Unknown Time

The monster gazed up at the dark ceiling of the world, at a fixed point in the sky where a portal would open, an escape out of this horrible place. Every day, the monster would wait for it appear, no day was ever an exception. In the beginning, there was a rhythm to the portal opening, a schedule that the monster had worked out; the day in which it appeared was not frequent, rather sporadic, however the time it opened was the same, or rather it used to be before they realised that the monster had learned the time and prepared accordingly. But soon, after such a close success in escaping, the portal opened at new times, never the same and so the monster was forced to stay the entire day, all of its day waiting, and waiting, and waiting until it opened again.

Another day of waiting, the monster double and triple checked its equipment, and then went back for a fourth just for safety before finally climbing up the scaffolding on the roof. The supports were not quite as sturdy as it had preferred however it was all going to come tumbling down regardless, height was the focus for the moment, to be able to reach the break in the sky.

Reaching the summit, the monster attached the safety harness clip it had used to climb up to the loop on the scaffolding, and then waited.

In this time of patience, the monster never wasted a moment, in its mind it formulated a plan, the same plan it had for years now, on what to do once it reached the other side of the portal, a contingency for every defence on the other side, any setbacks, and then the following steps, the whole reason why it needed to escape. The monster spent most of its time imagining it in detail, every kind of way of achieving it, what was the most efficient, the most excruciating, the more justified, the theatrical, the satisfying, the simple with the least mess. The monster had yet to settle on the numerous options; it knew which one would be correct in the moment, but having some semblance of a plan at the very least was reassuring and comfortable. And the plan after? There was none. For the monster, everything may as well just stop right after that moment. Every day of waiting made it feel as if that nothing else mattered, nothing did. It could not go back to anything else after this. Who would take it back after this?

There was a change in the wind, only a slight difference but it was enough for the monster to feel it, and all too familiar feeling. This was it. This time it would succeed in escaping The Eternal Abyss.

Rising to its feet, the monster took the bundle of rope at its side, a grappling hook attached to the end, and got ready to swing as the sky split open, a beam of light breaking through and shining down upon the monster.

After so many tries, the monster successfully swung the grappling hook into the portal and it attached to something on the other side. It tested the rope, satisfied that it was on something strong and solid. And then the monster launched to the side, tumbling off of the scaffolding tower before a jet of red magic shot down from the portal. The harness rope caught the monster, keeping it from falling. The monster climbed back up and retrieved a back a large sheet of corrugated metal, using it as a shield as another beam of red pummelled down, the shot an incredible force against the sheet of metal, leaving a sizable dent.

There was a short time period before the portal would close and the monster did not waste anymore seconds. It positioned the metal sheet shield above itself as another beam fired down, this time at the scaffolding itself. The monster leapt and clung onto the rope with its legs, the summit of the scaffolding breaking apart underneath its feat as one of the weaker supporting beams collapsed. The metal sheet was precariously balanced on the monster's head, exposing a part of its body in such a position, and it had to swing the rope to narrowly avoid another beam of magic that instead hit the scaffolding and more of its structure was destroyed, causing more work and repair for future escape attempts, should the monster fail once again.

The monster adjusted the shield as it climbed up the rope with its legs, enduring the endless onslaught of magical beams pelting against the shield, one of them successfully piercing through the metal sheet, hitting the monster's shoulder and it slipped down the rope, losing progress. But it endured, it prevailed through everything, through the pain, through the exhaustion, through every failure because escape was everything. It just needed patience, it needed resilience, it needed a surmountable amount of stubbornness and drive.

And it will succeed. It will escape. The monster will get its revenge.

After so many attempts, the monster no longer needed to count, its mind did so without thought, counting down to each stage. Prepared, the monster adjusted the shield again, cocking it at more of an angle whilst still fully covered as something came through the portal in the sky.

A woman dropped from the sky, plummeting down and hitting the metal sheet, screaming as she was immediately knocked off to the side. With that dealt with, there was no more obstacles left in the monster's path, it was just a race against time. The monster climbed up once more on the rope before halting and grasping tightly with its legs and forearms as the rope swayed uncontrollably. It glanced down and saw cast in its own shadow the woman had managed to grab hold of the very end of the rope to stop her fall and was screaming her lungs out in panic, her frightened state causing the rope to swing wildly.

The monster fought its annoyance and continued to climb up the rope. More and more red beams shot down, aiming for the monster, the scaffolding, and the rope though did little to deter the monster. This time. This was the time. It would escape and-

The woman let out a high-pitched screech as she attempted to land on top of the scaffolding that was ten feet below her, but failed and was clinging onto the sides, struggling to hold on. The whiplash of the movement sent a ripple across the rope and the monster almost fell off, barely staying on from all of the swaying and slid down almost the end of the rope.

No.

No...

No!

The monster gazed up at the warm light, seeing it start to wane.

Knowing that the portal was going to close any moment now and it not being possible to scale the rope in time to escape, the monster fought against desperation and chose logic, to fight another day, and landed deftly on the top of the scaffolding, giving the grappling hook a tug and caught the end before the portal fully closed shut and snapping it.

The world was once again dark, the light gone, though it would appear another day.

The monster stared up at the dark sky for a moment, retracing its progress, knowing that if the woman hadn't messed things up it could be on the other side right now, it could be out of The Eternal Abyss.

The woman, yes, the monster had finally noticed that the screaming had stopped and peered over the edge, seeing that the woman had gotten to the bottom of the scaffolding tower with only a few scrapes and bruises. She scurried across the roof, continuing to look back up at the monster as if in fear that it would chase after her, but slipped and slid down the roof and off the edge to the ground. The monster watched a moment later, relieved to see that the woman got herself back up and was running away into the distance instead of staying nearby, a relief that she wouldn't have to be dealt with.

Another failure of an escape, but a success in learning, the monster began to repair the scaffolding, building it taller in order to reach the portal and contemplated methods to ensure that an incident like this wouldn't occur again.

*

The woman ran. That was all she knew what to do in that moment. That last few minutes was just a blur, of falling from the sky and immediately colliding with something hard and rolling off. Her instincts had kicked in, grabbing that rope, preventing her from falling hard from such a height into the house below. She had no clue what was going on, nothing to go on but she definitely knew that staying anywhere near that monster was, whatever that thing was bad. In the panic and chaos of everything, all she saw was a glimpse of a silhouette in the dark, something with wings and horns climbing up that rope. Was it trying to escape? Yes, definitely run away, especially as it failed which she would be blamed for. The woman constantly glanced behind her, ensuring that nothing was chasing her, and was relieved to find that nothing was, though she continued to run until she had fully exhausted herself and that the mansion was out of sight before completely collapsing onto the ground, heaving and panting for breath, a sharp pain between her ribs with staggered gasps of air.

Even in such a tired state, she continued to look around, cautious for attack, for any other monsters or prisoners that would seek her harm.

Prisoners... yes, that was what she was. A prisoner in The Eternal Abyss. And that was the extent of her knowledge of herself. That was it. No, that can't be right. But the woman struggled to think back to any memories before falling just moments ago and found nothing. Nothing. She was... nothing apart from just this, as if she had only just come into existence and yet she knew so much. She knew about the monster masks, the Land of the Lost, the different sectors, the food drop-off and silver packets, the memory curse, the brands...

Her hand hesitantly reached to the back of her neck, her fingers tentative feeling her skin only to find healed scars of desperate and pained scratches. No brand. No words or magic to tell her the reason for why she was here. Perhaps it lay beneath the scars but she would never learn what it was if it would never heal, would always stay the same regardless for how much time passed, for whatever medical treatment she tried, everything returned to the state they arrived here in.

After catching her breath finally, the woman stood up, staggering as the adrenaline left her body and she could properly feel the ache of the bruises and cuts from the fall, and the numbness in her leg from falling off the roof.

Shelter came first, or should it be a weapon? She looked around at The Eternal Abyss, finding that the mansion was situated on top of a hill, the edge jutting out in a sheer drop to the forest of leafless trees below. If she peered enough, she could make out in the darkness a river snaking through the forest. Water, would it be safe to drink? At the very least she could not die in The Eternal Abyss, but a stomach ache or throwing would not be an ideal state to survive against monsters in.

Before climbing down, the woman used the height of the cliff situation to scout the place, scoping out the layout as it would be difficult to navigate in the large forest that surrounded the place, and to her fortune she saw in the distance in the sky flickers of light, a constant almost glimmer; a Land of the Lost potentially, the lights small portals opening and closing, dropping resources she could use to survive. The food drop-off would be far more difficult to locate as the portal above it that dropped food would only open on the day, however it wasn't too much of a trek. A pattern for food drop-offs was that it would be in a more open space, since prisoners would be fighting against each other, they would to be able to see it clearly from above to record the carnage. The forest did not cover the entirety of the land, there were large enough clearings as well as valleys and hills that could potentially be where the food was dropped, but the woman couldn't be certain until she got close to see the signs, if the grass was noticeably shorter, the ground damaged from the rain of food packets.

The woman followed the edge of the cliff, peering down to see if there was anywhere to climb down or some kind of stairs or pathway, all the while glancing behind at the mansion in the distance, seeing the thin line of the tower of scaffolding, cutting through the milky white moon set behind it. Eventually, she came across a drop, a narrow ledge step way that led down to the bottom of the cliff, but the narrowness would be a struggle. She spent a few more minutes searching before giving up and choosing that option, easing herself slowly down onto the ledge before hugging the stone wall of the cliff, side stepping and shuffling her feet. The further down she got, the wider the ledge got much to her relief and she safely reached the ground, requiring a moment of pause for the fear of falling to finally settle down.

The woman found a decent sized stick which could act as a club, not the best weapon for now, but it was better than nothing at all, especially when this whole forest could be swarming with monsters and other prisoners. Cautiously, her stick club raised ready to clobber someone if needed, the woman treaded through the dead forest. At first, she flinched upon any sound, any snap of twigs underneath her foot, any creak of the dead trees but eventually she relaxed a little, holding onto hope as she saw the lights of the portals in the sky get closer. Fortunately, the journey went without incident which the woman found peculiar. The travel was not too long, she estimated half an hour, but surely by now she must have encountered another prisoner, especially so close to a portal and the Land of the Lost.

The Land of the Lost was an enormous clearing, likely having been a part of the large forest of dead ashen trees surrounding it however overtime had been flattened by the endless stream of dropped discarded items from the portals from the human realm, creating mountainous piles of landfill, a treasure trove of survival for those in The Eternal Abyss. She hung back in the edge of the forest, surveying the place for movement, for other prisoners. There must be some kind of group that considered this place its territory, or made camp nearby for the resources, the woman only hoped that she could scavenge the piles for her own purposes without notice or incident.

Finally believing there to be no one nearby, the woman left the safety cover of the forest and into the open, heading straight for the closest pile of discarded stuff, rummaging through. She found something sharp, a broken piece of a thick glass that looked like it used to be a fragment of a bottle. Finding some phone earbuds, the woman used the cable to attach the sharp piece to the end of her stick, fashioning a spear that was a bit more useful than a club that would break in one hit. Then after, she found a better competent for the blade, a kitchen knife that was missing its handle, so she undid all of her work, already getting an upgrade, when she then stumbled into finding a metal table. After a few struggles, she managed to unscrew one of the metal legs, using the long strong tube as the shaft for her spear. And then she actually found a real spear and felt silly going through all that effort. Satisfied for now for a weapon, the woman scavenged for some kind of camping supplies, for bedding, shelter, cooking supplies, or any backup weapons, anything useless, when she then heard a voice calling out. On instinct, the woman dove into the pile of items, burying herself as much as can, hiding however, just caused a cascade over her, and she was completely revealed again. Hearing more voices and running footsteps, some significantly heavier than others, the woman panicked and bolted, heading straight back into the forest of dead trees.

"Wait! Wait, please!" cried out a voice. "Sorry! We don't mean no harm!"

"Yeah, like she'll believe that," scoffed another, with a panting wheezing breath.

Ignoring the calls for her to stop, the woman continued to run, until she was paralysed in fear as a large shadow consumed her, as tall and long legs easily caught up to her, stepping over her with ease and blocked a path, a monster standing at ten feet, a grey and furless quadruped, its small body resembling some kind of ghoul, a disfigured and malnourished human suspended by impossibly long limbs with three fingered claws. The monster's head was constantly looking down, and struggled to raise it up, hanging limply.

"Ah good, she finally stopped," said the second voice.

The woman dared to move, glancing behind and seeing four other monsters; the first voice she heard had belonged to some kind of enormous lizard with dark greyish skin though with the head shape akin to that of a basking shark and only two legs, having to drag the rest of its long tail and having left a noticeably trail dent in the grass behind it.

The second voice belonged to the smallest creature, which the woman could only describe as a blobfish taken out of the ocean with two short stubby feet and two arms that did not have elbow joints.

The third monster was a humanoid tortoise, standing on two legs with a large spiked shell on its back, covered purposefully in twigs, dead moss and plants likely to hide.

And then finally the fourth monster the woman initially thought was just a human in a plague doctor monster and black hooded clothing, until she saw the long claws poking out of the long sleeves and glowing yellow light emitting from the eye holes.

"What do you want!" the woman hissed, trembling as she raised her makeshift spear, ready to attack and run away when there was an opportunity. "You want me to give back what I took?"

"What? No, no!" the lizard monster said. "We just wanted to talk to you."

"You just arrived here, didn't you?" the plague doctor asked, cutting to the chase. "You don't have a mask."

"She won't know about masks yet! She just got here!" The lizard monster turned back to the woman. "We're human by the way! Every monster actually is! We get masks that allow us to transform, you'll get one eventually too!"

The woman shrunk away, feeling all of their studying eyes on her. "I do have one!" she blurted out, not wanting to seem like an already weak target.

"Oh, really?" The plague doctor folded their arms, careful with their claws. "I don't see it. What's your monster form?"

"A frog!" the woman blurted out the first thing that came out, perhaps influenced by seeing the blobfish-like monster, and instantly regretted it. "A big one! A toad! A venomous toad!"

The blobfish with legs sighed. "Sounds better than my one at least."

"We know that you just arrived, sweetie," said the turtle. "We saw the portal. And once again, we mean you no harm."

"Then what do you want?" the woman asked, cautious but not completely lowering her guard.

"Did you encounter that monster occupying the estate?"

"Oh, yeah... I..." The woman frowned, trying to trace back her memories, despite having only less than an hours worth. "It was trying to escape; it built a tower on top of the roof. I knocked into something... I think I might have ruined the escape attempt so I just ran, didn't want to face any consequences of that."

"What of the tower? Was it destroyed?"

"Most of it got wrecked, I think." She paused. "Are you wanting to escape too?"

The turtle chuckled. "Oh, no. You can never escape The Abyss, we're not fools. But if the tower needs fixing, then the monster is distracted."

"That monster stole all of the food from the previous drop-off," explained the lizard monster. "We don't know how, no one even managed to catch much of a glimpse of what it looks like."

"Many have tried to raid the estate and failed," added the plague doctor. "Just getting to the top of that cliff is difficult already."

"So, you want to take the food back?" asked the woman.

"Not just the food, but the mansion," said the blob-fish monster. "All other buildings are already occupied and we're not exactly the strongest group-"

"Hey, don't tell her that!" hissed the lizard monster.

"And you think you can take it on when other stronger groups have failed?" asked the woman.

There was a long silence.

"Look, none of us fancy moving to another sector," began the lizard. "This one is pretty decent compared to others and we would rather stay. And if we do win, we gain a lot. We'll have food, shelter, and we can help out anyone who arrives in The Abyss."

"Well, we got our answer," said the plague doctor. "No more wasting time."

The others nodded, and they walked past the woman, thanking her for her time, heading through the forest.

"Wait!" the woman called out, catching up to them after a pause in contemplation. "Can I join you?"

"You want to join?" said the lizard monster, surprised. "Even after all we said about being weak?"

"Well, I know that to survive this place, you have better odds in a group, and you guys didn't try to kill me on sight so I think you're as trustworthy as I'll be able to find."