MCSM: Shattered Souls [COMPLETED]

12- In Which Jenni Gives Us a Terrible Burden

oof

I been looking forward to writing this part for a long time

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The silence that followed our discovery was absolutely deafening. I found myself staring at the monstrosity of a sheep, and the two holes in its chest that had almost certainly caused the horrific transformation.

Jandro and Justin were both giving each other nervous looks, as though they were thinking the same thing. Jaq had her hand over her mouth, bug-eyed with horror. Jenni looked like she was about to faint.

"Okay...okay. Let's...not panic here. We don't know enough about this to draw conclusions." I said slowly. Jenni looked over at me. "I don't think it's hard to put the pieces together, Jess." She murmured softly.

"I know. I-I-I know. But maybe...maybe it works differently on a human." I suggested, feeling a little desperate.

"I don't th-" Jaq started, but Justin interrupted.

"No, you're right. Hope is stronger than fear, right? We don't need to automatically assume the worst. Jenni might be totally fine."

The other three were silent for a moment, before Jandro let out a long breath. "Okay. What are we going to do now?"

"Keep going. We have to find something- those awful snake things can't be the only challenge." I decided.

"What if we find more of these...mutant things? Ones that are actually dangerous?" Jaq asked. I was expecting more argument, so her question took me off-guard.

"Well, they're still just mobs. Scarier mobs, sure, but we'll still be able to take care of them." said Justin. I nodded. "I don't know what this all means yet, but I know I'm not ready to just give up. We've been through worse, right?"

Jenni sighed, sounding tired and worried. "I dunno. Like you said, we haven't completely figured this out yet. This could end up being fine, or it could be really really bad."

"I think that's a chance we need to take." I told her.

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The trek went a little slower now that we had to avoid the water. The snakes seemed to know we were aware of their presence now, writhing and twisting and baring their fangs every time we got close to the water. Now everyone seemed on edge, as though we were waiting for the sky to fall. But nonetheless, we kept walking, desperate to find something, anything at all.

I looked up at the sky. It was nearly evening, and the just-barely-setting sun was shadowed with clouds. It seemed like time didn't really matter here- Entity 303 could obviously manipulate it however he wanted. For all I knew, we might've been here for weeks.

"Can we take a break? I'm getting sick of walking and getting nowhere." Justin sighed.

"Me too. It's almost dark, anyway." Jandro pointed out. "We might as well stop for the night."

"But-" Jaq started to protest halfheartedly.

"It's not like we're really getting anywhere. I don't think we're going to find anything by just walking. We might as well accept there's nothing here." Jandro reasoned.

"For all we know, this marsh goes on literally forever." I added. Jaq grumbled something under her breath, but didn't argue any more.

Jenni happened to have a piece of Netherrack in her inventory, so we were able to make a small fire. We were quiet for a little bit, too nervous and weary to start a conversation. Luckily, Justin was able to save us all from a too-awkward silence.