The mystery unsolved

A short story about Temptation of the Abyss

...also... consider this your reminder to look for more secrets if you haven't already.

Caution: As with the game itself, it's a bit... dark. The game itself is a horror game after all!

Passage 0 and 7: A prologue/epilogue

One who waits at the bottom of an abyss wanders aimlessly.
Will there ever be an end? "No... not this time.", the one thinks.

After what feels eternity, the one looks up. The time is now once again.

A giant, bright light envelopes the abyss...

Passage 1: A preface and a prelude

They say to never go into the abyss. They say, no, do not go.
The one would ignore this and go in anyway, a curiosity overwhelming.

The journey itself interesting, but the thoughts of the one are arguably more.
I will focus this tale on the thoughts of the one, and not the journey.

You may already know the journey itself, after all...

First observing the surroundings, the one takes the leap.

Passage 2: Entrance

The fall was liberating. Nothing more of the past would matter after the fall happens.

And then...
Landing. Ground. It's time to observe once more.

The layer of the abyss.
The first? The last? Who can say? Everything loses its meaning here
Wandering, wandering... always wandering. Not much here. Not much to do.

Climbing, climbing, once more down, and once again, the ground, and once again more down...

Passage 3: Impatience

"Nothing? Still what feels nothing? Am I, the one to explore the abyss, just not observant enough?"
Strange symbols occasionally adorn the walls, but nothing that the one can parse well.

It feels like the definition of insanity made into place, into form.
A place where you do the same thing again and again, and *GET* different results.

To that end, a sigh, a jump, and another layer was thus entered, many more before and after already.

Passage 5: Impermanence

The rocks that were moved and the air that was blown and the fire that was lit and the creatures that were burned and the air that is breathed and the floor that was floor and the everything that was nothing and the nothing that was everything. It all moved. It all changed again, after being moved on purpose as a test.

Impermanence permeates throughout the air.

"Nothing is forever, perhaps this place is hell?
But I hear nor see not toil nor reason nor bell."

Forever onward, the abyss seems to continue.
Forever downward, the abyss seems to climb.
Forever upward, the abyss seems to wait.
Forever sideward, the abyss seems to laugh.

Perhaps it was time to join the choir.
Perhaps the laughter would do good.

The one laughed.

And the one laughed more.

After laughing, the one wept.

Death was not possible here. There seemed truly no escape.
The only thing that seems to die here is hope, it would seem.

Hope that died long, long ago.

Passage 4: Imprecision

The rocks that were moved and the air that was blown and the fire that was lit and the creatures that were burned and the air that is breathed and the floor that was floor and the everything that was nothing and the nothing that was everything. It all moved. It all changed again, after being moved on purpose as a test.

...was this not the same room as before?

The tests that run and run, the passages that twist and turn and
twist and turn
and twist and turn and
twist.

Thoughts becoming incoherent.
Perhaps the next layer is the time for.

The one jumps into the next layer and wishes for an answer to this.
The temptation was something to be ignored, as it would seem.

The fool, the one was. The fool!

Passage 6: Imbalance

No.
This could not be.
This never could exist.
How could such a horrible place exist?
Never could such a thing be right there before the eyes of one mortal.

A leap must be taken soon, or else the one would have to try this accursed layer again.
A leap is taken soon, but not yet, at passage's end the leap is taken without note, but not yet.

Never could such a thing be before the eyes of one mortal... never!
A place this horrible existed somehow, despite everything.
This existed.
This is.
Yes.