#echos au

Lomedy’s farm was stupidly well organized.

Perfect patches of wheat stretched across the ground in green and gold stripes. Carrots and potatoes sat in their own clean sections, water sources spaced exactly where they needed to be. Every block placed perfectly for maximum farmage. All of it lined up in this weirdly satisfying symmetry that only Lomedy would care about.

After their neighbors had rebuilt Flames canyon base far too big, they’d been given almost too much room to work with. So it was a pretty easy decision that a section of it would be dedicated purely for farming.

And said section had been fully converted into a farmer’s paradise.

Lomedy’s paradise.

And now, I guess, mine too.

I jumped from fence post to fence post, testing my movement, attribute swapping mid-air just to make sure everything still felt clean. I didn’t know when that former Law assassin dude would be back; so the rest of my time would be spent training. All the while Lomedy lazily replanted seeds, as though we weren’t on a server where peace lasted about five minutes max.

“You realize,” I said, landing perfectly on a fence corner, “you could automate, like… half of this.”

“I know,” he replied easily. “I just like doing it.”

“Bro. It’s wheat.”

“It’s farming.”

I hopped down, grabbed a stray stack of seeds, and started planting beside him. “You’re way too peaceful for this server.”

“Someone has to be.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not me.”

The clouds drifted quietly overhead. No name tags in the distance. No random fight requests. A calm afternoon for once.

“I think we’re almost done here,” Lomedy added. “The seeds that Tyler asked me to plant earlier should be grown soon. We can go back and harvest the rest later.”

I froze mid-step.

“Who?”

He kept planting. “Tyler.”

I scanned the farm. Just us. Same as it had been all day.

“Bro,” I said slowly, “who’s Tyler?”

He paused. “…What?”

“Tyler. You just said Tyler asked you to plant something.”

He turned toward me, genuinely confused. “I didn’t say that.”

“You literally just did.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Bro.”

“I didn’t.”

Lomedy stood there, staring at me with seeds still in his hand.

I shrugged, letting it go.

“Okay. Sure. Ghost farmer Tyler. Whatever, bro.”

He huffed a small laugh. “You’re weird.”

We went back to harvesting.

The sun dipped lower while we worked, shadows stretching long across the crops. We were almost finished when a creeper slipped out from a hidden corner.

Lomedy didn’t turn fast enough.

I did.

I got in a clean sword hit. Knocked it back. But it already started detonating. The blast clipped Lomedy’s side and blew a small crater straight through the perfect wheat row.

“Ow.”

I turned immediately. “You good?”

“Yeah?”

“You said ow.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Not this again-” I shook my head. “Alright, bro. Sure. Are you good?”

“I’m fine.” Lomedy assured. “It barely hurt.”

I tossed him a few golden apples anyway and turned to patch up the crater.

Behind me he gave a quick “Thanks!” and I heard a few quick crunching sounds.

Which abruptly stopped.

I glanced back.

Lomedy was standing completely still. Head tilted just slightly, like he was focused on something past the farm. Completely frozen.

“Uh… Lomedy?”

I blinked.

And he glitched two blocks forward.

“Bro what!?”

“What?” he said, snapping back to life like nothing happened.

“What is your lag, bro?!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You just teleported.”

“I did?”

“You literally just glitched out.”

“Huh, that’s weird. My ping is fine.” He laughed lightly. “Maybe your internet just can’t handle all my wheat?”

“My internet? Are you serious, bro?”

I stared at him longer this time. Something was going on.

But he just laughed and went back to planting like nothing had happened.

We worked until the sun fully dipped below the horizon.

At some point I stepped away to grab more seeds.

When I came back, Lomedy wasn’t farming anymore.

He was standing near one of the animal pens.

Staring at a something in the dark.

I walked up beside him, and took a glance at it.

A single sign was sticking up out of the ground.

.. - ... / -... .- -.-. -.-

I narrowed my eyes. “What the-?”

“I didn’t write it,” he said. “It just, it was just here.”

His voice was quieter than usual. Like there was something about this sign that legitimately scared him.

“Okay…” I said slowly. “You’re the only one who builds here though.”

“I know.”

“You seriously don’t remember placing a sign?”

“No.”

He didn’t look away from it. Just kept staring it down, like it was gonna move or something.

Eventually I broke the sign.

“Hey!”

“Look, if someone’s sneaking around the base,” I said, voice flattening, “that’s a problem.”

“I haven’t seen anyone.” he murmured.

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

He sounded sure.

I wasn’t.

We packed up early that evening and transported the rest of the crops inside.

I suggested we could get more sorting done around the center of the base, but that was just an excuse. If someone was lurking around, I’d rather Lomedy be somewhere defensible. Somewhere I could see every entrance.

I watched out the windows while he headed to the top floor.

By the time the Minecraft night had passed, I got hungry.

In real life it was actually getting late, so I went to grab some real food from my fridge.

I was gone maybe ten minutes.

When I came back, there was another sign on the computer screen.

Right in front of me.

.-. ..- -.

I stopped.

“Lomedy?” I called out.

“…Yeah?” came the reply from upstairs.

“Get down here.”

He dropped down, and I stepped aside.

“You’re messing with me,” I said flatly. “You put this here.”

He stared at the sign.

“No.”

“Okay. So someone else came here?”

“I didn’t see anyone…”

“Bro, I was gone ten minutes,” I snapped. “If no one was here, then how is this here?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t hear anything? Doors? Steps?”

“No.”

His voice was barely a whisper now.

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I don’t remember.”

My irritation faltered.

“You don’t remem-. Bro.”

“I don’t. I don’t know.”

And he wasn’t lying.

I could tell.

After that, I decided to take it seriously. Maybe someone was messing with us? It wouldn’t have been the first time. Maybe another farmer? Those surviving Law members with a grudge? Or maybe Lomedy was sleepwalking?

I had no idea.

I went through my ender chest and handed Lomedy a goat horn I’d taken off a dead Law commander. They wouldn't be needing it.

“If anything happens,” I said firmly, “you blow this. I don’t care what it is. You blow it. Got it?”

He nodded.

I circled the perimeter of the base three times that day. Checked the canyon for invis particles. Looked for hidden name tags. Broke into spots that could’ve been hiding places.

Nothing.

No one.

After a full day of nothing and me pacing around, we decided some mining was in order.

Well, Lomedy insisted we needed iron.

I insisted on coming.

The entrance to the mine looked normal enough. Two blocks wide, two blocks tall, simple staircase heading down.

But the further down we went, the less normal it felt.

At one point the tunnel narrowed from a two-wide to a one block without any reason.

I took the lead.

Sharp turns began appearing where there shouldn’t be. Like this tunnel had been made by someone running away or someone trying to juke another player out. The whole thing was like a maze. It didn't make sense. And then there were these random drop offs on the side of the path leading straight into darkness.

There being almost zero torches didn’t help.

I slowed down.

We walked in silence until the path ended abruptly at a cobblestone wall.

“Have you been down here?” I asked Lomedy quietly.

“No… I haven’t.”

I nodded.

Then I started breaking through.

If someone was playing games, hiding out in their mine and trying to freak them out…Well then, they were about to find out what a maxed out what a maxed out sword in the hands of a Combat Master could do.

At the end of the passage was another blocked off cobblestone wall.

And another sign.

don’t go further

“At least we can read your sign this time,” he joked.

“I didn’t write this,” Lomedy said immediately.

In one quick motion I broke the sign and the wall.

“Yeah, you keep saying that….” I replied, and then turned towards the tunnel.

“Look, if anyone's down there you better come out!” I yelled.

But nothing moved.

“Okay, last chance or I’m gonna slime you out!”

No one replied.

Welp, cant say I didnt warn them.

I sped up along the winding tunnel.

After taking a few more turns, I realized the tunnel had fully leveled out.

Was there no more room to go down?

But there were still multiple drops lining the path….

How had they not hit bedrock yet?

After turning another corner, another sign blocked the path.

.. - / .-- --- -. - / .-.. . - / -- . / .-. . -- . -- -... . .-. / - .... . --

My stomach tightened.

I glanced back at Lomedy.

He was staring at it over my shoulder.

“Maybe we should leave,” he whispered.

Before I could answer, I saw a name tag peeking around the next corner.

I sprinted.

Lomedy shouted after me, but I’d already rounded the corner, chasing the name down a dark tunnel.

“Flame! Stop! We need to go back!”

“Nah,” I called back sharply. “This dude’s had his fun. I ain’t playing around with some nut pretending to be Herobrine!”

“Flame, please!”

Then I saw it.

At the end of the tunnel.

A player silhouette.

“Alright, bro,” I muttered, dropping strength and speed at my feet, “You wanted attention? You got it.”

The figure looked wrong. Like the edges didn’t sit right.

The name tag was off too. The letters kept shifting, almost as if they were moving.

My computer screen started to glitch out.

“What is my game doing?” I muttered.

Through the static I could barely make out the player’s name.

Nufuli?

I could’ve sworn I’d heard of that player before.

Behind me, Lomedy had finally caught up. I didn’t know why he sounded like he was actually out of breath.

“Flame!” he said, panic breaking through. “We need to go, now!”

“Nah. I got this.”

Sword in hand, I stepped forward.

And the silhouette moved towards me.

It didn’t look right.

“No!” Lomedy screamed.

Someone hit me from behind.

And I dropped straight down one of the dark holes.

I very quickly realized that the reason they were so dark was because it was about to drop me straight into the void.

I pearl clutched instinctively.

Then snapped a block down, breaking my fall.

When I looked up, Lomedy was still at the top of the hole.

Frozen.

“Lomedy!” I shouted, stacking up fast.

Before I reached the top, I saw the silhouette standing directly in front of Lomedy.

The entire thing was rippling unnaturally.

Then it stopped.

It looked like a normal player.

Someone I had never seen before.

“You can't have him!” Lomedy screamed. “I won’t let you have him!”

It was like the game was breaking around me. Suddenly blocks were glitching out. And everything sounded like static.

Lomedy’s skin looked like it was corrupting. Slowly desaturating into a greyed out hue.

I think he was screaming.

Then in an instant, both of them blinked out of existence.

And everything was quiet.

No death message.

No items.

When I got to the top, the tunnel was empty.

I stood there with my sword ready.

Breathing hard.

Waiting.

But Lomedy didn’t come back.