, but he mostly just tried to regain his balance so he could see if Liz was okay.
When the rumbling stopped after another minute, Norman stood up shakily, using the wall as support as he hobbled over to the colossal crater. Liz was lying limp in the center; upon seeing her there, Norman forgot all shakiness in his legs and bolted forward, not wasting a second.
"LIZ!" he shouted, jumping down into the crater and sliding down to the bottom.
He screeched to a stop and got down on his knees, holding Liz in his arms. She was as cold as ice and showed no response. He touched her face, tears coming to his eyes as he admired her silent beauty.
"No...Liz, please. Please! Don't be dead! Don't you die, please..."
Suddenly, Liz's eyes opened and showed only the color of blood, her mouth opening like a puppet's to gape at him.
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What a pathetic display, Norman Cobweb! Liz here is most definitely dead, one hundred percent dead, as the dead can be! DEADIFIED! DEADTACULAR! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Liz's hand lifted and wiped a tear off of Norman's horrified face, licking it from her finger. "Your tears are absolutely delicious. Got any more, only lo-cal?"
Furious adrenaline rushed through Norman's body and he strangled Liz, thinking he was actually doing some damage to the goddamn monster.
"You...YOU!"
"YES, YES, ME! Who else? Haven't you learned that in the end, NONE of you will survive? Since this is probably your most important quest of all time, I thought I'd help you out and let you start it off with a bang. So, here you go! A gift! From ME to YOU! ...NO REFUNDS! AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Without another word, Liz's body went limp again and her eyes turned to their natural green, the playful spark of joy gone, a glaze cast over the white surface. Norman sat there and just stared at her, not crying, not breathing heavily, not anything. He was in total shock. There had been many times in the past where he thought he'd lost Liz. The time she was captured by the Skeleton Clan. The time he accidentally killed many of their friends and she ran off into the rain. Every single time he saw her fighting another person during the huge battle in the Aether, he feared for her life.
Then they finally got to come back home after spending over a year in the Minecraftian world, pretending as though nothing had happened. He and Liz spent a lot of their time together, and each of their hangouts made them closer every time. He started having flashbacks of all those times at Cocoa Beach when they fooled around in the water, ending up kissing and red-faced at the end like total idiots. Hangouts soon became dates—the movies, at a restaurant, etc.
And then came the day when he had the guts to finally propose. It was on Liz's twentieth birthday; after he spent time with her family at the party, he and Liz went out to walk again on Cocoa Beach, their favorite place on Earth. They hadn't been there in over a year, so it was a very nostalgic experience. Then he brought her to the secret hideout that had held up all those years somehow. It was a lot smaller than she remembered, she'd said, then reached over to the cooler they brought with them and opened it up.
As she was taking out the sodas, he unearthed the diamond ring from his pocket and opened it just as she was turning around. She stared with open eyes at it, at first unable to say or do anything, then she started to cry. He proposed to her in a speech that lasted for three minutes, every word of it planned out to be as meaningful as he could make it; he wanted to make sure Liz knew just how much he loved her and that he would do anything for her, ever.
Then, when he came to a close, Liz dropped the cans of soda excitedly and said yes. Unfortunately, she'd been so shaken up by the experience that the cans of soda she'd been holding that whole time exploded when they hit the ground, soaking them completely. Of course, Liz didn't care one bit and kissed him on the lips right then and there, then started laughing when she let go. The two of them sat there like dorks, laughing and soaked in soda, just because they didn't care as long as they could spend the happiest moment of their lives together.
A married life followed after that and they had two beautiful kids, Mark and Vanessa. They had some bumps in their relationship, but it only strengthened them once the bumps were fixed and they could raise their children to be strong, smart and courteous. Mark had Liz's carefree personality and optimism, while Vanessa had his smarts and logical viewpoint. It was a near-perfect life for everyone in the family.
Then the Glitch struck again, taking their two kids into the world of Minecraft, just as it had done to them. Now Mark was dead and Vanessa was gone forever on a mission to fill in the gaps that her old master left. It was certain that he would never see either of them again, and now...now the only person who really mattered in his life anymore, his wife Liz, was dead. On top of it all, it was the Glitch that had killed her. Everything was the Glitch's fault!
"Why is it..." he muttered, scaring everyone who watched him. "That everyone I come to love in this world DIES BECAUSE OF THAT FUCKING BASTARD?! NNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Norman slammed his fist down on the ground, crying out in overtaking anger and pain, hoping that by hitting the floor over and over he could somehow take away the pain. Without his knowing, his entire body began to pulsate with a white glow. Ashy particles flew up from beneath his clenched fingers each time he pounded the stone beneath him. Mustering up every ounce of bravery in her body, Bailey took a small step forward and raised a hand, reaching towards her best friend's shoulder.
"N-Norman...what are y–"
Suddenly, Bailey was blasted back by her fingertips away from Norman, landing over ten blocks away with a painful cry. Norman's fists then both lifted up from the ground and fell again in a flashing blur, smashing the stone with enough force to cause the tunnel around them to shake violently.
"GLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!"
He bent back and outstretched his arms, screaming with grief past possible thought. At once, all his surroundings exploded into white particles, everything virtually being reduced to hot ashes. The tunnel around him disintegrated rapidly, the damage extending far and wide beyond sight. While Norman stayed floating in midair, all his friends fell deep into the base of the new cavern, screams filling the cold cave air.
In his state of pure hate, Norman knew in his heart that there was only one way to heal his pain. He'd been saying for the longest time that the Glitch would someday pay for its crimes. Now it wasn't just another item on the bucket list. It was his new purpose in life.
It was then that the sheer amount of grief just overwhelmed him; the glow beneath his skin subsided slowly, his body drifting lightly towards the ground as the horrible power within him started to fade. Moments later, he went unconscious in the darkness that was his destructive sphere, falling into the most nightmarish of sleeps he had ever experienced.
It was over for him. It truly was.
...I have no words...
After having to write this, I suddenly don't feel like much QAA, so...yeah. I promise I'll do it next time.
I guess I'll see you guys with chapter number fifteen.
~Pastrinator64