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Of course, I knew the strange figure that appeared in my world was Dawn. I mean, she was basically my girlfriend in every way except officially; I know her in-game mannerisms. It's just the mere thought of seeing her, even in this state, is impossible. So how is she here? Not only that, but she refuses to just run up into my face like she normally does.
Looking around the server, there is nobody else online, and even stranger, the world is now in survival mode instead of hardcore. When I try to open my game settings, the escape key doesn't work.
Typing in chat kinda worked. I would send something, and the server would spit back out:
<Applesnax12> Chat validation error
But I wonder if Dawn was still receiving them. "Meet me at the meadow," I typed. Something deep inside me knew she would never refuse this, but my memory failed me.
Getting my first good look at the entity, it didn't have one solid state. Nothing like a typical Minecraft skin. It was sitting under a tree in a beautiful field of flowers. The way it moved was undeniably Dawn; everybody on the server had unique quirks in their gameplay. It started to run towards me, and that's when I noticed a small discrepancy: the run was straight on. Dawn would've jumped on her way to me. I know her. If this thing is impersonating Dawn, how much does it know about me? And that's what scared me.
Using all I know about Dawn and the server, I baited the entity to reveal all they know about me, Dawn, and our relationship, and it's chilling how knowledgeable it was. If this was my Dawn, it knew I would have complied with anything it said, but it quickly caught on that I knew. It was fast to adapt.
By now, it was using Dawn's and mine secret code we created together to communicate our pranks in plain view. Initially, I was trying to get to where the code originated from, but stumbled upon the love swing. It's where we agreed to meet up in person. It's where we made our promise. I waited a beat, hoping that it would miraculously change into Dawn. It didn't.
When the world changed to darkness, I was unable to sleep. The entity seemed most comfortable in the shadow, so now it had the ability to roam around whenever. Surviving the night was horrific, and running from it was exhausting because of how I saw glimpses of Dawn in it. There was nothing I wanted more than to run over and gift her a flower with a cute note on it. I had to restrain that urge if I wanted to ever figure out what was going on.
It took some time to formulate, but I came up with a plan. I will trap it in The Nether. I've confirmed that it is following me, so it shouldn't be that hard. Stepping in, The Nether was almost as dark as nighttime in The Overworld, but I had a flint and steel to light my way. Wandering far enough, I spotted an unnatural light source.
Walking towards it, it looked like a player had died here. The experience is what caught my eye initially, but now, it was the sword. Picking up everything I found that the sword was named "AppleSord." It's mine? I know it's mine, but why is it here? In fact, where are all my items? I remember playing on this server for a substantial amount of time.
A gurgling snapped me out of my thought process as I panicked and threw down flames to surround me. I have no idea what is going on. There really is nothing I can do except stick to the plan, so I run out of the nether and break the portal as quickly as I can with a pickaxe.
With a break, I look to see what else was in that person's inventory. "Rent agreement," signed by me? It was about how Dawn and I lived together, in Minecraft, which I remember writing, but again, why is it in a pile of loot in The Nether?
That's when big white text appeared on my screen, "Do you still want to talk?" and another "I know what happened." Pleading with it not to come through, which I assumed it would listen to because of how closely it resembled Dawn. I opened the portal again. We talked about what happened to the server, but it only gave back cryptic answers.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"CherishDawn was broken." Freaking out, I broke the portal again, hoping to never talk to it again. It's too close to Dawn; I'll trust it too easily again.
Deep inside me, I yearned to go back to the meadow, so after my long trek, I arrived at the exact same tree I saw the entity under. Now there is a chest labeled "Rest In Peace CherishDawn," underneath, with all of Dawn's things. It only felt right to lay my sword into the chest alongside it. Because I knew, I'm the fault she's broken.
Making my peace is difficult, but I found another lit portal to talk to her one last time.
"you're on the other side of this, right
hiding because you were forced to
i'm so sorry
i know you'll say it's not my fault
but I'm the reason they found out
i should've been more careful
i love you too"
After throwing my note through the portal, the world around me glitched in a way I had never seen before, until it completely collapsed into pure sky with the entity right in front of me. It was covered in pericing judgemental eyes full of disgust. I panicked, but my character physically could not move.
That is, until it shifted into a simple pair of two eyes. It ran, bounced over to me, until it seemed to hit an invisible wall. The sprinting sound effects were still there, but it wasn't moving. "Bonnie?" it asked. It's her. Only Dawn would know that. I tried to move again, towards her, but was still restricted.
Out of nowhere, the scene shifted back to the meadow, with a beautiful sunset painting the background. Dawn, still with the messed-up skin, spoke in signs that appeared in her hand.
"we won't be able to meet up anymore :(
my parents are pulling me out of uni and forcing me back home
they figured out about..
me. us.
i love you
be strong and be brave <3"
All of a sudden, a single sign was in my hand, "i'm keeping my promise." It's not impossible, but it's never-ending. All of a sudden, it floods my memory. I've seen this all played out before. It's been repeated countless times, so when a dark oak door appears in between us, I know what's on the other side. Still, I open it up with the tiniest of hope. Only to be met with her grave. I will find my cherished.