Chapter Text
“Whats in your inventory?”
Avery stared at the words for a moment in confusion.
“What?” he typed back.
After a few moments the same words appeared on the screen.
“Whats in your inventory.”
Avery hesitantly opened it. He had nothing that seemed useful against stopping an omnipotent being such as the King. He had a few blocks, sword, some grass–
His screen behind his inventory suddenly went dark went dark. He quickly scrambled to exit it only to find he was falling. D3rlord3 had distracted him. He had pushed him off the edge. He had been outsmarted by such an obvious trick.
Of course he would have. Its D3lord3 after all, the smart, intelligent, selfless, self sacrificing hero. What else could Avery have been expecting?
It seemed like he was falling forever, just waiting for the death screen to appear. Waiting for his fate. But…Maybe–
You Died!
>Respawn
Title screen
He sat staring at the respawn button for far too long. Thoughts swirled his head, screaming at him. At first all he felt was anger. Surely there had to have been another way? Was D3lord3 just too stubborn to find it? Was he that desperate to become some sort of hero?
But as the anger started to dissipate it was instead replaced with a horrible, horrible feeling of dread.
A lot of D3rlord3’s words Avery never really properly processed. But now he began to wonder more.
About D3rlord3’s knowledge, about the king, about his horrific pain.
About him not being able to look away from the screen for days. How long did he say he’d been stuck like this? Days?
About his name being Derek. He was a real human being.
Does he have family? Friends? Did any notice his absence? Surely someone would be able to check on him.
Or maybe not. Maybe he’s sitting behind his computer screen slowly going insane with no one there to help. Is he alone?
…Is he scared? Is he in pain? Is he crying?
…Is he dying?
Clicking the respawn button he shook his head, his hands shaking. Maybe he’d be able to find his way back? Maybe D3rlord3 was still there? Maybe he could still type to him in the chat–get in contact somehow, outside of Minecraft, maybe–
He respawned back in the cave. It was all too familiar, yet when he tried to find his way back to the crossroads, they seemed to have vanished. Disappeared entirely. Any trace that his world might have been haunted with a thing beyond human comprehension was gone.
He checked the player tab. D3rlord3 wasn’t even in game anymore.
Avery slumped back into his chair. He glanced at the time. 11:53 PM.
It was new years eve.
Avery breathed in hard, staring at his screen. His hands were starting to shake. He needed to get in contact with him somehow.
As he began to open tabs on desktop, he noticed his notes tab was open. “1oKnSYbxE2tilcmJiGivRGxuQPX0owEZS” was all that was written on it.
It was the strange sequence Derek had sent earlier in the chat. He said “not to worry about it”, but even Avery wasn’t dumb enough to just ignore it, so he copied it down just in case. He figured he could solve it later, whatever it was.
…Later had now come, and he had no idea how to decipher it. He spent an embarrassing amount of time plugging it into random de-coders and cipher identifiers until finally it clicked that it was a google drive link.
In hindsight it was so obvious, Derek had used a google drive link last time to show his footage. Avery might’ve even laughed at his oversight if not for the current circumstances.
As he typed the link in, he was greeted with a file of what he assumed to be Derek’s footage, and a google doc containing a link.
He was immediately drawn to the link, but decided on checking the footage out first. He scrubbed through it until the end, hoping that it would say something, anything to give him a clue, but it just cuts off not long after he got pushed off the edge.
Avery could feel the frustration boiling. Or maybe it was just fear. Panic. It was hard to tell at this point.
He closed the file and clicked on the document with, what now appeared to be, a youtube link.
“Goodbye from d3rlord3”
It was a simple, 40 second video showing a google doc.
Avery slowly began to read. He could already begin to feel the dread seeping in.
“You know its weird writing a final letter. Almost as if I have to come to terms with…whatever this is.”
The words were already beginning to blur together as he felt the tears welling up in his eyes.
No.
“Please dont think you failed, Avery. When you read this, don’t think you let me down.”
Oh god. Fuck.
“...And thanks to you I got to see all the beauty in the universe.”
Please no nonono please
“Goodbye my friend.”
“Whatever you do at the crossroads, keep going forward.”
Avery could barely tell what he was reading anymore as tears blurred his vision, almost as if in a futile attempt to protect him from reading further. As he hunched over his breath hitched, trying to compose himself from full on sobbing.
He almost felt a little embarrassed, sobbing over a guy he’d never even met on new years eve.
His head suddenly bolted up right and stared out his window.
Fireworks.
Beautiful explosions of color in the air. How wonderful is it that humanity invented ways for us to celebrate. Created beauty from something so unpredictable and violent.
He couldn’t take it anymore. Avery sat in his chair sobbing until his eyes hurt.
It wasn’t fair. Derek had his life stolen away from him all because he wanted to use Avery as a vessel
All because of me.
As the dull crackles from the fireworks continued, he felt like screaming. He just wanted the noise to stop, he just wanted all of this to go away.
Derek isn’t dead. Derek isn’t dead. He can’t be. Derek isn’t dead.
He breathed in hard and stared at the video, trying to control his spiralling. scrolling down, he noticed the channel name.
“dhutchins333”
dhutchins…Derek hutchins?
Avery hovered over to where his note tab was, typing it next to the google drive link before scrolling further.
The comments. They were open.
He could feel a spark of hope start to flicker. He could comment. Maybe this is how they could get in contact. If Derek is still…
He sniffled and rubbed his eyes before he began to type.
“Derek, this is avery, please, idk where you are or if your okay but if your out there please reach out, anything. I dont even realy know you but what you’ve done for me is a debt that I dont think I can repay. I was supposed to be that vessel not you and i dont think I can live with myself knowing that I caused this so please if youre okay somehow, talk to me, I dont even really know you but knowing that you sacrificed yourself for the whole world is enough for me
please dont give up you are stronger than you think. I believe in you, you aare more than just yther king you are a human being whose willing to do what it takes and yuo wont lose to the king please derek i miss you.”
He didn’t bother to proof read before he clicked comment.
He could feel his eyes get heavy and his vision start to waver as he began to drift off into sleep, right as the sun began to shine through his window.
please derek I miss you.