Minecraft Story Mode: Pain and Healing

Chapter 23: Journey

"I'm telling you, there's something down here!," Soren whimpered as we made our way further down the staircase. "There's nothing down here," Jesse muttered tiredly. "It must be an enderman!," said Soren, ignoring Jesse. "And a large one to boot! What else could have made that horrible sound?" "If you're so scared, just run away!," I snapped. "That's about the only thing you're good at!" Soren stared at me in shock before looking down guiltily. "That's not what I meant. I just...*sigh* never mind."

Obviously, things have been extremely tense since Jesse and I had that fight. We had plenty of fights before, but none as bad as this. As a result, we were both in a pretty crabby mood, hence our rather poor treatment of Soren just now.

"Haha, don't worry, everyone," said Jack, trying to break the tension. "This is just like the time I jumped from the cliffs of Na'pow, only...ah, who am I kidding this is nothing like that." He smiled at Jesse gratefully while his eyes shifted towards Nurm. "Thanks again for not leaving him behind. Though, let's be honest. No way you'd pick some llama over Nurmie here." "Take that back!," snapped Stella, though there wasn't any real heat in her words. "Her name is Lluna, and she's the best llama a girl could ask for!"

"Look, she'll be fine," said Jack. "She's an animal, she's got...survival instincts." "Still, that was uncalled for," said Nancy, frowning at him. "You should be more sensitive to other people's wellbeing." Jack blushed furiously and looked down. "R-right. Yes, ma'am."

We walked towards a hole in the wall, which overlooked the entire world that had been hiding under the bedrock. It was a wasteland. There were dead trees, dirt instead of grass, and lightning striking the ground every few seconds.

"Wow, you were right...there's a whole world down here," said Jesse. "The first world, created by us," said Xara. "Romeo, Fred, and me. Haven't seen it since I was imprisoned. Before he bedrocked over it all." "It must be hard to see your world like this," said Jesse. "How...long have you been gone exactly?" "No idea," Xara sighed. "It's hard to keep track of the time in maximum security. Long enough for the world to change. I knew what Romeo planned to do, but still...seeing it like this..." "'Romeo?'," Radar whispered questioningly. "The Admin," Jesse whispered back. Radar nodded in understanding. "Ohh..."

"It's worse than I imagined," Xara continued. She jumped down into what appeared to be the ruins of a living room. The rest of us jumped down after her. Xara began tearing up at the sight of the room, shaking her head slowly. "This is the room where he killed Fred," she said mournfully. "I watched it happen." "Xara...I'm so sorry," said Nancy. "You watched your friend die," said Jesse. "That's...awful." In response, Xara gave him a no-shit glare. "Does have a life-altering ring to it, doesn't it," she said. "But I had those memories to keep me warm for all that time in prison." "It's not good to dwell on revenge," said Isaac. "I should know." Xara glared at Isaac irritatedly, but decided not to answer.

Instead, she walked through a door and pointed into the distance. "Fred's Keep is that way," she said. "Wanna defeat Romeo? The weapon's in there." Suddenly, we heard what sounded like loud, heavy footsteps in the distance, footsteps that could only be made by something very, very big. "That sounded vaguely ominous," said Jesse.

"Is that...?!," cried Petra, her eyes wide with fear. We looked at where she was pointing and saw a gigantic enderman that was probably even taller than the prismarine colossus. It looked up at us and roared. "I was really hoping I was wrong," said Soren. "That...is the biggest...Enderman...I've ever seen," said Radar, backing away.

"Romeo never could leave well-enough alone," said Xara. "He liked toying with the basic order of things." With a loud poof, the giant enderman vanished, then reappeared right in front of us. We screamed and ran back inside the room. "It would be great if I could go one day, just ONE DAY, without seeing something new and completely terrifying!," cried Radar. "So that thing is another Admin-created monstrosity," said Jack.