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Damian didn’t sleep that night. Over and over, he checked his phone, waiting for the notification, the message from Avery that would reassure him that everything was fine, that nothing had really happened, that everything was okay.
But that message never came.
Damian checked the clock. 1 AM. He should be asleep. Should be resting up for the classes he has tomorrow. But the anxiety that burned like an angry flame in his stomach left him restless, unable to shut his eyes and push back the lingering fear.
He could still hear it in his ears; The scream that nearly broke his headphones before it faded away with a ringing glitch. The scream that made Damian flinch and nearly scream back. The scream that signaled Avery’s departure before he started typing in the chat. Damian’s controller was still on the ground in his living room, in pieces and broken plastic. He hadn’t bothered to pick it all up, too dazed to even consider the state of it. He had spent nearly 10 minutes staring at his TV, at the error screen that told him that he couldn’t connect to Avery’s world anymore.
Damian sighed, exhaustion tinging his voice. He pulled up a group chat he had with Avery and 2 other people: T3rraH3ll and JoJosBizarreCuck. But he already knew their real names; Dana and Tina. Damian suppressed a snort as he glimpsed at Tina’s username, starting to type.
[d3rlord3:] yo dana did you hear anything from avery at all
He waited a moment for a reply, checking the user list. T3rraH3ll popped online.
[T3rraH3ll:] no why?
[d3rlord3:] avery gave me a scare earlier while we were playing minecraft and suddenly went offline, i wanna see if hes talking to you at all
The chat bubble popped in and out of existence a few times.
[T3rraH3ll:] he hasnt messaged me since we got out of work
[T3rraH3ll:] why what happened
Damian hesitated for a moment, glancing at the player list and staring at Avery’s offline profile. Then he sighed and typed again.
[d3rlord3:] not sure exactly but he screamed and suddenly went offline. he booted me from our world too
Damian sighed, flopping back against his pillows as he watched the chat bubble.
[T3rraH3ll:] were yall doing a horror mod or something?
[d3rlord3:] no, just a survival. we found this weirdass cave tho
Suddenly Tina popped into the chat.
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] what did the cave look like? i can search smth up for you
Damian sighed.
[d3rlord3:] don’t bother. we already opened a whole forum for what we found and i havent seen any updates on it
The chat bubble appeared and disappeared a few times. Damian sat up.
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] can you link it
[d3rlord3:] sure gimme a sec
Damian checked the chat he had with Avery again, and his heart clenched at the photo he had sent earlier. The wide expanse of trees, spanning for chunks on end. Damian shook his head, snagging the link to the forum and quickly pasting it into their GC.
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] that does not look naturally generated
[d3rlord3:] thanks captain obvious
Damian promptly received a middle finger emoji in reply. He chuckled softly.
Dana’s user popped up again.
[T3rraH3ll:] tinas right, none of that looks natural. how deep did you guys go?
[d3rlord3:] not sure. aves said his cords were doing that weird-S glitch
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] that sounds like a creepypasta
[d3rlord3:] shut up
Damian groaned, watching Dana’s username appear and disappear as she typed. This repeated about 3 times before her message popped up.
[T3rraH3ll:] either you two encountered a really fucked up seed, or a third party hacked your world to add all of that extra stuff. is there anything else you guys saw before avery suddenly went offline?
Damian paused again. He could still hear that scream in his ears, and for some god forsaken reason, he could vividly remember those golden gates at the end of the tunnel. Despite himself, he typed a reply anyway.
[d3rlord3:] some weird yellow gates.
[d3rlord3:] we’d been walking through a bunch of clay tunnels and then we ended up in a dark room with those giant doors
[d3rlord3:] and they were MASSIVE too, they looked almost 500 blocks tall
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] thats what she said
T3rraH3ll muted JoJosBizarreCuck for 5 minutes. Damian let out a sigh of relief.
[d3rlord3:] avery was the one who explored what was behind them too, and after he disappeared behind the doors, he screamed and nearly broke my headphones.
[T3rraH3ll:] oh god is he okay
[d3rlord3:] thats what ive been trying to find out. he hasnt replied to any of my messages, just started typing in the game chat to get me to log off before i suddenly disconnected.
[T3rraH3ll:] yikes. i can check in on him at work if he shows up tmrw, if not tho i’ll break into his house
[d3rlord3:] pls do not break into his house
[T3rraH3ll:] relax i have a spare key we were dormmates at some point
Damian sighed, setting down his phone before the GC pinged again. Upon checking the chat once more, he saw a rather long message from Tina. He blinked in confusion before beginning to read.
[JoJosBizzareCuck:] okay so i read through the entire forum you two set up and looked at all the photos and i cant really see anything wrong besides the whole chunk distance shit being funky. also i noticed that when he took photos of his laptop screen there was a dead pixel on the top left of his screen that kept turning yellow when his camera was angled weird. also avery’s world is still online btw but it gives me an error msg when i try to join him
Damian’s eyes widened at the last sentence. Avery was still online?! Frantically, he tried to type a reply.
[d3rlord3:] hes stil fuckdbn online?/??
[d3rlord3:] onlen
[d3rlord3:] online
[d3rlord3:] my fucking keyboard man
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] lmfao
[d3rlord3:] hes still online??? i didnt get to check since i dropped my controller and broke it earlier
[T3rraH3ll:] shit tina your right he is online, but i cant join
Damian’s heart raced as he watched Dana and Tina reply in circles. Avery was online. By that logic, he was safe. He was alive. Damian felt some of his anxiety melt away, but it returned when he realized that Dana and Tina couldn’t join his world. Damian, if his controller wasn’t in pieces on the floor, likely wouldn’t be able to either. He started typing again.
[d3rlord3:] okay so we know hes online but hes not letting us join him. how do we fix that??
[T3rraH3ll:] i can go visit him in the morning to see if hes doing alright. we dont live too far from each other, and maybe i can get this sorted out
[d3rlord3:] okay, cool that works.
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] i’ll look into more stuff about your predicament and maybe i can get the IP of your mysterious hacker
[d3rlord3:] thanks Tina. i’m gonna go to bed now, it’s 1 AM and i’m so fuckin drained
[T3rraH3ll:] night d3rlord
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] night dicklord
T3rraH3ll muted JoJosBizarreCuck for 5 hours.
Damian set his phone down and groaned, flopping back into his pillows with a sigh. Dana had it under control. At least now, knowing that Avery was at least alive, it was enough to ease his anxiety that his eyes fluttered shut. Before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep, passing out before he could think about how to fix his controller.