Void Eternal


I had been babysitting my nieces and nephews since I was seven years old, and now, almost a decade later, it was a part-time job I enjoyed. My favourite kid to babysit was Misha, a six-year-old girl about two hours from our house. Misha was the sweetest and most well-behaved child I had ever looked after, and it was especially amusing to see her reassure me every night that all the monsters around us were being taken care of by her parents.


“They’re getting rid of all the bad ones,” she said.


“So, does that mean there are good monsters out there, too?”


“Yes, Mommy and Daddy say there are some that are just mischievous,” Misha said. “Just, promise me you won’t go into the basement.”


“The basement?” My brows furrowed.


“Yes, that’s where they locked up one that they couldn’t take care of last week. She’s awful, they say—the kind that controls your mind.”


Curiosity was gnawing away at the back of my mind. Misha always seemed to have a wild imagination, but these details were too specific. The existence of monsters was not something I placed any belief upon, but something was not right. I knew I needed to get to the bottom of things; I wondered whether Misha’s parents were abducting people. And so, I made a decision.


Misha’s parents usually arrived an hour after bedtime, so I had ample time to explore the basement. Preparing myself to face the worst, I armed myself with a knife just to be safe and ventured deep into the shadows of the basement. The basement was fairly normal, but then I noticed some scratch marks on the floor, leading to a large wooden box. I put all my energy and slowly moved the box, only to find myself facing a secret hatch. A sudden fear began to stir within me, clutching at every fibre of my being.


I readied myself and opened the hatch. It was pitch-black, and cold. I turned on my phone’s flashlight and descended into the unknown, and when I reached the bottom, I found my fears to be true: Misha’s parents had bound and gagged a girl who couldn’t have been older than twelve. I untied her as quickly as I could, but before I could ask her who she was, I heard Misha’s parents running down the stairs.


“Get away from her, Lina!”


Before I knew it, a cloud of black smoke exploded around me; it was emerging from the girl I had just freed, and upon her face was a grim smile. I stepped back, trying to get away, but she somehow stopped my feet from moving just by snapping her fingers.


“You’re not going anywhere…my saviour,” she said, her voice now contorting into dark echoes, as if thousands of people were speaking at once.


Another burst of black smoke enshrouded me, and I woke up lying on my face in a land of vast nothingness. I could see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing—an eternal emptiness began to consume me.


“Welcome to the Void Eternal,” those same dark echoes from before suddenly reverberated inside my head.

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