Impulse and Pearl were playing a dangerous game of chicken with the void. Grian had introduced the game to Boatem, he said it was a game he'd played "with some old friends". The others had brushed it off, it sounded like a very Grian thing to play daring, life-threatening games for fun.

But for Pearl, she saw further into it than the others had. After all, she knew more about when and how Grian got his wings. Old friends, yeah right. She'd already figured out that the wings must've been given to him by Them. They looked like a smaller pair of Their signature wings.

It was somewhat nice that he'd opted to share a thing with the Hermits. They wouldn't get the whole meaning but she did, A game he'd played with Them, trying desperately to keep whatever human-like qualities he had left. She didn't know the whole story but Grian had shared some things.

Like the inhumane hours they made him work. The emotional manipulation. The punishments.

Any source of dopamine, no matter how dangerous, would've been invaluable to them. Grian and whoever else They had snatched up to join their ranks. He'd mention one friend, there were others but he was only close with one. Grian's roommate. He never told her his friend's real name, only the one They'd given them.

"Pearl, come up NOW!" Impulse yelled, it was then she realised she hadn't been paying attention to her height and was now dangerously close to death. With a yelp, she pulled the cord on the rockets and sharply flew upwards. Impulse grabbed her hand and guided her to the bottom rim of the hole.

"That was too close," she panted out.

"Agreed." They each took a seat on the bedrock and caught their breath. "Hey, does this look weird to you?" Pearl was confused at first, that was until she followed his eyes down to look at the blackish-grey rocks. The texture kept shifting, sometimes looking almost normal, not quite right but not too wrong. But then it glitched momentarily into something else. Something that made Pearl's heart stop.

For a fraction of a second, a broken-up rectangle was visible. The symbol seemed to almost glow with power. Its presence made Impulse nervous and Pearl sick to her stomach.

"W-we need to tell X," she stuttered out in fear. Impulse looked at her questioningly but opened his communicator when she saw her serious expression. She refused to look away from the stones but gripped Impulse's hand tightly when he offered it.

Impulse was concerned when Pearl got all pale but put that aside so he could focus on reaching Xisuma. A glitched texture wasn't that big of a deal, he;d just pointed it out because it was strange. He didn't realise it would cause Pearl to freak out like this. "Maybe she had a strict admin on her last server that made her report any kind of bug, even something as small as this," he thought.

He snapped a couple of pictures of all the different stages that it switched to. Pearl was clutching his hand for dear life while looking at the shifting stones as if they would jump at her any second. X got back to him quickly and thanked him for bringing this to him. He told him to stay with Pearl because he was going to call a whole server meeting in a minute.

"Alright Pearl," he soothed, "Wanna head to the spawn egg and meet up with X there?" She looked up at him, the flashing blocks reflecting off her scared eyes. Impulse could see tears welling in the corners. He sighed as he pulled her closer, the meeting could wait a little longer.

"It'll be ok," she whispered quietly. Her voice was muffled by his shirt so he couldn't hear her feeble reassurances. "He's here now, I can't lose him again. He won't leave me again. We'll work through this together. He's dealt with Them before-" She found herself stifling a gasp. Grian had mentioned how he'd hidden Hermitcraft so They couldn't find him again. A sickening thought rushed to her mind. 'What if she'd been followed?' They wouldn't find him by searching but They would've been watching her.

How could she be so stupid? Of course they would've followed her. She knew too much. Grian had been living without Their prying eyes for years. And she just came along and led Them directly to him. She might as well have delivered him at Their doorstep with a bow around his neck. For Notchs' sake, she was an utter failure of a friend. A traitor without even realising it.

Somewhere along the line, she'd started crying. Impulse was trying to soothe her. Making assurances that it'd be ok, X wouldn't be mad about a texture glitch, it wasn't her fault.

But it was. It was all her fault. 

Dam

I'm not sorry

Word Count: 822

Bellzie's an angst demon, I apologise if she won't - Jay