Chatterbox: Inkwell

The Pit

By Amelie Hunt

Listen closely. I will only tell this one time.

One time should be good enough.

Once there was a mysterious force. This mysterious force created everything. Planets, galaxies, stars, continents, cities. It also created greed, cruelty, hate and jealousy.When the mysterious force created Earth, it left a small but important imprint. A Pit. The Pit was unique. The Pit was unknown by any life except small one group of non-greedy, non-jealous people that the mysterious force had only made, not filled. 

But being filled with emotion has its benefits. 

The group were called The Protectors. The Pit was cherished by The Protectors, but eventually other filled life on Earth found out about The Pit. They sought to destroy The Protectors, to obtain The Pit. The Protectors responded by throwing people into The Pit. After all, The Pit was unique.

But in a bad, bad way.

Natalie Goodman was walking on the sidewalk when she heard a loud crack behind her. She had just gotten off of school, and was quite excited, for it was now the weekend.

She turned around to find the source of the noise. Instead of seeing what she thought the noise came from (A raccoon), she saw someone in blinding white pull a slightly green plastic bag over her face. Natalie started kicking her captor, struggling, trying to escape, but soon tired out and passed out from the lack of oxygen in the bag. Somewhere in her spell, she heard a voice quietly speaking somewhere in front of her.

“...know...could be The One...send...The Pit...gentle, don’t want to break...”

And then all was silent.

When she woke up, she was lying on a damp surface. Right away her senses started coming back to him. Natalie was hit with a whiff of mold, wet earth, and a slightly sweet smell she was suspicious about.

 Shifting, Natalie took off the bag. Blinking to recover sight, she slowly discovered she was in a sort of cave, level where she was, but snaked up to a vertical hole impossible to climb. She got up and walked down a path further into the cave. The ground was squishy, and she sunk half an inch with each step. Not long after, she came to a fork. she chose left and walked on, hoping for some odd luck to counter the unexpected kidnap.

An hour later, Natalie decided this cave was a maze. The path just kept winding like some long snake, and splitting into two more paths every fork. But eventually, after what seemed like hours, she got to a sort of room. A glowing orb shone in the middle of the room, and seemed to project some sort of image on the cave walls. Natalie, entranced by the orb, slowly walked forward, as if being pulled by a magnet, and she was the paperclip. An echoing voice spoke to her, slurring and hypnotic.

“Touch the orb to start the trail of the Orb. Completing the trail will result in an exit out of The Pit. Refusal will result in death by choice.”

Natalie was taken aback. “Choice?” She questioned.

“Your choices are: combustion, fulmination, detonation, discharge or ignition.”

“Aren’t those all basically the same thing?”

“Yes. They all are words that loosely mean explosion.”

“Okay...that leaves one option. I’ll take the trial.”

She walked forward and grabbed ahold of the orb with two hands. 

Natalie felt nothing. And then everything. The light changed in the room from blue to red. Smoke silently filled the room, adding an eerie touch.

A different voice spoke to her, this time quick and strict.

“The riddle is stated on your test. If you complete the riddle within the time limit, and get it right, you will be eligible to get out of The Pit.”

A pinkish paper appeared in front of her, replacing the Orb. A pencil popped into her hand. The paper stated, in bold words, the riddle.

I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. Without me, the blind are still blind, but the seeing now sing.

The beginning of the end? Natalie thought, puckering her face. She had heard one just like this before. She searched her memories back to the time one of her friends told her the riddle. 

When she got the answer she was looking for, Natalie quickly scratched in the answer*.

Immediately a light flashed above her and the paper disappeared. 

A person entered the room. The person entered with a brisk stride, scowling and muttering under her breath. She came to face the opposite side of Natalie. She must have been the owner of the voice that had promptly told him the riddle rules, because she looked like she was unhappy with her answering the riddle.

She was.

“Correct.” She said, sneering at Natalie and holding up her hand. “Now, your exit.”

She pressed her middle finger into her palm. There was a faint click, then one muffled thump.

Above The Pit, everyone heard a faint ringing scream of despair.

Natalie was never seen again.

And sometimes, if you listen closely, you can still hear the scream that may as well been Natalie’s final breath.

⭑ The End ⭑ La Fin ⭑ Das Ende ⭑ El Fin ⭑ Fine ⭑

*The answer is the letter “e”. End, space, time.