Alternate 2020

Episode 4: The Nether (4)

The navy blue walls collapsed into itself as the smoke lifted. My light head was ringing slightly; I shook it fiercely getting my senses back.

A couple steps away, Sam was standing there looking at the display - to be more specific, Rose's hand. Her hand was placed on the display.

Rose began to get up using the wall as a support. Her head was tipping side to side as she squinted her eyes and then opened it fully.

Sam reached out - planning to grab her hand - but then, he stopped and slowly moved it towards his face. He began to chuckle a little, but then he laughed out, "Hahaha... what the hell is this? HAHAHA." He continued to laugh loudly in an evil way as Rose fully got up.

"Ugh..." Rose muttered as she placed her hand on her head.

"What's the situation... Sam?" I asked slowly as I began to get up turning towards Sam.

"'What's the situation?' you ask?" he replied. He smirked. "I wonder myself," he said while turning his head up towards Rose. "I wonder... what secrets are being hidden." His eyes were sharped like a predator waiting for his prey to show up.

I looked around and the turrets were nowhere to be seen. The walls were back to normal but something was different. A gap could be seen from the walls as it slowly opened up. Gradually, the light seeped through towards us as I slowly got up on my feet.

Rose and Sam slowly stepped back regrouping with me. We stared at the wall into the light as we saw a beautiful scenery presented in front of us.

The bright, tall, green grass and the colourful flowers scattered across the land. The overgrown vines stretched up far and wide across the buildings; it was an artwork, a masterpiece.

We cautiously headed into the place. The walls behind us began to close with a slight clattering sound. Our eyes were glued to the front ignoring what was happening behind us.

"Wow..." Rose said.

This place was different. The bright, blue sky covered the ceiling as the sunlight beamed on us. The white, fluffy clouds floated in the distance as we felt a slight breeze blowing towards us; it was all too real. It felt like we were standing outside on a sunny day - it was no different.

"What is... this place?" I said slowly printing the magnificent image in my mind.

"Who knows," Sam replied snappily. He turned and looked at Rose.

"This is... 'The Nether'...?" Rose said lifting her head a little; her eyes sparkled in the light.

"Well, it doesn't look nether-ish to me..." Sam said.

"Yeah... I had a different interpretation of 'The Nether'," I said. "I thought it would be somewhat... dark, or red-like buildings... just like in that game where there were lava and fire everywhere. I guess not then..."

Rose stepped forward, deeper into the grass. She crouched down and touched the flowers while smiling dearly. Her face slightly blushed as she turned around, "Hey, Ray! Look at this! Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yeah, it is... very pretty," I said smiling a little.

Rose continued exploring the area and found different coloured flowers on the way. Red, blue, white and yellow, she admired them left and right.

The last time I saw her smiling like this was when I began to wake up from my slumbers - the time I passed out due to the weird side effects of the time-related gas. Thinking about that made me blush a little.

Sam walked off into the distance - again - and roamed towards a nearby building. The buildings inside were different from the buildings outside. They were more elegantly built as if they were designed for the upper class or riches.

I followed him slowly and called out to Rose, "Rose, we're going to head in here for a bit. Do you want to come with us?"

"Erm... I'll be there in a bit!" she replied joyfully.

"Alright," I said but Sam had already walked far ahead of me.

The building was a two-floor high mansion with a double-sided staircase leading to the front entrance. It had stone fences around the edge of the staircase with elegantly looking patterns on it.

There were four pillars supporting the balcony hovering above the entrance. The smooth, stone bricks stacked up on top of each other forming the light-brown walls. The clear, square windows elegantly placed across it but we couldn't see the inside - it was dark.

We walked up the stairs towards the big brown doors - they were really tall.

Sam placed his small hands on both doors and pushed it. "Ugh!!!" He let out a sigh and said, "Why is this damn door so heavy?"

"Pfft."

"What!? What are you laughing at???" Sam said angrily looking back towards me.

"Sam," I said trying to hold in my laugh, "it's erm... it's locked."

He turned his head back towards the door and looked at the keyhole; his face turned a little red. "I knew that already!"

I turned around and laughed.

"Hey! Stop laughing! I already knew it was locked! I was just testing to see if erm... if the lock... erm... yeah! If it may be rusted or something... like... like erm... maybe we can get in by pushing it a little!" His face turned redder and redder each second.

"Yep, sure, sure." I continued laughing a little. "You're always right."

"Tch." He hurriedly walked past me and down the other side of the stairs.

"Hey! Where you going, Sam?"

"To. Look. For. The. Damn. Key."

"Pfffft," I giggled following behind him. "Hey, Rose," I began to say looking towards the grassy area. "Let's follow Sam-" I stopped.

Fiercely, I looked around. My eyes scanned the field as the grass waved in the wind. She wasn't there. She's gone.

"R-Rose...?" I slowly said. "Rose!"

Sam began to speak with an annoyed tone, "Hey, quit shouting."

"Rose!!!"

"Didn't you hear what I said?" he repeated turning around. "I said, stop shout-"

I ran towards the stone fences and placed my hands solidly on to it. "Rose! Where are you!?"

Sam ran back up the stairs towards me. He ducked down and looked through the gaps within the stone fences.

I held my fist into a ball and slammed it on the fence loudly. I turned to the left and paced my way quickly down the stairs while skipping some steps.

"What's going on!?" I shouted quietly. "Where is she!? Where did she go!!!"

I looked to my right looking towards the grassy area again; she still wasn't there.

"Shit! Where is she-"

I felt light. My body was light. I felt my head spinning a little. My head was still facing towards the grass.

"Why is my vision... rotating?" I thought to myself. "The fences... are now straight? No... it's now diagonal?"

I tried to step forward but I couldn't exert any force.

*Tumble*

*Tumble*

...

...

*Bang*