Never

Chapter Five

The setting sun ignited the forest with bursts of orange and yellow rays, painting the sky with swirls of pink, orange purple and red like it was the artist, and the sky was its blank canvas, twilight at its finest. Hand in hand, Mevia and I weaved through the trees and foliage with new materials in tow after a successful mining expedition. Iron, gold and even some diamond gleamed in our inventories, along with some lapis lazuli for enchantments and redstone for traps and contraptions. We were going all out for this homicidal plot we were conducting, but despite not wanting to put this plan into motion, I was having the time of my life with Mevia. Last night was wonderful with her. I don't even know how it came to that, but I'm glad it did. I'll never forget it... And now, we were doing what we did when we were younger, mere teens; mining, pranking each other, wandering off to worry the other, telling jokes to each other, even some playful sword fighting (Though I usually lost). I'm wondering if last night is what put us in such a good mood and drew us closer to each other, but little did I know, the happiness and love would fade away and would be replaced with guilt and distraught as everything spiralled downhill...

As stars slowly started dotting the sky, Mevia and I had finally reached our shack. While a little shabby on the outside, it was toasty warm on the inside from our burning fire. While most would never leave a fire unattended (And really, you shouldn't), we had used stone to prevent the fire from spreading and was working well. As we stepped inside our shack, the warmth immediately blanketed us, making the cold we endured and brought along with us fade away in seconds. I sighed and plopped myself down by the fire, embracing it's warmth as Mevia set everything we had gathered down by our crafting table. She quickly sorted out all our minerals and grinned.

"Ha ha, yes!" She exclaimed as she held up a diamond. "Perfect! Once we get everything for the bookshelves and enchantment table, we'll have the perfect weapons! Well, as close as perfect as we can get without any materials from The Games..." She paused for a moment. "Whatever, these will do" She shoved all our minerals into a nearby chest, before she started to scavenge through another for food. "I'm all jittery!" She continued. "What about you Hadrian? You excited as I am? I mean, you have been quiet lately... Brainstorming, huh?" As soon as Mevia turned her attention to me, I fell silent. I still hadn't told her. I still hadn't told her I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to commit to it. I didn't want to commit murder, when I was the one who did the wrong thing. I... I never intended to do what I did back at The Games. After Cassie tampered with the commands and killed off several competitors, I... I guess it drove me insane... The thought of becoming a monster to those who looked up to you, the thought of harming others for pleasure, drove me mad and ultimately, I became that monster... But not just me; Mevia was also driven down the same path as I, but her intentions were unknown, at least to me. I doubt it was from guilt like myself as I ran the commands back at The Games while Mevia trained The Gladiators, and while some were scarred after Cassie's genocidal reign, I doubt they're what made Mevia follow the path into darkness... Now that I really thought about it, I honestly had no idea what drove Mevia to do what she did at The Games, at all! Everything that popped into my head I immediately dismissed because it made no sense whatsoever... But as soon as I thought back to the present, a scary conclusion came to mind;

...Did Mevia like killing people? Did she want what Cassie wanted, for Competitors to never re-spawn? Is that why she's so willing to commit murder?! I looked up at Mevia, only to see she was looking back at me with a concerned look

"Hey, you OK?" She asked me kindly. I bit my lip. I didn't know what to say or what to do. Do I ask her why she followed my footsteps back at The Games? Ask her why she wants to commit murder so badly? Tell her I don't want to do this homicidal task at all?! I gulped, holding all the words down. Mevia, now concerned, placed the items in her hands on the crafting table and walked over to me. She kneeled down and looked at me with a worried look.