Ami felt the tears run down her face. She didn't sob, or make any gross noises. The tears just simply came and went like the passage of time. She had to run the entire scenario through her head a couple times until she fully understood what truly happened. Steve died saving her skin. And now he was gone. Forever. Ami wanted to punch something. But she feared the danger that the night stored, so instead turned to the vine ladder and climbed up, her arms and legs feeling rather jello-like.801Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSA5s7v1oO
She entered the house with a grim face. Heads turned upon her arrival, many breaking into a smile.
"They're back!" Izzy exclaimed, leaping from her seat and enveloping Ami in a hug. "We were getting worried since it was dark...where's Steve?" she kept looking around for him, expecting Steve to be right behind Ami. There was a metallic ping inside Ami's gut. She couldn't bring herself to say anything.
"Ami...?" Michael approached her as Izzy broke away. "Where's Steve?" Ami stared at the floorboards.
"And why are you crying?" Izzy's big, green eyes gazed at her concernedly. It would have been better if Ami had punched them in the nose. They're faces told it all. Michael punched the wall, swearing profusely. Ami saw Charlotte sigh as she sat down at the table.
"It's just one thing after another," Michael glared at the wall as if it had insulted him. Ami slowly walked over to a chest, plopping her collection of potatoes inside and maneuvering her way to the bedroom.
"I'm going to bed. We should all sleep, it's late." She exited without waiting for a reply. The bed squeaked when she sat on it, but she did not lie down. Ami drew her knees close to her chest, squeezing hard. Maybe she hoped that it would squeeze all the sadness out. Maybe she would squeeze herself to death and be freed from it all.
Ami sat like that for a while, her mind unable to wander, so she just blankly gazed at her crimson bed sheets. After a few minutes, the position became uncomfortable, so then she truly figured she could try and sleep. Ami lay her head on the pillow with a hollow feeling in her chest. She wasn't sure when she fell asleep, but the nightmares that came were unsettling and frightful.
One nightmare took place in the house. Everyone was smiling and laughing, having a good time. She felt inclined to join them, but fund that her feet were rooted to the spot - literally. As much as she desperately tried, her feet wouldn't budge. Ami even tried calling out to her friends, but her voice refused to reach them. She cried out, screaming, but nobody came.
"Pitiful, isn't it?" Her own voice spoke to her. Ami was in a sitting position, furiously trying to rip out the roots that bound her. She didn't care that the tears were running down her face again, or that her stubs were bleeding from the effort.
"Pitiful that you were too much of a coward to do anything." Her voice came again, sending Ami into a panic.
"I couldn't have done anything! I had no time-"
"He certainly had time. Maybe if you just paid more attention to your surroundings you could have saved him instead."
"Shut up!" Ami's efforts were completely useless as the voice grew louder, and her own softer.
"Oh, I see how it is. You wanted him to die, so that you can finally be all alone. That's what you want, isn't it? To be alone? Forever?"
"Liar!" Her voice caught in her throat. None of it was true. This had to be a dream...her friends were always going to be there to help her...
"Won't you be pleased once the rest of them die?" The voice cooed. "Then you'll finally get your wish. A lone wolf, with no soul that will ever care about her, and that's just the way she likes it. This is the future you desire, isn't it?" Ami screamed frantically, thrashing wildly in her only other option to free herself. The world spun around her, her stubs bleeding, her friend's laughter carrying on without her until it faded into a dull resonance that lingered in the back of her head. All that was left was her own screaming.
"Ami! Ouch - Ami! Jesus - wake up!" Ami's heart was at a rapid pace. She opened her eyes, relieved to see a wooden ceiling, relieved to know that it really was just a bad dream. She rubbed her eyes, a little grossed out to find that her face was really sweaty. As her heart rate calmed down, she made a moaning noise to signify to the person beside her that she was alive.
"You really hit hard, ouch..." The voice made her heart stop. "That must have been some nightmare, huh?" Ami took her hands away from her face and thought she was dreaming again. Steve sat beside her on her bed, rubbing a bruise on his arm. She must have been staring, because he caught her eye and cleared his throat.
"Um...is there something I did? Am I missing something? Er - it's me, St-"
"You're alive!" She threw herself on him, squeezing him so tightly that his head might pop like a balloon. The hollow feeling that had been in her body was replaced by an indescribable warmth that filled her from head to toe. Ami hadn't been this happy in a long time.
"I am alive," he said, wheezing. Ami hastily let go, worried that he might die again. "But you...explosion..." Steve blinked. "Oh, that. It wasn't as bad as other things I've experienced."
"I don't think you understand what I'm getting at," Ami breathed deeply. "How are you alive?"
"Oh!" Steve jumped. "Well, I can't really explain it myself." Ami gave him a look to go on anyway. Steve cleared his throat. "Every time I die I always end up back at the last bed I slept in, good as new. I'm glad I wasn't sent all the way back to the village, though. That would have been a long walk."
"Do the others know that you're alive?!"
"Oh, I guess not. I just woke up here a couple minutes before you. You were having one hell of a nightmare, so I tried to snap you out of it. Do you remember what it was about?" Ami gulped. "No," she lied. Steve shrugged. "Fair enough. Here, let's freak some more people out."
The shock was something that seemed like it could have been scripted. Only, it wasn't. And the reactions were genuine, which was what made Ami laugh so hard that her spleen seemed like it would fall out. Now that she had gotten over her initial surprise, it was amusing to see the faces of her friends become so unbelieving at first, and amazing to see them smile again.
"Why didn't you tell me you were immortal?!" Michael exclaimed, punching him in the chest.
"It's not exactly a dinnertime topic!"
"Still," Michael stressed. He sighed. "How did you say it happened again?" He shrugged. "Every time I get killed I just wake up in the last bed I slept in the next morning. I wouldn't say I'm immortal, but I can definitely resurrect myself, somehow." Michael put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. Izzy gushed over his 'power' in the meantime.
"Wow! Are you, like, a superhero or something?! Can you fly, too?"
"Uhh..." Steve wasn't sure how to answer this.
"Hon, I think if Steve could fly he would have shown us by now." Charlotte placed a hand on her shoulder. Izzy sighed disappointingly. "I'm just bewildered that he's even standing with us."
"No kidding," Ami agreed, thinking of earlier.
"Well, with this revelation out of the way, maybe we could learn something from it, I dunno." Michael pondered.
"What do you mean?" Izzy cocked her head to the side.
"Think of it this way. If Steve always regenerates his body - which is what it sounds like - then we could use this like some sort of battle tactic. Sure, it's only a one time thing since he wouldn't be back until the morning, but we could use you for emergencies, if it's alright." Steve shrugged.
"Sure. Oddly enough, I don't mind being the guinea pig."
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you've lived here your whole life," Micheal wondered aloud. "What memories do you have of your childhood?"
"Childhood?" Steve blinked. "All I remember is waking up here one day just as I am. I figured things out for myself, mostly." He shrugged. "Maybe I just don't have one." Michael wagged his finger, a look of enlightenment spreading across his face. "I think you'd be known as what we call a NPC, or non-playable character, in this sense. You can't die permanently, you're just kind of stuck in time, maybe that means that you're just as old as this world is!"
"Ehh..." Steve shrugged again.
"Ehh what?" Michael repeated dully.
"So I'm really old. It doesn't really have anything to do with our goals, does it?"
"Well, no, but..."
"Then we can easily just plan ahead instead of dwelling on the past. I prefer that more than anything." He looked to Michael, who looked like a deflated balloon.
"Oh," Michael tapped his legs awkwardly. "Sure." He cleared his throat, moving over to the table and laying out a detailed map. It contained the landscape around them, even the mountain that they scaled to approach the house was there. But not only the mountain, the Sky House was laid out in amazing outer, and possibly inner, detail.
"Wow! This is so cool!" Ami gushed over the map, the fine points and incredible attention to everything leaving her breathless. She wasn't the only one, either. A collective gasp was everyone's reaction, for they had most likely never looked at a map before.
"Who needs a map now, huh?" Michael smirked, relishing in the group's wonder. "Anyway, we're right here, in the house, of course. We have enough supplies and Eyes of Ender to get us to the Lair, which I guess is somewhere over...here." He pointed in the middle of a vast section where the secret Lair could be located...though it didn't get quite get the response he envisioned.
"Michael, that's the ocean," Izzy stated, raising an eyebrow.
"Exactly!" he said ecstatically, his energy flying back at a remarkable force. "It's underwater! Don't worry - I have some Water Breathing potions in case you get nervous, a couple for everyone. Doesn't it remind you of Atlantis? I bet there's more treasures that hide there, too..." he trailed off, lost in his nerdiness. Charlotte cleared her throat.
"I'm sure there is. How do we get there?" Michael snapped back into it, blushing lightly.
"Well, that's the part that might take us a while. See, we take one of these Eyes of Enders, right? I won't show it now, since we should conserve them, but what I'll do is throw them in the air, and they should lead us in the direction of the Lair. Cool, huh?"
"So we're following an inanimate object's directions," Ami clarified.
"When you put it that way it sounds little less exciting." Michael blinked. "But yes, if you want to be boring. I say we should head out tomorrow as soon as we can. We can go over battle strategies on the way there...then we'll finally be able to break our way out of this world." Michael smiled faintly. A stiff hand clasped his shoulder. It was Steve.
"Sounds good to me," he said. "I'm going to pack up my stuff right now, then. Ciao." He left swiftly. Izzy and Charlotte exchanged glances, before grinning and dashing off somewhere themselves. Michael sighed, still smiling and rolling up his map. He placed it somewhere in his inventory, giving Ami an assured glance.
"We're almost there," his brown orbs gleamed with hope.
"Finally." Ami nodded, turning and climbing the vines that lead to the great chest room. She couldn't help but grin to herself as she sorted through several blades before finding her own diamond sword. Finally, their suffering would be over. They could go home! Wherever home was, at least.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
