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(d3rlord3) You won’t leave?
(TheMostMayo) No.
Time seemed to pause. Avery felt like he had been here before. Had he dreamt this? Was he in a dream? This place, this conversation, the person in front of him, his best friend that he’d only known for less than an hour, it was all so..
Familiar.
Though Avery was sure he had never been in this situation before. And he felt as alert and awake as ever. So how-?
A voice, chilling and eerily calm, rang through his head.
“This place really has rubbed off on you, hasn’t it, vessel..”
Avery tensed as panic filled him. He didn’t know how, but he knew that voice. It meant doom. Destruction. Hearing it meant he was already gone and he would never come back.
..How did he know that??
Despite his assurance it was who he thought it was, Avery still asked.
“Who.. who said that?” He said out loud. For a moment, he was met only with the stillness and silence of his dorm room before the voice spoke again.
“Must I spell it out for you? I know, you know. And I know that you know that I know. Because this exact scenario has been played a million times over, and it never seems to end well for you, does it?”
“What are you talking about?” Avery questioned again. Time still didn’t move. Something was trapping him in the last seconds of December 31st, 2025. He guessed that something was talking to him right now.
“Please, Avery. You must know. You do, in the back of your mind, know everything that has ever happened to you in all of those alternate timelines. It is where that strange sensation of knowing but not knowing you mortals get comes from, is it not? All it takes is an event lining up, for now it is 11:59 pm, mere seconds away from the new year, and at this exact time you are always given the shortest end of the stick in some way. It is pitiful, if not interesting or quite useful.”
Avery stayed silent this time. He could barely understand what was being said to him, to be honest. Life bending theories had never been his forte, after all.
“Your stupidity is amusing. Allow me to enlighten you for a moment.” The King interjected into Avery’s thoughts.
In seconds, what felt like thousands of frames of an animation played through his mind. His head throbbed, though only for a moment. As soon as they had come, they left. But he still remembered them. Some blurry, some crisp. A few coherent slides playing a moment in another's time, a simple movement. Some just a feeling.
Pushing. Being shoved. Losing control. A dark and misshapen hand. A glowing city running together through tears. A yellow sky. Head-splitting pain. Heartbreaking grief. A red screen. Something being thrown. A face he knew but couldn’t quite make out.
The light fading from golden eyes.
All moments. Real moments. That he’d experienced, somehow. He understood, slightly.
He had been before. But he hadn’t. It was a different Avery, or a lot of different Avery’s, who had experienced this exact moment. He knew what would happen, what D3rlord- what Derek would say next, what he would do next. It was terrifying.
“Go on.” The King spoke into his mind once more. “Show me what you’ll do. What are your consequences this time?”
Avery felt seconds pass again. Avery thought of those moments, those past or future experiences. Making him look at his inventory to distract him was a pretty good plan. But not this time.
(TheMostMayo) Stop.
Avery knew he had beat Derek to entering the message. The armor-clad avatar stepped back in surprise. He could nearly see Derek staring at him in confusion. Even with his infinite knowledge, he hadn’t foreseen this. Avery knew things too, now. Not nearly as much. But enough. Enough to surprise him.
(d3rlord3) ..how did you know. came a new message.
Fireworks exploded outside his window. The time read 12:00 am. This was new territory. Something that had never happened before.
Avery could feel thousands of golden eyes on him, though only two beings. One held the gaze of many, the other only two. The two were all he cared about. The two he had seen before, even if only for a moment. The two he always lost.
Why did he always have to lose? Why was it always Avery who suffered on this night?
Derek’s avatar spun around, as if looking for something in the world. No doubt the reappearance of the King, the only way Avery could’ve known without him knowing. But it was only the two of them on the platform suspended by nothing above the void. The void he’d been pushed into so many times before.
(TheMostMayo) Why.
Avery felt something rising inside of him. Some mixture of guilt, fear, sadness, and anger threatened to pour out of him at any moment. He shook as he read the next message sent.
(d3rlord3) Avery. What happened.
(TheMostMayo) You know damn well what happened. And I want to know why.
(d3rlord3) What do you mean, “why”
Avery felt something snap. Why now? Why was now the time Derek decided to play stupid? He knew damn well what he meant by “Why”.
(TheMostMayo) WHY AM I ALWAYS THE ONE LEFT.
(d3rlord3) Avery..
(TheMostMayo) Don’t “Avery” me. You always do that when you’re about to do something stupid. Answer the damn question, Derek.
(d3rlord3) ..I don’t know.
(TheMostMayo) Bullshit.
Avery felt his hand clasp harder around the mouse, where it rested waiting for an answer. This wasn’t funny. This wasn’t the time to play dumb, he should know that.
(d3rlord3) It’s the truth. I don’t know what you’re talking about
(TheMostMayo) I’m talking about this, Derek! This fucking moment, every damn time! You just have to play the hero and leave me alone, DONT YOU?!
(d3rlord3) It’s not my fault! You think I want to kill myself?
(TheMostMayo) IT IS! YOU COULD LET ME STAY, JUST ONCE AT LEAST.
(d3rlord3) If you stay here, you will die, I already said that!
(TheMostMayo) Then let me die! With you! I dont care, I just want us to be together in this for once!
(d3rlord3) AND I CAN’T LET YOU DIE.
Derek’s avatar inches forward, as if trying to push Avery back more. He had already tried that. He knew he was next to the edge. Avery punched D3rlord back.
(TheMostMayo) GET BACK. DONT DO THIS.
(d3rlord3) IF YOU WON’T LEAVE, I HAVE TO MAKE YOU LEAVE.
(TheMostMayo) THIS ISNT FAIR. ITS NEVER FAIR. WHY CANT YOU LET ME STAY FOR ONCE
(d3rlord3) BECAUSE YOU’LL DIE AND THE KING WINS. AND I CAN’T LET EITHER OF THOSE THINGS HAPPEN.
Avery felt something wet rolling down his face. Angry tears, probably. This really wasn’t going anywhere.
(d3rlord3) DO YOU WANT THE WORLD TO GO DOWN IN FLAMES??
(TheMostMayo) I DONT CARE. I REALLY DONT CARE. I JUST WANT TO BE WITH YOU. FOR ONCE. JUST ONCE
There was a pause. Avery’s eyes stung as tears continued to stream down his face and splatter onto his clothes and desk. It was becoming hard to see. Not just blurry in the normal sense, but like something opaque was messing with his vision. He didn’t much care though, as another message came through the Minecraft chat.
(d3rlord3) Avery..? What's happening to you?
Avery was confused. And a bit annoyed. Was he trying to stall again? Did he really think he would fall for something like that again? He blinked away some of the tears to see the keyboard better.
(TheMostMayo) Are you seriously trying to distract me again?
(d3rlord3) No, Avery. Your eyes.
Did he mean the fact he was crying?
..bitch. Was he not allowed to cry? Avery was about to type back, but his vision had become much worse. He tried blinking again, but that didn’t work. He reached up to wipe his eye, but as he brought his hand away from his face, the glint of the laptop screen reflected off the substance. It wasn’t clear, like tears normally would be. Avery stared at his hand with concern and a bit of panic.
Avery shifted his hand to try and catch the reflection better. He swore he saw something slightly..
red.
Avery started feeling a bit dizzy. Why was there something red coming from his eyes? It had to be some kind of illusion. Maybe it was the fireworks outside that he had barely paid attention to. He looked down at his clothes. Sure enough, there were dark splotches where the “tears” had landed.
Avery had to grab the edge of his desk to stabilize himself and keep his head up. The dizziness was getting worse. It didn’t even feel dizzy, actually. It felt as if something was squeezing his brain, trying to turn it into a pancake or something. It hurt. A lot. Between the sensation and the blood still dripping from his eyes (somehow), Avery felt like he was going to throw up. The pain was only getting worse by the second. The few noises around him seemed to be amplified tenfold. The humming of the computer fan sounded like a mini jet engine, the fireworks like canon shots right next to his ears.
Out of the top of his eye, still relatively clear, he saw message after message pop up in the chat. Derek was panicking along with him.
(d3rlord3) AVERY
(d3rlord3) AVERY LOOK UP
(d3rlord3) THE SCREEN
(d3rlord3) AVERY PLEASE
(d3rlord3) AVERY
(d3rlord3) AVERY LOOK AT THE SCREEN
(d3rlord3) AVERY GODDAMNIT
Right! The screen was the only thing keeping Derek alive for some reason. But that would mean…
The incantation. The whole reason Derek was trying to push him off in the first place.
Well shit.
Avery had to manually pick his head up to look directly at the screen. The pain and dizziness subsided nearly instantly, though still leaving some feeling of impending doom if he were to look away.
(d3rlord3) Welcome to my world.
Avery narrowed his eyes. Really?
(TheMostMayo) Very funny.
(d3rlord3) Sorry. I just- thank god you looked up.
(TheMostMayo) I was kinda busy dying, sorry it took me so long ;]
(d3rlord3) I know. I practically watched it. Probably the most scared I’ve been in a while.
(TheMostMayo) I don’t even know why this is happening, it’s not like I looked at the King or anything
(d3rlord3) You thought correctly earlier. This is why I wanted you to leave.
(TheMostMayo) Yknow I’d still rather be doing this than grieving so.
(d3rlord3) Avery.
(TheMostMayo) What? I practically asked for this. Why would I complain now?
“I believe this has gone on long enough” That cold doom of a voice was back. Avery could’ve sworn it came from directly behind him, but he didn’t dare look away from the laptop.
(d3rlord3) You heard him too, right?
(TheMostMayo) Yep. We’re fucked :D
“Long enough?” Avery heard another voice say. It came from his left this time, and it was much less abrasive than The King’s, more tired and.. sassy?
“Precisely. I admit, I made a mistake allowing the vessel to see forward. It seems we are all doomed this time around. And I’d prefer to get this over with. Pain is an incredibly mortal concept, unbecoming of a god such as myself.”
Before either of them could respond, Avery’s laptop shorted out and went black. Avery barely had time to process what happened before the pain hit him full force. It felt like a black hole had opened inside of his skull, pulling and distorting everything.
“Such are your consequences, Avery Graves.”
The King’s voice faded near the end as Avery fell out of his chair and hit the ground hard. Nothing compared to the pain he was already feeling.
He heard the voice from the left call out his name. He had never heard anyone speak with so much fear in their voice, and he had certainly never expected it from Derek.
At least this time, Avery would die first.