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Welcome to my first Minecraft fanfic! I have written a few things in the past, fanfics, short stories, etc, so I have SOME experience, and please, please, PLEASE don't be afraid to comment. No trolling, though. If you comment, it should be for criticism, not saying to make it into a comic or calling me a fag for writing (yes, that has happened before). So, yeah. Enjoy!

Also, the first block is the newly edited version so the chapters will skip from 6 to 19, and if you get confused about the apostrophes (' ') in the second and third it's the old version of the italics for thoughts. Okay, NOW Enjoy!

WAIT! One more thing! Thanks to hgn1 for the idea, I have now begun a blog following the development of the sequel and things related (and unrelated) to the story here. Okay, go read now.

A Million Hours



Chapter 1: A Warm Welcome
It’s been a year since I woke up on that beach. The sight of trees blowing in the wind, the sound of leaves rustling, and the smell of a fresh forest overcame the stillness of my dark room at home. I sat up, feeling the wind on my face and the grass underneath my hands. It was all so vivid for a dream. It was like reality was a dream and this was real. It took me long enough, but I finally realized that this wasn’t normal.

As I rose from the sandy patch, I saw something that never in my 15 years of life had I ever seen. So many different things at once, the sand beneath my feet, the forest just 30 feet away, the vast ocean beyond, and the mountain shaped flat and overhanging. But above all that, I saw a chunk of dirt almost right above me. It was floating in mid-air, without any sort of gravitational physics. As I stood there and watched, something rubbed up on my leg. A sheep. I was obviously in some natural area, without a house or city anywhere within earshot or eyesight. Luckily, it seemed there was life here.

I wondered through this new world, wondering what to do. I was obviously panicking inside, but for some reason I was able to keep my cool. I had always been the first to freak out and give up, but something about this place seemed so familiar to me. I could not explain it, I just felt comfortable and right here. I sat under the shade of a tree thinking. “Where should I even start in surviving here?” I thought, and came up with a mental list of what I should do.

Get food. Simple enough. I learned a few things about cooking from experimenting on the stove at home, and hunting came natural to anyone who lived in South Mississippi. I climbed up the tree I was under, and snapped a nice firm branch off. It seemed I was much more agile and fit in this new world. That would come in handy. I looked around, and saw just the perfect thing: a pig. A juicy, meaty, probably delicious pig, ripe for the killing. I scraped the extra pieces off my branch, and made sure the point on the thin end was sharp enough to piece the skin. I quietly walked over, not showing too much of a threat, then stabbed the pig through the back of the neck. Then the weirdest thing happened. The pig was enveloped in white smoke, and just disappeared. After the small cloud quickly vanished, two neat little slices of raw pork were left.

Build shelter. Whether it is rain, sun, vicious animals, or just peace of mind, I knew one thing: humans need shelter. I thought back to the early days of civilization we learned about in history, and started getting wood. I took my big stick and slammed it into the nearest tree at full force, only to find my instrument shattering into dozens of pieces. That was dumb. I hung my head in disappointment when it hit me. Axes. But how do you make an axe? On Earth they mere made out of metal, from mines and refineries. Maybe it’ll be simpler here, like the food. Maybe I need to go back to the drawing board with this whole shelter thing, try thinking outside the box. After some thinking, I decided I would have to do that later; there were more things I need.

Fresh water. They say you can drink a pint of salt water a day and survive, but it still leaves you feeling like crap. I decided to go exploring for a lake, fresh water. I spent what felt like 5 minutes looking, when the sun already began to set. I could’ve sworn it was about noon when I was under that tree a few minutes ago. Time must be sped up in this world. With darkness approaching and no lakes in sight, I decided to set up a home in the forest. I re-thought about that dilemma, and it finally came to me: underground. Until I find a good place to set up, I’ll just hide underground. I saw a cave nearby going down, and headed in there. I hid in the entrance for a while, slowly drifting to sleep. Just as my eyes were closing, I could’ve sworn I heard hissing. Snakes. I whipping up and jumped away when I saw not snakes, but a tall green creature. I didn’t get a good look, because in the quarter of a second I had to jump away, it exploded. The force shoved me into a wall, where I blacked out.

I was rudely woken up by the sun in my eyes. I picked my head up off the hard stone, and looked around. The small entrance to the cave I was in was lit up by the glaring sun rising above the horizon. The sunrise was well over, being that the sky was already a deep blue behind the clouds. I got up and leaned on the wall to stretch and think. I remembered this world, and the full previous day. Lucky nothing attacked me. I looked around and just across me was a huge hole in the corner of the entrance. More like a crater. A meteor hit? No, the angle it would have to come from doesn’t match the crater. Ugh, this is confusing. I walked out to continue exploring, and thought about what to do. I have food, and I need shelter and water. I continued exploring for a lake. As I walked, I looked around. Sheep, pigs, chickens and cows littered the land. I walked for what must have been a few minutes, until I finally found it.

A lake, huge and beautiful, stood right before me. I dunked my head in and gulped in as much as I could. I then realized I needed to cook my pork. For fire, I would need flint. Where do I find flint? Well, I guess that’s one thing I can’t do yet. I looked around, and went over to the nearest tree to think of how to cut it down. This needs to be done now. I stood there and thought. The physics of this world were so weird yet familiar, I couldn’t tell what would work and what wouldn’t. This tree made me so aggravated.

“Why won’t you just let me cut you?” I yelled at the tree. Then I sighed, and thought of something really stupid. It would hurt like hell, but I would have to get over it. I stepped back, and slammed my fist into the trunk, expecting the worst.

I stood there, my eyes closed and my fist on the tree. I opened them to see that, without any pain, I cracked the tree. I looked at my hand to see that there wasn’t a scratch. I looked back at the tree, and, with the most excitement I’ve ever had, punched away at it. As I slammed my fist into the tree, the crack got wider and wider until a huge chuck came out. I expected the topside to come tumbling down, but it floated there, over the missing chuck. I continued to punch apart all the other trees in the area, until I had enough wood to fashion myself a little wooden hut. Finally, I had proper shelter. I left some holes for windows, and placed a log on the floor to use as a table. I fiddled with wood enough until I made a few tools: a sword, an axe, and a pickaxe.

I went out to use my new tools. While I had already gotten pretty good at killing pigs and cows and punching down trees, these new tools made it so much easier. I bet I could make better tools, too! There was just something missing. In this new world where matter floated and I felt no pain, I still felt like my happiness wasn’t truly fulfilled. Then, a giant shade flew over the land. I looked up to see that the sun was setting. Better get home and get to sleep. As I laid down on the floor and began to sleep in my dark house, I realized what was missing. Through all the marvelous discoveries in this world, I was alone with no one to share it with. To talk to about it.

The next morning I decided to continue exploring this world, so I went into a nearby cave to try out my new pickaxe. I chopped away at the stone and kept the usable pieces. I bet I could make some pretty good tools with these. As I dug through the little tunnel I was forming, I heard a familiar noise. I turned around to see a human sized, green creature walk towards me. It had 4 stubby legs, no arms, and a face that was stuck in a scowling position. It began to hiss, and I suddenly remembered where the crater from yesterday came from. It had pinned me in my little 10-foot tunnel, so I took out my sword to slice it. There was no room to wave my arm. I backed up into the wall, and as it continued to hiss, it eventually stretched out a bit and exploded right in my face. Apparently I do feel pain in this world. Maybe now I can go home.

Chapter 2: A New Hope
The next morning I woke up to the sound of the wind in the trees, animals grazing, and…wait a minute, what happened yesterday? I shot up from the sand, and looked around. This place was entirely unfamiliar; it was a sand patch in the middle of a forest. In all of my exploring, I never saw a forest with a sand patch. My house was nowhere in sight, and I had none of my tools from before. I sat there, trying to remember what had happened with no success. I started to look around, hoping it would clear my head. This would all be so much easier with someone else to remind me.

I walked for 2 days (this world time), setting up a small hut for the night, until I finally found something besides the endless forest. Seemingly endless, that is. I walked out to find a desert, with dunes as far as the eye could see. There were no animals, and only the occasional cactus. I had always hated deserts, so I decided to follow along the edge of the forest until I found something else. I walked for a seemingly endless amount of time. I lost track of the days, and after endless walking, it seemed that this entire area was just a giant forest surrounded by an even bigger desert. The only thing I could think to do was just set up in the forest. After I had built up enough supplies, I would go across the desert. I ventured not too far into the forest, and chopped down a couple dozen trees.

I made a 30-foot by 25-foot cabin, set up a log table to work on, carved out a wooden chest for storage, and left out a few windows. I stepped back, thinking of what else I needed. A bed. I could not just keep sleeping on the ground. Okay, how do they make beds? Something soft, feathers? No, no. Wool? Maybe. I could use feathers for a pillow. It would take a LOT, though. I went out to get some wool from sheep. I finally found one, when I realized, Don’t you need something to shave a sheep? I thought about it for a while, and remembered. Shears. How do I make them, though? Then, as I stood there thinking, I heard a noise. Like trees were being cut down.

It can’t be…someone else! Finally! In my blinding excitement, I ran over to the sound yelling “Hey! Hey you!” I ran over until I noticed: the sound stopped. I looked around, wondering what it was. “Hello?” Then I was knocked to the ground on my stomach, something on top of me. I turned my head as much as I could, but couldn’t see it.

“What do you want with me?” She spoke. It was a human, and a girl, too! My people skills were never really excellent. I had to make sure not to appear threatening or defensive. “Answer the question!”

“I heard you chopping, and I was hoping I could help!” I replied after some thought.

“Yeah, that’s what the last guy said. Now I’m gonna count to 10 before I stab this sword right through your lung.”

“Woah, what the hell is wrong with you? I just wanted to help!”

“10…9…”

“Sorry, I just haven’t seen anyone since I got here!”

She waited for a minute, then asked, “How long is that?”

“About a week. This world time.”

She finally got off me, and waited for me to get up. I did, and wiped the dirt off me. She spoke first, “You can help me, but I’m watching you. You do anything to-“

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled, “You don’t just knock someone down like that!” She put her sword right up to my neck, faster than I could react. Maybe I was a little blunt.

“Do you know how long I’ve been here? 3 months. And do you know how many people I’ve met? One.”

“I’m guessing he wasn’t the friendliest guy.” I was too distracted by her eyes to come up with anything better. They showed a fierce look, but something beneath it. Something that didn’t seem to fit.

Her face never changed from its serious, threatening look. “He robbed me and burned my house down. He was all nice and innocent when I met him, too. Just like you.”

I decided I would have to be more careful with this chick. She was a bit paranoid from her time here. I had only been here a week, but she was here 3 months. With only one guy who robbed her. I couldn’t blame her for being like this. “Alright,” I said, ”I’ll keep my distance, but trust me. I’m not like that.”

She released me, but kept her sword ready. “You make one wrong move, and I won’t be as merciful.” I kept my distance, and prayed I’d never find out what being ruthless was if that was merciful. As she walked me back to her cabin, I got a good look at her appearance. She tall, just shorter than me, surprisingly slim for someone with her strength, and had long, black, straight hair that went well below her shoulders. It matched her long-sleeve pitch black shirt and dark jeans.

Her house was pretty nice, considering how I’d been living. She walked back to a half-cut tree, and kept cutting. “If you want to stay here, you’ll have to stay in your own house, and keep up your own weight. I’m not giving you anything.” I watched her cut the trees. It looks like I’m gonna have to build some trust, but at least it’s another human around. Whether or not that was a good thing, I didn’t care.

We chopped down trees for a couple of minutes, when I decided to set up my house before dark. I hadn’t seen much of what went on outside at night, but from what I could hear in my house, I didn’t want to know. After I set it up, just like my old one, I realized I never got that wool. That would have to wait, because I had bigger problems. I walked outside to go get more wood, and she was going back into her house. She stopped and looked over at me, then just kept walking. I started to go out, but then I noticed. It was already dark out. I ran back inside, and filled the hole of a doorway. I watched her house to see what she was doing, and that’s when I saw it: light.

In the middle of the night, her house was radiating light. Has she actually found flint, but then how is her house not on fire? I wanted to run over there and ask, but she would probably either keep me out to get blown up or eaten or whatever those things did, or come out just to kill me. I didn’t know what this chick would do. She was so unpredictable. I instead just laid down and slept on the floor, like any other night. Maybe I would ask in the morning.

The next morning, I went out to ask her about the light. I went to her house and knocked, but she never answered. She must be out already. I went out to get more wood, but never saw her all day. I didn’t want to seem like a bother, so I just kept going on with my day. That night, the light came from her house again. I was getting worried. Has she really just left me here and run off out of her sheer paranoia?

That’s it. Today I get to the bottom of this. I went over to her house, knocked, and after the expected lack of answer, broke down the door. I looked around, and she was nowhere to be seen. I decided to investigate, see if I could find out anything about her. She had a really nice place, a workbench, furnace, a huge chest, a few things I couldn’t make out, and torches all over the walls. I examined one of the torches. I always had a love for flames, just the way the bright colors flickered up out of the source. It was beautiful. Then I noticed something. In the corner of her room, there was a stairway going down. I looked down it, but couldn’t even see the bottom. I decided to go down, my sword ready. The last time I went into a mysterious cave, it didn’t end well. This one was cleared by a human, though.

I walked down for a few minutes. Months alone must really allow you to get stuff done. I had a lot of time to think on the way down. After an endless amount of time, I finally reached the bottom. That’s when I saw it. A mine, a massive mine that must have gone for miles, completely lit with torches. I looked around, amazed by my surroundings. It was getting warmer as I went. I walked for minutes, hours, days, I lost track in my sheer amazement. To think that this place was dug out by one person! Who knows what she must have found down here? I walked through, looking around the giant cave, until I heard a noise. This place is huge, maybe she missed a place to clear out. It had to be a monster. I followed the noise, to find my fear come true.

A skeleton, a walking, animated, maybe living skeleton was standing not 100 feet from me. I watched it shoot arrows at some unknown target. I walked around to see, when the skeleton stopped. It must have been waiting for me to make another noise. I took another step, when a blade sliced it down the middle. I watched as the smoke from the skeleton’s death cleared, and there she was, standing there. She saw me, and immediately switched to a look of anger.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She screamed at me.

“You didn’t show up, so I was looking for you!”

“********!” She was already running at me, full speed. I was ready, when she swiped a quick, powerful sword at me. I did my best to parry, but not fight back. She continued to spew out blows, faster than I could think. Her sword was beautiful, glimmering in the torchlight, but I couldn’t afford a distraction now. I continued to watch her sword, keeping it from hitting me. Her vicious, furious swipes were getting harder to block, when my sword cracked in half. She immediately took the opportunity and swung it at me. I did what I had to do, and grabbed the blade. It went into my hand more and more, and hurt like hell. I pushed through the excruciating pain until I finally wrapped my fingers around the other side, causing more bleeding and pain. In shock, she loosened her push, and I threw the sword to the side.

I managed to mutter, “I’m just trying to help.” On the way out I kicked the sword back to her. I don’t know why I try. If she wants to hurt everyone around her, so be it. I walked back up the stairs, and to my house. I don’t remember if it was day or night, but either way I just laid on the floor and stared into space. Eventually I found myself falling asleep.

Chapter 3: Starting Over
I woke up to the same sounds: trees, animals, etc. I pushed myself up, and screamed. My hand still hurt pretty badly. Then I remembered what happened yesterday, and got up to pack. I took everything in my house and the house itself apart. I was finishing the floor, and ready to go.

“I’m sorry.” It came from behind me. “I’ve just been a little tense lately,“ A little? “And I didn’t want to trust you. You seemed too nice to be real.”

“Well you have to get over it!” I yelled under my shoulder. I wasn’t even going to face her direction right now. “You can’t hold on to your old grudge like this!”

“Can we just start over, please?”

I sighed. I can’t be the one who’s pissed. She’s had a tough time, and I need to get through this new world with someone. Maybe she can be a better person. “I’ll stay, but we can’t just start over.” I was facing her now, and she had tears going down her eyes. I couldn’t imagine what she had been through. “I can’t forget what you’ve been like, or what you’ve done. But I will give you another chance. I know you didn’t mean to cut my hand.” No, she just wanted to kill me. I walked over to her, trying to cheer her up. “I forgive you. You just need to forgive that guy.”

It took her a minute, and then she said, “He didn’t just take my stuff. He was the only other person who I met here, I trusted him.”

“I know, but you’re not alone anymore.” She wiped her tears, and I looked out and saw the moon rising. It was always opposite from the sun in the sky here. “It’s dark already. Why don’t I stay here tonight?”

“Okay, you can have the bed.”

“No. You take it. I’ll take the floor, just for tonight.” She laid down on the bed, and I took the corner across from her. I drifted asleep, watching her do the same with her back to me.

I woke up the next morning, and began extending her house. No matter how I was feeling, she was disturbed because of her past. I needed to continue to help her. I took down two of the walls, and placed much larger walls where they were. I extended the other walls, and I was almost finished with the floor when I heard her get up. She didn’t say anything, so I just kept working, acting like I never heard her. After I finished, I took some more stone, wood, and wool, and made my own room. I walled it off and put in a door. I put down the bed, workbench, and all the others equivalent to her setup. I walked out, and she was right outside my doorway.

“You’re not going to put any torches?” She said simply.

“I don’t know how to make them.”

“It’s real simple.” She walked back to her workbench, and pulled out a stick and some coal. She ground the coal onto the top of the stick, and lit it with some flint. She then carved out a small holster out of wood, and gave them to me.

“I’ll make you 4 more, so set them up as I go.”

“Thanks.” I was surprised at how quickly she acted like normal. She really wanted to make amends. I went and placed the first torch over my bed. I then realized that might not be the safest thing, so I moved it a couple feet. By the time I got back out she had already finished the next one. Damn, she’s fast. After she finished the next 2, she came in and looked at my room from the doorway.

“It’s nice, but you know what would really class it up?”

“What?” I replied. She went over to her chest, and pulled out a 3 paintings. There was one of a large mountain, one of a beach, and one of a campfire. I never noticed before, but she had several of these paintings around her home.

“How did you-“

“I liked to paint back home. I did these after…the incident. Painting always helped me calm down, so I made these over wool with some dye I made from around the forest. I carved the frames when I decided to hang them.”

“They’re beautiful.” I was amazed at how well done they were. I had seen paintings back home, but I never actually knew anyone that made one so detailed and realistic.

“Thanks. I never had someone to critique them, so I never really knew how good they were.”

“I can tell you’re really inspired by nature.” They were almost all of natural things. The only exception were two of them. One was of a small house, with a small garden out front. This must have been her home. It was 1-story, brick, with a few other houses in the background.

“Was this your house?”

“Yeah,” she said plainly. I could hear something beyond the simple answer, but decided not to ask. I looked over to the next painting of a man. He was wearing, from what I knew, some sort of ancient samurai armor. He had his hand on his sword, which was sheathed. He was looking ahead, away from the viewer, with a serious, threatening look on his face.

“Who’s he?”

“His name was Miyamoto Musashi. He was known as one of the greatest swordsman in Japanese history. He was raised like any other ordinary samurai, but naturally excelled at the sport. Whoever dared challenge him were struck down in battle. I always respected him, because he never had a superior, someone to overpower him.”

“If he was never defeated, how did he die?”

“Some unknown illness. Probably cancer or something,” she replied. I don’t know why, but I started laughing. After a few seconds, she started laughing, too. It was the first time I saw her smile. I leaned my hand on a wall, and I remembered that I had forgotten about the cut, since I had bandaged it and worked around it that day. It stung like hell.

“Son of a *****!” I was shaking my hand in pain.

“Here,” She went into her chest and held out a slice of cooked ham.

“How’s that supposed to help?”

“Just eat it.” I took the meat and took a bite, and the pain in my hand started to dull. I finished the piece, and the pain was gone completely. I unwrapped the bandage, and my hand was completely healed.

“What the…”

“Yeah, food seems to do that here.”

“That explains why I haven’t been hungry.” She smiled a bit, and looked out. It was already dark out, and she seemed to realize something.

“Do you know how to use a bow?”

“I learned in the boy scouts as a kid.” She just laughed to herself. “What?”

“You were in the boy scouts?”

“Why is that funny?”

“No reason.” She went over the corner of the room across from the mine entrance, and pulled on a string hanging from the roof. A plank swung down and flipped out into a ladder. What is she about to show me?

Chapter 4: Target Practice
I followed her up the ladder, and went up to the second story of her house. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it when I extended the house. The upstairs was full of…well, nothing. It was a large empty room with glass around the edges and torches along the walls. On the backside, there was a long vertical space in the glass with a small roof hanging out. Next to it was a small chest. She went over and opened it. It was packed full of arrows. I should’ve known. She reached deep in, and pulled out a bow.

“Here.” She tossed me the bow. “Let’s see those famous archery skills, Boy Scout.”

“I just said I learned it as a kid.”

“Sure, sure. No talking out of this one.” I chuckled and walked over to the space. There were all kinds of creepy things, things I would never want to face close-up. I looked around, and saw 3 different creatures: zombies, green, rotted, decomposed dead bodies walking around; skeletons, like the one I saw in her mine; and those green bomb creatures. I decided to get my revenge.

“Look at you, sneakin’ around out there. Creeping around, waiting for us to come out. Not this time, you little creeper.” I armed the bow, lined it up the the green creature’s torso, and the arrow went right through his side. It would’ve hit a human rib-cage. The creature fell forward, but
before it hit the ground it exploded.

“How did you do that?” She was genuinely surprised.

“What? He wasn’t that far.”

“Not that, whenever I kill them, they just disappear like everyone else.”

“I guess they must have gunpowder stuffed in them.”

“Well yeah, I collect it all the time.”

“Really? You ever try making some dynamite?”

“How do you think I got that mine so big?”

“Hard work and determination.”

She chuckled for a bit, then took the bow and said, “Move aside, and I’ll show you how a real archer does it.” She quickly took the bow, and I could’ve sworn she didn’t even aim. She hit a zombie right the eye, and we both watched it feel around, not noticing it.

“Lucky shot.” I held that pride until she hit 3 more just as fast. She just smiled to the side, and kept shooting away.

“You know, I never got your name,” She asked as she dropped creatures rapidly.

“James. You?”

“Sarah.” Then I just looked over her as she bull’s-eyed monsters for the rest of the night. When the sun came out she put her bow up, and I found out what it was I heard every morning. I watched as one by one, the evil creatures imploded in flames. All of them except the “little creepers.”

“Come on.” She started going downstairs.

“Where?” I wondered.

“To collect the prizes”

“You mean you don’t just shoot them for fun?”

“The fun is a bonus.” She said as she went out the back door.

“’Cause, you know, that doesn’t make you totally psychotic.” Sarah was easy to talk to. I never had to filter the conversation to things that didn’t bore her. Like a friend.

But I knew we couldn’t just be friends. Not with Sarah. She was just…too perfect. I never met a girl like her. Just watching her pick up the bones and piles of gunpowder made me so excited to be with her in this world.

“What?” I think she noticed me staring. I just chuckled.

“Nothing.”

“Well you gonna come help, weirdo?” I could tell she was joking from her tone. We both picked up all the leftovers from the hunting spree, and went back inside to put them up.

“Well, we got all the debris, you’re all stocked up on food, and it’s the middle of the day. Now what?”

“How about we hone those top-notch archery skills.”

“I just said I learned as a kid!”

“Okay, Robin Hood. I’ve got an idea.” She went over to her workbench and got out wool, sand, dye, and some wood. I could tell what she was going to make.

“I don’t feel like waiting for you to learn like me, so I’ll just teach you some
tricks with this.” She tossed me a massive bag of sand, and when I caught it, it slammed my arms down to the ground.

“Damn! How much sand did you fill this with?”

“Lift with your legs, Hercules.”

“Look at you with your names, Little Miss…Sassy…Pants.”

She just laughed and walked over to help me with the sack. We carried it over the ladder, and when we got to the attic she lifted it up with what seemed like all of her strength. We both went up to set it up, then she ran downstairs and came back up with a wooden stand. We positioned it with a red target sticking out. Then she walked over and carved a line in the floor about 30 feet away from the target. I went over and took out the bow and 5 arrows, then up to the line.

“Let’s just see how you do with 5 shots.” She said from over my shoulder.”

I took a shot, with no success. I hit the wood behind the sack with all but one shot, which hit the very edge of the target.

“Take it easy on my house!” She laughed at me, and picked up all the arrows. “Here, try this,” she walked over to me and loaded the arrow. I took the bow and arrow, and she held it around me. “Don’t just aim at your target, you have to angle the arrow, too.” She aimed for me, and I saw where she was going with this. She hit the bull’s-eye straight on. “Keep practicing, I’m gonna go get something.” I kept shooting at the target, doing much better with her new advice. So much for impressing the girl.

After almost 2 days, I was getting a lot better. I bull’s-eyed almost every shot. Suddenly, Sarah stuck her head through up from the ladder.

“James, stay up here.” Her expression was serious. I knew she wasn’t messing around. She was genuinely scared for me.

“Wait, why?”

“Just don’t make a sound or leave.” She immediately dropped back down and shut the trapdoor. I walked over and listened against the trapdoor, but all I heard was a heavy door shut. I ran over to the other side of the room with the glass, and watched as a guy with baggy white clothes and a black headband walked toward the house. He yelled something, but I couldn’t hear him. Then a black figure flew out from the tree above the man. The figure swung thier sword, but the other man deflected faster than I even noticed. The black figure landed, and her hair fell down. It was straight and black, going below her shoulders.

She flew towards the man in white, and they fought so fast I could barely process it as I watched. They swung their swords and jumped forward and back so fast I could barely keep track as to who was who, despite their such contrasting clothes. As I watched the two impossibly fast warriors fight ruthlessly, I noticed night begin to flow over. They didn’t even seem to notice the creatures, killing them and blocking arrows in the midst of the fight so fast they might as well have been swatting flies. After endless fighting, eventually three arrows flew at Sarah almost at the same time. She dodged one, sliced the other mid-flight, parried the man’s attack, and the last arrow hit her in the shoulder. “No!” I yelled and slammed my fists on the glass. I was terrified of her losing this fight, because I may never find where she comes back if she dies. I didn’t know if she would go a mile or a light-year away. Even as fast as she was, there was no winning with an arrow all the way through her left shoulder like that.

But the next 15 minutes proved me wrong. It was painful, being in this much suspense for so long with no way of helping. I lined the room, thinking of a way to get her out of there. Then I had an idea. No, it’s too risky! I can’t aim that well! But I couldn’t just sit there either. I smashed the window with the handle of my sword, and went and took the bow and an arrow out of the chest. As fast as they were, they just blurred together at night. If I wait until day she may not survive, but if I shoot now I could hit her. I aimed the arrow for a good shot, but realized, even if I get a perfect shot, he would deflect it like any other. Then I got an even stupider idea. I went downstairs and into her chest, got out a bag of coal and groundeit onto the arrow I was holding. Then I went back upstairs and lit the arrow with a torch. I kneeled over, aimed at the above trees, and let go. The flame flew up and through the leaves, then a tree far away began to burn. The fire spread until it reached all the way above them. As burning leaves and sparks filled the air, larger twigs and sticks fell onto the forest floor. It was a strangely beautiful sight, and I would’ve stood and basked in the sight of it had it not been for the circumstances.

My act of arson made no difference to the fight. They continued just like before. I was beginning to get frustrated at their refusal to be distracted, or at the very least interrupted. Who is this guy that she intends on fighting to the last breath? Could it be him? I imagined her, finally getting the chance to exact her revenge on the man who took so much away, and realized that if she was so pissed she would be fighting at full strength. There was no changing in the fight, and if she’s in a mood of utter fury then in any normal circumstance she wouldn’t stand a chance. I stood up there, watching them fight, when I saw it. She got him, right in the chest. Her sword got a clean slice right across his torso. I knew this had to be the end of it, but they just kept fighting. It wasn’t until now that I noticed that the creatures were gone, but it was still night.

I kept trying to think of a way to break up the fight, when I finally got a good idea. If I throw a stick of dynamite and blow them both up, I can get her a piece of pork. Ok, so it wasn’t the best idea. In fact, it may have been the worst. There was no other option, though. I looked through her chest and found a red stick with a fuse. She said that she used dynamite before, so this must be it. The only problem was that I couldn’t throw worth of crap. I then shoved the stick on the end of an arrow, lit the fuse, and aimed it right at them. God, please let this work.

As I let go and watched the arrow soar towards the girl I loved and her sworn enemy, I knew I had timed the shot perfectly. It was en route to the spot right in between them, and at the exact second it landed, it exploded. The explosion was weird, though. It wasn’t a spherical force like a normal explosion, it was just a bright light that shot out tons of other lights in all directions. Smoke poured out over the two startled fighters, and I realized. It was a flare. Why or how she made one of those, I had no idea. I remembered that I was supposed to run out there in all the confusion, and went out as fast as I could. When I got out, Sarah was standing, ready to deflect any surprise attacks. I got to her and grabbed her hand, pulling it back.

“I told you to stay back!”

“Come on, just trust me.” She finally gave in and ran with me back to the house.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“It’s him, isn’t it?” I didn’t have time to smooth her into it; he could attack at any minute. She pulled the arrow out of her shoulder, and ate a slice of pork from her chest. Her wound healed and she started to run out, but I caught her hand. “Hey, you need to calm down!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You can’t win this fight! I’ve been watching you-”

“It’s not him! I could’ve killed him instantly. That man is from a clan. A clan that I used to be in. Now if you’ll let me, I can-”

“You can’t.”

“Trust me, James, I can if you-“

“You can’t beat him! While he’s been at that tribe practicing with experts, you’ve been out here doing nothing. I’ve been watching you two, and you were going to lose if I never would’ve-“ An entire wall of her house was blown open by a huge explosion, and I pulled her towards the mine. She decided to go with me this time, and we ran down the stairs as explosions roared behind us.

After we finally got down the massive mine, I brought her to a nearby smaller cave and told her my idea.

“If we lure him down here and trap him with a flare, you can catch him off guard.”

“He’s from an ancient clan of experienced samurai, he’s not gonna fall for that.”

“I’ll hide, and you’ll be ready if it doesn’t work. What could he do?” She couldn’t find an argument to that, so I took out the other flare I kept, and got ready to light it with a torch. I was ready to light it, and she yelled, “Hide over here, James!” She hid around the other side, and just as the footsteps came near I got ready. Then a bright light flashed, and I panicked and lit my flare. Then I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and looked down. It was a sword. I looked up to see Sarah, and she kissed me just before ripping her sword out. All I heard before everything went black was, “I’m sorry.”

Chapter 5: Genesis
I drifted through the abyss, not floating, not falling, but not rising. Usually in this world, I just wake up instantly, but this time I was just there. It was completely black, silent, I couldn’t feel my own hand or taste anything. It was like total Nirvana. I just stayed there, waiting, when I blinding light erupted from the black in the distance. I couldn’t tell how far it was, or how big, but it slowly became closer, or bigger. After some time I decided it was getting closer, when a low windy whistling sound got louder and louder. Then I felt the wind blowing against me. As my senses returned one by one, and the light was approaching, everything became so extreme. The light blocked my entire vision, the freezing wind was numbing me, like I was flying at the speed of light with all the wind resistance in the world. The sound was deafening and painful, and just when I thought I would be ripped apart, it reversed and I could feel myself being pulled back like a giant rope had me. The light became fainter and fainter until it was completely out of sight. I realized then that I was falling before and was now being yanked back up, just before I flew backward out of the black, and into real life again.

I shot up, and panted in the bed of the cabin. I looked around, and almost instantly recognized it as my room in Sarah’s house. I started to wonder why I even had my own room, when we did everything together anyway. Now wasn’t the time for that, though. I walked out, looking for Sarah to make sure she won, and saw her on her bed. She was sleeping, probably tired from the fight. A wave of relief eased my tension, so I went over to sit on the bed. First thing’s first, I needed to find out why she killed me, and how I got back. I didn’t want to wake her, though. She was finally at peace, from what an exhausting fight it must have been.

I sat there on her bed for a long time, but that “dream” must have not given me much rest, since I began to get weary. I eventually gave in to the tiredness, and found myself almost immediately being woken up but Sarah freaking out.

“Oh my god, James! What are you doing?!” I was wondering why she was so startled, until I opened my eyes and found myself next to where she was on the bed. I immediately jumped up, realizing how wrong it must’ve looked, and saw Sarah in shock.

I jumped up and explained as fast as I could, “I swear, I fell asleep on the end of the bed. I was just waiting for you to wake up.” She still looked just as surprised as before.

“James…” Then, before I could react, she hugged me. She was grasping as tight as she could, “You’re alive!”

“I noticed…” Then it hit me. She was worried I wouldn’t come back. Then I just hugged her back instead of standing there awkwardly. She finally let go, still elated with happiness.

“You were gone for so long, I…I was beginning to lose hope.”

“Exactly how long was I gone for?”

She hesitated. “About 3 days.”

“Oh. Sorry for not regaining consciousness earlier, I guess.”

“No, I’m sorry for killing you.” I’d completely forgotten about that. She was still very close to me, so I jerked away.

“Why did you kill me, anyway?” I did my best not to sound angry, but it was a pretty good question in my defense.

“I’m so sorry for that. I just…” She looked away, and did her best to finish the sentence. She couldn’t. I sighed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that.”

“No. It’s-It’s my fault,” She barely mustered, “I shouldn’t have done it, it was a stupid plan.”

“Wait, what? You planned it?”

“It was out of the spur of the moment. When you said that I couldn’t win, I realized I wasn’t fast enough. When you brought me down to the mine, I figured I had to get mad at the guy to fight 100%, but the only way he could hurt me enough was if he killed you, and I…I couldn’t let that happen. So I lit another flare to distract you, and stabbed you in the stomach so you weren’t instantly killed, but I could convince myself it was his fault and take out my anger on him. Right after he died, I fed you some pork. You healed, but never woke up. When you didn’t disappear, I figured you were still alive, but I was starting to lose hope when you…” She couldn’t bare to think about my absence. She sat on the bed, so regretful about what she did.

I was speechless. I didn’t know how to respond to something like that, so I just sat down next to her and tried to comfort her, “I’m here now. That’s all that matters.” I lifted her head to look at me, “It’s not your fault. You did the right thing.” She smiled a bit, and hugged me on the bed. I knew deep down she didn’t do the right thing, but we both survived. That was all that mattered.

The next day, we went out to go get more wood. There was only one problem. I burned down the forest. We looked around at the now open plain, and I realized something.

“Don’t burned forests usually look more…dead? There was grass here, but no animals or burnt trees. It didn’t have that devastating, awful look that I expected.

“I guess the grass survived,” She just guessed.

“Well what now? We can’t get wood here.”

“I guess we have to cross the desert.” She looked to the right, and I followed her gaze. We watched out into the endless plain of sand, then I went back inside.

“We better pack, then.”

“Now?”

“You want to wait until we get desperate and low on supplies?”

“Well you seem kind of eager.”

“The day is early, we have plenty of supplies. Why not?”

“Because by the time we get ready, it could be late. Plus I have a lot of sentimental value here. You should get that, you become so attached to things.”

“I do not!”

“You told me before that you cried when your laptop broke!”

“Well, I lost a friend!” She just laughed at me, so I started to get my things together.

“We can go tomorrow. That gives us time to sort out our stuff that we can bring, and for me to say goodbye.”

“Alright. But be ready at the crack of dawn. We don’t know how long the desert could be.” So we got all of our lightweight things, and I went into the main room to find her walking through the house, reminiscing. I walked over to her and put my arm around her.
She kept looking at the painting she was looking at before, and said, “You know, I put a month and a half into this place. I have so many memories, of painting, shooting out the upstairs window, mining, even just sleeping here. It’s so hard to just forget about it and move on.”
“You never move on. When I first moved from my childhood home, I wanted to spend hours walking through, but I only had a minute. I just looked back before I got in the car. For five years I wished nothing more than to go back, at least just to see it one more time. I never got that long goodbye, but what hurt more was that I left. That that place, packed full with 8 years of amazing memories was out of my life completely.”
“You always have the memories.” She looked up at me, and we both smiled a bit. I didn’t want to bring her what I had, so I let her have that goodbye. That long walk through that I never got.
When she had finished, she came out of the mine. She had been down there for a while, but I gave her some private time. “I’m ready,” she said as she came out. We had gotten everything we would need, and were ready to go. She grabbed a torch on the way out the door, and we looked back one last time. “Thanks for the memories.” She said one last time to her home, and placed the torch on the wall. She stepped back, while we watched the house slowly burn up. This was painful enough for me, but I couldn’t imagine how it must have been for her. As the rising sun’s red light glimmered over the burning house, I told her, “Come on. We should get going.” We both turned to face the immense desert, and set off on our journey. It was time to see what lay beyond this big wasteland that isolated us for so long.

Together, we walked through the limitless desert, talking along the way.
“So what did you do before, on Earth?” I started the conversation.
“Like for fun?
“Like all day. Job, hobbies, etc.”
“Well, I worked at a coffee shop.”
“Wow. I could never picture you fixing a cappuccino.”
“It wasn’t the most exciting job, but it payed okay. I lived in a pretty small apartment, and mostly I either painted or played video games.”
“No way. You were a gamer? What did you play, mainly?”
“Well I really liked RPGs, adventure games, mostly something with a long adventure, awesome scenery, that sort of stuff…”
We talked for days, walking endlessly. We really didn’t want to waste any time, so at night we would keep going, fighting off the monsters on our way. It was surprisingly easy with a former samurai girlfriend. During one daytime walk, we were talking about how annoying internet pop-ups were when I felt a slight vibration under my feet.
“Wait,” I said as I stopped her, both verbally and physically. I waited for more movement, but nothing came.
“What is it?”
“I just felt something shake.”
“You’re just hallucinating,” She joked at my weird behavior.
“Let’s keep walking.”
“Good idea,” she said sarcastically. Then, before either of us broke the quiet, a much louder and more effective rumble did it for us. We stopped, and so did it. “Maybe you’re not so crazy,” she said as we both waited for it to happen again.
I took my foot and stomped it on the ground. Then the rumbling became an earthquake. The sand itself shifted on the ground, and we could barely stand up anymore. “Run!” I yelled through the noise, and we both raced ahead. Just after we started running, the sand in front of us erupted, and a massive creature made of rock came out from the ground. It slammed down its fists, still half underground. It must have been 150, 200 feet tall.
“You are intruders in my desert!” It roared out. It then lifted its massive arms, along with a wall of sand around us. The sand closed in, blocking out the sun or any way out. Sarah then grabbed my hand and ran towards the rising sand. She blasted through it, dragging me along. I just closed my eyes and held my breath as the sand blocked all oxygen. I wasn’t running anymore, because we were being carried in the current of it. She was still somehow dragging me along. Then just when I thought I would suffocate, we burst out of the other end. Sarah stabbed the now cemented sand wall, and slowly floated us down.
I coughed up sand, very painfully, and eventually was able to muster, “How did you do that?”
“Just stay here,” she said sternly, and ran towards the sand wall. I watched as she jumped onto the side and began running up. My throat was still burning, and my mouth was dry, so I took out a wooden case of water she made me, and drank all it. I had to spit out the first gulp to get the sand out of my mouth, but finished the rest. I sighed in relief, and looked up to see the still dome with Sarah nowhere in sight. Then I heard an explosion, a roar, and the entire bubble crumblling. As it cleared, I saw the rock monster collapse, and Sarah run down the sand. She was good, but this was humanly impossible. She walked back, and when she got to me, I couldn’t help but just stare at her.
“You…how…”
She sighed, and eventually said, “I was going to wait and tell you, but I’m not…exactly…100% normal.”
“I noticed.”
“Well it turns out when you kill someone, you get whatever power they had.”
“Wait, what do you mean power?”
“That guy from the clan had the ability to implode any given spot and cause an explosion. Now I do.”
“Implode?”
“I don’t fully know, but all I know is that I can cause anything to explode, with some concentration. Watch.” She walked a couple steps over, and I watched her as she made a little ball of distortion in the sand, and a ton of sand flew out in all directions.
“That’s useful.”
“Right?”
“But why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Well first there was the whole thing where I killed you, then leaving the house, then I just forgot.”
“That’s kind of a big thing to forget.”
“Yeah...”
“But what about you running up and down walls?”
“Oh, I could always do that. It’s really helpful sometimes.”
“I just can’t seem to figure you out.”
“Well, we should get going now.” Then, just as she said that, the sun began to set.
“You know, we’ve been walking for days. Why don’t we just sleep for tonight?” She couldn’t argue after a huge yawn, so we set up a tiny wooden cabin and slept there for the night. We continued to follow the same routine, walking for a few days and sleeping once every few nights. We slept for longer amounts of time, but we saved a lot of time compared to sleeping each night. After a couple of weeks, we finally had a refreshing change of scenery when we stepped onto grass. I looked up to see a huge canyon in front of us, mountains reaching hundreds of feet up.
We walked through the canyon for a few minutes, until we were ambushed by a gang of swordsmen. They wore ragged clothes, and all had dirty hair and skin. Sarah easily finished off all eight, while I just stayed out of the way. It was really convenient to have a badass friend like her to travel with. We continued through the canyon, which ended up being much shorter than the desert. We got through it in a little under a day, and at the end found a sight that was completely new to me.

Chapter 6: Switching Roles
We came out of the canyon together to find ourselves on a hill overlooking a small town. It was one main dirt road, with wooden buildings along the side. I could see people sitting on porches, or going between buildings. We walked down the hill, and into the town. We walked through, looking at the buildings along the way. It looked like a town from an old western movie, with chairs out front and people riding horses around.
“Come on, we’re just looking for a forest to settle in. We don’t need to get involved here.” Sarah seemed to be rushing me out, like she sensed danger.
“What’s wrong?” I thought that might have been too direct.
“Nothing, I just don’t want end up staying here, talking to people. We need to find a forest.”
“Okay.” It seemed reasonable enough, being that we were attacked a little while ago. I figured we might as well set up as soon as possible. We rushed out through the town, and just when we were almost out, someone called out behind us.
“What’s your hurry, strangers?” I turned around to see a man leaning on the end wall of the last house, looking straight at us.
“We’re just passing through,” Sarah was the first to answer.
“Well why not stay a while?”
“We really are just traveling by.”
“I really think you should stay.” Something in his tone didn’t seem as friendly that time. We turned to leave, but just as we started walking I heard a clicking noise. I stopped, hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was. The man stood there, holding a gun up straight at us. “Turn around, and come inside. Now.” We obliged, walking back to the house he was leaning on.
“I’m starting to think we should’ve gone around,” I whispered to Sarah. We followed the man inside, and he brought us to a chair.
“We don’t get many outside folk around here,” he said as he walked around to a table, and picked up a glass of some beige liquid and drank some. “Now, you have two choices. You can-“ he was interrupted by an explosion right outside, and I looked to see Sarah deep in concentration. He put the glass down, walked over to the door, and peeked his head out the door. “Y’all better not move,” he said, pointing his gun at us. The second he ran out the door, Sarah went behind it.
“What’re you doing?” I whispered to her.
“Shh.” She just stood against the wall and waited. The man burst back through, and she slammed his head against the wall. He fell down unconscious, leaving his gun in his hand. Sarah pried it out and kept looting him, while I went to go see what he was drinking. I took a sip, and it burned like hell. I spit it out of shock, and Sarah looked over like I was an idiot.
“I think it’s scotch,” I said stupidly, and she just laughed while she dug through his pockets.
“Got it,” she said as she pulled out a small box.
“What’s that?” I asked her.
“More ammo. I really want this gun.”
“Okay, well let’s try and sneak out.”
“Don’t worry, I got that covered.” We looked out the door to see a crater, and people started to waver from it. Sarah concentrated again, and while people were panicking from the second explosion, we ran around the corner and behind the house. There was a forest in the distance, and we ran for it.
“What do you think he was going to do to us?”
“I don’t think I want to know.” We just kept running for the forest, until a man swooped down in front of us. As we stopped frantically, I saw that he was wearing white baggy clothes.
Sarah immediately unsheathed her sword, attacking the man, but he deflected. They were locked in a clash, and Sarah yelled, “James, run!” I immediately turned around and ran, then I looked back to see her in a viciously fast fight, just like with the other man. As I watched them flailing swords towards each other from a far distance, I just hoped that this man was worse than the other. Then, in the middle of a fight, I heard a bang behind me and the other man suddenly grabbed his chest. I turned around to see the same guy from the town holding his gun aimed at where he just shot the clan man. Sarah immediately took hers out, and pointed it at him. I stood there, right in the middle of this 100-foot standoff, hoping that Sarah would get the first shot. I closed my eyes, waiting, and heard the same bang. This time it came from the other side. I looked at Sarah, standing there with smoke coming from her hand, and I turned around to see the guy on the ground.
I ran over to Sarah, and we both went for the forest. When we got there, we both hid behind separate trees. The only thing we were thinking was that the entire town must hate us by now. I peeked around my tree to see someone kneeling next to the man’s body, and yell something towards the town. We both stayed behind our trees until everyone went back into the town. We then continued walking into the forest. Then I realized something, “Why is it that clan members are hunting you?” I asked Sarah.
“Trust me, I’m just as curious.” I was shocked at her genuinely not knowing something, since Sarah had always seemed to be the wise, powerful one. We just kept walking through the forest, and I constantly hoped that another clan member didn’t attack us. It seems we had an enemy, and one that was out of my league. That had to change.

We ventured into the forest until we both felt like we were deep enough, and began to cut down wood to make a home. As we cut, we made small talk along the way. After we both had enough, we set up a house for the both of us. Once it was finished, we began to furnish it. We were picking the place for the beds, when I mentioned, “You know, we could just have one bed.” I held my breath, hoping I didn’t offend her. She just laughed at me, and I faked my own to act like it was a joke. At least she’s not mad, I thought to cheer myself up.
After we set up both of our beds and chests, she started making a working area. I felt like this was a good time to bring it up. “Can you train me?”
“What?”
“Can you teach me to fight, like you?”
“Wow, that’s…kind of sudden. Sure, I guess. It would take some time, though. I taught a few lower-level entries back at the clan.”
“So when should we start?”
“Whenever, I guess.” She just went back to making torches, and I did my best to celebrate silently. I hated so much that I was the weak little wimp who had to run away when Sarah had to fight. I wanted to fight, no matter how long it took. After Sarah finished setting up, I was ready to train.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Now?”
“You said whenever. It’s whenever.”
“It’s getting dark, and I’m kind of tired,” She yawned, “Let’s do it tomorrow.” She laid down on her bed, and almost immediately started to going to sleep. I just did the same and went to sleep, imagining fighting one of those clan guys like Sarah did. I couldn’t wait.
I woke up to the smell of fresh bacon. I got up to see Sarah standing at a stove she made, cooking some pork on a metal plate. I hadn’t smelled that in months.
Sarah noticed me wake up, and said, “I figured we should eat before training. So we’re fully ready.”
“You just wanted some bacon, didn’t you?”
“You know me too well.”
After we ate, she brought me outside and unsheathed her sword.
“Ready?”
“Woah! Wait, what?”
“Show me what you’ve got! Try and cut me.” I took out my sword, and began to slice at her with a yell. I started with a horizontal attack, pulled my sword up from the pushback, and swung it over my head. Attack after attack, she blocked each one with ease. I hit her as fast as I could, but she was carelessly swaying her sword to match mine like I was barely moving. I decided to surprise her, and swung my sword really low and went for a foot swing. She jumped over the blade, and landed with some surprise.
“Nice. Okay, so you’re main problem is that you get too repetitive. You’re pretty fast, but I could easily detect a pattern in your attacks. You should never give your enemy any time to think ahead; keep them busy by constantly changing tactics. Okay, now try again.” She readied her sword, and I started by straightening my sword and going for a stab. She easily caught my blade with hers perpendicular, and tilted it to push mine behind me. “Good move, but there’s another problem. This whole area,” She motioned around my head and torso, “Is your most important. Never let your enemy get you in an awkward stance. Go ahead and try again.” I thought about how I could use a new attack, and decided on an uppercut. I turned the sword with the blade down, and swung upward from the ground. I caught her by surprise, and she jumped back and flipped around the blade. “Smart move! You won’t have that much time to think in battle, though. You have to practice thinking more quickly, and improvising constantly.”
She attacked me with a simple attack from the side, and I blocked as quickly as I could. I held the sword as hard as I could, and moved it to the side to push hers. She twirled around, and I blocked from the other side. I tried to kick her, but she jumped back and swung her sword in the same direction as before. I tried to block, but she immediately spun around and hit me from the other side. I reacted too slow, and she got a clean hit on my left shoulder.
“Ahh, ****!”
“Sorry. Here,” She handed me a slice of pork, and I ate it. “Ready to go again?”
I waited for a second, prepared myself, and said, “Okay.”
We fought for a bit after that, and Sarah told me tips along the way to improve from. After a few minutes, she said, “Okay, I think you’re about good enough. Let’s move on to a little more advanced stuff. Block my attacks.” She then attacked in a flurry. Even though I could tell she was holding back a lot, she was attacking like crazy, and I could barely keep up. She attacked to the side, then the other, then up, then aside again, until I figured out a pattern. When she went for the right side attack, I quickly deflected it and side stepped to avoid the top blow while keeping my sword available for a hit. I swung at her from the side, and she quickly blocked without attacking back.
“Took you long enough.” She smiled at me, “Alright, so now you’ve figured it out. We’re basically going to do the same as before, but I’m gonna attack you.” She focused for a bit, which I figured was her getting ready to attack at a certain pace, and said, “Alright.” She almost instantly jerked her sword at my left side, and immediately after blocking spun around for a hit around the other. I back stepped to avoid it, and went it for a stab. She deflected that upward, immediately going for a low hit. I slammed down my sword to hit that one as fast as possible, catching hers into the ground. I realized I had her pinned now, and went in for a slice around her other side. I decided to milk the situation, going for the strongest hit possible, but regretted that right after. During the attempt, she jumped over me, pulling her sword out in the progress, and I leaned back to deflect her overhead hit. I fell on my back, and she landed behind me, her sword on my neck.
“Next Lesson: never get cocky. You’re opponent is just as smart as you, and can attempt to trick you. We also gotta work on that balance.” She helped me up, and immediately readied her sword. That’s when the first wave of darkness began the night, and we decided we should get some sleep. Thus ended my first day of training.“You’re a real fast learner, you know that?”
“I actually have heard that before,” I said, trying not to sound cocky.
“Well good work today, grasshopper.” She joked as she turned the other way.
“You too, Sensei.” I said as I drifted asleep. I had never noticed before how easy it was to go to sleep on command here. Maybe the sheep are magical… I drifted asleep immediately after that thought.
BANG!BANG!BANG! I jerked up to see Sarah right at the foot of my bed the next morning with a wooden spoon and pan, in a fit of laughter.
“HAHAHA! I always wanted to try that!” She yelled between bursts of laughter. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
We immediately went outside to continue my training. It seemed she was as eager as me, now that she had seen how fast I was improving. We continued to train just like before, only she had barely taught me anything after the first day. It was mostly speed and reflex workouts. Besides fighting, I also chopped down trees as fast as I could, dodged arrows from a shooting area we built from upstairs, and ran. Sarah explained every workout:
“You need to practice swinging strength and power,” she said for tree-chopping.
“This should be pretty self explanatory. You need to be constantly looking for attacks, and dodging can free up your hands for an attack,” she yelled while shooting arrows.
“As you saw between me and the guy at the old house, a fight can last days here. You need to keep from getting tired, or you’ll find it hard to keep up through sluggy movement and dizziness,” she kept up with a surprising amount of breath while running.
Of course, besides the explanations, I was constantly motivated from the thought of getting to fight one of those assholes from the clan. We trained every day from the second the first one of us woke up to the fall of night time, and sometimes beyond that, practicing night time fighting. Deflecting arrows and zombie slashes makes a fight much more difficult, as you can imagine. After a week and a half or so, Sarah decided to test me fully.
“I know you don’t have quite as much experience as most other warriors, but the fastest learning comes from real fighting. I’ve been holding back from doing this, but I think it’s time I really test you. In this fight, remember everything you’ve learned over this past week, both from me and yourself. I have pork for the loser and we’re going to use these,” She tossed me a wooden sword, rounder on the blade ends. It was the exact size and weight as mine, as was hers. She readied hers, and said, “I won’t hold back.”

Then she came at me, as fast as she was with the clan guy. I was fast, too, tough. I easily deflected her first attack, and her second. She was fast, and I didn’t want to fight back unless I had the right opportunity. A single hit on your enemy isn’t worth a fatal strike on you, I remembered her say. She flew at me with her sword. I was much better than I was that night before, watching her and the clan guy. I could see better, think better, fight better. I could see her hesitating, unable to shake the fact that it was me. I wanted her to fight full force.
“Imagine I’m the guy who hurt you. The guy from before me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you, James.”
“You’re not fighting as hard as you can!”
“Because I don’t want to hurt you!”
“Forget that I’m me!” I could tell she was doing it now, hitting faster and harder. She was much more violent, and I could keep up even less, now. I blocked, deflected, and watched her sword as fast as I could, waiting for the right opportunity. When I thought I had her at the next attack, she switched tactics and did her signature move. She jumped over me, attacking from above. I experimented a little of my own. I ducked down to the ground, and rolled to the side. I immediately jumped back up afterward, and saw her land. I was faster. I ran up, faking an attack, then jumped aside just as she thought she would block. She spun along with me, and flicked her sword upward, like I did in my first victory.
She had the advantage of experience, but I had the advantage of knowing her. I knew her moves and how she fought, but I was constantly changing while I learned from her. I avoided her upward flick completely with a back-step, and returned with an downward strike of my own. Everything in the fight happened so fast, the longest I would get to think would be a little over half a second, with her blocking me fully ready. I decided to use that simple fact, and hit through her block. I didn’t really attack normally, as much as I did slam my sword down on her. She blocked, taking her down to one knee. I immediately used the pushback to come back with an uppercut. She flipped over the hit to the right, and slashed at me in mid-flip. I blocked that easily, being that my sword was already up, and as she landed, she gracefully returned my next slash with an equal one to block, and gave me another quick hit. I blocked this one, raising my sword back up and slamming down again. I decided to hold this one in a clash, and realized. Sarah was much stronger than this. She still wasn’t trying at a hundred percent, and I decided I needed to make her.
“Come on, Sarah, you know you’re holding back!” I yelled as I stood over her, both hands on my sword.
She was on one knee, both hands on hers, “I’m not going to fight you full-on!”
“Pretend you hate me! Hey, I made you trust me and burned your house down! I’m the person who took away your sense of safety and trust!”
“James, shut up!” She shoved me back with the next push.
“You’re mad! Use that anger!” I hated to be like this, but I wanted her to fight. I wanted a real fight. I slammed at her, and she viciously slammed her sword aside, pushing mine along. I turned it around for another hit, barely blocking her next one in time. I could tell she was mad, fighting through tears. I attempted hits to parry hers, as she constantly sent a flurry of incredibly strong attacks at me. The fight turned neither in my favor or hers, when I realized. We were evenly matched. She was furious, fighting in the way that matched the other guy, and I was keeping up. In my excitement from that realization, I fought much more quickly. I parried attacks repeatedly, until I saw the chance to hit. I dodged an expected downward slice, and got a clean hit on her shoulder. We stood there, my sword in her, and hers down.
“I did it! I DID IT! I hit you!” I was thrilled that I hit her in full rage. Then I remembered what a **** I was in mid battle, and saw her with her head down. Her sword was on the ground, and her hair was over her eyes. My excitement suddenly went away, and I stood there feeling like an ass. “Sarah, I’m sorry. I was…” I sighed, dropped my sword to go back to the cabin, and heard her drop behind me. I felt like crap.
I sat on my bed, regretting how I’d acted, and put my head in my hands. I could fight, but I hurt Sarah in the process. I did the same thing that that dickhead guy did. I was no better. I looked out the window, and saw her on her knees, her head still down. She didn’t even bother to eat, and she was shaking. I got an idea, but a feeble one.
I went into her chest, and got out about 10 small gems of diamond, some incredibly hard purple rock, flint, stone, and coal. I spent a long time over her crafting table and furnace, heating the diamonds, carving stone, and shaping the hard rock. After I finished, I looked at my creation. A long, sharp, purplerock sword, lined with diamond gems. I grounded coal into it, and there was a small contraption inside, still and durable from hitting. I tested it, and pushed a button on the tip of the hilt. The flint inside lit the blade aflame. I dipped it in water to douse it, and checked to see if the coal remained. It was still lightable, so I put it on her bed. Then I noticed it was getting dark. Sarah was still out, asleep now. She must not have wanted to see me at all. I went out to carry her in, and laid her on her bed next to her “Fireblade Sword.” He shoulder was healed. She must’ve eaten the pork finally. Then I went to go make her another present. I made a few pickaxes, and went over dig her a new mine.

I ran out of space! Yay!


Chapter 7: The Truth
I stayed up all night digging, making sure the mine looked good enough. I was exhausted, but kept working. My pain was my own punishment. After a long while of digging, I heard her from outside the tunnel.

“James?” She called out.

“Down here!” I yelled as I ran back up.

“What’s this?” She held up the purple sword.

“You’re new sword. I made it yesterday to make up for my…behavior. I know it doesn’t in
the least bit make up for me,” As I talked she stood up and walked over to me, “But I wanted you to know that I am-“ She smacked me across the face. I definitely deserved that. “Genuinely sorry,” I finished my sentence.

“James, you…you’re just…you…” Then she did the most unexpected thing. She immediately began kissing me. I decided to go with it. After about a minute or so of that, she finally let go.

“Wait, you’re not mad?”

She laughed, “Of course I’m mad, you ass!” She playfully punched my arm, “But this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“Watch this. Press that button right up there.” I pointed to the button and she pressed it. When the sword lit up, her head jumped back. She started laughing in sheer amazement, and kept examining it.

“James, this is amazing!”

“Well I’m glad you like it.”

She went to put it out in the bucket, and did it again. “How does it keep lighting?”

“The coal on the outside is mixed with gunpowder, and there’s a trail that goes in that’s
encased in the sword itself.” She just stared in awe, and put it out again.

“James, you’re awesome.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I think you said that already.”

“I don’t take compliments well.”

She laughed after that, and went to store the sword in her
chest.

“So…you can fight. What do we do now?”

“How about we go find something to do?”

“Like?”

I thought for a second, then remembered her abilities. “How about we work on that explody power of yours?”

“I guess, but that might be kind of dangerous.”

“So’s fighting your crazy samurai girlfriend, but I did that for a week.”

“So we’re dating now?” I shouldn’t have said that.

“Oh, I mean not like that, but-“

“Okay, boyfriend, let’s go blow some stuff up.” I laughed from relief, and followed her out
the door. We went out to a nearby mountain, and I decided to find a couple of things out first. “So exactly what do you do with your mind when you…do that implosion thing?”

“Well, I just kind of feel a spot with my mind, like you would an arm or leg, and I…just kind of squeeze it until it pops. Then it explodes.”

“So…like everything is your body?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Hot.”

She laughed, “Shut up.”

“Okay, so if you can feel and clench the air like a limb, maybe you can move it. Try and create some wind, and see where you go from there.” I suggested. She closed her eyes, and focused. After I saw her clench her eyes a bit, a breeze came over me.

“Nice! Now let’s-“

“Shh! I think I have something here.” She focused again, and the breeze came over me again. Then she was really still, and the wind became stronger and stronger. I could see her
really clenching her eyes tight, and the blowing air became gale-force winds. I could barely stand straight, and unsheathed my sword to plant it into the ground. I held onto it, as Sarah
blew the wind harder and harder. I looked around through the whipping feeling, and saw that the grass was blowing in a circle around her. She clenched her eyes less, but I was still being blown off my feet, holding on to my sword for dear life. Then the winds got even harder, and my sword was beginning to rip the ground. I looked up to see Sarah, suspended in mid-air. She was maybe 5 feet up, so before she got dangerously high, I screamed, “Sarah!” I could barely hear myself, but she must have. The winds almost instantly stopped, and we both dropped to the ground. I got up and saw that Sarah caught herself easily, and was ecstatic over her accomplishment.

“Oh my gosh, did you see that? I was hovering!”

“Yeah, so was I.” I wasn’t as happy as her.

Then she looked around to see the trees and grass twisted to the side, facing the circle that she spun the air in. “Holy crap, I didn’t know I did all this. I just pulled the air in and up around me to see if I could pick myself up. I guess I collected a lot.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to get some better shelter next time you go all Katrina on me.”

“I may not have to. When I was in the air, and didn’t feel any of the normal things like ground or clothes, I could actually start to feel the grass and dirt. Not like an object, though. I felt it like I do the air, like it was a part of me. I think I can move it. The ground, I mean.”

“So, you have telekinesis or something?”

“I guess so.”

“I’m just always one step behind, aren’t I?”

“Aww, come on, James. Maybe one day you’ll kill someone with this power and I can teach you like I did with sword-fighting.” This actually helped a little, bit I also figured that it was a really rare ability to find in your prey.

“Why doesn’t he just kill you to get it?” The voice came from behind us. We both turned around to see an old, thin, short man standing with a cane. He was incredibly wrinkly, and barely seemed to be able to stand at all.

“Why would I kill her?”

“It’s a pretty great power.”

“Look, if you’re just here to persuade me to kill my-“ But he started cackling before I could
finish my tell-off.”

“Hehehe, I’m just kiddin’ you old prune.” I was a little surprised, and heard Sarah laugh a little to herself next to me. Then the old man spoke again, “Come with me, I have something you’ll want to hear.” We decided to walk with him, and he brought us back to his home in the woods.

“That power you have, it is much greater than you can imagine.”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked it first.

“First it’s the wind, then water and solids, then you find yourself mastering it, not even needing to think so much like you used to. That ability holds power that rivals the gods. You seem to be the lucky one who got it just when it begins to develop. You see, when each person kills their predecessor, they not only get the power, but every memory related to it.”

“That’s why I knew how to blow things up.” She realized.

“Exactly. Very few are gifted with it, and even fewer get to use it.”

I asked first this time, “What do you mean?”

“Well, the power lies dormant for generations, each kill evolving it more and more. It’s usually through one person who brings it out to physical form, but doesn’t train it fast enough, and he or she who kills him gets the good part. The part where you can use it against your enemies, and none can defeat you. You become more and more powerful in this life, until you remain undefeated. You, my dear girl,” He pointed at Sarah, “Will be that undefeated warrior.”

She stood there, shocked at the tip of his finger, until I intervened. “How do you know all of this?”

“Because I once had this power.”

“Then how did you lose it?”

“I got too cocky. I felt so invincible that I sought out the strongest warriors, proving that I
was the best.” His face showed no pride, “But then I heard of a man name Zeus. He was named that because of how his ability evolved. He was truly the current champion. I eventually found and challenged him, and we clashed, destroying the land itself in our fight. Seeing that we were evenly matched, he then offered me a deal. If I let him kill me and give him my power, he would find me and duplicate our two combined powers to give to me.

“The thought of doubling my strength excited me so much, that I didn’t stop to think of the consequences. I gave myself up, and he stabbed me through the chest. I waited for him to find me, sending signals of my location, and he did. He told me that as punishment for my corruption, he would banish me as a weak old man forever. He used his power to reduce my bones and muscle to a brittle state. Pork didn’t heal me, milk didn’t, not even re-spawning. I never got the power from another man, because I was too weak to fight.” He looked at the floor, shaking his head. “I was pathetic. I allowed myself to be so easily controlled by the great power, and I deserve this body.”

I looked over to Sarah to see her in fear. She was clearly afraid of becoming corrupt like the old man.

I immediately acted. “Sarah, you’re better than that.” She looked at me, the same fear in her eyes.

“I’m not. When I was out there, I tested my powers, pushing them. It felt so good to be that
powerful. I would easily give in like him.”

“You won’t! I know you, and you’re a good person. You would never hurt anyone if you didn’t have to.”

“I blew up a chunk of sand in that town to get out. What if there was a person there, where I blew up? I didn’t care.”

“Sarah, listen to me.” I looked her straight in the eyes, “You are not that person. You are good, I would never let you become that.” She finally seemed to come around. She hugged me, and said, “Thanks, James.”

The old man watched us in pity. He thought I was wrong. He thought Sarah would follow his actions.

Sarah let go of the hug, but still looked at me, then she got around to saying, “James, will you promise me something?”

“Anything.” I meant that fully.

“If things get out of hand, and I ask you to kill me, will you do it to keep me from getting too
obsessive?”

“Sarah, I would never let you get-“

“Just promise me. Promise me that you would kill me if I asked you to.”

I hesitated for a long time. I couldn’t kill Sarah, no matter the circumstances. She wanted an answer, and I knew that I would never allow her to become corrupt. I looked her in the eyes, and lied to her. “Yes, I would.”

She wasn’t happy, but she hugged me again. “Thanks, James.”

“Young woman, I implore you to learn from my mistakes.” We released the hug, and looked at the old man. “Just a word of advice, you will want power. When you see for yourself how amazing it is, you will crave more. When that day comes, find something, someone you care about. Take this nice gentleman here,“ He gestured to me, “And think about him. Think about staying with him, and how much you would sacrifice for him. Don’t follow those cravings.” After he finished, we were all interrupted by a slam. The door was open, and a man stood in the frame. He wore white baggy clothes.

“Well haven’t we been a naughty little girl?” The man spoke first. “Running away, killing two
members, stealing powers, a gun, and blowing up a town.”

I was instantly infuriated with this guy. “Sarah didn’t blow up the town, you ****, She was creating a diversion!”

He just kept looking at Sarah, and continued, “Sarah? Is that your new alias? Which means he must be your newest prey.”

“Who the hell do you-“

“He’s different,” Sarah interrupted me, but was talking to the clan guy, “I’ve traveled with him, trained him, we’re friends. I trust him, I’d die for him,” She hesitated a bit, “I love him.” She kept looking at the man, hand on her sheathed sword, but I looked at her. That was the first time she ever said that to me. Or at least in front of me.

“Aww, well isn’t that cute. Well, if you’re ready to die for him, then why not now?” He unsheathed his sword, and the old man spoke first,

“Can you guys please take this outside?”

Sarah answered, “Gladly.” She blew the man out the door. This wasn’t an explosion, because there was no damage to the house. The blast was concentrated at the man, who slammed into a tree outside. Sarah flew towards him, and instantly unsheathed her sword and stabbed him against the tree. He vanished, pinned up there, and she released her sword from the tree. She turned to me, and I noticed I was still staring at her.

Sarah just shrugged and said, “I guess my powers have developed a lot.”

The old man spoke behind me, “And so it begins.”

I walked over to Sarah, and said, “Let’s talk at home.” We walked back to our house in silence, and I closed the door. We just stood there, her next to the bed and me by the door. I spent a few seconds trying to figure out what to ask first, and how. I finally decided on what the clan guy said. “Was he lying?”

She hesitated and sighed, then said, “No. I’m afraid I haven’t been…entirely honest with you. First of all, I wasn’t banished from the clan from being defeated. I was banished for deserting. I was tired of their laws and ruthlessness, so I left. Since then, I went through a…bit of a rogue phase. I would find people to live with, gain their trust, and then rob them and run. I went by many different names. My real name is Sarah Louis.”

“Then why did he say Sarah was ‘your new alias?’”

“Because at the clan, I went by Jennifer McDougal. I said I was raised by an Irish family in America, which is why I didn’t have an accent.”

“And I can trust you, why?”

“Because I’m the same Sarah you fought with, traveled with, lived with!”

“Apparently I was living with Jenifer, Susan, Jessica, and who knows how many other names.”

“Well, besides deserting the clan, the only other thing I lied to you about was the guy who hurt me.”

“It was just you who hurt so many others.” I finally realized. I looked away to think. How could I have been so stupid? She was fooling me this entire time. But she said I was different. No, she just said that to keep me with her. Wait, she can’t have done all that in 3 months before me. I kept looking away, and asked, “How long have you really been here?”

“I think now it might be almost a year.” I was shocked at her answer. She had been here 10 months before meeting me! “James, I’m sorry! You never would’ve stayed if I told you back then that I was like that!”

“Just tell me one thing. When you first met me. Before you ever started to get to know me, and decided I was different, when I first wandered over to you, was I going to be one of your schemes?”

She hesitated for a long time, deciding how to say what came out next. I turned to see her, looking straight at the floor, a tear falling down her face. “Yes.”

I was hoping to hear something else, but she was hurt. She had to be telling the truth. I watched as she closed her eyes, terrified of me leaving her. She walked outside, and I stood there, baffled at what I had just been told. I was her ploy. When she acted so crazy, that was all an act. When I grabbed her sword in the mine that day, did something in her really change? Did she really turn over a new leaf, and start being a better person? I wanted so much to believe that she did, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t fully convince myself that she wasn’t still playing me, waiting to hurt me. I wonder how far she ever went with her other prey. How much she did with them, how dedicated she was to earning their trust. Have our travels all been part of her plan?

I went over to my bed, thinking about what had happened today. When I woke up this morning, me and the girl that I loved were wondering what to do today. Now it’s not even night time, and I have been living with a lying, rogue, deserter, future-superhuman girl. I put my face in my hands, thinking of what to do. Then I got another one of my terrible ideas. I took out Sarah’s sword I made her, and went outside to find her. First I called for her, but there was no answer. I went to the man’s house first, and found her there. When I walked in, they both looked up at me. I tossed Sarah the sword.

“Kill me.”

“What?!”

“If you really love me, than kill me. Right here, with the sword I made you.”

“James, I can’t-“

“I promised you the same, now light your sword, and stab me right now!”

“I can’t! I don’t know how to convince you, but I really do love you! I refuse to let you die,
so that we can never see each other again. I won’t do it!” That was the right answer. I decided if she killed me, she would either have been lying or just loved me enough to trust me. If she didn’t, then she truly couldn’t live without me. It was a horrible plan, and could’ve ended horribly, but it worked. I walked up and hugged her, and said, “I love you, too.” She knew that I trusted her again, because she hugged me back. I had Sarah back. Now to find out about these corrupting powers. We both sat down to talk to the old man some more.

Chapter 8: Downhill
We sat there, in the old man’s hut, listening to all of the things that he said would happen to Sarah. He talked about how he massacred civilians, killed his own friends, he said he even killed a little girl’s parents in front of her. All in the search for power. I held Sarah’s hand, and she squeezed every time he said something horrible, imagining herself doing all of those things.

“I killed people. A lot of good, innocent people with lives and friends. I separated families and friends. I hurt people, and I would never wish that on anyone. Especially a nice girl like you. I don’t know if you would even make it through the hunger. It's so intense, so powerful."

"There's gotta be some sort of coping mechanism," I said.

"There is none. The only way, honestly..." he paused for a second, then said, "would be to kill yourself." He gestured before I could interrupt, and continued, "Killing someone with the power frees it from their body, going into the person who took their life. But killing oneself frees it, only to wander the air aimlessly. Maybe it finds snother host, maybe it just disappears."

"But you can't seriously think we'd just split ourselves up like that."

"I do. Because I know how you feel. You both feel uncontrollably attached to one another, but you also want what's best for the other one. And if you really cared for her, if you really wanted her to be as happy as you can make her, you'll release her from the path of destruction those powers bring. No matter the cost."

“How could you possibly understand?” I asked him.

“Because the girl I loved wanted me to stop. She told me I was too obsessed. That it wasn’t worth it. I stayed with her, because I loved her. I would never do anything to her. Until the fight. I had challenged another man with powers, and during the fight, I slammed a chunk of wood at him. He blew it up, and we continued fighting. After I won, I ran back home to tell Mary,“ He stopped, and looked away. It took him a second, but he continued, his voice shaking, “The house was gone. All that was there was a patch of dirt. The chunk of wood I threw was my own house. She was dead, and I was the one who killed her.” He couldn’t continue, and just sat there, his eyes closed, looking down. Then he said, “Don’t make the same mistake I did. Please, learn from me.” He looked at Sarah, and said “End it now.” Then he stopped, and fell to the floor. We both rushed to make sure he was okay, but Sarah felt his pulse.

“He’s dead.”

“Must’ve had a heart attack or something. Poor guy.” I knew he would come back
somewhere else, just like he did here. It was still sad, though. He was content and settled down. But then I noticed something. “He never disappeared.” Sarah realized it, too, and put her hand over her mouth. “He can’t respawn if he doesn’t disappear. So that means he’s…”

“Really dead.” I leaned over closed his eyes, and we both just stood there, sad for him.

“We need to bury him. It’s the right thing to do.” We both went to make a couple shovels, a
wooden coffin, and a gravestone, and came back to find the old man still dead. We dug a hole outside his house, and buried him in it in the coffin. After we filled it back up, I realized, “We never got his name.”

“I’ll just put ‘a nice old man’ on the gravestone.” It was a terrible idea, but we went with it.
We stood over the grave. Neither of us could think of what to say, so I just said, "Rest in peace, old guy.” We left the house, with the caption ‘Here lies a nice old man. Rest in Peace.’ We returned home feeling like crap, and both just sat down on our beds.

“Today sucked,” I broke the silence.

“No argument there,” Sarah replied.

I looked out the window, and noticed, “Why does night always fall so conveniently? Every time we come home, finished with the day, night falls.” Sarah chuckled, and we both just laid down. I knew as I slowly fell asleep that, despite what his grave said, that man wouldn’t get to rest in peace.

Neither of us got the other one up, I woke up to see Sarah, sitting on her bed. “Still pretty bummed, huh?” She just nodded her head. “Man, I haven’t been this sad since I finished the Harry Potter series.”

She just started to laugh, “How is it that you can take a miserable situation and make it funny?”

“I didn’t know I could.” I was serious.

I went over to sit on her bed, and put my arm around her. She leaned her head on me, and I leaned mine on hers. We sat there, sitting on her bed, until I finally broke the silence, “You know, there’s this game back on Earth called inFamous. You were a guy who was in a massive explosion in the middle of New York that killed thousands and ruined even more lives. He got electric powers from it, and the whole idea of the game is that you can either be good or evil. You can sacrifice your own things to do good for other people, or hurt them to for your own personal gain.

“Exactly where are you going with this?” Sarah picked up her head and looked at me.

“I could never do the evil side. Even though you got a lot more power-ups and were a lot stronger when you were evil, when I tried to do it I just felt sick. I physically couldn’t do it.”

“And you think I’m the same way.”

“No I don’t. I know you are. When that man held us up at gunpoint, and you had the chance to do whatever to him, you put him to sleep. You took the selfless alternative and harmlessly let us escape without harming him.”

“Then I shot him a couple minutes later.”

“When you had to. You had two choices: let him shoot you or kill him.”

“James, I’ve done bad things. I’ve hurt people, killed people, for my own personal gain. How am I not the perfect candidate to become corrupted like the old man?”

“Because you have good in you. You have the capacity to help others for your own loss, and I know for a fact that when the time comes, you will do the right thing.”

“I’m not ready to handle that. To be in the midst of an intense hunger for power, and choose to kill myself and take that power away. I don’t have that much strength.”

“You’re the strongest person I know.” We both knew I meant something completely different, but it gave us a chance to chuckle it off and move on. I couldn’t help but doubt, though. If she had spent months going out of her way to gain and break people’s trust just for their stuff, how was she supposed to keep from doing it with the craving that drove a good man evil? I sat there, with those thoughts in my head, and pretended everything was going to be fine. I knew it wasn’t, though. I knew that Sarah wouldn’t be able to handle it.

I tried to figure out a way that this all turned out fine. That we could end this with us together and her without these powers dreading over us. I couldn’t. Not even one of my bad ideas came into my head. I knew that she either went on the same power-hungry rampage that the old man did, or she killed herself and ended it all here and now. I cringed at the thought, and couldn’t help but look away. I stood up and walked over to the workbench. I wished I could get some bad idea that I was forced to follow through with and barely make it out of, but I couldn’t. The only ideas I got weren’t bad, they were worse than the two original choices. I could kill her myself, and take on the sole responsibility of the powers alone. I could trap her in a hole, but she would practice and get out. Unless we could somehow get rid of her powers and rid us of the responsibility. There was no way, no one who could do that. Then I remembered the man named Zeus. The old man said he could do things beyond the traditional power. If we could find him and ask him to rid Sarah of her powers, we would be free.

“I got it!”

“What?”

“I know how to get rid of your powers!”

“How?”

“Zeus! The really powerful guy that the old man was tricked by! He can take your powers and leave us together!”

“But what if he can’t?”

“Then he can kill you and find you again!”

“That’s…actually not a bad idea.”

“Right?! So we gotta get going! We have to start looking now!”

“Okay, but we don’t even know where to start.”

“We’ve got a nice little town right over yonder.”

“Full of people who probably hate us. And no one says ‘yonder’ anymore!”

“Well we won’t know until we go over there.”

“Okay.”

I went over the door and waited for her to come. When she passed, I said, “And people still say ‘yonder.’”

We walked over to the town, and looked over first to see if people noticed us. No one saw us, so we got closer in. I noticed a local bar, and suggested we ask someone in there.

“Sure, let’s go into a closed-in building full of drunk people who might hate us with breakable and possibly sharp glass bottles.”

“Okay, maybe that’s not a brilliant plan. Where do you suggest we look, then?”

“How about someone with probably more connections, like the mayor or something?”

“So we just walk into City Hall and ask to see the mayor so that we can ask him if he knows about a superpowered man named Zeus?”

“Well I haven’t been in a social situation in a while!” I said.

“Neither have I!” Then I realized we were actually in the middle of town, where people could here us arguing.

“Excuse me, you two?” An old man in a rocking chair outside his house
was the one who called us.

“Yeah?” I asked as we walked over.

“I overheard y’all were looking for a powerful feller named Zeus. Well, luckily for you, I happen to know where he resides, and am willing to tell you.”

“Let me guess, unluckily, it’s for a price.”

“Oh lordy, no! What’s unlucky for you is the place that he resides.”

“Where?” Sarah asked.

The man pointed up.

“In the sky?”

“In the Sky Dimension. They call it the Aether. Beautiful place, from the stories. They say you can see the clouds below, with the entire place made up of floating islands. Flying creatures and angel warriors litter the sky. Clouds so thick you can sleep on them! The stories have been passed through so long and far no one knows who originally found the place! However, the only instruction to get there that he left was a riddle.

“What was the riddle?”

“To go to heaven you must go to hell.”

“Well, thanks for your time.” I said as we left.

“What? You don’t want to know how to go to hell?”

“Well according to Sunday School I just have to be a bad little boy.” I turned back.

“Oh, no. This is different. They say there’s a way to go to hell and come back. To survive, and return with your riches and memories. Most who return prefer to lock that part out, though. The horrible sights in the pit can ruin a man.”

“Well how do we go?”

“You must have three things. First, a hard rock. The hardest of the hard. The product of fire and ice. Second, control over fire. They say fire is required to get there and back.”

“And what’s number 3?”

“A death wish!” The man began cackling, and we both decided he was nuts and that it was time to leave. We left the town, and heard, “Good luck in Hell!” behind us. On the way back, we both tried to figure out what the riddles meant.

I started, “To go to heaven you must go to hell. Maybe we have to go to hell, then to heaven from there.”

“Well we still have to get to hell, first.”

“Then we need ‘The hardest of the hard. The product of fire and ice.”

“Water?”

“Then the water puts out the fire and you get steam. We need steam?”

“Wait, at my old mine in the forest I found a waterfall going into a molten lava pit.”

“And?”

“That’s where I mined the really hard rock you made my sword out of.”

“Se we need that stuff?”

“And control over fire.”

“Well we have flint, torches, and a flaming sword. Check.”

“And last is a death wish. Are you sure we want to do this?”

“Unless you want to go insane with power.”

“Alright, but it may help to use my powers on the way. Plus, it seems they progress on their own. Before, I had to focus to pick up wind, then without practice I blew a concentrated blast with ease. I may be getting stronger every day, even without practice.”

“Well the last thing we want to do is speed it up.”

“You gotta admit, though, it’d be pretty cool to have telekinesis.”

“Sarah! That’s how it starts! First you think it would be cool, then you want to improve it. Then you really want to improve it! Then you just want to be more and more powerful, because the rush is so-“

“James! Calm down. I just had a thought.”

“The seed of a thought can grow and spread out. A single self-inflicted idea can grow to define or destroy you.”

“Did you just quote Inception?”

“Loosely.”

She chuckled, and said, “Look, James. From what I hear, Hell is pretty rough. So I think it would be safe to say that while this is very dangerous, powers would help.” She put her arms around me, then, “And I always have you to stop me.” Then we began kissing suddenly. We were at home at this point. She’s getting rather aroused at the thought of having powers. I knew it had started, but at this point I was beginning to just want to go with it. Before I knew it, we on her bed, and I was starting to get a message of what she was aiming for. I stopped, and got up.

“What?”

“It’s a little sudden, don’t you think?”

“Well look at you, talking about trying to go to hell and yet you won’t even have sex?”

I was right. “I’m not gonna do it until…” I felt like and idiot if I said it. “I’m not gonna have sex until I’m married.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yeah. I just couldn’t live with myself if I did it.”

“Funny how you find yourself with a craving you know is wrong to go with.”

I couldn’t help but be amazed at how much she was right. “Tell you what, I’ll make your process with these powers just a little easier. Once we get to heaven and get Zeus to take your powers, I’ll have sex with you.” That was officially the weirdest sentence I’ve ever said.

“What about getting married?”

“It's the principle that counts.”

“Then it’s agreed. I don’t go on a power-hungry rampage long enough to go to hell and
back, and we have sex.” And that was the weirdest sentence Sarah’s ever said.

“And heaven.”

“Alright. Sounds fair.”

After our agreement, we went back to the town to find out more about getting to Hell. We looked at each building, until we finally recognized the house that the man who told us about it was outside of. We walked up the porch, and I knocked on the front door. It was old and worn out, and made of dark wood. It felt like it was about to break just from the knocking. After there was no answer, I knocked again. I put my ear up to the door to listen, and vaguely heard a yell. I tried knocking again, and heard a crash. I turned to Sarah.

“Should I?”

She must’ve known what I meant. “Sure.” I stepped back, and kicked the door off its hinges. I was giddy with excitement.

“I’ve always wanted to do that!” Sarah chuckled at me, and we both split up through the
house. It was filthy, dusty, and looked like if you smacked one wrong part with a bat, the whole thing would collapse. Sarah went into the kitchen, and I checked the back. I looked in the bedroom, under the bed, in the closet, etc. Then I noticed that the bathroom door was closed and the light was on. I knocked on the door.

“Sir?” No answer. I banged on the door and accidentally cracked it a little. I kicked this one down, and saw a disgusting sight. The old man was naked in the tub, with the pipe from the shower head around his neck. The water was running from the shower head. I turned it off, and yelled, “Sarah!” She ran in a moment later, and had a similar reaction to me.

“Ugh.” She looked away.

I kneeled over, and examined the faucet. His hands were between the pipe and his neck,
and there were red marks on his neck. He was choked. It was not accidental, and not suicide. “Someone murdered him.” I showed her.

“What kind of sick person would do this?”

“I don’t know, but we should look around for evidence. I checked for open spaces, hair, footprints, anything out of place. I found nothing, and went to ask Sarah.

“They must’ve been really good. There’s not even a sign of a break-in,” She said.

“Or they never broke in.” I had an idea as to how he was killed.

“What are you saying?”

“I know it’s a really long shot, but maybe someone didn’t want him telling us about Zeus. Someone with powers.”

“James, you…I…I actually can’t argue. That’s a good point. But who with powers would kill someone telling us about Zeus?”

“I don’t know, but they don’t seem to want us getting to him." Sarah was horribly distraught by this. I put my arm around her, trying to comfort her. Why do things just keep coming up? I brought her outside, and said, “Come on, we should get home soon.”

We walked back home, and when we got there we both just laid on the bed. So many things went wrong lately, it was getting harder to walk home and feel good. We both just went to sleep, too tired to do anything else. I woke up, realizing I was still on her on the bed, and got up before she felt uncomfortable. I did my best to not wake her up, but noticed just after I stood up that she was already awake.

“How’re you feeling?”

She shrugged, “You get kind of down when life kicks you in the balls every day for a week.”

“Come on,“ I sat back down and held her, “You just gotta enjoy the little things.” She didn’t budge. She just sat there, staring into space.

“James, I…I can feel this full stirring feeling. This amazing sense in me that just…just makes me feel invincible.”

“Sarah…”

“I’m not going to make it without using my powers. We’re making too slow progress getting to Hell, and then we still don’t even know how to get to Heaven.”

“We’re gonna get there. We have to. Sarah, you can feel your powers escalating, but that doesn’t mean you have to go crazy. That old man wanted more power, but you’re afraid to be like him, so you could never be the same way.” I felt like I was getting through to her, so I continued, “You remember what you said, how you didn’t think you would hold back, because you had already done things without powers? Well look at you now! You care about hurting people, and you’re in so much pain just to keep them safe. You can’t say that’s not being a good person.”

“I’m not arguing the fact that I can do good things. I can just tell from this feeling that if I actually use my powers, and this gets even more intense, I won’t be able to keep from craving it. It already feels so…amazing. Like I could take on the world. Literally. Not to over-exaggerate, but I can’t even imagine Zeus being that powerful,” She looked at me, terrified, “I feel like I could take on Zeus. I know I can’t, but this feeling could so easily take over. You don’t know how intense this is.”

“I don’t. I can’t even imagine. And I have to be honest…I’ve been having some doubts. I don’t even know how hard it must be to fight something like that. And based on what you told me, I don’t think you can make it,” I would come to regret what I said next, “And I think you should use your powers. I think it would help if you had that kind of power. But not if you don’t need to. Just if push comes to shove and things get a little crazy, you have my full support.”

She didn’t smile, but seemed a little happier, “Thanks, James.” She hugged me, and I just hugged back. When she finally let go, I asked, “So I think we should probably go out and see if we can find another form of civilization.”

“Like just pack up and go exploring?”

“Well it’s better than staying here, isolated. We need to find some information, and other people may know about this legend.” She agreed, desperate to find any information, and we immediately started packing. I went over the chest to get the small necessities, just like last time. Maybe after this whole ordeal is over, we can finally settle down. The only thing that really kept me going was the hope of finally being truly happy without any cares or problems after all of this.

After getting everything together, we decided to wait until the next day to go looking. It was pretty late in the day, so we just decided to go to sleep now and leave early. When we woke, it was almost dawn, so we decided to go and just deal with the monsters until morning. We walked to the town, and to the right from there. We traveled east, so we would be facing the sun when it rose. I didn’t know how far it would be until we found any sort of civilization, or if anyone there would even know how to get to Hell or Heaven. The odds were bleak, and it was getting hard to find hope in anything.

We traveled for days, much like we did in the desert, except this time we didn’t talk much. The situation was so bleak, we didn’t find much to chat about. We would walk for two or three days, and sleep when we got really tired. It was terrible, walking while being so tired and with so little hope, but we kept going for the sheer reason that there was no other option.

Chapter 9: Problems and Solutions
After an endless travel, we were hiking up a mountain, and the clouds were getting somewhat close. We made it to the top, and walked onto the other side to at last get some relief. There, spanning about 5 miles, was a massive city. We ran back down the mountain, and approached a massive gate. It was pure metal, as were the entire city walls. A small tube was sticking out of the wall near the door. I walked up, and talked into it, “Hello?”

A deep voice responded robotically, “What is your business?”

“We have been traveling for days, and would like to come in.”

“What is your business?”

I figured he meant I should’ve been more specific, so I said, “We are searching for information."

“You may enter.” The massive door then began to raise up, and I saw that there was a man on the other side turning a crank to lift it. As we walked through, I saw that the door and walls were at least five feet thick. This city has some serious security. When we were on the other side, a large man motioned for us to wait, and searched us. He patted us down, and looked through our bags. When we finished the security measures, he told us to follow him. We walked behind him all the way through the city, and we were brought to a large white building with columns outside. We walked up the large staircase, and he stopped outside the front door.

He stood aside, and said, “If you are searching for information, this place will be of great service to you.” He nodded to me, and left to walk back to where we came from. I walked into the door, and we went into a huge lobby. There were large glass chandeliers hanging down, and the entire building was made of marble. There were wide doorways on both sides of the room, going to rooms with massive shelves lined up. There was a long red carpet on the middle of the floor, and a desk at the far side of the room.

We walked over to the desk, and the woman sitting behind it looked up, and said, “Hello, can I help you?”

“Yes, we’re looking for information on a legend.”

“Well, the mythological books are in Section R3.” She gestured to the left.

“Thank you,” I said, and we walked around the wall. Each shelf had a white sign with groups of sections, like A1-B4 or G5-H3. I found Q4-S2, and we went in down the row. Along the inside of the rows, there were signs on top of each individual section. We went over to Section R3, and looked for anything with the word ‘hell’ in it. Together we collected about fourteen books, and brought them over to a nearby table. Both me and Sarah took a book, and began looking. I looked at her, reading silently with the darkest expression. It was so hard to see her like this.

After endless reading through several books about religion, metaphors, and pain, I found one about theories of an alternate dimension that resembled hell, called the Nether. It talked about how you can get there through a portal made of the purple rock, and that you can easily come back through the same portal. It had lots of information about the Nether, like the deadly creatures that occupied it and the entire way it looked. It was like all one massive cave with oceans of lava and hot, bloody stone. There was dirt encased with the screaming souls of the damned, human sized mutant pig zombies, and giant flying ghostly creatures that shot out exploding fireballs. The whole place looked so terrible, I just wanted to go in, do what I need to do to get to heaven, and get out.

I showed Sarah the book, and she quietly read it. Then I went to look for heaven. I put the books on hell away, and looked for anything with heaven or something related to the Nether. I found a bit less than the ones about hell, but still a good six books. I returned to look through those, until I found one very similar to the Nether book. It also talked about an alternate dimension, but this one resembled heaven. It was called the Aether. There were many areas that were left with vague information, like saying that it is rumored that something exists, rather than record on it. This place must be a lot harder to get to than the Nether.

“Hey James, I think I may have found out how to get to the Nether,” Sarah whispered to me.

“And I think I found the same for Heaven.”

“Look, it says here that with that purple rock, they called it obsidian, you make a large doorway and light it.”

“Seems simple enough.”

“Yeah, except that it’s forbidden. It says the portal releases such horrible energy that the city illegalized the creation of one for any purpose.”

“Well, did you read about the lightstone?”

“You mean that glowing stone that the roof of the nether has hanging down?”

“Yeah. It turns out you have to make an identical portal to the nether one with that stuff, and throw water into it to make an Aether portal.”

“Aether? Is that the heaven one?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that explains the riddle. To go to heaven is to go to hell. You have to get the stone from hell to go to heaven.”

“Well there may be more than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, from what I’ve read here, heaven doesn’t seem too pleasant. There are these floating creatures that shoot snowballs at you, but the snowballs have the force of a boulder. Then, there are these plants that shoot out poisonous darts at anything that comes near. And there are birds flying around that shoot the same darts.”

“Jeez. It doesn't sound too welcoming to humans.”

“Yeah. I think I may have found Zeus, too.”

“Really?”

“Well, sort of. It says there's a massive temple built on top of clouds, rumored to house a powerful human. The entire place is guarded, though. There are angelic warriors that protect several areas of it, and they look pretty hard to defeat. He’s pretty famous, by the looks of it.”

“Well we aren’t fighting our way in, just negotiating.”

“I guess, but we still have to worry about finding it.”

“I thought you said it was easy to spot.”

“But hard to find. We’re gonna need to spend some time there so we can learn to explore right. Almost every creature there can fly, and the floating islands make mortals pathetically trapped.”

“So how can we get around?”

“Well, it doesn’t say much about it here, but it says these majestic birds
can be ridden.”

“Well then we just need to find a couple and ride them.”

“And avoid their venomous darts.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure we can adapt.” Sarah seemed pretty optimistic.

“Well first we need to get there.”

“Okay.” But as soon as we got up, there were two of the large guards standing in our way.

I figured they heard what we were discussing, so I tried to ease the situation, “Look, we’re just going to leave and never come anywhere near the city again. You won’t have any problems from us.”

“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that.” One of the guards grabbed Sarah, and held her limbs together before she could do anything. The other came for me, so I unsheathed my sword and prepared to fight. I moved to an open area, but the guard was at least seven feet tall, with tons of metal armor and a heavy sword. I was incredibly outmatched, but decided to fight anyway. I slashed at an open spot in his armor, but he easily blocked it. I kept staying back, but he kept following. I attacked him as fast as I could, but he easily deflected every hit. I decided I was horribly out-matched, and turned to run.

I immediately ran into another guard, and he grabbed me as if I was a doll. He brought me along the road, behind the other guard with Sarah. They carried us into a jail, and threw us in a cell. I helped Sarah up, but she was horrified. She knew this was the time to use her powers. I said before that I would support her, and was going to be a man of my word.

“I’ll be right here.” I stayed close to her, so she wouldn’t forget to stay calm.

“James…I love you.” She closed her eyes, and began to focus. I waited for a minute, and Sarah eventually said, "I can feel it. I can feel the prison itself. This is amazing.”

“Remember, Sarah, just get us out.”

Something in her snapped, way too quickly. “But why? Why not mess with this? Why not expand this? This is amazing!”

“Sarah! Sarah!” I shook her, “Listen to me. You do not need it. We just need to get out of here. Don’t hurt anyone!” But the place was already shaking. The walls began to bend and crumble. “Sarah!” She was ignoring me, but I couldn’t let her keep going. I had to remind her why she did every good thing that she’s ever done. I kissed her, trying to get her to snap out of it. She kissed back, and opened her eyes. Finally. But the place was still distorting. Sarah seemed to focus on me, but then the ground wrapped up around us and formed a ball. The ball moved, shook, slammed, and I could feel us escaping from the prison. Sarah wasn’t focusing like she did before, she was doing it with ease. Her power was already evolving so quickly.

I had to talk between the kissing, “Sarah, don’t hurt those people. Please.”

“You don’t need to worry about them.”

I hoped I was wrong, but stopped kissing and asked, “What did you do?”

“James, don’t worry.”

“Did you hurt those guards?”

“James, we-“

“Sarah, what did you do?” I could feel the ball slowly dropping, and it hit the ground. She opened it up, and I immediately looked around. I saw the city in the distance, but couldn’t see any details. I could barely hear some screams, and turned to Sarah. “What did you do?”

She acted like it was nothing, but said, “I took down the prison.”

“Sarah, those were people! With friends and lives! And you could’ve killed prisoners or
people around the building!”

“I didn’t want to tell you, because I knew you were gonna freak out and care about those
people. You're always like this."

I was shocked at her. This wasn’t the girl I was in love with. I knew she would be different from these powers, but she was so quickly changed by them. She acted superior to humans, like she was a god. There was no way one little usage could do this to her. “Sarah, what happened?”

“Come on, James! You don’t need to worry about these people! I’m invincible! We’re invincible! We have a gift, and you’re wasting it worrying about people who are mere insects!” She was so ruthless. She wasn’t craving power like the old man said, but she felt no compassion for innocent people. Once she starts wanting more, everyone in her way will be screwed. I’m the one person who can stop her, so I’ll have to just go with it.

“You’re right. I’m sorry for being too obsessive, we need to get to heaven as soon as possible.”

“Why? Now that I have this power, why take it away?”

“Not for Zeus! We need to get there for the treasure. There are things there that this world has never imagined!”

“Well then what are we waiting for? I’ll get some obsidian and flint now!”

She was so easily swayed by my reasoning. “How?” We'd left all of ours a home, and I couldn’t imagine her being powerful enough to get it from way underground here. I was wrong. She began to close her eyes and focus. If she could do all of what just happened with such ease, I couldn’t imagine what focusing would do. The ground began to shake, and a crack opened up next to us. Steam was pouring out, like it led to the center of the world. She picked up a stream of molten lava and formed a frame with it. Then she picked up a massive glob of water from a nearby source, and cooled off the lava with it. A chuck of flint flew out of the crack, and she closed it. She opened her eyes, and floated the flint to me.

“Would you like to do the honors?” I have to admit, her powers are pretty cool when she’s not hurting people. I grabbed the flint, and struck it on the inside of the frame. It sparked, and I did it again. Then it caught fire, and the fire spread throughout the frame. It swirled around, and turned purple. As I watched the purple swirl inside of the portal frame, I could hear the whispers of the dead coming out, and feel a horrible aura. The grass around us died, and I understood why it was forbidden.

“Ready to go?” Sarah asked eagerly.

“Okay.” I didn’t really want to go, but I needed to return Sarah to her old self. She jumped through, and I just walked. I vaguely saw a fire across the portal, but when I entered it the fire became real. It was incredibly hot, like standing in an oven. I looked around, and saw that we were in a small cave. I walked up to the opening, and we were overhanging above a massive room. The roof, walls, and islands were all made of the red stone I read about. There was an ocean of molten lava, which explained the heat. I couldn’t believe we were heading into this place. I looked over at Sarah, who was giddy with excitement. It was like her entire sense of fear was gone.

I looked out at the vast fiery land, hesitant to begin looking through, and Sarah noticed my fear. She walked up, put her arm around me, and said, “James, no matter what you think you’ve gotten into, I won’t let you get hurt.”

I felt no relief at the thought of her using her powers even more, but replied, “Thanks, Sarah.”

“Look, James, I know you’re afraid of my powers, but look at me! I feel great! I feel no need to get more power, and I can’t think of why I would even need it! Watch this.” She turned towards the opening, and closed her eyes again. She moved two huge chunks of lava with her hands, and shaped them into long dragons. The two beasts flew around, swirling around each other, and blew fire from the mouths. I didn’t see how she was making the fire, but I figured she was just using the heat from the lava. The two dragons began to fight, slamming into and biting each other, until they eventually ran straight into each other and exploded. The explosion sent lava out everywhere, and I could feel the heat blow towards me.

“Wow.” I had to admit, it was pretty cool.

“Yeah! And that was using just a tiny fraction of my power! Combine that with the fact that every little usage just multiplies how powerful I am. I can’t go crazy with hunger like the old man, because I’m already so powerful!”

“That’s a good point.” I couldn’t imagine how she would be like how the old man talked about how he was, as happy as she was. She just had fun with her power, being so excited about how powerful she was. The only problem I’d seen so far was her lack of concern for humans, which was overruled by her love for me. If we had gotten into the Aether and settled down there, no one around for her to hurt, I could finally live that calm life I wanted. It would be even better than I'd dreamed. I was so excited from the idea, I looked over and kissed her. She smiled at how I finally agreed with her, then seemed to get her own idea. She ran towards the edge of the cliff, and jumped off.

“Sarah!” I figured she had something going here, and I was right. She rose back up next to me, and floated there. It seemed she could move people just like objects.

“Well come on! I’ll hold you up too!” I ran and jumped off, and then I began to fly like her. I couldn’t control it, but it was fun to soar through the air without fear of falling. Sarah may had changed, but she was still just as caring about me as ever. She flew me over to her, and moved us both to the edge of the cliff. We both sat there, looking out into the Nether. Two days ago, I never would’ve thought that I would be with Sarah using her powers so much, in Hell, and enjoying myself.

As we looked around, I thought I heard a baby goat. Sarah heard it to, then it was a bit louder. The sound of a baby goat squealing rang through the cave. We both looked for the source of the noise, when a flaming ball flew towards us from the darkness. It was fairly far away, but it hit the wall and erupted in a plume of fire. The spot it hit was a crater, with the bloody rock flying out in all directions. I looked towards the direction that the ball came from, and saw one of my worst fears come true.

A white, round, graceful ghost floated towards us. It had deep black holes for eyes, and blue lines under them that looked like tears. There were tentacles hanging under it, and the whole thing looked like a ball with a sheet hanging over. I didn’t want to know what horrors lied under the sheet. It squealed again, and shot another fireball out of its tiny mouth. It seemed the ghost aimed properly at us this time, because this fireball headed right at us. It stopped in mid-air, and I looked over to see Sarah controlling it. She tossed the ball into the lava, where it exploded five times bigger than before.

Then she pulled a large chunk of rock out of a distant wall, and slung it at the ghost. The rock slammed into it, lodging into its head. White gooey blood poured out of the wound, and the ghost was clearly in pain. The blue lines began to glow red, and the holes of eyes did the same. It dove to the side, hitting a wall, and swerved around, trying to gain control. Fire spewed out of its mouth, along with more white blood. It circled, spiraling down, and eventually landed in the lava. It splashed everywhere, thrashing in the molten liquid. As it slowly melted apart, it eventually gave up, dead, and sank into the lava.

“Now that was cool!” Sarah was surprisingly happy about the somehow depressing sight. Her lack of concern for others was disturbing.

“Yeah, it was definitely…something. Kinda sad to see the creature in so much pain like that, though.”

“Well it did try to kill us.”

“Which it didn’t know was wrong.”

“Well it definitely does now.” It was a pretty harsh thing to say, but I chuckled a bit. Even in her new cruel state, something about Sarah made me a little happier.

“So should we go get that lightstone now?”

“Sure!” She shot up to her feet, and floated me off of the cliff. She flew next to me, and we both soared through the massive red cave. As the steaming wind blew against my face, I thought I could feel some sort of dark entities flowing through me. It was like spirits were in the air itself. I looked around, and eventually noticed a flowing golden coral-like structure hanging from the ceiling.

“Hey Sarah, I think I found some!” I pointed to it, and she flew us over to the coral. She moved a platform of rock under us so I could move, and landed us. “Thanks.” Flying was nice, but not being able to move got to be a bit uncomfortable after a while. I walked over to the glowing material, and felt it. It was hard as stone, but emitted a light as if it was made of glass with a light inside.

“This is amazing, Sarah said in awe.” It had been a while since I'd seen her so intrigued. There wasn’t much out of her league, now that she could do virtually anything.

“So how do we move this stuff?” I didn’t think she could re-form such a strange rock.

“I guess I could just move the whole chunk.” She pulled at it with her powers, and disconnected it from the ceiling. She accidentally hit a bit on the platform, and the glowing rock broke open. It was full of dust identical to the rock, which poured onto the platform. A bit floated to Sarah, and she examined it.

“It looks like this glowing dust hardened into that casing.”

“I wonder how it got up here.”

“I don’t know, but this coral should be enough for an Aether portal, don’t you think?”

“Seems like it. I guess we could get a bit more, though.” Then, just after I said that, I
thought I heard a high noise far behind me. I turned around to see a flame flying towards us.

“James!” was all I heard as I was shoved from the platform. Not from an explosion, but from an invisible force. Like Sarah had shoved me out of the way. I flew through the air, falling towards the lava. I thought for sure Sarah’s mistake would mean my horrible, melting death. Then I was frozen, unable to move. I floated back up to the roof, and landed on the platform. Sarah straightened me, and dropped me on my feet just as she ran up and hugged me. “James, I’m so sorry! I just panicked, and moved you away from the blast. I could’ve held you, but things just happened so fast-“

“Sarah, it’s okay! I’m fine!” She released me from the hug, and looked back over to the pile of dust. She shattered the rock, turning the whole chunk into dust. Then she moved it around, shaping it into a door. It was all held up, forming a frame just like the one that came here.

“Alright, I think this is good. Time to go home.” She flattened the dust, turned up the sides of the platform, and slowly lowered it in the direction we came from. She moved it a little faster and faster, until we were flying back the way we came. This place was horrible, and I couldn’t wait to leave. She lowered us some more, and landed the platform. The sides turned down, and I saw that we were back near the portal.

I ran up and jumped through, and felt so relieved in being back at the real world. The cool air blew on my face, the fresh air in my nostrils. It was nighttime, but the monsters must have been scared off by the Nether portal. Sarah came out of the portal behind me, followed by the large mass of glowing dust, and turned to destroy it. She bent the sides in, and the purple swirl faded into the air around. She clumped the whole thing into one big chunk, and hurled it into the distance. She dropped the dust, and sat down on the grass.

“Tired?” I asked. I hoped so badly that she would say yes, because it would make her that much more human.

“Yeah. It’s weird how every time I use my powers I get even stronger, but it still tires me out,” She yawned, “Let’s just sleep here.”

“Okay, but before you go to sleep could you make us a shelter?”

She laid down, and said, “No problem.” The ground around us curled up into a ball, and I laid down next to her. The dust caused the whole inside of the sphere to glow, like a campfire. A little hole in the top let air in and out. It was so peaceful.

Chapter 10: Moving Forward
I woke up to see that Sarah wasn’t under me, and looked up to see the ball still closed. I yelled, “Hey Sarah, I’m up!” And the ball opened up. I saw her sitting on a small pillar, practicing her powers. She was focusing on the sky, but I didn’t see anything moving.

She could tell I was wondering what she was doing, and said, “Look at the sun.” It was bright, but I could vaguely see where it was. She moved some clouds in the way so I could see it better. Then I watched it stop, and move backwards. Sarah had her eyes closed, and was focusing all of her power on this trick. The sun moved faster and faster, until I could clearly see it moving through the sky. It set in the East, and after a few seconds, it rose in the West. It quickly moved reverse to its normal course, and I saw that Sarah was doing it easily now.

She circled the sun around for a while, until she eventually stopped it. I looked over to her to applaud her, but when I looked she was clenching her eyes. She wasn’t moving at all, and had a look of pain on her face.

“Sarah?”

“James…I…can’t move…”

“Oh, crap!” I looked around to see if someone was doing this to her, but couldn’t see anyone around. “Hey! Stop this!” I was hoping whoever it was had heard me, but there was no response. I looked over to see Sarah float off the pillar, and lift a huge chunk of dirt.

She was moving it, ready to throw, and yelled, “James move!” I saw the massive clump fly towards me, and jumped to the side. Someone was controlling Sarah. Then a crack opened in the ground like before, and a waterfall of lava spewed out. In flowed over the both of us, and Sarah was getting pissed. I hadn’t seen her this angry since she'd started using her powers, and I couldn’t imagine what she would do. She started yelling, and eventually broke free of the other person’s control. She jumped on me, and encased us in a ball of dirt like before.

“Sarah, that was amazing! How did you do that?!”

“I don’t know, I just…broke free. Like a plastic casing was around me, and I just broke it.”

“Well I guess that means you’ve gotten a lot stronger.”

“Yeah, but we still don’t know who tried to kill us.”

“Yeah. Well whoever it was, they probably didn’t like you messing with the sun. Great job, by the way! That was really cool!”

“Thanks! I just focused on feeling everything in that direction, and eventually found the sun. Oh yeah, I should probably get rid of this lava.” She got off of me, and after a few seconds, opened the ball. I looked around, and saw that she was holding up a glob of lava, and had already closed the crack in the ground. She picked up the glowing dust, and did the same as she did with the portal to the Nether. She covered the dust with lava, and said, “Just experimenting. I figured maybe heat hardens the dust.”

“Well, you still have to cool it.”

“True.” She took the lava off, and the portal was much harder. It was still somewhat gooey, and wouldn’t hold alone. She lifted it up beyond eyesight, and waited a few seconds. “It’s really cold in the sky,” She shrugged. She dropped the portal back down, and opened a small pocket in the ground to make it even to the ground. She walked up and felt the rock. “Perfect.”

“Looks neat. So now we just need some water.”

“No problem.” She focused for a second, and I saw a small blob of water appear before me. It grew a little bit, and ended up the size of my fist.

“How did you do that?!”

“I just condensed the water in the air to a liquid form.”

“Sarah, you’re amazing.” Her powers are getting so extreme already. I can’t wait to see what she still can’t do!

“You know, it’s like I discover I can do something, then after that first time it’s instantly so easy. Then I focus on another new thing, and instantly master that. It’s so easy!”

“Maybe one day you could learn to transfer some power to me?” I was hoping
she could feel like she could do that one day, at least.

She chuckled, “Maybe.”

“Yes!” I said to myself.

She laughed a little more, and said, "Well first let’s get to the Aether. She threw the water into the portal, and I waited for a similar effect as the other one. I couldn’t believe how easily this whole thing ended up. But the water flew through the frame. It didn’t swirl, it didn’t even stop. It just flew through it and landed in the grass behind. I couldn’t believe what I'd just seen, ironically.

I thought for a second, and said, “Maybe it just has to be from a natural source.”

“Good point.” She carried some water from a distant source, and threw it through the portal. It flew through just like the other water. “I don’t get it. With the other portal, I could feel the disruption. I could feel the universe bending, linking the two areas. With this, it’s just a square of rock with water flying through.”

“What if the water has to sit for a second to form the portal?”

“We can keep trying ideas, but I don’t think we’re gonna get there like this. We need to try a different method.”

“You’re saying the portal won’t work?”

“I’m saying we need to try something else." She laughed to herself, “You know, I was just wondering how this could be so easy.”

“Maybe we missed something. Maybe the portal isn’t perfect, or we were supposed to use one naturally made.”

“Actually,” She walked back, and looked at the frame, “I think you’re right.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The ones we found were hollow with dust inside, but watch this,” She blasted a chunk off of the frame. Dust didn’t pour out like the natural stone, it was just full of stone. “I may have heated it a bit too much.”

“So now what?”

“I crush this up and try again, I guess.” So she did. She slammed the stone against itself, crushing it into dust. She took a smaller amount of the dust, and made a hollowed out square. Then she followed the same process as before, and ended up with a hollow frame and a ton of dust left over. Then she broke a small piece off of the top, and put all of the dust inside. Once it was filled to the brim, she put the piece back on, and tried again. We held our breath as the water flew towards the frame, and when it reached the point, it flew through again.

We both watched in disappointment as our new plan for the portal failed miserably. The water fell behind the new frame, and then I got an idea. I asked Sarah to make a bucket out of wood from a nearby tree, and then I used it to pick up some of the water. I poured it onto the bottom of the frame, and expected it to splash into the grass around it. Instead, it floated up around the frame, and began to swirl just like with the Nether portal.

Sarah ran up and hugged me, and said, “James, you’re a genius!” She let go, and continued, “See, this is why you’re amazing. You can do things that not even my powers can.”

I laughed at her flattering and slightly over-exaggeratory statement, and said, “I just thought if we followed the instructions more exactly, it would work.” She began kissing me really passionately, and I realized that she was going somewhere with this.

I immediately let go, and she responded, “Come on, James! You said that after we got to Heaven, we would do it!”

“Well don’t you think you’re rushing it a bit?”

“Don’t you think you’re stalling a bit? I swear, it’s like you don’t even want to do it!”

“Now I never said that. Trust me, that is all but true! I just have a strict moral code, and being in this world doesn’t change that.”

“I could tell from your concern for those humans in the city.” I had totally forgotten about her lack of morals. Before, I just thought she had lost concern for humans, having her omnipotent powers. But now with her determination for sex, I was beginning to fear that she had lost all morals completely. It was on a whim, and I had no proof, but it was a fear that I came up with myself. In my experience, self-inflicted thoughts could be dangerous.

I walked over to the Aether portal, and stood in front of it. I stared in, watching the clouds, land, and trees. I felt an amazing feeling wash over me, like all of my worries and problems were gone. It was a peaceful, refreshing, and simply amazing. I felt like every spec of pain or limitation was gone, like I could do anything. I knew I really couldn’t do anything, but this sheer feeling was so unbelievable.

“Is this what it’s like?” I asked Sarah.

She walked closer to the portal, and said, “Actually, yeah.”

“Wow. It’s so…peaceful.”

“It makes you feel like all of your problems and worries don't exist. It’s a bit more intense, though. This is just a fraction of how it feels.”

“Well maybe when we go in, it’ll be more intense and feel like actually having powers.”

She smiled at me, “Is that jealousy I smell?”

“Well you can’t blame me. I mean, I’ve watched you lift the ground itself, make dragons out of lava, and create things in seconds that most people need hours to make! I’m not a jealous person, but I have to admit it would be…really nice to have that kind of power.” She held me a bit closer, and began kissing me. Something was different this time, though. It felt more exhilarating. I thought the portal was just making this happen, but then I began to feel different. I felt the air around me, just like Sarah explained before.

I pulled back, gasping, “Are you…”

“I’ve been working on doing this for a while, but it seems I need to be really connected to you to do it. That’s why I’ve been pushing to have sex, but I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well you said that once you did something new that it quickly escalated, so you could do it much more easily afterward. Maybe after you do this for a little bit, you can do it much more easily in a few minutes.”

“Now imagine if I could do it so easily, and we had sex!”

I thought about it, and she made a good point. I could end up as powerful as her. Plus it’s not exactly a bad thing have a girl begging to do it. So we kept kissing, with the intense feeling building up in me. After a couple minutes of that, I decided to try out how much she gave me. I focused, and felt everything around me. I picked a piece of dirt a couple feet away, and moved it up like an arm. I could feel it being stiff, blocked by the ground around it. Eventually, I broke it off and lifted it. I focused on holding it up, and opened my eyes. There it was, floating right next to me. I moved it towards me, but dropped it.

“Not bad. I mean it is your very first time.”

I chuckled a bit, and remembered that we still had the Aether portal open. I turned to Sarah, and said, “Ready to go?”

Sarah yawned, “In the morning.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Come on, we already got the portal open. Let’s get a fresh start when we go through!”

“Alright.” So I laid down next to her, and we both went to sleep in a ball with the Aether portal. The amazing feeling that the portal emitted made sleeping so much more peaceful.

I woke up to the most amazing feeling. My heart was racing, and the feeling only got more and more intense. I opened my eyes to see Sarah on me, kissing me. She was giving me some of her power just like the day before, but it was a lot more effective. I went with it, and we kept doing it until she thought it was enough.

“Well?”

“Holy ****!” I gasped.

She laughed at my reaction, “So let’s see how much I gave you.” She helped me up, and I tried to think of something original. She opened the ball, and I looked around to find something to mess with. Then I noticed a cloud, and pulled it down along with a few others. I brought them all down to a nearby area, then expanded out a ball of cloud. I moved the others to look like an expanding mushroom cloud. I pulled out a wave at the bottom, and flowed it further and further until it flowed over us.

“Well?”

“A fog nuke?”

“Exactly!”

“That was definitely…original.”

“What, was it not good?”

“No, it was good! It was just a weird idea.”

“Thanks.” I knew she didn’t mean it as a compliment.

“So should we go in now?”

“Alright.” We both walked through the portal, and when we got to the other side I looked around. It was beautiful. We stood on a small island, overlooking tons of clouds. I looked under the clouds, but I couldn’t see the real world. It was just blue, like the sky. There were whales flying through the sky, and creatures similar to the ghosts in the Nether. They didn’t have tentacles, or looked like they had a sheet on, but were still floating, had holes for eyes, and lines on them. The lines weren’t just under the eyes, though. They were tattooed all over, like some sort of ancient markings.

One of the creatures spotted me, and shot a white ball at me. I jumped out of the way, and the puff broke into the island. I kneeled over and examined it, and felt that it was a snowball. This must be one of the creatures that the book talked about. What were they called?

I was thinking about it, when the next ball hit me straight on. It looked like it would be a fluffy, cold, weak blow. However, I was shoved to the side, and flew off the island. I waited for Sarah to lift me back up, as she normally did. I fell further and further, still waiting, watching the bottom of the islands fly away. When I fell past the clouds, I began to get nervous. She has pretty far reach. She’ll get me. My waiting continued indefinitely.

I fell down, further and further, losing hope. Eventually I noticed a different feeling in the air, and looked down to see a mass of land hurtling towards me. I shoved it back as hard as I could with what power Sarah gave me, and softened the speed enough for a safe landing. I fell from about 20 feet, and got up to look at my surroundings.

I was in a massive grassy field, trees and mountains visible in the distance. I turned around to see the Aether portal a small distance away. I ran for it, and just neared it when it vanished. The hard stone turned into dust, but the dust didn’t fall. It was a light dust, like a smoke. I tried to catch it, but it blew away in the wind. The portal was gone.

Continued in the next post...

The long wall of text sort of discouraged me from reading this (add the fact that I'm in a bit of a hurry right now)

I'll be sure to read this when I get some free time but perhaps you should add little more spacing because long walls of text can drive some potential readers off.

That was a very good read. I hope to see chapter 10 soon.

Yes, ANOTHER "CONTENT_TOO_LONG" message. I really should've reserved...

Chapter 10 (continued)
I stood there, watching the yellow smoke of the portal to my girlfriend float away. Without it, I was lost. Screwed. Hopeless. But then I remembered, If I could fall back down, so can Sarah! So I decided to wait for Sarah, figuring she would jump in after me. I waited for a long time. Minutes became hours. Hours became lifetimes. But then I realized. Hours had literally passed, and the sun was still up. It was going much slower than usual, almost Earthly slow.

I watched it to see, and couldn’t even tell it was moving. But it had changed positions over time. It was just very, very slow. Then, just as I began to lose hope in Sarah, I saw someone in the sky. They were falling, alarmingly fast. I figured Sarah would’ve slowed down, but focused on doing it myself. I pushed her back with all my strength, and eventually got her at a safe speed and lowered her close enough to see.

But it wasn’t Sarah. It wasn’t even a human, it was a small object. As it got closer I tried to make out what it was, but couldn’t until it was in my arms. It was a gun of some sort. More like a gauntlet-gun. It was brown, small, round-ish, with several braces for the arm that was put in. On the front, there was a spike with a small split hook on the end covering the hole that it shot from. I put my left arm in, and felt the inside. There were four triggers, perfectly fitting my fingers, and a button for my thumb. I adjusted the bracers on my arm, fastening it in tightly. I pointed it out, and pulled the triggers. It clicked. Then I pressed the button, and the spike shot out. There was a long chain attached, longer than what could possibly fit in the small gun. After long enough, the force from the shot wore out and the spike fell onto the grass. I pulled the triggers again, squeezing my hand. The rope rapidly retracted into the gun, dangerously fast. I let go, and it stopped. Then I tried pulling a little softer, and it retracted more slowly. After fully retracting it again, I examined the gun. Why did this fall behind me?

I decided to try and shoot something, so I focused to lift a chunk of ground up. However, while I tried fully hard to focus, I felt nothing. Not the ground, the gun, or even the air. I could only feel what my physical body could feel. My powers were gone. Something must have happened to keep Sarah up there.

Then I decided I would get nothing done here, so it was time to travel. The prolonged days would definitely prove helpful, but the nights would be longer, too. What happened that slowed down the days, anyway? I had plenty of time to think, alone in the field. I walked towards a mountain I saw in the far distance. The walk was long, dreary, and very unproductive. I was too slow.

I decided to try out this gun and see what it did. I tried out the possibility of a harpoon, a grappling gun, a hook-enemies-bring-closer device that I never named, and just a lethal hunting gun that could rip out something’s insides. I would need to find something to try it out on. I walked up to a nearby cow grazing in some tall grass, and aimed the gun.

“That’s right, stay nice and still.” I hit the button, and the hook shot out and lodged straight into the cow’s stomach. The animal panicked in the pain, and began running away. I was instantly dragged along, tried unbracing myself, yanking it, and eventually pulled the retract switch. The hook pulled me closer to the stampeding cow, until the gun was almost in the creature. I grabbed the cow’s side, and yanked the hook out.

It ran off, bleeding on the grass, and I crossed off hunting tool and harpoon from my mental list. I didn’t even want to try on something underwater. I decided to try out grappling hook, since trying it as a hook-enemies-bring-closer device was a bit dangerous on heavy farm animals. I would need a cliff or hill of any height to try grappling hook, so I continued towards the mountain. The blood eventually stained onto the hook and part of the main part of the gun, which looked quite badass. I was pretty badly beat up, though, and ate some leftover bread. Thank God it doesn’t mold here. I walked for the rest of the day, and eventually had to face the night. It would be the perfect time to try out the option of an HEC Device. HEC, Hook Enemies Closer. Genius!

I walked for a while in the moonlight, until eventually I saw a zombie slowly wander towards me. I stopped, aimed at the head, shot a direct hit in the monster’s eye, and yanked the head off. The body fell to the ground, but the head was hooked on tight. I didn’t want to retract the nasty thing, so I looked around the holster of the gun for another option. I found button on the bottom, and pressed it. The hook clicked, and I easily slipped it out of the head. The hook on the end of the spike had straightened out so that I could release whatever I hooked. That would’ve been useful with the cow.

I pressed the button again to ready the hook, and retracted it. This thing kicks ass! I kept walking towards the distant mountain, pitying any monster who challenged me. I took down a couple more zombies that same way, and wondered where the diversity was. Then my questions were answered with an arrow flying right over my left arm. I whipped over to see a skeleton.

“Big mistake.” I sidestepped the next shot, and shot a straight hit on the skeleton’s spine. I yanked the vertebrae out, collapsing the whole creature. The hook wasn’t in the spine, but around it, so I didn’t have to worry about getting it off. The skull was still shaking a bit, obviously trying to move. I walked over to stomp it to dust, when I got a better idea. I would leave it here to burn when the sun came out. Then I realized what I was thinking.

I’ve become like Sarah. Uncaring for these creatures. As weird as it sounded, I crushed the skull in mercy, and kept going. I was obviously not as bad as her, uncaring for humans, but I used to have compassion for creatures. That night I was ruthless, cruel, and never had a thought of the creatures’ pain. That would change.

I took off the hook gun, and put it away in my bag. I would use my sword from now on. However, I found this to become somewhat difficult later on in the night, as the creatures were much more difficult in close range. It had been too long since I had used a sword and my skills were far too rusty. The zombies were easy: mindless, close-range, and slow. But there were worse creatures out there. After only a short time, I walked through to see a new creature. In my 2 and a half months here, I had never seen something so demonic. It was tall, black, thin, and looked almost humanoid. It was minding its own business, moving dirt around, but when I looked straight at it, it stopped. It immediately stared at me, and I didn’t want to look away should it do anything.

I slowly, while keeping my eyes on it, unsheathed my sword, but the creature never flinched. I stood there, looking into its purple eyes in the darkness. Its stare was terrifying, piercing my soul. “Come on,” I quietly said, “Blink." After too long I couldn’t resist the wind’s cruel sting, and blinked. The dark beast ran at me, and quickly disappeared in mid-run. In a cloud of dark smoke it almost immediately reappeared a little to the side, even closer to me. I took a direct slice at the legs. It was at least 10 feet tall, and the torso was above my head. Once the legs were hit it fell to the floor where I slammed the head off.

It had no meat, no blood, no innards. It was all bone. I was almost untouched from the fight, and looked down at the fallen head, “You’re all bark.” I continued on my journey to the mountain for the rest of the night. I was forced to switch back to my grapple after some time, but kept the kills as quick as possible. I was absolutely delighted when I noticed a bit of brightness in the sky above the horizon, but knew that it would still be another good hour and a half before the sun was actually up. I was beginning to miss the old speedy days.

I fought off the monsters for an endless amount of time. I kept a few mementos from my proudest kills when I got bored, like a cracked bone from a skeleton I slung into a green exploder that ended up blowing them both up, or when I tricked a skeleton into killing an exploder and a strange metal was formed from the arrow. Zombies were no fun, though. I hardly ever did anything exciting with them.

I fought the monsters throughout the night as I watched the sky slowly brighten. I always loved dawn, how the sun’s dim light created so many different colors in the sky and clouds. Then the sun always barged in and ruined it. But here it wasn’t as bad to see dawn end and the sun rise. Now I could get some peace from the monsters. Skeletons broke apart, zombies’ flesh burned, and exploders exploded. I watched as one by one, the evil demons dropped at the might of the sun. Then I realized that some weren’t dying, and looked around to try and find out why.

In front of me was a massive line of slight darkness, and I looked up to see a massive mountain. I had made it. I ran up, killing a few slightly hurt creatures on the way, and finally arrived at the bottom of the slope. It begun from the flat ground with an abrupt vertical stone cliff, and continued to rise normally from there. The land simply jerked from plain land to mountainous terrain.

I tried out my hook gun’s possible grappling feature, and shot a hook into a far high-up place in the stone. It lodged in perfectly. I clenched the retract-trigger, and the gun pulled me, flying up to the hook. The gun was almost completely in, and I looked down from where I hung. I must be at least a hundred feet up!

I decided to experiment a little, and pressed the straighten button. I retracted the other few inches, and launched off the wall. I re-clamped the hook, and shot at much higher on the wall. I immediately retracted at full speed, pulling myself another massive distance upward. “Oh yeah. This’ll work just fine.”

I did a few more climbing tricks on my way up the mountain. I stabbed my sword into the mountain and held onto that, shot far to the side, and used my own momentum to start an upward swing/run up the mountain. Then I hooked up while along the side, and ran up. I did a few more things like that, until I eventually reached the peak. I found a sturdy part, and looked out onto the land. The clouds were below me, and below them were mountains, hills, plains, canyons, and a town.

A town! Finally! I found a large chunk of stone hanging out of the side of the mountain far down near the ground, jumped off the edge, and flew down the massive mountain. When I got low, I took my shot. It hit right on, and I swung around the chunk at intense speeds. I ended up on top, and jumped back down the same way I flipped up. I waited until the swing was at little enough speed, and lowered myself to the ground. I unlocked the hook and headed towards the town.

From what I could see, the town was bigger than the other one by the canyon, but not quite as big as the metal city. The buildings seemed to be made of brick and stone, and there were gardens around the sides with wooden fences. I could see more the closer I got, and eventually got close enough that some residents could see me. I continued to walk towards the town, as a few people on their front porches or working in their yards looked up. They looked like they had never seen an outsider before. I walked through, seeing them watch me like I was an alien, and eventually realized that I still had my grappling gun out.

I put it away, and looked around at the surroundings. I noticed that this town was much more modern than the other one we had found. It had paved roads, streetlamps, I even saw a couple of 50’s style cars. How can such a small town get these kinds of resources? There must be an outside supplier. I decided to try and find some sort of authority, and walked around the place. I wandered around for quite a long time, until finally deciding to ask around. I saw a woman around 30 years old working in her garden, and walked up to ask her.

“Excuse me, Ma’am?”

She saw me, and froze in fear. She was backing up, holding her rake at me.

“What? Look, I just need-"

“Look, if you don’t get away from me I’m gonna go get my gun!”

“Woah, okay! I’m going!” I slowly backed up, facing her with my hands up. I eventually turned to go find someone else. I walked a little down the road and tried another house. A man was walking out of his house to go somewhere, and I walked over. I began to ask him, but he stopped the second he saw me and jumped back.

“Oh my God, it's you. Just let me get past, please! I need to get to work!”

“I’m not gonna hurt you, I was just wondering where you guys get your-“

The man turned and ran down the street, sprinting around the corner. What is everyone’s deal?

I turned around to look some more, and walked along the sidewalk. This town didn’t seem to have any sort of City Hall or apparent government, so I looked around the outside.
I walked around the city, seeing if any roads went out. There was one that went way out around some trees. I figured I couldn’t get through without a car, so I went to find a dealer. I walked through town for a while, ignoring people’s reactions, and eventually found a large building with cars inside. An obvious car dealer.

I went inside, and shortly realized I had no money. I decided to look anyway, in case I could get some money later. I walked to the front desk, and waited for the woman to look up. She just kept looking down, writing on some document.

“Ummm, excuse me?”

She just kept writing, more violently, and I wondered what her problem was.

“Excuse me? I’m looking to-“ But the woman was shaking, trying to keep from looking up. I gave up and walked from the desk. “What is everyone’s problem in this town?” I turned back to see her, head down, shaking in fear. People are acting like I’m some sort of murderer. I decided to leave, but was interrupted by sirens and man on a megaphone.

“Sir, please come out with your hands on your head. We have you completely surrounded.” I walked out with my hands up, and saw about 5 police cars. Several officers were out, kneeling behind doors and cars, holding their guns at me.

“What is going on? What did I do?!”

An officer walked up and put my hands behind my back. He handcuffed me, and brought me to his car. He threw me in the back, and got in the front.

“I’m sorry, but can you please tell me what is going on?“

“Shut it.”

“What did I do?!”

“You came to our town, that’s what you did.” I decided maybe I would find out more wherever he brought me, and sat back to wait through the drive. He drove around a couple of corners, and eventually down the road leaving town. I watched the buildings turn into trees, and the green blur go back. I never thought I would be in the back of a cop car, handcuffed.

After a long drive through the trees, he brought me into another town. This one was more of a neighborhood, with mostly houses and occasional stores. Then the stores became much more frequent, and the buildings were getting higher. I looked ahead to see a city approaching. We drove through the city, and I watched the people occasionally see me and react. After a little while, we arrived at a large stone building. There were no windows, and we were driving into a gated area. The gate closed behind us, and he parked by a door. He got out of the car, and walked around to my side. He opened the door, and I got out. I figured the less I seem to resist, the more I can convince them I’m not a criminal. No matter how feeble the attempt may be.

We walked into the door, and he led me through a series of halls. It looked like some sort of office building. He brought me into one of the doors, and the room inside was all stone. There was a desk and a cell with a bench inside. I knew where I was going. He brought me to the cell, and locked the door behind me. I noticed I was still handcuffed inside the cell.

“You’re not going to un-handcuff me?”

"I heard about what you did. No way in Hell I'm letting you loose."

"And what is it exactly that I did?"

He just scoffed, so I waited in the cell, on the bench, my handcuffs on, horribly uncomfortable. I watched him at his desk working, typing things, making calls, etc. Occasionally someone would walk in to hand him or tell him something, and they would almost always glance at me. It looks like I’m really well known around here. After about 2 and a half hours, another officer came in.

“Time to bring him in.” The first guy opened my cell and I walked over. He brought me out the door, down the hall again, and into another door. This one was a courtroom inside, and he brought me to a chair behind a long table. If there was anything I knew about court, it was that this was where the convict sat. The entire courtroom was empty besides the officer who brought me in. He walked back by the door.

The judge came in, sat down at his podium, and looked down at me. “Seventeen guards, thirty-
two prisoners, and four surrounding buildings. How do you sleep at night?”

I was horribly confused, “I’m sorry, can you please tell me what it is I did?”

The judge looked at me, a bit angrier, “What did you do?! You came into our most protected
city, researched forbidden techniques, took down an entire prison, killed dozens of innocent
people, and you want to know what you did?!”

I looked down, “Ohhh,“ I said to myself. This city is related to that place that Sarah took down
the prison. How convenient. I looked back to the judge.

“You know, we should be executing you. There should’ve been a bounty out for your head, but
they wanted to question you! You have no idea how lucky you are! So let’s get this over with.”
He looked down at a piece of paper, “Following your questioning, you are hereby sentenced to a
lifetime in the Woodcrest Penitentiary for the crimes of resisting arrest, mass murder,
and vandalism.”

He hit the gavel, and the officer led me out through the hallway, around a corner, and to the garage. I was put back in his car, and he drove back outside the gate. I was going to pay for Sarah’s crimes. I had my morals against killing, but I couldn’t go to prison. And who knows how long a lifetime is here?
Unfortunately for me, I knew nothing of lock picking or escaping from handcuffs, so that was
obstacle number one.

I got had one idea, and looked down. I figured maybe if Sarah could feel this far from the
Aether, she could read my lips. I silently mouthed the words, “Sarah, I don’t know if you can
hear me, but if you can I need help. I can’t get out of this alone.”

Then, just as I finished, the car slammed forward. The officer was buckled up, but was sitting up against the seat. I moved up to see, and saw him being choked.

“Sarah, don’t kill him!” I yelled at nothing, “Let him go!” Then the man was released, and was ripped
out from the car. He flew aside in his seat, and I was waiting for her to let me out. The door
opened next to me, and I got out. She opened my handcuffs, and I walked around to the officer.

I fastened my arm in, and walked around to the front of the car. It was totaled. So the good
news was that there were towns with modernized technology. The bad news was that I was an
international fugitive. Perfect. I got no more signs from Sarah after that, and decided to clear
this out with the officer. He was already running back down the road, and I asked Sarah to hold
him just so I could talk. This omnipotent girlfriend thing was pretty useful.

After the man was shoved back and forced against the ground, I walked up over him. I kneeled
over and said, “Now you listen, I’m not a criminal. I’ve never killed a man
in my life. That day in the prison, I was with a girl. She took it down! I tried to convince her
otherwise! So you go back to your city, and tell people that I am innocent. Otherwise my
girlfriend who took down the prison, well she can do a lot more now. A LOT.” Then I stood up, and the man flew back the way we came. I looked up again, “Thanks.”

Then I began to walk forward, but a man was standing there. He was wearing a black Hard Rock
Café t-shirt with jeans. He was about 10 feet away, and I'd never seen him before. He had curly
black hair, and a really thin figure.

“Look, Sarah can’t help you anymore,” From what I could tell, he had an accent from New
Zealand, “I was the one who helped you out here, and I can’t hold your hand along the way
from now on. You have to do this alone, just try not to get yourself into this kind of thing
again.”

“Who are you?”

“That, my little mortal friend, you cannot know for now. What you can know is that Sarah is
gone. Dead. No more. And you have a-“

“Wait, what? What did you do to her?!”

“Will you let me finish? Rude. You have a purpose, and I am here to help you fulfill it.”

“Can you please tell me what you did with Sarah?”

He sighed, "She’s back home, on Earth. And you have bigger problems to face. Mainly
being your purpose.”

“Well what is my purpose?”

“Another thing I can’t tell you! I can say, however, that you must forget about that pretty little
doll you traveled with. I realized you were in love and all that, but she was an obstacle. You
must complete your-ah forget it. I feel like a broken record.” He disappeared, and I ran up to
where he stood.

“What are you talking about?!”

Then his voice was faint, “Just survive, you’ll figure it out!” That guy annoyed the crap out of
me. Sarah can’t be gone! She just can’t! I looked ahead along the road, and decided I couldn’t
go to another town or city anywhere remotely close, unless I wanted to be arrested again. Or
worse. I turned towards the wall of trees aside the road, and walked into it. I had a familiarity
with forests.


Chapter 11: A Lot to Think About
I walked into the vast forest, wondering where to begin. I couldn’t just build a house and live. It
would be torture without Sarah. I walked through, wandering around with no goal. Then I heard
a growling. I stopped, and slowly looked ahead. There it was, a wolf, feeding on an animal’s
dead body.

I took a step, and the wolf froze, waiting for me to make a move. I stayed frozen, and the
animal eventually continued feeding. It ripped away at the raw meat, and I slowly turned to
leave. After the first step, I could hear the chewing stop and the wolf began growling, so I kept
walking away. It kept growling as it chewed, and I eventually walked around it. Far around it.

I loved dogs, but wolves scared me. Unless they were tamed, calm, and possibly neutered. Wild
wolves were vicious, ruthless, willing to do anything for food. I didn’t want to mess with one.
Then, as I walked away from the wolf’s feeding, I heard footsteps behind me. I slowed down,
trying to be more quiet to listen to the other steps, and noticed that there were more than two. I
stopped completely, and the footsteps did the same. I walked again, and they started up. I
could hear them getting slightly closer, and turned around slowly.

The wolf was following me, and stopped when I began to turn. He stared at me, sometimes
looking at my pack. I reached back, and said, “What? Is there something in here you want?” I
held it in front of me, unzipped it, and looked around. There was a tiny bit of bread, “You want
this? He put his head a little closer, sniffing, and pulled it back. I looked through some more,
and pulled out a stick, “This?” The wolf looked at me like I was crazy, and I looked some more. I
saw one of the skeleton’s bones I kept as a trophy from the field, and pulled it out, “Did you
want this?” The wolf stepped closer, sniffing the bone. It gradually made it to the bone, and
grabbed it.

I held the bone back, and the wolf eventually let go. It looked up at me, and I decided to make it
work for the bone. “You want this, you’re gonna have to earn my trust. I got this thing on my
own, and you’re not running off with it.” He just stared at me, and I put down my bag. I held the
bone near me, and put my other hand out. The wolf slowly sniffed my hand, and eventually put
its head down. I scratched it, and said, “Good boy.” It got a bit closer, and relaxed. I pet it some
more, and it was really relaxed now.

I held out the bone, and the wolf slowly grabbed it. I let go, and he sat down next to me,
chewing the bone. I sat on the forest floor, petting the wolf as he chewed his bone. He was an
especially calm, friendly wolf from what I had seen. Then I kept talking to him, “So, I guess I
should name you. What do you wanna be named, hmm? What should I call you? Scruffy? You
want a really dog-like name, Scruffy? How about Sniffles? No, you’re too serious. Bobby? Jim?
Johnny? That’s a classic guy from a prison movie who gets shanked.” Then I started imitated a
prison movie, “Oh, Johnny! Why’d they have to take him?! He was so shy, oh god! They took
Johnny! Oh!”

When I was done being an idiot, I kept going with the names, “Marley? That was a good movie.
How about Jeff? You seem like a nice Jeff.” The wolf stopped chewing and panted. “Alright, we’ll
give you a people name. So you will henceforth be known as Jeff,” Then I stood up, “Well come
on, Jeff. I guess we gotta go build a house, huh?” I started walking, and he took his bone and
followed. I turned to check on him, and he was holding the bone out. “You want me to take
that?” I took the bone out of his mouth, and he softly let go. I put it in my bag, and we kept
walking.

I was surprised at how loyal he was after such a short time, but then again dogs do tend to be
quite loyal. That’s what they’re known for. I talked to the wolf as we walked, “So, Jeff, you got
any hobbies? You know, besides slaughtering animals?” I turned, and he was just walking beside
me, panting, “Not a big talker. I get it. You’ll come through, though. Just like the guy in Saint’s
Row. In the last mission, you’ll talk. I believe in you, Jeff.” I was a little worried at how little I cared
that I was talking to a wolf. Chronic Loneliness, I guess.

I walked for a while, talking to Jeff about how I’d been in this new world, “And then the guy
disappeared, so I just turned and walked through this forest. And that’s how I met you. So how
about you? Got any interesting deer-eating stories?” The wolf sneezed, and I said, “Wow, that
was an amazing story! I can’t believe the butler was the killer. Never would’ve guessed. So
where do you think we should go? Try and get out of here? Maybe north? I hear those
Canadians are quite friendly. You’d make a good sled dog, I think. How about that, you wanna
pull sleds?” The wolf stopped and looked to the side. “What? Was that a good idea?”

I looked up towards where the wolf was looking, and saw a deer. It was grazing, unnoticing us
two. Jeff watched it, and eventually found the right time to attack. He ran after it, and the deer
almost immediately turned and ran. They both raced off into the trees, and I waited for his
return. “Hey Jeff? You know, I’m not really in the mood for deer meat. Maybe another time…”
Then he walked back, blood all over his mouth, panting.

“Well aren’t you just a stone-cold killer?” I scratched his head. We kept on walking, and I
eventually said, “You know, I really don’t know what that hell I’m doing.” I stopped and sat
down, and Jeff sniffed me. I pet him a little, and he sat down next to me. I laid back, head on my
hands, looking up at the trees. I sighed, “You know, it’s times like this I wish Sarah could just
erect a dome around me, and I could go to sleep. She was real nice, I think you would’ve like
her. She was strong, independent, and she always smelled nice. Her hair, soft, thin, straight.
Her pretty face, oh she was so beautiful.” I continued to talk about Sarah, picturing her, and
slowly drifted more and more into sleep.

Then the next thing I knew, Jeff was licking my face. “Arg, Jeff! I’m up! You can stop!” I laughed
and sat up. The sun was gleaming down through the thick trees, barely making it down. Thin
streams of light gleamed in the forest air. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Jeff was standing next to me, and
I was scratching his head. I had always loved forests, wolves, and slightly warm air. This was
like my dream come true.

I stood up, and decided to start looking for a home. Then I realized that I hadn’t been attacked
all night. I looked over at Jeff, “Did you protect me last night?” He just looked at me, panting,
“Good boy.”

We both set off to go wandering through the forest. I didn’t know what to do, where to go, I had no
plan. I just kept walking. “Maybe we’ll find a town that doesn’t think I’m a genocidal maniac,” I
said to Jeff. We walked through the forest for a few hours, and I noticed a few interesting trees.
I never understood how people got lost in forests, if you just walk in one direction.

Then the weirdest thing happened. I felt a little empty inside. It was like hunger back home. I knew it couldn’t be, though, and kept going. Over time the feeling got a little more intense, and denying the option of hunger was getting harder. I took the piece of bread out of my sack and ate it, and the feeling got a bit weaker. I would need food if this was hunger, so I decided to go hunting for a bit. I set a large
stick on the ground facing where we were facing, and stuck another up in the ground. This way
I could find where we were and what direction we were going.

Jeff and I looked around for some animals, with no success, when I heard footsteps. I stopped,
with Jeff doing the same, and the footsteps kept going. They were a little to the right, and I
slowly turned my head towards them. It wasn’t an animal, it was a man. He was walking in a
very different direction than us, so I yelled to him, “Hey! Guy with the armor!” He almost
immediately stopped and looked back at us. Then he just kept walking.

I guess a kid and his wolf aren’t good enough for you. I decided to make this personal. I ran
up, ready to attack. I wasn’t planning on hitting him for no reason, but I had some bad
experience with people.

Right as I got close and slowed down, he said without looking back, “If you know what’s good
for you, turn back.”

“Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but I just want to kno-“

“I said turn back.”

“Just tell me how to get out.”

He sighed, “I don’t know.”

I kept following behind him, and said, “Well where are you going.”

“Kid, this is none of your business. Now if you don’t leave I’m going to kill you.”

“Woah, okay.” So I stopped walking behind him and turned back towards where I came.

Just when I started walking, I heard, “Hey kid!” I turned and he threw me a chunk of meat and
yelled, “Stay out of trouble!” He turned back to keep walking, and I went back to Jeff. At least I
have some food now. It was precooked, too.

I put the large chuck in my bag, and kept walking with Jeff, “At least you stayed back.” We both
walked back to the stick, and kept going from where we were before. I decided to just keep
walking through the night. I didn’t feel like building a shelter, and wanted to get out of the
forest as soon as possible.

As we walked, I looked down at my feet and remembered what that guy by the road said, "You
have bigger problems to face, mainly being your purpose…She was an obstacle…just survive,
you’ll figure it out!" He was making no sense, but I had to try and put the pieces together. He
obviously expected me to figure out on my own what I was supposed to do. If Sarah’s an
obstacle, and I have a 'purpose,' then I guess I’m supposed to do something really big.

Well he seemed really hesitant to help me, but he got me out of that city. So it must not have
anything to do with them. Does it have something to do with these changes going on, like the
slower days and new monster? Is there something going on with this world, am I’m supposed to
fix it? But how would a simple human fix the universe, when I can’t even get out of a pair of
handcuffs?

“You know, you really don’t catch on quick.” I looked up and saw the man standing a little in
front of us. Jeff growled at him, and he said, “Nice little friend you’ve got there. You really have
a need for companionship, don’t you?”

“Well everyone needs a friend.” I remembered a book called Of Mice and Men that talked about
that.

“Ah yes, that book you read in 8th grade.”

I paused for a second, “How did you-“

“I know everything about you, James. Because you’re not a simple little human. You are so
much more than that.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m human, what with the two eyes, brain, skin…”

“I’m talking about the ‘simple little’ part. You aren’t meant to go on, live, and do
nothing like everyone else here. I see you’ve taken much notice to the sun slowing down, that
empty feeling of hunger you have, even breathing doesn’t seem to work a hundred percent,
does it?” I had never noticed before, but he was right. When I ran or worked hard, it took longer
than before to cool down. “I’ll tell you the truth, this world is falling apart. Literally. In about 4
month’s time, there’ll be nothing.

“It all started a couple months back in that little forest island of yours. When your pretty little
girlfriend killed the clan member. Most people get their powers when they kill for greed, hate,
even self-defense. But she was the first one to kill sheer out of protection for her lover. You
gave her the motive to kill that man, and that emotion made her powers so much better than
they should have been. This disrupted the entire balance of things, though, and sent this world
on a one-way trip to oblivion.

“So now things are unstable. Time slowed down, people get hungry and tired, all of the physics
on Earth are spilling into this world. I’m sure you remember that chuck of floating dirt
back on that first beach you woke up on? It fell. All of the unstable structures that stayed up
before are falling. I took this as a sign of change, but didn’t see any real danger. That was until
Sarah destroyed that prison. Yes, I know, that just keeps coming back to haunt you. Well do you
know where the city is now? Nowhere. It disappeared, ripped apart and vanished.

“And then, she kept getting more and more powerful. But all that power had to come from
somewhere, right? You didn’t think it was just created for her, did you? No, she was siphoning
it from other people. Everyone with powers was getting weaker and weaker, all of it sapping
into her. She was single-handedly destroying the universe every time she used her powers. So I
had to send her back home, to Earth.”

“But how would that help?”

“People are powerless there. The entire way that powers work is connected to this universe, so
they’re useless on Earth. Now she’s gone to help stop speeding up the process, but it hasn’t
stopped. The whole place is falling apart, physics are distorted, even chunks of matter are
vanishing into nothingness. And not even I have the power to stop it.”

“You who, though? Who are you?”

“You honestly haven’t figured it out yet? The one guy who has the most power and see’s
everything?” I felt so stupid, because I hadn’t figured it out before that I was talking to Zeus.
“Yes. I’m the guy who found this place and built it from the ground up. But now my creation is
falling apart, and hundreds of millions of people are going to die.”

“Can’t you just send them back like you did with Sarah?”

“And overpopulate the Earth? No thank you, they are having enough problems as it is. Besides,
even if I wanted to, opening an Earth portal only make the instability worse. Just sending Sarah
back was a huge risk. Sending back another ten people would no doubt send the place
crashing, let alone millions.”

“So you expect me to fix it?”

“I hate to say it, but you will. I wouldn’t believe it myself if my sources weren’t as definite as
they are.”

“What sources?”

“That’s not important right now. What is important is that you stop the disruptions and save
everyone.”

“I can’t believe you just expect me to take that and go on normally. That’s a pretty big favor to
ask.”

“It’s not a favor, it’s an order. You will do it, that is not an option. Fate has been decided
already.”

“And what if I decided to hide a hole forever and let the place die? Then fate is wrong.”

“Fate is never wrong, and you will save the universe,” He had gotten much more serious, “You
have no choice.” Then he was gone. There was no fade or smoke or anything, he was just gone.

“Son of a *****!” I looked down at Jeff, and scratched his head. If fate is really undecided, then I
don’t have to worry. I’m gonna do it anyway, so I might as well sit back and enjoy the
ride.’ I sat down, waiting for something to happen to get me out of the forest. Then I noticed a
tree start to look weird. It was crumbling, bending, it looked like it was imploding slowly. Then
it began to disappear, and I saw another do the same. The place was unstabilizing. I
immediately turned to run the other way, and yelled to Jeff, “Come on!” The wolf ran after
me, and we raced out through the forest.

I looked back and saw the ground falling, trees disappearing in chunks, matter itself ripping apart. I
looked back forward to see some trees ahead of me doing the same. There was no pattern that
this was going in, it could be miles around for all I knew. But I had to keep running. Then I
realized, if my fate was to save the universe, then I couldn’t die here. I stopped, and told Jeff to
run ahead. He refused for a minute, and I got serious, “Jeff, go! Get away from here!” He could
tell I was, and did as I said.

I watched him run off, then jerk in pain. He limped a little, then ripped apart in a bloody
explosion. Even some of the blood vanished in mid-air as I stared in shock. Jeff was dead now,
completely gone. I kneeled down, and watched things around me destroy themselves. Animals
were screeching and yelling, birds squawking, trees thumped on the ground and leaves rustled
violently. I sat in the center, mourning over Jeff, waiting for it to end.

As a rip in the ground got a little closer, and the whole area around me began to sink, I waited
for a rescue. Something or someone would get me out. Then the space under me collapsed,
and I fell through the ground. After an alarmingly long fall, I landed on my bag on a hard stone floor. I felt
an agonizing crack, and tried to get up, but my back was broken. I couldn’t move. I struggled to
do something, when I heard a low moan. A zombie.

I wanted so badly to get up, but couldn’t move. I couldn’t even get the meat out of my bag to heal.
The moaning and growling got closer, until eventually I knew the zombie had reached me. It
attacked me, slashed at my skin, as I lay on my back unable to move. The ripping through my
flesh and muscle was agonizing, and seemed to last forever. The creature continued mindlessly
ripping away at my torso, until finally I began to feel dizzy. The massive gush of blood was getting
too much out, and the agony and searing pain continued until I blacked out. It was finally over.

Chapter 12: Restart
It felt like weeks, as I was nothing. It was infinitely black, with no feeling, sight, or sound. Everything was completely nothing…

I woke up on a beach, same as always. It was a different place, but a beach all the same. The whooshing and crashing of the waves, the seagulls squawking. Seagulls? I sat up, and looked around for them. I had never seen seagulls in this world. I looked up and saw a beach, as expected, but it was a little different. It was just something about the look. As I walked along the beach, I thought back to what had happened. I was so shuffled by the past few days; my mind was playing tricks on me. I could barely remember who I was. I didn’t even remember why I was walking…

Okay, so…so I came here in that forest…and there was Sarah, and we explored…then there was the city… So I thought as I walked, backtracking through my life here. I eventually remembered everything up to Zeus and my last conversation, and how I died. I stopped and sat on the sand, “Argh, son of a *****!” My head was cloudy, I was lost, and Sarah was gone.

I sat there for a while, holding my temples, until I heard a noise. I listened closer and heard footsteps, getting closer. I could tell they were walking directly towards me. “Look, whoever you are, I’m not in the mood.” They kept getting closer, and they were eventually incredibly close to me. I looked up, “I said leave me-“ But when I saw her, all of my pain went away. It was Sarah. She was standing there, a blank look on her face.

“Sarah…” I stood up and walked forward to hug her, but she backed up. “Sarah, is…is something wrong?”

She held up a glass ball with tons of lights flowing inside. She looked at it as she talked, “This world is crumbling. The artificial nature is weak, and there will be nothing in the end”

“Sarah, what are you-“

“We are all doomed. This,“ She held the ball higher, “is everything we've ever needed.”

“Wait…what is going on?” She took the ball and slammed it on the ground. The lights flew everywhere, and I backed up. They swirled around her, growing much brighter, and I saw a look of pain of her face. I couldn’t go near because of the lights, but eventually they swirled away and flew off. Sarah collapsed, and I caught her and laid her down. “Sarah? Sarah!” I shook her, and looked at her face. She was smiling vaguely, and her eyes were closed. I felt her heartbeat and breath, and knew she was alive. I stood up, Sarah in my arms, and began to look for a house.

I walked down the beach for hours, my back aching. None of my pains or problems mattered, because I had her back. That was all that mattered. “Hello? Is anyone here?” I yelled out. No one responded, but every few minutes or so I continued the call. “Please, I need help!” After an endless walk through the long beach, I eventually found a small wooden house on a pier. I ran towards it, calling towards whoever might be inside, “Hey! Over here!”

I made it to the house, and walked to the front door. “Hello?” I kicked the door a couple of times, my hands full. After no answer, I began to kick again just when the door opened. A man stood there, surprised at the sight. “Please, can I lay her down inside?”

The man didn’t know what to say, “Uh, sure." I walked inside, and was surprised at how modern the home looked. I put Sarah on the couch, and looked around. The man had photos of fish, plaques, and even a TV. How did he get this stuff?

“Now would you mind telling me what this is about?” He eventually said.

I turned around, and saw the man standing at the doorway with a beer. “It...it’s kind of a long story. She basically had…some health problems, you could say, and passed out while we were at the beach. She just needs some rest.”

“Well alright. What kind of health problems made this happen, anyway?”

“Uhhhh,” I was never a good liar, “Lack of sleep.” I looked at the man, who just stared at me. It was obvious I was hiding something. “Look, if I told you the truth, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Well it looks like we’ve got some time, so pull up a chair and start talking.”

I sighed, and grabbed a wooden chair. I didn’t know where to start, “Well, first off, can you tell me where we are?”

“Psh, heck if I knew. Woke up one day and walked outside, and my fishing house was in the middle of a beach. I got my rods, and all the supplies I needed to survive, but I haven’t seen civilization for miles.”

“So that explains the stuff…” I said to myself. Then I turned to him, “Uhh look, this is hard to explain. You...we are all in some sort of alternate dimension. I think.”

“What?”

“Well I woke up one day on a beach, except there was a forest nearby. And this world is not Earth, I promise you that.”

“So, what? You’re saying I magically got transported to some other dimension?”

“Well that’s my theory, I don’t know much more than you. Let me just tell you where I’ve been…” So I went on to tell him the entire story of my time here. It was pretty crazy talking about it. I told him about the forest, Sarah, the clan, the town, the old man, her powers, the city, heaven, hell, everything. “And then I carried her over here, and you let me in.”

The man was in deep thought. It must’ve been hours that I’d been talking. “Man, I’m glad I woke up here. You’ve been through some crazy ****, son.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well I don’t want Sarah here waking up and ripping up my house or anything…”

“Don’t worry. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about her. She’s…different. I don’t know, ever since she got these powers she seemed different. She was sterner, like a different person entirely. She wasn’t the girl I fell in love with in the forest. But now, she just seems softer, gentler, and more peaceful.”

“Maybe it has something to do with that ball she broke. You said down there at the beach she broke some ball, and the light is what made her collapse. Maybe she did something to herself.”

“She said, ‘This is everything we've ever needed.’”

“Well she knows what she did, and now we just have to wait.”

“I guess so.” So we both sat there, waiting for Sarah to wake up. The man got a few more beers, and we just talked in the meantime. After what I figured to be an hour and a half, she started to stir. I got up and held her shoulder, “Sarah?”

She slowly moved around, and muttered, “James?”

I was relived, “Yes, it’s me.” She pulled me in and kissed me, and I realized the man was still there. I slowly pulled away, and I helped her up. “You feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I just fell really stiff. Where are we?”

“I found this man’s cabin on the beach. He let you sleep here until you woke up.”

“What? Where's our home?"

"We left it, remember?”

“What?” She was shocked at the news. I didn’t even know it was news. She looked at me, and I remembered again that the man was still watching us.

“Uhh Sarah, this is…what’s your name again?”

“Jim. Just call me Jim.”

“This is-“

“What do you mean it burned down?”

“You don’t remember? You fought that guy from the clan, and I burned the forest down, so we had to leave…”

“I remember the fight, but after that I went to sleep. Then I woke up here…”

“What? Sarah, that was two months ago. You’ve been up and walking the whole time.”

Then the man spoke first, “Well this is interesting,” We both looked over at him, “I think it’s obvious what happened here.” We both stared at him. “What, you two really haven’t figured it out? It’s obvious that the ball she broke took away her powers with a slight side-effect of amnesia.”

“Slight?!”

“Well I figure she wanted to go back the way things were, and didn’t want the memories with her.”

“But, why would she throw out her powers?”

“I think you know. You said that she was different, and the whole time the old Sarah was inside, fighting to get out. She eventually caved in and took her own powers.”

“Where did she get the ball, though?”

“Hey, I’m even less informed than you. This is just a theory.”

Sarah interjected, “Wait, what are you two talking about?”

“You.”

“What?”

“It…” I sighed, “It’s a long story. And I already told to it to Jim,” I turned to him, “And you seem to have a good memory, so you tell it.”

“Alright. This all may sounds weird coming from me, but it really is a long story, so get comfortable. So the night you fought that guy, you won. Then you said you passed out?”

“Right. It was a long fight.”

I remembered, “Whew, two days, right?”

“Yeah. I usually can’t fight for that long, but this was for you.” We looked at each other, and Jim interrupted, “Can I go on?”

“Right," I said. And he continued on. We both sat there, Sarah shocked at what she was hearing, as Jim told her one by one all of the incredible things she did. An hour or two had passed, and he was nearing where we were now.

“I let him in, and he put you on the couch. Then you were asleep for a few hours as he told me all this. You woke up, and that’s where we are now.”

Sarah was staring at him, speechless. “I…wow…I mean, I can’t…oh my god.” She closed her eyes and laid her head back. I understood, it was a lot to take in. Then she turned to me. “So I basically missed almost all of our lives here?”

I was a little shocked that that was her first question, but then again she did miss out on a whole lot. “Apparently. We may still be able to get your memory back, but I don’t know what was in that ball. I mean, you didn’t feel at all different when you were asleep?”

“No, I mean I was fighting that guy, then I beat him and brought you up and healed you. Then I went to sleep, and woke up a few seconds later on this couch. But apparently I was asleep for 2 months.”

“No, that’s the thing. You were up and doing things. You just lost all memory from after that day.”

Then Jim spoke, “Well she did get her powers that day,” We both looked over, “And that ball took her powers. Maybe it took all of her memories with the powers, too.”

“But why would I do that? You said I was really powerful, and we were happy with my powers. Why would I just take them away at the cost of half my time here?”

I decided to tell her a little more than Jim did, “Well, we weren’t exactly happy with your powers. I mean, you were, but…I don’t know, I never felt right after that. I never was happy a hundred percent like before; I knew I was happy, but there was something deep, deep, deep down in my stomach that was off. It was obvious you weren’t the same person. You lost all compassion for anything below you, and you were ruthless and devastating. Anything besides me in your way was dead the second you came near.”

“That can’t be right. I would never be like that.”

“Well, I got a little bit of those powers and they were really good. I mean, I just got a hint, and you had literally unlimited power. I guess you just felt more than human with that kind of power.”

“I just…I mean I destroyed a jail, I…well, after that there wasn’t much I did. You really kept me out of trouble.”

“I was the only thing guiding you from killing people. I did my best to keep away, but there were some that weren’t so lucky.”

Sarah sat up and smiled at me. We would’ve kissed if Jim weren’t there. Then suddenly she jerked her head back, and grabbed it. It looked as if she were hit by something. She put her hands on her temples, elbows on her knees, bent over on the couch.

“ARGH!! What is that noise?”

“What noise?”

“That huge ringing noise!” Then the house started to shake a little, and I looked out the glass door to see the ocean moving fast to the side. The winds were gale-force, and outside was chaos. Sarah was in pain and hearing a loud ringing, and I was afraid the two were connected. Jim obviously thought the same, and ran to his kitchen. I was holding Sarah, trying to get some information towards what she was feeling or hearing.

“Does your head hurt?”

“Yeah, like it’s being crushed in a trash compactor!”

“Uhh, what about the noise? What is it?”

“It’s a deafening ring, like when someone hits you in the ear! The pain is getting more intense!” Jim came back with a couple of aspirin, hoping that would help. Sarah took it, and kept the look of pain on her face. I knew from experience that it would take a long time to go into effect, and hopefully nothing too extreme would happen before then. Jim ran over to a sliding glass door, and looked out. The wind was roaring around the house, and the waves were tidal. I could see a bit of sand blowing over, but it was mostly on the other side of the house.

He turned around and yelled under the wind, “Any other ideas?”

“I don’t know, she’s never done this! I’m afraid it might be something with the powers! Maybe they’re coming back!”

“We can’t risk some sort of explosion or accident, we have to take precautions!”

“Like what?”

“Maybe we should let her go outside, feel the wind.”

“Are you crazy, she’ll be killed!”

“You got any other ideas?”

“I’d rather wait!”

He walked over so I could hear him better, “Look, this house isn’t stable enough to survive a hurricane! We have to do something now!”

“She can’t survive a massive blast of wind like-“ But I was interrupted by a massive crash, and the roof blew open. Wind came whooshing in violently, and I helped Sarah up. We went to the door, and opened it. The wind pushed back horribly, but I pushed us through and jumped out. I expected a full shoving of wind, but it was complexly calm. I looked at Sarah, and she wasn’t holding her temples anymore. She seemed to be free of pain, and I looked around. We were on the sand, a few feet from the door, and there was a ball of clear air, where the sand wasn’t blowing. It was going around us, like it was being separated.

“Are you doing this?” I asked Sarah.

“No. When we jumped, the pain went away. I’m not doing anything right now. Not that I know of, anyway.”

“This is really making me afraid of your powers coming back.”

“Why would that be a bad thing? I remember things now.”

“Yes, but Zeus told me that you were why the world was falling apart. It was your powers that destabilized it, and them coming back would only make it worse. Plus…you just weren’t the same with them. You’re better now, gentler. You’re the girl I fell in love with in the forest.” She smiled at me again, and I remembered that Jim was gone. He couldn’t see us from here, and it wouldn’t be awkward if we got close. We started kissing, and there wasn’t anything to interrupt us, so we just kept going. We laid on the sand, making out, the wind around us roared, and I realized it was going pretty far. I figured there was no reason not to, and we were finally going to do it. The sand never stopped rushing, and nothing interrupted us.

Chapter 13: New Problems
It wasn’t long after I woke up that I saw it. A huge mess of wood and metal right next to us. It was obvious what it was, too. I got up and walked over to the rubble, and heard her walking up behind. I didn’t turn around, “Hell of a storm yesterday. Must’ve been gale-force winds.”

“Jesus…” She walked up beside me and leaned on my shoulder. I looked into the pile of Jim’s former house, and then made a decision. “We need to look for someone. We have to find out more of what’s going on.”

“But where do we even start? I mean Jim was on this beach for years, but he never found anyone.”

“Yeah, but he also kept to himself. We need to start walking.” I turned around, and she picked up her head and followed. We both started walking back, and she said next to me, “We’re not gonna bury him?”

“He’s already buried.”

“James, he deserves a proper burial.”

“You say that but you keep walking. You know we need to move. From what I’ve heard from Zeus, things aren’t going well. We need to get as much information about how the other thousands of humans here are doing. And exactly how many people could be trapped here.”

“Alright. It’s just…he deserved better.”

“Everyone did. You think everyone deserves being here at all? That any of this is at all fair to any of us? It’s not. This whole damn world is just one big mess of problems.”

“James,” She stopped, “What’s going on?”

I sighed, “It’s just all of this. Everything that’s going on. I can’t keep up…”

“It’s alright, James. I mean, I’ve been-ARGH!!!” She held her head in pain again.

“James! Get ba-“ Before she could finish I was knocked back and slammed into the ground. I grabbed on, but it was all sand. I couldn’t stop from being dragged away. “Sarah!” I called forward, and it stopped. I got up and shot after her. When I got there she was on her stomach, motionless. “Sarah…” I flipped her over and felt her breathing. She was still alive. My mind raced, trying to come up with something. I laid her down, and looked through my bag. I’d had it every time I woke up, emptied. This time was no different. I guess all I can do is wait now.

Hours passed, and I was lying on the ground, my head on a little pillow of sand I made. I was looking at the stars, daydreaming, when I heard a shift. Sarah was moving up, and I shot up to help her. But as soon as I got to her I was thrown back a few dozen feet. My back hurt, but I got up again. She was already getting up herself, and I was just afraid the other woman had taken back over. She walked over, and smiled at me limping.

“You humans are pretty fragile.” It was Sarah’s voice, but it wasn’t her. She was talking differently, “Dear Lord, if I would’ve had to pretend to be that girl any longer I would killed myself. You and her so in love. Then she went and took back over, but the pathetic little girl couldn’t remember a thing. It was my mind that was controlling it, of course. I never expected her to actually put up such a fight.”

“So the whole time you were-” She was chocking me violently with her mind now. “You have been quite the nuisance. You seem to be the only thing driving her forward.” I felt like I was about to black out from loss of air when she loosened up. The whole time, from the moment Sarah got her powers, it was this woman. “I’ve got some business to take care of. You have fun with…this thing.” She motioned to the destroyed house, and was gone before I could notice. Sarah and I were separated again.

“Goddamn it! Don't you ever do anything around here, Zeus?!"”

I sat up, and jumped when he answered behind me. “Let’s see you run a universe with a chick like that running around.” He walked around in front of me, and looked into the water, “You know, it’s really a busy job running this place. It seems the larger civilizations are on the brink of civil war. Should be fun. You might want to help out the army.”

I stood up, furious, “You made the damned place, can you seriously not stop her?”

“Cutting right to the chase, then, are we?” He turned around and started walking towards me, “Fine. Let me put it clearly for you, kid. I’m Dr. Frankenstein, and she’s my monster. She’s now more powerful than the creator, and will go on destroying everything because no one can stop her. The end.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how Frankenstein ended.”

“Well unfortunately there aren’t any angry villagers here, now are there? And this isn’t a movie. There is no happy ending. There won’t even be an ending. With her back in power, the rip will expand until everything is…well, nothing.”

“Wait, what rip?”

“The giant rip in this universe that’s tearing everything apart. Did I not tell you yet?”

“I’ve been so mixed up lately, I have absolutely no idea.”

Zeus waited for a minute, then explained, “Think of this whole world like a game. When Sarah got her powers, there was a glitch. A fatal one. So then matter started getting mixed up, things were ripping apart. And on top of that, the speed that her powers were escalating at, well her body couldn’t handle it. Her brain began creating another personality. One with quite the god complex, it seems.”

“So Sarah’s still in there?”

“Yeah. Just blocked off by a much stronger person.”

“So whenever she has her powers-“

“She becomes the other person.”

“But she was still Sarah when she first got her powers, so why can’t she remember it?” I asked.

“My theory is that when she blocked off her powers, her memories went with them”

“Yeah, I think Jim said the same thing.”

“Speaking of Jim…”

“Yeah, I know. I should’ve stopped to bury him.”

“He was a good guy-“

“Look, I know. I just want to fix all of this as soon as possible. I don’t want me or Sarah or anyone else to be there when what’s left is ripped to shreds by whatever glitch was caused by us.”

“This is no one’s fault, James.”

“I know that! What? Like I think I’m responsible? That I’m the cause of the thousands of people who are going to die?!”

“You said it.”

He was right. I did feel like this was all my fault. I stayed with Sarah; I helped her kill that clan guy. But he was the one who attacked us. And Zeus was the one who made the whole powers system. He made everything. He started all of this.

“You’re the one at fault here. You made this whole place! You started the powers! You’re the one who’s responsible for the rip, and all the people who died, and all the **** that I’ve gone through!”

“You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t realized what I’ve done? But what the hell am I supposed to do? If I were able to bring back more than 3 people, it would almost kill me. How the hell do you expect me to bring back a few thousand?”

I hated how much he was right. There was no clear solution, even if it would’ve required sacrifice. I was willing to give up anything to be back home at this point. “So now what?”

“Well the only thing left to do if figure out how we can stop that schizophrenic girlfriend of yours.”

“There’s no other way to get rid of someone’s powers?”

“Besides killing them? No, I’m afraid not.”

“And there’s no way you can kill Sarah?”

“At this point any weapon is useless, since she can stop it, and she’s too powerful to kill with my powers.”

“So she would have to let you kill her?”

“Yeah.”

“Well what about that ball from before? It held off her other side long enough.”

“Honestly, I have no idea where or how she got that. Those things were only a myth. Well, at least I thought they were.”

“What was it?”

“It basically holds off your powers for a couple days. No matter how powerful.”

“So how are you supposed to be able to get one?”

“Well, if you were able to, you have to take a tiny piece of every element of this world, heat it up to unthinkable degrees, then cool it off. When they mix and cool, they’re supposed to form a gas surrounded by a thin layer of glass. You break it, gas goes everywhere, and anyone who breathes it in loses their powers for a little bit.”

“And you’ve tried?”

“Well I spent a couple months getting it together, but I couldn’t figure out how to heat it up so much.”

“Son of a *****. Do you still have the ball of elements?”

“Yeah, I keep it in a room in my house in the Aether. I could get it for you, but we still don’t know how to heat it up.”

“Well are you able to work things on a molecular level?”

“Jesus, mate, I’m not that powerful. What would I do then anyway?”

“Well, when things heat up, their molecules move more. Maybe you could start moving them like crazy to heat it up.”

“Someone would have to be insanely...damn it.”

“Yeah. So I guess Sarah’s the only one who could do that, then.”

“It seems no matter what we need her help.”

“Well aren’t you two just the cutest couple?” It wasn’t Zeus, and I said nothing. We both turned around to see her standing behind us, a smug look on her face. I looked at Sarah, but didn’t see the girl from the forest I met all those months ago.

I was the first to reply, aggravated, “What do you want now?”

She walked over, “Oh come on, James. Why be like that?” I could tell she was messing with me, being in the body of my girlfriend. I immediately shot to my feet and walked back. She was talking the way Sarah did now, “What? Did I do something?”

“You are sick. You are a twisted, evil person.”

“Well it’s good to see you’re taking this well,” she was back in her old talking style. I hated so much the mere fact that she was in that body. It was so awful just that I had to look at Sarah’s face when I talked to her. It made this all so much more difficult. “James, why do you have to hate me so much? Have I ever actually done anything to you?”

“You made me think you were my girlfriend for two months, then gave her body back and took it again!”

Zeus was standing between and aside the two of us, facing her, “He doesn’t take this kind of teasing well.”

“You don’t know anything about me!” I was in a bit of a furious panic. I couldn’t think a hundred percent straight.

Sarah ignored Zeus, “James, just calm down. I don’t mean you any harm.”

“Well what about her?”

“Trust me, I’ll get either me or her out of here as soon as possible. She’s been really vicious in fighting for control.” That really picked me up. Sarah hadn’t given up, even when trapped in her own body. “But if she’s consciously fighting you now, how come she didn’t remember what happened when she-you lost your powers?”

Zeus answered, “A side effect of the orb.”

“And you better be damn thankful I gave you those two days. It is not fun being in here with you two all affectionate.”

“Oh, you saw us…”

“Yeah. Not what I signed up for when I broke that thing.”

“Sorry about that.” I wouldn’t have been as apologetic to her, being as angry as I was, but I was feeling quite awkward from this knowledge. I didn’t like this other person seeing everything Sarah saw.

“Which reminds me,” She turned to Zeus, “I can’t believe I almost forgot.” Before I had time to react, he exploded in blood. Sarah had a casual look on her face, while I was in shock. She seemed to be really focused on something, when Zeus appeared back where he was. I was confused as could be.

“What…but…you….”

“Let me summarize. I killed him, he respawned, I brought him back here.”

“What, so you can teleport things now?”

Zeus spoke up, “I always could. Now she knows how.”

“With a plethora of other things. You got really creative over the years, didn’t you?”

“So now Zeus is-“

“Can’t really call me that now, can you? Can’t be named after the father of the gods when you’re a powerless little mortal.”

Sarah chuckled, “You were always mortal, just too high up on your pedestal to see it.”

“So what does that make you?” I asked her.

After a short moment of thought, she replied, “Omnipotent. And decidedly unkillable. But not immortal.”

“So what do I call you now?” I turned to Zeus.

He sighed, and Sarah answered,” Liam Hales, born 1917 in South Island, New Zealand. Worked for the US government on the Hydrogen bomb during World War II, but ran into some technical difficulties. I can’t find anything more specific, though. You’re really blocking of those memories, aren’t you?”

“From the day I learned that trick I knew one day someone else would figure it out. I learned to suppress certain vital memories.”

“Oh don’t worry, Liam. I’ll get them one day.”

“Oh I wish I didn’t know that was so true.” Then she was gone.

“So she got all your personal stuff?”

“No, she just got the way I figured out to read minds. And I wouldn’t worry about thinking certain things if I were you. It’s not like that. She goes into your brain’s nerves, harmlessly feels around, and reads things only the subconscious brain is supposed to be able to read. If she gets in there, she knows everything you know.”

“But if she went to a major city or something-“

“A massive database of information, right there. Mine is the most dangerous, though. I know everything about the fibers of this world.”

“Well maybe she can fix the rip if she gets that stuff.”

“You’ve forgotten what that old man from the forest told you. When someone gets those powers, there’s no stopping. You always want more.”

“But I thought Sarah could focus because her powers developed so-“

“If only it was that simple. Think of it in numbers. Your power increases an insane amount every so often, so it basically multiplies at first. But after weeks and months of using them like she has, that number would get pretty high. Then that progression doesn’t feel quite as great as it used to. There’s always more you can do, always things you’re not strong enough for. As long as she has those powers, she’ll never give up on getting stronger.”

“So she’s getting to that point, isn’t she?”

“You can’t feel human very long in her state.” So we both just stayed there, in the silence, until I realized that we were still on the beach.

I went over the situation in my head, “So we’re kind of in the shitter now, aren’t we?”

“In the lowest pits of it.”


Chapter 14: Out of the Frying Pan.
“Just tell me one thing,” He said first.

“Yeah?”

“Why, through the pain, the separating, the schizophrenia, the death-“

“Why do I keep going after her?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, I honestly have no idea at this point.”

“So what’s driving you? Why haven’t you just thrown in the towel?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I know with every bit of logic left that any chances of us getting out of this are too slim for words, and yet there’s this little piece inside of me that won’t let me let go. I just can’t keep myself from holding on to this quest for her.”

Liam chuckled a bit, “Just a couple of kids in love.”

I sat up from the dark sand. We were both sitting back on the beach where we were before. Maybe it was her killing Zeus, all of the crazy information that we got, or just everything so far, but we just stopped caring. My moral compass was destroyed along with the rest of my soul when that ***** took my girlfriend and disappeared. Never in my life, through the long years of high school, had I ever felt so helpless. I thought back to some of my darkest times, and they seemed like a cakewalk compared to this.

“You know, people don’t come back anymore. I was watching the place for a while, and for a few days now I haven’t seen anyone popping up like they used to.”

“But wait, didn’t she-“

“Bring me back? I guess she just put me back together or something. She seems a lot more merciful than we thought.”

I laid back down, “Well you can’t count on that keeping up if we get in her way.”

“The only thing that bugs me is…why keep me? I mean, she could give a **** about any one of the humans here, us included. Why go through the trouble of bringing me back?”

I gave a silent huff, “No idea.” I had one, though. It felt too stupid to tell him, though. I thought that maybe, just maybe, Sarah fighting back inside there was getting some emotions over to the other girl. In a tiny percentage, in the smallest magnitude, maybe she felt some pity or compassion for me. It was a long, idiotic shot anyway. Not worth saying out loud.

“So what are we supposed to do?”

I scoffed, “Hell if I know. I haven’t just lived for a while, and God knows how far we could be to any sort of civilization. And even then, what would we do? Become citizens? Just sit back while this whole place rips apart?”

“Maybe we could fight in the inevitable civil wars they’re gonna have.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been watching some major cities. There’s turmoil, rebellions, anarchy. In a world of chaos, I wouldn’t expect society of all things to uphold.”

I sighed. There were no options. There was nothing to work on. We were both powerless and trapped on this beach, facing two unstoppable forces. I tried going over the situation, maybe finding a loophole, but there was nothing but mountains of odds stacked against us. “So when we die now, that’s it. It’s done.”

“You’d wish it was. This is a subconscious dreamscape, even if it seems real by all aspects. Your mind is trapped here, so what happens when you’re forced out?”

“Either Nirvana or Limbo.”

“I’m afraid you’re not gonna be in a blissful nothingness if you get killed.”

“Why would I get a break? Nirvana freaks me out anyway.”

“It’s nothing compared to Limbo, I promise you.”

“You’ve been?”

“I’ve seen it. You’re just wandering around, no sight, no sound, no feeling. Just being in total isolation, yet you still exist. Complete mental hell, I promise you.”

My mind lurched at the thought. “I just want one thing. Only one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“For this all to have never even happened.”



We lazily set out the next day. With no goals or motivation, we weren’t really too driven to do anything at all. Just wandering. We walked slowly along the beach, silent. I missed the simpler times with every fiber of my being. Any times before that damn fight. When it was just me, Sarah, the real Sarah, in the forest alone. It was just the two of us living our lives. But the world didn’t allow that. It can never be that simple for me. I can’t stay here, there’s nowhere to go, I can’t go home, I can’t even die. This was prison, torture, and mental chaos.

I wanted anything but to be in my current situation. Suicide was a thought. It went through my head a time or two. But I could never resort to taking that way out. We walked, seeing the same sights repeated like an old cartoon. The scenery never changed, the sky never brightened or dimmed, and the pain in my body never went away. It was everywhere, just existing. I didn’t physically feel it, but it was there. Then just when I was ready to declare it rock bottom, she decides to kick me in the nuts again.

“Why so glum?”

I wasn’t bothered to turn, stop, or change anything from my current pace. “Just let me die in peace.”

She sighed, “You two are so boring like this.”

“Well I’m sorry we can’t provide entertainment in our misery. Go eat a baby or something.”

“That hurts, James. Do you really think I’m that evil?”

I didn’t even give the satisfaction of a dirty look. “You crushed my heart into a billion pieces.”

She was keeping up with me walking. “Look, I didn’t want to resort to this, but you’re really bumming me out.” She held back my shoulder, and I stopped and turned to her. “I can go into another body at this point.” My sudden excitement was mixed and drowned by skepticism.

“What’s the catch?”

“I have to kill one of you.”

“Why one of us?”

She motioned to Liam, “Because his body can handle me, and you have some sort of weird connection to this world. I can’t really pinpoint it, though.”

“Well isn’t that just a convenient solution?”

“Have I not shown yet that I’m not the merciless ***** that I was when my mind was new? It was immature and incomplete. I really feel for you, and I want to help. I’m sorry that I have to resort to trapping one of you in an eternal state of Limbo to do it, though. And I can tell you want this deep down, you just don’t want to force that upon Liam or yourself.”

“Don’t go digging into my head.”

“Can you please just allow me to help you? I can separate my mind and powers from Sarah’s. All I need is a vessel.”

“Look, I’m sorry but-“

“I’ll do it.” I looked over to Liam. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. “Look, I deserve to pay for what I put these people through. And I’m of no use now anyway, so you might as well allow me to accept my punishment.”

“Liam, you can’t-“

“This is my decision. Look at it this way, you get your girl back,” he turned to Sarah, “So what, you’re gonna blow me up again?”

“I don’t need to. A simple punctured organ would do.”

“Liam…”

“Don’t worry, I want this. Every sin must be atoned for sometime,” He walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, “You’re a good kid. Don’t let anyone tell you different. You don’t deserve what happened to you here.” He walked back to Sarah.

He hesitated a bit, then said, “Do it.” He jerked a bit, and almost immediately dropped to the ground. I looked at the once so powerful man lay on the ground motionless. He had been put through as much **** as me, probably more. I just wished he could’ve gone to a peaceful place in death.

“Then the repairs, aaand done. It’s a shame. He made his share of mistakes, but he was a good guy. He had honor.”

“So you’re gonna possess him now?”

“Yep.”

“It won’t feel weird being in a guy’s body?”

“Nah. I’m not really a human conscious, just an artificial mind. So I’ll feel at home once I’m in there and settled.” She walked over to the body, and put her hand on the head. She focused for a while, maybe a couple of minutes, and then Sarah’s body dropped next to his. Liam almost immediately got up, but Sarah needed some time to recover. “Just give her about a few hours. She’s been through a lot, poor girl.” It was weird hearing it in Liam’s voice.

“Is there something I can call you? Just to separate you from Liam?”

He thought for a minute, and then said, “Will.”

I didn’t have the energy to judge, “Alright. Well can you just help us out a bit? We need somewhere safe to let her sleep.”

“Well I already protected your lazy asses last night, but sure. I’ll build something for you.” A small house shot out of the ground made out of hardened sand. It was a cozy place, with a couple of windows for light. Oh, and this might help. A chest appeared, but I didn’t recognize it at first. It wasn’t until my brain matched it with the memory of walking into her house for the first time.

“Does it have-“

“Everything you used to.”

“Will, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Just try to stay out of trouble. And don’t worry about that house. It’s harder than wood.”

“Thanks,” I said as I walked over to the chest. I immediately began dragging it into the house and taking everything out. I laid some torches on the wall, fashioned a workbench from wood, and a bed from wood and wool like I did so long before. I carried Sarah over to the bed, and noticed the doorframe was empty. I didn’t have anything to block it with, so I left it for now.

I sat on the chest, waiting for Sarah to wake up. It seemed like an endless time, as I slowly built up worry of her never waking. It was too early to take a nap, but I was too tired to do anything. I just sat and waited for what felt like hours.

I waited for an endless time, wanting to get something done; yet too worn out to do anything. It was boring as could be until I finally heard a stir from her bed. Sarah slowly woke up, and picked her head up from the bed. She quickly realized this wasn’t familiar, and sat up almost instantly until seeing me.

She mumbled, “I…I’m back?”

“Lay back, you need some rest. It’s been a long day.”

“James, I…” She looked at her hands, relieved to find that she was still in her own body. “It’s all such a blur, I just…I was awake, but I couldn’t move. I could see and hear, but there was someone else controlling my body.”

“Just relax. You can fill me in later, but there’s some stuff you need to know.”

“I remember everything until after she killed Zeu-Liam. I felt her weaken, and then everything went black. And I woke up here.”

“What about before?”

“Before, like, with Jim?”

“Before that.”

“I...I vaguely remember some things. Images, sounds; fire raining down, an intense heat, a tornado, it’s…”

“It’s alright. It might come back to you. You remember everything we told you at Jim’s house?”

“Uhhh mostly. I can’t really think straight right now.”

“You’ve been asleep for a while now. And it’s been a long time since you’ve been in control. Maybe you just need to sit back for a bit.”

She put her head in her hands, and I sat next to her to comfort her. “There is some good news, though.”

“Yeah?”

“That other person who was in your body gave me a few things. For one, this house, and also this chest over there,” I pointed to it.

“A chest?”

“Full of things that we owned in our original house.”

She picked up her head in skepticism, “But how?”

“I don’t know, but I did some looking. He wasn’t kidding. Buckets, materials, diamonds, axes, swords, torches, you name it. This must’ve burned up in the fire, but I guess he read my memories and conjured it up.”

“So he really just helped you out? No catches, just from the bottom of his heart?”

“Said he felt bad for me. Wanted to help any way he could.”

She couldn’t believe it. “So what does this mean? We start over?”

“No, it’s not that simple. According to Zeus, some major cities are heading towards civil war. I feel like maybe there’s something we can do.”

“What, you want to prevent war in a city?”

“No, just contribute.”

She chuckled, “You’ve been playing too many First Person Shooters. War isn’t something you want to just get into.”

“Well what else can we do? There’s the war, and the giant rip that will inevitably destroy this universe.”

“Oh, how fun.”

“Yeah. So we need to just live as much as we can before we die is what I figure.”

“Not a bad idea.”

I thought for a minute, then continued, “Well what can we-“ I was interrupted by an intense presence flowing past me.

“What is it?”

“You didn’t feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“That…force. Something just flew past.”

“James, nothing is anywhere near us.”

“I know, but….I don’t know. It felt like someone was flying through me or something.”

“Well what were you saying before?”

“Wait…that doesn’t matter.”

“James, what are you-“

“Shh. Just wait.” I focused a bit, and confirmed what I was thinking. I felt a bit of sand on the ground, and used all of my brainpower to lift it. I spent a small while on that, until I could feel it being raised. I opened my eyes, and saw Sarah watching it in shock.

“No...”

“I think I figured out what that presence was,” I said with a smile.

She laughed a bit, “How did that happen?”

“I don’t know, but I definitely got some mild powers. Maybe Will gave them to me somehow...”

“Well it looks like we found something to do.”

“Let’s get started then.”

“Okay. Let me just get some stuff out of the chest.” I stood up, while she dug through the chest. “This is amazing! I never thought I’d see this stuff again.”

“I guess powers go beyond basic manipulation in his case.”

“Well let’s go out and practice. I’ve got a few tips for you in exercising your powers.”

“But weren’t yours…a little more extreme?”

“Well yeah, but I remember some stuff from earlier on.”

“So your memory’s clearing up?”

“Yeah, it happened kinda fast.” She pulled out the old archery target and some arrows.

“I thought we were practicing my powers.”

“We are,” she replied as she walked out the doorframe, and I followed. She put the target a little ways away, and then put the arrows on the ground. “Now it looks like you can pick up stuff with some effort, but that won’t help you in a time of need. You need to learn how to throw or launch stuff. So,” she held up an arrow, “Pick this up.”

I focused on it, until I could feel it being lifted up. She stepped aside, and said, “Just move it forward as fast as you can.” I shoved the arrow, and it hit the sand with some force. Sarah was impressed, “Okay, so you can hurl things pretty well. Let’s just practice that.” So I continued to repeatedly throw the arrow with my mind until I began to get the hang of it. It became more of second nature than a task of effort. Sarah had sat down to watch, until I eventually noticed that I couldn’t see the target as well. It had gotten dark.

Sarah stood up, and walked into the house. I followed, until she immediately came out with two swords. I quickly realized what she was thinking.

“No….”

“James, we’ve both gotten a lot worse with swords. With me only using my powers and you…relying on me using my powers, we haven’t been required to do this in too long.”

“Alright. But I’m not fighting you again.”

“That’s why I waited for nighttime. Let’s go.” She started down the beach, and I followed. We walked for too long without seeing anything. The entire place was empty. It was like daytime, but darker. “Hmmm, this is weird.”

“Well you wanna go back and practice there?”

“Okay. I guess you need to practice aiming.” We went back the way we came, until I heard a muffled sound. I stopped Sarah, and noticed some shadows in the doorframe. She unsheathed her sword, and I got ready to hold some back. We were both outside the doorway. I focused outside, and felt two people. I held one still, and the other one looked at him. While he was distracted, Sarah stabbed him in the back. Then she grabbed the other one, and I let go. I walked in as she shoved him against the wall.

“Where did you come from?”

The guy was terrified, “I-I just followed him! We came from a nearby base camp.”

“Base camp for who?”

“The Dragon’s Den.” Sarah looked at him in shock. “I was just sent here to investigate-“ She slit his throat, not accepting any excuses. The guy dropped, spewing in blood, and she looked down. “Son of a *****.”

“Is that-“

“Yeah. The clan that’s been trying to kill me. Why send a little wimp like this, though?”

“Maybe they didn’t know it was you here.”

“Well they will soon enough. We’re gonna take out every one of them at that camp. Then we’re going for the main one.”

“Well let’s get some rest, then we train again tomorrow.”

We both went over to the bed, and I almost immediately passed out. I could imagine Sarah being up for a while. It was a long day.


Chapter 15: The Last Piece
An explosion took out half the house, and we were both abruptly woken being slammed against the wall. I lied on the ground sore, but Sarah was already up and ready. She jumped at the guy, unsheathing and slashing her sword simultaneously. The guy parried and pushed her back, until I finally realized what was happening. I shoved the guy back, and got up from the floor. I ran outside, and he had already defended from the ground and gotten up.

The fight reminded me way too much of the fight in the forest, and where that lead. I hated to do this, but I pushed Sarah back and held the guy still. Then I remembered what Sarah said about making explosions. I felt the air in his lungs, and while holding him still I clenched that air. He imploded from inside out, and I finally relaxed. It took a lot of effort to get that done. My vision was a bit blurry, and I had to sit for a while.

She walked over, and sat next to me. “You know what this means, right?”

“Yeah. We don’t have time to train. They’ve already sent people after us.”

“Well luckily for you he had powers. Now you’ll find it a bit easier. Although I wouldn’t have minded getting mine back.”

“That’s out of the question.”

“What? Why?”

“Sarah, you literally broke the universe last time you got powers. Then you created an alter ego that killed a lot of people!”

“Alright. I think I could handle some regular powers, though.”

“Well maybe it’s time for me to have something for once…”

She laughed a bit, and then walked back to the missing wall in the house. “Can you fix it?”

“No. I can’t compress sand like that. I could only hold it up.”

“Alright. So let’s go get some wood,” She pointed at the trees next to the beach. I thought for a minute, and then focused on the trees. I was hoping I could take some wood and rebuild it with that without moving at all. I was able to uproot and carry over about four trees, and I laid them next to Sarah.

“Can you make some planks from these?”

She was a little dumbfounded, “Y-Yeah…” I split the trees into comfortable pieces, and she brought some in. While she cut the wood into planks, I stayed outside and practiced my powers. It was so much better after killing the clan guy. I picked up the arrows she took out the day before, and shot them all into the center of the target from different angles.

“Hey James, come here a sec!”

I walked inside and saw here holding a familiar object over the chest. I grabbed it and immediately realized it as the grapple gun. “Holy ****, I can’t believe he brought this back!”

“What is it?”

“Come here, I’ll show you.” I walked outside, strapped it on, and aimed at one of the small tree trunk pieces. I shot it and immediately reeled it in. “It’s a grapple gun.”

“Oh my gosh, James! Where did you get that?”

“I don’t know. After I fell out of the Aether, it just fell down after me. I used it for a while until I got killed in a…really horrible way.”

“Well what else can you do with it?”

I looked over to the small forest, and had an idea. I focused on a tree in the open, picked it way up, then aimed my gun at it. I shot the grapple towards it, and retracted. I slung myself towards it, and held it up in the meantime. Once I got to it, I looked out towards the massive landscape. That was when I saw the most terrifying sight. A huge, long plain being ripped apart into darkness. We were pinned down against the ocean, and the area around was being ripping apart. I launched down back to Sarah, and ran inside.

“What is it?”

“The rip. It’s coming.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That massive black hole destroying this world? It’s almost reached us.”

“Oh ****!”

I went into the chest and pulled out some bare essentials. I packed it all, then brought Sarah outside. I couldn’t think of how to escape. Both sides were endless beach, and there was no way to get around the destruction. I couldn’t even tell where was being destroyed. Sarah stopped me, trying to calm me down.

“James! James!! Relax. We can survive this.”

“Sarah, you don’t get it. People don’t respawn anymore. There’s no room. You just die.”

“I know that. But you can’t give up hope yet.” She grabbed my hand, and said, “So why don’t we just run?”

I was thrown off by her optimism. The situation was impossible, and yet there she stood acting like nothing was wrong. That’s when I heard it. Water rushing in massive amounts, similar to a waterfall. I looked over to the ocean, and saw a cutoff far down the way. It was coming on both sides. I tried to focus on feeling any matter left, but in all sides the chaos was closing in. It was surrounding us now, as I just stood there. We were trapped and defenseless, as the wildfire of oblivion circled our house.

“Sarah, we’re not gonna make this.”

“Don’t say that-“

“You can’t see this all! I can feel it; this rip is all around. There’s no running, no avoiding it, no survival. We can’t make it now.”

She just looked away. I never discouraged her; I could see it in her eyes. She was disappointed in me.

“This world really has worn you out, hasn’t it?”

“It hasn’t been easy these past few months.”

“I know, James. But the last thing we should do is abandon hope. I know the situation seems impossible, but we always make it out.”

“This is different. There’s no sword fighting, taking down prisons, or powers we can use. This isn’t an entity to fight. We are trapped in a world that is minutes from not existing.” Then, the sky began to blacken. The sea was gone, and there was no reflection. Only the sun and the night sky remained simultaneous.

“At least we got to see this, then.” She smiled at me. I just didn’t get it. How could she stay so happy at a time like this? Maybe she still felt that feeling of love that faded in the months I spent with her alter ego.

I watched the blackness close in, until finally it faded. I looked around, and piece-by-piece it was all fading. Eventually we were left on a large piece of floating sand in a black oblivion. I looked at Sarah, and she was in the same state of shock that I was.

“This won’t last.” We both looked back towards the house to see William standing there. He was pale, weak, and his nose was bleeding. He was leaning on the doorframe, and I ran to help him. I let him down to sit, and he began to explain, “This is the only thing left. I didn’t realize it, but all the matter in the world was ripped apart except a small few. The spread became faster, so I fled to you’re house to try and preserve it. It’s using a lot of energy to hold all of the chaotic matter away.

“It’s too late to save this place or any of the people. Thousands trapped in an empty Limbo, all because of a couple of kids...And don’t act like this is news. If you’d never met, none of this would’ve happened. I’m not saying it’s your fault, just that you were able to cause it.” He looked out, his face in pain, “I was getting close. I almost found a way back. I was almost able to save at least one life,” He laughed a bit, “Funny how an artificial consciousness can feel emotions. I bet it’s all just illusion. All just a lie, created by the mind that created me.”

We both stood there, letting him have him closure. He groaned a bit, then put a hand on my shoulder, “You’re a good kid. Sorry I couldn’t help more…” Then his head fell back, and a booming whooshing sound almost instantly surrounded us. Will died giving us a few more moments alive, and now we were trapped. Ready to face death, I kissed Sarah as the darkness closed in. The last piece was destroyed.

Chapter 35: Epilogue
One more time, next comment.

that. is. awesome.

Chapter 35: Epilogue

I opened my eyes, expecting nothing. I could still feel, see, and even hear. This couldn’t be Limbo. I got up, and looked around. Sarah was gone. The entire place was a giant room in a chapel of some sort. The walls, floor, and ceiling were crooked; dim candles lit the place from wall-mounted holsters and low-hanging chandeliers; purple light streamed in through stained glass windows. I saw a door in the distance, and walked for it.

“I wouldn’t do that.” I turned around, and saw someone standing near a window. It was only a figure, blocked from the light. He walked away from it, but he never became less of a silhouette. His dark outline matched the unseen details in between.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the voice in your head telling you to stop; the doubts of what you’re doing; the force that makes you procrastinate.” He walked a little closer, and I saw his face. It was my face, but darker, paler, and a bit more sinister. His eyes were a deep red, his hair a perfect dark matching mine’s shape. “I’m your darkness.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“The bad things that happen to you; the conflicts that drive you insane; I am the embodiment of your mistakes, your flaws, and your regret. I am your darkness.”

“Well why are you here? Where is here?”

“You know exactly where. It’s Limbo.”

“But Liam-“

“That dumbass didn’t know what he was talking about. Limbo is very real. You’re awake, in control, just not completely. If someone has a good conscious, they get a peaceful Limbo. Someone like you has too much darkness inside, and it becomes personal Hell.”

“So what do you want?”

“What I’ve always wanted,” He unsheathed a deep dark purple-shaded blade, and held it ready, “When you cram homework assignments, fight your own mind, feel depressed, I get what I want.” I unsheathed mine, and he continued, “All I’ve ever wanted,” he jumped at me, and I parried, “Is for you to suffer!” He quickly flipped his blade around, and I barely hit it. He was fast. I blocked as fast as possible, until he got a clean slice on my side. I cringed, and swung again. I jumped aside, and sliced for his head. He blocked it easily, and slammed his sword down on me. I blocked it, but the force was intense.

“You could never win, James! You always gave into temptation! Always fell into despair!” He flurried attacks left and right, my arm quickly weakening. I was on my knees, losing terribly, “You should’ve learned to fight the darkness.” He slammed another hit that broke my blade into shattered pieces. I fell back, and he stabbed his sword through my leg. It stuck into the floor. I screamed in pain, trying to resist it. I knew it gave him pleasure to see me in pain.

He pulled the sword out viciously, and prepared to swing a good hit into my shoulder. I remembered that day in the cave when Sarah attacked me when I first met her, and the only way I was able to calm her. I caught the shard blade with my hand, in extreme pain. I pulled it away, and kicked him with my good leg. I slowly stood up, wielding the dark blade, furious at him. I didn’t know why, I just really wanted to kill him. My hurt leg was somehow fine, and I walked towards him. He laughed, sitting there, and I sliced it into his ribs. He fell back in pain, but kept the face of dark happiness.

“What the hell is so funny?”

“That’s the only way you can beat me, James. With more darkness.”

I looked down at the almost pitch black blade, oddly shimmering in the dim light. After looking back up at him, I slammed it into his chest, and he poofed into a cloud of darkness. I left the sword in the ground, and went for the door. I was tired of all the **** going on. The loss, the fear, the pain, everything that this world brought me made me want to kill the man responsible. I turned the knob, but the door resisted. I pushed and shoved, but it was locked. I turned back and looked around at the cathedral of darkness. I slid down the wall, and sat there for a while.

As I looked down at my hands, I realized why I was here. Why this whole thing had happened to me. I was consumed in my own darkness, and couldn’t realize it until it was shoved in my face. I gave into temptation, sadness, doubting, and everything that made me feel like ****. I was the cause of my own suffering. I dropped my head down, and pondered that realization in the dark room of my own subconscious.

The dim light from the candles danced in the air. I was bored, but continued to wait. I knew no one would save me, not out of emotion but of logic. The door was locked because there was no escape. I couldn’t leave the bad parts of my mind just because I didn’t like it. I just had to deal with it, and face it. Then maybe one day this place would brighten up.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So there it is. Thanks for getting through that, and don't worry. I'm not so cruel as to leave you with a cliffhanger like that for too long... cough Valve cough. Anyway, if you want to see the sequel, here ya go. Unfortunately, though, I'm currently quite busy making the story you just read significantly less crappy (among other things [school]) so I won't be able to upload too frequently. I'm now going into my Junior year of HIgh School, so I don't have much time to work on this.

Anzywhoozles, thanks for reading! You can find me basically anywhere under the same username, so yeah.

So, personal messages are something i get a lot.

Requests for reviews are something I ALSO get a lot.

I always look at a story, ALWAYS. I may or may not respond, based on how i think the story has fared/will fare.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well i think you'll fare, 7.

Why?

Well, for the review of your story...

The plot so far is quite.... Interesting. Your handling it really well, honestly. I'm just hoping you can keep handling it well. Where it's left off, I feel things are moving a little too fast. Theres no action. Well... Its more like, your saying they're fighting, but you could add a little description/pacing to it. You skip through the day/night, or whatever... It kinda confuses me... Then, theres the cliffhanger you made. Handle it right, is all I can say. On a romantic note, be careful about what you do. Romances for subplots can be tricky to handle, I have experience. (But I intentionally make it hard on myself, by doing the least expected thing.) Just, handle the romance right.


However. You mentioned that you sometimes think, "Oh, I'm a dreaming dumbass..." (or something) Don't think that. I thought that at first too! I was always like, "people are viewing me, I've got some comments, but... People, are they enjoying it?" I just decided that I needed to continue, and I did. NOW look where I am! Someone at my camp RECOGNIZED ME. IT WAS SO WIERD. (I've never met him tho.)

Well, keep striving bro. I know I said you got a 6, but believe me, keep trying and you'll hit 10. I ain't no fortune teller, but I'm hoping I shot short.

Mkay bro?

PS. I hope you know who i am... XD

Quote from zuned1

So, personal messages are something i get a lot.

Requests for reviews are something I ALSO get a lot.

I always look at a story, ALWAYS. I may or may not respond, based on how i think the story has fared/will fare.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well i think you'll fare, 7.

Why?

Well, for the review of your story...

The plot so far is quite.... Interesting. Your handling it really well, honestly. I'm just hoping you can keep handling it well. Where it's left off, I feel things are moving a little too fast. Theres no action. Well... Its more like, your saying they're fighting, but you could add a little description/pacing to it. You skip through the day/night, or whatever... It kinda confuses me... Then, theres the cliffhanger you made. Handle it right, is all I can say. On a romantic note, be careful about what you do. Romances for subplots can be tricky to handle, I have experience. (But I intentionally make it hard on myself, by doing the least expected thing.) Just, handle the romance right.


However. You mentioned that you sometimes think, "Oh, I'm a dreaming dumbass..." (or something) Don't think that. I thought that at first too! I was always like, "people are viewing me, I've got some comments, but... People, are they enjoying it?" I just decided that I needed to continue, and I did. NOW look where I am! Someone at my camp RECOGNIZED ME. IT WAS SO WIERD. (I've never met him tho.)

Well, keep striving bro. I know I said you got a 6, but believe me, keep trying and you'll hit 10. I ain't no fortune teller, but I'm hoping I shot short.

Mkay bro?

PS. I hope you know who i am... XD

Thanks! For other people who may be confused, I PMd him asking to come check out my novel...sort of.

And Thanks, zuned. I will heed you advice, and I do try to so the least expected thing. I hate to leave people on a cliff hanger, but it allows me time to think over something good. Also, "I know I said you got a 6, but believe me..." You said 7 before. :tongue.gif: Just pointing it out.

I'm glad you had the same experience as me, and if you are curious towards how I handle it, be sure to check back, because I update it very frequently.

And yes, I know who you are. lol

Good to know. :biggrin.gif:

Man, I've been thinking of a way for Minecraft fanfics to get out more... There are good ones people don't notice, but like, how do you get it noticed? I wonder.

Well, I'm gonna sleep, and when I wake up, hopefully I have the motivation to write chapter goddamned 10.

Quote from zuned1

Good to know. :biggrin.gif:

Man, I've been thinking of a way for Minecraft fanfics to get out more... There are good ones people don't notice, but like, how do you get it noticed? I wonder.

Well, I'm gonna sleep, and when I wake up, hopefully I have the motivation to write chapter goddamned 10.

I hope so! I want to know what ABOUT What you don't know! lol

And I think it's about who knows of a book. Not just advertisement, but let's say a mod or a really supportive guy knows about it. THe mod could be on the page and people who are following him would see he is from his page. They click on it to see, and bam. Or if someone who REALLY likes it advertises it on their signature, that helps too. The Minecraft Pro app is a good way to advertise it, because when people want the absolute newest chapters, they come here! It's also somewhat about luck, though. That's where I come at a disadvantage.

I've been writing like crazy, and have a crapload of new chapters on the way.

Teaser: Things get a little crazy.

The following reply will be a two-word description of the story that fits the best with my opinion, dependent on the quality of said story, with its plotline and other elements, and furthermore, the overall quality:

Epic
Win.

Just pulled an all-nighter writing and editing the next 7 chapters for y'all.

You're welcome. *Passes out*

I just remembered that there's a +1 thing at the bottom of the original post, so if you like the story please +1, since some people don't seem to want to comment...

Awesome story. Need MOAR. Also, the ending (so far) made me laugh like crazy. (Please don't describe that scene to us, BTW. PLEASE.) 5/5

EDIT: Forgot to mention, another reason I love this story is because of your dedication. I've never seen an author of a fan art fill up the entire original post, (except for stories with multiple "books") much less doing it in about, what was it? A week maybe. Especially with the small amount of feedback. Also, how about a 13+ in the title (adult/teen humor, etc).

Edit again:

Quote from CalvezTheMexicanJedi

We walked back home, and when we got there we both just laid on the bed. So many things went wrong lately, it was getting harder to walk home and feel good. We both just went to sleep, too tired to do anything else. I woke up, realizing I was still on her on the bed, and got up before she felt uncomfortable. I did my best to not wake her up, but noticed just after I stood up that she was already awake.

I feel like an idiot because you probably posted this right after my original post, and unless I'm understanding this incorrectly, (or you messed up on this part) my post was worthless in the way of advice on handling romance scenes. /facepalm at self. (Btw, nice job if that's what you meant)


EDIT YET AGAIN: I admit, I read the last part too quickly, and I misread a part, but that error still remains, and, if you don't read carefully, that changes the meaning of the entire paragraph. Sorry for mini wall-of-text. :sad.gif: (again, /facepalm at me)

Heyy, nice story! When I first started reading this I thought you might have copied my Minecraft story I wrote a few months back (well it was only a chapter... a long chapter though). I kept reading though and found your story was very different. For one, it was very fast. I actually didn't mind that, but I am used to stories that move more slowly with much more detail. Actually, once I got to the part once the dude met the girl, I really did think you copied my story. Then I realized I hadn't released that part to the public yet, haha! I think your grammar and all is good, so far I haven't seen too many awkward phrases or anything. I suppose it deserves a reputation :wink.gif:. Oh, right, you must be wondering why you thought I thought you copied me. As I said I wrote a story a few months back. It was about a boy with amnesia that woke up on a beach in the world of Minecraft. He explored, cut down trees, ate mushrooms, and built a house. It was left off at that. I was going to add a part where he met a girl in the empty world, but I decided to stop. Great minds think alike, eh?

EDIT: I am starting to like it even more! It does start to slow down as you read further which is nice. It just lacks some detail... for example, I don't even know how the boy or girl look like yet. Besides that, I think you have done an amazing job on this story. Much better than I could anyways. There are few mistakes and the reader can easily get absorbed into it. Sorry for my annoyingly long review by the way, I'm just like that XD

Lanuk, (Okay, here we go. A lot to type to reply to that :wink.gif:) Yes, don't worry, I didn't copy you. Although you said your story was about a guy with amnesia, which is the plot of one of my short stories! Maybe YOU copied ME! lol jk. But I thought it actually moved too slow, so I was a little surprised you said it moved kinda fast. :\ Although you did say it slowed down, so yeah. And I thought I kinda explained the girl thoroughly enough, thin with long black hair, and her height isn't very much specified, I just wanted to make sure you knew she was a wee bit shorter than him. I'm not very good at describing faces, though. And I didn't want to describe James, since it was in his perspective. He's kinda just how you would imagine him, I guess. I am, however, thinking of writing a novel on Sarah's perspective after this one, so you could see a description there. (If I go through with it.) And you don't have to apologize for the "long" review, I like people to review me in detail, so thanks!

Builder 728, Don't worry about your need for MOAR, I have almost no life, and post as soon as a chapter is ready. It used to be about a chapter or two a day, but since it's gotten more...complex, I write in groups, so it''s like 3 or 4 every couple of days. And don't worry about talking in detail, I REALLY try to avoid that. Even with kissing.

And finally Jswat, Thanks for the gems and metal! Most mostly the Pork! I LOVE PORK! MEAT!! BEEFCAAAKE!!!!! Sorry about that.

Quote from CalvezTheMexicanJedi

Lanuk, (Okay, here we go. A lot to type to reply to that :wink.gif:) Yes, don't worry, I didn't copy you. Although you said your story was about a guy with amnesia, which is the plot of one of my short stories! Maybe YOU copied ME! lol jk. But I thought it actually moved too slow, so I was a little surprised you said it moved kinda fast. :\ Although you did say it slowed down, so yeah. And I thought I kinda explained the girl thoroughly enough, thin with long black hair, and her height isn't very much specified, I just wanted to make sure you knew she was a wee bit shorter than him. I'm not very good at describing faces, though. And I didn't want to describe James, since it was in his perspective. He's kinda just how you would imagine him, I guess. I am, however, thinking of writing a novel on Sarah's perspective after this one, so you could see a description there. (If I go through with it.) And you don't have to apologize for the "long" review, I like people to review me in detail, so thanks!

Haha, really? You will have to give me the link to that other story. What I meant about the slow/fast thing was that at first it seemed really fast, but it started to slow down a bit later on.

Yeah, I got what you meant about the slow/fast thing. And unfortunately my other story was in one database, but was deleted. Lost forever in the endless maze of the interwebz. It wasn't very good, anyway.