Withered

Chapter 10

"Seems a bit odd..." More endermen zap in and screech to each other, the lack of concern in Soren's voice making me concerned. "They've never been inside before."

"Great, let's go." Instincts, exhausted but still strong, kick me back into action. "We gotta get out of here."

We all quickly shuffle out, Soren grumbling next to me about altered behavior. Although my mind's on other things, like how Petra is forcing calm breaths out. Dang it, I may not be able to see each, but there must be a lot of endermen for Petra to start to get afraid. Maybe I should be glad I can't see very well.

"Ah dude," My agonized arm twists at the fear in Axel's hallow voice. "How are we going to get out of this one?"

I squint the moment I get through the door, vision still slowly improving, but it is not hard at all to see all the endermen that have swarmed the hallways. A persistent buzz ringing constantly, just the slightest thing could piss them off over the edge.

"Oh! I wasn't expecting so many houseguests, there's no way I have enough seashell soaps for all of them."

Doom coils around my heart, whispering and foretelling a tragic future. I shake my head out of it, ignoring the headache and focusing on the weird grunts and bleeps of the endermen. We have to get through them... somehow.

"How are we suppose to get out of here?" Lukas's words quiver, my arm relentlessly screaming its torture as the purple parasites suck whatever life that's left in there. "We have to come up with some plan and-"

"Soren? We could use your expertise right about now." A small wisp of hope gives Soren the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he's still in a bit of shock. He'll snap to his hero self in no time.

"One constant about endermen is that they hate water. If we can force that fountain to overflow somehow..." He trails off in thought, and I breath a sigh of relief- "Jesse, you still have the enderman suit. Put that on, and you'll be able to safely reach the fountain."

Only for my heart to lurch forward in my chest, panic driving through every vein in my body. I glance back at the others, my muscles begging them to get me out of this. I can't break a fountain, I can't even use one arm and the other is completely useless. That's not even mentioning if the rest of my body collapses under me.

Yet all I see, in my hazy and jittery vision that strains to produce even a clearer sight of Lukas's terrified eyes. Or the anxious bobbles of Olivia's head that could pass as a nervous twitch. Or Axel's unibrow tight in fear. Or Rueben's whines as he trembles next to Petra.

I press my lips together, grabbing the enderman mask and pushing it on my head. Not Ivor, not a Wither Storm, and not endermen get to kill my friends. I'm not letting some stupid sickness interfere with that.

"Good luck dude." I give a nod at Axel, creeping forward on wobbly yet determined legs. I'm not failing them, I refuse.

"We'll um, we'll all watch here then! Where it's safe." Doom clenches down on my heart and I struggle to keep creeping forward after the hero's words.

The buzzing gets omnipresent the closer I get, endermen all around me. Blood thundering throughout my body, my very sore and exhausted body, but I have to do this. Just gotta keep going.

An enderman shrieks and I whip to it in pure fright, cowering and bracing for its infuriated screech at me. But to my utter relief, it walks off. A woozy rush of relief throwing my balance off for a moment.

"Try not to die."

A raspy huff comes out at Soren's words as I step up to the fountain. Death is not the problem, using only my one arm that has already been pressed to its limit is the problem. How the heck am I going to break this?