I’m not going to let this place get
to me, I can’t. It’s just that I’m so tired of being given small hints about
the answer to my escape. What kind of answer is my faith going to give me? I’ve
been praying to God, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Does it have something
to do with the killers? They just want to kill me or make me suffer. Does it have
something to do with the other people trapped here? I never get a chance to team
up with anyone. What am I supposed to do?
When’s the next killer going to
come after me? I keep waiting and waiting and nothing happens. Looking outside
my window, I see that I’m in the middle of a destroyed town with streams of
water running through it, so it appears that a huge storm hit this place. The
area around this town is nothing but water as if we’re on an island. Exploring
the building further reveals writing on the wall that details being abandoned
and a single person’s fight for survival. The walls are a canvas for the person
living here with disturbing pictures of monsters, humans, and death.
I find a diary near one of these
walls that details several recipes for making food out of wildlife and…humans. Uck.
I don’t even want to know the things this killer made human dishes. I’m more
than sick of cannibals at this point. How am I even going to get out of here? These
killers have different challenges associated with them, so I don’t necessarily
need to escape them. I just have to find a way to beat them at their own game.
Thinking the kitchen might have
something, I find myself in a gory mess with heads, skulls, bodies, legs, arms,
and other human body parts put in various places as if I was in a cannibal grocery
store. This must be a place of importance, so I bear the horrific sights and
stench and search the area. Among the tables, I find a newspaper that talks
about a town hit by a flood. Rescuers and clean-up crews that went there after
the flood were attacked and never heard from again. One theory mentioned talks
about a man and his dying family who were left behind because there wasn’t any room
left for them and when more rescuers came back, they never discovered his body
nor the bodies of his family, which made the rescuers think they died, however,
the article theorizes that this man survived and attacked the next wave of rescuers
and clean-up crew to avenge his family. Yup. This makes sense for him to be the killer.
He’s probably the person leaving
all the marks and books around the place. What’s this? There’s a grave that almost
looks like a shrine in the cooking area. These must be the man’s family. “You’ll
always be with me. I’ve made sure of that”? Did he eat them in some sort of deep
depressed state? It seems like that from what I’m looking at. I hear someone
entering the kitchen to see a starved-looking man enter with sunken eyes and with
bloody pieces of meat with him that I’m not sure are human or not. That must be
him. Thank you, God, the back exit is open. I go through it and enter the flooded
town.
None of these places look too
interesting to investigate though I do have some ideas for where to check. I
check a local fish store and I think I might see someone in it.
“Hello?” I call out as loud, but as
quiet as possible to them.
It is a person. It’s a woman who
looks like she’s been through a war with how dirty and injured she looks.
“Quiet down. That man can hear things
throughout the town.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“What year is it?”
“Twenty-nineteen, why?”
“Damn it. I’m from the nineteen-seventies.”
“Nineteen-seventies? You sure don’t
look like it.”
“Thank you for the compliment, but
it’s true. Time is abstracted here. I’ve talked to people from the eighteen-hundreds
and even seventeen-hundreds.”
“Really? How are you still alive?”
“This sadistic dimension keeps me alive.”
A noise in the distance gets the woman’s attention. “I need your help with something
that could get us away from this killer. We can talk more along the way but be
sure to keep your voice down.”
I follow the woman while keeping an
eye out for the cannibal.
“How long have you been here?”
“Too long. I haven’t been counting.
I wouldn’t even if I could. I’ve died and seen so much bloodshed and killers
that I might as well be in Hell.”
“How many killers are there?”
“Thousands, maybe? There could be
hundreds of thousands.”
“Haven’t you survived scenarios
with them?”
“I have more than I’ve died.”
“How close are you to an answer to
getting out of here?”
“I don’t know. The vague hints I get
I don’t believe in because it talks about God and Jesus and loving and acting
like God.”
“Oh, I get what the hints are telling
me now. You should have a good idea.”
“Yeah, but I don’t believe those are
the right answers. God has to do with the creation of this dimension. It’s
meant to give you the answer to eternal life except you have to suffer for
them.”
“Life is suffering and suffering for
love is one of the greatest acts.”
“Sure. Believe what you want. I’m
looking for a better answer.”
There is only one answer and she
doesn’t want to believe it. We arrive at the ruins of the city hall that looks like
someone used to live here.
“This is the place that I believe
holds our way out. City hall is a shelter that has a stockpile of food in the
basement, however, the door is jammed and has been jammed for a while. I’ve
been trying to open it on my own with what I have, but I haven’t done that much
to it. With your help, we should be able to open it. What do you say?”
“I’ll help.”
“Good. Wait here and keep an eye
out for that killer. I’ll be back with my tools.”
While the woman looks for her
supplies, I take a look outside and don’t see anything, so I look through some of
the things on the ground for a pair of binoculars to see better. Among the pile
of junk, I find a diary by the cannibal. It looks better than the other diaries
I found and is written with better handwriting. This details the man’s life
before the flood and his favorite food being strawberry ice cream is highlighted
because it was the food the family liked to make and share with others on special
occasions. I take it with me as I take another look outside to see something in
the distance that looks like the cannibal. When I turn around, I see the woman
with her tools.
“He’s here!”
“Oh, crap! Let’s hurry!”
The woman and I hurry to the
basement to the large jammed door. It looks like it's been damaged by many
failed attempts to try to get in. Hopefully, this won’t be one of those. The
woman gets her prying tools set up and operating. It sounds incredibly loud and
will definitely get the attention of the cannibal. The door is slowly, but
surely opening. With a crowbar, the woman tries prying the door open to quicken
the process.
“Grab another crowbar and help me!”
I do as she says as the door opens
wide enough for us to go through it. She stops the prying machine, so it stops
making so much noise and we hurry into the stockroom that’s filled with so much
food that is somehow not spoiled and fresh.
“Take what you can while trying to
find something that can get us out of here.”
I want to grab different kinds of
meat and my favorite food, but something tells me to grab the strawberry ice cream
and so I do. While looking in the freezer section of the stockroom, I find
several tubs of strawberry ice cream and take them with me in time to see the
cannibal entering the room. The woman is frozen in fear.
I whisper to her, “Give him your
food.”
She hears what I say as she shakily
gives him the meat and vegetables she found. The cannibal smells the food
before eating it, however, the woman gets nervous and throws the food in the cannibal’s
face and hits him in the head, which doesn’t kill him. Instead, the cannibal
immediately gets up and tears out the woman’s throat with his teeth.
“Stop it!” I scream at him to get
his attention.
The woman is already dead, but I think
I know what the secret is to beat this killer. I open a tub of strawberry ice
cream and hold it out in front of him. He’s surprised by the smell and sniffs
it for a little while before digging his face into the tub of ice cream. While
he eats it, his body becomes healthier and more human. He finishes the tub in
no time, so I get the next one to give him and he keeps eating and eating until
I don’t have any more ice cream to give him. His face is full of strawberry ice
cream and his appearance is mostly human though he still looks creepy with his
happy grin. He smiles at me like a happy child and I try to smile back to not upset
him.
Something then appears to have
clicked in his head as his expression changes and his body glows and changes
until he looks like a normal man.
He then brightly smiles at me
before saying, “Thank you for freeing me.”
The rest of the area brightens up
to a blinding light. When I open my eyes, I see that I’m back in my room. So
that was the answer. I knew it! Writing appears on the wall that says, “You already
know what the answer is. Your Savior didn’t come to save the righteous, but the
sinful”.
“Then why am I not free?”
More writing says, “It doesn’t
count because you weren’t told.”
This place and its stupid tricks
are getting on my nerves. Whatever, if I can do it once, I can do it again. The
walls around my room fall almost immediately as if the dimension knows I’m more
than ready to leave. I’m now in an abandoned house in the middle of the night.
This place is small and there doesn’t seem like there’s much to explore.
Looking out the window, I see an endless abyss, so the easy exit is out of the question
if I were looking for it.
I already hear heavy footsteps slowly
walking around the house, so I need to be quick in learning more about this
killer’s past. This has to be his house or house that’s important to him, so I go
to a nearby bedroom to find a book. Since I hear the person in the house
getting closer, I hide in a closet while reading it. Huh. This is interesting. It
says, “I had to write this diary to tell my future victims about my past. I
was just a normal guy who mysteriously entered this dimension after
falling asleep one day. After all the deaths and betrayal, I gave in. The blades
in the moon cut off my skin and replaced it with the skin of the monster I am
now. There was no real answer to escape anyway. There was no real way out. I’m
sorry everyone, but I’m not coming back. If you’re reading this, don’t be
afraid to kill me and send my soul to Hell”.
I see. That’s what happens if you let
this dimension get to you. Before I exit my hiding place, I wait a little
longer to find the killer walking into the room. He has a half grinning and sad
mask with slashes in the mask for eyes. His body has metal parts sticking out
of it and has a butcher’s outfit on along with a machete wrapped in sharp
metal. He looks around the room before quickly exiting it. It looks like he
knows that I took his diary. Looking further into the diary, I find several other
notes about his likes and hobbies. Okay, I have what I need.
After quietly exiting the closet, I
head downstairs to find a radio and turn it on to his favorite song that
happens to be on it. I then bang on the tables and make a lot of noise. The man
hastily heads down to see me. Okay, here goes nothing.
“I know what you’ve been through. I
know how this place can break you down and tear at your soul, but we can make
it out of here together if you-hey!”
He starts swiping at me with his machete.
His mind must be under control of the moon and can’t do much about it.
“Stop this! You can resist the moon’s
control of you! You can fight against its control and gain your soul back! I
know you can!”
“Leave me be! Save yourself!” he
says in a pained voice.
He does have some control over
himself. He does have a chance of getting free!
“No, you can be free! If you can
hear me and control yourself, then you can be free. Trust me!”
“There’s no hope for me! My sins
won’t be forgiven!”
“They will! Every sin can be
forgiven if you repent from it. Here.”
I stop moving away from him and
hold out my hands. He also stops slashing at me and appears curious.
“I’m confident that you can be
saved. Take my hands and hold them.”
After staring at me for a little,
he gently puts down his machete, then he doubtfully and slowly takes my hands
and holds them. I look him in the eyes and smile.
“See? You have control over yourself.
You aren’t the pawn of this dimension. You can make it. Trust me.”
While staring back at me, I sense
something in him change. He then starts twisting and turning in pain while
holding onto my hands. He lets go of one of my hands and picks up the machete.
I hold his wrist with the weapon in it while being thrown around.
“Get control of yourself! I know
you can do it! You just need to keep fighting!”
“AAAAHHH!! STOP IT!!!!”
“Hey! Let her go!”
A normal looking man enters the room
with a machete of his own. His voice stops the man’s rampage as he looks at
him. The music has also stopped in response to him entering the picture.
I tell him, “Don’t worry about
this. I can free him.”
“Stand back from this monster!”
The normal man tries to strike the
other, so I move myself to protect-
“AAAAAHH!!”
I can tell that I’ve stunned both
of them because I hear them drop their weapons.
“Why-why did you…?”
I hear something open in the ground
and suck the man into it. Probably should’ve held back before striking me.
Looking back up to the man, I say, “See?
I believe you can be free.”
I don’t see the look on his face,
but I know I’ve hit something in his core. One of his favorite songs comes on.
It’s a slow dance song that he used to dance with his mother.
“You like this song, right? Let’s
dance to it.”
I move us around with the strength I
have. When I start to weaken, he starts to pick up for me and dance along
willingly.
“There we go. You can do it. Just
keep dancing with me.”
As the song comes to a close, he
lets go of my hands and takes off his mask to reveal his scarred face that
appears a bit deformed, but I can see the human within him. He’s smiling and holds
my hands as he leans in for a kiss. I let him kiss me, which brightens up the house.
When I open my eyes, I see that I’m in a hospital room.
A nurse comes to me and says, “Thanks
be to God that you’re awake! You entered into a rare near-death state that a hundred people fall into every year if you didn’t know.”
“I knew. How long was I out?”
“A week. Your parents found you
passed out in your bed unable to wake up. They left not too long ago, but your boyfriend
is still here.”
“Hm?”
I look over to my side to see the
man I just freed now looking like a normal, but handsome man.
“Hi. It’s about time you woke up,
sleeping beauty.”
I laugh a little while blushing.
“I’ll leave the two of you alone.
Get some rest and we’ll let you out tomorrow after some check-ups.”
The nurse leaves us be.
“We never formally introduced
ourselves. My name is Evan.”
“My name is Rosanna. How did you
find me?”
“When I saw your face on the news, I
knew I had to come and see you.”
“When did you enter the near-death
state?”
“About a year before you did, so
not too long ago, but I’m here and alive thanks to you.”
“Thank God for that, not me.”
“I always do, so uh, about that
kiss…”
“What about it?”
“Can we continue where we left off?”
“Haha, sure.”
As we’re about to kiss, a man hastily
enters the room and says, “Hello!”
We stop our kiss as I ask him, “Who
are you?”
“I’m the guy you saved by feeding
me my favorite kind of ice cream!”
“Oh.”
“I came here to thank you once I saw
your face on the news. Did I interrupt anything?”
“Kind of, my man,” Evan says.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll give you a few
minutes. I forgot something in the car anyway.”
The man, who was the cannibal,
leaves us. With our privacy, Evan and I kiss then laugh a little now that we’re
both free from that horrible dimension. We both appreciate our lives more and
are more dedicated to God than ever before. It is said that curiosity killed
the cat, but it is also said that satisfaction brought it back.
The End
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