Don't Play at Night

12:08 PM
I’m the only one in the house who isn’t asleep. No matter how hard I try, I’m lifted out of my swirling pool of exhaustion, and back into reality. There’s nothing I can do about it. I sigh, disappointed at my body’s stubbornness. Then, a thought comes across my mind: what better way to spend this cold winter night then play some videogames? I pull my tablet out from a pillowcase in which I hid it, unbeknownst to my folks.

With a few clicks and taps of the device I come face to face with the Minecraft title screen. The screen illuminates my room in a multicolored glow, each color representing a block shown on the surface of the tablet, all mashed up in a beautiful, gleaming light source. Beautiful. Upon tapping on the “singleplayer” button, I proceed to make a new survival world. Then I hit “create new world”.

And I stare in anticipation, as the loading screen works its magic.

12:12 PM
I find myself on a small island with not more than a couple of trees and a group of wandering sheep. Clouds hover over the vast ocean, and the sun shines with no signs of stopping. But I know for a fact that daylight can’t thrive forever, and the monster-infested night would soon come. So, I sprint towards the nearest tree and harvest its logs. After crafting a crafting tabel and boat, I set off on the open seas, seeking a much bigger island to live on.

Except, there is no land to be seen. By now its nighttime and I am slowly being pursued by a hoard of Drowned. I don’t give up, however. I continue sailing onward, envisioning even the slightest shred of sand and grass, residing in the seemingly endless ocean. But no matter how long I searched, nothing would popup. And before long, the sun melted over the horizon a second time. At this point I’m pretty flustered, but my brain feels to stimulated to go back to sleep, so I continue playing.

12:30 PM
Suddenly, I come to a dead stop. Off in the distance, probably about fifty blocks or so, I see an island. The island I spawned on when I first started. I rub my eyes furiously; this can’t be right. I don’t remember turning around at all during my endless trip. But that was the only plausible explanation. I sail towards the island and hop out of my boat. Taking a look around, my suspicions are confirmed. The place in which that tree I had chopped down a little over twenty mineuts ago still had leaves floating in midair, with saplings and sticks hovering gracefully. The sheep are present as well, grazing on the everlasting grass and minding their own business as they always do.

I feel a bit annoyed, but simply go with the mysterious turn in events. Very well, I think to myself, you want me to live my life on this crappy little island with little more than grass blocks and wooly animals at my disposal? Challenge excepted.

I go on to chop down the second tree and collect its saplings. I finally give myself the opportunity to craft some basic wooden tools. Upon slaughtering some of the sheep, I proceed to craft a bed, leaving two of the simpleminded creatures alive for breeding later on.

With nighttime approaching fast, I place the bed down along the sandy shores in preparation. And so, I wait.

12:31
Within the blink of an eye, daytime is present once again. But I notice right off the bat that something isn’t right. The scenery around me looked dramatically different from what it had been ten seconds ago. The island…had it gotten smaller? It seems to be the case, either my bed and me were somehow moved one block closer to the water or the chunks themselves shifted. I’m bewildered at first but reasoned that I wasn’t thinking straight. The clock on the top right of my tablet does read 12:31 PM, after all. I squash my eyes with cold knuckles over and over, hoping to miraculously enhance my vision. Its no use.

I shut off my tablet and slip back under the covers, trying desperately to catch some shut eye. Before long, I drift off.

W.I.P, feel free to fix grammatical errors if you spot any.