Unknown Time

Melody watched on awkwardly, appreciative and confused as to why she was being treated so well by someone whose house she had broken into, who had ruined their opportunity to escape The Eternal Abyss. She wondered if the gargoyle did not recognise her, perhaps if it knew, she would have been thrown out of the window instead of all of this. The gargoyle constructed a makeshift splint for Melody's leg, found cushions to keep it elevated, and offered her a green blanket. Melody clutched it tightly, glad to have something to wrap herself with, to feel less exposed and vulnerable, something to hide away with, and ten admired the shade of green, a lovely moss that felt just as soft.

"Thank you," Melody repeated, not knowing how many 'thank you's she had to say until she felt that her appreciation was met and registered, what she could do to repay for this unexpected act of kindness and generosity. She swallowed, feeling her throat close up, her eyes stinging, about to well up with tears as she thought back to what she had gone through these past hours, having time to contemplate on the reality of her situation, how close she came to death, death in the sense that she could have had her memories wiped from a head injury, not that she had any memories to lose, death in the sense that he could be injured to the point of being unconscious for an unknowable amount of time, death in the sense that a monster could kill her if she did not make the right choices. Why? Why was she here? Why were her memories already gone? Who was she? What did she do to deserve this?

"Thank you," Melody once again said, though this time it was a restrained croak of words out of her wobbling lips. "I... Why are you helping me? You have no reason to. You could have easily chucked me out of your house by now."

The gargoyle was silent. It finished securing the splint on Melody's leg, then paused, glancing briefly at her before looking away.

"Can you understand me?" Melody asked, wondering if perhaps the gargoyle did not understand the language or was not fluent. She tried a few other languages, ones that came so naturally to her though before she could not remember knowing them, ones that felt so easy on her lips, natural like breathing, though she had defaulted to the most commonly spoken language when she first interested with Nanjala and the others. It gave her a sense of joy, a clue to the puzzle of who she was, to narrow down at the very least what country she had come from.

After a moment, the gargoyle mouthed something, its arms moving alongside it with movements that Melody could not work out what they meant, especially as the gargoyle lacked hands and fingers.

"What is that? Charades?" asked Melody.

The gargoyle froze for a moment, then looked away, before rising back to its feet and walked away, through the archway to the entrance hall and Melody heard it go up the stairs, in a more brisk walk.

"Shit," Melody sighed, wondering if she had pissed the gargoyle off, regretting her choice in words. They were trying to communicate with her and though she did not mean it as a joke to suggest if it was charades, it was perhaps taken as such. They can't talk, thought Melody, concern and empathy for the gargoyle but also caution as it could mean that they were stuck in their monster form, having lost their voice and were on their way to losing their mind, losing control over themselves and go berserk. Melody hoped that it would not be soon, that she could leave this place before that happened, especially before a blood moon. Ah, blood moons... Melody hoped that she would find a safe group to be with before then, maybe having to resort to finding Nanjala and the others despite their cowardice. They would be better than nothing.

Before Melody's guilt and fear for her future dwindled even further, the gargoyle returned to the lounge carrying a whiteboard with magnetic pens attached to it. One of the pens had a hair tie tied around it with a little loop which after sitting down the floor before Melody, the gargoyle slipped one of its arms through, the pen firmly straight and now the gargoyle was able to write, moving its arm with the pen attached to the end of the stub, the broken stone of a wrist, on the whiteboard.

Melody watched patiently, before the gargoyle finished writing and turned the whiteboard to reveal the words 'I can understand you.'

Ah, that language, Melody thought, it being one of the more commonly spoken languages due to the country of origin conquering so many others and its influence. Starting now, Melody trained herself to think in the language, just to make it easier for herself in case she accidentally slipped into the other more natural ones for her.

"I..." Melody swallowed. "Thank you for this..."

The gargoyle did a little nod, unable to meet her eye completely, instead drifting more focus to the whiteboard as if in consideration.

"Why are you..." Melody winced still fearing that she could mess everything with a simple wrong word. "Why are you helping me? I broke into your house and tried to steal from you? I also..." Her throat went dry. "I also ruined your plans of escaping, didn't I?"

The gargoyle looked at her finally before writing down, 'cutting it close, likely fail anyway.'

"Really?" Melody stifled a smile of relief. "But even still, why? Why are you helping me?"

This time, the gargoyle took its time to write and responded, 'someone helped me when I first arrived in the Abyss, I would not have survived if not for their kindness.'

Kindness? This was out of kindness? But what Nanjala and Fergus and the others spoke of the gargoyle, they had been hoarding food and took shelter in a house that was big enough to comfortably hold an entire community of prisoners and instead they fought against anyone who dared get close. Was any of that true? Perhaps her so called friends had lied to her just to convince her to break into this place with them and the gargoyle actually was a genuinely kind soul? Or was there something else other than kindness motivating the gargoyle to help her? Regardless, Melody knew she had to show her appreciation because the alternative was to survive in The Eternal Abyss with a broken leg.

"Well, thank you, for your kindness." Melody let out a nervous laugh. "Only the first day and I got into so much trouble."

The gargoyle nodded in agreement and wrote, 'I did too on my first day.'

"Oh yeah? Did you break your legs too?" She winced, hesitating as her eyes instantly went to the gargoyle's arms where it was missing its hands.

'Almost drowned,' replied the gargoyle, then added, 'and almost died four different instances.'

"Ah, you definitely beat my record," Melody tried to liven up the mood instead dwell on how dangerous The Eternal Abyss was. "I was almost killed only once,"

The gargoyle shook its head, mouthing the word 'no' as it motioned to itself.

"You weren't trying to kill us?"

'Scare away.'

"Ah, fair." Melody took a sip of water from the metal cup. Then she frowned, remembering all of the traps that definitely could have killed any of them, or at least done some serious harm if they weren't all so lucky. "Uh, all those traps..."

The gargoyle's eyes widened realised and shook its head before explaining on the whiteboard, 'I saw your group climbing up the cliff.'

So much for stealth, thought Melody.

'I was going to scare you on the balcony.'

"You purposefully left that window open?"

The gargoyle nodded.

"Then why didn't you?" Melody remembered the gargoyle being so still that she and the others had easily mistook it for an actual statue and not a prisoner in a transformed mask.

The gargoyle looked away, its mouth open, about to say something, then about to write something, before hesitating.

"Are you..." Melody swallowed. "Are you stuck? Can you not take off your mask?"

The gargoyle flinched, the truth hitting hard before it nodded slowly. 'I could not move.'

"You're becoming more like a statue?"

The gargoyle nodded.

Melody, despite not knowing where she got this knowledge, knew that if someone used their mask too much, staying in their transformed monster form for too long, they risked being unable to change back. Usually, that came with losing your humanity, to become an uncontrollable and bloodthirsty beast, but perhaps some monster forms it was different. Her new saviour was slowly losing their humanity, but they were slowly being unable to move at all. What a scary thought, Melody wanted to wrap her arms around herself, imagining being trapped in stone, her body paralysed and cold forever and no one know, just like she did, walking past the statue without a clue. Were the statues outside in the courtyard the same? The ones on the buildings? No, they were too conveniently placed, though the gargoyle had placed itself conveniently hidden too when it tried to surprise her. Was it so far fetched or The Eternal Abyss management to organise giving prisoners who inhabited this house statue masks in hopes that they would slowly add to the gothic aesthetic?

'You can stay for as long as you like,' wrote the gargoyle.

"For as long as I like?"

The gargoyle nodded. 'At the very least stay until your leg is better, but you can stay after that too.'

Melody stared at the writing. It was far more kindness than she deserved.

'I plan on escaping," the gargoyle continued to write. 'You can have the house afterwards.'

"Are you sure?" Melody asked, even though property laws weren't entirely a thing in The Eternal Abyss, nor could she see herself being able to fend off intruders unless she got a powerful monster mask.

'It is yours'. The gargoyle attempted something of a smile unfortunately, its stone face and sharp teeth made it a more scary and haunting grin.

Melody pursed her lips together firmly in order not to laugh. She cleared their throat. "Well, thank you... again, for all of this but I need to repay you back somehow."

The gargoyle looked immensely annoyed at this before Melody could even offer something specific.

"Let me help you! I can..." Melody looked around the room. "I can clean? I can... cook, or rather heat up food packets. I could..." Melody gasped in excitement. '"I could help you escape!"

The gargoyle, who had previously taken amusement out of Melody's amusement soured at this, recoiling back to being unable to look at her directly.

"You got pretty close right! Imagine if we were working together!" Melody almost forgot her leg was broken and sat up abruptly in her excitement, then hissed through her teeth from the pain. Her grin curdled as she finally noticed the gargoyle's expression and body language. "You don't... want me to?"

The gargoyle eventually wrote in response, 'it is dangerous.'

Melody recalled the red magic beams that fired down on the gargoyle and the tower, and then how high up it was. "Well, when I get a mask I could? Or at the very least I can help rebuild your tower?"

The gargoyle gave a shrug as it to say that they would consider it before once again looking away.

"I just want to do something in return, to help you like you helped me," said Melody softly. "If you think of something, just let me know. I'd rather do something productive, to have a goal of some kind down here instead of just waiting for my sentence to finish just twiddling my thumbs."

'Okay,' the gargoyle mouthed, nodding.

"Okay." Melody smiled. "I'm Melody, by the way," she offered her hand out in greeting. "Just realised we should properly introduce ourselves if we're to become roommates."

The gargoyle looked at the out stretched hand for a long time, an emotion passing across its face that was unreadable in such an instant, before finally extending one of its arms.

Melody held the stone forearm and they shook. "It's... nice to meet you." She laughed. "What's your name?"

Once again, a long pause, so long that Melody wondered if the monster had forgotten its name,  before eventually the gargoyle reached for its whiteboard and wrote the name 'Corinna'.

"Corinna?" Melody read aloud. It wasn't exactly what she was excepting. Of course, she had made deductions that the gargoyle was likely a woman due to the clothing, however it was such a feminine name that was not fitting of such a vicious and scary looking monster. Once again, Melody had to remind herself that the gargoyle, Corinna, would look entirely different in her human form if she wasn't stuck as a statue, one for matching how the name Corinna felt someone regal-like since it was a name associated with royalty.

The gargoyle called Corinna rose to her feet quickly, scooping up her whiteboard and headed into another room with little communication to her purpose. Melody shrunk on the sofa, overthinking what was behind that abruptness and haste, that she was to blame when it was more likely it had nothing to do with her. Eventually, Corinna returned with a steaming bowl of food that resembled brown sludge with pieces of meat in varying sizes and textures. Melody expressed her gratitude though Corinna left swiftly after and Melody could hear the sounds of construction as Corinna returned to fixing up all the set-off traps and the damage that they had caused.

Melody took a small cautious spoonful of the ominous meal, sniffing it, and then dared a taste to only find herself shovelling down more of the stuff. It was some kind of stew that had a mix of different meats like pork, beef, lamb, and chicken. Despite not having any memories of eating anything prior, Melody declared it the best meal she ever had regardless. She ended up scraping the bowl as clean as possible of the stew, and felt guilty to be unable to take her empty dish and cutlery to the kitchen to be cleaned since she was confined to the sofa and instead left it on the side coffee table.

She picked up the metal travelling cup and sipped some water to pass the time and stared at the metal reflection of herself that was distorted to amusing lengths. Melody spent quite some time looking at her stretched face, sticking her tongue out and making hideous faces before she truly looked at herself. It was strange, to have no memories and yet know so much about The Eternal Abyss, about the world in general, and then to look at your own face and be so conflicted at what felt like her. She ran her fingers through her dark wavy curls hat reached almost down to her shoulders, then traced her nose, the bridge tall and high, her jaw and cheek angular, though was that from a lack of food or her true form? Melody had been avoiding feeling her torso, having already brushed past it, how skinny she was. And then finally, there were her eyes, an unnaturally neon green that only an overuse of magic could cause. Was that why she felt so weak? Did she overexert herself casting a spell? Or was it hunger? Thirst? Fear? Nerves? Or was she just always like this? So unhealthy? What had she cast? Was it linked to why she was down here in the first place? Melody imagined them different colours, what they could have been before and if that gave an ease about her own image instead of the stark and bright colour, probability wise her eyes had likely been some shade of brown.

Corinna soon returned to the room, setting down a notebook and a pencil case on the coffee table. Once again, Melody thanked her, but Corinna left so quickly cleaning up the empty dishes and cutlery and returned to whatever business she was doing before.

Melody picked up the notebook, one side of the pages blank and other side lined, and then opened the pencil case that was filled with coloured pens and pencils. Since she was essentially bed ridden until her leg was fixed, which should hopefully be quick due to being in The Eternal Abyss, Melody occupied herself with drawing anything that came to her mind. At first she drew objects in the room, the furniture, the chandelier above, the windows, and then moved onto animals that she drew from memory, or rather what her mind told her they looked like. No exact memories of any of them but logically speaking she knew. She drew a few fish, a few dogs and cats, an attempt at a horse, a cow, and a dinosaur, and then an octopus, some mushrooms and other plants before hard focusing on frogs in different outfits. She imagined them living in the house, putting suits and top hats on them or frilly dresses. Before she knew it, Corinna came back into the room, having written on the whiteboard that she was going to bed and asked if Melody would be alright sleeping on the sofa due to her leg.

Melody was happy to just have shelter let alone so much hospitality in The Eternal Abyss and dismissed the gargoyle's concerns before excitedly showing her artwork, proud of how cute everything turned out. The gargoyle just stared at it for a moment, then nodded slightly before heading upstairs for bed.