[Welcome to 'The Abyss'. Player 1 Kai Kurosawa.]
I opened my eyes to see a small, screen room. A gramophone was playing.
A single chair, a table, and an old-style Movie screen in front of me. The room looked old, antique, but not as if it had lived through all those years.
The music hummed as I looked around.
What the hell? Did I get kidnapped? How did I get here...
Right above the words on the screen was a crest with an intricate design; it seemed to have collected a lot of wear and tear, showing it was not something newly installed.
The logo of the game 'The Abyss'.
I clenched my fist and stared at it, burning a hole into the screen.
The room was enclosed, with no doors to be seen. It was clear that whoever put me in this room was trying to keep me here.
How long have I been asleep? Someone would worry by now, right? I had plans to do something the next day. Is it even morning right now?
I stood up and looked around the room.
It was practically empty.
The music suddenly stopped, and the record ended. The words on the screen changed.
[We shall now proceed with floor one. Over the years, have you overcome your fear?]
I looked at the screen, confused.
Something felt so familiar about it.
The record started to play again, and I knew the song it was playing.
The same music that ran for the first level of the Abyss.
Level 1: Your Fears.
"No way..."
I looked at the room as a whole, thinking back to the start of the game.
It had been years.
It all came back like a lost memory.
This was the exact same setting as the one in the game. It became very popular and a sensational horror game due to this exact feature.
Every player was given a questionnaire to fill out, and using that, the fears, big or small, were found, and the scenario changed accordingly to their fears.
I rememeebered mine.
It was not a hard level, but it sat in my mind even through all these years.
When the level started, I was surrounded by an empty area, just dark corridors and empty rooms.
White and empty, it still had an eerie feel as if something was going to come out.
The tense music and the empty world.
I had walked in a maze multiple times, over and over again, wondering when it was coming out. Going through multiple doors in and out of rooms seemed never-ending.
I felt alone.
It was lonely.
There was no one there, and there was nothing there.
As if I were the only thing existing in that world.
After an hour of walking through the maze, it finally led me to a red door, different from the other duplicate black ones.
When I opened the door, the notification popped up.
[Stage 1 Clear]
[Fear: Autophobia]
I was shocked to see it on the screen, autophobia.
The fear of being alone... isolated... forgotten.
Then another message popped up.
[No one is ever alone in the Abyss.]
I stared at the weird message, thinking that they had used some amazing technology to specialise the level.
The fact that no one was allowed to stream and was instructed to play this level alone made it even more immersive.
A lot of people had then flooded the forums with their level 1 experience; people with the same fears had the same experiences, and there were some with their own unique fears with different levels.
The level had gotten my heart beating in anxiety every second. It was not a comfortable feeling; I had felt uneasy and on my toes the whole game.
People asked me what my fear was.
I never told anyone.
So the first level is starting. What are they going to do? Put me in that hell of a maze for an hour again? It's a new experience, alright. They are lucky if I don't sue them.
I slumped down on the chair.
Clank!
A belt strapped around my waist, securing me to the chair.
"What the fuck?" I tried to pull it off.
[May the Abyss favour your soul.]
The chair I was sitting on was placed on a small platform. It was not easily visible.
The platform fell down, zooming.
I held on, grabbing the armrest, trying to secure myself to it.
Thunk-
The platform stopped. We had reached the bottom.
In front of me, a black door just like the ones I had seen in my first level in the game.
I walked towards it and opened it.
The door shut behind me as I entered the room. It was not empty. There was a bag on the floor, the same as the one I normally used.
I picked it up, and the contents clank. Then realisation hit me; it did not only just look like mine, but it was mine as well.
The same doodle I had some time when bored outside was there. They had not only kidnapped me but also taken my things. They definitely were flaunting this fact.
I opened the bag to see what was inside. There were the three items I had received from he final boss.
"What the hell? Seriously? How long are they going to play these stupid mind games with me?"
I then catch sight of a folded paper in the same place where my bag was. I opened it up.
'I don't know where I am now.
But I think it's just a dream.
It feels so real.
But it seems like every time I throw the coin into those black wells, I come back.
I can't die.
When will this dream end?'
Well, that was not weird. Is it referring to this coin?
I held the coin flipping side to side. There was nothing that stood out about it. It just looked like a commemorative coin.
It was said that it was supposed to be thrown into an Abyssal well. Like a wishing well, huh? How childish.
I closed my bag and faced the next door. Same as the first one, black, wooden with a gold knob.
Identical.
I opened it expecting the same empty rooms and corridors I saw in the same. The door slammed shut behind me, and I turned around only for it to vanish.
I touched the wall, trying to find the remnants of the door that once was, but nothing. It was as if it never existed.
Frustrated, I turned around, and in a blink, the whole room had changed. It was nothing like I had expected it to be. Not the same black rooms I had come to before, but it was a room I was familiar with.
My heart started to beat faster, unable to process the scene in front of me.
How did the room change? It's not possible. I was literally staring at an empty black room, but now it's this place... How did they even know about this room?
The room I was standing in front of was none other than the bedroom I had in my childhood.
Everything was the same: the toys, the bed, the books. Even the pictures that had all been burnt on that fateful day. How did they do this? Even though I could not do this, how did they do it? It had all vanished in the fire.
This is sick...
I walked up to the picture on the little desk in the room. It was the same one, my brother and I, and my parents. A happy family.
I hope this is nothing but one horrible dream. I don't need to see things I can never get back again.
I place it down and open the door, it's the same black corridor again. I open the next door, and if it was one big joke, it's the same room, my room again.
The anger in me started to rise. I clenched my fists.
How is this me facing my fears? This is just a maze in the end, right?
I ran through it.
Door after door, I ran through a few more dozen replicas of my childhood room.
Then something caught my eye. Something in the room had changed this time. Or maybe it had changed before, and I did not notice because I was not looking for a change.
The things around the room had moved. Nothing big but slight movements, I went to the next room, same thing, some things changed, some stayed the same. I then spotted the calendar with the date 11th December.
I could feel my insides churn.
I went to the next.
11th December2.
"This can't be real... no way. Who the fuck is doing this show by themselves? I have had enough with your games. Fuck!"
I started to feel my chest get heavy, and my head started to ring. I felt suffocated, unable to control my own body. My eyes moved erratically, looking all around the room. Grabbing my chest as I attempted to drag in the oxygen, the struggle was unbearable and painful.
I fell onto my knees trying to grab the edge of the table, missing it, and I dragged the contents down with me.
The frame that had the picture of my family dropped in front of me. The glass cracked. It made my emotions derail even more.
I can't do it... I do not want to see it again. Please, anything but that...
Pleading to the void, I kept looking at the photo. I could feel my vision going darker.
"Shit."
I made a decision. Grabbing the frame, I smashed it harder on the floor, making the shards fly everywhere. I grab the biggest one near me and thrust it into my outer thigh. The safest place I could think of.
The pain radiated through my body, but my breath started to stabilise. I took fast-paced breaths, trying to reclaim the oxygen I was denied.
I have to keep going... I am going to make whoever is in charge pay for this.
I picked myself up, the anxiety still high for what was to come next. Placing my hand on the knob, I turned it.
The final corridor, in front of me.