pixelated

chapter two

They all look around without daring to move, trying to get a sense of their surroundings. The boys are standing on a floating island, below is a river. It looks like there's a ton of these floating islands in a row. Separated by a small gap.
As they continue to look around, they see these floating objects that are beaming a bright light in the distance.
White and square shaped.

It was strange, why was everything floating? Come to think of it, the world had an overly cartoonish design.

A loud sound abruptly came from underneath them. Along with music that sounded like it was signalling something.

Behind them was a large tree and as the loud noise came to an end, the tree shook. It began opening what looked like a secret door, it wasn't so secretive anymore though.

The door was rather larger than the boys. They stepped back.
At the time they weren't aware of the dangers the door held but a gut feeling suggested they keep caution.

Junior felt chills run up his spine, along with a rush of adrenaline. Joseph on the other hand was still in a state of shock, in denial of what was happening. Meanwhile, Cody was the only one who was trying to figure out what this was, logically. Despite having his fear also.

A shadow appeared as the figure made his way out the door. It was big. As big as the door was, almost like the door was designed for it.

The boys didn't get a good look at it. As soon as Joseph saw the shadow, he started running.
Cody followed, moving his feet quickly without any delay. He soon became aware of Junior's absence and darted his head behind. Junior stood like a deer in headlights, he twitched like he knew he should run but no movement could be recognized. Cody dashed back grabbing Junior's hand and pulling him forward. This snapped Junior out of whatever daze he was in and he ran beside Cody.

Joseph jumped over the gaps, not looking back. He squinted his eyes as he saw the familiar glowing white cube he spotted earlier. The image got more clearer as he began closing in on it. He didn't slow down but instead, his hand whipped from his side to in front of his chest swinging it harshly. He intended to hit whatever was blocking him but to his surprise, the cube vanished as soon as it made contact with Joseph's hand. De-ding!

"Joseph, what was that!?" Cody hissed.

Joseph looked behind him with narrowing eyes to answer Cody but he unintentionally got a glimpse of what they were running from.

It was somewhat far, which was a good thing. The boys already had a head start. The only problem was that the monster was larger than them and could catch up—pretty quickly.

"Holy shit dude!" He shouted.

Joseph felt his feet pick up the pace even more.

"What!? Joseph what!" Cody cried.

Junior looked back too, curious and wanting to see for himself. His face went blank but his eyes widened so much it looked horrific.

"Jesus." He whispered.

What Joseph and Junior saw could only be described as some sort of knight. It wasn't just a regular man, it was what looked to be a marshmallow stuffed into oversized armour. His black beaded eyes stood out the most, angry brows above. He held a lollipop that was as large as he was.

The monster locked eyes with the boys and didn't hesitate to lunge at them. His feet scattered, he swung the lollipop above his head and slammed it on the ground. The boys lost their balance, falling forward. They huddled to their feet as the realization set in, of life or death.

Normally in the video game, you die and then you respawn. Yet the boys weren't sure what would happen to them and they didn't want to find out. They started sprinting.

The knight chased after them while the boys neared a slide with water flowing down.

"What do we do?" Junior asked while frantically looking at the knight and back down the slide.

"You want to die!?" Joseph said as he pushed Junior's shoulder, causing him to go down the slide.

Joseph followed right behind and so did Cody. The slide lasted about a minute, it swirled around at least ten times before it hit the bottom. At the bottom of the slide bubbles formed, and the bubbles carried the boys to land. Similar to the one they were just on.

They stood up and looked back, the slide was too small for the knight.

The boys collapsed on the ground and caught their breath.

"What just happened," Junior muttered.

Cody and Joseph sat up to look at Junior with a heavy brow.

"What is this game dude!?" Joseph shouted.

"Don't be so loud—" Junior got cut off by Cody.

"What's wrong with you!?" Cody grabbed his arm.

Junior pushed them away and stood up. He turned to them to say something but instead stormed off. Cody and Joseph yelled from behind him but he kept walking.

As Junior was walking he came across a hill. He started to walk up the hill but fell into some hole that was covered in leaves. He gathered himself and began to look around. The first thing he noticed was a pool of acid, the colour reminded him of cotton candy. Metal bars hung on the ceiling. A completely different atmosphere from before. He turned to go back up but there was no way out.

"Cody! Joseph!" He started yelling, hoping they would hear.

Luckily for Junior, his friends already went out to look for him. They followed the same path and eventually found the hole. It was obvious to anyone that was passing by.

"Dude how'd you get down there!" Joseph kneeled next to the hole.

"He teleported Joseph." Cody sneered with a sarcastic expression.

The same large lollipop from before was thrown at Cody and Joseph, nearly missing them. They backed away from it, hurrying to see where it came from. To their surprise, the knight was back.

It grabbed a tree this time and prepared to throw it.
Cody didn't have any time to waste, he grabbed Joseph by the shoulder and pulled him into the hole. The tree landed not even a second later.

The knight got frustrated and started swiping his hand in the hole, trying to grab them. This made them panic.

"We can get across with the bars!" Joseph pointed. He noticed on the other side there was a rock wall, with real rocks.

"Yeah and what happens when we fall into the acid Joseph?" Junior asks.

Cody didn't have any time to argue, he shoved them closer to the acid.

They have no choice. They swung with all their weight for the best chance, grabbing the bars one after another. The knight was still desperately trying to barge in. They didn't look down, only ahead. They were careful not to get any harmful splatters of acid on them.

With a final swing, Joseph jumped on the wall, the rocks stuck out far enough to create a platform. He climbed onto the next one while Junior landed on a platform as well.

They all climbed up the wall, finally getting away.