Young Writers Society

"Well then, we're going to have to wing it then I suppose." Vinny said as they made their way across the road.

The building didn't seem special. If anything it was a run down space compared to everything other building this world had. Once he opened the door and stepped inside, he was greeted by the man who was the supposed leader, sitting behind a desk directly in front of them.

"Hello... sir. Your food is delicious." Vincent said to him.

The man gave a small laugh and pointed to the seats across from him, offering the pair to sit down, "I'm glad to hear that. Let's chat, yeah? What are you both doing here?"

Télos paused for a moment before sitting down. He wasn't sure how the man was going to react if he answered truthfully. He seemed more levelheaded than some of the others they had encountered so far, but he still wanted to be ready to fight if he had to.

...But he also didn't want to be impolite...

Télos hesitantly sat down, right hand ready to grip his sword's hilt if he suddenly summoned it.

"We don't know," Télos admitted. "Neither of us are from here. We both were doing other things before we found ourselves tied up earlier."

The man sat forward in his seat and rubbed his chin, "I don't suppose either one of you are monsters then?"

Vincent looked at him, "... what exactly do you mean by- monster?"

"I mean," The man stood up and walked towards them, "You ain't got no fangs right? No claws? Venom? You don't transform or float or disappear?" He bent over and put his face inches away from Télos', "Are yall human, is what I'm askin'."

Vincent leaned over and met the other two at eye level, so that he didn't feel left out from being uncomfortably close with everyone else, "Oh. Yeah, all I know are humans. There isn't much else where I'm from."

Télos gave an unsteady smile. He had already been hesitant to share he was a god earlier, but now he definitely wasn't going to share that he was one after hearing the man lump "transforming" in with other monster things.

"I'm human," he confirmed. "That's also the only thing we really have where I'm from."

Aleks, Lex, help, he thought. Someone is asking me if I'm a monster or not.

I don't think gods would count as a monster? Lex hesitantly guessed.

I, er, don't think he really cares about nuance, Télos replied. He kept his eyes focused on the man, but he was internally panicking. He just knew the man was going to figure it out.

Stop doing that weird smile, Aleks hissed.

How did you-

You always do it when you're uncomfortable. If you can't stop doing it, explain it so you don't seem like an idiot, Aleks finished. Télos was sure Lex was berating him about that comment now, but Aleks did have a point.

"I'm sorry if I seem scared," Télos said, following Aleks's suggestion. He gave a slightly larger shaky smile. "There's gh-ghosts where I come from, and just thinking about them makes me nervous. I really don't like them..."

He shivered. It wasn't even like he was acting; ghost stories always made him nervous. Just the thought of a ghost being nearby made him shudder.

"Ghosts?" Vincent backed his face up away from the other two, "What's that?"

The man turned his head towards Vincent and raised an eyebrow, "You don't know what a ghost is?"

Vincent shook his head, "Never heard of it."

The man rubbed his chin and turned over to Télos, "What kinda ghosts we talking? Spirits? Possessions? Apparitions?"

Télos faltered.

That...was a good question. The ghosts in Oracle's stories were all three, but Télos doubted he wanted to hear about those ones. Those were probably fake.

...He hoped they were fake. Hers were always out for revenge and blood.

But he did know a ghost. He had never been an apparition outside of a few accidental shared dreams, but the possession part definitely counted.

"P-Possessions and spirits," Télos stammered. "The type that can possess people and control their bodies even when they try to fight it."

The man shook his head, "Nasty ones, those guys. But I'm glad to see you made it out of there alive. Not many people do."

"So ghosts can possess people?" Vincent ask them.

"How in the hell do you know what a possession is but not a ghost?" The man asked back.

"The same way I know that you're a human but I have no idea what to call you." Vincent replied.

The man blinked at him.

"I may know it by definition, but we may call it different names."

After a few moments of silence, the man burst out laughing, "The names John." He stuck out his hand for Vincent to shake it, "John Winchester."

Vincent shook his hand, "Nice to meet you."

As John turned to Télos and offered him his hand, he asked, "So you boys ready to go on a mission?"

Télos got a pit in the bottom of his stomach. Missions made him think of Hero's involvement in the war, and the war made him think of...

He closed his eyes and pushed the thought away. That was over now. Oracle was back, Hero was still alive, and he was...something. He was alive and back and there again, even though he wasn't on Minecraftia right now.

Télos opened his eyes and shook John's hand.

"What does the mission involve?" Télos asked because even though he never saw the battlefield like Hero did, he had still spent a good chunk of his life learning how to fight. He could handle a mission if it meant seeing his friends again.

John chuckled, "You folks are probably new to this so I won't send you off on anything hard."

Vincent raised his eyebrows.

"How does a possession case sound? Nothing too hard, just have to find the source of the spirit and destroy it."

"That sounds like fun," Vincent said, "Do we get our weapons back?"

John smiled at him, "That and more, bud. I'll send one of my guys to help you to. Sound good?"

They were going to destroy a spirit.

Télos had a pit in his stomach. He knew he shouldn't have. He had always been terrified of ghosts. If they did exist and were just like the stories, it wouldn't have been bad. They would have been doing something good. But Lex was a spirit, technically, and the thought of someone so alive being destroyed just because they weren't normal didn't sit right with Télos.

Maybe he was just jumping to conclusions. Maybe it was a bad, evil spirit, and John wasn't going to make them do something as wrong as what he had-

Télos pushed the thought away.

"I can do that," he said. How long would it take for Vincent and him to slip away from John's help? His knowledge on humans was lacking, but he knew summoning a golden sword out of nowhere wasn't going to make him seem all that normal.