I Think Something Took Him: Taken Au Part 2
<Part 1
I didn’t log off. I didn’t move. For a while, I just stood there in the mine, staring at the space where Lomedy had been. Like if I didn’t look away, the world might fix itself. But nothing changed. It was like everything had reverted back to its previous state. My game wasn’t bugging anymore. No more static. There was just the normal cave noises along with the faint echo of lava bubbling somewhere deeper down. Even my inventory was still full of the same blocks and PVP kits... As if everything was normal. …Except Lomedy wasn’t there anymore.
______________ .--. .-.. . .- ... . ______________
I stayed in that cave far longer than I should’ve. For the first time in a very long time, I felt… Like I couldn’t do anything. It was frustrating. Lomedy was gone. And I couldn’t do anything… That thought is what finally got me moving. Immediately I went back up to the farm. I don’t know why. Maybe I thought if something took him, it would’ve left something behind. A mistake? Something I could use to understand what had just happened. But the base was normal. The farm looked exactly like how Lomedy left it. All the wheat rows well tended to. Like Lomedy could just walk back in any second and pick up right where he left off. For a while I stared at the wheat farm. Lomedy liked to talk a lot when we worked. Nothing crazy. Just fun small comments. Stuff about the farm, about plans, or just messing around to have fun. Now the base was silent… I started checking everything. And I mean everything. The chests. The barrels. Even under the base, and around the edges of the canyon. I walked the perimeter twice, slower the second time, like I’d missed something. But there was nothing. No clues. No proof of where Lomedy had gone. Or how. After a bit, it felt wrong standing in that massive base alone. So by the time I made a third pass around the outer canyon, I knew I wouldn’t be able to figure this out on my own. It was becoming clear that I needed an actual expert's help, if I wanted to get Lomedy back. Missing persons cases just weren’t my specialty. What I needed was someone smart enough to figure out whatever clues may be left behind to track Lomedy down. And then I could crit out that player-thing myself. Thankfully, there was one person on this server that I knew could do exactly that. And even better, I’d worked with them before. So I made the long trek to the Northern Council. When I got there, a few people were milling around a refurbished courtyard just outside the castle, which apparently had gotten a full upgrade after Wemmbu had completely nuked it thrice over. Eventually I spotted my target in a meeting room. They’d apparently been finishing up something with a couple other players I slightly recognized: Horace and Fymada. I had no doubt the courtyard’s much nicer state was Horace's doing. As I stepped in the room, Theobaldthebird, a former minecart PVPer, and minecart trainer cut me off. He’d clearly been taking this whole bodyguard thing seriously. “Hold up, Flame, you gotta state your business to the King's royal guard.” “I- what? Bro, I just need to talk to Parrot.” “Parrots in a meeting.” “Yeah, I do not care bro.” “You’re gonna have to wait your turn buddy." “Oh my god, Bro can you just move.” “Say please.” Theo taunted. “You wanna go bro?” I snapped. “Maybe. Could be a good warm up.” Honestly, it was tempting… But suddenly, I could hear footsteps quickly approaching towards us. And soon Parrot's head popped out of the doorway. “Theo, can we not blow up the castle please?” Parrot asked, stepping up to Theo’s side, before quickly glancing over at me. “Hey Flame.” I gave a quick nod. “Hey.” Parrot looked back at Theo “If you two are looking for a place to train, there are sparring areas nearby. Horace just refurbished this place, so… try not to blow it up with TNT.” “Yeah, whatever.” Theo grumbled and turned back to me. “Are we doing this?” I sighed. As tempting as a sparring session with Theo was, I had something far more important to take care of. “Actually,” I started. “I’m here to talk to Parrot.” Theo swung a fist at nothing, visibly tweaking out. “Oh c’mon! I’m bored!” I huffed a laugh. Poor guy. Being the King’s guard apparently didn’t provide enough action.
Parrot turned back to me, clearly surprised.
“Really? Uh, sure.”
Then he glanced back at Horace and Fymada “As long as you two are good? We can talk later.”
The two others glanced at each other before giving their agreements and soon Theo was seeing them both out. Theo muttered something about escort missions being “pain,” and then they were gone.
“So what’s up?” Parrot asked curiously, giving me his full attention. “Everything okay?”
“Uh…Not really, bro.” I started. “I uh, kinda need your help.”
Parrot looked at me, serious. “Players aren't attacking you, right? We sent out a telegram. Everyone knows you’re no longer Wanted.”
I tilted my head at him. “Uh… I mean I’ve had a few run-ins with some Law guys with a grudge, but that’s uh, not really why I’m here, bro.”
Parrot inclined his head at that, and I took a breath.
“…Lomedy’s missing. ” I said.
Parrot paused.
“Missing?” He asked, slowly. “What do you mean?”
I recounted what had happened yesterday. The way Lomedy was randomly forgetting things. The odd glitching, and the player Lomedy and I had found lurking in the mines.
“And then Lomedy and them just up and disappeared out of existence, bro.” I finished.
“Okay. Stop. Stop. Describe that part again,” Parrot cut in. “The disappearing thing.”
I exhaled.
“I don’t know. They just blipped bro. It was like one second everything was normal and then suddenly my speakers were frying out. I couldn’t see anything cuz my game was glitching out so bad. And the next? Bro was gone.”
Parrot was quiet.
“No ender pearl particles?” he asked.
“No.”
“Totem?”
I shook my head, and Parrot hummed. He’d started pacing around, clearly deep in thought.
“And you said there was another player there?” he asked. “Did you get a look at the nametag?”
“Yeah.” Flame nodded. “The dude's name was Nufuli.”
Parrot stopped moving.
And turned his head slowly towards me.
“…That’s not possible.”
I shrugged. “Look I don’t know what to tell you bro. That’s the name I saw.”
“No,” Parrot insisted. “I mean it’s literally not possible.”
His words held a finality I couldn’t disagree with.
“What do you mean?”
Parrot had begun pacing back and forth again. “I watched Nufuli die, Flame.”
My eyebrows lifted.
“What?”
“He got banned.” Parrot explained. “It happened months ago. To an arrow cannon. I even saw the ban message.”
“What the-?,” I said. “But I know for sure that was the name I saw!”
“Hold on,” Parrot said, suddenly going quiet. But I could hear the soft tapping of his keyboard over the mic.
If I had to guess, Parrot had probably just opened the tab list. It was smart. Something most players would never bother to check. There were literally multiple thousands of players online, so scrolling through a list that huge was pain staking work.
After several minutes of silence Parrot finally spoke.
“Lomedy’s still online.” He said, deep in thought.
I blinked. “What?”
“His name is still there.” Parrot explained. “Nufuli’s isn’t. But Lomedy’s is.”
“Are you serious, bro?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Lomedy is still on the server.”
My chest tightened. “Then how did he just disappear like that?”
Parrot stared out the meeting room windows. A soft snow fall had started. “Well, If he didn’t die and he didn’t log out… then he probably just got teleported somewhere.”
“Like a remote TP?” I asked.
“Maybe. An old ender pearl stasis is possible.” Parrot theorized. “You also said your screen glitched out. So it could be some kind of exploit. There are ways.”
“So bros not banned?”
“No,” Parrot said carefully. “It’s weird though. The image he has on the tab list...”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s looks… greyed out.” Parrot says carefully. “Like someone used some kind of filter over it. Did he always have a black and white skin?”
“No.” I say, shaking my head. “He has brown hair and yellow eyes.”
“Well the eyes are still yellow.” Parrot murmurs. “That’s weird though.”
“I sorta remember his skin looking odd right before he teleported.” I say, slightly shaking his head.
“Well,” Parrot says, trying to lighten the mood. “At least it’s a good sign that they show up on the tab list.”
Yeah…a good sign.
Then I remembered something.
“Wait! The signs, bro!”
Parrot looked up at me. “Signs?”
“Yeah! They kept appearing around the farm. And in mine. Had a buncha dots and lines. Didn’t mean anything to me.”
Parrot stared at me.
“Place one.”
“Huh?”
“Show me.”
I grabbed a sign and typed out the one I remembered, whilst simultaneously mentally kicking myself for breaking the others when I did.
Maybe, if I had left them, I may have been able to show Parrot. But I hadn’t really known they mattered at the time.
But this one, I definitely remembered…It was hard to forget when it was placed right in front of me.
After a few short clicks, I step back, and let Parrot take a crack at it.
For a few moments, Parrot doesn’t say anything
Then, very quietly. “That’s morse code.”
“It's what?” “Morse code,” Parrot clarifies. “It's something sailors used to use to communicate. It's supposed to be auditory though. Not written out like this.”
“Then why is this one?”
“Don’t know. But it looks like someone was leaving coded messages for you both.” “That's…weird.” I say slowly. "What's the point of that?” “Well, maybe someone was trying to tell you something.” Parrot says, deeply staring down the sign. “Something they didn't want just anyone to read.” My stomach dropped. “Okay…so what were they trying to tell me?” Parrot goes back to pacing. “Depends on what the message is.”
I flick my hand at the sign on the ground. “There was one that looked exactly like this, bro.” I say, staring at the offending sign. “It just popped up right in front of me after I left my computer.” Parrot looked at the sign.
Then at me.
“Run.” He says. “What?” “It says ‘Run,’ Flame.”
Neither of us spoke for a few seconds after that. It felt like someone had pulled a rug out from under me. I grit my teeth just slightly.
“Yeah,” I finally say, “that’s not happening.”
Parrot glances at me. Then nods slowly in understanding. Outside the snow fell in quiet drifting particles.
“Then we are going to need more information.” He says.
I level him with a look. “The mine. There were more tunnels. There could be more signs in it.”
Parrot turns and pulls out a few shulkers, clearly gearing up.
I see a small spyglass flit into his offhand. Then he pops down a sign, probably to tell Theo where we are going, before turning back to me.
“Let’s go.”
_______________ ..-. .-.. .- -- . ________________
We headed back to the farm first. Parrot insisted on checking it for clues that I may have missed. He was the expert here, so I let him do his thing. The sun was low now, casting long shadows over Lomedy’s wheat field. Parrot slowed down when we got there, looking over a section of Lomedy’s wheat farm.
“This isn’t as neat as you described.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
He gestured toward a section of the wheat field. Where some of the rows were slightly off or missing patches of wheat all together.
“That section,” I said, pointing. “That’s the one some guy named Tyler supposedly told him to plant.”
Parrot looked over at me.
“Who’s Tyler?”
“No idea.” I admitted. “Lomedy was talking about him like they’d been planning it together. Then he forgot mid-sentence.”
Parrot didn’t respond.
Then he immediately started blocking upwards.
“What are you doing?” I called from below, craning my neck.
“Checking something!”
He was so far up I could barely make out his silhouette on the dirt pillar. I could just barely see him pull out a spyglass and hold it up.
Then he went still.
“…Flame!” He called down.
“What?”
“It’s not random.”
My pulse kicked up, drumming in my ears.
“The wheat,” he said slowly. “The planted sections. The empty rows. They’re patterned.”
I backed up, trying to look from lower ground. But I still couldn’t see it.
Then Parrot dropped back down beside me, his tone kinda grim.
“It’s morse code again.” He said, quietly. “A bunch of numbers. Pretty sure they’re coordinates.”
“Coordinates to where?”
He read them off, and my stomach twisted.
“That’s near the mine.”
Parrot met my eyes. “Convenient.”
_______________ .--- ..- ... - _________________
We didn't need to walk far. Just off from where the original mine entrance dipped down. The sun had almost disappeared below the horizon.
But when we arrived, someone was already there. A player.
AbbyTree
They were deep into the stone layer, swinging their pickaxe with practiced strokes, like they’d been there a long time. The rhythmic thud of pick against stone echoed through the tunnel entrance, bouncing off the walls and sending a shiver down my spine.
Parrot and I exchanged a look before approaching.
“Hi there!” Parrot called out.
The player’s head lifted slowly.
“Sorry to disturb you.” Parrot said, voice polite and measured. “We didn’t know that anyone would be around here.”
The player said nothing, just stared.
“This place is close to the Law base,” I said carefully. “What are you doing here?”
They turned to me, slowly.
“Mining.” they said. Their voice was flat. Like a monotone drone.
Parrot tilted his head, pretending casualness. “And you just happened to find this spot?”
“Yes.”
There was no way.
My gut screamed it. And judging by the way Parrot was fidgeting with his hotbar, he felt it to.
I was just about to call them out on it when suddenly Parrot punched me. I whipped around to glare at him, but he was still focused on the other player. “Oh thats cool.” Parrot said, voice dripping with forced friendliness. “We were just going to go mining too actually. Did you want to come with us?” “What the? We arnt-”
Parrot punched me again. “It would be fun!” Parrot insisted cheerfully.
AbbyTree paused.
There was a slow glance from Parrot to me.
Then… they nodded.
“Sure.” I wanted to scream. What the hell were we even doing bro? Inside the mine, Parrot kept a wide berth between us and AbbyTree, moving cautiously as we made our way down into the tunnels. Then he quietly turned to me.
“You leave your base,” he murmurs, “and suddenly some random player shows up digging in the exact area your coordinates lead to? Doesn't seem like a coincidence does it.”
Oh. Now I understood.
“If they’re involved, they’ll slip up.” Parrot assures.
I thought about it for two seconds.
Then I forced a grin.
“Guess there's a reason they call you the smartest player huh.” “Maybe,” he said, voice low, eyes scanning the dim tunnel. “We’ll see.”
________________ ... .- ...- . _________________
The tunnel swallowed up the light faster than I remembered.
I offhanded a torch but the walls felt like they pressed inwards. As if the stone itself was curving towards us. Every footstep echoed too sharply. Every breath sounded louder than it should have.
I didn’t like being back here.
Every step we took was too long. And every move we made sounded almost out of place. Meanwhile, the tunnel itself was just… silent.
AbbyTree walked slightly ahead of us.
Parrot didn’t say anything else out loud, but I could tell he was watching everything. Every movement. Every turn. Every time AbbyTree paused for even half a second longer than normal.
We moved deeper. The stone turning into deepslate.
Eventually we came upon a sign. This time it was placed on the wall. Its dots and dashes were spaced oddly. Haphazardly. Like someone had typed it in a rush.
AbbyTree stopped. “What is that?”
Parrot stepped forward before I could answer. “Probably someone messing around,” he said lightly. Then, without hesitation, he broke the sign.
We kept moving.
A few steps later, when AbbyTree drifted just a little further ahead, Parrot slipped something into my inventory: A book. When I opened it up, it was clearly something written by Parrot. Under the lava.
I frowned. Not sure what it meant yet. But I guess we were supposed to look for lava or something… When I closed the book, I saw AbbyTree. Starring back at me. I froze.
It was almost as if they were measuring my reaction. And then without saying anything, they just simply turned around and kept on walking. After that, Parrot and I pretended to mine some iron, while also secretly working our way to the coordinates. We’d created an almost completely straight tunnel right to where the coordinates were heading.
As we worked, Parrot would occasionally try to casually chat with AbbyTree. But the whole thing was awkward as hell. Because no matter what Parrot said, AbbyTree would never react. Not to anything. It was creepy.
After what felt like an eternity, Parrot matched his stride to me. “We’re close,” he whispered.
And up ahead, I could see that AbbyTree had suddenly broken into a large area. Which turned out to be an absolutely massive underground cave. There was even a giant lavapool glowing in the center, that flickered shadows against the surrounding deepslate. Parrot paused. “This is it. The coordinates point to the center of the lavapool.” Under the lava, huh… I nodded. “Okay. So any idea how far down we have to go?” “Not sure. I'm guessing we are gonna need some fire rez though.” Parrot turned to me. “You're a pvper, you got any pots?”
I rolled my eyes. “Obviously, bro.” I said, dropping Parrot two splash potions of fire resistance.
Parrot nodded, then glanced over at AbbyTree, who had made their way to the far side of the cave and was randomly digging around.
“I’m… probably going to need a bit of a distraction.”
I sigh. “Yeah, sure.”
After mentally preparing myself, I step around the lake to catch up with Abby Tree. They were standing at the far wall…staring at nothing.
“So…uh…” I say, awkwardly, “you uh, mine around here often?” AbbyTree slowly turned to me.
“No.”
…
…God I hoped Parrot made this quick.
Behind me, I could hear faint clicks. Parrot likely placing some blocks.
Then five minutes passed.
Five long, excruciating, minutes of me awkwardly talking at AbbyTree, while they didn’t respond, and stared at me with the most deadpan look imaginable. Then finally: “Hey Flame, I found some iron! Can you help?” Parrot asked. Thank god.
I quickly followed Parrot back to the cave entrance, far enough from AbbyTree to be out of their audible range.
I was just grateful to finally be out of the awkwardness.
“There was a chest under the lava. I found a book inside it.” Parrot said, dropping the book at my feat.
I picked it up, and my grip tightened.
It was signed by Lomedy.
But all the book was filled with were random usernames.
youri_mc… Nufuli… TylerRuler304… Stryphh… Teamkalal… Rejoicin… Fymada… AxolotlLol… AbbleTree_ …
That was weird, that last one kinda looked like…
My blood ran cold.
I looked back into the cave. Scanning the darkness, only to come up with nothing.
The cave was completely empty.
“Uh, Parrot, the girls’ gone.” I say. “What?” Parrot said, whipping his head back around. “And there’s a username in this book that looks a lot like theirs."
Parrot’s gaze fell to the book. “…That’s definitely weird,” he murmured.
I didn’t answer. I was still staring into the cave, half expecting AbbyTree to just… step back out from the dark like nothing had happened.
But she didn’t.
The cave was silent.
Parrot stayed close to me, lowering his voice, as he gazed out into the empty cave.
“On the surface…They were digging when we got here, right?” he asked. “It was right above the mine, wasn’t it? And they were randomly tearing up the ground.”
“Yeah?” I said. “So?”
“That can’t be a coincidence, Flame.” Parrot insists. His gaze flicks back down to the book in my hands. “Maybe…”
A cold weight settled in my chest.
“You think they were looking for this?” I asked, holding the book in my offhand.
“It makes sense,” Parrot replied. “It would explain why they just showed up right where the coordinates led. But then disappear the second we find it.” He exhaled slowly.
I glance back at the cave again.
“…So are we gonna go look for them?”
Parrot shook his head immediately.
“No. We got what we came here for.” He says. Then slower, “I don’t like the way they just vanished like that...We should leave. Carefully.”
I nod, feeling the cold creeping down my spine.
____________ -.-- --- ..- .-. ... . .-.. ..-. _________
The two of us began making our way back down the tunnel then, the flickering torchlight casting jagged shadows across the stone walls.
Our footsteps echoed, punctuating the silence. Eventually I tossed the book back to Parrot, who immediately flipped it open and scanned the pages again.
“This was signed by Lomedy.” Parrot notes quietly, contemplating to himself. “Yeah.” I replied, my own voice sounding hollow in the confined tunnel. “And the all clues we’ve found…They are the ones that led us here. To the book. Even the ‘under the lava’ message.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed hard, the weight of it pressing down on my chest. “Do you think… Lomedy did all that?”
Parrot’s eyes stayed on the book.
“I think,” Parrot said carefully, “Lomedy was trying to tell you something, Flame.”
The words hung there.
Heavy.
“…Then why didn’t he just say it?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Parrot shook his head, not answering right away.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But whatever this is… he didn’t want anyone else to find it. Except for you.”
Silence settled between us again. The air felt colder. The tunnel seemed narrower. I shivered at my desk, though I wasn’t sure if it was my thermostat or the weight of the revelation.
I sighed.
“…Let’s just go,” I muttered.
Parrot nodded once, eyes still lingering on the book before he tucked it carefully into his inventory. The silence settled around us, dense and watchful, as we continued back down the dimly lit passage.
____________ .. -- / ... --- .-. .-. -.-- ___________
The tunnel felt impossibly tight on the way back.
I also didn’t remember it being this long. Not by half.
The cave entrance behind us had disappeared long ago, swallowed up by a darkness that seemed to follow us along the tunnel.
The torchlight in my offhand flickered, creating shadows moving against the walls. Every step echoed like a drum in my chest. Every breath sounded sharper, heavier, almost wrong.
Neither of us said anything at first.
Eventually I placed the torch along the wall as we walked, mostly to free up my inventory. Setting up my pvp kit was something that anchored me.
We continued to walk in silence for multiple minutes.
And then-
I saw a faint light pop up into my render distance.
Beside me, Parrot slowed.
“…Flame.”
This time his voice was tighter.
“What?”
“…Look.”
I followed his gaze, and my stomach dropped like it had just been punched.
There, on the wall ahead, was a torch.
Not just any torch.
…the patterns on the walls…
It was in the exact same spot I had already one placed a few chunks back.
I spun around. The tunnel behind us stretched out in a perfect, straight line, disappearing all the way into darkness. The same straight line we’d been walking down for multiple minutes now.
But somehow, we hadn’t made it any farther into the tunnel.
I checked our coordinates.
Only to find that we were still extremely close to the cave we’d been in before.
As if we hadn’t moved at all.
“…That’s not possible,” I said.
“We’ve only been walking forward,” Parrot said in complete shock. “This tunnel is straight.”
…I couldn’t answer.
Then Parrot broke into a sprint.
And I barely a step behind them.
But no matter how far we sprinted, every few chunks, the same torch stared at us from the same wall. Yet the tunnel ahead looked completely normal.
So how weren’t we getting any closer to the end?
Parrot suddenly placed a block of dirt on the floor, directly in the path. And made a complete 180. I follwed, hot on his heels.
Until suddenly there was a block of dirt in the middle of the pathway.
…In exactly the same place Parrot had placed it not even a few seconds ago.
“It's a loop.” Parrot said, stopping to stare at it. “How?” “Is this some kind of exploit, or something?” Parrot was in utter shock. “If it is, I've never seen anything like it.” That’s when I knew, as we stood there staring at a nonsensical dirt block.
We were trapped.
From then on, we stopped sprinting.
“We should stay together.” Parrot said. It was clear he was deeply unsettled, but was trying to keep his cool. I couldn’t blame him. “And try to conserve what resources we have.”
Together, we tried mining through the deepslate walls. But every time we did, the same loop would just occur again.
It didn’t matter if we went up or down, sideways or diagonal.
Every time, we’d be right back where we started.
“Maybe it’s like a puzzle?” Parrot tried.
But I seriously doubted it.
Whatever was happening, was not normal in the slightest.
Then as we inched onwards. The walls began to blur.
Everything started to take on a corrupted pixelation. I could only watch as all of the games’ color drained out of every block.
All of the deepslate, the dirt, and even the light from the torch itself. Everything was draining into a dull, lifeless ash.
“…That’s what Lomedy’s skin looked like,” Parrot murmured.
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“On the tab list,” he said. “Greyed out.”
We kept going.
Each time we entered a ‘new chuck.’ The world got greyer.
Until suddenly Parrot stopped dead in his tracks.
I’d never heard Parrot curse before.
This was a first.
And when I finally got a peak over his shoulder, I knew exactly why.
Directly in front of us was a massive hole.
Like an entire chuck had just been completely obliterated off the face of the map.
And it went straight down into the void.
“What the…” Parrot was speechless at my side.
“Parrot, I know leaving the game means a massive wait time on Unstable. But im beginning to think we should leave. Like, Now.” We both stared down into the mouth of the drop.
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “That-. That’s probably a good idea.”
I immediately tried to tab out, and click the disconnect button.
Only to find that I couldn’t.
Not because it physically wasn’t there.
But for some reason, I just. couldn’t. click. it.
“Flame!?” I hear Parrot panic beside me. “Can you quit the game!?”
“No.” I say, shocked. My mouse still hovering over the disconnect button.
But I couldn’t click it…
“I can’t!” Parrot shouts. “Why can’t I click it!? I can’t get up either!?”
And it was like a cold icy water was slowly filling up my lungs.
“I don’t know.” I say. “I can’t move my body.”
Then ever so quietly a sound started coming up from below.
Like whispering.
Like lots of whispering.
And it was getting closer.
“I won’t let you have them.” They said. And for a moment, it almost sounded like Lomedy’s voice…or like some sick mockery of it.
Then the voices overlapped, repeating, distorting, breaking apart and snapping back together.
“I won’t let you have them.”
“I won’t let you have them.”
“I won’t let you-“
“Run!” Parrot suddenly shouted, breaking through the voices. “We need to run, Flame.”
I instantly turned around, about to sprint may way out of there.
But could move no further.
Because further down the tunnel, stood a glitched out player.
One i’d definitely seen before. But not for a very long time.
Beside me Parrot had stopped moving entirely. He stood completely breathless.
“…Wifies?”
The figure tilted its head.
Slowly.
And even from this distance.
I could tell.
Something about it wasn’t right.
Like the character model was wriggling at the edges.
Parrot was slightly shuddering at my side. Like he was gripping his mouse way too tightly.
“…No,” Parrot said quietly.
Then louder.
“No. That’s not-”
He stopped.
Because the figure stepped closer.
And closer.
And now there was no denying it.
It looked exactly like Wifies.
Every detail.
Every movement.
Perfect.
Parrot’s breathing hitched.
“That’s not possible,” he said, faster now. “That’s-he’s not-he can’t be here-”
The figure tilted its head at them. The edges blurring.
Wrong Wrong Wrong, my brain seemed to scream.
Then it spoke.
“Parrot.”
The voice echoed.
And Parrot backed up a step.
I quickly clutched a block behind him.
Just to keep him from accidentally walking off into the chunk void behind us.
“You left me,” it said.
And I couldn’t believe how much it actually sounded like the guy.
Parrot’s entire body was still.
“I didn’t-” he started, but the words fell apart halfway through.
“You left me,” it repeated, softer now. Almost kind. “It’s your fault.”
Parrot’s mouse was shaking…
“I-you,” he said, barely above a whisper. “There wasn’t-there wasn’t another-”
“You didn’t even try.”
The words landed clean.
Cruel.
Another step forward.
“Did it feel good?” it asked. “Leaving me to die? Leaving me to rot while you played hero?”
Parrot’s head shook rapidly.
“No. That’s not-”
“You’re so predictable.”
“...”
“Look at you. You can’t even protect yourself.”
“…stop.”
“And the only person who ever could, whoever cared, is gone now.”
“…please stop.”
“You should’ve just done what I said, Parrot. It would’ve been safer that way.”
I felt something twist in my gut.
Parrot was looking down at the ground now, unmoving.
I turned to him, to try and speak.
And then the thing looked at me.
“Hello again.” it said. And already it’s form was twisting.
A mutation of shapes and edges, all writhing together.
I froze.
“You escaped us before. Thanks to your friend Lomedy… “It said, like a predator. “But that will be much harder this time.”
Hot anger filled me like a lava pool. And all at once I didn't care whatever the hell this things was. I was going to absolutely demolish it.
“Where the hell is Lomedy!?” I screamed at it, throwing my pots at my feet.
“He’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.” It said, like that was the only natural conclusion.
My throat tightened. I was going to murder this thing.
“What is that supposed to mean!?” I say, taking my own step forward, netherite sword at the ready.
“So brave.” It replies. “Or is it foolishness? No matter…your failures will make his memories all the sweeter.”
“What the-“
“So please continue with your search.” It laughs. “The agony he experiences every time he realizes he failed to warn you makes him absolutely delicious."
“What are you even talking about!?”
“Or, of course,” it says, the air heavy, “You could simply stop running.”
My heart started pounding. The hair on the back of neck standing on end.
“And we could let you see him again.” It purred.
And then suddenly Parrot punched me.
And it hurt.
How the hell did it hurt?!
“Dig!” Parrot screamed at me.
And I didn’t argue.
We turned and instantly started mining into the wall. And all at once the world started glitching out around us.
“I guess that’s a no then.” The thing called out. “That’s fine. We can wait.”
The blocks distorted, and flickered. In a state of random chaos.
Static filled up everything I could see.
Parrot kept trying to block off the tunnel behind us.
But it was clear that the glitching was catching up. Almost like the tunnel was collapsing in on itself. Like it was being erased. Or rewritten.
We didn’t stop.
We didnt think.
At one point I heard Parrot scream out in pain. It sounded like static. But beside me his glitched out character model kept on digging.
Until-
suddenly-
we weren’t in the tunnel anymore.
And we’d stumbled out into the open air.
Trees. Grass. Sky. The entrance to the mine...
Suddenly freed from whatever held me to the screen, I immediately bent over my desk, trying to catch my breath.
My hands were shaking.
My head was spinning.
Beside me, Parrot was still, aside from their head which was slowly looking around.
“…Parrot?” I called out to him.
He turned to me.
Confused.
Like he’d just woken up.
“Flame. How did I-…What were we just doing- just now?” he asked.
And my stomach dropped.