"Where is she?"
"Who?"
"Niki, she's supposed to join us today" Eret responds.
After the disappearance of Skeppy and BadBoyHalo, they were going out of control, trying to distract about fourteen fandoms already but now having two added to their list was driving them insane.
Kristin told them yesterday about Phil's sudden disappearance in the mall, being kept in the dark of what really happened to the members, they suggested that Kristin should stay with any friends or family members that can watch over her. Their enemy randomly picks people, and they're mostly content creators, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
After countless on twitter mentions, flooding questions from tiktok, their twitch streams, reddit and discord. One is bound to explode just by coming up with stories to tell. One of them being a huge plan being created off-screen, something the missing dream smp member will take care off once they come back safe and sound.
Especially Dream, Bad was the one who told the audience that Dream is currently working on something special behind the scenes like a song or a collab series. They were aware of what Dream plans with music, so they used that secret to calm his fandom. The others? well some of them are used to being starved of content, the other groups were used to getting daily streams so, that's what the remaining dream smp members are trying to satisfy.
So some of them proposed to hold a meeting to pitch in ideas on how they can satisfy the fans who missed their creators after not streaming for days, not even a cameo on different shows. A new storyline? Done. Joining another SMP server? Finished. Trying to dodge the questions of 'where is...' is digging them a deeper grave than they already have. Every day seems like they're walking on eggshells whenever they go on live or post anything on social media.
Currently, it's just Ponk, Eret and Puffy in the call, still holding off their meeting for five more minutes in case somebody joins late and has to revisit all the ideas getting pitched in.
A ding notified them about the arrival of someone in the discord voice chat. Eret spared a glance on the list of people in it before greeting the lady who they're all waiting for.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late" Her voice barely whispered as she apologised. Shuffles can be heard at her side of the call, searching for something before silence fell as the sound of page-turning replaced it, indicating her pulling out a notepad.
"It's ok"
"Alright, shall we start?" Eret asks, clasping his hands together after rolling his seat further to the table. After hearing collective hums from everyone, he then asked them for their ideas for distracting the fandoms.
"Unrelated but that soundboard idea was so uncomfortable," Ponk said, referring to the idea Hbomb had sent into the group chat earlier before excusing himself, having a family emergency.
"We're just gonna ignore it, any other ideas?" Eret agrees but they need to figure something out, fast.
"How about another collaboration with the Hermitcraft peeps?" Puffy suggested. In the background, they started hearing clicks from someone's mouse. After finding out their similar situation, both members from different SMPs decided to work together until everything goes back to normal, It did great but not enough.
"Yeah, they're nice and need distractions like we do" Niki jumps in as they wait for Eret's input.
"Like an... Olympic event kind of thing?" Eret asked as both of the girls hummed in agreement
"Yeah sure, I'll contact them later" he affirms.
"Also about the MCC, what are we going to do about it?" Ponk questioned, sounding a little distracted as the clicking noise seemed to multiply in the background.
The long-awaited second season of the Minecraft Championship is due in five days, and two days before they started contacting creators whether they'll be joining the event through the general discord where different Minecrafters are in, along with the event organisers. They were worried that if the group of missing people don't reply, they'll start getting suspicious, along with the crowd that waits for their creators joining the fun.
Their absence will cause issues with creators and their audiences. It's least likely for some of the missing people to miss MCC.
"Should we tell them?" Puffy asked, making the others think about the downfalls of going down that path.
"We can trust them... right?" Niki was sceptical of the idea but it's not like they can keep the secret for a long amount of time.
"Not sure, but if we don't figure something out until tomorrow... we're gonna have to tell them" Eret concludes. Silence came except for the clicks in the background that started annoying them little by little.
"Who is making that noise?" The British male asked, a little irritated, finally addressing the constant repeating sound. Niki was the first person who opened her mouth.
"Not me"
"Me neither" The ladies declined, leaving them to ask the other person in the chat.
"Ponk?"
"Sorry, there's this annoying ad that keeps popping up" The male replied, flustered.
"Maybe you installed a virus"
"I'm sure I didn't" He responds
They all waited patiently for the man to sort out his ads problem before they continue, not wanting to waste any time, Eret opened the discord server the Hermits invited him to bring the idea of an Olympic event to the table while Niki curled in her seat with her note propped on her knees, softly humming to herself, unlike Puffy who pulled out her phone after a 'Ding!'.
During the conversation Eret held with Impulse and False, at the edge of his peripheral a sudden ad popped up, talking about his apparent need to escape reality. Paying no mind to it, he closed the tab only for it to reappear once more, now something about a free vacation raffle he can join.
"I think the discord is the problem." He muttered, catching the attention of everyone.
"I'm sorry what?" Niki asked, thinking she missed vital information.
"I'm getting the ads too." He replied, clicking off the ads that seem to multiply every time he closed one.
"Ponk, how did you fix yours?"
"I haven't, it's still here!" The other male exclaimed, irritated. The ads were coming in like a flood that he can't keep out.
"Wait, I'm having them too!" Puffy chimed. "What the hell?!" She exclaimed before starting to eliminate the tabs.
"Try closing chrome on the task manager" Niki suggested, waiting for her friends as she listened to their clicks and frustrated grunts until it also started occupying her screen. She decided to pay them no mind, thinking it'll go away if she doesn't do anything but at the same time worried for her PC's condition.
"It's still here!" It was obvious everyone was getting irritated by the pop up occupying most of their screen, even after forcefully stopping chrome.
Until suddenly, it all just disappeared altogether, confusing them. They all went down as if it was the calm before the storm.
And it was.
A loud, piercing scream of a woman from horror games made them recoil, throwing their headphones away as they jumped off their seats, tripping over their own feet leaving them sitting on the floor breathing heavily while holding their chest who contained their racing heartbeat, not expecting the sudden jumpscare. They could only stare at their monitor that now displayed a black screen
After a long period of silence, Eret cursed out loud:
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
He pulled out his phone to open discord and check on everyone when he heard another faint scream from his headset, slightly muted by the distance. Noticing something different from the edge of his vision, he looked up in confusion and horror as the default skin, Steve from Minecraft stood there.
No, it wasn't Steve. Eret thought as his eyes fell upon the glowing pair of orbs the skin was sporting. This is Herobrine. But why is his character showing up now?
Mustering the slight courage he had left, he stood up and cautiously approached the frozen screen or so he thought.
The screen glitched out, making him stand still and take a step back to lean on the wall as his discord loads to hear distorted voices of his friends asking if everyone was alright.
"He-hello? Is every... one o-okay?!" He hears Niki ask but he kept his attention on his monitor, not wanting to miss anything out of the ordinary
"Ca-can't... hear you...!" Ponk exclaimed, at that, he spared a little bit of attention on the device in his hand. A mistake.
Like what his computer screen displayed before. His phone screen only displayed a glitching image of a smile similar to Dream's avatar but minus the body of his youtube profile.
"Hey, hacker! It's not funny, stop it now!" Eret shouted staring at the camera of his phone when his eyes caught the letters being typed on his screen.
L...O...O...K...U...P
He lifted his head to stare at his computer when a long hand shot out of his screen, he didn't have any time to react when it's fingers wrapped around his throat. His hand shot up to hold it, trying to pull it away as he attempts to wriggle out of its grasp.
"Let me... Go!" He grunts out, hitting the arm with his left fist, the more he struggled, the more the oxygen was being pumped out of his lungs, his sight was getting blurry.
The lack of air started to make him feel lightheaded, weak enough to stop fighting away from the solid grip on his throat as he gasps out for a small smidge of air to keep him conscious. But it was all futile as everything around him started to blur and the dark spots from the edge of his eyes started to spread from the side.
He always thought that living only to die was cruel, imagine carrying a person in your body for nine months of hardship, pushing them out and nurturing them to adulthood for eighteen years only to die in the end because of extreme sickness, natural causes, idiotic mistakes or by their own kind's doing.
Death is an event the universe has prepared for everyone at birth, an event no one can't deny or dodge because whatever you do, it'll always come after you because it's destiny. And destiny will always be fulfilled.
But he didn't expect it to come so soon.
His life flashed before his eyes, every joyful and exciting memory as a child, the stupid decisions he made as he grows, all the people he learned to love and let go, along with the embarrassing moments he wished to share to his future spouse and children. He had plans and he has dreams he wanted to achieve
But with the current event, he doubts he will achieve them as the darkness welcomed him in its cold embrace. He felt suspended in the air, everything seemed to fade as the air started filling up his lungs once more. Maybe he is already dead but if he is, why does he feel oddly conscious?
From behind his eyelids, there's a faint light and slight warmth that made it clear that he is indeed still alive and breathing, how? He has no idea.
Slowly he opened his eyes, to see a blurry scene of dark grey that slowly turned lighter as it descended down his sight. He could hear someone talking but they sound distorted, he could feel a light touch on his shoulder
Where is he? and why is his vision so blurry and monotone?
"–is that you?"
As he lay there with his thoughts, the sound in the background slowly started to be audible to him then, like a firework shooting up to explode, familiar voices started surrounding him as his vision went into focus.
"–are we?"
"Eret?" Niki's voice was worried as he called for him as a shadow hovered on top of him.
Squinting his eyes, his vision cleared up and found himself staring into light grey eyes with black eyeliner and long strands of the same colour tickling his cheeks.
"Niki?"
"Wake up, we have a problem..."