Young Writers Society

There was once a war that was so terrible that it was considered the Great War. It was the type of war that shook society to its very core, and forever changed the lives and countries of those involved. This war, in later years, would become renamed as World War I. Because while those involved in the Great War may have considered it to be the war to end all wars, it wasn't. Wars never truly are. Humanity found more things to squabble and fight over, and countless lives were destroyed. Society was forced to rebuild, again. More war happened, but everyone firmly believed that World War II simply couldn't be topped.

This, of course, was what everyone had believed about the first world war.

Predictably enough, a third world war eventually broke out. Millions of dollars worth of technology was spent fighting a battle that eliminated countless lives. Landmarks, monuments, and even comparatively less significant places were destroyed in the battles that were fought.

In a world like this, it isn't easy to survive. A woman makes a living doing dishonest work as a con artist, but it is enough to survive and that is what ultimately matters. However, her ways of living - and the world she lives in - come under scrutiny when people from other worlds suddenly begin to show up in her own. And though she's gone into hiding during her time as a con artist, she's forced to step out into the light and help them find a way home.

You are one of the people brought from another world.

She was walking down the hallway, on her way to play with her friends, and a couple of minutes after reaching the park, she heard a huge bang followed by the smell of fire. She turned around to the horrible sight of her building and many others broken down to shreds, the trees around on fire. She ran to the building, searching for her parents, but the kind old lady from down the street pulled her back, and hugged her, whispering, "It will all be fine, darling. Your parents, my children, they'll all be fine," she said, trying to convince herself more than the little girl.

She was then standing in a morgue, looking at the dead body of her parents, tears falling down her cheeks, not stopping. Her mother's face calm, she could have survived, the doctors had even tried, but the debris hit her hard. Her father's face wasn't even recognisable. Then, someone covered their faces with a white cloth, and she was forced to walk away, asked to let go.

She woke up, her face covered in sweat. She had had that same nightmare again, she had it almost every day. A couple of memories flashed by her mind, the news report of it being a terrorist attack, of learning more than a hundred people were dead, of the government blaming another country, of the said country's reply, of the arguments that broke out, slowly turning into a war. Of a terrorist attack considered not that significant by most, turning into the main reason for World War III.

She felt as vulnerable now as she had when she saw their dead bodies, but now was different, she was not a 13-year-old carefree girl, she was a woman who had to survive this awful world, in an awful way.

She got up and looked around the messy small room she had only recently moved in, and wondered if any of this would ever end. Living in small places and always on the run from what was left of the government.

"Nothing I can do about it," she told herself and got ready for a new day of trickery.
She went to the streets to look for someone new to rob, and she found someone. But she never knew what meeting this person would mean.

Paq crawled out from under the dumpster she'd been sleeping under, then dragged her backpack out from underneath. She brushed the worst of the dirt and grime off of it before putting it on. Her trumpet and rapier were already secured to her belt, so she was ready to go.

She ventured out into the street, only to see that it was flooded with light. That wouldn't do; she relied on the shadows to hide the fact that she was a goblin. Paq darted in and out of the street as quickly as she could, and soon she found herself in a network of alleyways.

Paq lifted her head and sniffed the air. Her sense of smell was much stronger than any humans, and she quickly narrowed-in on the smell of slightly-moldy food. Wrinkling her nose, she walked until she found the source of the smell: a bag of garbage that seemed relatively recent. Paq slit the bag open with a claw and began to pick through it. She could deal with food that humans couldn't, so maybe she'd find something edible. Now, she was distracted by the garbage.

When he awoke, he was lying in an enormous pile of garbage. Dust and grim had managed to coat every inch of his clothes in the time he had been unconscious – though, he was alarmed to realize, he had no idea how long that time had been. He shot up with a start and frantically looked around. He was in an alleyway of sorts. It was strewn with trash and rubble. Wherever this place was, it was far from in good shape.

He covered his nose with his sleeve. The stench was unbearable! He had smelled many horrible things before, but none were as bad as this. Something must have been rotting in the pile, and he didn't want to find out what. He started to carefully make his way down, keeping a close eye on anything that looked remotely sharp.

And that was when a pale hand shot out of the garbage.

While that would have been terrifying on its own, the hand started wildly reaching around for something to grab on. The closest thing that it could get a grip on was his leg. The moment the grimy hand grasped his ankle, he let out an bloodcurdling scream. He jerked his leg back. But whatever had grabbed onto him had an incredibly tight grip, one that only grew stronger the more he struggled.

He screamed even louder. This was just like a scene out of the horror movies that Charlotte had shown him! The situation became exponentially worse when a voice said something from the depths of the pile, the words lost to the garbage muffling it. It sounded inhuman. While that might not have been something that usually worried him, it absolutely terrified him now.

Another hand shot out and grabbed onto his other leg.

All he could do was stare at it in mute horror as each hand gave a strong tug. His legs were pulled down into the pile. His hands desperately clawed at the garbage beside him.

A head suddenly poked out from the pile.

Its black hair was hanging in front of its face, caked in decomposing food and discarded items. A single blue eye peeked out from behind the silky raven locks. When it looked him over, it widened.

He screamed.

“Hero?” a very familiar voice asked.

He stopped screaming.

Reaching out a shaking hand, he brushed the hair back.

“Lorcan?”


A few minutes later, he had helped Lorcan get out from inside the pile and had managed to get most of the garbage off of him. What they hadn't been able to take care of was the nasty smell that had accompanied it, so Herobrine wisely stood as far away from his best friend as he possibly could.

They made their way down the alleyway. Neither of them knew where they were or even how they had gotten there in the first place. The view of the city they could get from where they were wasn't much help; it looked like none of the places that Charlotte had taken them to.

Herobrine caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye. He went to summon his sword, only to stop when he realized that he had to assume that this place was somewhere in Charlotte's world. He couldn't risk standing out when he knew he and Lorcan already did.

The two turned to see a small green person – mob? creature? - that was like none they had ever encountered. They were digging through the trash near a dumpster.

Herobrine and Lorcan stared.

"And he didn't even notice?"

"No! You should've seen the look on his face when-"

Taber's laugh died in his throat when he blinked and found himself somewhere else. He adjusted to the light - or lack thereof - in the narrow alleyway he'd stumbled into. Cracked cobblestone littered the ground to either side, and the alley was buried in shadows from the tall buildings that loomed overhead. Cracked, boarded windows; crumbling facades; vines creeping up to the roofs.

He screamed and jumped back, colliding into something in the process. Taber turned around just in time to see Aegeas pulling himself up.

Aegeas grumbled and brushed the dust off of his shoulders. "Sometimes people walk around corners," he said to Taber. "It's no big-"

"I don't think that was a corner," Taber whispered. He could see Aegeas clearly, if in duller colors. But Aegeas, given how he looked around wildly and almost ran into Taber, didn't.

Aegeas finally stopped, staring up at the gray sky. Taber could hear him whisper "no" under his breath, but didn't have a clue what it meant. Seeing Aegeas so surprised and angry terrified Taber, though. His hackles rose, his eyes widened, and he shouted again when he heard rustling from further into the alleyway.

"Shh!" said Aegeas, pulling out his swords and stepping forward carefully. Taber, immediately closing his mouth, cowered behind Aegeas, shaking uncontrollably as they walked.

After a few seconds, Taber reached out a hand to block Aegeas. The wolf sniffed the air. Rotting food and garbage. It appeared to be coming from the container in the distance, but also from the two people beside it. Aegeas was about to voice a complaint, but wrinkled his nose. He'd gotten the smell too.

"Something stinks," Taber whispered into Aegeas's ear.

"Someone," Aegeas said. He cupped a hand over his mouth and called out, "Who's out there?"

Paq didn't notice the two people approaching until they were practically breathing down her throat. She glanced down at the moldy piece of bread she'd been holding before shoving it into her mouth. If these two wanted to chase her off, she might as well eat something first...Even if that 'something' was nearly inedible.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the figures go to summon a sword. Her eyes widened. She came from a world where magic existed; she recognized the motion. She'd seen it dozens of times, each instance more terrifying and deadly than the last.

That was enough. Paq reached for her rapier under her cloak, placing a hand on the hilt. It crossed her mind that the motion was less than hidden, but Paq could hardly bring herself to care. She turned around and, pressing her ears flat against her skull, bared her teeth in a snarl... only to flinch when someone called out.

Herobrine and Lorcan each took several startled steps back from the green creature, neither one having been prepared for the sudden show of aggression. What was this place? It looked like it was made by humans, but the creature in front of them wasn't from Earth. They were sure of it; Charlotte would have mentioned something like this.

And then there was the matter of the voice.

The two turned to see who had spoken, Herobrine's hand shaking as he held his hand out in preparation of making his sword appear. He was absolutely terrified. He had no idea where they were, and this was making him remember the time that he had ended up in that horrifying, haunted town. Lorcan, meanwhile, was absolutely petrified at the thought of this being like the masquerade - although there was an apparent lack of fancy clothes and masks.

It didn't help that Herobrine recognized the voice. He peered into the distance, trying to make out the shapes in the dark. "It's the angry otter man," he finally managed to get out, eyes widening behind his sunglasses. It took a minute, but he was able to recall the name - Aegeas.

"Hero, what are you-"

Herobrine was already heading over to the two people in the distance. Lorcan, still quite scared, went rushing after him. He wasn't going to risk getting separated, even if they would only be a handful of feet apart.

"Aegeas?" Herobrine said, coming to a stop in front of the duo. Lorcan stayed behind his best friend in a position that could almost be considered cowering; the only thing that made this seem otherwise was the noticeable difference in their heights.

"'The angry otter man'?" Aegeas said, raising his sword. The strange green creature was one thing. Two newcomers appearing from the mist was another. But insulting him, and then recognizing him by name? That was bizarre.

Yet, the voice sounded familiar. Aegeas squinted, focusing on those black clothes and brown hair. "Hero?" he said, stepping back. "Is that you? From the creepy town?"

He could feel Taber's breath as the wolf peeked over his shoulder. "And you're," Taber said, pointing to the guy next to Hero, "Lorcan, right? Because you have those fangs and that cool hair and also you kinda look like a bat? Do you remember me from that mask party thing?"

Hero and Lorcan looked over at each other. They had naturally mentioned those strange incidents, but hadn't gone into much detail about the other people present.

"That's us," Lorcan said. He stepped out from behind Hero and gave the two a smile - though it noticeably faltered when he looked over at Taber, as he had managed to remember something that people tended to forget. There went that plan of pretending to be a relatively normal human. (Then again, Aegeas and Taber were both bipedal Earth animals, so something told him he might not have to worry about that all that much.) "I remember you from the party, Taber. I just didn't realize you were actually a wolf underneath that mask."

Hero kept his attention on Aegeas. "Do you know where we are?" he asked, getting right to the point.

Aegeas sheathed his swords and sighed. "Do I look like I know?" he said, pointing up to his tired expression.

In the meantime, Taber rose up to his normal height. The green thing concerned him, but everyone else was either familiar to him or Aegeas, so he was probably alright. "Whoops," Taber said to Lorcan. "Those masks messed things up, didn't they? I didn't even know I was wearing mine most the time, so that's probably why I thought you knew I was a wolf. But you didn't, but now you do!"

Paq’s back was pressed against the garbage behind her, still in her defensive position. She stayed like this until it became clear that the others were more preoccupied with themselves than with her, at which point she slowly began to creep towards the alley’s exit. She moved slowly — the cracked concrete was painful on her bare-feet.

Despite the slowness of her movements, Paq tripped. Her foot caught on a crack in the concrete, and she was sent flying forwards. Yikes. She let out a hiss of pain after she landed, and slowly rose to her feet.

"What," She began. "Are you talking about?"

Hero made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a gulp when Taber rose to his full height. Lorcan knew that the height difference wasn't the only problem. He was far taller than Hero himself, though he suspected that Hero was only okay with that because he had known him for so long. In Taber's case, there was also the rest of his appearance. For someone with such a kind demeanor, he could look downright intimidating.

And then the little green person talked.

Lorcan and Hero both gave startled cries and instinctively clung to each other. It was an over-dramatic reaction to hearing her voice, but they hadn't realized she could speak from the way she had reacted to them earlier. Still clinging to Lorcan, Hero narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses and said, "Why should we tell you?"

Paq threw off her hood and fixed Hero with a glare. She was used to being treated like this, like she was some sort of filthy animal. And it angered her, because although she was filthy, she was most certainly not an animal.

She pressed her ears back against her skull, out of fear and anger. “Because,” She said, instinctively tightening her grip on the hilt of her rapier. “I’m just as confused as you are.”

Hero hesitantly let go of Lorcan and walked over to the small green person. Though he was already a bit on the tall side, she was far shorter than an average person; he easily towered over her. He studied her. His gaze rested on her sword, and the way that her ears had flattened back. Lorcan tended to do the same thing in his natural form when he was afraid or angry, though it was usually the former.

Then Hero gave a little nod. Her reaction and interest seemed justified, something that Lorcan agreed with from the expression he had on his face when Hero briefly looked back at him.

"We were talking about how we already knew each other," Hero said. If there were already four people who had suddenly shown up here without any reason, then it was likely more were in the same situation. "I don't think we'll be able to help you with your confusion."

Taber nodded in the direction of the small green person. "Oh yeah, I'm confused too," he said, walking around Aegeas. He could feel the otter trying to tug at him, but Aegeas wasn't nearly strong enough. Besides, what was the harm in a conversation? "But it's nice that there's people to talk to? And two of these guys are old friends, so that's also good! I dunno if you have any old friends here, but you can make some new friends. It's pretty easy!" He gave Lorcan and Hero quick hugs. Hopefully he didn't crush them - he always forgot how strong he was. "See?"