TW: Angstish

Title: ~Blind Xephos~

Text in italics are memories.

They’d only needed a bit of coal… “Oh yeah Xephos, brilliant idea, use ALL the coal on torches why don’t you!” Despite their 248 torches, they had not been having any luck finding coal, it was such a common resource, yet they’d been digging for hours to no benefit. As usual, Xephos had placed torches every three blocks, and now they had used their last.

Xephos stayed stubbornly back where it was bright, Honeydew smiled indulgently and carried on into the dark alone. Xephos watched as his friend wandered further and further into the depths of the cavern, until finally he was swallowed up by the darkness. “Xephos… you’re a waste of torches.” Honeydew stared exasperatedly around the very very bright shack, “Honestly, we were free from the possibility of monsters spawning 20 torches ago.”

“Sorry Honeydew, I’ll take a few down. I guess.” Xephos hesitantly plucked a single torch from the wall and replaced it in his pack. Xephos gripped his sword nervously, and jumped spectacularly into their air at the girlish shriek that echoed through the caves.

He stared, terrified, into the blackness before puffing himself up and charging forward “I’m coming for you friend!”

There were so many monsters. He could barely make out the shimmering gleam of skellington bones, the dungeon was drowned in the scent of rotting zombie flesh. Grasping hands, the two friends began battling off the monsters together.  “Why are you so afraid of the dark anyway? It’s not like we haven’t fought plenty of monsters before.”

“Fighting monsters is a lot harder when you can’t see them. And I don’t want… to be helpless.” Xephos had thought they were winning; the groans of zombies and clacking bones of skeletons had nearly stopped. The near quiet only made the tell-tale “Sssssssssssssssss” more terrifying.

“You could never be helpless friend.”

.~'~.~'

Xephos woke with a start. His head was pounding, blood thrashing its way through his veins, an incessant ringing in his ears. He nuzzled into the soft heat at his side. “Oh good, you’re awake then.”

“Nnnggg.”

“Yes, yes, you’ve always been very grumpy in the mornings. But you see it’s 4 in the afternoon. You’ve been asleep an awfully long time friend.” Xephos tried desperately to block out his friends continuous chattering, clenching his eyes shut, but it was to no avail. “I was worried about you friend, you’ve been out for three days did you know? I killed a lot of piggus for us, here ha-“

Xephos had always hated the dark, ever since he was little and the older kids told him stories of creepers and endermen. His bedroom as a child had been home to not just one night-light, but twelve. “Will you shut up already!? I have a migraine.” Xephos’ eyes snapped open and he glared angrily into the darkness, “And will you light a bloody torch before we get ambushed again! ”The way Xephos had always coped with his fear was in crafting too many torches. As long as he always had a torch on him, there would be no reason to be afraid.

Honeydew froze, “Fr- friend?” There was one tiny flaw in Xephos’ plan, something that even torches wouldn’t be able to fix. Honeydew glanced away from the delicious pork chops for a moment to examine Xephos. Xephos’ eyes were glazed over, staring unseeingly into a wall absolutely littered in torches. Honeydew’s eyes softened in understanding, “Friend… we’re at home. I carried you back.”

It was by noting this singular flaw that Xephos resolved to never become blind.