Chapter Text
“YOU DIED!”
The text appeared on his screen at the same moment fireworks and cheers erupted outside of Avery’s apartment window.
He let out a sob that he didn't know he was holding. He grabbed his mouse and started to click the respawn button
“Come on damn it” he pleaded through the sobs that shook his body “Please just let me back in” His voice was soft at the end of his sentence. “Derek please just let me back in.”
He excited the world all together and attempted to join back but couldn't. An error message saying he wasn't whitelisted showed up over and over again. Avery folded his arms on his desk and put his head down in defeat. Derek was gone and it was his fault.
Avery didn't know how long it had been before he heard a thud come from the apartment above him. He lifted his head at the sound, that neighbor was almost never this loud. Sure, there was the occasional item dropped but that sounded bad. He had never met the person above him but on the off chance it was an elderly person he thought he'd better check.
Quickly, he wiped the tears from his face, grabbed his keys and phone, pulled a hoodie over his head as we walked to his front door, slipping shoes on at the door. Before walking out and making his way to the stairs at the end of his hall. He flinched at the aggressiveness of the fireworks outside echoing in the stair-well.
Man, I don't even know why I'm doing this. They probably just dropped something and are going to think I'm some crazy college kid who lives below them, he thought to himself as he made his way up the rest of the stairs and down the hall. As he approached the door, he could see a decent amount of mail had clogged the mail slot in the door.
“Hey man, it's your neighbor from downstairs I just wanted to see if you were ok” He spoke louder than normal as he knocked, smiling at the person who was entering their apartment. As he knocked with a little more force the door opened slightly
Shit. shit shit shit
This wasn't supposed to happen. The owner was supposed to answer the door and be fine. Not this.
Avery pushed the door open enough and was greeted with the smell of rotting fruit and stale air.
Great. I just walked into some dead guy's apartment now the cops are going to think I did something. I'm sure mom will love to tell everyone about this.
He closed the door behind him not wanting prying eyes from the hallway looking in. He began peeking around the apartment that had an entirely different layout than his own looking for the source of the thud.
“Hey man, just here to make sure you're ok. I'm your downstairs neighbor Avery Reid...”
His voice trailed off as he looked into a room and saw a man lying on the ground. He was dressed in a grey sweater and black sweatpants. His hair was a chocolate brown and looked like it fell around his shoulders. He was slumped on the ground next to a desk chair. Avery's gaze drifted to the open laptop that was split screen between a google document and a Minecraft world. A Minecraft world that looked eerily similar to the one had been booted from not that long ago.
“Derek…” Avery's voice trailed off as he took in what he was seeing. He pulled his phone out his pocket and dialed 911
“Hello. Its uh, its apartment 214 in the complex on parrot street, yea third floor. My friend uh, my friend just like collapsed? I live below him and I heard a thud and came up to check. I don't think he does. I can check for a pulse”
Avery sat and waited on the phone until the paramedics got there. He sat with Derek's head in his lap and the phone next to him on speaker listening to the dispatcher the best he could though her voice wasn't entering Avery's ears as clearly as it could've been. He ran his fingers through Derek's oily hair, occasionally hovering his finger below his nostrils to make sure he was still breathing until the paramedics showed up swinging the door open with a thud disturbing the quiet that had started to surround Avery.
Everything was a blur, but the medics managed to get a slightly more stable heart rate on Derek before transferring him to the stretcher and taking him out to the ambulance. Avery told them he would drive alone but they wouldn't let him due to the state he was in mentally having been the one to find him. He was ushered out of the dark apartment by a medic. He could only see the floor in front of him, he knew people were staring. He could feel their eyes boring into his back as he walked past. He could hear the whispers, people assuming Avery must've done something.
He wouldn't have been able to tell they were outside if it weren't for the harsh bite of the cold mixed with the smell of residual gunpowder from the fireworks, God that felt like a lifetime ago.
Avery was led into the passenger seat of the ambulance. Derek was taken into the back and had two medics working on him while a third drove. They did not attempt to talk to Avery past asking the basic questions, “Are you hurt? Do you need anything from me? What is your relation to the patient?” Avery shook his head no to all of the questions but the last.
“He’s my” there was a pause and Avery felt the pressure of tears behind his eyes “He’s my friend”
The medic nodded and the rest of the drive to the hospital was filled with nothing but the sound of Derek being worked on in the back of the rig. The faint beeping of the monitor connected to his heart was all Avery could bring himself to focus on.
That beeping meant Derek was alive.
If Avery stopped listening to it or it became hard to hear he would start panicking. He couldn't tell if Derek was alive. There was nothing he could do. Derek was gone again and it was all for nothing. Then he would hear the beeping again. He could hear the beeping, and it was all ok. Derek was alive behind him, and everything would be ok.
The drive to the hospital seemed to go on forever leaving Avery to think more and more about everything that had happened. All of the things he had to go through. The 12 hours at the church placing and breaking flowers. The gates, God he would never forget those gates ever again. He could never forget the fear that drove through his body when everything went dark in the village world. Nor would he forget the relief he felt upon finding Derek in the game. Falling through the floor only to see the man he had been searching for the whole time.
He would also never forget how it all ended. The last thing he said to Derek.
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