Thirteen

Thirteen Part 10

I returned to Abyss as soon as I could, as much as I disliked it and seeing it. No Triggers here, so far. Thirteen accompanied me down the maze halls again, though he was extremely unenthusiastic.

This time I actually came to a library, it resembled something like the famed Akashic records. All of my memories were stored here, rather than my mixed thoughts. I took time to look over some of these 'books', which revealed to me a lot of things I had forgotten. Some of my childhood as well, which made me cringe.

Thirteen was very impatient with me, shifting and sighing in annoyance, as if he'd been through here hundreds of times and it wasn't anything new to him.

I finally set the books down and told him to keep walking, deeper into the maze, somewhere I'd never dared to go before. In all truth, it was terrifying, I had no idea what we might find down here. The light started to dim, and things grew quiet. There was the occasional wail from something far off in the distance, or a groan. Unsettling, I remember making Thirteen go ahead of me.

Time does not exist in Abyss, we could have been walking for hours, days or years. Only when we came to a door did Thirteen pause, looking back at me as if to ask if I really wanted to open that door. He gave no hint to what might be inside, no matter how much I pleaded with him to tell me.

Maybe he didn't know. Either way he wasn't extremely concerned with it, or my distress.

So after a while of contemplation, I opened the door. It was pitch black inside, and very, very quiet. The silence was unsettling. I gingerly set one foot in, testing the 'floor', before stepping all of the way in. Thirteen walked in after me.

I lost sight of him, and where I was going soon enough. Though I knew he was still following me, because I could hear his claws tapping the floor as he walked along. Eventually I stretched my arms out to see if there were walls, but I was met with more open space. Even though there was nothing here I could see, it had be the scariest point in Abyss that I had ever reached.

Thirteen was calm, I was not getting any frightened signals from him. I found comfort in that, oddly enough, and it kept me walking. It felt like walking for ages in the dark, and then I slammed (very painfully) into something. Fumbling around in the dark, I found another doorknob and turned it, walking through this door.

On the other side of this door was a forest, though murky and filled with dead trees. Once more I tried asking Thirteen where we were now, but he shrugged and kept going.

My biggest fear at this point was that I wouldn't be able to escape Abyss, what if I'd gone to far? What if this was death? These thoughts raced through my mind as I trailed Thirteen through the dying plants and trees. On the ground I noticed old bones and rotting carcasses.

"It smells nice in here." I remember Thirteen muttering. I probably would have laughed if I wasn't so concerned with being possibly dead. The walk went on for what I guessed was miles, and then we came to a damp, old cave.

Thirteen had me go first now, he stated that I had to, or else. I didn't know what that meant. But I obliged, stepping in carefully and walking deeper into the place. There were some noises, of which I couldn't identify. Wind, maybe? Or some thing waiting around the corner to get me?

What I stumbled on was, in a sense, worse. It looked like a big lump of....Gross, for lack of better term. It was a large clump of tissues and body parts, as well as sinews attaching it to the walls of the cave. Inside of it, I could see something growing.

Triggers, tons of them, inside that thing. It was disgusting, as if my mind had created an incubator, a womb for these things to grow and birth. What I didn't understand was why it was there. Thirteen stood idly by, watching the lump, expressionless.

"So what the hell do I do about it?" I asked him, getting more nervous by the minute. He looked at me and smiled, tapping his head. What the hell did that mean? Frustrated, I turned away and faced the thing again. It wasn't intelligent, or a creature of its own, which encouraged me to start poking around it.

I managed to squeeze my way around the side, and laying on the ground, a withered husk attached to the thing, was me. But I was me, so what in the world was this? It looked like me, but frail, sickly, almost pained.

Almost instantly, it started growling at me, then snarling, lashing out. I stepped back again, nearly tripping over a part of the lump. The other me stood up slowly, shaky, and screamed at me.

I woke up abruptly, sitting bolt upright in bed. Flicking on the light, I observed the room. No Triggers, for now. And I started crying. You can consider me pathetic for it, but I was in a state of shock after that journey. I didn't like Abyss, and I never wanted to go that far into it again.

You have to understand how terrifying it is to see something like that, a replica of you, but not. I wanted to help it, me, but it got so angry and I didn't know why. I couldn't comprehend what I might have done to cause such a thing to grow and thrive in my own hell.