"What do you mean?" I say slowly, hardly hearing what he just said over the terrified blank buzz of my brain.

"Well, um, members of Juzoos aren't allowed to leave. And... now that you're a member... you have to stay here." he says, his smile faltering for once.

"B-but what about m-my f-family?" I surprise even myself by remaining so calm and remembering to sound like a scared, lost girl.

"I'm sorry. But who needs family anyway, when you can live in the Hidden City! We are totally safe! We're happy and secluded and there will never be war or famine!" Exdee cries looking like an excited little boy. "Come on, I'll show you to the newcomers lodge!" Exdee cries, throwing his hands above his head and dancing around. I'm frozen, unfollowing. I can't stay here. Yes, you can't! Why? I challenge. Because, these people will kill you like they killed... never mind. Voice! Killed who!? Well I don't want to tell you. Why? Because then you might not want to leave. Arrgh! Answer me! Now! The voice is silent.

I run to catch up with an unfazed Exdee. He grins at me, grabs my arm and marches me up to a fancy quartz building. The floor is jungle plank and pillars of jungle wood hung with vines and lichen greet with a beautiful tropical atmosphere. I smile contentedly. This is exactly how I would have built this building. It's inside yet it feels almost outside. Even the air is rich with cocoa and butterflies and exotic smells. Exdee leads me up to a quartz desk where a very different looking woman sits rapt with attention.

"Hello - Madam Esse Jena Viscera. How will you be known?" I frown. How does she know my name!? "Ahem. What would you like to be known as here until you die." she clarifies as though trying to explain counts to a toddler - which is in a bored, drawling way. I don't plan on being here until I die unless I die trying to escape. But I suppose I need a new identity - no way Esse Jena Viscera will be going into the record books.

"S." I say firmly. The woman raises her eyebrows and I hear a pen scrawling on the record book. Oh! She wants a last name! "Erm... Somnum." I say, using my language classes from Prisseters to my advantage.

"Just S?" Just S, Just S, Just S... echoes around my head and I promptly flashback. I grip the desk tightly and hope I don't fall down as I drift into my memories... "Just S?" the man during my first class of school is asking. I'm scowling angrily. "That's S back to you! Believe it!" I'm yelling back before I stomp off. Then shadows are running off the walls, I'm being consumed by darkness... lightning crashes and a big cyclone is right above the school - these aren't my memories! I realize with a jolt. Then I'm back again standing up at the counter staring off into space.

"Esse? Esse-" the woman is asking coldly.

"Shut up! It's S - is there something wrong with your ears!?" I'm crying as I slide into the present easily. Then, "sorry," I mumble uncharacteristically. The woman stands up angrily, slams her book shut and says with some deserved ice,

"Very well, S, this way." she leads me up a jungle plank staircase, through a quartz hallway and a double-door proclaiming 'New Member Wing' and into a small main room which housed jungle-plank benches, pots of flowers, and a workshop space including furnaces, crafting tables, an enchanting table and all the necessities and other work tables and bookshelves to enhance the enchanting table. I can also see an anvil peeking out from behind a loom and an onslaught of experimental banners hanging up all over the place.

"This is the main room, as you can see there are three doors on both sides of the room. These are newcomer rooms. Currently only one is being used. You may have the door across from room one, room two I presume." said the clerk lady. "Materials such as lapis, redstone, gold, and iron may be found in the material chests for your pleasure. You are not to leave this room unless a senior citizen of the city comes and requests you, then you are required to go wherever they tell you and come when you call." the lady says and slams the iron doors behind her.

There is no way to open the doors from this side, and when I try to mine the wall I realize why it was three blocks thick. Jungle wood on the inside, quartz on the outside, and a protective layer of obsidian in the inner layer. Obsidian. Well, if worst comes to worst I have an enchanted shovel. Not. I have no idea how the shovel got removed from my inventory, but it's gone. Urgh! Impossible! Why didn't I think ahead and ask more questions before I agreed to become a member! I rebuke myself angrily.

Since I am here, I decide to do some work. I open one of the numerous material chests. There are compartments full to the brim with gold, redstone, iron, various dyes, foods, wheat bales, sugar, leather, armor, lapis... and diamonds! I can make a pickaxe to break through obsidian in no time! I grab a handful of diamonds and some sticks and begin crafting. Soon a shining, glittering diamond pickaxe lays in my palms.

I punch through the wood and into the obsidian- and it doesn't break. I frown, and punch again. And again. Angrily I throw my pickaxe to the floor and throw myself onto the ground angrily. Why? Even the iron doors and glass windows are unbreakable! How is this possible? No wait - it's impossible. The only unbreakable block is bedrock and... S, you just figured it out. Bedrock? These people use the subconscious with zeal. Many things are possible in my realm...

Okay. So what now? And what does the voice mean about bedrock and subconscious? Ugh, sometimes I wish the voice just doesn't say anything instead of weird cryptic 'tips'. They are not cryptic! This whole place is made of bedrock which has been transmogrified into other objects. You know the rest, S. Okay, so that makes a lot more sense. But still... it doesn't. How can these people turn bedrock... into other materials and items? And what does it mean I know the rest?

I guess I have to figure it out. I reach into the chests and bring out TNT, gunpowder, diamonds, and redstone torches. I position the TNT in a small four-squared block. And light on up before running in the other direction. The TNT goes up in smoke with a bang, but doesn't even displace anything else in the entire room. It's like it exploded but didn't explode anything besides itself. Then I try crafting with gunpowder. I arrange gunpowder and sticks, gunpowder and torches... nothing.

The subconscious isn't all bad. There is a light side to it. But with the light must be the dark to bring balance. With no balance the dark comes in. What are you saying? You must use the subconscious, unlock your potential. No! The subconscious is evil! There is no way I'm going to fall for that. The voice ignores me. Why do you think you were chosen over the legendary Ay? Brave and just Jules, or perhaps Good and Moral Arjay? You have the power to unlock so much... twice aptitude, so it seems.

This startles me. I have never thought about it like that. I wasn't the only one who went through the portal, and I wasn't even the one who created the portal. Yet the voice says I was the only one to inherit this curse... because I have the most subconscious aptitude. This is terrible. But... I'll die at the end of the possession at this voice's hand. And there is no way I'm going to do anything that will give the subconscious more power when I die.

But I knew something from before... something distinctly not subconscious that can break the bedrock. I just don't know what it is... ding! The bell shakes and lets out a waily sound through the bedrock's sound-absorbing walls. A second later the iron - or are they bedrock? Anyhow, the doors open and there stands Exdee. "Hey S! Come on, the lady says you can come down to the swimming pool with me!" I frown, and am about to say no thank you when I remember that I 'must go whenever somebody senior asks.' Ya, right Exdee is senior. But I guess he is because the lady opened the doors for him to take me. Darn.

The pool water is surprisingly warm. "It's heated by magma blocks underneath the pool floor!" Exdee grins as though reading my thoughts. Then his burly father walks in, obviously scowling. He reminds me of Kelia... she's probably dead, though, so they don't have that in common.

"Exdee! It's midnight and your mother is sick with worry! Get that girl in bed!" He orders another woman pointing at me before turning and scolding Exdee some more. Two women grab me sharply and drag me out of the water, digging their fingernails into my skin.

"Yowch!" I yelp, which is hardly fair considering I was forced to come down here and earnestly want to be in bed. But still, they drag me like a prisoner, which I guess I am, and throw me into my room. Rude. My bed is quite comfortable, actually, and it feels great to have an armor stand to hang up my uncomfortable outerwear. I yawn and close my eyes.

I wake up and get dressed, ready for another day of tiring TNT, redstone, and hopefully not Exdee, but probably. But as I open my door someone else is opening theirs from straight across from me. And my eyes meet someone elses who I never thought I would see again.

Author's Note

Two whopping chapters in one day! I never thought I would be able to do this again!

Did you know S's last name, Viscera, is Latin for the Dutch word 'Lef' which is the shortened version of my real last name? And, furthermore 'Lef' means guts, and S is a very gutsy brave person - sometimes too gutsy for her own good like in chapter 2. Talk about a coincidence! Also 'Somnum' means nightmare in Latin.

Jena: S's middle name. It stands for Jenna, which is my best friend's favorite book character - she wrote Red Sea Explorers - which you can find on Amazon under Cecilia Tannaci and Sage Lefers - with me!

Also, I drew S again! Yay!

Please consider voting and giving me suggestions and ideas for future chapters!

Just Be!