Chapter Text
Light. The light of the computer was the only thing noticeable in the dark room. It was like it still had those eyes staring at him. Before he got doomed to fall into the void, before he was just staring at his computer like some mannequin.
Avery groaned, staring back at the screen. He frowned at the death screen, wishing he didn't fall for D3rlord's trick. He put his head to his hands. Shit… D3r's probably gone now. He didn't try hard enough to save him. If only he did. But maybe D3rlord was right- what if this thing went into the real world? Would it turn everyone into mindless zombies that only did The King's bidding.. Oh, but what if it killed D3rlord?
He blinked. Would it… kill someone? It was something from a game. Sure, it made Avery feel… Horribly scared at times… But wouldn't that just be a mod? Something like that. Deep down, his gut told him D3rlord was gone now. Erased from this world. Did anyone care about him? Did he have great friends? Was Avery his great friend? Avery thought at least D3r was his friend. He didn't interact with people much, so probably his only one. Back to zero now though. Maybe Avery should go outside and make friends. Make himself less miserable. If he tried that though, it would be most likely people would just be weirded out by him. Mismatched clothes, easily excitable personality, didn't have a good job… And playing Minecraft with no one for New Years. For however long that was. He lifted his head to look at the time, noticing that the screen had changed. It had somehow gone back to the home screen of Minecraft. Weird, I didn't even touch it. He leaned closer, moving the mouse to tap on the play button. There weren't any worlds there. He clicked back and forth again, trying to reload the page. Nothing was happening. Forgetting about looking at the time, he furrowed his brow, then sat up quickly, still staring at the computer. His hands were shaking. Taking his eyes off the screen for what seemed to be the first time in forever, he ran a hand through his hair. D3rlord is definitely gone now. Avery got up slowly, legs wobbly from sitting down for ages. He trudged to the kitchen and got some energy drink from out of the fridge. He opened it, stared at it and noticed his hands were still shaking. He sighed, then took a swing of the drink, coughing slightly after. He went back to his bedroom, grabbing some clothes and taking them to the bathroom. He looked at his reflection. Geez. Eyebags hung under his eyes. He rubbed them, although it didn't do anything. He turned away, dropping his clothes to the floor and turning the shower on.
He looked like a small child, curled up into a ball, arms around his legs. How pathetic. He's most likely using all the water in his apartment for how long the shower was on. Way to make the landlord happy. The bill will probably be up high. Who cares. Like he'd pay for it now. Standing up, his vision blurred, making his arms shoot out to catch onto anything to stay upright. He groaned, stepping out of the shower. He wrapped himself up in the old towel like it was his most prized possession. He needed to stop thinking. Maybe The King was getting to him. Driving him insane. Yeah, probably.
He sat back down at his computer, opening it back up to look at the recording he taped. Maybe D3rlord warned him of something there, and he could see it? The recording was.. hours. Did he really just stay at his computer for that long? Hmm. Time to spend another couple hours of doing nothing.
He went through the recording at twice the speed, staring intently at it. At some point, he just skipped the section of him going through the doors to when he first got into the library. He kept watching, getting a notebook to write all the things D3rlord said. Then, once it stopped he reread all the things sketched in his messy handwriting. It was pretty normal, except for… the gibberish D3rlord uttered when Avery was building back up to read the book. '1oKnSYbxE2tilcmJiGiveRGxuQPX0owEZS' Yeah. Looks like D3r slammed his head on the keyboard or something. Avery had no idea what it meant. Knowing D3rlord though, with his all-knowing powers or whatnot, that he did it with purpose. But then wouldn't he know Avery couldn't figure out whatever this code is? His head hurt. What was this thing supposed to mean? Questions, questions, questions. He needed to sleep. It was nearly midnight, which means he hadn't slept in.. How many days? Too tired to figure out how long. That wasn't what mattered.
It mattered that the world was gone, and so was D3rlord.
Avery's thoughts spiraled back to that world every couple hours. The horrors of it. The King. D3rlord… Avery shook his head and looked up, then at his watch. Working at a supermarket checkout was unbelievably boring. Everything was boring now. Really, little things he used to enjoy became listless things to distract himself. That laptop was now back where he found it, in that storage locker that he found unlocked. He never wanted to see that thing again.
It was all getting too much.
It was nearing the end of March. Three months from the event. The curtains were closed, yet little beams of light still snuck under them, being the only source of light in Averys room. He was sitting at his desk, looking through the recording again. He had sent it to his phone before taking the laptop back, just in case he still needed it. Which he didn't, but thought it might be a good idea to upload it. Something to remember D3rlord by. Maybe, something to remember Avery by. He put it up on his channel, sighing. He wrote something in the description, then clicked post. He then walked out of the room.
'the footage cut when it arrived.'
'I'm sorry derek.'