Tommy sat on the swing, slowly rocking back and forth. His sister Jenny was swinging higher next to him, but Tommy wasn't necessarily concerned; he was thinking about his friends in Minecraft. It had been a few weeks since he'd been able to go check on them and say hi, but final exams had been a nightmare; at least school was out now and he could put more time into it. He thought of Herder and his wolves, which he seemed to always have with him and his bright smile of confidence he always had on his face. Tommy smiled faintly and he began to swing higher on the swing, getting closer to matching the height of his younger sister Jenny. He thought of Crafter and his bright eyes, which always seemed to shine with hope, and his other friends as well. He missed them all and wanted to be back with his friends and just once, once he would like to go on a happy note, not because someone was in danger or an army of monsters was threatening to kill everyone. Tommy smiled and pumped his legs faster, trying to get higher elevation; the chains whined loudly, creating a noise that felt like someone was smashing Tommy's eardrums. Tommy pushed off of the swing and flew through the air, the wind whipping his hair around his head. His feet made contact with the ground and he stumbled forward to catch his balance, then turned and raised an eyebrow at his sister. Jenny swung back one more time and flew through the air as well before landing on her feet without even stumbling.

"Haha I beat you!" Jenny said with a smile. Tommy rolled his eyes and tosses her hair over head, making her grumble and whine as she smoothed her hair out. Tommy smirked and looked at sun in the distance, thinking of the blocky one that he had grown used to and sat behind a screen, waiting in the basement...

Jenny began to skip back home and Tommy followed her, his mind wondering as it usually does. He watched a small rabbit as it darted across the street, its little legs moving in a blur as it went as quick as it could. It's white fur stuck out against the dark color of the street. Thankfully there were few cars on the street at the time, so the rabbit was in no immediate danger.

"Jenny look." Tommy said, pointing towards the creature. Jenny turned, only gasp and giggle as she watched the animal. Tommy smiled as he watch it hop around, darting quickly across the street...

A sudden pain shot through Tommy's head and the rabbit... Looked different when he blinked. He held his head and hissed, but continued to stare at the rabbit. The rabbit suddenly turned and looked at him and Tommy stumbled back in surprise, but the rabbit had already ran into the bushes. The pain quickly disappeared and Tommy faintly wondered if it had happened at all, which left Jenny staring at him in confusion.

"What? What's the matter?" She asked with a frown. Tommy shook his head.

"Its... Ah, nothing. Come one, we should be getting home soon!" Tommy said, ignoring the stare from his sister; he then turned and began to jog down the street, leaving Jenny to catch up.

...

Tommy looked at the clock and found the hour hand resting on the nine as a chime filled the house. Nine o'clock. Tommy turned off the TV and ran up the stairs, not wanting to wait for tomorrow. He was finally going to be able to visit his friends again; it had been a while. He walked into the bathroom and began to brush his teeth, counting as he went. He stared at the mirror and found his refection looking back at him with a toothbrush in his hand and toothpaste all over his mouth. Spitting out the toothpaste, he rinsed out his mouth and turned to leave when he turned to glance at the mirror one last time. A pain shot through his head, more intense than the one a few hours ago. Tommy cried out and clutched his throbbing head and looked at the mirror and gasped in horror. Instead of his reflection, he saw a blocky figure staring at him, coping his exact movements. Tommy screamed and backed away, his head throbbing even more than before. He turned and looked at his bed, which seemed to be flipping back and forth between a digital Minecraft bed and the one that had always been there. Tommy suddenly felt really ill and turned and ran to the toilet just before he pucked inside, barley missing the floor. He gasped for air and noticed chunks of digital steak in the toilet, but that didn't make sense; he hadn't had any steak since being in-

More pain ran through his head as the world turned digital. Jenny appeared in the doorway, but she looked different as well; she had multiple colors flashing through her hair and paint smeared on her armor- wait, why was she wearing armor?

Her appearance flashed between Jenny and her player avatar, Monet113, and Tommy was starting to get even more of a headache when it suddenly stopped; leaving Tommy to breath without his head exploding.

"What the- DAD, TOMMY'S SICK!" Jenny yelled. Tommy's sighed; now for sure he wasn't going to see his friends tomorrow. He climbed to his feet and reached to flush the toilet when his Dad appeared in the doorway.

"You're sick?" He asked. Tommy didn't respond. He didn't feel sick now, only when the headache seemed to come did he feel ill. Tommy stared at the mirror but only found his own reflection staring back at him. Turning, he looked at his dad.

"Dad. Something's going; I didn't think I'm sick like, with a cold." I said nervously. Tommy's Dad frowned.

"The flu?" He suggested. Tommy shook his head.

"No; its not like anything I've ever had before. I suddenly get this horribly sudden headache and..." Tommy trailed off. "I start to see things from... Minecraft."

The more Tommy thought about it, the stupider he thought he sounded. What a lame excuse, a part of him thought; Its not an excuse! Its what really happened! Complained another part. Tommy sighed in frustration and stared at his Dad, not knowing what to do. If you give him a bunch of zombies, he can deal with it just fine. A random illness? Not so much.

A pain momentarily flashed through his head and before Tommy stood Monkeypants271 and Monet113, his father and sister's avatars. Tommy gasped but it was immediately gone, but now his Dad and Jenny were staring at him with their jaws on the floor.

"Wh-what?" Tommy asked confused. Jenny smiled nervously, but there was no happiness in it.

"You just... Flashed in your user form." She said, still staring at him. Now it was Tommy's turn to drop his jaw to the floor.

How was this possible?! How was he seeing things like this, throwing up food he'd eaten in Minecraft, and turning into his user?! Another flash of pain went through his head, although this one was more painful than the ones before it. Tommy gritted his teeth and held his head but the pain did not subside; he squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them, trying too see through the pain. Monet and Monkeypants271 were in their user forms, staring at him with confusion and concern painted on their faces. The entire room was now a wooden Minecraft house, boxy and made of digitals. Tommy could feel his insides turning and red hot pain went through him before it all dispersed and left Tommy on his knees holding his head. Tommy lunged and grabbed a trash can before proceeding to throw up into it, the smell of an unidentified oder wafting through the room. Tommy gasped and whipped his mouth on his sleeve as he saw digital bits of bread in his throw up and... It was not a pleasing sight. Tommy stood up, his legs threatening to give out from under him and he turned to Jenny and his father.

"Good night." He mumbled weakly before his legs gave out and he slipped into sleep.

...

Tommy opened his eyes to a swirling mist surrounding him- The Land of Dreams. He hadn't been in The Land of Dreams since his last time in Minecraft... What was going on?

Tommy heard a snap behind him and pulled out a sword from thin air. I figure stepped forward with a weapon in their hand, magical enhancements rippling over the outline of a bow.

Tommy frowned in confusion. "Hunter?" He asked. The figure stepped forward and looked just as surprised as Tommy felt.

"Gameknight? Is that you? Why do you look so... weird?" She asked, still not having lowered the bow, but she did relax the bow string.

"Oh; this is how I look in the Physical world." Tommy responded, slightly surprised that he hadn't appeared in his user form. He suddenly remember what had happened before falling asleep.

"Oh no- Hunter, something weird is going on." Tommy said, dread filling his voice as he told her about the strange sickness he seemed to of gotten; but it didn't seem like any illness he had ever heard of, which was surprising seeing as his mom was a nurse. Hunter's frowned deepened the more he said.

"That's... Odd. Are you OK?" She asked. Tommy didn't respond, mainly because he had no idea. He looked at the trees surrounding them; they were Minecraft trees, but they kept flicking back and forth between Minecraft trees and the trees from the Physical world. Hunter didn't seem to be noticing, which was weird wince she was standing right next to one.

"Is that tree... Flickering?" Tommy asked, pain slightly shooting through his head. Hunter's frowned and looked around.

"What so you mean? I don't see anything but the normal forest?" Hunter responded. She seemed to he lacking her usual sarcastic edge, instead worry was taking it's place. She turned to look at Tommy and frowned.

"Why are you flickering  back and forth between your user form and reality form?" Hunter asked in confusion. Suddenly a horrible idea popped into Tommy's head.

"Hunter... What if my two forms are trying to collide? Maybe its from spending so much time in Minecraft! If that's the case, then what so I-" Tommy as cut off as his head exploded in pain, seemingly worse than the time before. Darkness surrounded his vision and he screamed as voices filled his head. A static noise filled his ears, making his head hurt even more.

"Gameknight GAMEKNIGHT?!" Hunter yelled. She watched as he slowly climbed to his feet and began to lean toward the side, still clutching his head. Hunter ran over and pushed him back on his feet as another figure came into the area.

"Hunter, Crafter needs you for a problem-" Stitcher stopped when she saw Tommy. "Is that Gameknight?"

"Stitcher, something's going on- Gameknight has a major issue." Hunter said Gameknight stood up tall and dropped his hands, then pushed away from Hunter.

Hunter stared at him with her eyes scrunched together in confusion, only to have Tommy turn and throw up all over the floor. Hunter's eyes widened with surprise.

"What the- Are you OK?" Hunter asked as Tommy shivered slightly. Stitcher moved closer, shock showing on her face. Tommy looked and realized they had no idea what a sickness was.

While he explained it to them, Stitcher gasped and he stopped, looking at her with a frown.

"What?" he asked as another pain flashed through his head.

"Well, I don't really know, but what if this is from your time in Minecraft? Like from being born physical and suddenly being digital? What if being exposed to it too long makes you " sick"?" Stitcher suggested, her tongue rolling on the strange word. Gameknight's eyes went wide wide as he processed it.

"If that's true, it must mean while I'm in the Physical world, I'm trying to turn digital for some reason! But that still doesn't make sense; why am I sick? What if-" pain struck through him like lightning and he hissed, holding his head, which felt like someone was punching him from the inside. Falling to his knees, the pain amplified more and more until he couldn't see from the tears in his eyes.

"Woah, Gameknight! What should we do?!" Hunter yelled as she ran to his side, Stitcher right behind her. Tommy felt digital, then physical, then digital, his come shifting every second. Tommy looked at his hand and watched as pixels because to rise to the surface, creating agony as they went. There was no blood, his had burned...

Hunter followed his gaze and her jaw dropped, no words coming out. Tommy looked at his leg and could see the same thing happening on his leg; the pixels were showing up and spreading across his physical form, and his digital form taking over.

"Is this some kind of... Digital disease?" Stitcher asked, only to disappear as she woke up. Hunter began to disappear as well, but Tommy could tell she was trying to tell him something before waking up. Whatever she was going on o say was never hear because she vanished a moment later, leaving Tommy alone.

"A digital illness..." Tommy mumbled, watching as his fingers began to be consumed as small cubes took their place.

"Yes, a digital illness; now let's see how long it takes you to figure out where you can't survive." Echoed a voice. Tommy stepped back, but there was nothing to see- there was no one there.

"Wake up." Tommy said, and he blinked once before finding his Dad standing over him with a panicked expression. Tommy noticed he was back in his room; looking at his hand, he could see digital cubes making their way to the surface of his skin, though the process was happening much quicker than in the Land of Dreams.

"Tommy? What's going on?" Jenny asked from the right. Tommy turned and tried to respond but found he couldn't breath- what was wrong with the air?

Tommy coughed and managed to get a breath, although it felt really weird- was the weird illness doing this?

"Dad- I think I know what's going on-" suddenly a wave nausea hit Tommy and he grabbed the side of the bed for support. 1's and 0's danced across his vision and the world tried to turn to a blocky surrounding. He blinked and found that the room had a strange angle, but then realized that one of his eyes and had turned to a rectangle. Tommy turned to look at the floor so his Dad wouldn't see.

"Dad?" He asked. He could feel his father's gaze piercing through his head.

"Yes Thomas?" His Dad asked.

"... I need to go into Minecraft."

A/N: so yeah, I am writing this because I can and it's an idea I'm gonna do while trying to write my other books. Let me know what you think!