Warning: very long chapter! this should make up for being so inactive hopefully!

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

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Denis said, breathing heavily.

"I don't want to do this... I need to do this." Corl said, gripping the gun in his hand. They were hiding in a bush, the moon as their only light source. Quickly and quietly Corl crawled towards their target. The target wasn't even trying to hid, a smirk plastered on his face, bright white hair shining in the moonlight. Denis questioned this. Why is he just standing there in plain sight? He knows they were going after them. Denis looked over at Corl and nodded. Corl then quietly moved out of Denis's sight. He then went the opposite way. Carefully, they got closer to the target. Denis swore he heard a heavy breathing, but it could have just been himself. He gripped his own gun, ready for almost anything. Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes where corl was. Denis knew Corl would never had made that much noise unless....

"ATTACK!" Their target yelled. Denis was ambushed as he tried to run away. His attacker dragged Denis's heavy body towards the middle; where the target waiting, still smirking. They had been lead into a trap. Denis cursed himself. He had lead both him and Corl into this... and he knew he would pay for it. His attacker threw him into the middle, and Denis noticed that somehow he had tied him up. He tried to wiggle out of them, but they wouldn't budge. He looked up and saw Corl was also tied up, a gun held to his head. Their enemies wore all black, the only colour on them was a bandana that covered half their face. The one wearing a green bandana held corl at gunpoint. The one wearing an orange bandana was holding Denis from Corl. And their leader, wearing the purple bandana around his neck, stood in the middle smirking.

"Fools." he said in a British accent.

"Alex." Denis said through his teeth. Alex's smirk grew. The rest of them brought the bandanas to their necks, revealing their faces.

"Sub and Sketch. So that's why you wouldn't help us.. you were already on the other side" Corl said, earning Sub drilled the gun into his head.

"Let him go!" Denis yelled. "Take me instead."

"Denis... don't.." corl said, slightly choked up. He knew either way he wasn't going to see Denis for a long time. "let Denis go and I will give you all the information you seek."

"C-Corl..." They looked at each others eyes. "I'm sorry.. this is my fault we are here.." Denis muttered.

"No its my fault. I needed to do this... and it didn't go as planned.." corl held back his tears.

"Shut up, love birds, its both your fault. We have outsmarted you and you have failed." Sketch said bluntly.

"No they were just getting to the good part!" Sub slightly fangirled over the moment. Denis looked up at sketch, a sort of sad look on his face.

"we failed?" Denis said. "You really believe we failed?" Denis and corl smirked. Then they disappeared.

"WHAT?! WHERE DID THEY GO?!" Alex yelled, looking around, battle ready.

"Surprise!" Corl jumped in from above, then shot sketch and sub. They fell to the ground as Alex ran towards corl. Just before Alex got to him there was a bang and Alex joined them on the ground, Denis smirking behind him.

"Who outsmarted who?" Denis told the unconscious bodies as he high fived Corl. Their plan had worked.

"Lets bring them home." Corl said with a smile. They both hauled the three bodies back, Denis carrying two people simply because he was the stronger of the two. They placed them in the living room and tied them, very tightly, in chair.

You might be wondering what happened between these guys and why they were fighting each other. Well it all started, just like everything, with a bang.

~Setting: past. How far back: unknown. Location: Denis's house~

"One more drink wont hurt.." an already drunken Denis said. Alex laughed. Corl took a big swig. Denis did the same.

"whos up for a game of Fortnite!" Sketch stumbled towards the TV.

"HECK YAS" Alex ran to the couch. Sub, Denis, and Corl joined them. They each grabbed a controller and set up a game. They were put in the blimp and prepared to fight. They were dropped down onto an island, just like they had many times before. This time was a little different. Nobody was talking, just staring at the screen. Nobody thought anything of it. Denis and Corl landed in a town, nobody around them. It was just them in the game; nobody else was online. Alex landed in a forest. Sub and Sketch landed in a different town. They game was on. Denis started gathering supplies. Corl helped him. Sketch and Sub were doing the same thing. Alex, however, was wandering the woods, in search for a special object that was only found in these woods. Unlike the others, Alex was completely sober. He grinned evilly. He was going to win this game. He knew this game better than anyone, he had been practicing. He found the object within seconds. It didn't look anything like what you would imagine. It was simply a gun, a handgun to be specific. Nobody would pick up such a useless gun. But it wasn't useless. Alex shot the gun towards the sky, creating a loud bang that almost seemed it was in real life. The sky began to leak out of the screen and into the real world.

"What's going on?" Sub asked. They all seemed to be pulled closer to the screen, and the screen crawled closer to them. Suddenly everything went black.

Alex woke up in a forest; just like where he had been in the video game. Corl and Denis woke up in the town, and Sub and Sketch in the other town. They were suddenly totally sober.

"where are we?" Denis asked.

"The video game.." Corl said slowly. Then he whispered "Alex"

"What?"

"Alex. He did this. I saw him get the Jumanji."

"The what?"

"Its a gun that puts you into the game, if you use it correctly." Corl explained "We need to prepare for battle. The only way to get out is to defeat the enemy, which in our case is Alex." Denis found a backpack with a gun and some ammo in it. Corl found the same thing around the corner.

"We need to find Sketch and Sub and convince them to join our team before Alex gets to them." Denis stated. They tried to move quickly, but Alex was closer. He found Sub and Sketch near the lake.

"Guys! Thank god i found you!" Alex was pretty good at acting. "Corl did this, he shot the gun and brought us into this game!"

"Wow i must be really drunk." Sketch said.

"You've said that like five times already." Sub proclaimed.

"Actually you are sober." Alex stated. "And i need your help. We need to defeat Corl and Denis. Its the only way to get out of this game." Alex didnt mention how killing them in the game would also kill them in real life.

"Where are they?" Sketch asked.

"When we were outside the game i saw them in what looked like a town." Alex mentioned.

"We were just in a town and we didnt see them." Sub said.

"There is two towns. Lets go to the second one." Sketch suggested. They made their way around the lake and towards the town. But Denis and Corl were already on their way to the forest, trying to be as sneaky as possible.

~sometime in the future~

It was nearing night time. Corl and Denis headed to their base. They realized after the first night they needed somewhere to stay if they were going to survive. They found an old cabin in the woods and expanded it. Alex and the others, however, had just taken over a nearby house. Time went slower when you were actually in the game. And things were farther away. it was times like this that they all wished they had cars. Walking was tiring. Food was also a problem. Sub broke into a grocery store, and the cabin had some food for Denis and Corl. They were always a little hungry, there wasnt enough food unless they went into the big city. It would be a huge risk. Corl had found a tracker. He wanted to find Alex so he could put the tracker on him, without Alex seeing Corl. Corl built a gun with the supplies that Denis found. The held the tracker in it and whoever he shot it would put the tracker on them. Corl set out to find Alex. He had to leave Denis to guard the base. Over the amount of time, they had both lost track, that they had been there Corl and Denis grew closer and closer. They trained together. They hunted together. They taught each other. Denis didn't like the idea of Corl being gone for so long without him, but it was what he had to do. After a very long goodbye, Corl finally left. Denis felt sad, but he had to keep doing the things he did everyday, without Corl. Corl traveled far in a short amount of time. He took few breaks, barely resting at night, looking everywhere, until he reached the town they started in. He moved quietly and carefully. If he was spotted it would ruin everything. He went up a building and onto the roof, so he could shoot from above. The plan worked, Alex walked by and Corl shot him on the back of his neck. Alex felt nothing. Corl stayed in the building all night, then he left early the next morning when he was safe from Alex. Again he traveled back to Denis. Denis missed Corl so much he saw him coming and ran to him, giving him huge hug.

"I missed you too, big guy." Corl laughed.

"You were gone longer than I expected." Denis said, realizing he looked like a fool and pulling away from Corl.

"What were you expecting?! I came a couple days earlier than planned!" Corl laughed.

"A couple hours?" Denis said sheepishly. Corl laughed.

"I'm home now." He said with a smile. But Denis frowned.

"This isn't home.." He whispered. It had felt like so long ago that they had been in the real world, Corl had forgotten what a normal life was, and he had already moved on and accepted his fate. Denis was still clinging onto the memory.

"we will get there soon.." Corl lied. He never told Denis that killing Alex in the game would kill the real Alex too. And he didn't tell him that he didn't want to kill Alex, not yet. Alex knew this too. He didn't want to kill Corl or Denis, so he was always stalling finding them. It worked quite well. Nobody suspected anything, they just trusted one another. Corl felt guilty though. He and Denis had a trust, and Corl thought if he told Denis his secret Denis would never trust him again. Corl didnt want to ruin that.

"You must be tired and hungry." Denis said. "Let me get you someting to eat." They went into the house and Denis gave Corl the pre-prepared food. Denis made sure that when Corl was gone there was always food for him to come back to. Corl ate all of it within minutes, then he yawned.

"Im going to get some rest. You should too." Corl stood up and headed for the bedroom. There was only one bedroom in the small cabin that they found. Denis used to sleep on the couch but Corl didnt mind sharing. Denis followed Corl to the bedroom and they slept quite well. Alex, however, was out for a midnight stroll. He found a weird item. He picked it up. He doesnt recall this item in Fortnite. Maybe they got a new update? Suddenly the item glowed a deep red. Alex's eyes glowed red for a moment, then they dimed to just a faint red colour. Alex knew what he had to do; Kill Denis and Corl. It was the only way out, and he needed to trap them. The object whispered things to him. It told him that Corl was tracking him, and he needs to use this to his advantage. He had to lead them to a trap. But first he must finish training Sub and Sketch.

~The next day~

Corl went to the laptop. They were lucky enough to find the laptop in a looting bag once. He checked to see where the tracker was. It was, so far, still in the town. Alex hasn't moved yet. He knows that no matter where he goes now, he will be tracked. He started to think of a plan. If he goes towards their base then they will want to attack. But he didn't know where their base was. Walking around aimlessly wont help. He sent Sub to find their base and report back. Sub left to find them and Sketch trained harder. The game was really about to begin, and they needed to be ready. Corl could sense the tenseness in the air, and he knew what was about to happen.

"Denis." He said. "Somethings about to happen.."

"When?" Denis asked. Corl didn't know, but he did know that they had to be prepared. They grabbed their weapons and began to train. Corl had feeling they still had time. Days past without any sign of trouble. Denis thought they should give up and relax. But Corl could still feel the tenseness. Anything could happen at any moment. Sub was in the forest, silently climbing through the trees. It was slower, but at least he wouldn't get caught. He found the cabin, Corl and Denis training outside of it. Sub watched them until the sun started to go down and they went inside. He then made his way down the tree and ran back to his own base.

"We will leave in a couple hours." Alex said as he heard the news. "Pack your stuff and I will tell you the plan." Corl couldn't sleep that night. He felt tense, so tense that even Denis felt it.

"Tomorrow." They said at the same time.

"We need to be ready." Denis stated.

"We will be ready." Corl assured him. They looked at each other. "we need to sleep, we need energy." and with that they fell asleep. When Corl woke up the sun was just rising. He ran to the computer. Alex had just left the town. They had time. Corl went back to sleep. He didn't want to waste any energy. He knew it took about a day to get to the cabin, if your going fast. They wke back up around noon, they made a big lunch. They ate half of their food, it wont matter anyways. They were never going to come back here. They saved the other half for dinner. They sharpened their swords and loaded their guns. They packed food in their bags. They were ready, almost.

"What if we lose?" Denis said. Corl hesitated.

"We wont.." He said slowly. "And if we do then... we wont stop trying to win. Not until we die." Finally it was dinner time. The sun was starting to set. Alex was ready. He was in the middle of a circle clearing. Sub and Sketch hid in the woods, ready for ambush.

"Let them come to us." Alex said, explaining the plan. Now he sat here, waiting. Corl checked his tracker, seeing that they had stopped.

"We can ambush them." He said, his voice tense. They prepared for battle.

"If anything goes wrong, I will say a code word, and you press this button." Denis handed corl a glove with a small red button on the back of it. He gave him a matching one, without a button. Corl noticed that Denis was also wearing gloves.

"Whats the code word?"

"Failed."

~~Present~~

Sketch was the first one to wake up. He struggled to get out of the ropes that Denis and Corl put him in. He was fooled. Alex wont be happy. Sub woke up next. Sketch noticed their was duct tape on their mouths. Sub and Sketch looked at each other. They had also developed a bond, but it was unspoken of. Finally Alex woke up. He muttered something under the tape, but nobody could tell what he said.

"Good morning!" Denis said with an evilly cheerful voice. He had to remind himself that he was not the evil one here. Corl sat behind Denis, looking somewhat sad.

"Its time for this game to finally be over!" Denis held a gun to Alex's head. Alex tried to say something again, Corl was pretty sure he was trying to tell Denis that he would die in real life.

"Denis, wait." Corl got up and removed Alex's tape.

"You fool! if you kill me I will die in real life too! That's why we waited so long to attack you! That's why HE," Alex motioned towards Corl, "waited so long to attack us! Its the only way to get back to the real world! one of us has to die!"

"Corl? Is this true.?" Denis looked up at his best friend.

"Yes. I should have told you sooner. I just didn't know how.."

"I forgive you... but now what do we do?" Corl was surprise Denis forgave him so easily. He guessed that was what best friends were for. He didn't want to make the same mistake again. But he knew either him or Alex had to die. He was stuck for options. Sketch murmured something. Corl took off his and Sub's tape.

"Thanks." Sketch said. "Does it have to be Corl or Alex who has to die?" Corl wondered if Sketch read his thoughts. "Or can it be anyone?"

"As long as someone from one side kills someone from the other side then everyone can go, except the person who was killed."

"Kill me." Sub said, looking down.

"NO! Y-You cant die!" Sketch protested.

"Its the only way..."

Nobody liked this idea. The fact someone had to be killed almost made them want to just stay there. But Alex could feel they had to get out of their tonight. Otherwise they would all die. He didn't tell the others about this. It wasn't nessesary, until now.

"What if we just stay here?" Sketch managed to choke out. He didn't want his best friend to die.

"We cant." Alex said harshly, not looking at anyone. "If we wait we will surely all die."

"Untie me!" Sketch demanded. "Untie Sub!" Denis and Corl did what they were told, also untying Alex. Denis sighed. He had prepared mentally to kill one of his friends.

"Ill do it.." Denis looked at corl. "Ive already prepared for this."

"Are you sure?" Corl said. Denis nodded and looked at Sub. Sub nodded and Denis lifted his gun. Alex held Sketch back before he could run to his best friend.

"DONT DO IT! PLEASE!" Sketch screamed. Sub looked at him.

"Don't forget me." Sub said. Denis shot the gun, looking away from sub. Sub fell to the ground. Sketch screamed and broke out of Alexs grip.

"no no no no..." Sketch cried over his dying best friend.

"Don't... forget... me.." Sub closed his eyes and lay dead still. Sketch held him closer.

"somethings happening." Corl said, looking at his hands. He was disappearing into blue particles.

"We are going home." Alex said as he disappeared.

"I'm sorry." Denis said to both Sub and Sketch before he joined Alex and Corl.

"I love you." Sketch disappeared with the rest of them.

Nobody speaks of that day. Nobody talks about how when they woke up they were being taken to a hospital due to severe brain damage. Sketch never told anyone what he said to sub. He never told anyone that sub replied with his last breath.

"I love you too.."

Nobody talks about how Sketch went on and on in the hospital about someone who should have been their with them. The doctors said that Sub was never a person. He had been erased from everyone elses brains. Alex, Denis, and Corl still remember him. But they didn't dare talk about him. Sketch was dragged away, screaming for his best friend. They didn't see him for a long time. After they recovered physically, they went their separate ways. Alex went to England. Denis stayed there in BC. Corl moved to Alberta.

Years later they all received a text. The number was unknown.

"Meet me at home. -S"

They all obeyed, and went to the place it all started. Denis's house in BC. The three of them sat in silence and waiting for something to happen. Moment later the door knocked. Denis silently got up and opened it.

"Sub?"

The man walked in and sat down. They all stared. This wasn't happening. and it wasn't.

"Hello." Said the man. It wasn't Sub. Sub had a British accent. This man had an American accent. "Yes I am sub." He lied.

It was a funny kind of lie. It was Sketch's truth. He truly believed he was Sub. But Sub was gone.

"Sketch? Why are you pretending to be.... him." Alex saw right through him. He was quite close with Sub before.... the event. Sketch said nothing. He stared at the wall, almost emotionless.

"I wont forget." Sketch whispered.

Alex, Corl, and Denis all did their part in helping Sketch. Soon he was back to, mostly, normal. Still he wont let let Sub die in his memory too.

"Don't forget me."

Once Alex caught Sketch talking to himself. Although in Sketch's perspective he was talking to Sub. Sketch tried not to talk about Sub around the others. He didn't want them being any more worried about him. This was how he lived, Sub being only a shadow in his mind.

But of course, something had to change. That's how life works. Things change all the time.

"Hi I'm looking for a good place to eat, do you know where the best one is?" A girl asked Sketch as he sat on a park bench.

"Just around the corner is a really nice place called The Downtown Foodery. Awful name, great food and service. Cheap pricing too." Sketch recalled when Sub would take him there.

"Sounds great. Could you show me the way?" She asked sweetly. He didn't see why not.

"I'm Jocelyn, by the way."

"Elijah. But most people call me sketch."

"Elijah.. I like it." She stated. "Can I call you Eli?"

"Sure."

They started walking.

"Ya know.. I'm really, uh shy around most people. I was wondering if you would eat with me so I'm not alone. I will pay for everything." Jocelyn blushed. Wow. Did she really just ask him out for lunch? It was so smooth that Sketch had to say sure. He was quite impressed. They walked in and were seated at a table for two. They ordered, Sketch tried to order the cheapest thing. He felt guilty that he forgot his wallet. They started talking about their lives. Sketch told her how he loved games and was trying to become a game developer. She told him how she loved to write. She was trying to be either a story writer or a script writer. She told him about her most recent story. He was fascinated.

"Oh my gosh!" He gushed. "That's an amazing idea!"

"T-thank you!" Her smile was so wide. He started talking about a game he was making. It was like Fortnite in VR, but it looked more realistic and has different goals.

"Sounds like fun!" She said, wide eyed.

"Not when its real life." He laughed, but quickly added, "But yeah as a game its super fun. Glad its not real life. That would never happen.." She laughed.

"You never know.." Jocelyn said.

When they finished their food Jocelyn paid the surprisingly cheap bill. They walked out.

"That was really fun! If you know anymore good places to eat just text me and we will try them out." She handed him a piece of paper with her phone number on it.

"That was smooth." Sketch blurted. She laughed.

"Thanks." She winked at him and walked off.

"I cant believe I said that out loud." Sketch said to himself as he walked home.

~~~ A year later~~

"Eli, baby, can you help me?" Jocelyn said, moving a heavy box.

"Of course, my Flower." Sketch helped her carry the box into their new apartment. They have been dating for 11 months and finally decided to move in together. She already stayed in his apartment all the time anyways. Now they were finally moving in together. Sketch barely talked to the rest of the group during this year. They visited sometimes but once again, they had grown apart. Alex and Corl went back. Denis stayed. Sketch wondered why Denis always stayed. Corl knew it was because he blamed himself for Subs death and waited for him to return. Sub never returned. Sketch didn't think about Sub anymore. He had other things to think about. Like Jocelyn, who he gave her pet name "Flower" because of their second date. He brought her to a field full of purple flowers. She loved them so much, and he loved her so much. He was so madly in love that he had done the one thing Sub told him not to do; forget him. Years went by. Sketch, who mostly went by Elijah now, asked Jocelyn to marry him.

"Would you, my flower, promise to stay with me no matter what, to love me past death, to make me yours for all eternity, and marry me?" Elijah was on one knee in front of her.

"Oh my god, YES!" She bent down and kissed him passionately as he slipped the ring on her finger.

And at that moment Sub was totally forgotten.