To Forget a Life

A bit boring, ain't it?

Well, fantasy soon starts, so keep your eyes open!

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Xin blinked, an expression of confusion flickering on his face.

"Did I forget to throw the stone... ?" His eyes narrowed dangerously as he threw the idea out of his mind.

"No, I am extremely confident I threw it" He had thrown the stone, and he was sure he didn't miss. He wasn't merely sure; he was extremely confident.

The stone... had returned to its original position. He looked behind him, only to find no blood on the ground. He turned his head suddenly towards the statue once more, his mind buzzing with countless thoughts.

He had returned to his original position. His shirt was fine. His right eye was still an empty hole dripping blood, which oozed stickily.

Biting his lips in frustration, he closed his eyes for a moment in contemplation. A brilliant plan formed in his intelligent mind, a testimony for his years of experience on the battlefield.

"Let's do this then, lets see what happens" He took the stone near him, and observed it quietly for a few moments. It looked like any other rock you could find anywhere, but Xin examined it thoroughly, as if checking for any signs that may prove it not being an ordinary rock.

Upon finding nothing, he flipped it and found nothing on the other side either.

"Hm..."

Scratching his chin, Xin directed his gaze to the nearest tree and strolled towards it. Upon reaching it, he looked at it silently before smashing it into the tree. Xin had an absurd amount of strength compared to a normal human, but even he couldn't destroy a tree with one hit.

He kept smashing the sharp edge of the stone onto the tree, before he stopped satisfiedly. Looking at the undeniable and clear mark on the tree, he nodded once, before walking to the statue, throwing the stone at it this time.

As usual there was no reaction from the statue. Xin fell into deep ponder, as he decided to take a risky move. As the saying went, no pain, no gain. Xin was ready to take every risk if it meant reaching his goal.

Although he wasn't sure how reliable his return by death was, he was willing to gamble his life. He had died twice and a third death wasn't an issue.

Yet as he walked near the fourth feet count from the statue, he halted, hesitant for a fraction of a second. Was it really worth throwing his life away? His hopes, goals, dreams? Did he even have a value at this point?

How would his sisters react-

"... Sisters?"

Since when did he ever have sisters? As long as he remembered, he was always alone. 

An incoming headache threatened to crush Xin's mind, but he held himself steady, gritting his teeth that grinded themselves so severely that they almost fractured. This wasn't the time to reminisce on lost or forgotten memories.

Steeling himself, his breathed out, a hand on his hip and the other running through his air, as if venting any extra heat in his body.

He walked towards the statue slowly, quietly observing any changes on his body. He came closer to the statue 3 feet... 2 feet... 1 foot away... but no... reaction...?

"What the actual fuck?" His brows furrowed, Xin couldn't understand what was happening. Last time he had walked towards the statue, he had spat blood. Xin felt his sanity decreasing, his mind thrown in dissarray.

He looked back to the tree he had marked as he stared at it for a moment, before he looked back to the statue, before he stiffened. His sanity was starting to take a turn for the worse.

One of the statues arms had changed its positions.

Gulping his saliva in his dry throat, Xin looked up to the thousand feet statue in shock. However, instead of turning back, he took the last foot, reaching the statue and his hand reached out to it.

Yet the moment it did, he felt his own death. The image of his tombstone he had found appeared in his mind. It had predicted his actions, it knew what he would do. All it did was prepare for him.

The moment he had arrived at this location, it was decided for him. It was written.

Perhaps death was too light to describe it. He felt a primal fear welling up inside him as he tried moving his finger away from the statue, but he was unable too. Time seemed to slow down, his fingers slowly reaching the statue.

His index finger was the first to reach.

It touched the metal that felt so cold that it send shivers down his soul's spine. Yet when he tried to caress it, he felt as if he was holding nothing.

He caught his breath, closing his eyes, breaths shallow. 

His heart was pounding too much, but even this as not enough for him to breakdown.

A second... two.. three... four...

Five... six... seven... eight... nine...

ten... ?

Ten seconds passed, yet Xin did not feel anything odd. When he still felt his blood flowing, his heart beating, and his head buzzing, he opened his eyes slowly, expecting the worse.

Yet, he widened his eyes when he found himself exactly where he was. Nothing had happened. He sighed in relief as he thought to what had occurred a moment ago. So many of his memories had flashed in his mind for a moment, and he felt death for the first time.

Not death like normal death, but death that even the return by death would be unable to return.

His pupils became the size of pinpoints, eyes wide.

His heart had stopped.

His fingers trembling, he pressed his index and middle finger to confirm. And he wasn't wrong.

A feeling came to him to look at the floor, and floor, did he look at.

Messy writing on the floor in black ink.

[You cheated!]

"I... cheated? Wait, what? How?"

Xin felt something was off, and jumped to the back, only to realize he was already back. In a hurry, he quickly looked to the tree, only to find the markings had disappeared, and the stone back in its place. 

He was back as well in his initial position but... his shirt was still torn as an eyepatch around his eye.

Time existed in this location, but there was something very wrong with it.

His heart had stopped beating, but he was able to move. Although he didn't know why it stopped or how he was moving despite being dead, he pretty much connected it to him being in The Grave.

In this realm/level(?) everything and anything was possible.

A sound of something moving underground echoed, Xin on full alert as he stared near the statue, where the sound was becoming louder and clearer.

Xin blinked and held his breath.

The sound had disappeared. Yet the moment he blinked, he found a closed elevator that slowly opened up, revealing its luxurious silver interior.

Xin blinked a few more times in disbelief. His thoughts were... akin to thousands of fish swimming in thousands of different directions.

"Ok, ok, why do I keep forgetting things? I take returning by death for granted, even though it isn't. Its almost like..." Xin's lips quivered for a moment.

"As if wherever I am is making me forget... my common sense?" 

Although adaptability to any location was common sense to any human who had a proper or even improper mind on him/her, he had noticed that his common sense had began to detoriate even at the start.

He was losing his identity too fast. Way too fast. And he needed to fix his priorities. Why was he returning by death? How? Was there a limit?

His eyes went to the open elevator that seemed waiting for him. He pondered what the message from before wanted to convey. It seemed to express that he was cheating. But... how? How did he cheat? He didn't recall doing that at all.

He didn't know why, but the terms 'You Cheated!' gave him a chill. There was something up with that. Was it the name of a location perhaps? He doubted it was merely a phrase used to critic him.

He began questioning his purpose of coming here. He was sure this wasn't a test. Neither was it a trial or punishment. Everything seemed to random to be one. 

He raised his eyes. The elevator was still waiting.

Surprisingly, without hesitation Xin walked to the elevator. Before entering it, he observed its appearance, the modern sleek design in comparison with the stone statue he had seen.

"Just... what is this place?"

Entering the elevator, he did not fail to notice that extremely clean flooring, and looked around him, until his eyes paused at the ceiling .

A suicidal thought came up his mind. What if he tried to climb the elevator and see what was on the other side of the ceiling. But he quickly shook his head at the comical idea.

Just as he was looking at the buttons wondering which one he should click, the elevator closed automatically, with a 'ding!' and he heard jazz music playing, which had startled Xin for a moment.

Even the jazz music was unusual.

He leaned to the wall comfortably as gravity around him changed, the elevator moving down.

Xin's eyes narrowed as the elevator descended, the soft jazz notes echoing strangely against the cold metal walls. His mind raced, trying to grasp the purpose of this bizarre place—this liminal space that seemed to punish and confuse in equal measure.

The soft hum of the elevator and the gentle sway from the gravity shift was almost hypnotic. He felt a fleeting calm, as if the chaos outside these walls could not reach him here. But that calm was deceptive—he knew better than to trust it.

Suddenly, the elevator jerked to a stop.

The music cut off abruptly, leaving only a heavy silence. The doors slid open slowly, revealing a dimly lit corridor stretching out before him. The walls pulsed faintly with an otherworldly glow, colors shifting subtly as if breathing.

Xin stepped out cautiously, feeling the weight of the silence press down on him. He glanced back at the elevator doors, now shut tight, cutting off his escape. There was no turning back.

He looked forward at where he was.

A spacive room with no furniture, no wallpapers, no nothing. The carpet was between a sickly and dark beige, being the average color, the ceiling pink. The walls were pale grey, and there was only one exit to the room, which was pitch black.

Ignoring the fear of the unknown, he walked towards the dark corridor and ventured inside it.

Xin's footsteps echoed softly as he walked down the narrow corridor.

Old fax machines lined one side of the hall, their dusty surfaces cracked and worn, tangled cords sprawling like ancient roots. The air smelled faintly of burnt paper and forgotten secrets.

His eyes caught a single sheet of paper taped crudely to the wall, hanging by one corner like a forgotten notice.

Curiosity tugged him forward. He peeled the paper from the wall, revealing a faded printout filled with dense, cryptic text and a small, crude timeline scrawled in jagged handwriting.

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[5 MINUTES]

After approximately 5 minutes of being in this location, parts of the drop ceiling will start to collapse and fall onto the carpet-floor residing in the main electronic-storage area. Entities will begin to appear anomalously and roam around the location, The person subject to these events, otherwise the cheater, will have a incremental drop in sanity

[10 MINUTES]

After approximately 10 minutes of being in this location, more larger parts of the drop ceiling will begin to fall apart and presumably only when the person there is wandering around the area. Walls will begin to crack and crumble slowly. The entities masked by these walls are unveiled and so the same perspective for them as the cheater, allowing them to directly spot and chase the cheater.

[20 MINUTES]

After approximately 20 minutes within this location, every electronic device undergoes an anomalous, spontaneous combustion where it incidentally explodes in its entirety and scatters around flaming shrapnel. The fires will proliferate within the area where the electronics are stored and create an area of pure smoke emission, clouding all visibility and inherently suffocating/possibly intoxicating the cheater through the inhalation of various toxic gases and chemicals.

[30 MINUTES]

At this interval, most wanderers tend to cease from the multitude of dangers being the entities and the other external hazards such as the fire/smoke, it is extremely unlikely anyone gets to Interval 5 with the statements above.After approximately 30 minutes, if the person manages to stay alive throughout the previous events. All light sources within this location either through mechanical objects or natural will explode, plunging the area into darkness.

This removal of light will cause all the aforementioned fires and smoky areas to become entirely invisible from the loss of contrast, This event is entirely unknowingly occurring to the cheater and acts as a major detriment for their exploration in survivability throughout this location.

The entities that reside within this location have an enhanced sense of where you are, disregarding the lack of light. They will also increase in number.

[60 MINUTES]

After approximately 60 minutes or 1 hour of residing within this location, a quarter will spontaneously 'generate' within a wanderers innermost hand. Most wanderers are primarily given a sense of an objective being one to insert the quarter into a slot of one of the arcade machines, it is unknown why they are given this sense but it is presumed that it is through a natural occurrence of fluid thought.

Beyond this, entities will not increase yet become entirely aware of where you are at all times instead of your general location as stated within the 30 minute interval, making it exceptionally dangerous for any situation regardless of what one is doing.

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Xin frowned at the terms. Entities? Sanity decreasing? Danger? What the hell does this all mean?

A light bulb flickered off.