Preston knew he was in a dream again, but this time it was different. He could move freely, and his surroundings weren't that of the Nether fortress.

It was actually quite sedate and peaceful. It was a plains biome as far as he could see, with a few clusters of trees dotted around the area, but the former lava mob found himself being drawn towards a series of rocks - Possibly ores? - where he could see a grey figure.

Looking down at his own arms, Preston could see that he was in a similar situation. A solid orange glow was emitting from his body, obscuring any features from view. It was like he was some kind of ghost.

'This is weird...' His voice echoed. It sounded weird, and he grinned to himself before turning his attention back to the grey glow. They appeared to have moved when Preston had spoken, and he can only guess that they'd turned as he could now see two bright, amber-coloured shapes, almost like eyes where the person's face would be.

'Oh, hi!'

'Who are you? How're you in my dream?' They asked, sounding slightly threatened and taking a step back while Preston raised his hands in defence.

'Woah buddy, chill out. I should ask you the same question.' The Texan shot back. He recognized the voice from somewhere, but figured that it was one that his brain had decided to incorporate into the dream.

I sounded smart there for a second, ahah.

'You sound like Preston.' The grey figure deduced, glancing between him and the stones, 'But that's impossible. He's dead.'

'Kenny?'

'Wait, you - But this is... Preston, in this world, you've already died. You were the first of everyone.'

The American blinked, shaking his head and moving forwards. 'Kenny bro, you're not making any sense. How can I be dead?'

'This whole scenario of the dream. It's been going on for a while now, like an apocalypse kinda thing. You don't remember being here, ever?

'Nope.' Dream-Kenny didn't make any attempts to stop Preston as he walked towards the rocks, kneeling infront of a dark red pillar-like stone. 'Yo Kenny, what are these for?'

Lachlan Power

XXXX - XXXX

"If you're reading this, I love you more than Preston."

He will be missed for all eternity.

'They - Uh, when the guys were here we made graves. Lachlan was... He was the fourth death.' Kenny's figure was beginning to gain more features as he spoke, like darker grey lines separating limb from limb, and thick bands going across his torso to signify his hoodie. 'He was trying to save Vik from a Wither attack.'

'An actual Wither, not a skeleton?'

'Yeah. I'm just glad that this is all in some weird dreamscape.' Kenny sighed, kneeling by the side of a dull golden grave and setting a small bundle of blue flowers and sunflowers on the almost freshly-packed dirt. 'Losing the guys really made me think.'

'You're basically immortal, aren't-'

'I might outlive everyone, if that's what you were gonna say.'

...Oh.

The two didn't say anything else after that. Preston continued to look to the graves, and couldn't even imagine what it would be like to lose all of his best friends. They'd had a few close calls, obviously, but still.

'How did I die?' He asked curiously as he saw a grave that appeared to be made of permanently cooling lava. The blond looked up - Hey, he could actually see that he was blond now - and stood before walking over to his friend. 'The dream version of you didn't have your natural fire resistance. He was trying to get some diamonds for Rob, and fell into a pit of lava - The only reason we knew that, is that whenever somebody dies, the remaining... Players, if you will, get a voice in their head. "Preston Arsement was burnt to a crisp".'

Preston Arsement.

XXXX - XXXX

"The Best Never rest, AKA TBNR, which is gonna be me and"

The rest of the text is rubbed away.

'Probably not my hottest moment, then.'

'Was that pun intentional?'

'What pun - Oh wow, Oh my Lords that is bad.' The Texan laughed, with Kenny just rolling his still partially-glowing eyes but cracking his own smile. 'You can say that again, buddy. By the way, you're probably going to feel very surreal in like three seconds.'

'What do you-'

The ground beneath him opened, and Preston found himself falling through the void.

- - - - - - - - - -

'Preston? Preston, dude, you awake?'
'Hm...? Oh, uh, yeah.'

'No, no, you're not,' Rob laughed quietly as Preston lifted his head from the bedside desk, smiling awkwardly and attempting to re-tame his hair from where he'd moved during the night. 'You look exhausted.'

'Right back at ya, mate. How're you feeling?'

'I'm... I'm alright, actually, just a bit sore. I didn't have any more nightmares either, so I guess I have that going for me.' The wolf hybrid admitted, running a hand through his own messy hair before wincing and drawing back. 'Dangit, wrists.'

'What about them?' Preston asked nervously as he turned properly to face his friend, who just sighed and dropped his arms back into his lap. He wasn't planning on telling Preston, but he couldn't not, if that made any sense whatsoever.

The younger hybrid was just too...

Eh.

He couldn't lie to the kid, he was just so precious.

'He... would tie me to walls with rope, a-and set it on fire,' His Texan friend's jaw dropped, with a sudden rush of protectiveness flashing in his eyes, but didn't stop Rob when he continued. 'If I tried to, to get away, he would make them tighter.'

'Oh geez, Rob, I'm so-'

'Don't apologize, it wasn't your... f-fault.' Noting the obvious shake at the end, Preston shuffled closer and cautiously placed an arm around his friend who nodded and smiled gratefully in return. 'Thank you.'

'If I'm not allowed to apologize, you're not allowed to thank me for something that any half-decent person would do.' The fire hybrid scolded gently, pulling Rob closer and running a hand through his hair. 'And don't even think about thanking the others. We talked about it earlier.'

'What happened? After I was teleported out.'

Preston inhaled sharply, the tearing feeling pulsing through his body again as he recalled the recent memory. 'Well, uh, he wrecked all of us. Kenny's mom was there,but apparently she didn't remember him, then Herobrine basically threw him to the ground and snapped his neck. He's basically immortal though, so he's fine now. Let's see, then Everyone apart from me and Kenny got teleported out.'

'...What.'

'Yep. Harvey could sense that Kenny was dead at the time, and I wasn't supposed to survive.'

'Why not? Did-Did He get you?'

'You could say that.' He answered slowly. 'What he'd done,the things he was saying, they got into my head. I was already supercharged from the lightning-'

'From the WHAT?!'

'-And he got me so mad that I basically ran at him and exploded. He got away though, which sucks, but I think I managed to get some fire at his face.'

'Woah woah woah, rewind a sec here. Since when was Kenny immortal?'

'It's his ability. He's not sure himself.'

'And as for you, exploding? I thought you couldn't do that!' The younger brunet shrugged, ruffling his friend's hair once more before stretching and looking at the window. It looked pretty bright, so it was probably around ten in the morning.

Not bad, for what they'd completed.

'It doesn't matter now. All that matters right now is that you're safe - Come on, we should go and see the guys and make sure nobody's passed out or anything.'

'Sure.'

And then, the door opened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OwO who's this?

See you all in the next chapter, and have a great Morning - Afternoon - Evening - Dawn - Dusk - Midnight - Paranormal Timezone!