"What are you afraid of?"

The sound of a terrifying shriek broke the intense silence.

"That... I'm afraid of that."

The stairs never ended as I kept walking further and further down. My sight was darkened and all I could hear was a familiar whisper in my ear, making things worse but also helping me through it. I wanted to find the bottom. I wanted to escape.

"Ah!" I became rattled by a bat that flew out from the darkness. Panicking, I almost missed that simple fact. It was nothing scary. I was just ready to scream.

"Calm down, Honeydew. It's just a bat."

"I don't like it! I don't want to be here anymore!"

"Keep moving. You have to get to the end."

It was like I was losing my mind. I kept going right over and over. Hearing the clang of closing doors and the deafening boom of something, I didn't believe an end existed.

Suddenly, the menacing white eyes of a creature appeared in the dark and then disappeared as fast as they came but it was there just long enough to make me jump in terror. I recognized that face. The fabled one who haunted Minecraftia.

"No! Not him! Not Herobrine!"

"It's not really there! You're only seeing things! You have to keep moving! You have to get to the end!"

"Stop! Just stop it! Make it stop!"

"It will only stop in the end!"

On the verge of a breakdown, I quickened my pace. The voice urging me to continue. To make it to the end.

Sickened by a blood puddle in my way, I edged around it. I refused to believe it was truly someone's ending place. I refused to believe it all even though I was running for my life. My sanity was falling apart. The voice was telling me to go faster and faster and then... and then I was broken.

Coming face to face with my own head on a pike, I screamed at the top of my lungs, swallowing the voice in it's wake. I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted out so much that I didn't even notice I was running for my life down a hallway now.

"I want out!"

"The end is coming!"

"Let me out!"

"Time to wake up."

I opened my eyes in the real world, saw the sleeping face of Xephos next to me, and the sun streaming through behind him. The nightmare was over. I didn't have to run anymore.

Though trembling, I reached for his hand for comfort and thought about the voice that had led me out. It had belonged to him. In my dreams, he had protected me and pushed me forward. Though I wouldn't tell him about my wander down the staircase, I would fall asleep again knowing he was there for me whenever I needed him.