The last one

D       O      NT

Its really ironic how despite the alterations of time, the once ‘DO NOT ENTER’ sign continued to have the same meaning. Its also ironic that they even placed such a sign there in the first place. As if the few that got to see it, by arriving intentionally or by accident, would be deterred by it, which happened to be the only sign of civilization for miles within this jungle. Well, apart from the wall, of course, although it hardly resembled a wall anymore, with all the flora and fungi covering and even growing on it.

As our trespasser reached the top of the wall, he was surprised to see that the ground was a lot further down on the other side. In fact, the wall basically surrounded a very large part of the jungle, cutting it off completely. Yet, with a bit of effort, it would be possible to climb back up again. therefore he made his way carefully down.

Upon reaching the ground and making his way towards the center of the valley, he immediately noticed that the trees there were slightly different. In fact, the whole area resembled a forest rather than a jungle, with a far less density of trees. And a whole other type of trees. As if the whole area once existed somewhere else and someone had picked it up and transferred it here. The other thing he noticed was the deadly silence. Compared to the endless noise of bugs, birds and animals on the other side of the wall, on this side nothing could be heard.

As the sun prematurely set behind the edge of a sector of the wall, our trespasser pulled out a big flashlight and lit it.

 As the sky grew steadily darker, he arrived at a glade with an almost perfect circle shape. As if nothing but grass dared to grow inside it. Even the branches of the trees surrounding it seemed to hesitate to violate its perimeter more than was absolutely necessary. Surely the fact that the trees seemed to tilt away from it was just a hallucination of the dying light.

But he gave little attention to the trees since what really drew his attention was a small hill that seemed to emerge from between the forest of trees and only now visible since there where no branches to hide it from him. The hill seemed completely barren. Nothing seemed to grown on it and its round shape and smooth surface made it look like a bald head. Only a single black bump seemed to exist on its surface, but it was impossible to tell by this distance what it was. However it both repulsed him and made him stare at it, as one cannot help but stare on a boil on someone’s face.

He felt as if something bad would happen if he took his eyes off it. but soon a more rational part of his mind persuaded him about the foolishness of such thoughts and slowly made him turn his eyes elsewhere. However, maybe out of instinct and even though he tried to fight it, soon he turned his eyes back to the hill. But nothing was there. The hill’s entire surface was completely smooth. And it had probably been that way from the start. But it was impossible to tell now, since all light from the sun had vanished and on this moonless night only the light of his flashlight remained. He scanned the wall of trees in front of him, bathing them one after the other with light, attempting to choose the direction he should take. Although, despite his earlier sense of repulsion, there was a certain appeal to making his way towards the bald hill. He turned his flashlight in that direction and took a few steps but almost immediately froze. The light of his flashlight fell on something between the trees. Something small and white that seemed to slightly reflect the light of his flashlight back to him as it fell on it. Once again, a random sense of repulsion filled him. But this time he did not allow it to overwhelm him. He attempted to take a better look at the strange item by taking a few steps forward. However this had the opposite effect since a branch on the edge of the glade got in front of the reflecting light and hid the strange item completely. For some reason this alarmed him and his eyes darted left and right, as if expecting someone or something to charge at him from between the trees. But he soon composed himself and turned both his flashlight and eyes back at the direction of the strange item. But what he saw made all sense of composition vanish instantly. At the very edge of the glade, just in front of the wall of trees, now stood…something that just an instant ago wasn’t there. A dark, tall silhouette, with a white, round head that was reflecting a portion of the light from his flashlight…but surely it couldn’t have been the same thing he had noticed earlier…nothing could’ve moved that fast, especially between the trees and rough terrain. Yet, what was now before him, be it man, monster or whatever, projected the same sort of repulsion for a third time, which was now enhanced from the proximity. But surely the three could not be related, since what he had seen, if he had even seen it, on the hill had been miles away.

Unsure of how to proceed, he took a few steps back, without taking his eyes of the dark silhouette. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe it was just someone with a miner’s helmet on his head. But this otherwise rational explanation was unlikely in specific setting. There, the mere possibility of anyone else being there was unlikely. Much less a miner. As any sort of rational explanation began to fade, he slowly retreated to the other end of the glade, walking backwards and his eyes fixed on the thing in front of him. As his back reached the first tree, a wave of comfort surrounded him. Soon the trees would provide him with enough cover to flee undetected. And after one more failed attempt of identifying the motionless being on the other side of the glade, he switched off his flashlight, turned his back on it and dashed inside the trees. After passing a few trees and hid behind a thick tree trunk and slowly stuck his head out to see if there was still any sign of it. but what he saw made him gasp with both surprise and fear. Between the trees he had just passed, a small portion of the edge of the glade, where just a few seconds ago he had stood was still barely visible. And close by he could barely make out the white item or head, which now seemed to slightly glow with a faint light of its own. The rest of the dark silhouette had been swallowed up by the same colored darkness of the night. Despite this, he was certain that if he lit the flashlight, it would immediately appear below the faint, white glow. How could this be? It was covered more than 2/3s of the distance he had in those split seconds. Yet now it seemed motionless once again. but despite its speed, surely now it had lost all sign of him…right?

He quickly took a look behind him and then back at the glade. This time his surprise and fear were too great to conceal and his screams soon echoed inside the valley, shattering the deadly silence. The…whatever it was, was new about 5 meters away from him, staring directly at him. For he now knew what that white thing was before switched the flashlight back on. Yet even without the element of surprised, it was still horrid to behold.

What stood before him, in the light of his flashlight, was a huge, white eye, with a tiny in comparison black dot at its center, on top of, what seemed to be, a tall and thin pile of dried tar. He could not believe that he had even considered it to be remotely human. This monstrosity just happened to have the height of an average human and its bulging, huge eye was where one would expect to find a face. But our terrified individual’s mind was now only concerned about how to get away from the monster in front of him and the valley altogether. He dared not attempt to take his eyes off of it, especially from such a short distance. And since it seemed to remain motionless as long as he stared at it, out of sheer terror of coming face to face with it, he avoided even blinking, until his eyes became watery and tears started to run from them. Then, but finally, with a dreadful amount of terror and agony, he allowed himself to blink as quickly as he could, dreading to keep his eyes closed more than was necessary only slightly more of what he expected to see upon opening them. To his great relief, the creature did not seem to have moved, so he hesitantly allowed himself to blink a few more times. It was only then that he realized with disgust that the creature stared at him unblinking and also had no means to blink. He also realized that the strong light from the flashlight did not seem to effect it at all.

He realized that his only course of action was to move slowly backwards until he reached the wall. As he did so, with his hands stretched as much as possible behind him and stepping very careful to avoid tripping, he made sure to keep the thing within his field of vision as much as possible. However, as the trees became thicker as he moved away from the glade, he occasionally lost sight of it, only to find it once again a few meters away from him. There is no way of telling how long it took him to reach the wall. However his relief was short-lived since he now faced the problem which he was aware of from the start of his backwards trip. And that was climbing the wall without taking his eyes off the thing, which was not standing 10 meters away from him. Not nearly far enough for him to consider that he could take his eyes off it without being overwhelmed. He desperately scanned to face of the rock with his hands, even though he knew that there was no way he could hoist himself up with his back turned on the wall. He wasn’t even sure if he could do it normally. Despite his terror he felt so tired…his eyelids now felt like gates which required effort to remain open. He knew he was doomed. The sky was beginning to become less dark. So it had been several hours after all…even though it felt like a lifetime…

as he closed his eyes to blink, he felt his head unwillingly falling forward. Upon bringing it back up and opening his eyes, he came face to face with the thing he had dreaded to happen from the start. His face was now inches away from the surface of the huge eye ball. He attempted to scream again, but out of exhaustion and despair, his voice was low and cracked. All hope of escape then faded and was replaced with a dreadful realization. No means of escaping. He brought the flashlight up and close as possible in a final desperate attempt to blind it or scare it away. But the batteries were now fading and the light of the flashlight was fading as it flashed occasionally. Not that he had any real hope of that plan succeeding anyway. Hallucinations from exhaustion and fear seemed to overcome him, for in the dying light of his flashlight he could’ve sworn that he saw something behind the semi-transparent surface of the eye. And that that something was teeth…a long line of teeth that seemed to shape a wicked smile. Just a few hours ago this fact would’ve shocked him to his core…but that felt like centuries ago…now he was too tired and scared to care.

When he knew that he had reached his limit, he made one final desperate with for a quick and painless death, before allowing his head to tilt downwards again. Unfortunately, what followed couldn’t have been further from his wish.

As his head lowered slightly, he immediately felt a hard surface hit him on the face, was thrown back against the hard surface of the wall and he slowly collapsed to the ground, until he remained in a sitting up position with his back against the wall. He was certain that he would loose consciousness but he didn’t.. he remained motionless half-expecting it to happen with every second that passed. As it soon became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen, he slowly opened his eyes. He was now looking behind a semi-transparent white surface. He opened his mouth to scream but no voice came out. He attempted to move but couldn’t move a muscle. His eyes darted in all directions, seeking something…anything…and they found it. on the ground in front of him he saw a grey (black seen through white) pool of some sort of liquid. And from this pool slowly stood up a figure. The tar fell effortlessly from its body as it stood up. It was a human, as far as he could tell. He stared at his hands as he clenched and unclenched them slowly. Then he looked at him and hope suddenly was reborn.

“Do not hope.” He said slowly in a toneless voice. “Instead brace yourself for pain beyond imagination. It will feel like an endless number on needles being pushed beneath your skin, from the top of your neck down to your toes. And it takes excruciatingly long until it’s over. Normally your mind would snap from the amount of pain, but your sanity will be preserved. I know everything that you are feeling right now. I know everything that you are thinking right now. But I won’t help you and I wont show any pity, the same way I wasn’t give any and shown any when she was at my place and I was at yours a…long time ago…and, I imagine, the same way when she was at your place and another at my place now. An excruciatingly slow circle of knowledge and ignorance where each of us start with one role and finishes with the other. Yet even the knowledge comes with a large portion of ignorance.”

For a few seconds, eyes full of hatred and eyes for of cold understanding met in silence.

“You hate me and will always hate me, the same way I hated and will always hate her as long as my mind remains sane. And you will hate yourself, the same way I do, for every decided to come here. I’m sure whatever reason brought you here is as insignificant as mine was. Although that’s about as much as I remember about it. Its insignificance. You will also soon see the insignificance of reason behind such actions, the insignificance of names and identity, the insignificance of many things that you considered important until now. But they will all fade from your mind soon enough…although ‘soon’ is such a relative concept.”

The one that was now a man and used to be a monster was now looking down on the man that was soon to be a monster. He saw how the tar-like substance was now at his angles and will soon cover him entirely.

“Once this process is complete, the pain will subside and there will be a ‘settling in’ period and in about a day it will commence anew. The realization of your predicament and its nature will become clear soon enough. I part with you with the same words she parted with me. which although spoken so long ago remain scarred in my skull. It will also seem cruel to you at first but eventually you will acknowledge its truth and necessity…”

He took a big breath as if he had waited an eternity to say those 7 words…and it seemed that he did.

“I hope you are the last one.”