"Now place the wheat three across on the table," Alex instructed, pointing to the boxes on the crafting table. Ace laid out the wheat in the desired pattern carefully, his dark eyes focused and eager to get it right.
"See how a little thing lights up on the right?" Alex's stub drifted to where a picture of a loaf of bread had appeared just above the crafting boxes.
"Yeah," Ace followed.
"Tap it." He did, and his eyes lit up as he did so, the bread appearing before him, warm as if it had just come out of the oven. He muttered a soft 'whoa' under his breath and held the bread gingerly in his stubs.
"Wow, Ace!" Cadence gushed, peering over their shoulders.
"That's all there is to it," Alex finished, the curl of a smile teasing her lips. "I'm going to go do some of my own work, so have fun with the bread." She walked away, dropping the pile of wheat she had beside the couple. Ace and Cadence were so busy popping out bread they hardly noticed her leave. The two stayed there for quite a while, using up all the wheat they had to make a couple hefty stacks of bread, food that would last them weeks.
"Are you okay with eating bread for the rest of your life?" Ace raised an eyebrow at Cadence, who had just sunk her teeth into a soft, warm loaf of bread which breathed the fresh taste of bread into her mouth.
"Mmm," she savoured the bread with a calm look. "Probably. There has to be different kinds of plants here, it's not like we're in a barren wasteland. Right, Alex?" She looked where Alex was, blinking a couple times to assure her senses that she was truly gone. She huffed a sigh, a couple breadcrumbs falling out of her mouth. "Rude," she commented.
"Want to go find her?" Ace suggested.
"Nah, she probably found a better hiding place this time. Maybe buried herself." Cadence paused, considering something in her head. "Want to go for a walk?"610Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRSSKD3Clup
Ace raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Sure, if you know where you're going." Cadence rolled her eyes. "That's the thrill of the adventure, stupid. Marking our own path should be fun!" Ace gave her an unsure look, subconsciously biting his lip. Cadence noticed and held his arm.
"Please? We won't go that far, anyway. Just a little walk?"
"Oh, alright." Ace sighed, averting his eyes from her puppy-dog stare. Cadence grinned, squealing with happiness as she practically dragged him out the door. Ace started to go forward, but Cadence stopped him once more, pointing to the roof, her eyes glinting with what Ace knew may end up becoming his demise.
Cadence and Ace went up the ladder, and Ace's arm was released (much to his relief) as Cadence marveled at a fountain that spouted running water efficiently and beautifully. It was wooden, akin to the house, and quite big, for it took up a large section of the roof. But there was still room for more as Ace spotted a bench that could seat two, as well as a gigantic beacon that stemmed from the base of the house like a beanstalk and extended high into the sky, touching the clouds. He supposed it would be easy to find their way back if they tread too far.
Ace leisured his way over to Cadence, who was already speculating on how genius the idea of a fountain was. She went on about how, with the right amount of colourful and vibrant light, the structure could truly shine and gleam in the astounding auras of the entire colour spectrum. He remained silent, content with hearing her extraordinary vision and sense of design.
"And, and, maybe a, uh...oh! Do you think magenta would work there?" She paused only moment to glance at him, her face muddled with concern and thought.
"Try a bit brighter," he said, and Cadence smacked herself in the forehead, dumbfounded realization splatted on her face.
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "How could I be so stupid! I'm lucky to have you around, Ace, otherwise I'd be lost." He chuckled at that, staring up at the magnificent fountain himself. It did have a nice look to it, he had to say. Ace briefly pondered whether Alex had come up with the concept herself and built it. After a moment, he shook his head. Of course she would have, there was no one else who could have. This was her house, after all.
"Ace," came the troubled voice of Cadence.
"Yeah?" He faced her.
Cadence fiddled with her stubs. "Do you miss the real world?" Ace sighed and looked down at his toes. "So you know that this isn't home either."
"Obviously," Cadence said, her curly pigtails bobbing as she moved. "Where else would I have met you? We knew each other coming into here, so...it only seemed right, I guess."
Ace nodded. "Same goes for me. I don't remember much from out there, though, do you?"
"No,"
"I thought as much. Actually, all I remember that isn't connected to this world is you and my baby."
"You mean that old guitar of yours?" Cadence giggled. "It's always falling apart!"
"But I can fix it," Ace grumbled. "Besides, I bet you don't remember anything else." He stuck his tongue out at her. Cadence narrowed her eyes.
"And what makes you think that?" she inquired. Ace simply shrugged, and Cadence hit him on the shoulder. Ace recoiled, rubbing the spot.
"Ow," he said with a grin. "So you do remember something?"
"Not really," Cadence admitted irritably, crossing her arms. "Maybe it'll come back to me later," she sighed, walking over to the beacon and cranking her neck upwards to try and see the top. She gave up after a couple of seconds, and shifted her attention on some sort of figure in the distance. It was a tad difficult to see, but the shape of the object was clear.
"Ace...come here for a second." She said slowly. She felt his presence and pointed to the unmistakable figure. "Tell me that's not what I think it is." Ace's face lost its colour. He looked at her with fear in his eyes.
"I'm afraid it is," he said with a gulp. "It's a graveyard."
Cadence clung to Ace, her body shaking uncontrollably. Ace did his best to calm her down, but to do so would be nearly impossible. They were walking in a graveyard. Mind, there wasn't that many graves, but the eeriness of the situation still sunk deep into their skin. They had many questions, but none were such as obvious as their number one.
"Why does Alex have a graveyard behind her house?" Cadence asked with a small squeak. Ace struggled to find the words.
"I...I wish I knew," was the best he could muster as they examined each gravestone. They were all towering crosses, the area in front of each cross covered in stone to show where the bodies were. What was unique about this graveyard was that around every grave was its own type of flower. One had tulips, the other had daisies, they were all different.
"Aiden, Jack, Charlotte, Michael, Izzy..." Cadence read the names on each of the tombstones in order. "There's only five. One of them seems like it has some sort of suicide note...w-well, if Alex is a psychopath m-maybe this could be a g-good thing?" She gave a shaky smile to Ace, who scratched the back of his head uncertainly.
"Er...I don't think she killed all these people. Does Alex really seem like the type to go out of her way to kill people? She's more of an introvert than anything."
"Yeah, but-"
"Do you really think she's crazy? She saved our lives without even knowing us."
"Okay, you have a point." Cadence sighed in defeat. "But you have to admit this is really ominous. I don't like it at all."
"Then why don't we go and ask her?"
"What."
"Let's ask Alex what happened to these people! There's no easy way around it! Unless you'd rather sleep with the thought of her as a psycho-killer..."
"Fine! Let's just go, this place is freaking me out." Cadence shivered, hurrying away. Ace trailed after her, giving one last fleeting glance to those who rested underground. He hoped he wasn't wrong about Alex.
"You ask her,"
"No! This was your idea! You ask!"
"But you're the one who ran off so quick to do this!"
"What does that matter?! There's no way I'm doing it!" Cadence and Ace argued in hushed tones, neither willing to take the first step. Alex sat in the corner of the room, twirling her sword idly, hardly paying attention to what she was doing. She was more concerned about eavesdropping on the whispers that surrounded her. She didn't make any attempt to converse, they would start that tedious process for sure. Alex pretended that she didn't notice them, and it must have worked, because within the next few moments Ace took a deep breath and approached her.
"Alex," he started, sounding more unnerved than usual. Alex locked her blue eyes with his dark ones. Ace stiffened, continuing on. "We need to talk to you about something that we found."
"Oh?" Alex mused. "What is it? Cows aren't that fascinating, you know..." She smirked to herself, getting to her feet. Ace didn't smile at all in return, which struck her as odd.
"It's different," he said, leading her to the back of the house.
"Where are we going?" Alex asked calmly, her heart pounding inside of her chest. What had they seen? Why were they so stone-faced? What had they seen?! The thoughts raged throughout her mind as they made the short walk across the roof. Ace and Cadence were silent, which only tormented Alex. As they hit a cobblestone path, Alex knew. She knew where they were going. She knew what they had seen. When she forced herself to look up, her chest constricted as if vines were ensnaring them. Their graves stood before her, looming and casting their shadow of grief. However, she noticed that there were three more graves than the last time she had been here. Charlotte, Michael, and Izzy had joined Aiden and Jack in their eternal slumber. She scanned the stones over and over again, confused on who could have put them there in the first place. There was only one possible explanation.
"Steve," she muttered to herself, overwhelmed with it all.
"...ey...Hey! Hello! Earth to Alex! Are you there?" Alex flinched, only now noticing that Cadence was trying to get her attention. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that the people around her had disappeared for a moment.
"Y-Yeah, sorry." Alex hastily apologized.
"You need to tell us what's up with this freakshow," Cadence continued, fired up. "Who are these people?!"
"Cadence, calm down." Ace grabbed her shoulder gently. The shorter, blonde girl relaxed slightly.610Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8o6MrO2cme
Alex stared at the ground. "My friends," she said glumly.
"So you did kill them!" Cadence blurted out, any calmness gone.
"Cadence!" Ace shushed her. Alex forced a laugh.
"I'd be more likely to kill myself than any one of them, that's for sure," she said hollowly. "did you think I was a psychopath?" The couple exchanged nervous glances with each other. Alex rolled her eyes. "They were killed. That's all. I'll head back, if you don't mind, then." She started without another word.
"B-But didn't one of them commit suicide?" Cadence inquired quietly.
Alex paused before saying, "Yes. What's your point?" She watched as Cadence pointed to the signs that lingered behind the grave.
"On the signs. I can see that he mentioned just about everyone else in the graveyard, but...there are two people I don't know, Luke and Ami. Who are they?"
"One of them ran away, the other doesn't exist." Ami finished coldly, heading back inside without any more claims or objections. Cadence and Ace were left in stunned silence to contemplate what she meant.
For the first several minutes of their time alone, Cadence took it upon herself to pace the roof at wild speeds, frightening Ace into thinking she might accidentally walk off and fall to her demise. Luckily this didn't happen, and weariness began to take over. Once she had exhausted herself, she resorted to crumpling in a tired heap beside Ace on the wooden bench.
He looked at her with weary eyes. "Stop worrying about it, Cadence. You're going to make yourself sick."
"How can I not worry about it!" she stressed. "Okay, sure, maybe this Luke person ran away somewhere, that's believable, but how can a human being not exist?" Ace sighed.
"I know it's hard to not think about it, but you're going to have to sleep at some point tonight. Messing up your mind even worse than it already is is pointless."
"Are you suggesting that I'm messed in the head?" She gave him a look. Upon realizing what he had said, Ace smacked himself in the face, trying to recover.
"Ah, that's not really what I...uh..." he sighed, giving up on the attempt. Like Cadence, he was also exhausted.
Cadence smiled. "Don't worry about it. You're a little messed, too." Ace smirked at her comment. Cadence continued, "Well, if I can't concern myself with a non-existing person for the time-being, at least the stars look nice tonight."
Ace gazed up at the sky with her. "Sure is. It's one of the best things about being in the middle of nowhere - at least the stars are pretty." Cadence gave out a little hum to show that she had heard him, transfixed with the specks of illumination coming off the pitch-black sky. Ace sought out the chance, deciding to look at Cadence instead. Their eyes locked, and the two leaned in for a kiss, their lips gently pressing against one another. The couple shared in their love for each other for but a moment, breaking apart soon. Cadence was blushing, her cheeks rosy and happy. Ace couldn't be sure what the future would bring, but he knew that he would always have his girl beside him to face off against whatever came their way.
He ran through the caves, his mouth dry and his lungs wheezing for air as his legs ached for him to stop and take a break. Despite his physical weakness, he couldn't stop. If he did stop, the beasts would claim him for sure. He couldn't kill them, he wasn't much of a fighter. But his legs, oh his legs could carry him far! However, he did tire very easily, thus his legs suffered for their glorious ability to keep a steady pace. He knew it was a bad idea, but he stopped.
Just long enough to catch some of his breath. The beasts were a while away, but that didn't mean he could rest just yet. If he did, it would all be over. His legs would probably break in an ironic fashion, preventing him from escaping at all! So he paused to orient himself, checking to see that his legs were, in fact, not broken and still mostly functional. He broke off into a run again, following the trail of torches he had made himself. Even if he was running for his life, he was still prepared for it.
Checking the clock he kept handy, it would be about five minutes until the beasts would catch up to him. Ahead of schedule, as per usual. But that didn't mean he had time to dawdle! Through the corridor, down the stairs, he was almost there!
The maze stood before him, making a mockery of his poor skills. Shoot, he thought. He hadn't counted on the maze of the mine coming in his way when he took this route. He made a mental note to write down that this passage was a no-go on his map. Darting past the endless halls of mining that he had done weeks prior to this, he eventually found the correct path after a couple wrong turns. Checking the clock, that had put him behind by two minutes and thirty seconds. Unacceptable! They almost had him cornered!
But today was his day, the day that he would triumph over them all. He skidded a corner, almost losing his balance as he passed the narrow, sharp turn as he stormed up a flight of stairs with painful ease. Though he was gifted with perfect running legs, actually training them to run coherently and properly was an entire ordeal in itself. Perhaps that should be the next thing he would focus on...how could he lose concentration of what was at hand?! The beasts were gaining!
He zoomed along, taking all the correct turns and grinning to himself as the minecart came into view. He grabbed the cool, metal surface, giving it a push and hopping in as he felt himself skyrocket forward into the caves. His hair flew behind him, and a grin plastered itself across his face. It was as if he were in a dream! Flying around faster than he could have ever imagined on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride, it was amazing! The cave opened up, the tunnels disappearing and a open space leading outside greeted him. The minecart gained elevation steadily, and as it reached the top, he touched the warm kiss of sunshine, and went right back down again, yelling the entire way down. The rollercoaster went through spirals, through more wondrous places, until it finally stopped.
He was a little sad that the ride was over, but as he checked his watch, he marked a new record in his journal. The simulation was complete. He had developed the perfect escape plan in case anything were to ever try and take hold of him as he lived out his days in the caves. Getting out of the minecart and proudly gazing at his creation, he walked up the steps leading to his house, a small shelter that was occupied by a bed, furnace, and crafting table. He had a singular chest which contained everything he needed, and another chest that held all of his journal entries.
Entry after entry he had constructed and developed his fun escape, and today's fifty-second test was the first to ever be a success. He eagerly wrote down the details of his achievement, not forgetting to throw in a few ideas (that took up three pages) of how to improve it even more. He was quite content with his lively little life underground, and surely intended to keep it that way for a long, long time.
Do you really think it's going to be a quiet life forever, little dude? I don't think so. Feel free to review, guys! There will be more coming.
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