Chapter 4 – Void

  Gameknight placed the last block. “Done,” he sighed. He had been helping the NPCs rebuild their wall after Void’s attacks. “Gameknight!” Someone behind him snapped. He turned to see Crafter standing behind him, scowling.
   “Why did you let me fall asleep?!” He yelled. Gameknight smiled. “Crafter, you literally hadn’t slept in a week. What was I suppose to do?”
   “Wake me up!” His friend fumed. “You needed that,” Gameknight scolded. “You needed help standing!”
  “But you needed me!” Crafter said. “Nothing happened,” Gameknight said. “We just rebuilt the wall.”
   “You still needed help.” Crafter said stubbornly. “Crafter, everyone in the village pitched in. Nobody needed you.” Crafter leaned against the fresh cobblestone. “I guess it was kinda nice,” he said. “See?” Gameknight said, jumping down. “I’m done here. I’m gonna check on Monet.” He ran into the village. He heard laughing. Monet and Stitcher had there bows out and were shooting just above a sleeping pig.
    “What are you doing?” Gameknight asked suspiciously. Monet was giggling so hard it took a moment for her to say anything. “Watch,” she said. Gameknight noticed the pig was right next to the village wall. Monet carefully aimed about a block above the fuzzy pink animal. She shot the arrow, piercing the wall. At first, nothing happened. Then the pig snorted and stood up, a confused look on it face. It looked over its shoulder and saw the arrow. It made a high pitched squealing sound, jumping three blocks into the air. It was if it realized how close it had gotten to being pierced. It looked frantically around and glared at them. Then it plopped back down and instantly started snoring. “See?” Monet boasted.         
    Stitcher was laughing so hard she couldn’t say anything. Even Gameknight smiled. The pig really was funny. “Anyway,” he said to his sister. “It’s my turn to patrol. Want to take a walk?” “Sure,” Monet said, shrugging. “Bye,” she called to Stitcher. “See you later,” Stitcher said.
 The siblings walked out the gate, the constant east to west breeze ruffling their hair. “It’s weird,” Monet said. “It’s so pretty, but just yesterday this was a battlefield.” They walked mostly in silence, walking around the village.
  At one point, they saw a rabbit with four little babies trailing behind. A startled bat woke up, squeaking madly, and flew off.  A wolf howled somewhere up the mountain. Others joined in, creating a orchestra of sound. But after about an hour, Gameknight started to worry. He couldn’t figure out why,  but something told him there was something wrong.
   “Let’s head back.” He said. Monet nodded but didn’t say anything. The whole way, the feeling just got stronger and stronger. By the time they were back in the village, Gameknight was sprinting. “Wait up!” Monet yelled. Gameknight ran up the steps onto the wall. But then he stopped. “Gameknight!” Monet yelled. “What’s-“ Gameknight pointed wordlessly at the other side of the wall. She went quiet.
             Way at the back of the village, on the wall, was what could only be described as a body.

             They crept around the side, peering around the roofs of houses. “Take of your boots,” he whispered. She nodded and mouthed “Ok.” The figure didn’t move. They came closer and closer, when about ten blocks away from the body a cool voice suddenly spoke, causing them to jump. “Hello User-that-is-not-a-user. Look who finally showed up.” The figure suddenly disappeared in a puff of teleportation particles, and a girl was suddenly standing in front of them. Gameknight blood went cold. Void.
        Stitcher was right- she really was pretty. But from the looks of her, she didn’t really care about it. Her eyes were dull and weren’t glowing. She was with them, but her mind was somewhere else. Gameknight gripped his sword. “What are you doing here?” He said in what he hoped was a firm voice.
  Void snapped back to reality. “Watching your village to think of the best possible way to attack it,” she said. Gameknight blinked. She was so straightforward, it was like she didn’t care what they did. His first thought was she thought if they attacked she could defeat them, but he couldn’t help wondering if that was really it.
      “Your not welcome here,” he said. He wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to do. She looked at him. “Was I inside the village?” She asked. Now Gameknight was really confused. “No?” He said. “Then was I trespassing?” She said calmly. “No,” he admitted.
    “Was I hurting anyone?” She pressed. “No.” Now it was her turn to blink. “So… you have no real reason to arrest me, do you?” She smiled, and Gameknight realized what she was up to. His confusion was replaced with frustration. “Have you been playing with me the whole time?” He said, anger bubbling up inside him.
    “Pretty much, Officer,” she laughed. “Your just like your father,” Gameknight snapped. “You think hurting other people is just a game.” Void went as cool as a icy tundra. Fear prickled down Gameknight spine. He felt Monet, who had been quiet this whole time, stiffen behind him.
   “Never mention my father again,” she said. Her voice was full of spite. Even her eyes were the color of ice, literally. “Why? You upset I trapped your daddy in a little machine?” He mocked. Void looked down. When she looked back up, her eyes were a dark shade of magenta. There was a forced smile on her face. “Actually, no.” She said in a to-sweet voice. The
   Her eyes narrowed. “Because, trust me, the man is never gone, no matter how hard I try.” For some reason, this last part was directed more at the air than them. Her eyes turned red, glaring right into him. “Let this be a lesson to both of you. You have not heard the last of me, and you definitely haven’t seen the last of ME!”
     And with that, she disappeared.