Chapter Four
The mayor's office was crawling with guards. Notch saw the real Williams on the beach - the bridge to his home had been destroyed in the waves. He looked older than Herobrine had been in posing as him, and exhausted. He had a blanket wrapped around him and the same burly guard as before standing next to him.
"Excuse me, Mayor!" Notch called out.
The guard looked at them, "No one can talk to the mayor right now. The man you spoke to earlier was an imposter. Mayor Williams was discovered here in the basement when the alarm was set off."
"We knew that already," James said, "We need to talk to him about Herobrine."
At this Mayor Williams looked up at them, his eyes wide. "Let them through."
The guard looked annoyed at being overruled again, but said, "Fine."
The three of them walked over to the real Mayor Williams and sat in the sand next to him.
"You know about Herobrine?" Williams asked them.
"Yes," Notch said, "We came here to get to the bottom of it." And he launched into the story of hearing about the ghost sightings and what had happened once they’d gotten here.
When Notch finished speaking, Williams spoke up, "A man came about a week ago. Tall. Dark of hair. Pale skin. He claimed to know how to stop the strange spider attacks and the ghost sightings so I let him see me. Our first meeting we had guards so nothing happened. He said his name was David and he was an expert in ghosts."
"What did he say after that?" Notch pressed.
"He said that the ghost haunting our village was called Herobrine. I had never heard of such a thing before. David said he could take care of it for me, but he would need full access to my house. This made me a bit uncomfortable, you see, but David said that he would lure Herobrine to the home and then be able to trap him in some sort of special object. I told him I would have to think about it. That night, when I was sleeping, I heard someone in my room. I thought it was Herobrine! But it was David. David said that I was making things too difficult so he was speeding things up. I saw it...I saw..."
"I know this is hard," Notch said, "But can you describe what the ghost looked like?"
"Yes. He looked like an average person in almost every manner except for his eyes. He had no eyes. They were just bright and white. Empty. Staring at me. I could see through him, too. He was see-through. He loomed over me, and David watched as Herobrine...he looked just like me! He became me! And then David took me down to the basement and locked it with charms, and Herobrine took my place."
Pauline squeezed his arm, "I am so sorry that happened to you, sir. And we are sorry we were fooled by it. Notch didn't figure it out until it was too late."
"At least you figured it out. If the wave hadn't hit, no one would be looking for me...”
"Would it be okay if we looked around the house and the basement as well? We can take a boat over. There may be something we can find."
"You believe me, then?" He asked them.
Notch nodded, "Mayor Williams, we have more experience in dealing with Herobrine than we'd like to ever have."
He nodded, "Please, then, see what you can find."
The three of them took a boat over and stepped into the house. It was staring to rain outside now, in heavy sheets.
"Do you think that it is Herobrine's doing?" James asked, looking up at the sky.
"Not sure," Notch admitted, "He could be trying to wipe the place off the map."
"At least until we leave." Pauline said.
They walked around the living room slowly. Notch wasn't sure if he had his connection with Herobrine still. Shae, the temple guardian, had been the one that was able to set up Notch being triggered by things to see past memories of Herobrine, which ultimately had led him to find a way to send Herobrine back. Or so he had thought. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do this without her help.
"I'm going to look at the basement." Notch said, and made his way to towards it.
The door was wide open. Notch stepped inside carefully, casting a glance around to see if he could spot anything. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He trailed his fingers over the stone walls. There were a few things down here, but all seemed to be related to the real Mayor, and nothing of Herobrine's. Who was David? How had he brought Herobrine back? And why would he bring Herobrine back? If Notch's connection with Herobrine was truly severed since Shae was the one responsible for it, then David would be their best bet to follow Herobrine's progress.
"Notch!" James called downstairs, "I think I found something." His voice got louder as he jogged down the stairs. He opened his hand and showed Notch a ruby.
"Isn't that just a ruby?"
"I thought so too, but look." He turned it over and there was something inside the ruby - glow stone. "Ruby infused with glow stone. Strange, right? That means this David guy was at the Nether at some point."
Pauline had come downstairs and was listening to them, "That is some serious enchanting work to get glow stone in a ruby. Did you find anything down here?"
"No," Notch said, "And I think Shae was the only reason I could view Herobrine's past memories."
"Any connection you had to him was probably severed when you dropped the sword in the lava." Pauline said.
"Where did you find this, James?"
"Under the bed, in the mayor's room."
"Must have been David's then. That means we have just one lead. We'll have to go into the Nether."
"Great," James sighed, "I should have pretended I didn't find anything."
Back on the shore, they showed the stone to Mayor Williams.
"Is this yours?" Notch asked him.
He shook his head, "No. Is that glow stone in the ruby? I didn't even know this was possible."
"We're going to try to rest here for the night and leave in the morning," Pauline said. "We think everything will stop once we head out."
"You think you were lured here?" Mayor Williams frowned.
Notch nodded, "Yes, sir. Herobrine isn't exactly thrilled with us."
Mayor Williams sighed. "It'll be rebuilding for us. But if we can ever offer you any help, please let us know."
"Thank you, sir." Notch replied.
The three of them walked through the village. The rain was pouring down in gusts as they finally stumbled back into the inn. The old man was asleep at the desk, as if nothing had happened. The floor was flooded, though, and they walked in to about a foot of water on the floor.
"Do you think he slept through the entire thing?" Notch asked as the moon burst through the clouds for a moment, sending in light through the windows.
"I wish I was him." James said as they walked back to check the damage to their rooms.
Almost everything was ruined and some of their things had been swept away. The beds were water-logged and would offer no comfort tonight. They got their things together and Notch found himself lost in thought.
"So, what then, we're going to open a portal to the Nether?" James asked him.
"That ruby is our only clue. The glow stone would have come from the Nether. What if this David guy has a base there or something? It’s our best bet to go there and see what we can find."
"I've never been to the Nether." Pauline said.
"Me either," Notch said, "But the three of us know what we're getting into. I'm confident we can do it."
"We need obsidian to make the portal. Where are we going to find some?"
"The Mountain of Skeletons," Pauline said. "It's dangerous. Legends said all skeletons are created there from the midst of the mountain. But the lava that flows there is plenty and it wouldn't take us long to find the blocks we need to make the gate."
"Herobrine, some new crazy guy named David, going into the Nether - why not add the Mountain of Skeletons on top of it?" James said dryly.
Notch nodded, "Okay. We'll head there. In the meantime, let
's try to find someplace dry to sleep and we'll head out in the morning."