The Secret Admirer

I am a big Minecrafter. So, naturally, I geek out whenever a new update comes out. This is exactly what happened. So I loaded up Minecraft like I normally do. But I noticed something different. There was an update. In the bottom corner of the screen, there was a different number than the usual. But the thing was, I hadn't seen that there was a new update on the startup screen, like it is usually displayed. So I was confused. I checked the forums before I did anything else, but there was nothing about the update there either. I thought it must have been a glitch; the numbers changing when actually nothing else did. But I was wrong.

I loaded up one of my worlds. I was building a town on Creative there, and I still had to finish some things. But then I heard music. Not the normal Minecraft ambient music, but way different. It was dubstep. A song I recognized. One that I had played over and over because I liked it so much. Lightspeed by Waterflame. At first I was surprised, thinking I accidentally left Spotify running overnight. I checked, but it wasn't running at all. Then I thought back to the new update numbers on the title screen. "That must have been the new update." I thought. So I kept building, trying to finish up before a friend came over for a sleepover. A message popped up in the chat. There was no gamertag. "You like this song, yes?" I freaked out, because I was on singleplayer mode. I typed back,

"Who is this? How did you get my LAN number? Why can't I see your gamertag?" The mysterious player replied,

"Oh, sorry." They typed a moment later, "Better?" It was; I could see his gamertag. It read "Ripcord." But the weird thing was, it was in Cybertronian. The language of the Autobots. I had learned to fluently read and write it because I was a Transformers nerd. But it was impossible in Minecraft. You couldn't get those symbols without a custom mod. And even stranger, as far as I knew, there was no Transformer in any official merchandise named Ripcord. I had made that name up for a fan fiction I was writing. I questioned the invisible user,

"How did you get those symbols? How do you know about Ripcord?” The player answered,

“All will be answered in due time, my love. Are you getting tired of this song?” A different song started playing. Circles by KDrew. One of my favorites. I wrote,

“My love? Am I your girlfriend or something? Because no sale mister. I’m not old enough.” It was true; I was only in middle school. In his next message, I could tell that he was hurt.

“You... don’t love me?” I wasn’t afraid to be harsh.

“Not really, no.” Suddenly, my game crashed. The screen said that I was “kicked from the server.” The reason was, “You are not worthy of my love.” I was really starting to get scared. I tried to go back on my world, but the same message popped up.

My friend arrived for the sleepover at that time, so I told her what happened and showed her the message. She was as dumbfounded as I was. We both decided to email Mojang and tell them what had happened. I went in detail about the events, and sent it. I got a response right away. Literally, a split second after I sent the email. Humans can’t even physically type that fast. I opened the message, and there was only one sentence. “You ruined my life, so I’ll ruin yours.” Suddenly, an Avast alert popped up on the corner of my screen. It said that a Trojan had been installed. I panicked. I opened SUPERAntiSpyware, and tried to get rid of it. The program ran for a grand total of three seconds before shutting down. A distorted voice went out of my speakers. “Ah, (my real name), what shall I do with you?” I hurriedly rummaged through the drawers on my desk and found some tape. I stuck it over the lens of my webcam so whoever was talking to me wouldn’t see my face. My friend told him,

“Look, whatever you’re doing to (my real name)’s computer, stop it, or I’ll call the police.” She got out her phone, and was ready to dial 911 at a moment’s notice. I whispered to her to leave the phone here, just in case, and go get my parents. She did, and I tried stalling the man.

“Listen, I’m sorry, okay? What do you want from me?” He replied,

“Just your love. But you rejected me. I’ve been madly in love with you ever since I saw your YouTube video.” I said,

“I don’t have a YouTube account. My parents won’t let me.” There was silence. Avast popped up, saying that the Trojan had been removed. Just then, my parents arrived. I told them everything. They were worried, just as I was. They called the police, just in case, and they had a guy come over. He took a look at my computer, and confirmed that my computer was all clean. I was relieved, but still a little wary.

Later that night, I was watching the news. My friend and I had decided to reschedule our sleepover. A report had just come on. There had been a homicide. One man had murdered another, and written in his blood, were the words, “FOR LOVE.” I knew right away, it wasn’t a coincidence.