Chapter Text
“Whatever you do at the crossroads. Keep going forward.”
The last words that would ever come from Derlord blinked back at Avery in devastatingly normal font. How was it possible that the New Year’s fireworks were going off outside his window? How was it possible that the world still went on in it’s monotonous buzz?
Derlord was gone.
Everything should have stopped. The sky should have mourned his passing. The moon should have wept.
His stomach rolled vomiting onto the hardwood. Filling the room with the smell of acid, rot, and despair.
No.
No.
It couldn’t end like this.
Bzzzt
His phone. Loud in the silence of the room.
Avery put his head into his hands, as if his fingers could keep his mind from spilling out of his skull. He wanted to cry, to scream, to hurt someone, but nothing came out. Completely numb, reeling in loss.
He could have stopped it.
If he had just found the computer sooner.
If he just didn’t check his inventory.
If he had done something, anything differently, would Derlord still have died?
Bzzzt
It shouldn’t have taken that much effort to check his phone. He turned it on, entered the password one number at a time. There, floating in pixels, a notification. He clicked it.
“College Student Derek Hutchins Found Dead in Dorm”
Why he even bothered trying to read it was beyond him. Avery scrolled through the article, barely comprehending the words that flashed by. “...that…seen…Minecraft”. His fingers paused. He scrolled back up. “Eyewitness reports state that Derek was last seen playing Minecraft. His friend and dorm mate noted that he hadn’t left his room for days…”
Avery’s pulse quickened. He scrounged the article, desperate to find more information, terrified that it would only prove what he dreaded.
“...cause of death unknown…massive brain trauma…no source of physical injury…no history of mental illness…”
He threw his phone down so quickly the screen shattered.
No.
Avery refused to think about it.
But the thought was already planted in his head, coming to fruition, ripening and bleeding into his mind.
Derek. Derlord. Derek. Derlord. Minecraft.
Derek was Derlord.
Derlord was Derek.
Derek was dead.
Derlord was dead.
Where were the crossroads?
Crossroads implied a choice, a decision, but there was nothing he could change now.
How was he to continue moving forwards if it was towards a future without Derlord?
His head felt like it was going to split in half, ears buzzing.
Stumbling, his vision spun as he made his way over to a drawer. Opening it nearly unbalanced him.He took out the only thing he kept in it. A knife, used to cut fruit, glinting with neither cruelty nor kindness.
He made no move, only looked at the light reflecting off the cold steel. The sound of the fireworks muted in the background.
His skin was warm. How dare it? How dare he breathe when Derlord was dead?
Wasn’t he the most disgusting individual to ever live?
How could he have just let his friend die?
How could he have let himself, with all his skywars training, get knocked off of that ledge?
And the images whirled in his mind.
He needed to take that knife and carve it across his body. He needed to suffer, alleviate his aching mind by tormenting his body. His fingers tightened across the handle, lifting the blade up to his skin.
But it would hurt! The rational part of his mind protested.
You deserve it. His soul whispered.
Avery raked it across his skin, the pain giving him temporary reprieve from the grief.
He did it again.
And again.
And again.
Blood painted the ground.
Tears painted his face.
Eventually, his vision faded to black.
Body twisted in a restless slumber.