Chapter Text
An old television flickered in the back of a dark, dusty, office. A wooden desk and an old office chair were the only other furnishings the room had. The wall opposite to the TV was slightly illuminated, there was a bulletin board on it, big enough to cover almost the entire wall. On it were different assortments of papers—drawings, photos, and even letters—other than that, sticky notes and pins were littered all over the board, all connected by a singular red string.
"In June of 2021, police officials discovered a massacre among 11 people, though this number has yet to be confirmed, all are presumed to be dead. Officials say the victims were confined in a 4900 by 4900 meter area, surrounded by a special, shatter resistant glass. They say detectives are still researching and investigating this matter, and updates are expected in the near future, stay tuned and..."
Grian sighed and straightened his glasses. His hands fumbled for the remote control, and soon enough, the light emitting from the TV dissipated.
The night outside was cold and rainy. Grian looked out his window, he took the pen from behind his ear and slowly tapped it against his lips. His eyes scanned over the city below. Not many people enjoyed this kind of weather, but the damp coolness weirdly calmed him down. As if a knot in his chest was released every time water came pouring from the skies.
The quiet stillness of the room was interrupted by a buzz, then another, preceded by a dim light emitting from his phone. A blurry screen blocked his wallpaper, the profile picture seemed to be a mix between a robot and a creeper.
'Ah, it's Doc.' Grian's finger shifted towards the green call button.
"Hello?"
"Hey Grian, I know it's been a while but we have a job for you."
"A job?"
"Yeah, it's related to that massacre that's been making the rounds recently. We need you to find out everything you can about it. This happened pretty recently, so there's not much information on it. The scene has been preserved completely. You'll be the first, and only one to step in there. We managed to get some people to carve open an entrance. I'll send you all the information we have to your phone."
"When do I start?"
"As soon as the skies clear."
Beep beep.
The call ended.
Grian ran his fingers through his hair, taking another deep breath. The phone was still in his hands, wallpaper glowing in the darkness of the office. It was of a man, with tan skin and kind eyes, he was happily grinning at the camera, a glint of mischief within, a look that could only be described as adoration.
'Scar...where did you go...'
Grian stood up and walked to the door. He would deal with this tomorrow with a clear head. He grabbed the handle of his umbrella and exited the building.
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Grian didn't want to get out of bed, quite frankly, he never did. It was always the most urgent of mornings when his bed seemed impossible to break free. This was the time when his body was the perfect temperature, when the quilts and sheets felt like silk and were just that little bit cooler so that when he moved he felt like he was in the clouds. When his pillow felt like fluffy snow and when—God that alarm was annoying.
Beep beep, beep beep, beep bee—Crash!
A fist came crashing down from above the alarm, promptly shutting it off. He angrily pushed off his quilt and checked his phone, there was a new message from Doc. Grian rubbed his hazy eyes before clicking on it.
It was a link to a document, without much thought, he clicked on that too. It brought him to a document with a grand total of half a page.
"They really have absolutely nothing on this case huh..." He intertwined his own fingers before stretching. He started getting ready as he scanned through the contents.
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Case: Life Massacre
Description: ~11 people (Lifers) confined in a large open area with glass walls surrounding them. Based on drone footage, we have reason to believe they were hunted down by some rabid animal.
Date: June 2021
Address: -2883929064999870496
Number of people involved: 11 (to be confirmed)
People involved: Currently Unknown
Area: 490,000m²
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The location of the twisted game the Lifers had played was actually quite far from the main city, though he supposed that much was a must if they were going to be doing something so gruesome without intention of being caught.
As his car pulled up at the scene, Grian saw a decent sized hole in the wall, likely what Doc’s people had done to let him in.
He took in his new surroundings and an odd sense of foreboding came crashing into him.
'Oh goodness no. This place is massive.'
But the thing was, it really wasn't. Sure, for an investigatory zone it was a pretty large area to cover, but for a confined space where around 11 people were supposedly hunted by a monster…not so much. It would only take an average person around 30 to 40 minutes to traverse if they moved at a steady pace. No wonder this place was a slaughterhouse.
Grian wondered what kind of maniac would bring them all to a place like that, and why—and better yet, how? How did all the people get there in the first place? Were they volunteers? Were they invited? Were they potentially tricked?
His mind swirled with a whirlwind of unanswerable questions, knowing he could only rely on himself for answers. Grian picked up his bag prepared with all of his necessary investigatory equipment and strode forward.
He stepped through the glass door—if one could even call it that—and he felt a strange familiarity as he did. His brain was foggy and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He immediately felt something within him change, as if the coding that made up his very being and life force itself had been altered. He lifted a hand to his heart, and it felt inexplicably…green? He didn't know how to describe it.
The feeling was inexplicable, although he didn't have plans of it before, even the thought of hurting someone was foreign to him.
He also felt deeply uncomfortable. A nauseating feeling rooted deep within him, and he knew that feeling all too well.
He was being watched.
Grian's eyes scanned his surroundings before he caught a glimpse of something. It was a rhythmic, red glint in the leaves of a tall oak tree. Though, as he looked around with a better idea what to look for, he spotted more. Tens upon tens of little micro-cameras scattered across the terrain, all emitting the dimmest of red light, all recording.
He had no idea where the recordings went, if anywhere at all.
‘There’s no use backing out now, the cameras have already caught me, being filmed even more wouldn't make a difference.’
Following the discovery of the cameras, he decided they posed no immediate threat so he started absentmindedly walking deeper. He passed a few structures—including a castle, a fortress of sorts, and a rather unappealing build consisting of stone brick walls and a wooden roof. However, he decided to conduct a scan of the full area's layout before digging into specific structures themselves.
Along with the document, Grian was also given a paper satellite image map of the area within the box from before this event occurred. Apparently, the reason for not being able to get an updated map was because the image would always get corrupted during processing. He guessed it was because of the glass around the border.
He was tasked with updating said map with any new changes the land may have had, and clearly, there was a lot.
He quickly jotted down three dots on the map, labeling them with a quick ‘castle’, ‘fortress’, and ‘eyesore’ before continuing forward.
As he finally got to the other side of the box, Grian noticed that the area he stopped in front of was a desert.
And God did he hate the desert.
He hated how hot it was, and how the rough, grainy sand somehow always made it into his shoes no matter how carefully he walked, and how his throat would tighten, and how his chest would squeeze.
As he continued forward, the dry, dusty air scratched his throat and his lungs contracted but he persevered. There was an abnormally large sand dune in the middle of the desert, on the borderline of a sandy mountain.
He took a step back and noticed that this desert was quite...peculiar. Around the edges, there was a wall of cacti, taller than any he'd seen before and even a border of lava in case the obscene amount of cacti weren't enough for whatever they were trying to keep out. After walking around the edge of the desert for a decent amount of time, he stumbled across an opening wide enough for him to get through, as well as a very unstable cobblestone path across the lava.
He glanced back up at the mountain. And, although he dreaded it, his mind was telling him that climbing the mountain would be the best first step in his investigation. Allowing for a nice vantage point of the entire area. He also felt quite intrigued by this build, considering it was so heavily protected.
And so, Grian's long trudge up the sandy mountain began, and honestly, it didn't take as long as he had expected. His legs moved in near perfect coordination like some sort of mountain goat. As he was nearing the top, he noticed a decently sized sand castle, but when he made it all the way up, he realized that it was blown to absolute smithereens.
While climbing, he had scanned the desert and his eyes were drawn to a large gaping hole in the desert that was completely blown up. Stone protruded from where sand was supposed to be and a small bunker with a moat of lava sat in the middle of it all. Explosives were written all over it.
Grian shuddered when thinking about what horrible monster they had to fight if something like this was necessary. A warden? Or perhaps even a Wither?
Upon making this examination, he decided it was best to touch things as little as possible to ensure he didn't end up as another statistic in the case document.
He made sure to be extra careful because he observed that there were pressure plates scattered everywhere across the ground. Those could be used for sand traps to TNT traps and he did not want to take any chances.
Grian went to take a closer look at the remains of the sand castle. He peered down to see the full extent of the damage, and it was devastating. Almost the entire bottom floor was blown to bits, a lot of the foundation in the floor was also no more.
“Yeah…looks pretty exploded.” Thank you for such incredible insight Grian.
As he was inspecting the debris, familiar purple particles emanated from behind one of the some rubble.
His head started throbbing, specifically the area around his left eye. Grian clutched his eye, rubbing it a few times. The pain subsided enough to keep looking.
He needed to make sure he knew what he was seeing so he jumped down into the hole and got a closer look. And as he suspected, they were end particles, specifically, enderchest particles.
Curious as to what it was doing here, Grian decided to open it and check what was inside. When he did, he only found a book and quill, to which he promptly opened. After all, what could possibly give him better evidence than writing from the crime scene itself?
The title of the book was engraved with nice cursive letters on the leather cover.
It read: “3rd Life”.
‘Could that have been the event name? Why three though? What happened to the other two?’
He slowly peered open the eye, maybe it was because it was closed for so long. But he felt like he was looking through a purple filter.
Hoping for any sort of answer, he flipped through the first page and carefully read every word. And boy, did he hit the jackpot.
Because inside, was a not-so-detailed explanation to everything that happened inside this box.
“3rd Life Journal…”
He silently praised whoever wrote this beautiful piece of convenient literature. Thanks to them, Grian had already snagged a primary source right from the scene itself.
But then again, Grian wasn't stupid, he was a detective. And all detectives knew that you should always verify your sources before claiming them as true.
Grain flipped past the subtitle page and started reading an entry.
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Session 1:
Scar died.
I lured a creeper and it blew up…sorry Scar.
Day one and we already have a yellow life, I will admit that it was very much my fault. When we were all talking in the village, I lured in a creeper next to Scar. I didn't think it would actually blow up and kill him. It was supposed to be a prank. So I've decided to take responsibility and team up with him until I lose my first life.
I also heard that Skizz ended up dying to an enderman. I didn't think people would die off this quickly, the lifers better step it up.
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Grian's breath caught in his throat and his heart clenched. Scar…? His Scar?
According to the very first entry, Scar had been a part of this whole ordeal and had died. But then the author started talking about some sort of first life. This meant there was a possibility that he was still alive somehow with his other two lives. But despite this, his hope was immediately crushed. Despite that, albeit he did have an extra two lives, no one got out of this box alive.
There were no survivors.
Even so, Grian was a massive advocate of don't believe until you see. So without further contemplation, he shut the book and started his search for the village.
Fortunately, while driving over, he had actually spotted the village. It was on the relative outskirts of the area, allowing a clear view of it from outside the box. Unfortunately however, it was all the way on the other side of the map.
And so, his trudge began once more.
Once he exited the desert from the same little, wobbly cobblestone path, he came out to a large spanning forest. If his directional awareness was correct, he should be able to come across the village if travelled Southeast.
About 20 minutes into his walk he stumbled across a beautiful and almost untouched landscape. It was a series of hills lined up in a circular shape. Aside from that, the natural structures were in a flower forest. Grain decided to climb the top to get a better visual and hopefully spot the village.
As he reached the top, he couldn't help but think that this would be a wonderful place for some sort of build. His eyes washed over the beautiful topography and was intrigued by what looked like an abandoned Hobbit hole.
Who would abandon such a nice place like this? …That Hobbit hole is quite ugly though.
He was able to look away fairly easily because it wasn't too easy on the eyes. He refocused on his goal and turned his head back Southeast only to find another structure. This one, he thought, actually looked rather nice.
It had a well maintained path leading up to the house, the walls were a mixture of both cobble and smooth stone as well as andesite. The roof was dark oak wood with granite accents which really pulled the build together. It also had a wonderful attention to detail, as fences and fence gates, signs, trapdoors, lanterns, and slabs decorated the outside of the building. Finally, there was a red and white banner placed on the front to tie it all together.
Though it was quite unfortunate that the majority of the roof had burnt down.
He admired the craftsmanship but was also confused. First, if something were chasing the people here then how was someone able to build something like this so leisurely? It clearly wasn't enough to protect whoever was living there. Was it before the monster got here? Or maybe it wasn't a monster at all. Afterall, the journal didn't mention anything about a monster in the first place.
And second, he could have sworn he'd seen a build style like this before. But he just couldn't put his finger on it.
Grain decided to quickly probe around the inside before going back to searching for the village. The interior of the house was just as elegant as the outside. He walked into rows of chests and a floor covered by a red and white carpet. But as he walked farther in, he noticed a fenced off section of the house. Grain found the pair of fence gates quite strange so he went to check them out.
Upon walking through said gates, Grian came to the conclusion that whoever lived here probably had more than a few screws loose.
It was an entire room full of dead bushes.
An entire three columns and one row…of dead bushes.
...But why? What could have possibly conspired here for such a room to be built?
Grain couldn't help but think whoever lived here was either insane or just stupid. People around him were probably dying and he was building a pretty little house to keep his dead bushes safe. No matter how hard he tried to wrap his head around it, it just didn't make any sense.
He took out his map and scribbled at his current location.
“I shall dub thee…Dead Bush Hill.” Grian grumbled. There was no need to speak extravagantly about a stupid hill but his time alone was starting to…started to affect him.
“What a shame, such a nice hill, such an ugly name.” Which was ironic because Grian could have named it literally anything else.
With a final stroke of his pen, he looked up into the horizon and watched as the sun sank below the skyline. Painting everything in a gorgeous, gold hue.
Grian spotted something far in the distance. He couldn’t quite see it properly since it was so far away, but it looked to be a massive spanning wall made of wood and cobble among other materials. He would have to check it out later.
But as the skies were darkening, Grian reckoned he would have a harder time searching for the village. Until, he saw a decently sized area glow in the growing darkness.
It was the village.
Some of the victims must have lit the area around the village with torches. He gauged the distance. Descending the hill would likely take some time but, if he left now, he could probably make it there in about ten to fifteen minutes.
With the glow from the torches getting brighter, he moved a tree branch, to find a village that was…completely destroyed. Many of the houses were raided, and the majority of the wooden planks were burned resulting in scorched holes in the walls.
It was no wonder the entire village got wiped out. The villagers would have been completely defenseless if they didn't even have a place to live. Iron golems could only do so much. He also saw that the few remaining doors intact all had piles of dirt stacked in front of their doors.
Was this done out of desperation by the villagers or did someone else put that there?
The calm night silence was disrupted by a drawn out, sickening groan and Grian quickly snapped out of thought. He whipped his head around to find an unholy, green creature. Its skin seemed to be peeling off of its skeleton, moulding and corroding what used to be its body. The eyeballs of this creature were hanging out of its sockets, barely holding on. Not to mention its raggedy and ripped clothing, a simple blue shirt and dark blue pants. Looking through one of the holes in its shirt, the green monster clearly had a few ribs sticking out of its torso.
It was a zombie.
And the zombie was locked onto him. Grain thought that the village was lit up enough and that he was far enough from the darkness that he wouldn't be in any monsters’ range but as it so turned out, he clearly wasn't far enough to deter this zombie's desperation for flesh.
Grian wasn't too proficient with dealing with such enemies, but he was no stranger to them either. He constantly had to travel to desolate areas whenever Doc had something new for him to investigate.
The zombie was coming at him with a decent pace. He took a step back but his boot hit something. It was a pile of broken wooden planks that had clearly come from a massive gaping hole in the wall. He knelt down and grabbed the plank closest to him, which just so happened to have a few nails poking out of the back of it.
He wrapped his fingers around the sword-length 2x4. Grian gripped the plank with both hands before swinging it in a wide arc aiming for the zombie’s head. Luckily, he hit it right on the money; a sickening crunch sounded out as the protruding nails sunk deep into the undead’s skull. The green body limply crumpled to the floor, morphing into a lump of rotten flesh.
Grian huffed and quickly looked around for any other potential enemy's, at which he found none. He decided that he would hole up in this village until sunrise so he could continue his search, it would be easier to investigate when he had light. He also couldn't make a run for it to his car as it was relatively far and he would very likely run into, and get slimed out by mobs.
So, he searched for the least destroyed house and covered up the big holes with any debris lying around. Being fully prepared to sleep with his backpack as a pillow, he was pleasantly surprised to find a comfortable bed within the house.
Grian kicked off his shoes and launched himself on the bed. He sunk into the mattress and plush sheets, his body melted into it ready to conk out at any second.Today had been exhausting. The entire day consisted of looking for things, climbing hills, and walking around, as well as an unfortunate chance encounter with an undead.
Grian's eyelids slowly fluttered and his vision blurred, in no time at all, his consciousness had left him.