Chapter 1

The sun was just beginning to set in the world of Minecraft. As the square light began to disappear under the horizon, a man watched the red sky slowly turn to a dark blue hew. "Hey Steve, what's up?" Another man sat beside him on his perch on the cliff. "Oh not much Tom, just watching another sun set." The night grew darker and monsters began to spawn in the distance. "Come on, we should get back to the village. The others will worry." Steve stood and followed his friend back towards the village. An ominous wind beginning to blow.

-Somewhere in the Nether-

Despite all the fire and lava it was fairly easy to navigate through the Nether. "Not much too this place other than the pigmen," thought the lone player running to find a Nether fortress. The pigmen continued thier constant droll of groans and growls as he ran. He hadn't decided to attack them yet, so they ignored the player. The player climbed over hill after hill, making bridge after bridge, until finally, he reached his destination. A huge Nether fortress sat menacingly in the distance. Making a bridge over the lava to it, he broke through the wall of the fortress and found himself in a corridor. He began wandering through the halls, only to find spawners missing and only the remains of any pigmen or wither skeletons. Confused, he searched the entire fortress for anything. Then he found a strange room towards the bottom of the fortress.

The player was just about to give up and return to the portal when the glowstone shining on the nether bricks caught his eye. Walking into the room, he noticed it had glowstone pillars and lava raining from the ceiling. A chest sat on top of a stone brick pedestal in the center of the room. Curiosity getting the best of him, the player opened the mysterious chest. "DIAMONDS!" Exclaimed the player. The chest was full of almost half a stack of diamonds. Taking all of them, he turned to leave. Then he heard the sound of pistons, and the exit closed itself off. Now frightened, he turned to see the walls of the room opening to reveal an ocean of lava behind them. "NOOOOOO!" Screamed the player as he pounded away at the exit with his pickaxe. The lava closing in, he heard the sound of lightning. He turned back around to see what looked like the default Minecraft skin, but with no eyes, only white light. "I am your god." Said the terrifying figure, as the lava closed in on the player, burning him and his newfound diamonds to oblivion.

-Back in the village-

Steve sat at his dinner table, eating his nightly mushroom stew before bed. Over time, he'd come up with a simple eating schedule that allowed him to never have to worry about hunger as long as he didn't run or jump too much. Hearing a knock at the door, he looked out his window before answering, to make sure he wasn't opening the door for a zombie. It was Tom. "Sorry, to bother you at such a late hour, but I'm worried about Aaron. He's been in the Nether all day now, and he still hasn't come back." Quite discomforted by this news Steve decided to go look for him.

The two stood in front of the village Nether portal. "You ready Tom?" "I've got my best armor and my diamond sword. I think we'll be able to handle the pigmen and ghasts." They stepped into the portal. After a moment, they spawned in the Nether. With the swirling purple gas dissipating from their eyes, they found the severed head of their friend wating for them. Next to it, a sign saying, "Gone to Hell." "Oh my God!" Screamed Tom, "What happened to him?!" Steve was now sure that his friend had to be gone. This could be no trick; the head was disturbingly real. "Could it have been somebody from the village? I know that pigmen certainly aren't capable of doing this," said Steve. "Come on Tom, we should bring his head back with us for a proper burial." Picking up the head, the two walked back into the portal, the outline of a player watching in the distance.

Some villagers wept, some stared silently at the mound of displaced dirt. The funeral was hard for many of them to handle. Nobody could really understand how he even died. Aaron was a Nether expert. He was able to defeat anything the Nether threw at him. And yet his head was found waiting for Steve and Tom. Purposely placed there with a sign next to it for someone to come across. But who could have done this to him? He was a nice enough guy. Was always respectful to others and helpful to those who needed it. He didn't deserve what happened to him; only a true monster could have done this to someone like that.

Even for months after his death, the people of the village were solemn and quiet. Still processing how and why their companion had mysteriously died. Most continued their daily lives, trying not to think about the incident. And yet it still lingered in the back of everybody's minds...

"Noon; time to get wood," said Steve, mostly to himself. Walking into the forest, he noticed that some of the trees did not have any that this was a little odd, he pushed the thought aside and continued to harvest wood. He mindlessly even harvested the strange trees. Tree after tree he cut down, until he had almost a two stacks of wood. Steve looked towards the sky, as it began to turn a dark purple. "Better start heading home." Walking back, he couldn't help the feeling that he was being watched. He felt like someone was standing motionless behind him, staring at the back of his head. Steve whirled around, drawing his sword, to find nothing; only the trees looked back at him.

Steve did not sleep well that night. He had terrible nightmares of fire and destruction. He could see all the villagers being slaughtered, a shadow of a player with glowing white eyes standing in the center of the destruction. He awoke with a jump, soaked in sweat. The night still hung outside, the moon casting a small amount of light on the village. He got up and walked outside to his front porch, needing air. As Steve stood on his porch, he looked at the other houses; glad to see that they were in fact intact. He couldn't get the image of those shining white eyes. They seemed to stare into his very soul. Steve was no sure that there had to be more going on than just some insane player; this was much worse.

The following morning Steve walked out his front door to find a sign saying, "I will get you." Having woken up to such an unsettling sight left Steve deep in thought throughout the whole day. Even when him and Tom went to mine after breakfast. He often stared off into space, thinking about the sign and his dream. Something just wasn't right; in fact nothing was right. Returning to the village with a lot of iron and coal in tow, Steve invited Tom to help him get wood. After his nightmare, he was a bit paranoid and didn't want to be alone. Now even more trees were missing leaves. There were only a few trees in the entire forest that still had leaves on them. The forest looked like it was dieing. Even the grass was starting to change into a yellow-ish color. Again on the way home Steve got the feeling that something was there. He stopped walking for a moment, not looking to see if anything was there. Tom walked a little bit past him before realizing his friend had stopped. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, I just get this feeling that something watches me when I am in this forest. Something evil," explained Steve. "Yeah this forest has gotten really creepy since Aaron died."

Tom and Steve sat at the village cafe, sipping milk. "I think I know how to find out what's going on," said Steve. "Aaron died in the Nether right? This all started after Aaron went there. He must have done something in there that sparked all this." "So we have to go back there?" Said Tom, coughing on the milk. "Yes," confirmed Steve, getting up to leave. Tom stood up too, and they went to their seperate houses to get equipment. "Meet me at the portal in a bit," said Steve before they went their seperate ways. Walking up to his porch, he again found a sign. This time it said, "Don't try to stop me." Steve broke the sign and proceeded into his house. Opening his chest, he paused for a moment. "Something wants me to stay out of the Nether. It knows that's where I can find out what it's doing."

Steve found his friend waiting for him at the portal, located a little ways away from the village for safety. Night was beginning to fall, and the monsters began to spawn in the distance. "Let's go," said Tom. And the two once again stepped into the portal, this time looking for answers instead of friends. Appearing on the other side, the Nether looked fairly normal. The sign that was placed next to Aaron's head last time they were there was gone. "Any idea where to look?" Tom asked. "No, but I assume we have to go where Aaron went. He said he was going to find a Nether fortress, so we have to retrace his footsteps and try to find the one he found." They wandered through the Nether, looking for the large chunk of Nether bricks. Following cobblestone bridges, tunnels dug through the netherack, following the torches placed in areas without lava or fire. After a long time, they finally found it; only something wasn't right. All the way to it, they hadn't seen a single pigman or ghast. That certainly wasn't normal. Jumping through the hole into the hallway, they found about ten pigmen waiting for them. Somehow they had set up an ambush. "RUN!" Yelled Steve. They jumped back through the hole, filling it with cobblestone to stop their pursuers. Then ghasts came from over the roof of the fortress, firing fire charges at the two players. Tom jumped and deflected one that was heading straight for them. "How could they have known we were coming? They're pigmen!" Yelled Tom. Steve did not reply, he had noticed the figure standing on a ledge in the distance, with bright white eyes. Steve froze in fear. This was the monster from his dream, the thing that killed Aaron, the thing he had been fearing since it all started. It was just standing there... watching.

"What are you doing Steve?! We have to get out of here!" Tom was shaking Steve, trying to get him out of his trance. The ghasts fired another round of fire charges and the pigmen were beginning to break through the cobblestone with their swords. Frustrated, Tom grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back across the cobblestone bridge, in the direction that they'd come from. He pulled Steve all the way back to the Nether portal, even with pigmen and ghasts giving chase. "There's the portal!" Exclaimed Tom, Steve still in a trance. Just before the two of them reached the portal, a player with no eyes appeared between them and the portal. In his hand he held a diamond sword. Although he had no expression, Tom could feel the hatred and evil emanating from him. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Asked Tom, feeling the need to at least find out why his friend was killed. "I am Herobrine, and you can't stop me. There will be blood," said the man. With that it charged at Tom, swinging the diamond sword. Tom let go of Steve and drew his own sword. The two met in the middle, clashing swords. Tom had never fought with such thirst for death in him. This guy had killed his friend, and that was enough to make Tom desperately want to bring him to an end. Steve finally overcame the fear that had swallowed him.

He was on the ground, collapsed. Steve looked behing him to see the massive army of pigmen and ghasts slowly marching towards him. Then he looked up to see Tom fighting the monster. His vision was still a little blurry from the shock, but he could see the anger in Tom's face as he fought; wanting vengance for Aaron's death. Steve slowly stood, stumbling a bit. He could no clearly see the fight. Tom jumped back, away from his attacker, returning with an attack of his own. He aimed for Herobrine's head. His attack was easily blocked and he kicked Tom back into the wall. Tom quickly stood back up and lunged at him again. This time he was successful in burying his sword in the center of Herobrine's chest. Herobrine paused for a moment and looked down at the sword in his chest. And for the first time Steve and Tom had seen, he wore and expression on his face. Herobrine grinned, and then started to laugh... hysterically. "What's so funny?" Tom was clearly frustrated that Herobrine was not screaming in pain.

"You think you can kill me," he responded. And with that he swung his diamond sword at Tom, slashing into his shoulder. Tom yelped in pain and fell to the ground; the Nether army drawing closer. "Not even Notch can kill me," said Herobrine. He took his sword out of Tom's shoulder and swung again, this time aiming to decapitate him. Suddenly the sword stopped, blocked by another. Steve had recovered and blocked the attack. Tom looked up, "Steve... run while you can. Don't worry about me." "I can't leave you here to die to this... thing!" Steve repelled Herobrine's sword and swung again. He hit Herobrine in the side, making him stumble back. He drew the sword from Herobrine's chest and swung at him with both swords. Herobrine blocked one with his sword and sidestepped the other; with surprising speed. Steve continued to slash away at Herobrine, each attack being either blocked or dodged. The army was about 10 blocks away now. Fire charges starting to be fired.

Tom stood, clutching TNT in his hand. "Go... now..." he said, stumbling towards the battle. "No Tom don't do it!" Yelled Steve, still driving Herobrine back. But it was too late, Tom had placed a large amount of TNT and was now holding the flint and steel up to it. "GO. NOW!" Tom yelled at Steve. He paused his attack for a moment, looking at his friend. He saw the drive in his eyes, the need for vengance. "Ok... Goodbye Tom." Steve ran and jumped through the Nether portal, the TNT hissing behind him.