Herobrine sighed dejectedly. He used his blocky hands to scratch one word into the planks. FAE. He shook his head. There was no point thinking about her. But… he couldn’t stop. Every day, her name would plague his mind, day after day, night after night.

A voice drifted down the stairs. Steve was calling him. Herobrine stood up and looked towards Steve’s direction. However, he didn’t expect what he saw there.

Walking down the stairs was a very bedraggled Notch. In an instant, Herobrine’s sadness was replaced by elation. “Notch! You’re finally back to normal!” he cried excitedly, rushing towards him, his arms wide. However, when he tried to hug him, Notch only pushed him away.

“Herobrine, you’ve got to see this,” Notch said. His voice was deadly serious. Herobrine nodded slowly. He followed his brother back up the stairs, back into his room. What lay within blew Herobrine’s mind.

Fourteen pure white blocks had been placed in a rectangular shape. The space between the blocks glowed a pale gold, and glittered slightly, swirling mystically. Herobrine couldn’t resist placing a hand on it, and it rippled like water. It didn’t feel like anything – his hand just went straight through.

“W… what is it?” Herobrine asked.

“A portal to another dimension,” Notch said proudly. Herobrine kept on staring.

“I didn’t think that was possible,” Herobrine whispered. “What is it made from?”

“Purestone,” Notch said. Herobrine looked blank, and Notch laughed.

“I discovered a few blocks when I was in a dungeon once. They fascinated me, and turned out to have certain… properties that made this possible.”

Herobrine’s brother smiled at him. “So, shall we go?”

Herobrine jumped. “What!?” Notch simply kept on smiling.

“No can do!” Herobrine said firmly. “I’m not going in there! Who knows what might lie beyond?”

Still smiling, Notch shrugged. “Fine, Brine. See you later.” And before Herobrine could say anything, Notch stepped into the portal and vanished.

For a moment Herobrine was struck by an overwhelming compulsion to follow him. Perhaps he should lighten up, stop worrying about everything… yet what could he do? He was powerless to stop his brother. He knew how persistent he could be. Besides, he was right – he had no idea what was on the other side of that portal.

With one last look at the portal, Herobrine walked away.

~o~O~o~

For a moment, Notch felt the sensation of falling. All around him, gold dust swirled, as if he was caught in a golden tornado. He felt slightly giddy, but then he was jolted back to reality. Except… this wasn’t the reality he was used to.

He stumbled forward, looking around him. He was in some sort of dark building. He couldn’t see a thing. Notch automatically reached for his diamond sword, only to find that it had disappeared. He gulped. Anyone could attack him right now, and he’d be powerless to stop them. Heck, he wouldn’t even be able to see them. The only light came from the dimly glowing portal.

“I’m not your enemy!” he called into the darkness. He kept on walking forward until he hit something hard. A door. Notch flicked it with his hand, but it didn’t open. He pushed on it, and this time it opened.

Notch was hit with a blinding light. He shielded his face from the sun, but when his eyes adjusted, it was even more of a shock. The door slammed shut behind him.

“It’s can’t be,” he breathed. “They’re not blocks.”

Everywhere around him was every shape imaginable, including the fabled circles. Notch fell to his knees, ignoring the passers-by giving him strange looks.

He looked at his hands, and realised that they were no longer blocks. He curled the long tendrils that made up his hand. He had changed as well.

Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder. Notch looked up. A man was staring at him. “Are you all right?” he asked, concerned.

“I’m fine,” Notch smiled, standing up.

The man laughed. “That’s good. So, what’s your name? I’m Nathan.”

“Notch,” Notch said. Nathan looked at him weirdly. “Uh, I mean, that’s what people call me. My actual name is… um… Markus.”

Nathan smiled. “Nice to meet you, Markus. Or should I call you Notch?”

Notch shrugged. “Either way is fine.”

“I’ll stick with Markus, then,” Nathan decided. “So… are you a gamer?”

Even though Notch had no idea what a gamer was, he nodded. He wanted to make as many allies as possible. If there were people in this world, then there were bound to be enemies. He had to make good first impressions.

Nathan looked excited. “Do you want to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl with me? I bought it just the other day, and I’ve been aching to play it with someone!”

“Of course,” Notch said.

“Then let’s go!” Nathan cried, and started walking, with Notch right beside him.

~o~O~o~

The portal rippled again as a cloaked figure stumbled through. “Stupid Fae,” the figure muttered. “She can’t even do a simple mission without coming back alive.”

Celt dusted himself off with a scowl. “I hope she accomplished it,” he said, raising one hand.

The hand was surrounded with a purple mist, illuminating the dim building with a violet glow. The mist rose away from the hand and gathered into a ball in the air, before shooting off in a seemingly random direction.

“So her death wasn’t completely useless,” Celt said to himself with a grin.

Nobody noticed the out-of-place figure as he slipped through the door. Celt had surrounded himself in a cloud of essence, which made him invisible to human eyes. Occasionally he passed a frantically barking dog, but the owners always pulled them away. He was untouchable.

Every so often, he would release another ball of ender essence into the air, but he had to make sure nobody saw him doing so. He kept on following the direction the essence pointed.

Eventually, he reached a small house. He looked through the window and smiled. “Gotcha.”

~o~O~o~

Herobrine buried his head in his hands. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the portal. “What have I done…”

A hand rested on his shoulder. “Brother, it’s not your fault–”

“Yes it is!” Herobrine screamed, standing up suddenly. He turned around and saw Steve’s startled face. “You’re not my brother, and you never were! You’re just some random person who I took the decency to take care of, and what do you do? You go ahead and kill my lover! Why the nether would you do that? It’s cruel and stupid. You’re cruel and stupid!”

“Herobrine, you’re not like this…” Steve whimpered, tears in his eyes.

“I am like this, Steve. And I can’t change that.”

There was silence for a few seconds. Tears started welling up in Herobrine’s eyes. Steve smiled, and patted Herobrine’s back. “There, there.”

“Don’t ‘There, there’ me!” Herobrine yelled, and hit Steve across his face. Steve fell to the floor, wounded. Herobrine pressed a leg down on his chest. “I could kill you right now. But I’m not wasting my precious time on something as useless as you.”

Steve didn’t reply. He lay on the floor, shaking. Herobrine stormed out of the house.

~o~O~o~

Steve hardly understood what had just happened. He had been trying to comfort Herobrine, when he had suddenly lashed out at him. What had he done?

He touched his face gingerly. It hurt when he touched his cheek. Thin lines of code were trickling from the wound, lost forever. Bu however much it hurt, it couldn’t be more painful than the wound in his heart Herobrine had caused.

‘You’re not my brother, and you never were!’ Those words kept ringing around Steve’s head. He wanted to scream, get them out of his mind, but he couldn’t. He felt like crying.

From the very beginning of his life, Steve had been tortured and hurt. When his story started in Musket, Fae had treated him like dirt. He had thought that he’d be treated better in Excalibur, and he was right. At first.

But now, the very foundations of his world had collapsed. Steve curled up tighter on the floor, shaking uncontrollably. His own brother…

Steve heard the door open, and footsteps walking towards him. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the face of the one he used to admire.

And then Steve felt a liquid being poured into his mouth, and before he could cry out, the world was plunged into darkness.

Hooray for cliffhangers! Oh, and in case you didn't know, I'm holding a contest right now - go to my profile and check it out!