For some reason, this update isn't showing up for some people, so here's a random paragraph so I can update it and hopefully these los— people can see it.

I decided to change things up and make this a single PoV chapter. Sorry Amber, but this is Lily's moment.

K bye

• • •

~ Lily ~

I spent the entire interrogation being shushed by Harold. He wanted to do most of the talking, I kept butting in. Hey, he needed a good cop.

"What is your name?" Harold asked Cole.

"My-"

"He told me it was Cole." I blurted out.

Harold groaned. "I told you not to ask him any questions before I got here."

"That was all I asked." I raised my hands in surrender.

He sighed. "Fine. Okay, Cole. How did you find us?"

"I went in a certain direction."

"Who told you about this place?"

He remained silent.

"It might have been Jerry." I whispered.

"Lily shu- wait what? Who?"

"You know Jerry?" Cole asked me, tilting his head.

I nodded hesitantly. "He owns a stall at the market in town. He was the one that told me about you."

"He told you about me?"

"He said he believes the legends of you being real. Pointed me in the right direction."

Harold narrowed his eyes at the ground. "If he believed in me... Shouldn't he have come here to see if I was actually real?"

"Maybe he's just one of those guys that spread things around but don't actually bother to find out if they're true?"

"Or..." Harold halted his thinking when he jerked his head up. He got up and left the room as fast as an old man could move.

"Does he usually do that?" Cole asked.

"He likes to be mysterious." I bit my lip, awkwardly glancing around. "I'm just going to..."

He jerked his head in that direction as if telling me to go. I nodded, and followed after Harold.

•    •    •

I found him peering out of a doorway that connected an outside bridge to a room.

"Harold what are-" I started to ask what he was doing, but he turned around and silently shushed me sharply. He then gestured outside.

I peeked out as well, and felt my stomach drop.

Outside, on the ground, there was a group of people. I counted eight in all. Six of them wore dark green hoodies and creeper masks. They were facing the two other members, who had on dark green trench coats. One seemed to be a girl, the other a guy.

(Yes, we're assuming genders here)

"We know they are here." The man said to who seemed to be the evil minions. "Search every inch of this place."

"What's an inch?" One of the creeper masks raised his hand.

The woman sighed. "I'd shoot you, but that would make noise."

I gasped. Not because of the threat, but because I recognized her voice.

"Jess..." My whisper was barely audible.

"I knew it." Harold muttered. "I knew there was something wrong with that lot. I bet Jerry is the other person."

I was hardly listening to anything he was saying. My mind was spinning. Jess was a member of GATU? And Jerry, too? I suppose I should have seen it coming with her... but I didn't expect her to be that bad. I couldn't believe that Jerry was in on it as well. I only just realized that it was, in fact, his voice. He was such a nice guy...

I blinked and returned back to reality just as Jess pointed up at the tree. When everyone followed her gesture, I retreated back into the room.

"This is not good." I covered my face. "This is not good at all."

"We need to get you two out of here." Harold walked into the room and down the hallway.

I followed him. "Us two? What do you mean?"

"I mean that they're after you and Cole."

"Why me? Is it because I'm a spawn?"

"Yes. And more." We finally made it into the room. Cole was still tied up.

"Untie him." Harold ordered. He started to fish Cole's items out of his own inventory and threw them on the ground. There were things like armor, a sword, pickaxe, and more.

I got to work untying his bonds. Luckily, I was taught a cool trick on how to do it quickly and easily.

Cole asked, "What's going on?"

"People are here for us. Bad people." I explained in a fast manner. When I untied his hands, he worked on the rope around his legs.

"How bad?"

"Ever heard of GATU?" Harold finished just as Cole stood up.

He picked up his gear. "Yeah. Trollers and Griefers."

"They can also be pillagers and murderers. And right now, they're here for you both."

"Why Cole?" I asked, shifting from foot to foot anxiously.

"Cole. You woke up somewhere randomly, right?"

The boy frowned. "How did you...? Never mind. Yeah. But I'm not a spawn. I have my memories."

Harold nodded. "That's what I thought. Yes, you two need to leave."

"What about you?" I didn't like the way he said that.

He ignored me and went to a bare wood wall. He counted three blocks from the left, and broke two wood blocks, revealing a new tunnel.

"This'll lead you to an escape route at the back of the tree. I'll be right back. Just socialize." With that, he left the room down the other hallway, not wasting a second.

"I really hate when he does that." I sighed.

"What's he doing?"

"I have no idea."

A few seconds later, Harold entered the room again as promised. "Okay, they're on their way up."

"Did you let them up?" Cole asked accusingly.

Harold shook his head. "No. I saw them making a staircase up. Right next to that cobblestone tower of yours, which was very rude of you to do. You could have just knocked. Even though we'd probably still knock you out. Anyway, they'll be here any second. Quickly, I'll stall them. You two go." He rushed us to the new escape route.

"No!" I exclaimed. "You're coming with us."

"Here's a sword." Harold handed me a diamond sword. "Also some food." He placed a pile of steaks on top of the weapon. "And some wood blocks. I don't have much armor, but here's an iron chestplate and boots. I can't get you common sense, though, which you need."

"Harold, stop!" I tried to hold the giant pile of stuff in my hands. Cole took some of it off my hands, and I put the rest in my inventory. "I'm not leaving without you."

Harold sighed. "You are very stubborn." He turned to Cole. "My boy, I have an excellent judge of character. I can tell that you've done things in your past that you aren't proud of, but you are still a good person. I'm counting on you to look after her."

Cole hesitated, but nodded.

"Stop this!" I said.

Harold gave Cole a look. He realized what he wanted him to do, and he grabbed my arm and pulled me to the escape route. I tried to fight him and get away, but he was much stronger than me. As soon as we were in the tunnel, Harold sealed it up with the wood blocks.

"No!" I started to punch the blocks.

"Lily, stop." Cole said from behind me.

"Shush!" I turned to him. "We are strangers. Therefore you have no right to boss me around."

Then, I heard a conversation on the other side of the wood.

"Where are the children."

"Nice to meet you, too." Harold replied to Jess in a calm voice. "May I ask what you are doing in my house?"

"Quit with the act. I know they're here. Jerry directed both the spawn and the boy here. He did an idiotic job of it, but he did do it."

"Hey!" Jerry shouted in protest. "I'm not good with field work, alright? Besides, you could've done a better job with your part."

"You two planned everything." Harold mused. "You knew where Lily was going to spawn. You two set up fake lives in the village. You purposely let her see that head so you could scare her and she'd come to me. Quite clever for GATU members."

"We're officers." Jess snapped. "But we're definitely going to be promoted after we bring in two out of the four."

Two out of the four?

Harold snorted. "You really think this plan will work? I know it's been decades since I've been involved in government business, but I can tell that GATU is still just a little hate group. A bunch of brats that want to cause trouble."

"Shut up!" BANG!

The gunshot made me jump. I heard a grunt right after that, and I gasped.

"Now tell us where they are. Or else."

I heard Harold laugh, but there was obviously pain in it. "Go ahead. Kill me. Then you'll never know."

"No..." I whispered.

"We're not going to kill you, idiot." It was pretty clear that Jess was the one who was in charge. "We'd like to introduce you to our boss. And our special underground rooms."

"Torture? I'm afraid you won't be able to do that."

"Oh?" Jerry spoke up. "And why not?"

I could actually hear Harold smile when he said, "You'll need to look out for your own lives first."

Silence.

"What are you talking about?" Jess's voice became more anxious.

"Do you smell something?" He took a second to sniff the air. "Is that... smoke?"

A pause.

"You didn't."

"If you don't believe me, ask the creeper that's about to tell you himself."

"Ma'am!" A new voice came into the room. It was one of the members. "The tree is on fire!"

"This was your doing?" Jess hissed.

"You'll never find them." Harold laughed again. "And it seems like you don't have a lot of time to find a way out. I give you 2.8 minutes. 7.6, tops. Tick tock, GATU. Tick tock."

BANG! A gun firing.

Thump. The sound of something hitting the floor. Or someone.

"We gotta get out of here." Jerry said.

"You think?" Jess replied.

With that, I heard footsteps leave the room. Then, all was quiet.

"Harold..." I felt my eyes sting from tears.

Cole put his hand on my arm. This time, it was more gentle. "Lily, we have to go before they get out first. For Harold."

I stared at the wall for a few seconds. Cole was right. Harold's death couldn't have been in vain.

I regained my composure, and nodded. "Let's go."

•    •    •

The escape route led to the back of the tree like Harold said. It was hidden behind a single layer of leaves so it wasn't too obvious from the outside. Cole squinted through the leaves to see if there was anyone out there.

"It's clear. There's a pond under us that we can jump into. But there's definitely some people in the front guarding, so we're going to have to be quick."

I coughed from the smoke that started to reach us. "Okay. I'm ready."

Cole broke the two leaf blocks. "Go!"

He jumped out, me following closely behind him. The ground disappeared from under me quicker than I thought, so I really just fell out looking clumsy and stupid.

Splash!

The water was cold, but refreshing from the heat in the tree. I kicked the water and reached the surface (which was only a block above me). I immediately swam/waded to the sand, and got out. Cole had a little more trouble since his jacket was holding him down, so he got out a few seconds after me.

I took a millisecond to look at the tree, and my heart fell. The trunk was on fire, almost completely gone. Smoke was pouring out of any opening of the tree. It was burning from the inside out.

"Come on." Cole said. "Shoelace made his way over here."

"Shoelace?" I turned and saw a saddled horse grazing about twenty blocks in front of us. "Oh."

"HEY!"

We were spotted. Two GATU members were at the base of the tree. They pulled out their diamond swords, and charged at us. I didn't need Cole to tell me to run. I started to sprint alongside him to the horse.

When we got to Shoelace, Cole quickly climbed onto him. He offered me a hand, which I accepted. I settled down right behind him.

"Hold on!" He grabbed the reins and made Shoelace canter away. I didn't get enough time to follow Cole's advice, so I almost fell off. I grasped for support, and held onto his waist.

When we were a little bit further away, I turned back and stared at the scene. The two GATU members were standing right where we took off. The tree was still burning. Jess and Jerry were hopefully inside.

I also assessed the situation. Harold was dead. Murdered. His murderers were GATU officials sent to get Cole and I. I was now on a stranger's horse with him riding off to some place. We were part of a group of four. I had no idea what that meant. I had no idea why any of this happened.

All I knew was that we were on our way to find answers, somehow.

•    •    •

K sorry for not updating yesterday, blah blah blah, already failing at my new year's resolution, blah blah blah, I'm a disgrace, blah blah blah.

Who are the other two- lmao it's kinda obvious.
Where are Cole and Lily going?
Will Jess and Jerry ever be seen again?

Wait lol I just realized they're kind of a knock-off serious version of Jesse and James. Oh, I'm hilarious even when I don't try.

...

Rock on, my little rebels.