I Can't Remember

[2] George Hits His Head On An Obsidian Wall

"What?" Clay jerked back, almost falling. He frantically looked around to see if anyone had heard. But of course, no one heard Ranboo say that. Two weeks after Clay was imprisoned, the cell was soundproofed. People thought it was so that Clay couldn't try to manipulate the prison guards. The reality was that Sapnap couldn't bear to hear his ex-best friend's screams every week.

"Ranboo, that is impossible, how would you even do that?! Why would you do that?" he exclaimed. Ranboo couldn't be bothered by the older man's distress.

"Does it really matter? You'll be out of this place! Don't you want that?"

"What if you hurt me worse than the people here?" he challenged.

"Wow, you seriously think a scrawny dude like me can physically hurt you?"

"Looks can be deceiving. Apparently, I've hurt and killed many. I'm really skinny too, I'm like a stick."

Ranboo sighed. He looked away, staring at the lava wall. Clay was patient- he waited till Ranboo had gathered the courage to say something. The teen lowered his gaze to his lap before muttering something.

"Sorry, what was that?" Clay asked. The teen sighed and spoke again, louder this time.

"I... I have the voices. They told me about your... Condition. I thought I got rid of the voices, I was wrong. I know you don't have your memory. I'd like to help you out."

Clay's eyes widened. He knew about his voices. That was one of those trivial things that he did remember.

"Okay, I understand." said Clay. ranboo sighed in relief. "You still didn't tell me how you plan to get me out of this inescapable prison."

"Oh, don't worry about that," he shrugged and sat down on the floor, crossing his legs. "Do you have anything to eat?"

Clay let out an irritated sigh. He rolled his eyes, walked to the storage chest nearby and took out a few potatoes.

"What? Just that? That is so boring!"

Instead of replying, Clay took out a stick, held it close to the fiery lava wall nearby and let it catch fire. Once it did, he held the potato near the fire, rotated it a few times and poked it with the stick. The stick burned for a few seconds, then burnt out. Clay walked back to Ranboo and held out the stick to him. Ranboo took it, eyebrows raised it surprise.

"Wow, man. I didn't know you were a gourmet cook!" he bit into the potato and let out a noise of satisfaction. Clay laughed and made one for himself. He sat next to Ranboo, stretching his legs and leaning against the wall. Just as he started eating, Ranboo had finished his food.

"Alright, listen," he started. Clay shifted a bit to face the teenager as he kept eating. "What you're going to do, is hold onto me, really hard."

"Um, what? Ranboo, I hope you're not getting any strange thoughts, I'm 21 years old and you're what, sixteen?"

"Okay, firstly I'm seventeen, secondly, I mean... as if we were both about to fall and only I had an elytra kind of holding on."

"Oh... Sorry man, my torturers have a pretty dirty mind, bad influence."

"Your... what, now?" The teen shifted uncomfortably, his eyes filled with veiled horror.

"Nothing, forget about it," Clay looked to the side, then back at Ranboo. "What will you do after?"

"Oh, just leave that to me."

Clay quickly finished off his potato and stood up. Ranboo stood up with him. He covered the locked exit with obsidian, then ran to the other corner of the room.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Came a voice from outside. George had immediately noticed something was wrong. The little window of plexiglass always let out some light. The glow of lava was clearly visible from outside the cell. Ranboo hastily placed an ender chest, taking out a pearl. He filled it with water and quickly stood in the enderchest, his boots protecting him. There was the sound of someone hastily opening the door, then a little crash, as if someone hit their head on a wall.

"What?!" George shouted. Looks like someone did hit their head on a wall. The man took out a pickaxe and started mining away the obsidian.

"Quick, his pickaxe is stronger than you think, it's enchanted!" Clay shouted, just as the first obsidian block broke. One down, three to go.

"Hold on!" Ranboo shouted. Without question, Clay went behind Ranboo and tightened his grip near the teenager's torso.

The second obsidian broke. George peeked inside to see what was happening. He understood immediately.

"I need backup, Dream is trying to escape, I repeat Dream is trying to escape!" he called out as loud as he could as he kept mining. Ranboo fished out an ender pearl from his inventory. He gave a TNT block and a flint and steel to Clay.

"5 seconds after I throw this, you have to light the TNT block. Light it on 5, not after, you got that?" he said. Clay nodded hastily, placing the TNT block right next to the chest.

The third obsidian broke.

"Are you low?" Ranboo asked, fishing out two pieces of bread from his inventory.

"What?"

"Your health, is it low, Clay?" Ranboo said, his voice sounding muffled by the bread he was trying to chew.

"I- no!"

"Alright," he took a big swallow and spoke again, this time clearly. "Let's do this!" Ranboo threw the ender pearl and they started counting.

"1..." They heard footsteps at a distance.

"2..."

"3..." The footsteps got closer. The backup was coming.

"4..." George screamed in frustration and exertion, putting even more force in his swings.

"5!"

The last obsidian block broke, and the backup was here, but it was too late. Clay quickly lit the TNT block. George held up his shield and ran ahead to catch them, but they were gone. Barely a second later, George was thrown back from the explosion. He hit the walls of the cells, collapsing in exhaustion. The ender chest was destroyed.

"Where did he go?!" someone shouted, frantic to catch Clay. It was useless. George mustered up the energy to say a few words before passing out.

"He's gone, he's free."

• • • • • • •

Ranboo and Clay landed inside the other ender chest. They both stumbled out and away from each other. Ranboo fell on the floor, but Clay grabbed the edge of a crafting table to save himself from reaching the same destination. Clay didn't know where he was. All he knew was that he could see feel the frigid wind on his face. A window was open nearby. He ran up to it, to see what was outside. There was snow everywhere, it was a tundra biome!

The air was so cold that he could barely feel his arms. But Clay couldn't find it in himself to care. He savoured the soft breeze, the sunlight, no matter how bleak, and the view- oh the view, it was so gorgeous. Not a single house, not a single person in sight. Nature at its best, untouched by humans and their complications. It felt so serene.

He took in a deep breath. The air was chilly but fresh.

"I left, I'm free"

[17-03-2022]