Living in Me (Sequel to Not Gonna Die)

|Prologue| Ruins

         Some people considered it to be a plain, given the apparent lack of trees and huge expanse with nothing of interest to see. But the word 'plain' didn't quite take into account the thick underbrush which was concealed in the long grass that ranged in height between brushing someone's knees to nearly waist height. There were a few trees, if not gnarled and stunted, the leaves making the plant almost appear to be a large man kneeling on the ground, his deep green hair hiding his face and legs.

          It was a harsh, rugged and inhospitable place, which made it a not very attractive spot for people to visit. Except that now, nearing the daylight hours of a chilly spring morning, two men were walking through the underbrush, picking their feet up high, one walking behind the other and neither speaking.

          The man at the front was tall but not gangly. He wore a white hoodie that fitted close to his body, with the hood up to hide his face, except some of his crew-cut charcoal-grey hair stuck out at the front. His pants were also white- in fact, everything he wore was white, contrasted with deep black skin and blood-red eyes.

          The man behind him had neglected the bright clothing, instead opting for a long purple cloak that was in dire need to replacing. It was gathered at his waist so that it partially hid his legs as he walked. The cloak's sleeves finished halfway down his arm, revealing skin that seemed to be almost pure white in the pre-dawn. His shirt and pants depicted a skeleton and his face was covered in a mask that hid everything except for his two deep brown eyes that were searching the ground ahead attentively.

          The two seemed to know where they were going - or at least, the white hooded man did - as they walked through the barren land, which without warning became very much un-barren.

          The site had been hidden up until now by the tall grass and thick cover, but as the two men reached the edge of the grass, it suddenly fell away to a huge, blackened crater that was wide enough across to fit almost two football fields and deep enough to hide a two story building. Bare sticks and thin fibres were all that remained of the few trees and undergrowth that had been in this place when it was blasted, and at the bottom were burnt-out ruins, still smoking from their destruction.

          The two men showed no surprise as they stumbled upon this and they worked their way down to the bottom of the crater until they were standing among the ruins. The white-hooded man stood still, looking around with a critical gaze while the other poked around a little, lifting up small parts of partly-collapsed walls or looking under the flaking remains of tables.

          "There's nothing left," the skeleton man said, twitching the hood of his purple cloak a little more so that it hid more of his mask.

          The other scoffed. "Of course there isn't. Herobrine is too efficient for that."

          "Well there must have been a reason you wanted us to check it out Entity, we knew it was going to be destroyed."

          "It never hurts to double check, Dread." Entity held Dread's gaze but then looked away with a sigh. "I was hoping that something else might have survived."

          Dread - Dreadlord was his proper name - shrugged and kept moving around the exposed area. Tunnels continued from the ruins but given the scorch marks on the wall, light raining of dirt from the ceiling and the foreboding groans, neither of them felt it was a good idea to go any further than they were.

          "We were so close that time," Dreadlord said finally. He heard his partner scoff and he gave him a scowl. "Well we were, closer than we've ever been before."

          "That doesn't mean we were where we needed to be," Entity said darkly.

          Dreadlord rolled his eyes and kept moving, muttering "I don't even know why I try."

          Entity crossed his arms and looked the other way, his eyes scanning the blackened walls and the surrounding crater. "We'll have to relocate. Again."

          Dreadlord only hummed. Entity gave him a stink-eye.

          "You want me to hit the high points, huh? Alright, fine. At least we managed to save some of our research and notes and at least that damned Nightmare hasn't come back to screw us over. Good?"

          "It's an improvement," Dreadlord said nonchalantly.

          Entity huffed and put a hand on his head, massaging his forehead a little and letting out a long breath.

          Dreadlord glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes and decided to let up on the silent treatment. "Look, the last test was almost perfect. We're going in the right direction, all we need to do is to tweak the ratio a bit and then we've got it."

          Entity gave him a look and then a snarling grin. "Unlimited power," he said slowly, savouring the word.

          Dreadlord gave a nod, his own smile hidden under his mask, but then he frowned as a thought struck him. "We've got to be careful though, especially with the last few mistakes." The other waved a hand carelessly in the air but Dreadlord pressed his case. "Someone's going to notice something's up with them, someone might start asking questions."

          "No one's going to freak out about a couple of people who go ballistic, especially since they're all so segregated."

          "And what about the last few?" Dreadlord asked. "Especially the army man, the General? It cause a full-on star shower when it went loose, people would have noticed it, and we've both heard the rumours, Herobrine knows about what happened-"

          "By the time Herobrine gets his act together and figures out what we're doing," Entity said, cutting off Dreadlord's words, "it'll be too late. He won't be able to stop us. No one will."

WELCOME

TO

LIVING IN ME

Yes, the long-awaited sequel of Not Gonna Die is here and I hope that it will be able to live up to the standards of the last book and that you will enjoy it just as much as you did the last one.

I don't think there's much else I need to say except get excited guys!