Finding Herobrine

1

The sound of fire crackling sends my feet down the stairs of the basement in a frenzy. Why am I not surprised? I leap into my seat and audibly groan.

I can't even make lunch without something happening, I think. My hand frantically reaches for the mouse, but it's too late. My somewhat decent pixel art of a creeper is quickly destroyed. I know if I hadn't had used wool, this wouldn't have happened, but blaming myself would be like blaming a person for their own house getting robbed. I don't bother trying to shoot the griefers. They disappear before I can catch more than a split second of their skins, but not before I can hear their annoying prepubescent laughs.

Assholes.

Someone finally joins the server. I don't bother asking who they are. I don't trust them; after all, you can't trust anyone here.

"Something wrong?" The guy with a cow in a suit skin says. He looks up at my username. "... Steve?"

"Why do you care?" I utter. I know I sound cold, but like I said, anyone in this place might as well be a griefer.

He walks away, and I stare blankly at the ground. "Try again," they always say, as if it's so easy. As if I haven't already tried a thousand times to build something cool that doesn't get destroyed.

For the hundredth time, I think about just quitting servers altogether. Why haven't I already? I guess single-player worlds are kind of boring, but at least there's no one around to set your stuff ablaze.

I log off and push my sandwich away. All of a sudden, my appetite is lost. There's not a lot of trust in this world.

The basement's a mess; not a pigsty, but enough for anyone to walk into the place and say, "Woah, your life needs sorting out." I probably just need human interaction that's not with my parents. And not a moment too soon, my phone buzzes. I smile widely. I'm almost ecstatic at the thought of someone else wanting to talk me. Even though I have no idea who it could be, as I haven't made any friends since school, I just need to talk to someone. If it's someone I barely know, what do I say? I think about saying, "PLEASE BE MY FRIEND." It's stupid, but I chuckle to myself. I grab the phone at the speed of light.

A spam e-mail. Not even a text message at all. I almost throw my phone across the room, but I stop myself. It's not like I can just go out and get a new phone, like when I was younger and my parents would just get me a new one because I was spoiled. I get up and put my sandwich in the fridge.

Too tired to think, I end up falling asleep at an unusually early time of 9 p.m.

I wake up too early from last night and think of when I was in school. I groan. I don't even see a blanket on me. I must have crashed on the couch without grabbing one. Regardless, I curl back up into a fetal position and grab my phone.

Six notifications were sent over the course of the night. Did some wrong number in a different country call me over and over again while I was sleeping? I squint and realize it's the same spam e-mail from last night, sent six times. I almost slam it on the ground before I realize that all the e-mails mention Minecraft. Hesitantly, I open the notification.

<MinecraftGuyx@gmail.com>

Hey, I just found this super cool server everyone should check it out. Feels like real life. If you want a cool server to join join this one plz.

The e-mail ends with an address to a server. Looks like I don't have the worst username after all. It seems odd and desperate; like the moderator wanted just anyone to join. I decide I'm bored, though, and after breakfast, I go and type in the server address to see what it is. Maybe it'll be worth it.