Monsters and Men

The Coldest Goodbye

Lurking in the shadows/ Watching your every move/ Tall dark and dangerous / A man with nothing to lose
~~~
The area between worlds is a dark void with the faint texture of dirt around you, as you fall from one light above you to the light below. It's a process players don't enjoy, so many don't often transfer worlds. But yet, sometimes it's needed and you must suffer the process. And that is what Thinknoodles was feeling when he fell from his world to the world Dan had sent him, and it felt like a long fall until he finally hit the floor.
He opens his eyes to the cool breeze of a forest, and the faint rustling of leaves. He groans as he waits for his head to stop spinning. It's never fun when you transfer servers, especially so suddenly. It may just be an overload in the code or just the transportation process, but it always seemed to make him dizzy whenever transferring worlds.
He lets out a groan as the world slows down and he can get a better view of the area he's in. James and Squid lay beside him, Squid still in the world transferring process (Justin can tell by the vague glitches around him) and James laying on the floor, likely dizzy too. Can't blame them, they've done two world transfers today, in a short span. He's sitting on soft and long grass, and the sky is dark, it must be night time. He can't see the moon though. No, that's hidden by the trees sticking out the ground like skyscrapers, each with masses upon masses of leaves. From what he can tell, it looks like a mix of spruce and dark oak. Finding his place, he can feel the soft dirt on his fingers and his glove which is not exactly wet but not perfectly dry either. It smells of rotting wood and flesh, as if there were zombies nearby. There's a torch nearby but nothing else. It's a sense of warmth with the coolness of the area around him.
"Hrngh...soup."
Ah, right, the other two. Think is snapped out of his curious solemnity by Squid's out of place statement, likely brought on by the drunkenness of spawning in.
"You aight, Squid?" Comes the other muffled voice of ThnxCya who has pulled his mask over his face, maybe due to the chill.
"Yes, yes yes, I'm okay, just, ah, spawning in." Squid rabbles out as he gets used to the area around him. After the trio get a look at the place, Squid turns to Think with a look of..he couldn't describe it if he was asked, but it sure was a face. A mix of sarcasm, surprise  and nervousness.
"Looks like it wasn't a prank, this place is creepy."
"Told you." Think responds, hoping that he sounds serious and that he doesn't seem smug.
"Are we sure we're in the right place?" James says, and Justin can tell he's still hoping it's just a prank.
Justin pulls out his communicator and checks. The bright screen of the device contrasts well with the area around him.
"Yep, all details correct."
Internally, he wonders the likelihood of someone getting it wrong. But they checked and double checked so that wasn't likely.
Justin looks around the place and can't see anything out of the ordinary, at least not up close. Except from the torch providing a small illumination. That could've been placed by anyone.
He looks back to the others and sees that they are looking around too. Squid appears to be punching a tree nearby, trying to get wood. James, meanwhile, has his eyes fixated on something in the distance.
"There's a woodland mansion over there." He clarifies, once he notices Think looking at him. "I think Dan is in there."
Justin turns to see what he's looking at, and can't see anything, it just appears to be hidden in the dark fog. Squid comes up behind them and looks.
"Oh, yeah!" Evidently, Squid can see it too, but Justin can't.
"Maybe I'm blind, maybe I'm old, but I can't see a thing." He admits, leading to a quiet chuckle from someone. He gives the two a glare which makes whoever was laughing shut up. "Lead the way, James, I'm curious now."
James nods before beginning to walk in that direction. A few of the trees block a clear path to the woodland mansion, which leads the group to swerve around them. It appears from the few rocks around them that someone tried to lay a path here, but was too lazy to finish it.
The closer they get, the more the mansion comes into view, including the lights that glisten in the dark night. Soon enough, they are face to face with a woodland mansion, and it's one of the biggest Justin's ever seen.
Built up with walls made of spruce, he can swear he can hear creaking of rotting, soaked wood closer to the ground. Some dark terracotta is inlaid in the walls, surrounding windows which look like they lead into a dark abyss. Looking up, the mansion is tall, with the normal 2 floors of a mansion being thrown away for a towering three walls. Most strikingly, however, is the soul lanterns that line the walls. Each ledge that juts out has at least one soul lantern shining onto the window below, sometimes showing a shelf with some cornflowers and blue orchids placed in flowerpots. It's overwhelmingly blue, leaving it to blend well with the blue sky behind them. It's as if this mansion has been modified, possibly by a player. Standing out amongst the crowd to grab people into it's tricks and traps. It's uncanny, and sends a shiver down Justin's spine. Looking at the other two, they're scared too, with Squid dropping his humorous demeanour and biting his lip in nervousness and James pulling his hood up, sinking further into the comforting warmth of his hoodie and mask. It must be the lanterns, James has always hated those.
Justin vaguely regretted wearing a t-shirt, but quickly shoved those thoughts out of his head. This was not the time to worry about what he was wearing. Dan might be in there. And someone has to go and rescue him.
He looked at the other two. "Guess we're going in."
James shook his head, cowering slightly.
"There's no way we're going in there without any weapons. Wood will do, but we're not going in empty handed."
Justin looks at Squid expectantly, and James does the same.
"Oh, right, my wood! Yeah, let me craft a crafting table and we'll have some wood weapons. That's okay?"
James nods, still sunken into his clothing.
Squid starts crafting three wooden axes, quickly placing the wood and creating three at once. It doesn't take him long at all, and he quickly kicks the crafting table down and picks it up. He throws the axes to Justin and James, and they both pick them up. Justin fiddles with the axe, it's quite light and not too good for fighting. He hopes it will be enough for now.
"Okay, now we've got weapons." He looks back at the mansion, specifically at the spruce doors with their golden handles. The only speck of yellow in a mansion of blue. "Shall we head in?"
James and Squid silently nod. Justin takes the lead and walks up the steps to the double doors, ignoring the menacing squeaks of the wood and pushes lightly in the crease where the doors meet. They open slightly, with a screech as they do. Justin whips around to make sure he hasn't disturbed anything. He hasn't, and James and Squid are waiting patiently behind him, James fiddling with the end of his hoodie. He turns back to the door and properly opens it, ignoring the creaks and stepping inside.
~~~
A/N
I don't know what to put here. Have fun with the chapters?