Why hello there, everyone! This is my first story on Fanfiction! :D Before you start reading I have a few things to say.

1) This story is rated T for a reason. It contains a lot of swearing, nothing extremely vulgar, but still quite a bit. Almost every chapter has lots of violence and monsters being beheaded, and the like. But in a world where toddlers play Call of Duty on their Playstation Vitas I guess I don't really have to say anything about it.

2) At the moment this story contains a LOT of romance and fluff. When the fanfic is finished I'm going to be rewriting it a little (This chapter is not the original, if you must know.) and cut back on most of the romance in the beginning. So it'll be a bit easier to read.

...and I think that's it! Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The PENDant

"Adeline, get up! The house is on fire!"

"Noooo..."

"There's a tornado outside! We need to evacuate!"

"Leave me alone, Claire..."

"The yard is full of bloodthirsty llamas that yearn for human flesh!"

"Let me sleeeeep..."

"The apocalypse is rapidly approaching! We're required by law to head underground!"

I groaned and opened my eyes slightly, making a pained noise when I was blinded by the sunlight leaking through my curtains. "...Claire? Why are you in my room? I told you not to watch me sleep anymore."

"To wake you up," my older cousin replied, examining her black fingernails that looked more like talons. "It's your birthday, remember?"

I blinked for a moment and looked around my room as I tried to regain my senses. Various posters and framed drawings looked back at me, which has always creeped me out, so I decided to look back at Claire. She layered brightly colored highlights like normal people layered clothing when going out in cold weather, but somehow pulled off the usually rebellious look to seem cute. Under a black Hollister hoodie was a lace cami, and her favorite dark skinny jeans showed off what little curves she had, as she was annoyingly skinny.

Laser blue eyes looked back into my dull turquoise ones. "...did you zone out, or...?"

"I just woke up, give me a break," I moaned, rubbing at my eyes and pushing back my auburn hair. Claire always made me feel self-conscious. I processed what she had said earlier. "Oh yeah, it's my birthday..."

"How old are you again? I always forget. Three?"

"I'm thirteen now, smart one," I scowled. "Not surprising that you forgot, though."

"Yeah. Probably why I get straight C's on my report card." Claire examined one of my shelves containing bottles of nail polish that I rarely used. "Could be worse," she added, picking up a bottle of hot pink varnish given to me from my mom. "Can I have this?"

"Sure," I yawned, getting out of bed and pulling a purple sweatshirt over my pajamas. "Take it. I just peel that stuff off in three hours anyway."

"Sweet!" Claire pocketed the bottle and inspected my desk like the snoop she is. "Let's see... all your homework is done, you little prep... an anatomically incorrect drawing of Pikachu... your computer has a pure history and you still don't have a Facebook yet. Wow, you have too much free time. Do you, like, have any friends?"

"Eh," I shrugged. "I don't care if I'm popular or not. I have a few, I guess." I changed the subject. "Something smells good."

"Probably breakfast," Claire, who ate like a horse, charged downstairs as if she had just reminded herself there was food on the table. She usually isn't this weird. Maybe she went to Starbucks before coming here, which she loves but should never, ever do.

I made my way downstairs a bit slower than Claire did, making sure I didn't trip on the wooden stairs and get my head stitched back together as I had in the past. Rubbing the faint scar on my jaw that was a memento of the incident, I opened the downstairs door that Claire had seemingly shut behind her and was greeted by the scent of Heaven itself.

"Good morning, sleepy head!" My mom greeted from behind the kitchen counter as she skillfully placed bacon onto a plate. After she retied her pink checkered apron I was immediately handed a large plate of waffles, which woke me up as soon as I saw it.

I sat down on a barstool next to Claire's brother and my other cousin Cameron, who was neatly cutting his waffles into small pieces. Unlike his sloppy but popular sister, he was neat but considered a nerd, similar to how I was. Although I felt I could relate to Claire a lot more, since, you know, she was a girl.

"What's up, Cameron?" I asked while shoveling waffles into my mouth.

"Well," my other cousin replied nonchalantly. "At the moment, the ceiling, second story of this house, the sky, and outer space."

I glared at him.

"Not much," he laughed as he realized he succeeded at his smart-aleck moment of the day. "I've been experimenting whether it's possible to be a nerd yet be super attractive at the same time."

"Impossible!" I scoffed jokingly. "Give up now, it's no use."

"Maybe for you," he slugged my arm. For a guy now two years older than me he was actually rather nice. "But once you get to high school, unfortunately, your physical appearance starts to matter more than it should."

"I'll remember than when I continue to have no friends," I shrugged.

"Ppsh," Cam waved his hand around in the air like he was shooing away a bothersome fly. "Who needs friends?"

By this time Claire had finished her breakfast about five minutes ago and was impatiently waiting by the front door with her purse, which was black to match the rest of her wardrobe. "Are we going somewhere?" I asked, putting my plate in the sink.

"Yeah, your mom said we can go into town and go shopping," Claire said, and my mom nodded from behind me. "Hurry up and get dressed, bro."

"Shopping, yuck," I joked as I ran upstairs. My dresser had about half as many clothes as other girls my age, but I still wondered which shirt to choose. I closed my eyes and blindly picked a long-sleeved turquoise shirt and plain blue jeans, along with my black Converse shoes. Looking in the mirror that hung over my dresser, I quickly ran my fingers through my hair and examined my face for any blemishes. Aside from a barely noticeable zit right on my forehead, my skin looked fine and I rushed out of my room before Claire yelled at me.

"Bye Mom!" I waved and Claire shooed me out of the front door as if the house were on fire like she had said about an hour ago.

"See you later, honey!" My mother waved. "Look both ways before you cross the street, don't talk to strangers, and don't follow any tall men in dark clothi-"

"Yeah, yeah, who'd kidnap us?" Claire sniffed as we walked down our street. Downtown wasn't too far away, since where I lived was small and in a tucked away place nobody except the residents had ever heard of. Claire and Cameron were from the city, where trends changed faster than you adapted to the first one and everything you did was held against you. Claire tried to convince me once to run away to where she lived when I was five and she was six, but we only made it to the grocery store to buy supplies before Mom found us. Now that I'm older and have more common sense, I don't even know why I thought it was a good idea to go there in the first place.

Even though our town was microscopic, we did have a lot of good stuff in it. For example, Another One Bites the Crust has the best pizza I've ever tasted. And we have a book store. That's also a coffee shop.

Pretty much it for the awesome things, actually. Who am I kidding, my town is boring as hell.

"Let's see..." Claire said as she walked down the brick path, scanning through the strip mall. "I need to get you a birthday present. I'm not getting you makeup, because you'll become obsessive like I am... I'm not going to get you clothes, because I know you don't like having too many clothes..."

"Wait, what?" I interrupted, looking at her. "What are you talking about? I've been talking to you for the past month about how I need new clothes."

"Oh. Right," Claire said, making an odd face. "I was just messing with you. Hmm... hey, when in doubt, jewelry."

"You're such a weirdo, Claire..." I rolled my eyes at her as I watched orange leaves fall onto the road. "Which jewelry store? Aviskye's?"

"If that was the one we went to that one time and got kicked out of, then yes," Claire said proudly, making me laugh. "Hopefully they won't recognize us."

"Nah, Avi's friends with my mom," I replied. "I'm on good terms with her. You, on the other hand..."

"Shut up," Claire snorted as we entered the door of Aviskye's, hearing a small bell chime behind us. Avi, the owner, happened to be behind the counter, and she gave me a polite wave before giving Claire a suspicious look.

"Alright, I'm going to find something for you," Claire said while giving Avi a charming smile. "Don't follow me. I want it to be a surprise."

"Fine..." I pretended to walk away sadly, and she gave me a playful shove which almost sent me careening into a glass case full of diamond engagement rings. That would have ended badly. Standing up and pretending nothing had happened, I walked to the other side of the store and browsed a display of expensive-looking earrings. Even though I didn't even have pierced ears, I needed to distract myself so I didn't spoil my birthday present.

I felt a like I was being stared at, so I turned around and was surprised to see a boy my age standing there. His shaggy dirty-blond hair, seafoam green eyes and band shirt weren't familiar to me, and I was confused even further when he made a noise similar to a blind man seeing a sunrise for the first time and pulled me into a rib-cracking hug.

"Uh... please don't touch me...?" I pushed the guy away from me and recoiled against the glass display case, trying to make myself look intimidating. The glass around me told me I looked about as threatening as a baby penguin rolled in sprinkles. "I have no idea who you are." Although the longer I looked at him, the more my brain itched, as if I had seen him at the store or something and very faintly recognized him.

"But..." he protested, his smoky voice provoking yet another small spark of familiarity in the back of my mind. "Adeline? How do you not...?"

I squinted, attempting to place his appearance in the many people I see walking down the street. "Do... you... go to my school? I feel like I know you, but I can't seem to remember."

He sighed and scratched the back of his neck almost sadly. "I was told this would happen. You don't remember me? Chris?"

When he said his name suddenly I felt memory begin to emerge, but before I could define anything significant other than a rowboat something was fastened around my neck by Claire. I examined it, and it happened to be a small dark teal ball about the size of my thumbnail hanging from a thin silver chain.

"Oh my gosh, thank you Claire! It's so pretty!" I exclaimed, giving my cousin a hug. She flinched for a second before hugging back, knowing I wasn't one to show affection.

"No problem. Do you know this guy?" Claire asked, looking at the guy named Chris, who was shuffling awkwardly.

"No. I guess not," Chris replied. "I'll be going now. See you later, maybe?"

And with that, he exited Aviskye's without buying anything, making me wonder what he was even doing here in the first place. "I think I recognize him from somewhere," I answered. "But I can't put my finger on it." After Claire distracted me, any memories of that boy had completely vanished from my mind.

"You probably saw him at the store or something," Claire concluded, giving Avi a friendly wave. "Thanks again, Avi!" she called before running headlong into a glass case with a cringe-worthy DONK!. Claire was a chronic klutz, and her impulsive joints have broken many an expensive object at our house.

I heard Avi sigh under her breath, and I rushed Claire out while giving the woman an apologetic grin that felt more like a guilty smirk. "Control your limbs, Claire," I mumbled as we walked out of the door. "Otherwise Avi's not gonna let us in there anymore."

"I consider it my goal to be kicked out of every store in this town," my cousin declared. "Without the use of stealing. Stealing is bad."

"Unless you see someone stealing something... and you steal it from them to return it," I argued. "I think that evens it out."

"But then it looks like you're the one stealing the thing, and then you get in trouble," Claire wondered out loud. "Darn. Life isn't fair."

"Lesson of the day," I agreed, and we window-shopped in silence for a few minutes before we exited downtown and started down the road for my house.

"Hey," Claire said after a while. "I just remembered, there's this videogame I need to show you. I think you'll really like it."

"Yeah? What's it called?"

"It's called... Minecraft." She sighed and clutched her purse as if talking about a boy she had a crush on. "It's the best game ever. And don't worry, this won't be like Amnesia."

Just saying the title of that game made me flinch. A couple of months ago Claire had showed me that game in the middle of the night, without telling me about it first. Let's just say I still don't sleep right.

"I hope not," I shuddered. "If this is scary I'll hurt you."

"No you won't," Claire laughed.

"Try me."

"I can beat you up easy!"

"You wanna go?"

"Now now, children, stop your squabbling," someone said in front of us, and I turned away from Claire to see Cameron approaching with a basket of food in one hand and his cherished Gameboy in the other. "I was thinking we could have a little picnic? Mom and Aunt Mary are talking about childbirth and home improvement magazines, I don't think you want to come in the house anytime soon."

Claire and I collectively dry heaved as we walked off the road and down a small hill, into a ravine full of autumn leaves. Cameron set up a blanket next to the creek and Claire immediately took out three of the sandwiches as if she hadn't eaten in days.

"So what are we doing once we get back to the house?" Cameron asked after downing a can of Vault. He was addicted to energy drinks, sometimes inhaling three in one go if he was planning on surviving an all-night Call of Duty or Halo session with his weird Internet friends.

"I told Adeline I would show her Minecraft," Claire said through a mouthful of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. "I mean, how have you not heard of this game?"

"I feel like I have," I answered. "From somewhere. Maybe a gameplay video on Youtube or something. Is it fun?"

"Fun?" Claire folded her arms, shaking her head in disappointment. "It's the most addicting game alive! In my opinion, of course."

"Not as addicting as Call of Duty," Cam debated. "Nobody has died from loss of circulation playing Minecraft, how about that?"

"True, true," Claire agreed. "At least nobody's died period playing Minecraft!"

Cam hung his head in mock-defeat. "You win," he said sadly. "But I still believe Call of Duty is more addicting, seeing as how it compels its mostly male audience to play for days straight and die of sleep deprivation."

As I was not as avid a gamer as Cam or Claire, usually playing an average of half an hour or so playing Pokémon after school, this shocked me. People could and have died playing videogames. My faith in humanity has dropped considerably.

"Anyway," Claire continued, skillfully pushing a stack of three Oreos into her mouth at once. "I think we're done eating..."

"More like you've eaten everything," I mumbled, finishing the single sandwich I had been able to salvage before Claire had grabbed everything. "You and your hyper-metabolism."

She shrugged. "Can't help it. I'm the human broomstick. Continuing, we should get back into the house so we can play Minecraft. C'mon."

Cam shoved the blanket back into his basket and we waded through the knee-high weeds toward our yard. My house was next to a creek, which used to be a swimming haven for children when I was about six, but after a rumor of ghosts it was now perfect to sit under a tree and relax.

I wanted to do that now, but apparently showing me Minecraft was an emergency. Claire almost dragged me through the front door, and after a moment of listening, it seemed Mom and Aunt Becca (Claire's and Cam's mother) had finished their discussion on how we were born and it was safe to get the laptop.

If laptops were smaller, Claire would have it strapped to a utility belt at all times, as it was her prized possession and she would probably risk her life for it. The thing has cost three years of saving birthday and report card money, as well as stealthily selling some of her mom's old things on eBay. So far, she hasn't noticed.

Claire took her computer out of her bag and gave it a welcoming kiss on its front before opening it and pressing the on button. The desktop was filled to the brim with icons, some for shady-looking games I had never heard of, and even a few notepad documents titled "hacking experiment lulz", which scared me. I feared for my computer's safety as my cousin clicked on a three-dimensional brown cube with a green top.

After an orange logo appeared on the screen it opened up to a panoramic view of what I assumed was the game scenery, with simple rectangles as the buttons. "Let's see... let's start you off with a single-player survival game," Claire said, clicking on a few buttons and typed "Adeline has no friends(:" into what I assumed was a title box.

"Hey!" I laughed, punching her in the shoulder. "Even though it's pretty true..."

"What about that guy who flipped out on you at Aviskye's?" Claire asked, and Cam turned around from the couch, which he had instantly retreated to when we stepped through the door. Laser guns of some sort rang from the television.

"Oh, that," I replied. "I feel like I recognize him but I don't know where from. He probably goes to my school and he tripped me on accident or something."

"Maybe he's your soul mate," Cam said seriously. "You feel like they're familiar but you can't really remember how?"

"Since when do you know about soul mates, Mr. I'm-forever-alone-and-okay-with-it?" I snapped. "Besides, I'm too young for that crap."

"I don't know, I see a lot of lovestruck twelve year olds at your school," Claire said. "Like that one time you smuggled me into the school dance and we went people watching?"

"Pretty sad people younger than me have more successful love lives," I snorted. "Anyway, let's get this over with."

Claire clicked on the "Create World" button, and I felt an odd sense of excitement build up in my chest as the loading bar filled up. "Okay," Claire began. "Right hand on the mouse, left hand on the WASD keys."

I did as told. "W is forward, S is backward, I think you get it. Left mouse button is to punch, right button is to place."

"Place what?" I asked, but she ignored me.

"Scroller thingy is to select an item in your hotbar," she continued, and I was confused until the game finished loading and my character was dropped into a 3D world made of terrain-colored blocks. I had expected some stunning scenery like Skyrim from the amount of praise she had given this game, although the graphics had a nostalgic sort of beauty.

I wiggled the mouse and figured out that made the character look around. Combining it with the W key made you move. "This is pretty interesting..." I observed, tilting my head. "So... what do you do?"

"Okay. I'm going to be very specific, seeing as how this will probably change your life forever," Claire said dramatically. "You only have a limited amount of daylight, which is precious when you first start. The first thing you want to do is collect wood. Walk over to a tree and punch it."

Seeing as how I was dropped in the middle of a forest along what looked like a beach, I strolled over to a tree and held the left mouse button over the trunk. A tan, rectangular thing that I assumed was my arm started swinging at it. Moments later, the tree was missing a torso and a small floating block of log zoomed at the screen, showing up in the bottom line of squares.

I rolled the scroller, and different squares were highlighted. When I returned to the log it showed up in my hand.

"Good," Claire praised. "Collect a few more, maybe around ten or so."

I did so, and by the time I had collected about twenty of the log blocks I noticed the sun, which was square, had risen in the sky by a few inches. "Excellent," Claire said. "Now, open up your inventory by pressing the E button."

After pressing the letter, a small window showed up, with my character in one corner, a small 2x2 box in the other, and a large array of squares at the bottom, which I assumed was for items that you didn't need in your hotbar. "Take those logs and place them in that crafting square, the 2x2 one," Claire instructed. Once I did a single box next to it generated some lighter wooden planks. "Sweet. Not take those planks and fill up the crafting square with them."

I obediently filled up all four boxes and it created a darker box with a 3x3 grid on it. "That's a workbench, or a crafting table," Claire said. "Those are used to craft more things than the small inventory one can. Take it and place it on the ground, I'll help you get some tools."

It took me a second to close out of my inventory, and I got confused trying to place it, accidentally destroying a few innocent blocks of dirt in the process. "Oh my god, you're killing me," Claire huffed. "Give me the laptop."

I did so, a little frustrated, and Claire swiftly created a wooden pickaxe, sword, and axe by crafting sticks and placing them in different formations. "The pickaxe helps you mine stone," Claire explained. "The axe helps you cut down trees and the sword helps you kill monsters. You can use them for the wrong things, but they break twice as fast.

"The sun's beginning to go down, so we should start building a shelter," Claire continued. "The easiest way to do that is to mine a hole in a wall and place a door there. Let's mine a tunnel into this mountain..." she selected her wooden pickaxe and dug a short hole into a stone wall, placing her workbench inside. "Then let's make a door, and craft a furnace with the stone we got." She placed a door at the front of the tunnel, then surrounded the workbench grid with stone, save for the center space. A grey oven-thing popped up, and she placed it next to the crafting table.

"Since we didn't get coal, which creates torches, we need to make charcoal," Claire said, putting some logs and wooden planks in the furnace. They began to burn, generating black lumps. She used those to craft sticks with orange tips.

The sunsets in Minecraft were actually rather lovely, and I watched it as Claire began to light up her tunnel, hollowing it out and making it suitable to live it. "Now's around the time monsters come out," Claire instructed. "There are zombies, which use melee attacks on you; skeletons, which shoot you with arrows; spiders, which can climb walls; and creepers, nasty little things that blow up in your face."

"You forgot Endermen," Cameron reminded her without looking away from the television.

"Oh, right," Claire said. "Those things are terrifying. They're tall, black things that attack you when you look directly at them. I think there's one over there... yup! That's an Enderman."

I squinted, and saw a thin, black creature pick up a red flower from the ground and carry it a few feet, making strange otherworldly noises. "That's pretty creepy," I mumbled. "For this kind of game."

"Here, I'm gonna open the door and show you what they do," Claire said, and she turned the volume up on her laptop then clicked on the door.

As soon as the tiny pointer in the middle of the screen rested upon the Enderman, it turned and froze, its jaws unhinging as it started to shake. Ominous noise came from the speakers, giving me a really uneasy feeling.

"Pretty scary, right?" Claire said deviously. "Now let me show you what happens when I look away from him..." She took the pointer off of the Enderman, which then vanished in a puff of purple pixels.

It appeared right in front of her moments later, making me yelp in shock. The monster stood there for a moment, dropped the rose at the character's feet, then teleported away.

We were both silent. "Does... does that normally happen?" I said. "You made it sound like it would attack you..."

"Uh, yeah," Claire gulped. "Yeah, no, usually they brutally murder you. I have no idea what that was. Some kind of glitch?"

"What was?" Cam asked, pausing his violent first person shooter.

"I looked at an Enderman and it dropped a rose at my feet and walked away," Claire replied. "I'm freaking out right now."

"Yeah, weird," Cameron mumbled, unpausing his game. "... NO! Stop knifing me, bro! Not even cool!"

"Fine, don't listen to me then..." Claire pouted. "Well, it didn't hurt us or anything, so I'm gonna calm down and not worry about it."

"Good idea," I answered. "Can I try now? You kinda stole the computer from me."

"Oh, right, sure," Claire laughed, sliding the laptop back onto my lap. "Just wait until daytime, then go back outside and start getting more stuff."

"Will do," I said, pacing around the small cave Claire had hollowed out for me. Through the small windows in the door I could see what I assumed were skeletons and a rectangular green thing with four legs that I couldn't make out.

As I slouched over the laptop, the necklace Claire had given me swung down and constantly distracted me from the game, its polished surface reflecting my face. Although the stone wasn't as mystifying as a diamond or rubies, it had its own beauty, like the simpleness of a pearl.

Claire watched me walk in circles and jump at every noise the monsters outside made until the sun came back up. Sunrises were just as pretty as sunsets, and I studied it while the monsters caught on fire and burned to death.

"I think it's safe now," my cousin said. "Walk out and gather some more logs. I'm going to go... get your other present. Cam should come with."

"You can do it yourself," Cam argued, his thumbs dancing upon the joysticks.

"No I can't, I'm too weak to carry the sheer amount of presents we bought for our favorite cousin," Claire rolled her eyes. "I'm kidding, there are only, like, three. Help me anyway." She tugged on the sleeve of his Batman shirt and he mumbled what was probably a rude name under his breath before following her. Before Claire left, she added, "If you screw up, or you die, just call me and I'll help you with it."

My character wandered around for a bit before I settled next to the trees by the beach. As I punched them, I began to get a weird feeling, like I was unsafe. Tingles began to shoot down my spine, as if my entire body were falling asleep, and the last thing I saw before my face was dragged into the screen and everything disappeared into gold light was my necklace glowing like the sun.

Hey Claire, I think I need some of that help now.

I like this version infinitely better than the original chapter one. If you're new, just review this chapter, and if you aren't new and want to review this chapter but it won't let you, please put your review on the announcement I posted along with this. Thank you.

New people, if you'd like to see drawings of the characters, a map of the TMD world and other cool stuff, please watch Theminersdestiny on DeviantART for fun stuff. :D Thank you!

And with that I leave for now.

PLASMAAAA! *smokebomb*

~FMF