Pause

Ice Cube

                The eerie hissing of a spider woke Gavin as he slept. The cold night grew colder as he listened to the water lap over the sand, it was soothing, but there was no getting back to sleep as the spider went from beside his house to the roof.

                He sat up and lit a torch. Slowly, he looking around at the load of art he had collected, it covered every free space of wall. His eyes found the biggest piece of art and he smiled to himself as memories rushed through his mind. Of course he had only three towers locked behind the doors, but he was expecting more in the future. There was no doubt he was the underdog of the group, but he was ready to step up. 

                To his luck, he did have the current title of King. It didn’t really mean much at all, during one of the events, he would be in command, and that was about it. But planning and arranging events, it was something he did often.

                When the sun began to rise, Gavin pulled himself out of bed. He opened the chest that he placed in the floor and grabbed a pork chop. As he opened his door, a chicken clucked and laid an egg. Gavin shoved it in his backpack and continued to the bulletin board of Achievement City.

                Geoff was already standing there, his helmet fastened on his head as he looked over the board. “You’re not ready for King Gavin yet, right?” Gavin shook his head.

“No.” Geoff didn’t speak as he tore down the old sign and placed a new one. He grabbed a jar of ink and paint brush. “I think it’s time we do Ice Cube. It’s ready and set up. Don’t want to risk the weather changing and the damn thing melting. It took long enough to build.”

“You’re right.” Geoff neatly printed ‘Ice Cube’ on the sign and put the jar away. “Let’s hope it lives up to the hype. We’ve all been excited for this.”

“It will.”

                Ray was the next to leave his house. Gavin quickly tackled the young man and rubbed his fist in his hair. Ray fought him off and straightened his suit before turning to face his attacker. But soon the stare down was interrupted by the last of the Lads.

                Michael was fussing with his hat when Geoff stormed passed him and into Ryan’s house. “Wake up, dickhead.” He called before moving onto Jack’s house. He shouted a few profanities before busting the safe block, leaving lava to slowly leak from the ceiling. Jack was up and plugging the hole. “Morning, Sunshine.”

                When everyone was ready, Geoff collected them in the center of the logo. “Can’t we wait until after lunch today?” Ray complained, eyeing a chicken as it walked by him. Gavin pulled a steak from his bag and handed it to Ray.

“We start now, because no one knows how long it’ll take to play. Could be twenty minutes, could be all day.” Geoff rummaged through his bag and showed off a stack of steak. “I’ve got food handled. Now, if you don’t know, Ice Cube is the game of the day. There have been rumors and we all helped in building it.” The boys groaned as the memory flashed in their head. Countless blocks of ice, frozen hands and tired achy muscles were the only thoughts at this point. “Now we get to destroy it.” And they instantly cheered up.

                Gavin lead the group on the journey. Through woods and over water, they trekked to the site where a giant block of Ice sat. Ladders lead to small ledges that held a bed, a chest and a block of obsidian.

                Gavin stood at the bottom of a ladder; he peered through the ice at Jack as he was already at the top of his ledge. With a deep breath, he started his climb to the top. His only thought every time he prepared for a new challenge was, I can go home after this. Just prove I’m worthy of going home. But it never made sense to him. He was home, this was the only home he knew. These people were the only people he knew.