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Avery was distraught. He had ran back to where Derek was, past the giant golden gates and on the silver platform. But he was met with nothing but Derek’s avatar… and the void. He looked up and down at the Minecraft avatar frozen in place. His heart pounded in his chest, aching from all the pressure that revolved around them. He knew what this meant. Derek was most likely dead or is dying, and there was no saving him anymore… unless…
He quickly shut that thought down in embarrassment.
He sat back in his seat and hit his fingers on the borrowed laptop’s keyboard, typing out a jumble of letters in the chat frustratedly.
He then cursed under his breath, several times.
The last 15, 16 hours or so was all for naught. That’s it. There was no saving him.
Avery sat there, staring at the screen for a while, just taking in everything. Thoughts raced through his mind, and his head was pounding.
He crumpled his hands into a fist absentmindedly and smashed it against the sides of the laptop softly. He cursed again and slammed the laptop shut and slid it across his table. Memories of Avery and Derek’s final encounter replayed over and over again in his head.
“There has to be another way,” Avery had begged, “we have time to figure something out.”
Derek’s avatar faced him, even though Avery couldn’t see Derek’s face, he knew that he was probably grimacing at the screen.
But it was too late now, there was no use trying anymore. By now, Derek and the King in Yellow must have merged already. Defeated, Avery stood up from his chair, left with a metaphorical gaping hole in his heart, but nearly fell due to his legs needing time to adjust to standing again. Avery looked out the window, his eyes filled with melancholy and tiredness, behind the window revealed a dull landscape, rid of anything interesting, rain was falling heavily onto the pavement and thunder distantly echoed.
His mind began to wander. What if he knew Derek in real life? Would that have changed anything? The answer to that question ricocheted off the walls of his mind over and over again. No. Avery swallowed and his focus went back to the silver laptop sitting on his desk, he set his hand on the smooth, cold surface of his laptop. Deep inside though, he wished that he had known Derek in real life. He wished that they were friends. But that wouldn’t be possible now, because of what just happened.
Subconsciously, his mind began thinking about everyone he knew that was like Derek desperately. Every encounter, every person, he filtered through everyone, trying to find someone that would even remotely resemble Derek. He knew there was no use in doing so. But it was worth trying, at the very least. Avery needed to see if Derek was still salvageable, still repairable. It only felt right.
A gust of wind blew across the window and carried rain and splashed it onto the hazy window. A cold wind blew across Avery’s tanned face, lifting tufts of brown hair up onto his nose. He had made the mistake of opening the window earlier, and because he got pretty focused on playing Minecraft, he completely forgot to close it.
Finally, after 5 excruciatingly long minutes, like a flash, an answer sprung up in his mind. He straightened his back and grinned, he’s never been this smart in his life. His memory recalls someone he’s met before at the beginning of the school year. He doesn’t really know him well though, but he knows for certain that his name is Derek, he lives in a dorm on campus, and that he talks similarly to Derek, D3rlord3 Derek to clarify.
Avery thought again, Derek would have probably gotten into a better college, he counters in his head, he probably didn’t even live even remotely near him. A part of him was sad upon thinking that, but he’d rather die than admit that. He was too good for this college, he would have gotten into Harvard or something. He stands up straighter and reaches for his phone to check the time.
1:32am, December 31st, 2025.
Avery stored his phone into one of the pockets in his beige colored shorts. He looked back out the window again, reviewing the dark landscape riddled with reflective puddles again and again. He’s been playing in some Minecraft world on his computer for an unhealthy amount of time now. For all he knows, this entire fiasco may have just been staged, D3rlord3, or Derek, not a real person, and the Yellow King being some fake, overexaggerated, stupidly cartoonish, villain. But his gut says otherwise.
He needs to go see if Derek is fine.
He probably isn’t, he reminds himself, but just for good measure, he still needed to go see.
It’s certainly not the wisest idea ever, to go out right now and seek out someone that might not be who you’re actually looking for, but it’s better than doing nothing.
He took a deep breath in and reached for the cold doorknob, twisting it as slowly and as quietly as possible. After all, he didn’t want to disturb whatever people were doing at this hour. As quietly and as quickly as he could, he creeped down the hallway and down the stairs into the main hall. As he inched towards the door that separated the warm welcoming halls of where he resided and the freezing outside. He then halted in his tracks.
He doesn’t actually know which dorm Derek resides in.
Crap
Avery frowned before thinking, and then after reaching no conclusion, he started pacing back and forth. There had to be a way to figure out where he lived. He couldn’t ask the college receptionist, one that would be incredibly awkward, and they wouldn’t be awake anyway. He couldn’t wake up in the morning and ask them, because by then, Derek would be…dead. Truly dead. He couldn’t ask around either, everyone else is probably either studying or sleeping, and he wouldn’t want to disturb anyone. Avery squinted at nothing and thought of every single thing that the staff members had mentioned about dorms and whatnot. It felt like an eternity had passed before an answer sprung up in his mind. The student portal! Of course. There was information about everyone’s whereabouts there. He didn’t question safety concerns regarding the website in his tired state, which typically, he would have pointed out.
Avery smiled, he had spent so much time around Derek, naturally he’d pick up some deductive skills too.
He didn’t think twice before his hand quickly reached for his phone that was in his pocket, he then swiftly tapped in the website for the student portal. The screen turned white and slowly loaded. Avery’s brows furrowed and he nudged the reload button multiple times. It took far too long, before it finally loaded to reveal the blue and white interface of the website.
He quickly typed in his credentials to log in and then typed in Derek’s name in the search bar. Multiple Dereks came up, Avery frowned again and tried to find the Derek he had in mind. He scrolled to the very bottom and was greeted by a familiar face.
He tapped on Derek’s icon quickly and there were a few lines of information available under his name. Avery scanned the text quickly and spotted the dorm room line. Room 4-3A.
Boom.
He was so. Frickin. Smart.
Avery raced towards the door and bolted towards building 4. He passed countless paths and lamps before finally being met by the beige, monochromatic, building 4. He pulled the student card from behind his phone case and scanned it against the black scanner. As soon as it registered and unlocked the door, Avery ran towards the elevator and clicked the button to call the elevator multiple times. After an agonizing 14 seconds (yes, Avery had counted), the elevator dinged as it landed onto the first floor. He stepped inside quickly and pressed the 3rd floor button multiple times too.
When he arrived on the 3rd floor, he turned left and knocked on the smooth, brown door to Derek’s room. He waited a few seconds before knocking again. No answer came through.
Augh. What was Avery doing here??? If Derek was being possessed by an eldritch demon of course he wouldn’t be able to answer the door. He huffed and exited out of the building again. The only option he had was to scale the building. Thankfully, Avery had a fair bit of experience scaling things, in his childhood, he’d often cause havoc in his neighborhood with his older brother, jumping fences and whatnot. Nevertheless, Avery was skeptical of this idea, but he felt like he owed Derek his life. So it only felt right to do this. Of course, his scholarship at this college would be at stake too, no pressure whatsoever.
He looked around, looking for anyone that could have been watching him. No one was there. He took a deep breath and began climbing the building using little ridges in the wall as support. His palms began sweating almost immediately, not even a few meters up. After a fair bit of time, Avery had reached the window of the Dorm that belonged to Derek. He positioned himself in front of the window and pried it open carefully. He slipped in and exhaled. A part of him celebrated the fact that he was still able to scale things, but when he looked ahead though, all the joy he had drained away, and his blood ran ice cold. He was greeted by an absolutely horrifying scene.
Derek’s body lay lifeless in his seat, his eyes open, but soulless. He gazed into distant space, occasionally blinking incredibly slowly and out of sync. Subconsciously, Avery’s body began to move on its own, inching towards Derek. He laid his hand on top of Derek’s hands and patted it sorrowfully. His gaze lingered on Derek’s face, his eyes looked glossy, and his hair messy and uncombed. If it weren’t for the state he was in right now, he would have looked very handsome.
Derek then moved a little bit, then muttered something, to Avery’s surprise. He instantly recoiled his hand instinctively and began shifting backwards, towards the window. His hand shook, reaching for the pocket that contained his phone, as if threatening to call someone for help.
“avery..” Derek had groaned. His voice sounded dry and coarse. He tried to reach for Avery’s hand but flinched at the last second, and fell back to his side.
Cautiously, Avery stepped closer again, and put his hands on Derek’s shoulders.
“Derek. I’m here for you,” Avery replied gently, “whatever you need I could-”
Derek shook his head defensively. He gestured towards the window and mouthed ‘Leave’. Avery blinked in surprise.
“no.” Avery had tried to say sternly, but his wavering voice had betrayed him. Slowly, tears were welling up in his eyes. He didn’t even know Derek, why was he feeling like this? He shook his head as sternly as possible. No, he couldn’t leave Derek hanging. He had to save him there HAD to be a way. Avery opened his mouth to say something again but Derek shook his head too in return.
“there has to be a way though, what if I brought you to the hospital or something?”
But before he could add on to what he was saying, Derek reached for Avery’s arm and held it, immediately, Avery began thinking of the worst case scenarios. Derek closed his eyes and mouthed something again, he knew he didn’t have much longer to live, but he was determined nevertheless. Avery stayed by his side a little longer until Derek’s hand fell from Avery’s arm. Avery’s eyes shot towards his hand, it felt cold. Then, world plummeted around them and uneasiness and dread oozed in his stomach. It was as if time stood still in this very moment. Every part of him was frozen in shock, and he was thinking of one thing and one thing only.
He was too late. Derek had died.
And it was probably all his fault. He could have done something, told someone. But because of his cowardice and hesitancy, Derek had died suffering. Avery faltered, and tears began pouring out of his eyes without command. He collapsed onto the floor, adjacent to Derek’s lifeless body. Sobbing uncontrollably, he probably looked so pathetic right about now, sobbing over someone he doesn’t even know, but he doesn’t care.
Avery stayed by Derek’s body- D3rlord3’s body- until the sun rose, illuminating the once dark clouds that have now subsided with golden light. Finally, he rose, he wiped his eyes, and reluctantly, headed towards the door to Derek’s room. He looked back one last time, and silently bid farewell to his friend.
“bye,” Avery said, sorrow laced in his voice, “i’ll see you next time ‘round, yeah?”