Scarlet had darted towards the stairs for high ground and Sadie had stepped forward to put more attention on her. Her hands hurt from gripping the iron sword so hard, but she refused to let go of it. Briar, somehow, had ended up on top of a chest and was pressed back against the wall. The person who had walked into their house had pressed themselves back against the closed door, and kept their sword raised up to shield themselves from any other arrows Scarlet could fire off. They had all finally stopped screaming, but the air was tense and no one dared to speak.

"Can you put those down, please?!"

They realized that, surprisingly, the person who had just walked in was a man despite the pitch of his scream. From what Sadie could see, he had black shoes, black pants with white lines on the outer sides, and a black jacket over a white shirt. Why did that look so familiar to her? Scarlet was thinking the same thing, but more about his voice then his clothes.

"Only if you put yours down!" Sadie hissed.

"This is my house!" The man growled, lowering his sword a bit. He had tan skin, like he was out in the sun a lot.

"Drop it!" Sadie growled. The man hesiated, before he sighed.

"Okay, okay, fine," he said. "I'm gonna put it on the ground, alright?" He knelt down and placed his iron sword on the floor, then stood up carefully. He raised his head and Briar gasped. Sadie dropped her sword and Scarlet let our a surprised noise that sounded a lot like a squawk. The man blinked his dark blue eyes at them from under red, thin framed glasses.

"CaptainSparklez?!"

The man stared at them, before he sighed loudly and squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh no."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Who ate my chicken?"

The three girls glanced among each other but didn't say anything. CaptainSparklez, or Jordan as he demanded he'd be called, stared at them before he sighed and turned back to his chest. "Its fine." He pulled out some raw porkchops instead and tapped the top of the furance. The girls watched with wide eyes as two transparent menus popped up. One was for the furnace, while the other was much larger and every square gray box was filled with something. They realized with a start that it was his inventory. Jordan tapped the porkchops and they popped into the top slot in the furnace, and coal followed, showing up in the bottom after Jordan had tapped it. He stepped back from it and the menus popped out of existance, while the furnace roared to life.

The older man turned towards them. They had discussed why they were in his house, and while they weren't pointing weapons at each other it was still kinda tense. Jordan stared at them, before he took a deep breath.

"So you spawned in mid day?" He asked. "You're lucky. Some people spawn in the middle of the night." They all shuddered at the thought. "Where's your player bands?" They blinked owlishly at him, and he reached down and shoved his right sleeve up. Wrapped around his wrist was a white band, with a gray square on top. Both the square and the band were lined with a dark blue. It reminded them of apple watches. "Check your pockets. You didn't lose them, even if they slip off they always find their way pack to you once you're in a safe area."

Briar shoved her hands into her jean pockets, then blinked as she felt her left hand touch something sleek and cold. She pulled it out and saw it was white like Jordan's, but lined with pink. Scarlet found hers in the hood of her flannel, which she found very strange. Hers was lined with a sort of lime green. Sadie huffed, patting various places on her body where pockets should be.

"I don't have any pockets," she was saying as she reached behind her, before she stopped. She stared at the floor, then sighed as she pulled around a player band that was lined with yellow. "Okay, apparently I do, on my ass."

Jordan snorted and smirked warily. "Okay. I'm gonna guess you guys haven't used them, then? Attach them to your wrist." They did as he asked and he lifted his arm up so the side was pressed across his chest. "Okay. Comfortable?" They nodded. "Tap the top for your inventory." He did so, and a transparent box much like the one from the furnace popped up. The same thing popped up for them, and they let various noises of awe as they watched. It looked just like it did in Minecraft, with all the gray boxes at the bottom, the four square crafting table in the upper right, and a picture of themselves in the upper left with slots for a suit of armor and a shield.

"This is crazy..." Scarlet muttered.

"Yeah, pretty cool, isn't it?" Jordan smiled, and his eyes gained a wistiful look as if he were remembering something. Then he dropped his eyes back down to the watch and it was gone. "Tap it again to close it." They did so. "Double tapping is the same as shift clicking, and if you wanna move something to another spot you can either tap it to pick it up and then drag, or tap it and then the square you want to move it to." He gestured to the crafting table and furnace behind him. "And if you want to use stuff like these, you tap the top to open the menu and then step back to close it. As for the chests you can tap it to get a cleaner menu, but if you just want a quick peak you can just open it like a normal chest. Its very cluttered that way, though."

"Jeez..." Briar muttered.

"I know, its a lot go take in," he sighed.

"Hang on... Why are we even here?" Scarlet demanded. "I mean, I know we got sucked in, but why?!"

"I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that, Scarlet was it?" Jordan crossed his arms and leaned back against the crafting table. "I and many others been here for about two years, and we don't know why or how to get out." Sadie perked up.

"There's others?" She asked. He nodded.

"Loads. More and more are appearing every day."
"Is this where all the missing people have been going?!"
"For most of them, more than likely."

"Wait!" Briar's eyes were wide. "That, that means, that means Violet could be here!" The three looked at each other with wide eyes before they were crowded around Jordan, who stared with his own wide eyes as they shot question after question.

"Have you met a girl named Violet?!"
"She has brown hair and hazel eyes!"
"She's five foot six!"
"Sadie how do you even know that-"
"She was wearing a red tank top and galaxy shorts when she disap-"
"Girls, girls!"

Jordan raised his hands and they all quieted down. "I have never met anybody by the name of Violet. But even if I had, I wouldn't be able to tell you if they were who you're looking for. In case you guys haven't noticed, people don't spawn in looking like their real world self. They spawn in looking like their skins."

The girls looked at each other and then down at themselves. Sadie's shoulders slumped and Briar bit her lip. Scarlet, however, wasn't deterred as she looked up at him. "Is there a way we could find her?" Jordan hesitated.

"... There is. In the main cities, there's a billboard in the center. People put their usernames along with their real name, so if they have friends and family coming through they could recognize their names. If someone on the board does recognize a name, they alert the leaders of those cities who contact the player so they can reunite."

"Then lets go to a main city!" Scarlet claimed, stepping towards a door.

"Scarlet," Jordan sighed. "You're not gonna make it there." Scarlet whipped around and glared at him.

"Why?! Because I'm a girl?!" Jordan stared at her blankly.

"... No," he said slowly, then shook his head. "No, Scarlet, thats not it at all." He leaned away from the furnace and walked up to the young girl. He placed a heavy hand on her shoulder while she glared up at him. "Because you're new to this world, and the road is dangerous. Mobs and other players are a big threat. You've got a good aim," he gestured toward the arrow embedded into the pillar of wood beside his door, "but its not perfect and you don't know how to defend yourself properly." He looked back at Briar and Sadie. "None of you do. If I let you go out there, then I might as well as make a grave for you guys." He looked at Scarlet. "I know you want to see your friend," he told her gently. "But if you want to survive long enough to see her, then you have to stay here."

"Are you going to train us?" Sadie asked, perking up. Jordan smiled and stepped back from Scarlet, who looked deflated.

"I'm going to certainly try." He went back to the furnace and pulled out the porkchops, stuffing his face as he turned away and put his sword in a small chest next to an armor stand. It had a full suit of iron armor and Briar wondered why he wasn't wearing it. Was he that dumb, or that good? He did say he'd been here for two years. "We've all eaten, so now we just need to sleep." He retrieved wood and wool from his chest and moved to the crafting table, opening the menu and dragging the items into the right slots. "I can sleep down here, two of you can share my bed upstairs and put another in the bedroom."

He turned towards them with a yawn, the two beds in his hotbar. "Here, lemme show you how to put something down." He walked toward a wall, opened his inventory, then tapped the bed once. He pointed towards a spot, and a holographic image of the bed appeared. When he moved his finger, it followed. When he moved it so it was half in the wall, the green code turned red. He smiled at the look of wonder on the girls faces before he snapped his fingers and the bed appeared beside the bed. "There." He yawned. He drug the other bed out of the inventory and put his hand in a fist, and it dropped to the floor without materializing. Briar jolted as it melded into her foot with a pop.

"You get used to it." Jordan said, sitting down. "My bedroom is up those stairs, second door on the left."

"Are you sure? We could sleep down here!" Sadie offered, but Jordan waved his hand dismissively as he laid down.

"Its fine, I'm so tired I could... Fall asleep on... On the floor if... If I coul..." He trailed off as his eyes slid closed. The girls stared at him, then looked at each other. Slowly, as carefully as they could, they crept up the stairs like mice so as not to disturb the older man. They found the bedroom fine, and Briar put the bed down near the window while Scarlet collapsed on the bed in the center.

"Scoot over," Sadie sighed as she fell in too, almost sobbing from the relief of being in a bed.

"Why does Briar get the single bed?" Scarlet sighed.

"Because she's the only one here who isn't single," Sadie responded without pulling her head from her pillow. Briar snorted sadly as she laid down. Silence filled the room as the three exhausted girls were finally able to lay down, and everything that had happened caught up on them.

"Shit," Scarlet whispered. "Can you guys believe this is-" She was cut off by a loud snore from Briar, and she paused before she sighed. She rolled onto her side so she was facing the wall. She thought about what Jordan had said and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'll find you, Violet," she whispered. "Even if it kills me."