10 Years Ago...

Sky's POV

I stumbled downstairs, the scent of cooked pork-chop making my mouth water. My mom was in the kitchen, cooking breakfast while my younger sister Elizabeth chatted excitedly to her. "Morning." I yawned groggily. Elizabeth laughed. "You have really bad bed head Adam!" I grinned mischievously. "Not as bad as yours' is gonna be!" She squealed as I tackled her to the ground and started messing up her hair. I laughed as she sat up, her hair sticking out wildly in all directions. "Damn you." She muttered. My mom stepped over us, shaking her head and smiling. I got up off of the floor and helped my sister up, then flopped down in my seat. I closed my eyes, breathing in the luscious aroma of pork. When I opened them my sister was staring at me. "Adam, you're supposed to eat it, not sniff it!" I laughed and picked it up, tearing into the tender meat. My mom sat down and began to do the same. You're probably wondering where my dad fits into this picture. Truth is, I've never known my dad. He was killed by an Enderman while on a mining expedition with 20 others from our village. A mob stampede ensued while they were in the mineshaft and only 8 returned. We heard a knock at the door as we were finishing up and my mom stood up, walking over to it and opening it. I grinned as it swung open to reveal my best friend Ty. I glanced at Elizabeth. Her cheeks were flushed red as she tried to focus on her breakfast. I smirked. She'd had a crush on Ty ever since I'd introduced them to each other a year ago. I stood up. "Bye mom." She hugged me and held me still as she attempted to smother my bed head down. "It is bad." I squirmed, trying to wriggle out of her grasp. "It's fine, it's fine! Can I go now?" She drew away from me, surveying me. She smiled and tilted her head to one side. "Fine! You can go! Have a great first day back Adam!" "Thanks mom!" I rushed past her, then swivelled back round and ran to her side, giving her cheek a quick peck before running back to Ty. We walked away, waving to my mom and sister, who's cheeks were still glowing. As the door shut behind us I turned to Ty. "Well, what did you do for your summer?" He grimaced. "I had to go on a camping trip to the Southern Mountain biome with my brother and dad. You know, one of those father-and-son thingies." I laughed.

"I take it that didn't go as planned!" He shrugged. "Wasn't bad I guess. But I nearly killed my brother twice cus he would...not...stop...SNORING!" I laughed again as Ty grinned. I checked the time on my watch. "C'mon, I said we'd meet Mitch and Jerome at The Oak at 10 to!" We started running. The Oak was a HUGE tree in the centre of our village that we'd built a treehouse in for Jerome. Jerome was a friendly Bacca that had arrived at our village as a cub, friendless and with no family. Mitch's family took him in as they'd recently lost Mitch's younger brother to Milasomia, a disease developed by a bad glitch in Minecraft's code, that had caused a mass outbreak that had already affected thousands of players on countless servers. It was a fatal, incurable disease that had claimed many lives already. My family had been lucky. Ty had lost his uncle and godfather to it. He and I skidded to a halt at the base of The Oak. "Mitch?! Jerome?!" Two heads peeked down at us from the dense foliage above. One furry and the other humanoid. Jerome and Mitch. "Hey doods, you ready to go?!" "Yep!" Jerome hollered down, popping the P. Mitch swung himself down from a thick bough and hit the ground; landing beside us. He looked up as Jerome landed too. As we walked along in the direction of the school, Mitch started up another conversation. "Who do you thinks gonna join this year?" I shrugged. Ty frowned slightly. "I saw some kid I didn't know the other day...and I know everyone here!" I tilted my head to one side in curiosity. "Was he quite tall; had brown hair and blue eyes?" Ty's brown eyes widened. "Yes!" I smiled grimly. "Yeah, I know who he is. There's loads of rumours going round 'bout him." "We should be nice to him then if he's getting hurt by people all the time!" I frowned. "Yeah, Mitch. I agree, but one of the rumours is that he's insane!" Mitch grinned and shrugged. "Yeah well, we're insane too right?!" He high-fived Jerome and laughed hysterically as his furry friend started doing dumb imitations of me. I shook my head. "Real mature Jerome, real mature!" Ty nudged me. "Carry on." I pursed my lips. "Yeah well, apparently he's insane and some people have said he has some sort of alter ego." Ty looked at me like I was the mad one. "Your point is?!" I looked down. "I just- if he is insane, I don't want my friends to get hurt." Ty looked at me, then grinned. "Since when were you such a big softie?!" "Well, I-"

"Hold up!" They all looked at SSundee. "You guys actually believed all those rumours?!" Sky shifted uncomfortably. "Well, you can't really blame us!" Ty averted his eyes and Mitch suddenly found his bow very interesting. SSundee sighed and gestured for Sky to carry on. He nodded and cleared his throat, "Right, where was I, oh yeah-"

"Since when were you such a big softie?!" "Well, I just don't want to lose you guys. Problem?" Ty shook his head. "Seto!" I looked round and saw Mitch giving our old friend Seto a bro hug. "Dood, we haven't seen you since last term!" "Well...I've been-" He struggled to find the right choice of words. "-busy." Mitch nodded and Jerome grinned at Seto. I walked up to him. "So, how've you been?" He sighed. "I'm good, you?" I grinned. "It's good to see all my friends again!" He grinned back at me. Suddenly I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. "Hey Ty." I whispered. "What?" "It's him." Mitch and Jerome went off to find their friends from last year, leaving me, Ty and Seto alone with him. Seto frowned. "Why are you guys acting so weird all of a sudden?" I stared behind him. Seto turned. A few chunks away a boy in a red T-Shirt and jeans sat drawing something in the dust with a stick. Seto turned back round to face us and raised his eyebrow; giving me a: are-you-being-serious-right-now?- look. I gestured wildly to the lonely boy, trying to convey the meaning of my words through them. Seto tilted his head to one side. "I'm gonna go talk to him if you guys are gonna act like sissies." With that, he turned round and walked over to the boy. Ty and I shrugged and followed him. Seto stood behind him, looking over the boy's shoulder at his drawing. My eyes widened as I realised what it was. It was a picture of a figure. But...there was something wrong. The figure's eyes were turned outwards, and despite the fact it was just a drawing, there was a sense of insanity in those crazed eyes that made me think there was more to this than it seemed. Seto cleared his throat. "Hey." The boy started and whipped round, eyes wide. "My names Seto." The boy stared at Seto's outstretched hand for a moment, then took it. "Ian. Nice to meet you." I smiled at him. "My names Adam, but most of my friends call me Sky." "And I'm Ty." Ian attempted a smile back, but it looked like he didn't do it much. Like he didn't have anything to smile about. He stood up as the other students started to wander in through the school gates. "Um, shall we like-" He gestured to the gates and I nodded, following Ty as we mingled with the other kids. I couldn't help but notice they all gave Ian a wide berth, like he was some sort of thing, rather than a person. I made sure to stick close by his side as we entered our classroom. We sat down and I watched as the teacher stalked into the room. "Right then, today we will be learning about crafting recipes." I rolled my eyes and stared out of the window. Here we go again...