Warmth shone down on Steve’s face. Slowly, he opened his eyes. Above him, he could see two faces: Chaff and Jan. The warmth was coming from a flickering torch Jan held in one hand. They were underground, in a small hole surrounded with dirt.

“Whatever you do, don’t cry out,” Jan said quickly, in a hushed voice. “I’m sorry for the way we handled you, but there was no other way we could get you to come with us.”

“Why do you want me anyway?” Steve said angrily. However, he followed Jan’s instructions and kept his voice low.

Chaff looked anxious. “You see, we saw Herobrine running towards Musket…”

“What about it?” Steve snapped.

“Well, he dropped something you might be interested in,” Chaff told him.

“I was the one who found it,” Jan muttered, and lifted up a book with his other hand. Steve took it silently, and opened it up at the first page.

Day 1

I’ve decided to keep track of the days Notch doesn’t come out of his room. Technically, he had the huge argument with Core yesterday, but I’ll start day one today anyway. If he doesn’t come out by day one hundred, I’m breaking in there and dragging him out myself.

Day 2

Today we’re going to go to Musket and ask Fae to help us with Notch. I know I said I’d wait until day one hundred, but I can’t wait any longer. I’m sure she’d be happy to help.

Day 3

Yesterday was crazy. Fae betrayed us. She almost killed us. If it weren’t for Five, we’d be dead by now. Turns out Five used to be part of Musket. He sacrificed himself for us. Some weird dude turned him into a ghast thing, and he knocked me out. Steve saved me. When I woke up, it was morning.

But it turned out Fae was just acting under Celt’s instructions. I think Celt’s the weird dude who saved her. She’s forced to do these things, or Celt will kill her. In the end, she’s still on our side, and right now, she’s in Notch’s room, trying to get him out. I hope it works!

Day 5

I couldn’t bring myself to write sooner after what happened on day three. Steve killed her. Fae’s dead. She wasn’t on our side after all. She did something to Notch; I don’t know what. But still… she never knew. Why do these things always happen to me?

Day 10

I haven’t done much lately. Ninety days to go.

Day 20

Eighty.

Day 30

Seventy.

Day 33

Notch is alive! He built a crazy portal thing – and went through it! I was too scared to go through. And I hit Steve and told him he wasn’t my real brother. I want to say sorry, but I can’t turn back now. I’ve planned it all out.

I’m going to find Celt. He has to be somewhere in Musket. It’s all his fault this happened. Celt created Fae. If she wasn’t even alive in the first place, I wouldn’t be so depressed. I’m going to find him and kill him.

With that, the short journal ended. Steve closed the book, a sincere expression on his face.

“I’ll go after him.”

Jan and Chaff looked at each other, concerned. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

“I’ll help him.”

Jan looked shocked. “You need to stop him!”

Steve shook his head. “I didn’t want to kill Fae, but I knew I had to. If something’s right, I’ll do it, no matter what the consequences. And right now, the thing that matters most is that Celt is killed.”

Before Jan could speak, Chaff nodded fiercely. “You get ‘em, Stevie boy!”

Steve smiled. “I will.”

~o~O~o~

The village was in sight now. Although the journey had been tiring, Herobrine was smiling. Finally he would be able to kill him. He had single-handedly defeated the best soldiers in Musket. One person would be a piece of cake.

Herobrine readied his sword as he approached the gates to the village. To his surprise, the gates were wide open, but he let it slip. Wary, he walked through.

His sword clattered to the ground.

Musket was completely deserted. The only sound came from the farm animals that had broken out of their unkempt pens. Picking up his sword, Herobrine start slowly tiptoed through the ghost town. A sense of fear crept over him. The eerie silence was getting to him.

As he walked on, he stared at the quiet houses around him. There were ragged holes in many of them. An image flashed into Herobrine’s mind, a group of terrified people huddled inside a house, looking at the shadowy figure of Celt through a hole in the roof. In his hand was a flint and steel.

Herobrine shivered and kept going. He knew that Celt had done this. Suddenly he wasn’t so confident in his abilities. Although Herobrine had killed some of Musket, Celt had killed them all. He decided to take a rest in a nearby house to calm his jittery nerves. Although half the roof was gone, it still felt safer than being out in the open.

When he had calmed down slightly, Herobrine crept out again, checking all around him like a frightened rabbit. His senses were extremely acute now; the tiniest move would catch his eye, and the hiss of a creeper would make him turn around in fright. All of this felt wrong. Why would Celt do this?

Herobrine turned a corner. And blinked.

He had come to a dead end. A wooden wall blocked the way. But that wasn’t all.

Pinned to the wall with iron swords were five limp bodies belonging to the people of Musket. Herobrine was rooted to the ground with horror. One of the bodies twitched slightly. These people were alive.

With a jolt, Herobrine realised that he knew two of these faces. Mack and Sly. Although they had been his enemies once, that was long ago, and now all that Herobrine felt was pity for these poor souls. These were people he knew. No-one should be forced to suffer in this way.

Herobrine looked at the other bodies on the wall. He guessed that Celt had burnt down the houses, killing anyone inside, and spared the lives of everyone who had escaped – at a cost. If Herobrine was given a choice, he would rather have a short death than live like this. He read the names of the other people.

Poseidon, Scar, and Zombie. Herobrine didn’t know these people, yet he still felt sorry for them as well. Then he realised what he could do.

He took one of the iron swords in his hands: the one that cut deep into Mack’s torso. He pulled with all his strength. It wouldn’t budge. However, he wouldn’t give up. He kept on pulling. Inch by inch, the sword heaved out of the wall. Then it came away in his hands, and Mack’s body dropped to the ground. Herobrine rushed over to her, and crouched down.

“Mack? Can you hear me?” Herobrine said in a panicked voice. He rolled the body over, so he could look at her face. Mack moved slightly, then opened her eyes.

“Steve?” she murmured. Herobrine didn’t care that she had gotten his name wrong. All that mattered was that she was alive. A tear came to his eye.

“Thank goodness you’re all right,” he wept. Mack tried to get up, but simply fell back down again, coughing. “You need to rest.”

Mack shook her head urgently. “You don’t understand… I need…”

Mack coughed again, and Herobrine noticed code coming from her mouth. She wasn’t safe yet. “What? What do you need?”

“I… I think I’m going to sleep now…”

“No!” Herobrine yelled. He knew what would happen if she went to sleep. Herobrine had lost too many friends already.

“Thank you…”

And then Herobrine noticed the code coming away from her legs. He knew this scene. The memories came flooding back. He couldn’t let her go.

“Mack! Don’t give up!”

“I know you can do it. Please… defeat Celt for me.”

Herobrine was crying openly again. “No! We can defeat Celt together… you’ve survived for this long. I know you can survive just a little longer!”

But Mack never got to reply, for there was nothing left of her but the last strands of code dissipating into the air. Herobrine sniffled, and stood up, his tears sparkling in the sunlight. He couldn’t waste any time. Celt could come back at any moment. Mack may not have made it, but the other five might.

~o~O~o~

When Steve arrived at Musket’s gates, the sun had already set, and all that Steve had to light his way was the stars in the sky. It wasn’t very bright, but enough to find his way. When Steve spotted the open gates, he knew that Herobrine must have come this way.

Steve resisted the urge to call out as he snuck through the village as quietly as he could. The shallow starlight bathed everything in a blue glow. It was a new moon tonight. Steve could just about make out the ragged outlines of the houses.

The buildings seemed misshapen somehow, but Steve couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. He walked up to one, and knocked on the door. He didn’t want to wake anyone up. When there was no answer, he opened the door and had a quick peek inside.

And then Steve realised why it was so quiet. The starlight shining down through where the roof used to be illuminated an empty bed. There was nobody living in this town. They had all been killed.

Steve’s footsteps echoed through the night as his shoes hit the gravel road. He had to tell Herobrine about this. Frantically weaving in and out of the houses, Steve searched for his brother. If Celt could do all this, then Herobrine would never have a chance.

The footsteps stopped. Steve stared. In front of him was Herobrine, standing over a lifeless body, an iron sword in his hand. He recognised that girl: Sly, one of the few people who had been a good friend of his back in Musket. And now, her code was rising up to join the stars. Herobrine didn’t many any effort to do anything

On the wall behind Herobrine, a body was speared to the wall with another iron sword. Scar. Steve backed away fearfully.

“Herobrine…” he whispered. Herobrine didn’t turn around. “Why would you do this?”

Steve saw Herobrine’s shoulders shaking. His eyes widened. “These are people I knew, and all you do is laugh?”

Steve couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t bear to stay with this insane killer a moment longer. His fleeing footsteps drowned out the almost inaudible sound of Herobrine’s tears dripping onto the gravel.

So I've decided to enter this story in the Wattys, which means that I have to finish it by Nov. 6, and therefore all other books (except for the Q n A) are on hold!

Fanart to the side is by splat_artist!