101 Ways to Skin a Hoodie

Chapter 10

She's fairly tall. I mean, the woman in front of me that is. Hana's ponytail bounces in front of my eyes, and said ponytail is about at eye-level for me. I think that she's about 180 centimeters tall. And she's nicely built as well, a decent amount of muscle on her body.

I kinda like that.

Anyway.

"So, how did this place come to exist?" It was Ben that breaks the silence first. "I mean, not this part, the part where everyone is living and where all the human stuff is kept."

"Ancient history. We know just as little about that as we do about this world in general. We don't even know which one of us arrived here first."

"Wait, so you don't remember how you arrived?" I cut in.

"No, it's a weird feeling. I remember how I arrived, but not when. We think it has to do with- ah! Perfect timing. You've been giving me some good transitions today."

Hana cuts herself off, and I can begin to make out why. In the distance a massive object comes into view, it's a... door? As we grow closer I can make out more and more of it, and it seems to be made of some kind of smooth, dark wood.

The air grows heavier with every step we take.

"We'd better stop here. If we get too close when it's not the right time the demons get a tad bit aggressive."

"When the time is right?" It's my turn to ask something.

"That's the thing. It obviously resembles a door, right?" Hana gestures to the structure, "Well, it's actually more of a drawbridge. Every so often the demons will disperse and the bridge will lower, and that's our chance to gather data."

"Well what have you figured out?" Ben again. Nice rhyme. I bet he's never heard it before.

"Well. Ah." This is the first time I've seen Hana fumble with her words. "The thing is that none of the teams we've sent have ever actually come back. In fact the only way that we know that we've sent them is with the physical records that are at the base. As I was saying before, it seems as though something beyond that door is tampering with our memories every time we send out an expedition. Right now we don't even really know if the gate is going to drop again, but we have to rely on the records because if those aren't true then we have no way of knowing what is."

Silence sweeps across us for a moment, and I'm not sure if it has to do with the splendor of the towering structure in the distance, or if it has more to do with the ominous air filling our bones.

I break my gaze away from the door; "Why can't we just go over there now. I mean, besides the demons guarding it?"

"Look closely." Hana extends her arm, guiding my gaze to the ground below the door. Once I'm looking at it it's easy to notice. A massive chasm surrounds the base of the object, hence explaining why Hana called it a drawbridge.

The silence comes back. A dull wind swirls my hoodie around my shoulders as Ben and I process the information we've been given. Okay. So it seems that our goal is fairly obvious. We just need to wait for the bridge to come down and cross over and... What? It's not like we have any idea what could be on the other side. It's easiest to imagine that there's some bad guy that Ben and I have to fight and once we do we'll just get sent back to our worlds. Nice and simple.

Once again though, I'm not an optimist, I'm a realist, and the only fact that we have is that people are still here and they've been having their memories erased. Not a particularly good omen. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens.