"Only me?" I cross my arms, partly inclined not to see this guy. "Does he think he's so special that he can't talk to anyone else but me?"

Olivia comes up, rubbing her chin. "I gotta say, that does seem pretty snobbish. He's not listening to you or Petra at all?"

Axel groans, rolling his entire head. "Of course he was listening to us, but then he started to threaten to spread panic and we didn't want that..."

"Okay!" I wave my arms, exasperated and already tired of this jerk. "I'll go talk to this guy so we don't have to deal with anymore problems."

Axel nods and runs out the door. I run after him, every stride a jolt into my sore legs. I don't think my joints have ever been so stiff and worn ever, at least not when there's reason to panic. Why hasn't a drop of adrenaline kicked in yet? I really want it right now.

We run out into the cool night's air, through the Order Door Axel left open. I glance at Olivia, giving a sheepish smile and nodding over at the lever to close it. She smiles and rolls her eyes, but goes to shut the door. I don't really want the door left open, since there was that time a mob was motivated enough to break it.

"So uhh Axel?" Lukas, despite me painfully pushing myself to run at this pace, just easily jogs up to Axel's side. "Where is this guy anyway?"

"Outside the gates, said that would be more private and whatnot."

I struggle to breathe calmer, ignoring the pleas inside my body that I'm exhausted and need to rest. No one else is even panting! I can't look weak in front of this guy, whoever this man is. He has another thing coming if he thinks he can disrespect my friends.

Although, my withering muscles aren't helping my confidence. Nor is the rock in my chest that used to be my heart. And it is becoming very hard not to wince in pain every stride I take since my joints feel as if they're grinding up against stone.

Today's just not my day. Or yesterday. OR the day before that. Perhaps this entire week. Month? Year? Years? When was the last time I wasn't worrying about anything? Or struggling to get through the day? When was the last time I felt happy and grateful for everything I have for the ENTIRE day?

Even though it took an agonizingly long time, to me at least, we get to the gates. And I wasn't able to find an answer to that question.

The gates are partially open, definitely closing when we come back in. Petra was attacked by one of those demons in the daytime, we aren't taking any chances. Particularly not for a guy who thinks it's a GREAT idea to talk outside of city's walls.

Axel slips through, then Lukas, and then Olivia, who I didn't even notice that she caught up. I come after her next, bitter that she isn't panting at all either. I'm wheezing right now, but if I could, I would be sprawled out on the ground panting for my life.

weak

"So you're Jesse huh?" The gruff voice belongs to an equally gruff looking guy. Unkempt black hair falling all over his face, how that doesn't bother him past sanity boggles me. The side of his face has been clawed, not recent though, probably by wolves or something years back.

But I really don't like his eyes. They're a pale icy blue, making the scanning look he's giving that much colder. They shouldn't even be classified as blue, since they're the polar opposite of how amazing Lukas's eyes are.

"Well I'm not an Admin." I mentally cringe, my voice sounds so hoarse. "You are who?"

"Name's Nick-"

"Oh finally!" Petra rolls her eyes, scowling at the man. "I thought you'd never live long enough for you to say it."

Nick huffs, but doesn't even glance at her. I narrow my eyes, only for my nose to tingle furiously. I bring a hand up and squeeze, before shivering lightly. That one sneeze reminding how sore my entire body is.

"Just great. The world's hero is sick."

"Hey mister!" I would grin, if I didn't feel so awful, but only Olivia can be polite while sounding so angry. "Maybe you haven't heard, but we've been through a lot. You shouldn't underestimate Jesse or any of us."

"Trust me, I don't underestimate you at all. Just pushing you a bit, see how you react."

Lukas scoffs, stepping up to him. "Well we don't have time for you're games. We're currently really busy right now so spit out whatever you wanted to say before we head back inside."

"For a writer you sure have a lot of backbone."

"Cool it!" The empty pit in my stomach aches as I try to push my voice out, but no way can I stay quiet by that insult. "We have respected your wishes and have come out here, if you don't respect us then we're done here."

"There's the hero I wanted to see."

My face scrunches up in anger, and too late I realize my fire tried to fan up. A pathetic shard of strength fluttered into my heart before painfully giving out. The temperature drops twenty degrees as I shiver violently. I've got to warm up soon, after I deal with this jerk anyway.

"Why you shivering? It's not that cold out."

Petra and Axel both open their mouths and unleash a wave onto Nick, who is totally unfazed. I sneeze again and rub my temples, wanting all this noise to just stop already so this headache can go away.

selfish

"Stop!" My friends back off, still glaring at the man. "I'm counting to ten, if I don't see a reason to stay, we're leaving."

"What am I? A child? You leave, I'll go in Beacontown and stir up a panic."

"Five."

Nick smirks and crosses his arms, not saying a word. I just stare at him, despite my shivering and wanting to curl up so I can sleep, and keep counting.

"Ten. Times up." He rolls his eyes, and I turn around from him. Heading back into Beacontown, where it's warmer and doesn't have this stuck-up in it. Man, he kinda sounds like Aiden. Oh well, I'll just warn the town there's some douchebag around and to not listen to a word he says. Despite some of the conflicts I've had with the town, it's my word over his.

"You're a fool if you don't take me seriously! There's something really important you have to know!"

I glance behind me, Axel and Petra grumbling and still walking through the gate. "You clearly don't think it's more important than yourself. Five minutes ago I was fine not knowing this, I'll still be happy five more minutes from now not knowing this."

"Ugh, fine. Otto told me you were sharp but given your looks right now, I didn't believe that."

"Otto?" Lukas narrows his eyes at the man. "What's your message then?"

The guy sneers bitterly. "I'm not a messenger! I'm the Champion of the Games! I'm the only one Otto could send because I'm the only one strong enough to not die on the way here."

Olivia huffs and turns back too. "I'm going back to work Jesse, let me know if this guy actually says something that's not egotistic."

"Congrats dude!" The man fumes at me, even though I'm the one uncontrollably shaking as I shiver. "You managed to make all my friends mad at you, although generally when people do that they wind up in... undesirable situations."

"I can't believe people in the games worship you, you don't look anything special."

he's right

"Seriously?" Lukas takes a menacing step at him. "Jesse took down two of the Old Builders at once and made it so jerks like you don't have to go and slave away in the Nether. Just spit out whatever you have to say and leave, I'm sure you don't want to be away from your adoring fans."

The man scowls, his words forced and bitter. "Otto wanted to let you know he's deactivating your portal once I get back. A few of those weird creatures are trying to get into other worlds and they're proving to be a hassle and a big threat to some of the weaker worlds. Nothing's going to be able to get or out of this world, just so you know."

Nick the jerk-face then spits on the ground and walks off. I sneeze again, my heart picking up its pace again. I just shake my head and shuffle back into Beacontown, too sore and exhausted to care how much of an idiot he is walking in the dark to a portal in the middle of nowhere with demons that could be anywhere.

"What a jerk, I actually feel bad for Emily if she has to deal with that." Lukas noticeably is walking very slow so he can be in pace with me. Grunting, shivering, and bones moaning, I pick up my pace into an average walk.

"Uhh Jesse? Don't strain yourself, you can walk slower."

"I'll do whatever I please." I immediately internally slap myself, that sounded a lot like the jerk I just strongly disliked. "Pretend I didn't say that. I'm so tired, and sore, and quite honestly fed up with everything to be really thinking about what I'm saying."

"Whoa."

I give a sideways glance at him, before returning to focus on forcing my grinding joints to move faster and my dying muscles to follow my will despite their pain and exhaustion.

"Whoa what?" I mumble, my teeth being to chatter again. I don't want any citizens to see me like this, a few of them could be still be up at this hour, but I just can't push myself to go fast. I'm just not strong enough.

pathetic

"I think that's the first time, without pressure, that you actually told me what you're feeling. I didn't even need to ask you that 'are you okay' question that you always try to lie or dodge."

This time I fully turn my head to Lukas and my eyes widen to see him smiling. "I know everything's not so great right now, but man, I kinda feel better about everything right now."

"I don't see what's so great about it."

The oceans swirling in his eyes glimmer as Lukas turns to me. His smile somehow gets even bigger and he loops an arm around my shoulders, chucking under his breath.

"Because, it's some sort of progress." He taps my forehead, still smiling wide. "In here. Which as far as I'm concerned, a very important part in everything."

you don't deserve him

I smile, strained. "The only progress I'm really concerned about right is the progress I'm making towards my bed, or else I might just faint at any given point."

My eyes flicker back to the Order Hall, and I shiver again when I see how far away it looks. At the very least I'm not in that crazed I must warm up mindset yet. That's must how it progresses, cold but only uncomfortably, cold bothersome, cold that's sucking the life out of you.

"Come on then." Lukas's arm falls down to my waist and I bring mine over his shoulders. "It's already getting pretty cold, you must feel awful."

"Th-thank you for p-pointing th-that out." I shiver again, feeling none of the heat my rapid heart is trying to provide. I'm generally pretty grateful for my heart, but it's not giving my muscles much energy either. They still feel like sacks of potatoes just wanting to fall to the ground.

With Lukas's help we make it over to the Order Hall quicker. Not fast enough for the world to blurry every few moments as I struggle to stay awake. It's gotten to the point where I don't really even feel my muscles. I don't feel pain or soreness, but it's hard to move numb stiff joints.

Although that doesn't help with the cold one bit, just the same growing freezing torture in my body. Every once and awhile my frozen thoughts spring to life to provide that random thought of insanity.

So far, my favorite has been: I wonder if someone hit me if my limb would shatter as if it was ice?

I really need to sleep.

We get into the Order Hall, Olivia immediately stopping her pace and dashing over to us. "Jesse looks terrible! That Nick guy didn't do anything did he? Oh I swear-"

"N-n-no..." Lukas squeezes my waist, and if he wants to talk then he can. I just want to curl up in a nice warm bed and sleep for hours. Or at least until the next crisis.

how feeble

"That guy was a messenger of Otto, he came to tell us that the portal to our world was being deactivated since those demons were trying to spread."

Olivia rolls her eyes, muttering. "He couldn't have just said that in the first place. But no matter, what happened to Jesse? He was only shivering when I left."

"I wish I could tell you, but I have no hard answer. Just a few speculations."

"S-s-s-s-sleep." While I would love to actually care about this conversation, it's too long. I'm too cold, I'm too tired, I feel slightly nauseous now, I have a headache- where was I going with this thought?

Lukas, thankfully, begins to move, basically dragging my shivering body. "I'll talk about it in the morning Olivia, have a good night. And don't worry about any paperwork tomorrow, just hang out with Axel or Petra or something."

"Sure Lukas," Frozen droplets of misery begin to seep down my face as we trudge up the stairs. "I wouldn't want embarrass you..."

Lukas sharply turns around, causing me to groan when my stiff joints and sore muscles get bothered. "J-just... shut up Olivia..."

We continue walking-ish to my room. I wish I could glare at him for slowing down to only stutter at Olivia, I could have done that without stopping. However, my chin is trying to keep my neck warm. If it moves that exposes some of my precious heat to the bitter frozen air.

pitiful

After shuffling into my room, I see it in all of its glory. My beautiful bed. Warm comforters, comfy mattress, and a soft pillow. Oh, it's so beautiful.

I try to move towards my little slice of heaven when Lukas actually stops me! "You have to change Jesse, like before sleeping. Sorry, but you absolutely reek at this point."

I grit my teeth, wanting to just sleep already after waiting so long, but feeling away too inclined to listen to Lukas to be able to. So I glare at him, while moving my one hand to unbuckle my suspenders.

With my mouth chattering too hard, I am unfortunately unable to say anything to him. So I just huff, slightly surprised that I couldn't see my breath, before shivering and shuffling over to my drawer.

Wanting to just sleep as fast as possible, I somehow get my shaking hand to remove my shirt. Without another thought I slip off my jeans, brushing off why there's a gray smudge on my chest. Personally, I don't smell a thing. I feel like Lukas is just trying to torture me.

I dig out a gray sweatshirt and pull it over me, sighing in relief when the warm wool brushes against my freezing skin. Then I fish out some sweats and put them on before collapsing right on the bed. It's true, it's more heavenly than last time.

Blissfully, I bury myself underneath the really heavy and warm comforter. Although quickly became saddened when Lukas hasn't laid down yet. He's really warm too, anything warm I'll gladly snatch up.

I peek my head out of my curled up ball of warmth, my now sworn enemy the cold already seeping in. Lukas is just standing there, covering his face for some reason. In realistic words, doing nothing as the frozen air is attacking me again!

"W-w-what... j-just ge-et over he-here." Lukas looks up, hopefully realizing he's letting his friend freeze over here while he does nothing! I grunt in approval and curl back up when he finally decides to use his legs to walk over here.

"I take back any time I ever said you were impossible when you're awake." I roll my eyes as Lukas grumbles getting in. "The almost asleep, cranky from the cold you is much harder to handle."

I refuse to acknowledge his words and snuggle into him, smiling as his warmth fights off the freezing air that's trying to get to me. He stiffens, and I clutch onto him in case he's thinking of getting up. Not happening, I won't be able to stand it now if his warmth is taken away from me.

"At least you can't say anything to embarrass me anymore if you're willing to do this..."

I continue to ignore Lukas's mutterings, finally allowing my eyes to flutter shut after they have pleaded with me for so long to do that. I sigh, content with falling deep into the darkness that shields all of that miserable pain away.