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I…….I will tell your story. All of the grief and all the glory.
Karl dipped his quill into the ink that sat on his desk. Pressing it to the paper, he continued to write his next story.
The tales from within these pages. They come and they go in stages.
He weaved a wonderful tale of what he had seen in the future that day. He had been called to his portal 15 minutes before he was supposed to have a sunset picnic with Sapnap and…..who was that other guy again? Quackity, he reminded himself. Quackity and Sapnap. My fiancés.
Now all that will remain, are stories of joy and pain.
By the time Karl had finished writing his story, it was two hours after he was supposed to meet his fiancés and as upset as he was, he knew there wasn’t anything that he could do about it. He climbed the ladder and opened the trap door that led to the spare bedroom.
So look, look up at the sky.
Karl walked out the front door of his house and sat on the porch swing. It had taken weeks to convince Sapnap, but he eventually built the porch swing for the three to relax on. He looked up at the sky. The stars were shining brightly and he forced himself to smile.
“Where the hell is he, Sapnap? He’s never with us anymore; always forgetting about us and making up excuses for why he can’t be with us. We’re getting married soon and this is completely unacceptable!” Karl heard a voice say. “C’mon, Sapnap, don’t you think this is a little suspicious?”
“I’ll admit, it is a little weird,” the other voice said. “But I trust Karl. He’ll tell us what he’s been up to when he’s ready.”
And keep, keep it all inside.
Karl, of course, feels bad about this. He loves his fiancés, but he can’t tell them anything. If he does lose them, he doesn’t want them to feel responsible.
“Karl!” Sapnap shouted. “You’re okay!” he said, running up to the porch. Karl stood up, gave him a hug, and kissed him on the head. Another man stepped up to the porch after Sapnap.
“Where the hell were you, Karl?” the voice said in an accusatory tone. Karl tried to place the voice, but he just couldn’t figure out who it belonged to.
“Who……who are you? And why are you with my fiancé?”
“What the fuc….”
“Quackity, stop,” Sapnap said. “Karl, are you okay?”
It's time to say goodbye.
The swirl on Karl’s sweatshirt began to glow; a sign that there was another story for him to tell.
“I have to go,” Karl said, turning around to the house, but the other man grabbed his arm.
“No Karl, you are going to stay here and you are going to tell us everything. Now.”
“No, I can’t,” Karl said.
“See what I mean, Sapnap? This is fucked up on so many levels. You’re always defending him, saying that he’ll tell us when he’s ready.” He turned back to Karl. “You. You never have time for us. Sapnap says all this bullshit about trusting you, but I see right though it. You didn’t even invite me to Kinoko! You invited everyone else from Él Rapids but me. I’m your fiancé!”
Karl then felt a stabbing pain in his chest.
The tears will come, but don’t you cry.
“I HAVE TO GO!” he shouted, pulling his arm out of the man’s grip.
“I’M SO DONE WITH THIS SHIT,” the man fired back, pulling off his ring and throwing it on the ground. “I’m leaving Kinoko Kingdom. Forever.”
“Quackity, no!” Sapnap shouted as Quackity ran into the forest. “Karl, we have to….”
But by the time he turned around, Karl was already running into the spare bedroom.
Tell myself I’ll be okay, even if it’s all a lie.
He climbed down the ladder and ran to his portal, falling down at another stabbing pain in his chest. Tears pouring down his face, he tried to stand up, but the pain kept holding him down. He finally stood up and walked into the portal. I’ll be okay, he told himself.
And if another friend of mine is gone,
An hour later, Karl came out of the portal, exhausted and wanting to get his new story written quickly. He went over to his desk, picked up his quill, and was about to start writing when he heard voices.
“George?” he head Sapnap say. “What are you doing here so early in the morning?” Karl got up out of his chair and climbed up the ladder into the spare bedroom. He walked into the entryway, where Sapnap was ushering George into the house. “Hey, Karl,” Sapnap said, ruffling his hair. The two sat down on the couch, while George sat in a chair across from them.
“I’m sorry for coming so early, but I figured that you guys would want to know as soon as possible,” George said. Karl noticed his tear-stained eyes and knew that something had majorly gone wrong.
“I was about to go to sleep when I heard a knock on my door,” George began. “It was Quackity. He had come to tell me that he was leaving Kinoko. When I asked him where he would go, he said he didn’t know. I wished him well, but as he was leaving, he mentioned going to the prison to finally kill Dream. I knew that he had been torturing Dream, but I didn’t know that his goal was to kill him.
After he left, I went down to my basement and grabbed my elytra and fireworks; the last gifts that Dream had given to me and the only ones on the server. I flew to the prison and warned Sam about Quackity and what he had planned to do. Sam had already let him go over to Dream and I knew there was nothing I could do. Sam wouldn’t let me go over, saying that maybe it was finally time for Dream to die. I asked if I was allowed to leave a message in Quackity’s locker and Sam allowed me to do that.”
“What did you leave?” Sapnap asked while running his fingers through Karl’s hair.
“I left a note saying that he was exiled from Kinoko, just to make sure he never came back. I also took everything that he left in there after I learned that Sam had allowed him to take netherite weapons into the cell to torture Dream. All of his diamonds, armor, everything that he put in the chest, I took.
I then flew back home and put away my things and burnt most of Quackity’s. I tried to go back to bed, but all I could think of was Dream. A lot of people didn’t know, but we were actually together, as a couple, before he was arrested. Dream told me to go along with things because he didn’t want me to be caught as a traitor and killed. He told me that he would get out and when he did, we would run away together and start over, far away from the mainlands where no one would find us. But after Sam wouldn’t let me go stop Quackity, I knew that our dreams were dead.
Just as I was finally falling asleep, I heard another knock on my door. When I opened the door, I didn’t see anything; only a note was left.” George pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and read it aloud.
George,
I’m sorry I couldn’t let you into the prison. Maybe if I had, you could’ve stopped this tragedy. Maybe he’d still be alive. Maybe you could’ve stopped him.
Quackity is dead, George. Dream killed him and refuses to revive him. I have talked to Tommy and we have made the decision to kill Dream. It will be for the best. He will be killed by firing squad at noon on the 16th. The prison is under maximum security and he will only be allowed to talk to one person before he is killed and he requested that it be you. Come to the outside of the prison on the morning of the 16th at 11:30 AM sharp.
Don’t get any ideas about freeing Dream either. If you or anyone else tries, they will be killed on the spot.
-Sam
P.S. - I also ask that you pass this message onto Sapnap and Karl as they are Quackity’s fiancés. I will plan Quackity’s funeral as his death is partially my fault.
George had tears pouring down his face as he folded the the letter and put it back in his pocket. “I’m going to be away for the next week. I know Dream said that there were no elytras left on the server, but there has to be one somewhere, there has to be.” George broke down into sobs at this point. He stood up and walked to the door. Sapnap opened the door for him and Karl stood beside him.
“I’ll be back on the 16th for the execution,” George said. “Don’t try and chase after Dream and me either. Please. It’s for your own safety. We’ll come and visit you as soon as we safely can, but it may not be for a while. Also, tell no one about this, please,” George said with pleading eyes.
“We won’t say a word,” Sapnap said, hugging George. “Stay safe, buddy. We love you.”
“I love you too,” George said, coming over to hug Karl.
“Love you, George,” Karl said as George walked out the door, mounted his horse, Dream’s horse, and rode into the night.
Another friend won’t see the dawn.
“WHERE THE HELL HAVE THEY GONE!” a voice shouted. Karl couldn’t quite place whose voice it was, but he knew exactly what they were looking for. Dream and George had somehow managed to escape. How George had actually found an elytra and enough netherite for him and Dream in a week, no one would be able to guess, but he somehow did it and got Dream and him away. Sapnap had taken Karl home soon after the failed execution, knowing that Karl didn’t like large crowds and loud noises. He had heard that Sam and some others would be questioning the people to see if anyone had any knowledge of this plan, so he knew that he and Sapnap would have to run soon and leave Kinoko behind. Quackity’s funeral had been held a few days before and Karl had stayed at the gravesite hours after everyone had left. If I had just remembered him, we wouldn’t be in this mess, he thought. If I had just told them what I was doing, Quackity would probably still be alive.
Stuck in between what I love and what I have lost.
“Get on, Karl,” Sapnap said. It was early in the morning, the morning that had been assigned for the two of them to be questioned. They knew that they had to leave Kinoko behind. That meant leaving Karl’s portal behind; the portal that had been causing him all of the pain and grief. He was sad to leave Kinoko, seeing how much work had gone into it, but he knew that it wasn’t safe anymore. Karl looked back at the house one final time. He had all his books in his backpack and the trapdoor in the guest room was sealed and locked so that the portal’s power couldn’t follow him. Karl hopped on the horse and clutched onto Sapnap’s back as they rode into the sunrise.
By the time Sam and his men broke into Karl and Sapnap’s house, they were nowhere to be found. They looked through the whole house and were about to leave when Tommy shouted that he had found a trapdoor in what appeared to be a guest room. Sam smashed the trapdoor with his axe and climbed down the ladder.
Far away on a horse, Karl saw the swirl on his sweatshirt glowing and felt a stabbing pain in his chest. He clutched tighter onto Sapnap, praying that the pain would go away.
“Karl, are you okay?” Sapnap asked, ever concerned for his fiancé.
“I…..I’m fine,” Karl said. He felt the stabbing pain again and fell off the horse.
“KARL!” Sapnap shouted as he dismounted and kneeled down next to him.
“Sapnap,” Karl said, weekly. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
Back in Kinoko, Sam and Tommy tried to enter what appeared to be a portal, but they couldn’t. It kept muttering strange phrases that they couldn’t understand.
“We have to leave it here, Sam,” Tommy said. “Until we can know what it means, we can’t destroy it.”
Suddenly, clouds of purple smoke began to come out of the portal.
“No,” said a voice. “You have to destroy it. Now. This is hurting Karl.”
“Destroy it,” another voice says. “Karl told our stories and he told them well.”
“We must repay the favor,” a third voice said. “It’s the least we can do.”
“Destroy it,” a voice said as the cloud morphed into Quackity. “If I’d known this is what Karl was doing, I would’ve never left Kinoko. I would’ve stayed and helped. It’s my last wish. If anything, destroy it for me.”
Shaking, Sam dropped TNT and fled up the ladder. Tommy quickly lit it and followed after him. “Goodbye Karl,” Quackity said with tears on his face.
“I love you so much.”
And the portal blew up.
Everything I’ve lost.
Karl felt as though a heavy weight was lifted off his shoulders. The swirl on his sweatshirt had stopped glowing and the stabbing pains had ceased. His mind filled with all the memories that he lost and he finally felt whole again.
“Sapnap,” he said, sounding stronger than he had in months. “I’m okay.”
“Why didn’t you tell me,” Sapnap cried once Karl had sat up and wrapped him into a hug. “I could’ve helped you.”
“I know,” Karl said, hugging his lover tightly. “I just didn’t want to see you or Quackity hurt.”
“Karl,” Sapnap said. “I would go to the ends of the world to see you happy. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” Karl said.
So I…..I will tell your story.
All of your grief and all your glory.