Chapter Text
The months following that dreadful new years eve were pitiful on Avery. He was 23, living in his own apartment. He should be enjoying his adult life, right? Unfortunately, he couldn't. He could barely get out of bed. Each night he was plagued with the memory of Derek.
His chat.
That dumb knight skin.
The final words he heard from him.
“What's in your inventory, Avery.”
“What's in your inventory.”
Each morning he just barely brought himself out of bed to eat some cereal maybe, and that was it.
He fell into a deep depression state for a few months. From January to June, he barely supplied himself with enough nutrients to keep himself alive. He failed the one person who cared about him. The one person who assured him he had a life. The only person that he had talked to, in a long time, that cared. And it was a stranger too..
But now Derek was dead. Gone. And yet, Avery still felt like he knew nothing about Derek. He didn't even know if he had a grave or anything he could visit.
About 2 months after new years eve, Avery made a small grave in a completely different Minecraft world, on his own computer, for Derek. It wasn't much, just a few flowers around a few cobblestone blocks, and a sign with Derek's gamer tag and name on it. But he looked at it, every day. Well, every day he managed to get out of bed to do so.
His parents rarely checked in on him, so his condition didn't get better for a long time. Multiple times he had gotten too tired to move back to his room after getting to the kitchen to eat something small, and ended up just sleeping on the floor or something.
It was about mid June when Avery stumbled upon his old YouTube account when lazily scrolling on his computer. His videos of that old Minecraft world were still up, but the world didn't know the whole story. Of course, the footage cut off shortly after he first met Derek, and nothing else had footage. At least, from what he knew. He had no idea if Derek had recorded it before he...died.
That post got a lot of views, and everyone claimed it was a 'interesting ARG' or..something like that.
He had worked up the energy to post a few, short videos on some small Minecraft builds, but they were wide spread and maybe no more than 10 minutes long each. He didn't gain many views, but had a consistent ten viewers. And one like. Each video.
Now, it was was early August. Autumn was slowly but surely creeping onto the city he lived in. He was slowly but surely getting out of his depressive state, and found a small job around town working with gardening.
He still thought about Derek daily, and figured he always would, but he no longer shut everything out of his life.
He decided to shut down his YouTube account, because it wasn't like he was getting any views anyway, right? It was about noon, and he sat in front of his computer. He had just posted a video explaining that he wanted to sign out of this account, and simply focus on regaining his life back.
Nobody really saw the video for a few hours, just his typical ten to fifteen views. He didn't really mind though. He got his first comment though. Just some user telling him to take care and what not. And that one like.
He didn't truly sign out of the account, just stopped going on YouTube and looking to see if he got any new subscribers or anything.
About a week later, he thought about the account again when he got a new notification about a new comment. He delayed checking it for a while, then decided to look at it and then finally sign out.
He sat down in his chair, opening the YouTube browser. He tapped on the account, clicking onto the video and scrolling to the comments.
His eyes glazed over the comment.
D3rlord3: What a shame. I was looking forward to seeing more, Avery.
He was a bit offended at the use of his first name like that, but it was just a random commenter, what did he care?
Then he read it twice.
D3rlord3: What a shame. I was looking forward to seeing more, Avery.
He was sure he was going insane. He almost fell out of his chair right then and there. He blinked. Twice. Rubbed his eyes. Reset the page. Four. Damn. Times. D3rlord3...
No no, this was just some little prankster right? Some idiot who watched his video with Derek and decided to take his name. And talk like him. And comment on his signing off video.
Okay, he just had to check. He moved his mouse to the commenters profile with very (un)steady hands. He clicked on it. No videos. Just a short bio.
‘You found me again Avery.’
Avery swallowed. Hard. This was a prankster. It had to be. Or, the months of neglect was slowly driving him to the point of insanity?! Hopefully the first option, right?...
He knew Derek was dead. Derek made it clear as day he wouldn't survive when the king merged with his mind. Clear that he wouldn't live no matter what. Clear that if humanity wanted to survive, he had to die.
But..What if.. by any chance in this god forsaken universe..Derek was alive? It was a stretch. A very, very far stretch. How would he even.. get a hold of Derek?
He narrowed his eyes on Derek..No, he didn't know for sure yet.. On D3rlord3's page. There was a 'read more' button on his bio. He tapped it, and there was an empty space for a few more lines and then..
A phone number.
A fricking phone number!
Avery slowly glanced behind him, to his phone, laying on his bed.
This was his one chance. He had to try, even if it was just some poser.
He had to try.
For himself.
For Derek.