Abyss
I crossed my arms into a sort of bored stance, one that said I really, really didn’t like my situation. I sighed, and continued to sulk, staring into the walls of the Abyss as I accelerated into nothingness. The wind was whistling past my face at however many miles per hour I was falling, and it was starting to get extremely annoying. It was not like a cool breeze, but rather an ever-present entity that one could not just simply ignore. I remembered falling into here the first time.
That first time in the Abyss, my little sister had pushed me, and I had tripped over whatever, which sent me sprawling down our grass hill, straight into the Abyss. I didn’t even think she noticed I was gone until I reappeared besides her carefree figure, shaken and near panic.
I groaned, and waited until I hit the ground, but then realized that my Bars were low. This on its own was a big problem, minus the fact that I was about to lose another one very quickly. I rolled up my sleeve cautiously, and saw that I only had three left. Well, so much for promising to avoid the Abyss.
The only reason I had started plunging into the Abyss on purpose was because that very first time, milliseconds before I had hit the ground, I saw something down there. I had sworn that it was actually a person and not an object of sorts, but I couldn’t know, because I was falling too fast to get more than just a tiny glimpse.
This would be my last try though: my father didn’t even know that I had less than five Bars and he still wouldn’t let me use any up for falling into here. After this I would have a mere two left before I blipped out of existence.And anyways, why Chase after one thing when there was a whole world out there? I didn’t believe that statement though. People ran after lust, peace, basically anything, so in a way, my situation was completely just.
I patiently waited for the moment in which I would see the thing for the last time, though I was not sure if it would be the same. The first time, yes indeed it looked like a person, but the second time, my mind was changed, and it seemed like a key. The third time it was definitely an animal, and the fourth time I had seen a book. I had gone in once per year only, for the Abyss was near our vacation home out West.
I was sure that other people besides me had gone in the Abyss and had seen what was at the bottom, but at the same time, we sort of owned the property, so nobody was allowed in there. I wasn’t sure if there was more than one Abyss, or whether it took a different amount of time to fall each time, but I was sure that this was the ‘magic’ people spoke of. I had only heard of the word a few months ago, but it seemed to have an air of mystery circling around it.
I could tell I was near the bottom, partly because I had reached what our science teacher had called maximum velocity, and partly because there was a faint bit of gray amidst my empty void surroundings. I peered down and squinted as hard as I possibly could. Down in there, in the misty bottom of the Abyss, I saw...a red book, golden letters etched on its spine the way a calligraphy artist would do such.
I crashed into the smoke and soon after felt an immense pain triggered by my body smacking the hard ground of the Abyss. I woke up in the kitchen this time, not knowing why I was farther away from the Abyss than ever, and my father was there. My cheeks turned red with embarrassment as he faced me.
“How many left?” he managed to croak out. I could tell that he was actually worried this time, and through trying to convince himself that it was just a teenage phase, he looked genuinely concerned. A little pang of guilt shot across my face as stress lines were drawn on his.
“I-I…” I couldn’t even manage to stutter out an intelligible answer. Even if I had, he took my long shirtsleeve and rolled it up so that my forearm was exposed. There were two little black markings on there now since I had hit the Abyss’ bottom.
“You have to stop doing this to yourself,” he pleaded. I could see the sadness in his eyes when he said that. “Blake, you’re going to kill yourself with that. The Abyss is nothing but that; an Abyss. It was a trick, or perhaps even a glitch, when the Creators made this. There isn’t anything down there at all, much less something worth five whole Bars. Just think of the bad example you’re setting for your sister.”
I looked down at the floor, remorseful for a moment, then walked out of the room without giving my father a second sentence. By the time the next year rolled around, I had one bar left from the Abyss. And the year after that, I found myself looking into the bottomless hole, debating whether to jump or not.
I let myself fall forwards feeling the last bit of cool breeze as my feet left the grass at the edge of the hill. And, that’s when I found myself falling. Again. I knew this was my last time doing so, and instead of being bored or complaining in my head about how the air whistled calmly through the Abyss. THe very air that I had
After a few minutes of this, much shorter than the last two experiences, I saw the bottom come into view. There was more than just one thing there this time, and I prepared myself to hit the ground. It did, but instead of feeling the shooting pain and the fracturing of my spine, I was just laying there. In the bottom of the bottomless Abyss. Staring up at the little sliver of sky. And that was it.
There were no chirping birds, or anything, that actually signaled I was alive still. Yet, at the same time, there was nothing that said I was dead.
