The Abyss Bites Back
Diane's Perspective
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An Unraveling Existence
The first thing Diane felt was cold. A biting, unnatural cold that sank beneath her skin, deeper than bone, seeping into the very core of her being. It wasn't the absence of heat—it was something else, a void where warmth should have been.
She opened her eyes to nothingness.
The Abyss stretched endlessly before her, a swirling mass of black and violet that pulsed as though it were breathing. There was no floor, no sky, just an oppressive weight pressing against her mind, whispering in a language she didn't understand but somehow felt.
Diane had been here before.
Or had she?
Memories flickered—half-formed, incomplete. The fight in the temple, the sudden pull, the sensation of falling. And now…
She was here.
But where was here?
A distant sound echoed through the void—laughter.
No, not laughter. A whispered mockery.
"Welcome home."
---
Phantom Chains
Diane took a slow, steady breath. Her hands flexed, testing. She wasn't bound. That was something.
But the Abyss didn't need chains to hold her.
It had something far stronger.
Her past.
A shimmer in the distance caught her eye. A golden roulette wheel, spinning in midair, its numbers shifting too fast to read.
Her heart clenched.
"Tom?"
She took a step forward—no, she willed herself forward. The Abyss didn't play by normal rules. There was no ground beneath her feet, yet she moved, the space around her bending with every thought.
The roulette wheel spun faster, golden light flickering, revealing glimpses of something beyond.
She saw herself—no, not her, but an echo.
A Diane from another time.
Bound in chains of celestial metal. Locked within a tower of endless stars. Eyes hollow, stripped of the fire that once burned bright.
A prisoner.
The realization slammed into her like a hammer. This wasn't just an illusion. It was a memory.
A memory she had never lived.
Or had she?
The wheel clicked.
---
The Timeline That Shouldn't Exist
The visions bled together—scenes flickering like a shattered film reel.
She saw Tom, her son, but different. He was older, his eyes hard, shadowed by something ancient. He stood atop a battlefield of possibilities, the golden roulette wheel in his grasp.
Diane's breath hitched.
"What… is this?"
Tom turned, as if he could see her. His lips moved, but the words were lost. The wheel spun, and as it did, time fractured.
Another vision.
Her daughter Stacy, standing beside her—no, confronting her. The girl's eyes burned with righteous fury, accusation dripping from every word.
"You erased us."
Diane staggered, the weight of the words crushing her chest. "No… I would never—"
But she had.
Not in this life. Not in this timeline.
But somewhere, somewhen—she had rewritten existence itself, and in doing so, she had erased them.
Terror gripped her.
"No. No, this isn't real. This isn't—"
The Abyss laughed.
"You doubt?"
A chain snapped around her wrist.
Diane gasped, stumbling back, but the weight was there—real. The celestial shackles from the vision had begun to form around her.
This was not a memory.
This was a warning.
The Abyss was not showing her the past.
It was showing her the future.
---
Ren's Omen
"You're late."
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Diane spun, her breath ragged, searching the darkness.
A figure emerged, smooth and featureless, draped in a flowing black robe. The semblance of a man, but not quite.
Ren.
She had seen him before—felt his presence lurking in the background of the past few days. He was an anomaly, a being that shouldn't exist but did.
"You're supposed to be dead," Diane hissed.
Ren tilted his head. "So are you."
She had no argument for that.
"What is this?" she demanded, gesturing toward the wheel, the chains, the visions.
Ren sighed, almost bored. "The unraveling of an existence that was never meant to be." His gaze—empty, endless—settled on her. "You made a choice, Diane. And choices have consequences."
Diane clenched her fists. "I don't remember making this choice."
Ren's smile was sharp as a razor. "No. But you will."
The Abyss shifted.
---
The Truth Beneath the Lie
Diane fought to steady herself. "This isn't real," she whispered. "It's just another trick."
But even as she said it, she felt the weight of truth pressing against her mind.
The roulette wheel.
The golden light.
The erasure.
Somewhere, somehow, she had done this.
But why?
Ren's voice was soft, almost gentle. "Would you like to know?"
Diane hesitated.
Then—"No."
The smile faded from Ren's lips. "Interesting."
A pause. Then he stepped forward, the Abyss parting around him like ink in water. "You may reject it now, but the truth will come for you, Diane Peters. The past is a tide that can only be held back for so long."
She refused to break his gaze.
"What do you want from me?"
Ren reached toward the roulette wheel. It slowed, the numbers shifting into symbols she couldn't decipher. "Not me," he murmured. "But them."
The wheel stopped.
And in the space between moments, Diane felt it—
A presence, a force beyond even the Abyss.
Something was watching her.
Something that had been waiting for a very long time.
And it whispered her name.
Diane.
Then the world snapped—
And she was falling.
---
Awakening
Pain lanced through her skull as Diane's eyes flew open. The Abyss was gone.
She was lying on cold stone, her body aching, her breath shallow. Light flickered around her, casting long shadows against the temple walls.
She pushed herself up, heart hammering.
Was it a dream? A vision?
Or something more?
Her hands trembled. A faint golden glow lingered on her skin, the roulette wheel's touch not entirely gone.
She clenched her fists.
It wasn't a lie.
A voice echoed in her mind—Tom's voice, distant yet real.
"Find me."
Diane inhaled sharply, forcing herself to her feet. The others were still missing. She had no time to lose.
But deep inside, she knew—
The past she had tried to forget was catching up.
And it wouldn't be long before it demanded its due.
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