Encore: The Amnesiac and the Deceiver

10: Tracks (Riley)

"Riley. Riley, wake up."

Bajan's voice intruded on my sleep and I groaned. "Just 5 more minutes," I grumbled, turning over.

"CREEPER!"

A large crash jerked me awake, sending me rolling away before I even knew what I was doing. I rubbed my hands over my eyes, dashing away my tiredness and saw Bajan rolling on the floor, laughing his head off while Jerome was holding his hand, glaring at the brown haired boy.

"THAT WAS NOT FUNNY BAJAN!" he yelled.

I tried to force my tired mind to piece together what had happened. From the looks of things, there was no creeper and some sort of practical joke had been played on myself and Jerome. Jerome seemed to have hurt his hand, so he might possibly had slammed it on something, which would be the reason for the large crash I heard.

Bajan could barely breathe by now, while Sky and Sub were also in stitches. It was strange to hear Sub's laughter inside my head. The barest trace of a grin touched my face and I stood up, dusting imaginary dust off my pants. Sub and Sky started running out of breath, but Bajan's laughter had gone sub-sonic.

"Bajan, stop laughing and breathe," I told him. He managed to stop laughing long enough to take a deep breath and lay flat on the ground, trying to breathe normally again.

I rolled my eyes and went outside, closing the door behind me. Like I suspected, there were no creepers around and the sun was hovering over the tops of the trees. Everything was silent except for Jerome's yells in the house behind me. After a few minutes, Sky and Sub joined me outside, leaving Bajan and Jerome to have their little fight. I think that they were fighting not because they were angry, but simply because they could and they enjoyed it.

"What time do you think it is?" Sub asked. Sky and I answered at the same time.

"About 8 in the morning."

"10:47."

We both looked at each other. "Riley, the sun would be up there if it was almost 11," Sky reasoned, pointing up into the sky.

"But my watch is on time," I said, looking at the watch that was on my right wrist.

"That's because it's set to the time in our world!" Sub exclaimed, grabbing my wrist.

"How is that even possible?" Sky asked, looking at my watch.

Sub and I shrugged.

"But this way, we can keep track of what time it is in our world," Sub said.

The door opened behind us and Jerome and Bajan walked out, clearly having exhausted the possibilities of their argument. "So, what's the plan?" Jerome asked.

"The plan is there is no plan," Sky joked.

"Haha, very funny," Jerome said, grinning.

"We were going to follow the tracks right?" Bajan asked. "Try and figure out where Herobrine had come from and follow him back."

"That's if he and Entity teleported to the same place Herobrine came from," Sky pointed out.

"Think positive Sky, think positive."

We all went back inside our little house and collected our axes/pickaxes. Bajan claimed the stone sword and we all happily let him have it. We knew from our first time here that Bajan had a gift when it came to weapons of various forms. And when I say gifted, I mean gifted. As in, he beat Herobrine. Mind you, Herobrine wasn't using his powers, but you get my point.

Sky looked at the house and sighed. "Seems like a waste. We built this awesome house and now we're just going to leave it."

"Not to mention the massive base we were going to build," Jerome added.

"If all goes well, maybe we can come back?" Bajan suggested.

None of us were optimistic about that. The sound the door made when Jerome closed it sounded very final. We weren't going to come back.

Thankfully, Entity and Herobrine's footprints were still at the fringe of the trees. Sub found Herobrine's tracks leading up to one of the trees and we followed them, walking in a straight line with Sub at the front, Jerome and Bajan following behind him and Sky and I trailing at the back. My pickaxe swung in slow motion at my side as I walked. The forest somehow reduced our voices to whispers. Bajan and Jerome were talking softly together in front of me while Sub walked silently.

"Are you okay Riley?" Sky asked all of a sudden.

I frowned. "Yeah, course."

"You just seemed unusually down last night. Well, I guess that makes sense, all things considered. But this morning, you would normally laugh at that prank thing eventually. You just seem very closed off and...."

"I'm fine Sky," I said firmly.

Sky mumbled something to himself. I could have sworn he said "And that just proves my point" but I couldn't be sure. I ignored him and just walked in silence, looking at the ground so I didn't have to look at him or at Bajan's back. Sky didn't say anything else for the next half hour or so, and neither did I.

"The tracks are gone!"

At Sub's words my head jerked up. Sub was looking at the ground, trying to find the tracks.

"What do you mean 'the tracks are gone'?" Sky asked.

"They've just disappeared! It's like they've been washed away or something," Sub explained.

"It must have rained here overnight," Bajan reasoned. "Sub, do you know the direction that the tracks were heading?" Sub nodded. "We'll keep heading in that direction. We'll still be able to find out where Herobrine came from."

We kept walking, the sun rising on our backs, relying only on our sense of direction.

I am so sorry for the crappiness of this chapter, but I had no idea how to make it better.