HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YALL THOUGHT I WAS GONNA MISS THE DEADLINE BUT NO I GOT RESPONSIBLE AND IGNORED ALL MY SCHOOL WORK TO FINISH THIS CHAPTER ON TIME.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

PREP FER MITSAKES.

• • •

~ Lily ~

"Husband?" He frowned. "Lily, I was here in this town when she moved here a few years ago. And everyone knows everyone here. And she's never had a husband..."

• • •

"Lily?" Jerry waved his hand in front of my face. "You okay?"

I was staring at the ground. My mouth felt dry, so I didn't talk.

I shouldn't have believed it. I shouldn't have believed anything Jess said. She was a liar. She never had a husband— that was just a random person that she killed. She killed... she killed someone for fun. And put their skull on a pedestal. And lied to me. Was I next? Was I going to be the next head?

"Lily."

I looked up. Jerry had a concerned expression. I recalled his question. "Yeah, yeah I'm... fine."

"Kid." He was actually serious for once. "Are you in trouble? Do you need help? I can help you."

I opened my mouth. Yes. "No."

"You sure?"

I didn't want to bring Jerry into it. I didn't want anyone to get into it. I didn't know what Jess could do— how many people she'd hurt. But how many people would she hurt if I didn't do anything?  I would've liked to have someone assist me in this problem, but then I didn't. Finally, I made the decision.

"I'm sure." I shook my head. "I just thought Jess mentioned a husband, but maybe I heard her wrong. Anyways, I should get back."

"Okay..." He said, unsure. "Bye..."

I quickly walked across the street. Jess was finally giving her money back to Frank, collecting the rabbit.

"Thank you!" She shouted.

Frank waved her away as if he had better things to do. But as we walked away, I glanced behind and saw him staring into space with a blank look on his face.

"That was terrible. The old man needs an assistant, I swear." Jess whispered to me. Then, she grabbed my arm suddenly, without stopping our walk. "By the way, I saw you walk off to the other side. Don't ever do that again, okay?"

Her voice was stern. It was more motherly than threatening, but I already saw that she could put on a convincing act.

I nodded. "I'm sorry, I thought I saw a shiny necklace." If she wanted to play the lying game, I could play along.

"Why didn't you say so?" She smiled. "We can go buy it, if you want."

"No, no. It was just a gold ingot. False alarm."

"Oh. Okay." Jess shrugged as we turned the corner. "If you see anything you like, just let me know."

I'd like some freedom.

"Okay."

• • •

I awoke at exactly midnight. Well, close to midnight.

I slowly got out of the bed. It didn't creak, which was good. I didn't want to wake up Jess, who was just next door.

The plan was simple. Escape the house and get to the town. Without dying from mobs, or getting caught by Jess. Nothing to it.

The moon shined brightly into the room as I tiptoed across the wood floor. When I made it to the armor stand, I took off the diamond helmet and the diamond chestplate, and put them in my inventory. The armor was shiny, and bulky, so it was hard to sneak around with it on. I'd put it on outside.

The hard part was next. I nudged the door open slowly (I left it open before I slept, so I didn't make as much noise). There was a soft sound, but it quickly ended as I slipped through the doorway. I made my way down the hallway, wanting to be as quiet as I could. As I passed the sunset painting, I hesitated. I could go into the storage and get more supplies. It was right there. However, I decided against it. I might cause too much noise, and it wasted too much time. It wasn't worth it.

I held my breath as I walked through the hallway. I was worried I wasn't being sneaky enough.

And I wasn't.

"Lily?"

Jess stood in her doorway. She looked wide awake. "What are you doing?"

I felt like I was just snuck up on by a creeper. At first I just stood there. Luckily, I spoke without thinking. For once, good things came out. "I just needed to use the bathroom."

She stared at me for a good three seconds. Finally, her face brightened. "Oh! Okay. Sorry for scaring you, I just thought there was a burglar in the house. Had to investigate."

("Like the day you killed the make-believe murderer of your imaginary husband." Rebel muttered to herself as she wrote the chapter. She could sense that her mom was giving her a weird look from behind her.)

"No worries." I smiled. I waited for her to go back into her room, but she just stood there. It was like a western showdown, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Well, goodnight." I said, walking to the bathroom.

"Sweet dreams!" She called after me.

I walked into the bathroom, shut the door, and sat in the corner. I didn't realize how much my heart was pounding until I stopped moving. That was honestly scary.

After a few minutes (I flushed the toilet and ran the sink in case she could hear the noises), I walked out of the bathroom. I slowly went down the stairs, but when I was halfway down, my heart dropped.

Jess was in the living room, reading a book with a single light turned on.

Frustrated, I went up the stairs as quickly as I could, and went back to my bedroom. I went over to the window and gritted my teeth in anger. Why did she have to be so protective?! She could've just went back to sleep like a normal person. But no. Of course I wasn't dealing with a normal person. I swear, I had the worst luck. I woke up in a random place, swam across an ocean, and met a random person who probably wanted to kill me. Who had it worse out there?

I stared out the window. There weren't as many mobs out there as I thought. It was such a perfect time to run away. But I couldn't escape without being seen.

My eyes slowly fell to the ground. It wasn't too far a fall... But I couldn't break the glass, as it was too loud. However, I knew a place where I could get outside from the second story without causing too much noise...

I crept out of the bedroom, checking the hallway. Then, I turned to the right to the balcony. As I went out of the indoors into the outside, I felt a crisp breeze blow through the air. I looked at the ground again, took a deep breath, and took another glance behind me. Then, I pressed down on the top of the guard rail (oak fence), and hoisted myself over. I kicked my feet over, and put them on the other side of the fence. There wasn't much room, but I quickly moved to the left, and crouched down. There were two fence poles that led to the ground, a way to hold up the balcony (even though it could stand by itself). I grabbed the left one with one hand, still holding the guard rail with my other. Then, I let go of the guard rail, and jumped down. I held the pole with both hands as I slid down.

When I made it to the ground, I turned and gasped. I had not realized it before, but there was a window in the living room that showed the back of the house. Right where I was.

I saw Jess reading a book, but she could still be able to see me. I slowly walked to the side, afraid that any quick movement would catch her eye. Unfortunately, just as I was about to get out of her sight, she looked up. I jerked to the left, and ran to the wall, crouching down.

Creak!

I heard the noise, which told me she had gotten up to see out the window. Sure enough, from the light of the redstone lamp reflecting on the dark ground, I saw her shadow becoming bigger. It finally stopped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her face almost pressed up against the glass. With squinted eyes, she scanned the area, peering through the dark. They slowly came closer to where I was hiding- I was paralyzed with fear.

Just as I thought she was going to see me, she gave up her search. She turned around, and the light turned off.

I exhaled, my head dizzy from holding my breath for too long. That was certainly more terrifying than the hallway incident.

I wanted to stay there to catch my breath, but I needed to leave. I got up, and sprinted into the night.

• • •

I have to go to bed in 30 minutes. I got this. I can do this.

Update: Previewing this one and a half hours later

• • •

~ Amber ~

Sky looked dumbfounded. His eyes darted around at the town, soaking it all in.

I laughed again. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't know Hidenburg was much bigger than he thought. He was only confined to that little area. But his expression was still hilarious. I almost thought he was exaggerating it.

"You okay?" I popped into his view.

He blinked. "I am stupid."

"Yes."

"There's a whole new part to the town."

"Yes."

"And you didn't tell me."

"Ye- What?" My eyes widened. "Oh no no no. You could've explored this area but you didn't. It isn't my fault."

He chuckled. "I know, I'm just teasing. I just feel dumb."

"Well you can feel dumb at the party." I started walking backwards onto the wooden bridge. "Come on!"

His eyes widened. "Be careful!"

I looked down at the valley below. Falling would mean death, unless I had great feather falling shoes. But I wasn't worried. "What? Are you afraid?"

He gave me a 'really' look, and started walking. "No. I just don't want you to fall."

"That's very sw-"

"I'd be in big trouble 'cause people would blame me."

"Wow." I shook my head, my eyes closed. I was still walking backwards. "That's just mean. You need to have a little more faith in me."

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes.

I turned around just as we got to the other mountain. The next set of stairs went downward, all the way to the Eastern Plaza. It was a medium sized valley that was used for fun activities, like parties. Hidenburgians really like their parties.

"You wanna see a secret?" I smiled creepily.

He stopped in his tracks, and looked around. "What?"

I walked over to a dirt block. It was in the middle of a ring of grass. "So when I was younger, I got really lazy and tired of walking down these stairs." I broke the block, and opened the secret chest under the ground. "And since I wasn't allowed to use elytras, I decided to improvise." I pulled out two shields. "Shield Sledding."

"Woah." Sky walked over and took the flat piece of wood and iron that was almost as big as me. "How many of these do you have?"

"Only three." I admitted. "My brothers and I did it all the time. Of course we'd have to climb up and put the shields back, but no one knows where they came from."

"You are an evil genius." He walked over to the stairs.

"I know." I followed him, beaming. I set my shield down on the ground right in front of the wooden stairs. I sat down on it, and scooted in until I could comfortably hold the arm strap for support. After Sky did the same thing, I asked, "We're gonna race too. Ready?"

He nodded.

"Three... two... one... go!"

I leaned forward, and my shield slowly tipped down. It started going down the stairs, then sped up. Soon, the wind was whipping my hair, and I was grinning from excitement.

"WOO HOO!" Sky cheered. He made the mistake of putting his arms in the air, but quickly grabbed the arm strap as he hit a bump.

I saw that he was starting to gain the lead, so I leaned back a bit to gain some speed.

I had never tried doing shield sledding for a long time, but it was amazing. It was even better at night. I laughed from giddiness.

The stairs slowly started curving to be flatter as we neared the bottom. I couldn't focus much on the decor of the party, but I saw hanging lights, tables, and a bunch of people. I also heard music.

"Excuse me!" I shouted.

The group of people that were in our way quickly jumped aside as we slid through. The shields seemed like they had no intention of stopping.

"Sorry!" Sky said as he almost ran over a little girl. Her mom yelled some very not nice things at him.

As we went past another group of people, I shouted to Sky, "We need to stop!"

He nodded, understanding. We both gripped our arm straps and jerked to the side (me to the left, him to the right). Luckily, we didn't move to the side, but the friction did slow us down.

"Excuse us!" I called to the big crowd in front of us.

They all parted for us. We slowed down to the point where we stopped in the middle of the crowd, which made a large clearing for us.

I exhaled when we stopped, and got a good view of the party. There was glowstone hung on fence posts that were connected to wood pillars to look like hanging lights. There was a small DJ booth, complete with a jukeblock, noteblocks, and a male DJ who stopped the music as we entered. There was a buffet table with all kinds of foods piled high, from meats to sweets to veggies. Round and rectangular tables were set up in one area. A few picnic blankets were set off to the side to enjoy the party and night sky. Nearby, a volleyball net was hung up. The players, who looked like they were in the middle of a game, were staring at us. As was everyone else.

There was complete silence for a second.

I was about to say something witty yet embarrassing, when Brad emerged from the crowd with a drink in his hand. "There are the guests of honor! Of course they had to make a big entrance!"

Everyone laughed, and started cheering. The music turned back on, and they all went back to their games and conversations.

"I haven't seen you on one of those in years." Brad helped me up. Then, he went over to offer Sky a hand. "And you got this guy involved."

Sky took his hand and stood up. "Yep. And I so won."

"Are you kidding?!" I exclaimed. "I definitely beat you!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

We both turned to Brad, who had on a scared expression. He backed up from us. "I say it was a tie."

I turned to Sky. He looked at me. We both shrugged.

"I guess I could deal with that." I picked up my shield, and put it away.

"Ditto." He did the same, then looked around. "This place is amazing."

"Thanks. We do these things often, so not much prep time is needed." Brad took a sip from his drink. "Glad you like it, though."

"I mean the whole town."

When Brad gave me a look, I explained that Sky didn't know there was another part of the town.

He laughed. "Seriously? Man, I gotta give you a tour sometime. Since Amber isn't doing her job."

"I'm offended." I put a hand on my heart. "But it's true."

Brad laughed. "Come on, let's go get something to eat."

• • •

I was glad we got food. Food is good.

After we went along the buffet line, and stacked our plates, we went over to one of the tables. It was occupied by Cameron, Brad's husband. He had longer blond hair and light green eyes. He wore a black t-shirt, and dark gray pants— the opposite of Brad.

"I was wondering when you'd get back." Cameron said as Brad sat down next to him. Sky and I sat on the other side of the square table.

"Sorry. Had to deal with some troublemakers." He glanced at us.

"I saw." Cameron laughed. "That was quite an entrance."

"I will take that as a compliment." I said, pointing a carrot at him. He grabbed it, took a bite out of it, and put it back in my hand. Everyone laughed as I set it on the table.

"So how long have you two been together?" Sky had to raise his voice as the music got a little louder.

"Three happy years." Brad answered. "Too late to turn back."

"You wouldn't want to though." Cameron laughed. He paused. "Right?"

"Right." Brad looked like he was about to lean closer, but then he stopped. His eyes widened. He fell backwards, tried to grab the table cloth, but crashed to the ground.

"Brad!" We all shouted.

Cameron went over to pick up his right arm, while I went around to his left one. But as I looked at Brad's back, I gasped.

There was an arrow shaft sticking out of it.

• • •

FAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM

I WROTE 2800 WORDS IN THE PAST LIKE THREE HOURS. YAS.

So Lily ran away. Where do you guys think she's gonna do? Is Jess gonna go after her?
Also, Brad. Got. Shot. With an arrow!!! Is he gonna die? Who shot him?
Most importantly, whO WON THE SHIELD SLEDDING RACE?

Things are getting exciting.

AAAAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ahh

Rock on, my little rebels.