Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the 28th chapter to Hourglass!
Sup! Isn't this weird? First, I only wait five days to come back and give you all another chap, and now three days? You must be wondering what I've done with the real Pastrinator64! It's odd for me, trust me. Having so much inspiration after two years of feeling absolutely dead. But what could possibly be keeping me going at this point?
Welp, two things. One, I have an obligation. I have decided to extend this into a trilogy. I was the one who decided that the Glitch would prevail at the end of VOiD instead of the heroes winning once again. I'm the one who wanted the plot to be something more when it finished...so I have to fulfill my promise. If I leave this story hanging, I'll never be able to feel satisfied on ANY other project I complete. I'll always think about how I never quite finished the Divination of Dimensions Trilogy.
And secondly: I've still got about 12 or 13 of you who're still sticking by my side and reading. Most of you are new people. I know three of my fans from the days of VOiD who are devoted readers (lookin' at you, Badgerman, Marshman101, and Airas Slayer! ;D) and certainly nobody who was with me since the VERY beginning. Like, early The Glitch times. And still, there's a small bunch of you left over who want to know what happens, who are interested in the plot and want to see the Glitch finally be defeated. For good! Like seriously, that thing sticks around way too easily!
So yeah! I really want to do this! Before everybody's grown up, at least!
...
Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I totally missed answering your guys's reviews last chapter, so I'll just do it now.
Replies to Reviews
Badgerman: That's definitely something I've noticed, too. I was looking at my remake of my original series that I started earlier and realized again how much I've grown as a writer. It's just more...realistic! Dialogue, fight scenes, everything! So I'm glad someone else is also recognizing that! And yeah, I wasn't going to make one of them have air powers. XD
Marshman101: I personally think that they're something truly scary about being trapped inside of your own dreams. Like, when I was a kid I would have nightmares where it was about me not being able to wake up in the first place. ^^'
Airas Slayer: Thanks! It never hurts to have a bit of good luck! :)
Badgerman: I actually forgot to do your other one as well, so I'm answering both your reviews! It makes me super happy to hear you say that. About not leaving or anything. Because I've had a lot, and I mean A LOT of people disappear over these past three years of FanFictioning. Also, in regards to your Patrick Obsidian question, I'm, well...I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about adding ANOTHER arc to this story. I've already got the two main ones: Norman's and Jeff's. And of course, there's the side stories with the Glitch, the Spirits In Between, and not to mention the few snippets you get to see of Salutem! Adding Patrick would kill me. XD
ALSO! Badgerman! I can't PM you since you don't have an account and only ever leave guest reviews, so I'll just ask you to reply via review. I looked up The-Nexu on YouTube and found a couple channels that had that name. If you can, get an account and just PM me a link to your channel. It'll be so much easier for me to find you, then. Thanks! :D
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 28: The Mistress
Auconi's eyes slowly blinked open where he lay. The sudden increased rumbling of the giant minecart must have been what woke him up. He was an extremely light sleeper in the first place, though, so waking up in the middle of the night wasn't all that unusual.
He slowly sat up in his seat and stared at the skin of his forearm, which was now imprinted with little squares from being embedded in the carpet for hours. He sighed, sniffed quietly so he wouldn't wake up anybody else, and ran five fingers through his swampy green hair. Once he was up, he had very little hope of getting back to sleep for another hour.
"Hmm…" he murmured, frowning around at the other sleeping individuals in the area. "…I gotta pee."
Auconi stood up, feeling a bit of fatigue left in his legs as he made his way to the edge of the compartment where the open doorway to the outside stood. A normal person would have found it nerve wracking to balance half of themselves up against the wall to take a piss out a speeding minecart, but Auconi wasn't quite what you'd call a normal person, so…he just did it.
He was just zipping up the iron tab on his pants when a loud whoosh sounded behind him. He whirled around in an instant and found Adrian's chest at the tip of his diamond sword. Both of them were breathing heavily in the moment, perfectly still and tense. A few seconds of silence later, Auconi pulled back his sword and let it hang stiffly at his side.
"What the hell are you even doing?" he snapped, though quietly still. "You know startling someone with a blade is a terrible idea, right?"
Ben cleared his throat, trying to keep up the innocence in his startled expression. He leaned back against the homemade totem pole behind him and folded his fingers.
"Sorry, Auconi." he said, remembering to put that southern twang on his syllables. "Just feelin' restless is all.
Auconi grunted at this response and sat heavily in his original seat, the sound being muffled by the gray carpeting.
"You must've been pretty restless if you're making noises like that. What were you doing just now, flapping your arms?"
Ben unstuck himself from the odd assortment of blocks to his back and shuffled back to where his host had been sitting earlier that morning.
"Er, o'course!" he replied; Auconi gave him a very curious look and he felt obligated to explain. "Dunno about you, but I'm roasting hotter than a fresh hamburger patty over the charcoal, so I was…airin' out."
Auconi's eyebrows raised unintentionally at his words. He made an odd face and muttered,
"You…you're serious? That's real, you're not just making that up?"
Before Ben could formulate a reply, Auconi shook his head and slid up against the metal wall of the minecart monstrosity.
"Y'know what, I actually don't want to know."
Ben glared at Auconi once they broke eye contact. He didn't need any more suspicious kids getting on his case. He wasn't even supposed to be in control at the moment; Mr. Grass hadn't yet failed to do a task. He was breaking protocol by doing this, too.
"Curses…" he thought, closing his, or rather Adrian's eyes. "Lord Glitch surely will understand the nature of the situation and forgive my independence from its rules."
It was fine by him retreating into Adrian's mind. As long as he couldn't let his plasma extend freely, there was no point being in charge of this human's cramped, uncomfortably close-quarters figure. How these creatures lived day to day with such harsh restrictions on bodily movement he could never comprehend.
Jeff peeked around the corner ever so carefully as he, JB, and three other prisoners from the tower crept down the cold stone hallway. In front of them was the last hall leading to the back exit of the building where they could help the innocent captives escape. But just seven blocks to their right was a set of four zombies in sporting full diamond gear, only unable to see them due to the low-light conditions of the area. Jeff ducked back out of view and stuck himself up against the wall next to JB.
"JB, when I give the signal, bring these three across the hall and outside. Make sure they get to the edge of the forest unseen and then come back to meet me."
JB got halfway into his nod before stopping abruptly and giving Jeff a look of curiosity.
"Er, meet you where?"
"Back in the main prison where we ended up earlier. As big of a bug she is, we can't forget about Amya. Besides, she's got TNT and I'm afraid if we leave her alone much longer she'll somehow blow herself up."
JB shrugged in agreement and quickly relayed the plan to the final three prisoners behind them. Once they all had the same idea in mind, Jeff slowly sidled down the wall to the corner and peered around its edge at the zombie guards. They were all grumbling incoherently and scraping their swords along the stone floor. Jeff lifted a hand and angled it towards the earth right beneath their feet and then jerked his fingers upward, causing a solid platform of iron blocks to fly up beneath them and crush them into the ceiling above.
"Go!" he hissed, watching the prisoners and their escort move past him in his peripherals.
The zombies victim of Jeff's iron block attack were making incredibly loud gurgles of pain and the sound of scraping diamond on rough rock bounced down the length of the dim hall ahead of him. The whole point of this rescue operation was to get everyone out as quietly as possible, but it looked like he was only able to get so far before something made a noise. It was the guards' armor that was keeping them alive and groaning, anyway.
"Just…die!" Jeff grunted, suddenly getting an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach when he saw cracks form in his iron blocks. "What the heck?"
Without warning, all of the blocks that were holding up the zombies shattered on the spot. Jeff felt his arm become limp in a matter of seconds and he stared at the falling particles in both confusion and fear.
"What in the name of Notch?"
He threw out his other hand again to make another platform at the new oncoming wave of zombie guards, but only a few seconds after it had spawned in their way were they able to hack it out of existence. Another bout of feebleness hit Jeff hard in the hand he'd just used a moment ago. He backed up quickly as the four undead figures shuffled towards him, swinging their weapons at random. He too took out his iron sword, though now it felt much less firm in his grip.
"Why can't I use my Block powers?" Jeff murmured, entirely muddled for an answer.
Things weren't looking too bright for him all of a sudden. He knew it, too, and hastily made the decision to think on the run. As he sprinted down the hallway in search of cover, he repeatedly glanced down at his lightly trembling fingers and muttered,
"I…I just don't get it! What the Nether is wrong with me?!"
He dug the side of his foot into the ground and darted to the left, sharply turning down the next hallway. Up ahead was a set of cobblestone steps leading up past his render distance. What was a good sign was the presence of a substantial amount of light at its end.
Jeff's leather boots pounded the stairs as he took them four at a time thanks to his long legs. The murmurs and growls of his pursuers had faded into the shadows that that were still left untouched by the light above, though he did not let his guard down for a moment and take things slow. While his hands felt weak, the rest of his body was on high alert.
Only thirty seconds after he'd touched the very first step did Jeff reach the final one. The room at the top was pretty spacious, probably at least forty blocks in each of its dimensions. There were two broad empty doorways on the left and right sides of the room, which was similar to the outside in that ores and stones of all types made up its floor, walls, and the ceiling up above. The only thing that confused Jeff was that he couldn't locate the source of the natural light that filled the room.
"Weird." he whispered to no one in particular, eyeing a lone two-block pedestal of mossy cobblestone in the center of the floor.
He lifted his foot to take another step inside, but before it could hit the ground a voice chimed from the back of the room.
"Welcome,"
Jeff's sword came up in a defensive stance in a millisecond flat. Standing atop the center pedestal was an old woman dressed in tattered black robes that extended several blocks past her feet. She looked like she'd lived a long and stressful life, as shown in the deep wrinkles present in her cheeks and beneath her eyes. Her cracked lips curled into a light smile as she spoke the following words,
"Jeffrey Ironblock; I'm happy you have finally found your way to my home."
Jeff froze on the spot, though his hands continued to shake with the sword gripped in both.
"You're…hold on, how do you know who I am? I haven't—"
"I remember the names of all past and present Aetherians, Mr. Ironblock. You're no exception."
The realization quickly dawned on Jeff. He straightened up, slowly assessing the cryptic woman in front of him.
"Then you must be Maria."
She laughed a dry cackle, head bent slightly as she did so, then curled back into her normal posture.
"Sweetums, call me Mistress."
Maria let out another ear-piercing cackle and spun around, causing her long cloak to swivel upwards and encase her entire body. When it fell back down, the witch was nowhere to be found and an empty cloak descended gradually onto the floor. Jeff ran up to the massive article and stopped at its brim, staring at the hood in the center with a look of pure shock.
Suddenly, the robes sprung to life, right at Jeff in fact, and engulfed him in their folds, blinding him. He cried out in surprise and flailed his sword, trying to slash the animate cloth ensnaring his arms and legs.
"Nyahahahahahaha!" Maria shrieked, her voice seemingly coming from the heart of the cloak itself. "What a fool you are to come here, sadly! Let me guess, my sister sent you to check on my location?"
Jeff continued to grunt and hack and struggle inside of the black mass around him.
"Get off of me!" he yelled, managing to pin a section of the dark material into the ground with his iron sword and twist it around painfully.
"NGAH!" cried the Maria, and the cloak spread its folds and flew off of Jeff, tugging his sword straight out of the ground; he almost lost his grip of it in the process.
Jeff took a gasp of air and whirled around at the sound of a rushing wind. Maria had appeared human again, standing ten blocks from him just behind the pedestal. She felt her side with one hand and brought it back out, revealing a red splotch on her palm.
"Lucky jab." she spat, her smile turning into a grimace. "It's still just a scratch, however…"
It was quite an odd sight to see an article of clothing bleed, but it was happening right before Jeff's eyes. He took a confident step forward.
"All I was doing was following my friend Morgan. She's the one who wanted to see you, but I ended up losing her back in the jungle when one of your avocado minions tried to hit and run."
Maria began to take slow steps towards Jeff; he braced himself, gripping his sword as firmly as his hands would allow at the moment.
"Evan." she said bluntly, and Jeff's eyebrows raised the tiniest bit. "What a disappointing soldier he is."
Maria lifted a bony hand and snapped her fingers. The sound of a beast's footsteps began to echo around the walls and Jeff jerked his head to the right at the sight of green. To his incredible shock, the creature that came out of the darkness was none other than Zombulk. He was so shocked that his mouth gradually lowered closer and closer to the floor the more steps the monster took out.
And held in one of its Wreck-It Ralph-sized fists was Evan, who looked like he was having a bit of trouble breathing. The smaller zombie caught sight of Jeff and gave a gulp, struggling still for air.
"J-Jeffff…" he wheezed, face going purple. "Hey, d-dude. My lungs a-are already rotting away, but this-s really doesn't—"
Zombulk's meaty fingers tightened around Evan's torso, making him squeak. Jeff felt at least a little bad seeing him in distress despite the trouble he had just caused him earlier, but it didn't quite distract him from the abomination that was Zombulk.
He could clearly remember the fight he shared with Norman, Lizzy, Danny, and all those other kids way back when, and how they'd definitely killed the boss mob off. In fact, it was his zombified wife that did the deed in the end. And yet it stood not far from him, breathing heavily and staring deep into his eyes through empty sockets.
Jeff already knew he was in trouble, so he found himself considering his next statement a rational response.
"Zombulk…how many times do you have to be killed?"
Zombulk bared his silverfish-ridden teeth and growled deeply. Maria magically walked out from behind the zombie boss and held his arm, squeezing gently.
"Keep your stance, Zombulk. And release him," she commanded, bending a finger up at his clamped fist.
Zombulk barely looked at his superior when he said bluntly,
"Yes, Miss."
The monstrosity lifted Evan into the air and threw him aggressively towards Jeff. The shrimpy green body slid to a stop just in front of the Ironblock, who took a step back and then got on his knees. He grabbed Evan by the arms and lifted him up; he must have been knocked out on impact with the ground, because he was completely limp in his hands.
Jeff jerked his head up at Maria from where he knelt and stared at Maria apprehensively, dragging Evan further away from her and her zombie thug.
"Have you done something with Morgan already?" he asked, eyebrows low over his eyes.
Maria curled her fingers over her palm, glancing lazily at her violet nails.
"Do not concern yourself with Ms. Ironbars. She's home now and that's all that matters. It was a mistake to let her fall into the goody-goody hands of my sister and the likes of you."
She let go of Zombulk, who skulked off towards the corner of the room. He still glared over his bulky shoulder at Jeff, watching him unwaveringly. Maria once again started making steps towards Jeff. In response, tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. When he looked down at its health bar, he was startled to see that it was reduced to less than half of its max. He was running out of swings.
"I'm only thankful that she's decided to come find me on her own accord. After I provide her with the answers she must be seeking, I'll be having to erase her memory. Again."
Jeff instinctively started to back up at the same pace that the witch before him strolled forward. He continued to ask questions, saying,
"But why do you need to do that? And what kind of answers are you talking about?"
Maria gained a look of light surprise at his words and raised her eyebrows, replying,
"You really don't know anything about Morgan, do you? Hmm…"
She tapped her cleft chin with her fingernail, pretending to think. Or perhaps she really was, it was hard to tell. Her body language had been mixed this whole time and it was difficult for Jeff to decipher what she could be thinking at any given moment.
"Well," she said after a few seconds, "I suppose that since you're going to be dead within the next half hour, I can spill my secrets."
That first part, although he'd been threatened with phrases like it many times before, made Jeff's stomach dive right down into his shoes. At least back then he had friends to back him up. Heroes of the Divination of Dimensions, not to mention.
"Matilda most likely told you, but I am what you would call a necromancer. Reviving the dead for a second chance at life. Even if their lives have been…taken by Lord Glitch, I can bring them back. And of course, I've been taking late victims from its kill count for the last twenty years now, building up my own little armada of zombified soldiers. Four years after the Glitch's second defeat, I was even able to re-resurrect the zombie you see just over there." she pointed to the corner where Zombulk stood, arms crossed and stone-faced. "Quite a magnificent creation on the Glitch's part."
Jeff knew he could hurt the witch with just his sword and felt a slim opportunity come his way. She had been looking at Zombulk for a second too long, for the next moment his blade tore through the fabric of her right sleeve, just barely missing her arm but cutting deep into the shadowy fabric.
"EEEYAAAHHH!" screeched Maria, and she disappeared in a flash of her robes.
Jeff wasn't given even a second to regain his balance before a giant dark mass flew out from behind and knocked him off his feet, swaddling him. Wrapped up like a big black eggroll, he swayed on the spot and immediately lost his balance, falling on his side and banging his head on the cold stone floor. Not a moment of struggling later, he watched in horror as a face formed in the cloth just beneath his chin.
"WOULD YOU HOLD STILL FOR ONE SECOND?!" it screamed at him. "DAMN YOU, THAT HURT!"
A shiver ran down Jeff's spine when he felt a hot trickle of liquid run down his shoulder blade. Bleeding clothing. Just unnatural.
All of a sudden, the cloth began to move around Jeff and he involuntarily began to roll across the floor, being shaken like an armless, legless ragdoll every time Maria spoke another sentence.
"You seem eager to get to the conclusion!" the cloth declared, going into a short cackle. "All you need to know before you die is that after I resurrect the entirety of the Plasma Realm's captives, I will have a virtually endless army of viral zombies for my own use! No one will think of a world swallowed in darkness, but rather a world where the zombie apocalypse becomes more than just a focal point of Blockywood!"
Jeff was extremely dizzy by the time she finally stopped flailing him around the room and now all he could see were blurs of different shades of gray. After a few seconds, he noticed that they were moving in a straight path for once. As he tried to figure out another escape plan, he realized that his weapon of choice was no longer in his grip. Or even in his sight!
"What?! Where'd my sword go?!" he thought, frantically craning his neck to see across the room.
They reached the center of the room and leapt up into the air, landing painfully on the pedestal that stood there. Jeff was now staring straight up at the ceiling. He hadn't noticed it when he came in, but there was a set of redstone ore in the shape of an X. That really wasn't a comforting sight.
Jeff was about to just roll off the stand and pinch Maria in between him and the floor, but the animate robes around him shifted once more, springing outwards and becoming solid at their ends. The sharp edges drilled into the stone floor and effectively pinned him to the platform.
"Now, before I have you fed to Zombulk, it'd be best to cook you! Not only shall you be a bit more flavorful, but you'll be far less poisonous once you're charred to the bone."
Oh Notch, that couldn't be it for him! He had a brief PTSD moment of being captured by the Spider Clan and nearly being dipped in their molten lava pit. Almost instantly, Jeff started to writhe desperately, tilting back and forth underneath the pressure of the cloak.
"Medium-well, Miss." spoke Zombulk, his voice carrying thanks to the room's poor acoustics.
Suddenly, Jeff stopped where he lay when he saw the X far above him open up at its center block, revealing a lit hole. Not many ticks later, a block of lava appeared inside of it.
"NO!" he cried unintentionally, continuing his struggle.
Maria's next brutal screech of laughter echoed throughout the room, filling it up entirely.
"No one here to help you now, Mr. Ironblock!" she taunted, a clear level of glee in her tone.
Jeff's eyes widened as he had a sudden realization. Block powers! His fingers moved beneath the fabric ever so slightly and he focused painfully hard on the falling lava stream above. It had gone past the hole, so he would have to create a larger barrier to make it flow out of range from him.
"Ha!" he said, snapping his cramped fingers and summoning a 5x5 iron platform underneath the lava.
Unfortunately, Jeff's defenses only lasted for another few seconds before the blocks he'd created began to shake and crack, lava seeping through in teeny tiny droplets. The dam broke open and showered him with pellets of iron. He accidentally caught one in his mouth and immediately spat it back out.
"Why isn't this working?!" he screamed, anxious frustration building inside of his chest.
Maria let out a short, sharp giggle and the face in the fabric formed once again, raising up a tiny bit so he could see it better.
"Right, I suppose you could not have ever know this. You see, Aetherians cannot use Block powers! Once you die, those become null and void for all Minecraftians! And that applies to even you, Mr. Ironblock, whether or not you're there anymore!"
The pure look of horror Jeff's face contorted into was a better testament to what he was feeling than any words he could have spoken.
"So please," Maria whispered, "do try to not strain yourself. Trying to use your powers now will eventually result in a loss of consciousness. And I know that I'd like to see that you are completely awake to see your fiery end! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! NYAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
With all Jeff's options turned to dust, all he could do now was stare up at the lava that slowly, continually flowed down to give him its deadly kiss. If Norman had been there, or Bailey, maybe he'd've had a chance of getting out of this one. Even Danny would have helped him escape…
But now it was completely bleak. With only nine blocks left to go before the end, Jeff closed his eyes tight and silenced his breath. If he was going to die, it would not be struggling or crying or screaming. He had to just…be brave. Be calm. Not let the bad guys see that they get the better of him.
Esmeralda would have wanted him to die at peace, at least.
Nooooo! Don't bring Esmeralda into this again, Jeff! Your situation is already bad enough, but doing that just makes everybody think depressing thoughts! Including you! ...and did you catch that about the Plasma Realm? Did you, Jeff? ...Jeff?! Come on, man! You have no clue! DX
Anyway, like I said earlier, the following chapters will be coming out at least twice a month. That's what I'm aiming for since I really just want to git 'er done! :3
Will Ben be discovered by any of the other members of the group? Did JB and those prisoners make it out of the prison alive? What exactly is Morgan? And how in the name of Notch is Jeff going to get out of this one?! Answers to these and more in the upcoming chapter of Hourglass, friends!
This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!
*throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar*
...Goodbye for now...
~Pastrinator64 [~]