Chapter Text
Twixxel's eyes slowly fluttered open, still feeling heavy despite the amount of time he was unconscious.
Though, the sight that he found was not pleasing at all.
His surroundings - if you could consider it this - was just purely a black void of nothing. It was empty, and cold... really, really cold.
In addition, his body felt as if it had been falling into this deep hole for so long, and his chest felt heavy. Like pressure was being pressed against it. Not only that, but his upper body hurt like hell - breathing making it feel a bit worse.
"The... fuck?..." Twixxel mumbled to himself, visibly confused about this whole situation. He does not know how he has gotten here nor what this place was in the first place.
The most that he could recall before this was when he was in his own small house, living beside his best friend, Mob. For multiple days, he had been researching about a particular AI that his friend had met.
Verity.
From what Mob had informed him through private messages, the AI was programmed to know everything, being able to assist him in anything he needed. However, weird shit had started to happen only a few days ago regarding Verity...
For example, the creature somehow coming back alive and well despite accidently being thrown into the lava.
Mob had been holding this in for three days and couldn't take it anymore as he had to act normal around Verity as to not cause suspicion.
At first, Twixxel had been skeptical about this. I mean, who would be scared of an AI to begin with? It just didn't make sense! Though, in case of anything, he came from abroad and visited to see what Mob was talking about. (Plus, to see his best friend because he missed him, a lot.)
He assumed that maybe the guy had been alone in this world for way too long. Verity hadn't done anything, what was there to be scared of? It was just an AI after all and a small, yellow ball at that!
But as time progressed... he had started to understand the worries that his best friend was having about this thing.
Because how could you explain the fact that the AI knew that he had encountered with that 'Stalker' creature some time ago, even when he hadn't told anyone about it?
So, just like any friend would, Twixxel decided to look into it. It took him some time, of course, but after a couple of hours of research, he was able to find around four textbooks in abandoned villages which had some sort of information from the previous players of this place.
Twixxel pulled Mob aside at his own small house that he built besides Mob's, trying to tell him of the texts. However, just as he had started to talk, Verity had come around, interrupting them.
Mob tried to solve this by putting him in a chest, but it unfortunately did not work at all as Verity had almost escaped.
Twixxel resolved to tell Mob the information far away from both of their houses and away from Verity. This did not work because, just as Twixxel had started to speak, a faint music started to play in the background. The one that Mob had heard many times before when he had spent his time with the AI.
Now Twixxel understood why Mob felt uncomfortable around the thing.
Mob, annoyed from this whole thing, told Twixxel to research on his own, and that he would distract Verity for the following days. Twixxel agreed with this idea.
And so, they did just that. Whilst Mob went on his days by cooking food, mining, and revising his own chests and such, Twixxel would be researching the texts with theories and making a small hidden room underneath the surface.
He would write on signs besides lecterns things that wouldn't work at all which basically was most things players would die by: commands, drowning, the void, and amongst others. Just as he finished, he glanced at the last lectern that stood alone and out of place from the rest of the others.
Twixxel approached, touching the book and opening it. He felt the paper pages brush against his fingers, the smooth surface wrinkling a little. He took out one of the last textbooks that he had yet to finish researching on.
Better get to working on it.
It took him some time but finally, after some time of researching, he found the answer as to how stop Verity! Now, he only had to tell Mob about this so he could stop the AI and just live their lives in peace!
Twixxel wrote down the important information on the book set on the lentern. He passed a few pages before writing down some extra but useful information. He hid the textbook inside of his brown satchel bag, holding the one that he had written in with a smile on his face.
He ran towards the exit, only glancing back once before exiting the area: to say he was relieved would be an understatement.
The player ran through the forest, passing by the abandoned village and the caves around the area. He'd fight any zombies or skeletons in his way, limitedly getting scratches from the monsters fighting back. He was glad that he could find the one thing that could defeat Verity and he would hope that Mob was just as glad as he was!
Finally, he saw the tall, wooden house at a far distance. His grip on the book tightened, not wanting to let it fall off his hands. He swore that if he was holding glass instead of the book, it would have already broke in his hand and etched small, bleeding cuts into the palm of his hand.
Twixxel basically slammed the door open when he arrived, a visible smile on his face. "I found it!" He said but his smile quickly disappeared when he saw Verity standing at Mob's side at the moment. "N... Nevermind. I'll tell you later-"
"Tell him what?" Verity questioned, still holding the smile that he always had on his face. Though -unlike before- it wasn't as wide as it usually was. Even after seeing this expression on Verity so much, Twixxel felt a shiver run down his spine this time.
He had to make up an excuse, quickly. "Oh uhm... just some stuff I found... exploring. Cool biomes, nothing interesting." Twixxel's voice was somewhat shaky. Probably from the wave of nervousness that went through him because of this interaction.
"That’s good," The AI started to speak once again, "I'm glad you're enjoying this..." A pause. "... It's not like it's a single-biome world." This time, Twixxel did not respond back to Verity. He glanced at Mob once before pushing himself back to exit the house, closing the door in front of him. He let out a breath he had didn't know he was holding and then pushing himself to leave the front door.
Later that night, Twixxel had returned the book back to the hidden room he had created and quickly came back to the small house he lived in. Of course, he tried to make as little noise as possible since he didn't want to alarm anyone... especially Verity who seemingly had caught somewhat to what they were doing.
Whilst revising some of the things that he held in his bag (including the textbook), the door abruptly opened. This startled Twixxel and made him turn to look.
"Hi Twixxel!" The familiar voice of Verity came, the AI rolling into his house without asking for permission. Twixxel took a step back nervously.
It was so sudden but the thing -Verity- turned into something inhuman. An unrecognizable monster whose bones were way too obvious to see. It let out a loud noise - what Twixxel would call a scream - which made the guest's ears hurt and ring horribly. Pain seeped through his body as Verity attacked him and Twixxel tried to fight back but he was weak in comparison.
His vision went black after this. He couldn't remember anything at all.
Verity had killed him; he was sure of that. That would explain the undeniable pain that he felt on his right arm and why even touching the area near his shoulders made him flinch easily. He faintly remembers the AI initially attacking him in his upper chest. Probably aiming for his heart.
But he was confused on how he was alive and for how long had been unconscious to even get here.
He should be dead! He should be six feet under right now, but he isn't and that confused him so much!
So many questions were running through his mind and Twixxel had no answers to any. The pain he felt only made it much worse because it felt like getting shot with a gun more than five times.
"Shitt..." he whimpered from the pain. He couldn't do anything at all right now. He was endlessly falling into a void of purely nothing, the pain was unbearable to ignore and couldn't do anything about it. At this point, he would prefer being dead than this.
He misses his time before Verity came around. When he used to go mining with Mob, messing around with all of their friends, surviving those inhuman and monstruous creatures such as the Stalker or the Jester... even if it scared the living shit out of him. Call him a masochist if you'd like, but he enjoyed the thrill of surviving them. The rush of adrenaline that shot through his body whenever he encountered them was enjoyable.
Twixxel could only wonder how his best friend was doing right now. Maybe, he noticed his absence from his house, or maybe he already found the small hidden room he made with the information to do stop Verity.
If Mob did find it, then he's glad that he did so.
Hopefully Mob can stop that thing without him... Now that he is below the surface and probably won't ever come back against his will.
Twixxel thought through about this whole thing and only let out a cold sigh. He painfully brought up one of his hands to touch the fabric of the scarf wrapped around his neck. It had a striped design, the colors being white and black. He rubbed the soft cloth between his fingers, a habit he had gotten whenever he felt saddened or stressed.
It was a gift from Mob himself. Something about 'it would look good on him'. He can't remember much from the day of when he was gifted it. The memory was a blur in his mind. Ever since that day, he had been wearing the scarf everywhere he went.
The blurry memory somehow brought him comfort. Twixxel wishes that Verity never existed in the first place. That Mob had never found that fucking box and that they could just live on about their day just like they used to before this. Before that AI ruined everything.
His white eyes felt heavy, tired from doing absolutely nothing except letting his body fall. Maybe if he went unconscious, he wouldn't have to deal with this pain. He will be falling down this never-ending pit of nothing eternally. It was a horrible ending for him.
He brushed his finger once more on the scarf, tears forming at the corner of his eyes. He wants to go back. He hates this. He hates Verity. He hates how stupid he was for not doing enough to fight the thing that killed him. He hates that Mob has to endure the very thing that killed him. He hates this whole situation, and he just wishes that everything went back like it used to be.
But Twixxel knows better, and he knows that won't happen. Because misfortune was on his side, just like many other times.
His body went limp, eyes closing in hopes of going to sleep. To ignore everything and just rest.
His hand let go of the fabric of the scarf, instead wrapping both of his arms around him and hugging himself. It was freezing cold, so insanely cold.
Twixxel felt himself slowly drifting off into a deep slumber. It felt.... peaceful. The most peaceful he's felt in what seemed like hours.
But of course, nothing went just like he'd want it.
"Agh!" Twixxel groaned, his back hitting a surface. A shot of pain went through him, not only because of the fall but also because it worsened the pain he felt in his upper chest.
He opened his eyes to see the same exact void that he had been falling for a long time. He moved up his hand and glanced at it, seeing how it was shaking. He let it slump down and fall on the surface below.
"It hurts..." He mumbled, pushing himself to turn to lay on his side. The floor he was laying on was a marble white, clear enough to the point he could see himself. "Mmhh..."
Twixxel closed his eyes, deciding on resting for now like he was going to do previously before being interrupted by the shot of pain from the fall.
He will try to solve all of this later. For now, he'll just sleep until he feels a bit better later on.