Writing Championships #5

Pink Procrastinators

Prompt: Lost forever

When Zed had asked Impulse to create a passage directly to the void for him, he knew deep down that it would come back to bite him one day.

His friends always said that his curiosity would be the death of him one day. Sometimes, it was a lighthearted joke. Other times...it was more serious.

"You're just too curious," Impulse reasoned one day. "You know...if you go too far, there's a chance you might not come back. Take that literally or figuratively. I'm just trying to watch out for you, okay?"

But Zed had never really listened to them until it was too late.

Zed was wandering his Cave of Contraptions, admiring the changes Grian had made to the place. There were stone columns supporting the roof of the Cave, making it seem more natural. Grian was starting to add foliage around too, so the area didn't look so bland.

Zed's foot slammed against something hard, and he winced at the pain momentarily. As he looked down, he realized he was standing in front of the iron trapdoor that marked the fall down to the void.

Grian hadn't touched this part of the Cave. When Zed had been giving him a tour, he had backed away warily from the void hole. Zed had been surprised by that--Grian was just as fun-loving and risk-taking as he was.

"Why do you have that?" Grian had asked. "I mean, the void is dangerous. And you have a hole leading straight to it?"

Zed flicked the lever a few times, watching the trapdoor flap open and shut. With each click, Grian winced. "You have no idea how long it took to convince Impulse to break the bedrock," he said with a laugh.

That laugh had died when he saw the look on his friend's face.

"You're tempting fate here, Zed," Grian said with a shake of his head. And that had been the end of their discussion.

Now, Zed knelt down to the trapdoor again. His hand hesitated over the lever, and he was surprised with himself at his caution. Then, he laughed. He was just taking everyone's advice too seriously.

Nothing was going to happen.

You're tempting fate, Grian's voice rang in his head again. Zed told the voice to shut up, and he slammed down the lever with a bit more force than intended.

He peered down the trapdoor, straight down to the void. The void was pitch-black, and it seemed to be sucking him in even from this high up. But that was one of the dangers he'd come to expect when it came to dealing with the place.

Zed noticed a thin rope swaying back and forth just above the void, and a smile spread across his face. "Yoyo! Is that you, you old pig?"

He let himself fall downwards. His Elytra caught him as he landed safely in a room hollowed out above the void--the original campsite for when Impulse had been breaking the bedrock. This was where Zed had been conducting experiments about the void, trying to get a feel for how it worked.

The lead that attached Yoyo, his test pig for the void, to a fence post was wearing thin. Zed noticed that the rope was pulled taut, just barely saving poor Yoyo from the wrath of the void below him.

"Oh, no," Zed muttered. "I'm gonna have to replace that lead soon, aren't I?"

Yoyo let out a small snort as if to respond.

"Okay, big guy. Give me a moment." Zed leaned down to grab the end of the lead that was tied to Yoyo and started to pull him up. "Man, you're heavy. Is there carrots down in the void or something?"

That's when he made his fatal mistake.

Zed leaned just far enough to tilt himself off balance, and he yelped in surprise as he fell towards the void below. As he fell, his hand lashed out to grab the stone above him, and he dangled over the void just like Yoyo.

He let out a small breath of relief, but then his hand started to slip. He felt a faint tugging sensation coming from below, like he was falling...

...Or being pulled down.

"No, no, no." Zed tried to grab the stone with his other hand, but the tugging sensation grew stronger. It was like the void knew Zed was in its grasp now.

You're tempting fate.

If you go too far, there's a chance you won't come back.

They'd been right all along.

He'd been a f̴́̌o̷͒̐ō̸̍l̶̏͝ to think tempting the void wouldn't end badly.

Then he lost his grasp on the cold stone, the only thing keeping him from being sent into a blank and dark wasteland, and he slipped over the edge of his perch and fell face first into his one way ticket to the void.

And he didn't stop falling.

As he fell, he started to panic over the fact he was stuck in this strange inky abyss surrounding him. The light from his entrance was slowly fading by the second, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He could only watch as the rays of light of the Overworld flickered away, leaving him in the dark (metaphorically and physically, he thought, with a painful reminder of Impulse's warning).

He didn't panic at first. He started to wonder about what would happen. Would he ever make it back to the surface? Would he ever see the sun again?

...Or his friends?

He doubted it.

And that's when the existential dread started to set in, sending his thoughts into orbit and his moral backbone crashing down. The Hermit was quite optimistic at best, but now he was doomed to falling forever. He felt fear for the very last time.

He didn't stop falling.

Plummeting deeper, he felt memories begin to slip out of his grasp.

As thoughts began to fade, he clung to the most important parts of himself.

Deeper.

What did he like to do? How did he spend his days before all of this?

He knew three things. He was from Hermitcraft, his best friends were Impulse and Tango, and his name was Zedaph. He held onto those names like lifelines. One last moment with his memories, before he lost them forever.

D̵̲̊e̸̹̒ę̵͆p̵͆̆ë̸̇r̶̆̓.̸̈̄ 

 Where was he f̴̈́͐r̴̀͘o̶̔͌m̷͊́? What was the name of the place he called home?

He knew two things. His best friends were Impulse and Tango, and his name was Zedaph.

D̴̒͐e̷͐̔ĕ̴̿p̵͑͠e̴͑̈́r̸̊͆.̴̋̀ 

Who were his f̵̈̽r̴̃͆ī̷͝e̷͛̕n̸̒̀ď̴̾s̶̍͗? Who were the people he would talk with from sunrise to sunset, often into the night?

He knew one thing. His name was Zedaph.

D̶̍̂e̶̾͂ė̵̍p̷͑̽e̸̽̊ŕ̸̑.̸̔͝ 

 Who was he? What was his n̵̓͘ǎ̷̧m̵̊̈́ë̵͌?̶̞́ 

He knew nothing. He felt himself get torn apart by the void.

A moment of resistance. One last breath.

And then he was nothing more but a patch of darkness amidst the endless black.

Lost forever to his friends above, who held nothing but memories of a man who no longer knew his name.

Score: 11.5 (Spectator Favourite)