Chapter Five: In the Darkness of the Day
Hours had past from when Lukas was kidnapped to when he woke up, coughing up blood. He opened his eyes to see that he was in a large circular room with pillars circulating five feet away from the rounded wall, and right next to him on both sides was Axel and Olivia, in all their sick and dying glory. Lukas's heart started beating faster and faster. He got up from sitting against the wall and tried to run, but he didn't get far for his hands were shackled to the wall. He tried to run forward in an attempt the squeeze his hands out of the shackles, but his right leg collapsed and went entirely stiff. He fell face first onto the cold stone floor.
"Lukas?" Asked a female voice to his right. He turned his head to see that Olivia was now awake.
"He got you too?!" Asked another voice from his left, but this time it was more deep and male like. He turned his head to see that Axel was awake too. Both of them were gray skinned and blood covered, and some purple veins were visible in some areas of their faces.
"Where are we?" Asked Lukas, his bloodshot eyes darting all over the place.
"We don't know, but we think it's somewhere near the temple." Replied Olivia.
"Dude, you were right about Jonny!" Exclaimed Axel.
"I know, where is he?" Asked Lukas.
"He's at the temple, and he said he's going to kidnap Jesse next." Olivia replied.
"We've gotta stop him!" Exclaimed Lukas.
"Dude, we can't!" Said Axel, raising his hands up to show Lukas the chains that connected them tightly.
"And even if we weren't restrained, he infected all of us with wither sickness," Olivia added, "That'll just slow us down and weaken us."
"Well, we've gotta do something!" Exclaimed Lukas, trying to get back up.
"We can't!" Exclaimed Olivia, "We've tried everything!"
"He's just too powerful!" Exclaimed Axel.
"Well, what's the worst he could do?" Asked Lukas, sliding back onto the ground.
"He can change the form and shape of his limbs." Replied Olivia.
"He has super speed!" Axel added.
"He can infect people with wither sickness."
"He has super strength!"
"He can form anything out of nothing."
"He has super hearing!"
"He can knock you unconscious just by the flick of his fingers."
"He has super night vision!"
"And, he can compress your body and then absorb your energy and matter to make himself stronger." Upon hearing all of these advantages Jonathan has, Lukas's hopes were lowered a slight bit.
"I just hope Jesse and Petra are okay." Said Olivia, looking down at the ground.
Jonathan had dragged Jesse and Petra up the stairs and back into their room and planned on 'convincing' them that last night was all just a dream, and was in the middle of dragging Ivor to his little hideout where he would give him more of a reason to keep Jesse and Petra from finding the village. Once they were not too far away, Ivor started to wake up.
"What… what happened," He asked, "Where're you taking me?"
"You didn't seem motivated enough to keep the secret, so I'm going to give you a 'motivational' speech, or something like that." Jonathan replied.
"You don't know what you're doing, do you?"
"Not really."
"So you take time out of the day to drag me down here, and you don't even know what you're going to do with me?!"
"Could you just shut up please? Thank you." The rest of the walk to Jonathan's hideout was quiet. The sun was starting to rise, which meant that Jonathan didn't have much time until Jesse and Petra would wake up again, so he had to hurry. Once he unlocked the door to his hideout, Jonathan just threw Ivor in there, landing straight on his face. He then locked the door behind him and placed an obsidian block in front of it.
"YOU ASS!" Exclaimed a voice from the wall of the room. Jonathan turned his head to see that Lukas was looking at him with a furious look on his face.
"Why thank you," Jonathan replied sarcastically, "Donkeys are my favorite animal." (In case you didn't know, an ass is another word for donkey)
"So this is where everyone had gone!" Exclaimed Ivor, raising his head from the cold ground.
"This is at least where the new order is, everyone else is, well… that's not important." Jonathan replied. Ivor then leaped from the ground, straight at Jonathan; oddly enough, Jonathan just raised his hand and Ivor stopped midair. He then waved his fingers around and purple transparent ropes appeared out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around Ivor. He then dropped to the ground, completely tied up.
"Alright, cut the crap Ivor, I'm going to be serious with you here," Said Jonathan, walking closer to Ivor, "When it's time for you to go investigating with Jesse and Petra, are you going to help them find the destroyed village or not?"
"I will." Ivor replied, not a single look of fear on his face. All of a sudden, the ropes around him started to tighten, and one appeared around his neck.
"I'm gonna ask you this again: are you going to help them find the village or are you going to keep quiet?"
"I'll help them find it." The ropes around him tightened even further, almost to a choking point.
"I don't wanna have to kill you Ivor, that's something I hate doing, so give me a reasonable answer." Said Jonathan as he leaned in closer to Ivor's face. He just stared at him as sweat started to cover his face.
"Is staring at me your answer, or are we in some kind of staring contest?" Asked Jonathan.
"No matter what you say your do, I'm staying with my decision." Ivor replied.
"Okay then, I guess I should just compress your body and absorb all of your energy instead."
"What?" Hearing this, Ivor remembered the monster he had created two years ago, and how it did a similar thing to all the people, animals, and buildings that got caught in its tractor beams. Jonathan's eyes started to turn pitch black and black particles started to emit from his hands. He then looked over to the row of three chained order members.
"You three, look away!" He exclaimed, not wanting them to see what he was about to do.
The second Petra opened her eyes, she knew something wasn't right; she was hanging half off of her and Jesse's bed, and Jesse was hugging her foot.
"Jesse!" Exclaimed Petra, in attempt to wake Jesse up, but to no avail. She started shaking her foot around to see if that will wake him up, but instead, she ended up kicking him in the face.
"Ow, my nose!" Jesse jumped straight up and squeezed his damaged nose as it started to bleed. With her foot now free, Petra joined Jesse on the bed and helped him cover up his nose to stop the bleeding.
"Jesse, something's not right." She said. At that moment, Jesse remembered what had happened.
"Where's Jonathan?!" He asked, pulling Petra's hands and his own off of his nose, even though it was still bleeding rapidly.
"I was thinking the same thing, but, how did we end up in here?" Asked Petra.
"All I remember is that we were downstairs with Ivor, and the next thing I know is that we're!" Said Jesse, going into their bathroom to grab something to put on his nose. Petra jumped off the bed and reached for the doorknob, but as she felt the cold metal on the knob, she heard someone coming up the stairs outside the room. She retracted her hand quickly and went to grab her sword, but for some reason, it wasn't in it's usual resting place on her side of the bed; in fact, she realized that none of her or Jesse's armor was in the room either.
"This ain't good." Said Petra, looking around the room to see if they had misplaced all their gear.
"What's not good?" Asked Jesse as he walked out the bathroom with a handful of tissues taped to the bruised part of his nose.
"All of our armor is missing!" Replied Petra. The doorknob could be heard shifting, which meant someone was coming into the room. Jesse and Petra got ready to pounce on the person who'd come in. The door opened slowly, which gave them plenty of time to think, but once the door was open, they were given no time to react. A force pushed them both back into the wall behind them, and immobilized their arms and legs. All of a sudden, transparent purple chains came out of the wall and tied them to it. A man walked into the room, a large unnatural smile across his blood covered face.
"Jonathan?" Petra was a little surprised to see Jonathan walking in, a bit oblivious of him to be the one causing trouble everywhere. He just chuckled and looked over to Jesse.
"You bastard." Jesse mumbled, realizing what was going on. Jonathan then walked towards him and stared at him in the eye. Jesse started to feel more and more uncomfortable the longer he stared at him, when suddenly, he was in a trance. Jonathan then grabbed his head and pulled it down to his height and whispered something in his ear. He then let go of his head and walked over to Petra. A transparent purple stool then appeared underneath him to raise him up to Petra's height. He then threw his arms at the wall beside her head, making her flinch a slight bit.
"What are you doing?" Asked Petra.
"I didn't have time to do it earlier so I'm doing it now." He replied.
"Doing what?"
"Erasing yours and Jesse's memories of last night and just now."
"Why don't you just kidnap us like I bet you did with everyone else?!"
"Where's the fun in that? And besides, the plan won't go the same way if I did that."
"You're a monster!"
"Shh. You don't wanna wake up Jesse, do you?" Petra then looked over to Jesse to see that he had now fallen back asleep. She then looked back at Jonathan, who's eyes had turned pitch black.
"Plus," He continued, "If you have no memory of just now, I'll get to do this without your boyfriend getting even more mad at me." Petra opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Jonathan had grabbed her head and pulled it into his, making their lips meet. The kiss lasted a few seconds, until Jonathan pushed Petra's head back up against the wall. He then stared at her the same way he stared at Jesse. The stare added to the discomfort from the sudden kiss. She started to become mesmerized by his colorless eyes, finding it hard to look away. Her memory was becoming clouded, and her brain was starting to shut down. Eventually, she had no control over herself, and was a mindless body. Jonathan then leaned in close to her ear and whispered the same thing he whispered to Jesse.
"You are to forget everything that happened between the time you woke at three o'clock last night, to right now." The second he had said that, Petra couldn't do anything to stop that from happening as her memory was immediately erased. She then started to doze back off to sleep, with no memory of anything that had happened. Seeing that Petra was no longer conscious, Jonathan kissed her on her forehead.
"You will join me." He said before he released the both of them from their restraints and put them back in their bed. He then went out the room and closed the door behind him. Once outside the room, he slid down the wall and sat on the floor. He then started to cry; but, like last time he fully cried, his sadness turned into joy as he started laughing insanely. Tears still pored down his face as he laughed insanely, but he ignored them.
"Get ready world!" He yelled, "Your time is coming to an end!" He then sat there, laughing, until he'd choke on his laughs. He then pulled his left sleeve back and spat on his arm to wipe away the skin colored paint to reveal his Wither Storm tattoo. He then put his head back and closed his eyes.
"Damn." It had been an hour since Jesse and Petra's memories were erased, which means that Jesse had forgotten about both getting kicked in the nose, and touching the black goo and infecting himself with wither sickness by mistake. He had just woken up from the stinging pain in his hand, and he had also woken Petra up from his complaints of the pain.
"What's wrong?" Asked Petra, half asleep.
"My hand hurts like heck," Replied Jesse, "And I don't even know what happened to my nose!"
"It's bleeding." Said Petra.
"I know, I can smell the blood." Petra then rubbed her eyes and got out of bed. She felt like something was wrong, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Jesse then got out of bed to grab an ice pack to put on his hand when all of a sudden, the door flung open and Jonathan ran into the room and pulled Jesse and Petra into an embrace.
"I heard thunder!" He yelled.
"You're afraid of thunder?" Asked Jesse.
"Yeah." He answered, hugging them tighter. The redstone lights started to flicker as thunder was heard.
"Looks like a big storm is coming." Said Petra, looking out the bedroom window to see that it was poring with rain outside.
"Shoot!" Exclaimed Jonathan as he face-palmed.
"What?" Asked Petra, looking back at him. Jonathan let go of the two and slowly backed up towards the doorway.
"I uh, I-I have to uh… I gotta go!" He ran straight out of the room and downstairs.
"What was that all about?" Asked Jesse.
"Jonathan!" Yelled Petra as she ran after him. She ran out of the room and stopped at the top of the stairway to see Jonathan stumbling down the stairs and tripping over his own feet.
"Jonathan!" She called down to him as he struggled to open the front door. He looked up to her at the call with a worried look on his face.
"Please, don't remember!" He yelled up to her, dropping to his knees.
"What?"
"I told you everything, you saw everything! I need to do this, AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME!" Another lightning strike with thunder and another shriek from Jonathan were heard; as well, the lights flickered again, much more vigorously than before. Petra tried to understand what he meant, but it felt like something was blocking her memory.
"Jonathan, what are you talking about?!" She yelled to him.
"You haven't remembered yet?" He asked, "If you don't remember what I did, then join me!" Another lightning strike and another violent light flicker. Jesse then ran over to join them and jumped at Petra, embracing her tightly. More lightning, and another light flicker. Jonathan's nose started to bleed and tears started to appear in his eyes. Another lightning strike. Jonathan tried to army crawl away. Another lightning strike and the lights went out with no return.
"Notch damnit, Olivia's not going to be pleased with the lights going out." Said Petra, trying to feel her way down the stairs.
"I wonder why Jonathan was acting so strange when the storm started." Said Jesse, following Petra close behind.
"For one thing, he said he was afraid of thunder, but he was also saying some pretty strange stuff before the lights went out." All of a sudden, Petra's head started to ache, as well as Jesse's.
"P-Petra, s-something h-happened last n-night." Jesse stuttered as the pain in his head got worse.
"I kn-know." Petra replied, the pain in her head unbearable. Then, the pain stopped.
"Jonathan's the culprit."
Jonathan knew his powers wouldn't last much longer in this storm. Lightning storms always disrupted the signal in his powers, which means that he needed to hurry to kidnap Jesse and reinfect everyone who he infected before. He knew he had failed with the whole 'erase their memories and pretend nothing had happened' plan, so he needed to stay hidden. He had army crawled into the kitchen and was trying to hide in one of the cabinets. It was getting harder for him to see in the dark, so that obviously meant that Jesse and Petra's memories were almost restored too. He sat in the cabinet, hiding, for ten minutes, but he knew he was wasting too much time. He crawled back out of the cabinet and tried to stand up, but only to fall back down again. His legs were weaker, most likely because his powers weren't active. If he were to kidnap Jesse without using his powers, he'd have to wait until they were separated. At least there was the next best thing: distractions.
"At least his plan to erase our memories has failed." Said Petra, crafting a torch. Now that they had their memories back, they were slightly more prepared to go up against Jonathan, but they still didn't have a any weapons or protection.
"He must be after one of us," Said Jesse interlocking his hand with Petra's and holding it tightly, "So we need to stay together." Petra's face turned red at the sudden kind gesture from Jesse.
"Are you saying that you need to protect me?" She asked, stepping away from the Crafting Table with the torch she made and Jesse still holding tightly onto her hand.
"Well, yeah, I mean, I've always tried to protect you, especially back when you had wither sickness." Jesse replied, standing back to back with her.
"Yeah, well, the tables have turned, and you're the one wither sickness, so that makes me the strong one."
"Petra, you're always the strong one."
"Jesse!" An unknown voice called from the shadows, attracting Jesse's attention.
"Who's there?!" Jesse called back, but no answer.
"Was that Ellegaard?" Asked Petra, recognizing the voice.
"But that's impossible, she's dead." Jesse replied, a chill going up his spine.
"Damn, I remember that day like it was almost yesterday."
"Jesse, take my armor!" The voice called again.
"Okay, this is getting weird." Said Jesse, holding Petra's hand even tighter.
"Jesse, am I going to be alright?" Another voice was heard, but this time it was a lot deeper and more male like.
"Gabriel?" Asked Petra. Things were starting to get even weirder by the second.
"It was dark, and foul, and I was sure I was a goner." The voice said. Jesse was starting to sweat at the strange phenomenon.
"Aw man, Ellie. For a second there, I almost managed to forget." Another voice was heard, and this time it was Magnus's voice. Jesse started to sink to the ground, the regret and disappointment seeping back into his mind.
"We used that damned Command Block!" This time, Soren was heard. They had seen Soren's corps not that long ago, so hearing his voice was even more eery and disturbing.
"You are nothing and you will never be anything more than an idiot, you stupid little girl!" Jesse did not recognize that voice, but Petra obviously recognized it. She started to sweat as well, and her heart started to beat faster and faster.
"Don't leave me outside again, please!" Petra yelled, terrified of the voice that was heard. Jesse turned his head and looked up at Petra to see that she was starting to cry. Jesse opened his mouth to speak, but something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Through all that was happening, they had both forgotten about Jonathan and the blackout, so it would've been expected for Jesse to run off alone. At the sight he saw, his hopes were raised and he felt like his heart was no longer as empty. He let go of Petra's hand and stood up, ready to dart towards the shadow he saw. Petra grabbed Jesse's arm, stopping him from running towards the shadow.
"Jesse, stop!" Exclaimed Petra, "You know that can't be real!"
"I've been losing hope for too long," Jesse replied, "So he's gotta be real!" Jesse pulled his arm out of Petra's grip.
"Reuben!" He yelled as he ran towards the pig shaped shadow; however, something jumped down from the ceiling and tackled him.
"Jesse!" Petra dropped the torch she was holding and ran towards him.
"Petra!" Jesse's arm was held to his back by the person on top of him, and then a loud snapping sound was heard, followed by screaming; the person had broken his right arm.
"Get off of him!" Petra commanded, but her only reply was the person looking up at her with an unnatural smile going across their whole face.
"Stupid little girl, it would be better if you starved to death!" The person screamed at her.
"No!" Petra screamed, terrible memories coming back from her childhood. Petra jumped at the person, but they had some how evaporated, and she ended up landing on top of Jesse.
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" Jesse yelped in pain as his broken arm shifted into a more uncomfortable position.
"Stupid stupid STUPID!" The same voice called from above them. Petra got off of Jesse, helped him up, and then went to pick up the torch she had, to find that it was gone.
"Have you idiots forgotten why you're here, why I'm here?!" The voice called again, "I know all your weaknesses!" It was all getting weirder by the second.
"What is this?!" Asked Petra, her head darting around, trying to find the source of the voice in the pitch black.
"Memories, memories of everything you fear!" The voice relied, "Remember Jonathan?!" With that line, Petra immediately remembered what they were doing. Something then grabbed her feet and dragged her down the the ground and started pulling her away.
"Jesse!" She called, the grip on her legs too strong for her to pull off on her own. A hand came down and grabbed her hand and pulled her from the grip of the strange thing that grabbed her.
"Jesse this is all too weird," She said looking up at him, "I think we need to get out of here."
"It is all just Jonathan." Her boyfriend replied.
"It doesn't feel like it." Petra didn't show it, but she was terrified, and she needed calming down. She leaned up and kissed her boyfriend, and he kissed back. They shared the kiss for quite some time, until the man stepped backwards, off of a stool.
"Well that was amazing, wouldn't you say Petra?" He asked.
"What?"
"There's a lot you can do you know, even if you're powerless." Petra was confused, a little bit more scared even. The raining stopped and the thunder was no longer heard; the storm had ended.
"Well, won't you look at that, the storms gone," The mans voice then changed to a more child-like-mans voice, "Now then, let's get some lighting up in here!" The man then clapped his hands together twice, and all the lights turned back on, revealing Jonathan, not Jesse, standing in front of Petra, a smug look on his face.
"There's so much you can do with the things you find in the kitchen." He said. Petra had been tricked, fooled, just like she was a child again, listening to ghost stories and believing they were real.
"I-I don't understand." Said Petra, taking a step backwards.
"Well, you see while I said all those things earlier to distract you, I switched Jesse out with me." Jonathan then pointed to the side, where Jesse was hanging upside down from a rope, watching the whole thing.
"He saw everything you know." Petra was becoming furious, but before she could do anything, a fist came flying at her face, and she blacked out.
Authors Note: Hello readers! I am so sorry on how long it took me to get this chapter out, I was in a serious writers block and I needed a lot of help from my friends to get out. Also, a massive thanks to my friend Avery for helping me with this chapter. Unfortunately, I will be on another hiatus for around three to four weeks because of a trip to England. When I get back, I will hopefully be done with chapter six, but if not, then it should be out later in the summer. Well, hopefully I will see you all in the chapter.