Chapter Text
The wind was cold on Scars face as he stepped out of the traders into the field of sunflowers; a chilling reminder of his death. Another game lost, more time trapped in this field. He was lonely, yes, but he would grow accustomed to it yet again. It was always the worst right after a series, when he was with friends again. Sure, there are the voices, but they aren't the same as being with his friends. Not that he would tell the voices that, he was far too kind to deny their company. He had grown to accept them as part of this world.
He sighed, bending down to pull the weeds out of the dirt. He became lost in the ritual of gardening. Something to soothe his lonely soul as it wandered this world. The sun climbed higher into the sky and the chill in the air gave way to a glowing warmth. Soon the autumn heat became unbearable and Scar finally stood up from the flower beds and made his way to a shady tree. He sat down under it to eat an apple he had in his inventory when he saw it.
Standing on a hill in the distance was an iron golem. Its back was turned to scar, and it lazily treaded along the hillside. “Thats odd,” Scar squinted, trying to make it out more clearly "there's no villages in these chunks”.
“Which means,” he thought aloud, “that there is someone else in this world who made it”. He stood up again, and opened his inventory. The interface popped up in front of his chest an arm’s length away. He pulled out his diamond sword and put it into the first slot of his hotbar before closing it.
He checked the tab list.
No one.
There was no one on the server.
Scar felt uneasy, but he decided to investigate. He made his way up the hill. “Why hello there big guy, welcome to Trader Scar’s, what brings you around these parts?” he said cheerily. “You must have come from outside the border- are you lost-”
Scars blood ran cold. It turned towards him. But that thing, no, that wasn't an iron golem. Its eyes were empty, devoid of the red glow of life in the gentle giants. Its limbs seemed wrong, and its body was far too smooth- almost like pale flesh was imitating metal.
Scar backed up as it stepped towards him. Though, stepped is the wrong word. It slid closer to Scar, like a snake with legs. Scar screamed and ran. He didn't hear any footsteps so he turned back to see if it was following him.
Not even two inches from him was the monster. It had silently sprinted after him. Scar didn't have time to think or scream before his world went dark, the last thing he saw was the soulless, empty void of that creature's eyes.
***
“Alright, I think today I would like to go exploring a little bit.” Calvin said to himself as he pulled the security tablet out of his inventory. It lit up and he tapped away at the screen, checking outside his house for any signs of threats. He was mostly worried about the Anomaly now that Goatman wasn't coming near his house due to his dogs.
He scowled as he saw the large wooden structure on the hill nearby. “God, that thing is an eyesore. The neighbor needs to move away. Get that eyesore off my property, brother.” he thought twice about insulting the neighbor, not really knowing if the fake dog was still in his house or not.
“Or ya know, he can stay. Ya know what, you can stay. Maybe I'll just build you a new house you can live in instead” he left his own house, stepping into the sunlight that filtered through the towering redwood trees just a few dozen blocks away from his home.
“Maybe that's what we'll do today, go explore and find some nice things to spruce up the neighbors house.” he nodded to himself in approval as he set off. “No wooden cube is going to exist on my property. Nah, you saw the house I made for Alex? You'll love it, yessir” Calvin looked around as he passed a broken down well.
“Speaking of, I haven't seen her in awhile. Yo where my shawty at?” there was no answer of course, not even a giggle. Calvin kept talking to himself, assumably, as he went onward. The sun climbed higher and higher into the sky and eventually it began to dip towards the horizon.
Calvin looked across a river to see a village, bustling with life. It appeared untouched. “Oh nice, a village! Have I been to this one yet?” he pondered. He pulled a boat out of his inventory and crossed the river.
Stepping onto the shore, he saw an iron golem offering a flower to one of the villagers. Calvin felt a little bit more secure when he saw the glowing red eyes of the golem turn to him. The creature looked him up and down almost like a nod.
“Nice to see you, big guy.” Calvin smiled, walking past him into the village. He went about his business, looking for some good loot and maybe a waystone. He explored for a little while until he felt something watching him.
He had learned how to sense when it was Herobrine versus when it was something else. This wasn't the watchful gaze of Herobrine. He shuddered, remembering when he thought Herobrine was the worst of his problems. Now the entity didn't even hold a candle to the other eldritch horrors this world had to offer him.
He turned slowly and there it was. The eyeless iron golem watching him. The normal iron golem didn't seem to even notice the beast, walking right between and past it and Calvin.
“Aw no, not you. Dude that thing gives me the creeps-” Calvin didn't dare look away, backing up slowly into a house. “I think I'm going to sleep this night away”
You can't sleep
“Ok i guess im not” he groaned in frustration, opening the door to leave. The golem turned back to watch him again, its soulless eyes following him. “Eeeeee” Calvin shuddered as he quickly sprinted away “it's still watching me!”
He left the village as quickly as possible, trying to get away from that thing. “Naw man, I hate that thing. I HATE that thing. It's so creepy. It has no eyes-” he turned around to see it, only to find that it was sprinting at him full speed, feet dragging across the ground unnaturally.
Calvin screamed and jumped. Shaking, he hit the ground running and ran, placing water behind him. It was simply too fast though, navigating around the liquid and heading right for him “It's so fast!” he screeched as the thing grabbed him.
“No!” Calvin's world went dark and he felt himself falling through the void. It was a familiar feeling. This wasn't the first time the thing had sent him somewhere else. He was expecting to land with a thud in the village from Season 2, or maybe the Lost cities, but instead when the world loaded in around him he was sitting in a tree.
“Aw hell naw” Calvin groaned, opening his inventory to find nothing. No armor or weapons either. “They took my scythe.” he jumped down from the tree. “Really what did I expect, for them to be nice to me? Naw, they can't ever be nice to me. Even Alex isn't really nice to me.”
He started to punch the tree. He had grown used to the survival loop, and knew his best course of action was to get tools and armor as soon as possible. Iron armor minimum. “But Calvin, Alex helped you out of the lost cities!” he squealed in a high pitched voice.
“No, no I don't want to hear it. You know how many times she's also gotten me killed? Shawty is a professional manipulator, yessir. She's just in it for what? The entertainment of leaving me confused and hurt? Twisted.” he waved at the air as he placed a crafting table. He just as quickly abandoned the table as soon as he made a pickaxe, walking off into the woods in search of a cave.
The next few hours of the day went by quickly. Calvin found a pretty good hole in the ground and jumped down into a small pool of water. He made another crafting table and ditched it as soon as he got a stone axe and pick. He mined up some coal and held the torches in his left hand before he descended down into the caves.
Other than the sound of his footsteps and the occasional groans of zombies, the caves were quiet. He occasionally talked aloud to himself as he mined up the ores around him. As he was sitting in a lit up corner, smelting some iron, he thought he heard the voice of another person. He looked around and saw a nametag through the wall.
“Aw hell naw.” he took what he had and picked it back up, quickly putting on the armor he just crafted. “This is singleplayer- it always is- see?” he pressed tab to prove to himself it was a single player, only to see a name and a face with a goofy little smirk and green eyes displayed right below his. “Is it? Not? Oh my gosh there's another person in here!”
Calvin was still wary it could be an entity and so he crouched and sneaked around the corner, attempting to locate the owner of the name. Eventually he heard the voice it belonged to.
“Now I think that's probably enough iron to get me started, oooh maybe i should go for some diamonds? Though I'm getting a bit low on food…”
“Hello?” Calvin asked as the figure came into sight.
“GOODNESS!” the man screamed and turned towards Calvin, clutching his chest. “Oh my gosh you scared me; oh-ho-ho” the man was dressed in tan pants, brown boots with a matching brown jacket and a white undershirt. He leaned on a cane and brushed back messy long brown hair to reveal large green eyes.
“I didn't mean to scare you man, though I guess there wasn't really any avoiding it.” Calvin stood up and cautiously approached the man. He was sure now this was in fact a player, due to his reactions, but if the player was a friend or foe was unsure still.
“It's alright,” the new player said, taking a steadying breath before grinning goofily and offering his hand “I dont think ive met you before. My name is Scar Goodtimes!”
Calvin put his sword back in his inventory and shook Scars hand. “Calvin. It's nice to meet you man.”
“You're all geared up,” Calvin observed as Scar put on iron armor and picked up a sword.
“Can never be too careful, though I'm a bit klutzy, so maybe I'm not careful enough.” He broke his furnaces and put them back in his inventory.
“Well if you've held your own against the entities then you must be pretty good” Calvin nodded, expecting Scar to have an idea of what he was talking about.
“Entities?” Scar questioned. “Oh like the zombies and stuff- well yeah they have always been in these worlds.”
“No I mean like herobrine and the - the anomaly.” he watched the vacant expression on scars face. “Goatman? The cave dweller? The one who watches? The knocker? The night dweller?” nothing still. “None of these are ringing a bell?”
Scar shook his head "I've heard of herobrine, but he's not really real- and if he was I've never seen him.”
Unbelievable. This guy has never met the entities- maybe he's from a place where they don't exist, but if so how has he gotten into my worlds? There's no way I escaped; they wouldn't let me go that easily. “I assure you man, he's real alright” Calvin said.
Before Scar could answer or process that information, they both heard the sound of blocks breaking. Calvin's blood ran cold.
“What is that?”
“Sh” Calvin shushed him, listening for the direction it was coming from. He timed the seconds between each block breaking. It was fast.
“Is that Herobrine?” Scar whispered, fear in his voice.
“Worse,” Calvin replied, his eyes locking onto the far wall. The blocks broke and standing in a two by one tunnel, was a figure with pitch black skin and iron armor.
“Its Null”