MCSM Stories

Son of the End (4)

"So... you used to study Endermen?" I asked Crest, who was fiddling with an empty bottle. We were sitting at the edge, legs dangling above the void below. Crest had taken me to his "home" two days ago, which is really a small cave with very few items in it. He told me it was actually temporary, and that he's constantly on the move. It was really the only thing to do here, I guessed. Travel.

"Yeah... I did." Crest replied to me, keeping his eye on the bottle in his hands. "They just seemed really cool to me, well, when they aren't trying to kill you."

"Funny." I said. "When my friends and I still did building competitions, I picked 'Dead Enders' as a team name."

"Nice choice, dude."

"Yeah."

There was a moment of silence. I was gripping my bad arm, as it has started burning even worse recently.

Crest asked suddenly, "Do you think there's a way out of this place?"

I didn't say anything at first. The question had caught me off guard, and I thought for a minute.

"I hope so." I finally said.

I really did. This place was horrible. The unchanging landscape, the cold, and the loneliness. Even with another person, I felt constantly isolated.

"Ummm... Well, since there's really nothing to do, um, would you mind telling me about yourself? You know, since we're stuck here together with nobody else."

I cocked my head at him. That's when I remembered he probably hasn't heard about recent events because of being here, so I told him. About different temple raidings, Sky City, the mansion, Crown Mesa, and the Games. Besides making a few comments like "Cool," and "That actually happened?" he listened pretty well. I usually didn't open up to people about my adventures, as they either already knew what others had told them (Which usually wasn't that accurate) or they would be to busy trying to get my autograph. Crest idolized me, but not the super-obsessed type, but admiring pretty much everything I did- even falling off a chorus plant while trying to get to the fruit. Besides that and being a little loopy, he was a pretty ok guy.

After I told him about how I got here, he started to go on about how much "cooler" the Endermen here were compared to the ones in the Overworld. After about five minutes, I lost interest, and instead had my eyes fixed on my bad arm. The blackness had completely engulfed it, starting to spread up my neck and chest. The strange thing was, it seemed to be eating my armor as it went along. It was constantly hurting, but if I touched it I could feel it. I just hoped I could get out of this place before it could engulf me completely...

"Dude, you okay?" Crest's voice broke my train of thoughts. I looked over to him. He was looking back, and for the first time I noticed the heavy bags under his eyes.

"Well, you know about this, right?" I pointed at my arm.

"Well, yeah, it's pretty noticeable." he said.

"It's spreading."

There was a short moment of silence.

"Well, uhh..." Crest stammered. "Uhh... do you know what it is? 'Cause I don't."

I shook my head.

"Dang," he said. "I was hoping someone could explain... this."

He rolled up his dirtied sleeve to reveal a pitch black patch on his skin, just like mine- except it hadn't spread nearly as far.

"You have it too...?" I asked him, eyes widened.

He huffed. "Yeah. It hurts... all the time. It feels like Enderman skin. I just want it to be gone. But... I see you have it worse, heh."

I stared at him for a minute.

"I have a weird theory about why this is happening."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, you said that that weird writing described you as 'Son of the End', right?"

"Well..." he breathed. "I saw some similar phrase in a book I was reading about Endermen. And, like, it described me as 'The Prince's Servant'. And, I was reading this other book about this weird guy named Einde... It didn't say much about that dude, but it said something about facing his own son at the end of The End?"

'The end of The End', huh. Try to say that five times fast.

"So what I'm getting out of this is that I'M tied up in this huge prophecy and I'm also some monster prince." I said.

Crest nodded. "Well, yeah... the whole thing is... well, pretty scary. A famous hero being an Ender dude prince guy?"

"Let... let me think about this for a second." I breathed.

If what Crest said was right... then I was some form of Enderman. And this Einde person, whoever he was, was my dad, which made me a prince? Did that mean I belonged here...? I have to fight Einde? Who even is Einde!? Suddenly, the pain in my arm got a lot worse, and it started spreading up my neck and across my chest quickly. I gripped my head, my breath becoming quick and infrequent.

I heard Crest stand up. "Dude, dude. Calm down. Don't think about this too hard, come on."

I tried my best to keep my breathing steady, and the pain in my arm and neck dulled. I exhaled, closing my eyes.

Better not do that again, I thought.

"Um, dude, the black thing spreaded pretty fast."

I looked down, and mustered all of my strength to not have another panic attack. The blackness had spread a good eal across my chest and started going down my side, engulfing Ellegaard's armor even further.

"Note to self..." Crest began to himself. "Stress accelerates the black's spreading."

"No duh," I muttered.

"Hey, uh, dude, do you wanna... go for a walk or something? You know, to take mind off of... whatever happened."

"Yeah," I replied. "Sure."