Work Text:
“WAIT”
Was the last thing that Avery was able to type out to Derek before he was met with the death screen, Avery went to click the button to respawn but for some unknown reason he couldn’t bring himself too because in the back of his mind he knew that he was already too late to save Derek. Outside he could hear the city people cheering and clapping for the new year, the fireworks went off but Avery couldn’t hear them, he couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in his ears, his breathing was coming in short, and his vision was becoming blurry with his unshed tears.
He felt hopeless, he tried so hard to save the one person who went out of his way to warn him about the danger and felt a connection with, but he wasn’t able too. He felt stupid that he fell for the Inventory trick, to let himself be vulnerable in that moment, but could you really blame him? He wanted to believe so hard that Derek wouldn’t lie to him again and that he would listen to him to try and find a way to defeat the King in Yellow.
Avery couldn’t accept this outcome though, he pressed the respawn button and went to try and go through the gate but since that the King is gone the gates no longer work, but he couldn’t possibly accept this, couldn’t accept that Derek went and sacrificed himself for Avery. He never felt more stupid than in this moment. He couldn’t do anything, nothing at all, he tried everything he knew but it felt insignificant to how smart Derek is. He feels like shit, about how Derek already knows everything about him, but Avery doesn’t know anything. He couldn’t ask what his favourite colour was, couldn’t ask if he preferred night walks over day walks, he only has his laptop to remember him by.
After a couple of moments of just sitting in his room with the laptop and the occasional fireworks going off that light up his face he felt a serge of anger rush through him, he started to just scream at the wall as those tears finally started to fall, while he was throwing things around he broke many things and in a fit he was about to smash the laptop onto the ground but he remembered who’s it was. He felt defeated and just sat on the floor breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath but all he could think was that maybe just maybe if he smarter, faster and just better he could’ve saved him, could’ve found a way to defeat the king without Derek's sacrifice, but he wasn’t smart enough too figure out the riddles, puzzles and he definitely wasn’t smart enough to save Derek.
Avery woke up the next morning laying on the ground in a sweat, he rushed to the washroom to throw up but nothing came out except for stomach fluid, he felt sick and when he stood up to look at himself in the mirror, he looked broken and week with how deep his eye bags were also with how pale his skin was, he felt disgusted just by the way he looked. He ran himself a warm bath, when he was in the water he just sat there, thinking about everything and nothing all at once, he slowly started to let his head go under the water without noticing.
He crept closer and closer to loosing all oxygen till he snapped out of it and he pulled himself out of the bath coughing and gasping for air, when he finally calmed down he check the time and saw that somehow two hours just want by even though he felt like that he was only in that bath for about three minutes, but what scared him was that small thought in his head that was telling him that it was okay, that he should succumb to the water next time. Avery slowly made his was out of the washroom and got dressed but he really didn’t feel like going out at all so instead he stayed inside and went on Minecraft to try and see and convince himself that what happened last night was a dream and that Derek was still alive. Avery knew it wasn’t possible, but he pushed that thought so far in the back of his mind he couldn’t dare to try and think of that, so instead he deluded himself into believing that Derek was still alive in the world.
Avery would spend the next couple of days just playing on the world building and being near the gate as that was his only way of trying to get over Derek's passing as since this world was his, he still has a way to connect with him, he went to explore the surrounding area to see if Derek has built a base or anything that shows he was once in this world besides the stuff in the caves.
Avery wasn’t doing great at all. He barely left the house, he stopped going out to the beach to swim, he knew that he was slowly slipping but he didn’t care. He finally decided to rewatch his footage just so he can see Derek again even if it’s a recording. He just skipped to the part where he first meets Derek and then noticed that random jumble of words that Derek said and he just paused to stare at it, in the moment he didn’t think anything of it but now, knowing how smart Derek was and thinking back to the Wifies video on how Derek used a google drive to show his recording it hit him that this was a google drive link. He went and used the link to open it up and saw that there was a video and a google drive to a YouTube link.
Avery spent the next couple of hours just watching Dereks pov and what he went through, saw on how Derek went up to the top of the tree instead and skipped all of the other gates but as he continued to watch he felt worse as he came to the realization that all the “signs” he thought was from Derek were actually from The King. He felt used, he tried to figure it out by thinking back to see if he could see any the signs he missed but he couldn’t. When he finished with the video he felt numb inside, he felt used by the king and felt so miserable on how it ended that way for Derek how it didn’t seem to end loud but silent. How the world will never know that he sacrificed himself for them. He still had to check what the YouTube link brought him too, so very slowly he opened it up and clicked the link.
It was a channel
Derek’s channel
All that was on it was a single 40 second video, he clicked it and as soon as it started, he was crying, he could hear Derek breathing and he flinched when he heard Derek take his last breath and hit the desk. Before he could even start reading, he had to take a moment to process the fact he just heard him take his last breath. When he did start reading, it just made him feel worse, but at the same time he felt seen and loved. It was weird as he was experiencing so much pain, but he felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders reading Derek’s words that were directed to him. The last sentence at the end was like icing on the cake as it was the words that was left to him in the book, but instead of saying don’t turn left at the crossroads it instead said to keep going forward.
Avery took a screenshot of the letter and the next morning he got up and out of his house to go to his library to print it out to keep, he knew it probably was weird, but it was for him.
Made for him
So he chose to keep it on his person at all times, after leaving the library he went to the café that was down the street to get himself some coffee, it made him feel alive in that moment, it will take him a while to fully recover and get back up on his feet but for the first time in a month he felt human again. When he was walking home he passed by this guy who for some reason felt familiar, but he couldn’t figure out why, he was just mesmerized by how his locs faded into a beautiful red and how he had two different coloured eyes. He will say it was surprising to see anyone have a yellow eye but the brown in his right eye was captivating it was like looking into honey, but as he turned around to ask him who he was, the man was gone and he will never figure out why he felt familiar but he just wanted to try and getting better if not for Derek then he will try for himself and live as long as he can.