Azalea's POV

"Wake up, Azalea! It's going to be a big day!"

I slowly opened my eyes to find myself human and laying in a comfortable bed that was not mine.

Where am I? I thought as I yawned.

And then it all came flooding back to me. I had been assigned a fake home with a fake family. So this lady standing over me must be my "mom".

"Hey there," I rolled over to face her. "What do you suppose I should call you?"

"Mom will do," she replied. "You know, for the..."

"Yeah," I said. "I know." I felt a pang of sadness. This woman could never replace... I shook off that thought and continued talking to my pretend mom.

"But," I said. "I'd rather not call you mom when we're just one on one. What name do you go by?"

"Well, since I am an agent," she started. "My code name is Z."

"Got it," I nodded, and heaved in a breath and slowly exhaled, taking everything in.

"Okay," I said, getting ready to confirm everything that was going on with Z. "So right now I'm in my undercover home, in Hayden Brown's neighborhood, I have a fake mom whose code name is Z, and... do I have a fake dad?"

"Uh huh," Z responded. "He's- taking care of a few things."

I nodded. "Is there anything important coming up that I should be involved in?"

"Yes, actually," she said. "The Browns are holding a welcome party at their house for us. Heard they're inviting the whole neighborhood, which isn't many since we live in a small one."

I could feel my lips spreading into a smirk. Wonderful. This was the most perfect opportunity to steal Hayden's laptop. Heh. I'll be done a day after I got sent, and Minecraft will have no choice but to bow down to Roblox. I know I just sounded incredibly evil, but it was just too good to be true, I suppose. But... I'm taking it.

"I know your plan by the look on your face," Z said. "So, good luck. And before I leave you, there's something Builderman needed you to have." She handed me a flashdrive and a laptop, that looked oddly familiar.

I gave her a nod and a smile of gratitude, and she returned with a grin.

"We'll be leaving in 20 minutes," she said and departed the room.

When I heard the door click closed, I sat up and turned on the metallic grey laptop. While waiting for it to start up I inserted the tiny red flashdrive.

The computer's screen dimmed, then came on displaying a bunch of file folders. One was labeled, "Azalea".

That's obviously for me, I thought.

I clicked on it and a whole load of windows popped up. My eyes scanned the scattered documents that filled the screen. One said in big letters, "Memo". I read the tiny words below it.

"Hello, Azalea. At this point you must be browsing through the wonders of the flashdrive that your fake mom gave you. There's information on this flashdrive of everything you need to know about this mission. The exact deadline, about your main objective, and possibly more you could add as well. I will warn you, though. This flashdrive contains valuable information that no other pair of eyes can read, and it's not replaceable if lost or stolen. Be very, very careful."

The memo ended there. I moved on to information about Hayden Brown.

Important info:
Age: 15
Pure Human: Most likely

I didn't quite know if it was possible for him to not be pure human. I mean, becoming who I was, that process... was a rare case...

I snapped out of my thoughts and continued to read.

Notes: Observers who have gathered this information have noticed that he has PTSD

PTSD, huh? What kind of thing could've possibly traumatized the poor boy?

Additional notes: Is content when confined in room for long periods of time, which expands on his quiet nature

Relations: Steve, friend, Krystal, girlfriend, Carla, mother

Whoa, these 'observers' strike me as huge stalkers... How did Hayden not notice them? I was about to click on another file, when I was called down by Z.

"Time to go!" she exclaimed.

"Geez, that was not 20 minutes," I muttered under my breath.

I reluctantly shut my laptop down, threw on my black tennis shoes on and ran over to my mirror for a quick look at myself. Brown hair, grey eyes and a light shade of freckles greeted me. I wasn't used to my colored eyes, I had spent many years with black eyes staring back at me. It had been so long since I last was human, my older, not as young appearance scared me. I glanced away from the mirror, and ran downstairs. I took one glance at my 'mom' and opened up the front door to leave.

"You ready?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said. "Are you?"

"I guess. Have any advice for me?"

"Don't be yourself."

"Uhm, in what way?"

"Just don't be cruel towards him."

"And what if he deserves it?"

"Then use all of your willpower to not snap at him."

"Alright, I guess..."

Geez, what kind of person did she take me for?

I gave her a half smile and started walking at my usual quick pace towards Hayden's house. When I arrived at his house, I pressed my thumb against the doorbell and I heard a soft chiming sound buzz through the air.

Here goes nothing... I thought as I sucked in a breath.

A woman with dark hair and brown eyes answered the door with a warm smile on her face.

"Hello!" she exclaimed brightly. "You must be Azalea. I'm Carla Brown. My son Hayden's your age, and you'll be starting school with him. Do you know where your mom is?"

I opened my mouth to say where my real mom was, but stopped myself and said, "She's coming."

"Okay," Carla said. "Hayden's up in his room, if you were wondering."

I wasn't, I thought to myself, Because I already knew he was there. He likes confining himself.

I'm getting good at this.

But to be polite, I did thank her for tipping me off.

I walked over to Hayden's room, and before I went in I pressed my ear up against his door. I caught some dialogue of a conversation he was having.

"...So you think you can make winter break? Family's okay with it? Aw yeah, that's awesome! But are you sure you wanna come to this boring state instead of the beautiful, warm state of California...? No, you still want to come to my place? Okay. ... ... ... Four months isn't too early to start planning. I just need to know now so we could arrange the flights. ... ... ... Heh, actually just now. Listen, I could seriously talk airplane with you for hours, but then that would be boring. Scratch that. I actually have to go because my mom is hosting a barbecue. She wants me out of my room so I could be social. She hates how confined I've been recently. ... ... ... Yeah, I've been in my room a lot when I got home. It's no big deal, really. You shouldn't worry. ... ... ..." Hayden's voice lowered, so I had to strain my hearing to hear the last parts of his conversation. "To be honest, my sleep hasn't gotten better. It's gotten much worse. My nightmares have gotten more horrible and I can't sleep. I looked up my problem, and some cases of it never go away... ... ... ... I hope you're right... ... ... ... Oh, yeah, haha..."

I quietly opened the door of his room and slipped through. He didn't seem to notice my quiet movements, so I crept forward until I was sitting directly behind him on his bed.

This will give him a scare, I thought to myself.

"Love you. Bye." He hung up his phone and stood up to leave.

"Talking to your girlfriend?" I asked with a smirk playing on my lips.

He whipped around with a shocked expression on his face.

Must've made him jump,

"How... uh..." He looked at me as if I were a ghost. "Who-who are you?" he stammered. "And how did you get in my room?"

"Oh, did I startle you?" I said innocently. "I just thought you wouldn't mind if I came in your room because the door was open.

"It was?" Hayden looked behind him and at the door, and sure enough the door was slightly open.

He put his hand on his head. "I swear that I closed it behind me and locked it... man, I'm tired..."

He removed his hand, and I quickly studied him. He had dark brown hair, hazel eyes and dark circles under his eyes.

"My nightmares have gotten more horrible and I can't sleep."

I wonder what could have happened to him that has haunted him so badly. That and his other secrets will be mine to figure out the next few months.

I snapped back to attention.

"Who are you?" Hayden asked me.

"Azalea," I replied. "New neighbor, the one you're throwing this little dinner for?"

"Oh," he said. "Welcome to the neighborhood. Sorry if I seemed a little hostile."

"No need to be sorry," I said in a silky voice. "It was my fault, for scaring you like that."

"Um, okay," he said as he shifted uncomfortably.

Good, good, I thought to myself. Now that I have him in this state...

"What do you know about Minecraft?" I asked him.

He froze. "I-uh... what exactly do you mean?"

Aha. Of course he has a connection with Minecraft, because he owns that laptop. He's probably friends with Steve because he lives in it. So I wonder if he had any relation to the Herobrine incident over two years ago... or even the virus incident. Builderman told me about them when they occurred, and the Minecraftians seemed like they got themselves into a great deal of trouble the past two years.

"I mean, do you play Minecraft?" I asked.

"Yes, I do," he said.

"Cool," I said and without him offering, I walked over and turned on his laptop.

He rushed over to me and forcefully grabbed it from me.

"Uh, I never said to play on it," he said.

"Why not? You do have the game, obviously. I want to play it."

"Okay, I guess," he said, giving in. "Just let me set it up, alright?"

I nodded my head, with a smirk planted on my face. So far so good. While he was typing down his username and password, I saw the recent updates displayed on the menu. One of the features of the updates said, "-Removed Herobrine". I decided to see what he thought about him.

"Herobrine again, huh?" I said to him.

I saw him stiffen at the name. Mhm, he probably had some kind of encounter with him. So I continued, "What's his deal, being removed over and over?"

"I don't know," he replied. "It's just some myth everyone likes to play around with. Mojang likes to say that they removed it to cause suspense."

"But tons of people claimed that they have seen him," I countered. "Have you at least caught a glimpse of him?"

"No," he responded quietly, with some... nervousness(?) in his voice. "It's just some rumor."

"'Kay," I said.

That horrible liar. I had a feeling that he had something to do with Herobrine. I'll find specifically what later.

When he was all ready, he clicked Singleplayer and a bunch of worlds were displayed. Now which one looked the most innocent out of the bunch?

Castles
My World
Dungeons
Place
Another place
Stuff
Random

I decided to pick My World, which seemed like the least suspicious. I grabbed the mouse to the computer, and dragged it towards the world. I clicked on it, and then I felt Hayden's strong grip tear my arm away from the mouse. I mentally let out a groan of frustration, but at the same time felt a surge of satisfaction that I found the world where Steve was at.

"Why did you do that?" I asked him, trying to keep my cool. I did get the information I wanted, but I couldn't help but being a bit annoyed. I could've had a chance to see his secrets...

"That world is, uh... off-limits," he said, clearly trying to hide the anxiety I was causing him.

I tilted my head questioningly.

"Oh, well, it's pretty boring," he said. "Nothing that you would really be interested in..."

"Then why don't you delete it if it's boring?" I pursued further.

I could see the "Oh crap" look in his face and he was probably thinking of some other excuse. But the call for dinner ended my "interrogation" (probably for Hayden at least), and I saw Hayden turn off his laptop and swiftly move downstairs. I followed, but not as quickly. Before I left the room, I looked at the laptop.

I'll be back, and it'll be sooner than you'd like.

And with that, I departed the room.

____________________________

Hello, once again. It's been a while, I know. But I released another chapter!! Yay. I could tell some of you were getting impatient, and I apologize for that. I've been busy with summer. But if you have an Instagram, you should give my account a follow! I post quite a few previews of chapters, and status updates as well. Something extra you can't find on Wattpad :) My Instagram is paulfrank123_ Anyways, I do have a question. Who's your favorite character in this trilogy(?) so far? Favorite couple? I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to leave a comment!