Minecraft Story Mode: Pain and Healing

Chapter 2: Sinister

The longer I walked through the woods, the darker the sky became, and the more hopeless I felt. What's the point? Reuben's probably smoked ham by now. Instead, I shook my head vigorously. "No Alex! Don't think like that! We will find Reuben!" I took Billy out of my pocket again. "Right, Billy?" "..." "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Billy."

Putting him back in my pocket, I continued my search. It wasn't long before I heard a rustling in a nearby shrub. Nervously, I inched myself towards it and was relieved to see Reuben huddling in it. "Reuben!," I cried in relief. However, Reuben squealed in terror and refused to come out. That's when I realized that Reuben never had the chance to see me in person until now. To him, I'm a complete stranger.

I bent down to make myself look less threatening. "It's okay," I said softly. "I won't hurt you. I'm a friend of Jesse." Reuben still looked uncertain, but once he gazed into my eyes, I suddenly felt a connection. We both know what pain feels like. Reuben had been through many hands of neglectful farmers and I was constantly ignored, belittled, or punished by Annie and Thomas. Slowly, he walked towards me and I picked him up with my arms. Reuben saw the bandages and softly licked them as if to comfort me.

I giggled. "Let's take you back to Jesse," I said. Suddenly, an arrow landed right next to me. I screamed. There were skeletons and zombies nearby!

I ran away from them with Reuben in my arms. Then I bumped into someone. It was Jesse. "Alex?," said Jesse, then brightened when he saw Reuben. "Reuben!" "Run!," I screamed, pulling Jesse along as the mobs continued to chase us. Unfortunately, we came up against a sheer wall of rock. We were trapped.

Jesse took out a wooden sword. "Reuben, Alex, stay back!" Then he attacked and killed a few zombies before it broke. "Stupid wooden swords!" We backed up against the wall. "I know it's bad, I'll think of something," said Jesse. After a while, he said, "There's too many of them, guys. Don't leave that spot, no matter what. You hear me?" I nodded.

Suddenly, a nearby zombie came up and punched Reuben, giving him a black eye. Jesse gasped. So did I, before I saw red. "I'LL KILL YOU!," I screamed, before tackling the zombie and punching it over and over again. It took about twenty hits, but the zombie finally died. Jesse looked at me in shock, before looking at Reuben. "Oh, no! He got you!"

Suddenly, a spider jumped off the wall behind us and attacked Jesse. "Jesse!," I cried and tried to get to him, but was blocked off by the zombies. I heard a loud battle cry and saw a girl with a bandana and a pickaxe attack the zombies surrounding me with amazing skill, before killing the spider that was on top of Jesse.

The girl saw the other monsters getting closer and said, "Come on, let's get out of the open," before running away with Jesse in tow. I ran after them with Reuben in my arms. We eventually got to a cave. "I want to show you something," said the girl, whose name I now know is Petra. Jesse looked around nervously. "Not that this isn't a really cool, dimly-lit tunnel," he said, "but...how far away is this thing you wanna show us?"

"Careful, Jesse," Petra said jokingly. "You don't want to get a reputation as a wimp." I couldn't help but snicker. This caused Petra to notice me and my arms. "By the way, what happened to your arms, kid?," she asked. "Why are they covered in bandages?" I froze.

Luckily, Jesse came to the rescue. "She doesn't want to talk about it," he said. "It's kind of a personal issue." Petra nodded as if she understood and moved on. I gave a grateful smile to Jesse. He smiled back at me, which caused me to blush.

"Random question, guys," said Petra. "Have you ever seen..." She took out something black and skull shaped. "...a Wither skull? Fresh from the Nether." I could only stare at it, shocked. Jesse spoke up first. "You risked your life for that dusty old skull?" Petra scoffed. "No, I risked my life for the thing I'm gonna EXCHANGE for that dusty old skull." She continued walking. "There's this guy I'm meeting up with at Endercon. He's gonna trade me a diamond for it." Jesse was still skeptical. "Is a Wither skull worth that much?"