weird events in minecraft

I'm posting this here because I want to see what you all make of it. I'm tired of not being believed at this point.

My little sister and I have always been big fans of the game Minecraft. In fact, my whole friend group seems to have a big interest in the game. It's actually to the point that my one friend, Nicole (who I used to know only by her username, "behind_the_code", as she's a pretty private person for the most part) decided to make a server for us all to play on, "Teambuild Factions". It might not have been as big a server as other servers, but for what it was, I actually had a lot of fun on it. I'm in college now, so I don't have much time to play around on the server, but in the rare times where I wasn't studying I would always hop on to play with my little sister and my friends.

I'm known as an infamous troll and griefer on the server, to the point where they had to make an entire rule against griefing just for me (and my little sister, at that. She took a lot after me in that way. Maybe I was a bit of a bad influence). Why do I bring this up, you ask? Mostly because it explains the skepticism of others when I tried to tell them about this-- they all thought it was just another bad prank. Come to think of it, I myself was wondering for a while if all this wasn't just some other player on the server trying to get revenge on me.

But as comforting as that thought would be, I just can't seem to hold onto it. What happened felt real-- and even though logically I knew it was just a game and there was nothing that could actually hurt me, I felt a very real sense of urgency from this. And the worst part is? I have nothing to validate that fear. Nothing came out of the monitor to take my soul, it didn't know my name or IP, it didn't show up IRL to attack me, hell it didn't even attack me in-game. So to anyone else, including you reading this right now, I probably sound like I'm getting paranoid about nothing.

I guess now is as good a time as ever to start. I remember the day it started being just like any other day. I took my estradiol shots, shaved my face, messaged a few friends on discord, made sure I hadn't missed any homework, then I booted up Minecraft. I woke up in my base, and decided today I'd go get some materials for TNT. I wasn't really planning to do any griefing, considering I didn't want to get banned, I just wanted to recreate some TNT cannon builds my little sister had shown me and maybe show them off to her later to get her opinion.

I started heading out in search of sand when I had gotten the first signs of weirdness. I was hearing two sets of footsteps from the game. I thought at first that I was just hearing things wrong, but as I listened closer I noticed that these footsteps didn't sound right. They sounded unsteady, like whoever or whatever was following me was stumbling. There was another sound that accompanied the footsteps too. The distinct sound of wet coughing and labored breathing.

As you can imagine, I immediately whipped around. But nothing was there. Though I swear to you, out of the corner of my eye-- I saw a figure disappearing behind a tree. I just wish I had gotten a picture to prove it.

Immediately suspecting someone was pulling a prank on me, I went to check the server list to see who was online. But it was only me. I stood there for a second, just puzzled and waiting to see if anything else ever happened. Nothing did, so I eventually I just got the sand from nearby and immediately booked it back to my base.

By the time I got back, it was midnight, and in spite of the creepy thing that had just happened I figured it would be the perfect time to go creeper hunting. It'd be an easy way to get gunpowder, and if I got lucky I could even get a few creeper heads to add to my trophy wall. Lucky enough, I saw one just standing around in the grass nearby. I didn't seem to be in its aggro range, as it hadn't noticed me yet. But even as I got closer, it didn't turn around at all. It remained fixed on the woods nearby my house. Staring at something within those woods.

I attacked it, and its behavior seemed to go back to normal, but I couldn't stop thinking of what it could've been staring at. I was starting to get the sense that something really was following me-- but again, I checked the members list, and there was nobody there but me.

Still, after killing a few creepers, I felt satisfied enough that I could put the weird events aside and keep playing. I had enough sand and gunpowder that I could make a working TNT cannon after I slept through this night. So I went to my base, up the ladder, and to my bed. I looked up at my trophy wall, and placed another creeper head on it. All in all, I felt pretty good about the haul today.

I right clicked on my bed and went to sleep, but the thought of the footsteps behind me and the creeper watching the forest tugged at my mind. I almost wish the game had just thrown some kind of jumpscare or overt horror at me. At least then I would've had something to validate my fears.

The next day was relatively normal at first, as I gathered the materials from my chests to build a TNT launcher and set out to start building it. It took me a few minutes to figure out how it actually worked, and I screwed up a few times and nearly blew myself up before deciding to consult the video on how to do it. I was right in the middle of rebuilding the TNT launcher that I had exploded earlier when I heard it.

Footsteps in the woods-- the same stumbling footsteps I had heard behind me earlier. The sound of a pig squealing and eventually dying. Finally, the sound of eating-- not the cartoony eating sound effect minecraft used, but a disturbingly realistic wet crunching sound that almost seemed to echo through the forest. The sound was so visceral that I almost felt like I was going to throw up. What made it worse is that the default minecraft music played the whole time, tranquil as always. The game wasn't even acknowledging whatever was going on in the forest.

By this point, I was too freaked out to keep building, and I immediately ran back to my house, barricading the door with whatever blocks I had in my inventory.

I could've slept through that night, but... I don't know. I didn't feel safe enough to sleep. Call me a coward, call me stupid for being scared of a video game, but fear doesn't always have to be rational. I don't know how long I stood there looking out the window, watching those woods, waiting for something to show up and validate my fears.

Nothing ever did show up. Or if it did, I didn't catch it. But I heard something in the downstairs floor of my house that gave me pause. The sound of a door breaking down, followed by blocks breaking. Sure enough, when I got brave enough to go downstairs and check, the blocks I had sealed up the door with were gone, and the door was... not just broken/gone, but bashed down, which I did actually get a picture of.

The door laid flat on the obsidian floor, torn off its hinges. I stood there for a minute, dumbfounded at the sight. Maybe I had finally gotten my wish for something to validate my paranoia. Because if this didn't prove something was out to get me, I didn't know what would.

When I stepped outside, I didn't at first notice what was left on the ground in front of my house. It wasn't until I had already stepped over it and heard the sickening squelch below my feet that I turned around and saw what was lying outside my house.

It was a pig. Or rather, the corpse of one. It laid there on its side, its belly torn out and its body mutilated. I stepped closer to it, and I saw a texture on it that looked like human teeth marks. I finally knew what had happened out in the forest last night. Something had half-eaten this pig and left its carcass on my doorstep, with a blood trail and all. The exact reason why, I wasn't quite sure. The first thought that came to mind was that I was being threatened, but then a more disturbing thought came to mind.

What if it wasn't a threat? What if it was a gift? What if whatever stalked me all this time, whatever had mutilated this animal, whatever had broken down my door and left a carcass on my doorstep... wasn't acting on malicious intent? For some reason, that thought scared me more than the idea that this thing just wanted to kill me.

I would've followed the blood trail, but by this point my nerves were shot and my mind was racing, and I just couldn't take any more.

I left the game as soon as possible, and didn't rejoin for a good few weeks.

Nobody believed me when I tried to tell them what happened. Everyone just thought I was making up this whole thing. And I guess, in their position, I wouldn't have believed me either. But it would've been nice to have someone on my side.

By the time I did come back to the server, I made a new base. Far, far away from that forest. And I haven't gone anywhere near it ever since.

But even still, sometimes I still hear it when I'm mining or building or even when I'm with friends.

Stumbling footsteps. Labored breathing. Wet coughing.