My Brother's Dog, Part Four

My original, more direct plan was to kill Faith while Caleb slept.

But that couldn't happen, because the real Faith came out to play whenever Caleb wasn't present. I tried talking to her, once I got over my initial fear, but all I got were hostile growls and that cold, peircing glare. Her deep, crimson eyes were enough to ward me away.

I did get one thing, though. The night after I explored the mineshaft, I found a sign posted in one of my secret rooms.

"STAY AWAY."

I knew that she hated me. While it was painfully obvious, the sign really drove it in.

I didn't want to tell Caleb about it. It was too soon. He would've thought I was going crazy. Some part of me wish I was, but I knew that I wasn't. So I had to deal with Faith myself.

If I just killed the dog outright, Caleb would probably never forgive me; at the very least, he wouldn't play Minecraft with me. As ruined as the game was for me, I thought it was fun, but I learned that the game harboured many, dark secrets. One of them being Faith.

I was in the middle of contemplating how to build a new expansion of my house when Caleb spoke to me.

"Thinking on how to out-awesome my tower?" he chuckled.

"You're just lucky it hasn't burned down yet. A building that tall, lightning's bound to strike eventually." I replied, still thinking. A piston door there, maybe a library there...

My thinking almost drowned out what Calb said next.

"...-ou're right. Maybe I should... Where's Faith?"

I froze, and all my ideas were erased. I spun around, looking to see if Faith was here. She wasn't.

"''I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO." ''I spun around and looked at Caleb, the fear multiplying. Maybe he said it? Maybe-

"What's wrong?" he asked. He was starting to look worried now.

Suddenly, a spike was driven into my skull.

My head was pounding.

I couldn't focus.

Caleb, seeing my condition, rushed to call Mom.

Everything was in a haze. Caleb shaking me, Mom dialing the phone.

My vision started to darken.

The last thing I saw were a pair of red eyes.

Six days later, I was lying in bed, waiting out a fever. The doctors at the hospital said that they didn't actually know what happened to me. I stayed a day for some check-ups, and they let me go home once they saw my condition was getting better. "Call us if anything happens. Whatever happened... it's not normal," the doctor said as we left the lobby.

"Stay off of that game of yours, Alex. A week, minimum," Mom said, on the drive home. Caleb just looked at me. "It's probably giving you some motion sickness."

Anything at this point, I guessed.

For the next 5 days, I watched Caleb play Assassin's Creed. I admit, I was a little jealous, since he had so much time to play by himself, but mostly I was just thankful that he wasn't rubbing it in.

The next day, I was allowed to play Minecraft again. I picked up the controller, and started our world. It felt good to be back, but I was somewhat afraid what Faith would do.

When I spawned in, everything was completely... well, normal. No weird signs, nothing on fire; just... normal.

"Let's see if you got rusty, Alex. Mining we go," he said, not taking no for an answer. He was going to take Faith.

"Because why not?" he said, as he stood her up.

As for me, I was only slightly worried, because Faith was just a normal dog around Caleb. Just in case, though, I only brought stone tools.

"Why the down-graded hardware?" he asked, obviously excited. We had found a new hole quite a bit away from the houses.

"Just in case."

"In case? In case what you run out of iron? Wouldn't surprise me, with the super small amount you managed to mine last time we did this," he said, cracking a smile. I tried to smile back, but the fact Faith was sitting right behind him unnerved me.

Without saying a word, I started placing ladders down toward the bottom. In a couple minutes, we were down, and I had managed to get some coal and iron. Perks of going down first.

The hole lead to a lava pit- more like a lava lake- and the ceiling was extra high. This place would've been awesome as an outpost, especially if the outpost were situated in the middle of the lake. I put the idea into the back my head.

Caleb had taken the lead, and as such, I followed him. Instead of going through the lake withaa well-placed cobblestone bridge, Caleb had decided to skirt around the edge. Faith followed suit.

"What are we doing, Caleb? Stop skimping on cobble. A bridge would've been better in the long run."I said, slightly nervous about my proximity to Faith. She was still a normal dog, though.

"Just because you don't have awesome parkour skills like me, doesn't mean you can whine. Besides, we can build it later. There's a tun-"

A zombie dropped from out of nowhere, wearing a full golden body suit. Caleb was pushed into the lava, and he burned to death. Frustrated, Caleb started running back to the lake. Faith moved in to attack but the zombie hit first.

Pushing Faith into the lava.

The resulting cry was so loud, and so sudden, that we both had to cover our ears. The zombie killed me too, for some reason not having any sense of hearing. Not bothering to respawn, I looked at Caleb, and he now knew what I knew: Faith wasn't normal.

(End Part 4)