How It Should Have Been

Chapter 1.5

           "Well that's over now, you're my friend now. I'm sure you'll grow on the others. Welcome to the team!"

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We burst through the oak door into the foyer, Petra, Axel, and Olivia were desperately trying to get Gabriel to believe their story.
      "I don't know how this could be any clearer. Weird guy, doing weird stuff. Freaky with a side of strange. Why won't you listen to me? What do you want me to do? Tell you charade style?" Axel said. Gabriel obviously wasn't having any of it, he kept trying to move on and call on other people gathered in the room. The other citizens were also getting restless, they started to boo and yell insults at my new friends. Petra ran up to me,
"We have proof!," she yelled to Gabriel. Then quietly to me, "You have the skull right?" I searched through my pockets but came up empty. I gave her an ashamed look.
"Never mind..." she muttered. Then a man yelled over the crowd,
"Gabriel is it true that anyone can be a hero?" Gabriel turned into the direction of the speaker.
"With enough hard work, yes," he said stoically.
"So is that where I went wrong?" Ivor walked into sight. Gabriel's eyes flashed with surprise.
"Ivor?" He breathed.
         "Did you really think I would stay away forever? You really are a fool," he snarled. His attention abruptly snapped to me,
         "And Jessalyn, thank you for returning what you stole from me," he smirked, Gabriel's head whipped toward me, his mouth agape.
          "You have to stop him!" I scream at Gabriel.
          "You're too late, it has already begun!" he flipped a lever and the wither structure appeared, but this time with all three heads on top. It erupted into life, people ran and screamed, pushing and shoving to get out of the building.
       "Creature attack!" Ivor screamed over the chaos. The wither-like creature swooped through the room, chasing after Gabriel. The room itself had begun to come apart, blocks from the walls and floor were flying into the wither creating a shell around it.
        "Well how about that! The mighty, heroic Gabriel cannot stop this beast! But don't worry citizens, I can," Ivor said calmly. He began to yell orders to the wither, it just looked blankly at him.
         "He's lost it! He can't control that thing!" Petra yelled.
         "Not to worry friends, I have a fool proof back up!" he drew a potion from his robe.
"Oh crap!" Axel hissed, he pulled a similar potion out of his pocket. Ivor threw his potion at the wither. The potion shattered harmlessly against it.
"Seriously Axel? Your kleptomania has screwed us over again!" Olivia screamed at him. The two began to argue back and forth while Lukas muttered "We're going to die! We're so going to die!" over and over. I sighed, this group will need a lot of work to become an actual team. I swiped the potion from Axel while he was arguing with Olivia. I ran in front of the storm waving my arms.
"Hey ugly! Over here!" the wither turned towards me. I launched the potion at it, just before it could hit the command block, a black casing covered it.
        "Oh... that's so not good," I said, running back into cover. Ivor yelled at us from the other side of the room,
         "You thieves ruined everything!" He glared at us once more before sprinting out of the door leaving us to deal with his monstrous creation.
         "Coward! Come back here!" Gabriel yelled after him, moving to grab Ivor. Before he could very far a purple tractor beam that seemed to be coming from the eye of the wither lifted him off the ground. He floated toward the creature. Olivia and I ran forward and each grabbed a leg. Pulling the seasoned hero out of the beam.
          "We cannot defeat that thing. It pains me to say it but, we must retreat," Gabriel said staring up at the growing storm. It was no longer just a wither, but a Wither Storm.
           "We have to get to my temple, we'll be safe there. The walls are lined with obsidian, it is virtually impenetrable," he said. We nodded, I may be a newcomer to this world but I knew it was our only option.
            "Lead the way Gabriel, we'll be right behind you," I said.
           We ran out of Endercon, managing not to die. I was able to avoid all the tractor beams, others were not so lucky. All those people, flying through the air disappearing into oblivion. I couldn't help but feel if this whole mess was partially my fault. I mean I was the one who let Petra continue with her trade, and I was the one who dropped the wither skull, and I was the one who threw the potion (though Axel does have most of the blame on this one). I then remembered what James had said to me one day. We had dropped some valuable resources into the void accidentally while we were building. We had both known that Mother would quite possibly hang us for our crimes. But then he had said to me, "Well we cannot change what has been done. We must accept it and move on," and we did. And I know that I must do it again, guilt can't cloud my judgment especially in such a severe situation. We were inside of Gabriel's temple, Reuben had jumped into my arms squealing. Gabriel flipped a lever and a stone wall opened.
"Get to the portal,"  We ran inside, a tractor beam close behind. Inside was a nether portal, much like the one I had used to enter this world. Lukas knelt down and pulled out a flint and steel, this one had no glow around it, and struck it against the obsidian. A scream echoed from behind us, Gabriel was stuck in a purple beam. Petra and I ran to get him, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of purple steadily gaining speed. I rammed into Petra, pushing her out of the beam's reach. I felt myself being lifted off the ground. A flash of white hot pain coursed threw my body, its origin point seemly starting at the small of my back. The pain too terrible to bare, I gladly slipped into the blackness.
When I opened my eyes I was in a different place, a sickeningly familiar place. I was back in Sky City. More specifically in the throne room, sitting on the golden throne. Mother was standing beside me, her jaw clenched tight. In front was a man, in a fancy suit. I remembered this day all to well, this was the day my mother had attempted to get me to pick a husband to wed. I of course refused everyone, my choice of suitors were not male. When the man left, Mother reached up and pushed me off the throne. I fell in a heap on the cold and unforgiving ground.
"Jessalyn what am I to do with you? You refuse orders left and right, how to you expect to succeed me if you don't understand your place?" she said as she sat back on her throne.
"I'll never listen to you... you old witch!" I growled at her from my spot on the ground. It didn't even register the fact that she had gotten up until I felt the sting on my cheek.
"You've pushed me to far this time Jessalyn! Have you ever heard of cave spiders?" she asked me in a sadistic voice. I nodded, making sure no emotion crossed my face. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing my fear.
"I was first considering throwing you into a pit with them, but that's much to easy. I've had some of my top scientists whip up a special little brew of cave spider venom mixed with a bunch of other toxic ingredients to make the perfect torture device. From now on you will listen to me, or it's lights out for you!"

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Hey everyone! I don't actually have anything interesting to say today so I'm gonna do a little self-promoting. I just started a one-shot book, because why not. I've explained everything over there so go check it out! Shoutouts for the day go to @WolfeTheGeek, @kittykiller196,
@Walking_MCSM_Dead! As always Comment and Vote!
~Wolfe🐺