FINALIST IN A FINALISTS JAM
This Blog is an entry in the completed A Life of Steve.

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"With my Shadow on One Side..."

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jeenveev's Avatar jeenveev
Level 29 : Expert Botanist
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Loneliness is a feeling I do not feel, something I am so accustomed to I can push it to the very back of my mind, and trap it there. It shakes the bars of it's cage, longing to escape, to wrap it's cold hands around my throat and take over, but I refuse to let it. I continue my life as if nothing is wrong. I pretend my life up to this point has all been a dream, that I never had a family, that I never had friends - that I never had her.

I remember the way everything changed. It was so sudden, yet it happened over many months. For a brief moment, I let my guard down, and the memories flood in, an overwhelming tide.



It was the End Festival of 1989. Crowds were gathered to celebrate the day that the Ender Dragon was banished back to the End, and the citizens of MineCraftia were freed from his tyrannous rule. Among them was a stranger, uncomfortable, knowing he does not fit. His eyes flickered sideways, catching sight of a young girl. One hand curled around her arm, the other flattened against her mouth.

She was never seen again.

Her parents, her family, were so worried. Yet nobody believed that she had been taken. The land of MineCraftia was crime free, and nothing like this had ever happened before. But when a week later, another person disappeared, opinions started to change.

A curfew was set down. Nobody was allowed outside before 7AM, or after 7PM. Even those who didn't break the curfew were at a constant risk. People were vanishing constantly, without any warnings, or any traces left behind. Detectives spent countless hours trying to understand what was happening. The population was spiralling downwards rapidly, and the citizens of MineCraftia had no choice but to watch, helpless, and hope that they are not next.

A few weeks after the second disappearance, I was invited to my parent's house. They wanted to have dinner with me, to celebrate our survival so far. Nobody ever thinks that they'll be next, and we were no different.

I turned up at their house, and knocked, but there was no reply. Again. When my third knock was not answered, I attempted to open the door, and let myself in. It was locked. Terror clawed at me. I already knew what had happened, but I refused to believe it. Around the back of the house, there was another door. Cautiously, I moved around the house, and tried the door. It too, was locked. I wasn't going to give up that easily. I pushed against the door, forcing it open. The hinges cried at me to stop. With a final scream, the door broke away from it's hinges, and crashed to the ground. I stepped over it.

"Mum!" I called. "Dad! Where are you? Answer me! Please! You have to be here!"

My words fell into the silence, with no reply.

My feet carried me through the entrance-way, into the house. There was no trace of a fight, no trace of a struggle - nothing but my mother's diary sitting on the desk.

Only, as I got closer, I noticed it wasn't my mother's diary. This diary belonged to someone else. My heart began to pound, punching the wall of my chest with a desperate fury. If the diary was there, did that mean someone else was too? I ignored the risk. I needed to find out what was in this diary. My hands shook as I flicked through the pages.

Week 1
The experiment is beginning. There is only one problem. We need test subjects, but apparently it is illegal to practice on humans OR animals. Even in the name of science! So I have to ask around, try and find something we can use. It's stupid. Why should simple, ignorant people be put ahead of things like this, things that could get us truely ahead in society, something we have wished for, longed for, for so many years? We deserve better. But of course, we'll follow the rules. Only foolish men play dirty so early in the game.

Week 2
Markus says he has an idea of where we can get test subjects. He better hurry up, or we'll use him instead. If you make a promise, you need to deliver. Besides, he's the least important member of this crew. He's worried, and so he should be. It's sickening the way he somehow manages to keep his oily grip on this project. We should cut him off, before it's too late, and we're all... like him.

Week 3
Markus still hasn't delivered. He had better hurry up, the scientists in this laboratory are not known for their patience. Then again, they aren't known at all. Well... not yet. Once this experiment works, we'll be history. The whole world will know our names! We'll get nobel prizes, better, be knighted! There will be no honour we haven't recieved, as there will be no honour too small! All we need is a subject.

Week 4.
Things are all go. Markus, finally, got us someone. Too young to be of any real use, but still - better then nothing. But, we need more then one person, and Markus knows that. He had better get us more test subjects before this one is all used up, or he will be of real use for the first time...

Week 5
Markus has gotten us another subject. Too bad, I was looking forward to making him i- 


At this point several pages had been ripped out of the diary. I flicked frantically through the rest of the pages, but they were all blank. 

At that moment, I heard footsteps creak towards the doorframe. My knees turned to rubber on the cold floor, quaking as the stranger moved ever closer.

"Steve?" A voice called.

The instant relief immobilized me for several seconds. I turned towards to door.

"Alex!" I cried.

She could tell by my face, she knew what had happened. It was one of the things that made Alex so extraordinary, that made me so lucky. 

"Oh Steve."

She wrapped her arms around me and I fell into her.

"I'm... I'm so sorry Steve. I knew this was happening, but... but I never thought... it would happen to someone so close, it would affect me so personally."

Her words really made it sink in.

They are gone.

I will never see my parents again.

The tears came, flooding my eyes, drowning me. I couldn't breathe. I shook as Alex pulled me closer to her. I couldn't bear it, couldn't take it. But I had to. I should have known this would happen sooner or later, but it was just so surreal. I suppose nobody really thinks about these things until it is too late. You know they are happening, you know they are affecting people everywhere, but somehow, you manage to know without knowing, to shove it to the back of your mind when it should be on the front shelf.

"Come on," Alex said eventually, unwilling to break the silence. "We need to get out of here, before they... come back."

Slowly, we walked away, Alex supporting me with her thin arms, me slumped onto her. I didn't want to leave, but Alex was right. They could come back at any moment.

As the weeks went by, more and more people disappeared. It became a habit for many families to say "Goodbye" instead of "Goodnight". In some ways, I envied those families. They, at least, had a chance to let one another know how much they cared. I... didn't.

Clearly, things weren't bad enough for the remaining citizens of MineCraftia. The hands of fate looked upon us with disdain perhaps. I don't know. But no more then a month after my parent's disappeared, a disease found it's way into MineCraftia. Families mourning losses were it's prey, to begin with. People dropped like flies. MineCraftia seemed like it would soon become a lifeless ruin. I could cope with everything, as long as Alex was by my side. Of course, fate would not permit that. She was one of the numerous victims of the disease. She too, fell under it's reign.

I stayed by her side day and night. I held her close to me, treasuring all the time we had, hoping, hoping for a saviour, for a hero, to help her, to help me. Still, the hands of fate showed no mercy. Ruthless, cold, they dragged her away. They threw her into the river and held her underwater until she drowned. The question still echoes in my mind.

Why?

I tried to get help for her. I called everyone I knew, every place I could possible imagine. 

That was when I realised.

I was the last one.

There was nobody willing to help me, because there was nobody around to help me.

I think it was when Alex's body disappeared that I really changed. The paranoia kicked in, fear of being the last. I ran for many days, ran without stopping. I lost any trace of civilization, and I didn't care. I ran until I was in the middle of nowhere, with my shadow on one side, and my memories on the other.

I realised that I couldn't survive without a house, some form of shelter. I built myself a shack, barely recognisable as shelter. But, it was good enough for me. Too good. Who was I to demand better? My friends, my family had been destroyed, and I had done nothing. This was more then I deserved.

That was where I was then, and that is where I am now. As the memories stop flowing, draining to a trickle, then ceasing entirely, I fall to my knees. A solitary tear cuts my cheek. I used up my tears long ago.

A shadow falls over me. C... could it be? I turn around, slowly. My mouth curves, rising into a smile, exercising the emotionless muscles that haven't moved for so many months.

"Alex?" I whisper.

She falls into my embrace, not speaking. Her actions say enough. This is Alex, here, finally.

"But... how?"


I feel Alex's arm snake around my neck. I feel the cold blade, kissing my skin. I feel the pain as my throat is broken open, a wound deep enough to kill, practiced, precise. I watch from afar as my body slumps to the ground, as Alex pushes her boot against my chest.
She is the last one.






So, what do you think? As you can probably tell, MineCraft stories aren't at all my forte xD. If you liked it, please leave a diamond, as this is a contest entry, so diamonds help get it into the finalists :D. Feedback and tips are very, very much appreciated!
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1
11/30/2014 11:36 am
Level 32 : Artisan Grump
TheCreeperQueen
TheCreeperQueen's Avatar
<3 it.
Nice twist
1
10/08/2014 7:15 pm
Level 42 : Master Hunter
Radrobin25
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WOW! i love it :D
1
10/10/2014 1:43 am
Level 29 : Expert Botanist
jeenveev
jeenveev's Avatar
Ty <3
1
10/08/2014 5:25 pm
Level 26 : Expert Artist
JoaoPauloC100
JoaoPauloC100's Avatar
;-; why do people have such better stories than mine
1
10/08/2014 5:26 pm
Level 29 : Expert Botanist
jeenveev
jeenveev's Avatar
Yours is good bb <3
1
10/08/2014 5:37 pm
Level 26 : Expert Artist
JoaoPauloC100
JoaoPauloC100's Avatar
Aww, thanks <3
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