To The Winner, Goes The Spoils

A house in the distance, Terrence prayed it was his. He turned the knob and walked in to a familiar living room. He ran up the stairs to find his wife still sleeping from the night before and woke her in a hurry. “Holly, Holly, wake up.” She smacked his hands off her, and asked what was wrong and why is he shaking her so hard. “She checked the clock, it was a quarter to 7am and she had no work. “Am I missing something Terrence, it’s a weekend and I don’t remember us having breakfast plans.” Terrence said nothing and just hugged her thankful that she was still here. He apologized for not coming back last night and that something terrible had happened. To which Holly laughed. What do you mean, you fell asleep before me. Terrence had a bewildered look on his face and assured her that he definitely did not go to sleep. “Don’t you remember Holly, there was a knock at the door late and I went to answer it.” “It was 2am and we are the only one’s that live in this area”, Holly replied. Who would be knocking on our door this late, besides I would’ve heard it. I was drunk, but I wasn’t that drunk. “NO, no”, Terrence said in a panic. He assured Holly that he had just come through the door. He reached for his phone, they have camera’s around the house. A necessary item to have when living in the woods. He went back a few minutes to show Holly, he had just walked through. As he re-winded the tape, there was nothing. It didn’t show him coming through the door. Then he went back further to last night. Still nothing. It didn’t show Robert knocking, it didn’t show him walking outside. Holly put her hand on his, “Baby you just drunk a little too much and had a lucid dream. It’s ok it happens to the best of us. What was your nightmare about that it freaked you out this much.” Holly gasped, “Did I die in it. Is that why you hurried to wake me up. What was it Terrence?” Terrence just sat on the bed for a moment and thought. Finally he said, “Actually I can’t even fully remember perhaps it was nothing. I’m sorry for scaring you awake.” Holly told him it was ok, she prefers that he wakes up and speaks to her if he’s feeling a little uneasy. She then went downstairs to make breakfast for the two.

Terrence went and took a shower to calm his mind. And thought back to the events that happened last night. Maybe it was all just a bad nightmare. I mean four people living in the same house and not aware of it. How could that be possible. Honestly he would prefer it was a dream, than knowing that he killed 3 people with his own hands. Terrence decided to keep it out of his mind and just continue with his life. Nothing will ever happen again, considering that everyone is gone now. That night when Terrence went to sleep he found himself back at the lake where he killed Robert. He looked down at the lake and saw the glowing eyes again. The eyes continued to get larger and larger the closer they got to the surface. Then suddenly Robert jumped of the lake and grabbed Terrence. Congratulations, to you for surviving the Abyss and to the winner goes the spoils. Terrence pushed Robert back into the lake and began to run. He kept running and running until he came to the house again. He opened the door greeted by the scene of Ashley dead on the floor and Clarence with a knife in his neck. Terrence just stood in the doorway, when suddenly Clarence’s eyes opened and looked over at Terrence. Then he said the words, “Don’t get swallowed by the Abyss.” Suddenly Terrence woke up sweating and looked to his left of Holly just sleeping peacefully. He went changed shirts and went to the bathroom to wash his face. He sat there and stared into the mirror, Clarence’s words going through his mind. “Don’t get swallowed by the Abyss.” What could he mean by that. Terrence couldn’t figure it out.

Monday morning came and it was off to work for Terrence. Terrence never been a lucky man, in fact he would consider himself less lucky than most people. But today started different. He stopped by his usual gas station for a quick coffee and lottery ticket. You miss every shot you don’t take so he always buys one because you never know. He grabbed his regular coffee and a nice gentlemen in front of him bought it. Terrence thanked him and went to his car that he was filling up. He looked at the meter and it stopped at 5 dollars. Looks like whoever redid the prices today, messed up on his pump and instead of gas being $3.49 a gallon it was only 34 cents a gallon. The morning was starting off really good and unbeknownst to Terrence it was only going to get better. He got to work to be met with the news that one of the lead managers was recently fired. Turned out they were giving information to rival companies. It would never had been found if not for Terrence keeping immaculate notes and them noticing inconsistencies between somethings he wrote and what the manager was reporting. They are crediting Terrence with outing the manager. To reward him he received the now Vacant manager position and a hefty bonus. It was shaping up to be one of the best days of Terrence’s life. He couldn’t wait to go home and tell Holly. Terrence went out celebrating with some coworkers after work and got home a little later than usual. He was greeted by Holly watching the news. The lottery numbers were showing at the bottom on the screen. As soon as Terrence walked through the door, Holly told him to hurry they are showing the lottery numbers. Terrence rushed over and pulled the ticket out of his wallet. Terrence just sat in daze. “Honey, did you win?”, Holly questioned. Terrence didn’t say a word, so Holly just grabbed his ticket and looked herself. “OH MY GOD”, Holly yelled. “WE won, we won.” I can’t believe it. They had just won the 100 million dollar jackpot. This whole day was too much to process for Terrence. He explained to Holly what else had happened today. From the coffee, to the gas, to the promotion at work. Now he won the lottery. Holly joked, “I guess that lucky star you were born under just took a bit to kick in.” “Yeah, maybe”, Terrence said. Holly was busy celebrating, but Terrence couldn’t help but find all this weird. Especially for it to happen after that night. “Don’t get swallowed by the Abyss”, kept replaying in his mind.

As the year passes, Terrence’s new found luck holds steady. He finds it weird but it’s not something so out of hand that he would be suspicious about. Nothing else like that night has ever happened. So Terrence accepts that it was simply a nightmare. Though He still has the periodic night terror of him standing in front of that lake. There hasn’t been eye’s in it though, the last couple times he visited the lake in his dream. The only thing off about Terrence is that even with his newfound wealth he cannot leave his home in the forest. Holly desperately wants a nice home in the city, sure the forest is nice, but with their new wealth, there’s so many things she wants to try and being on the outskirts of the city now seems like a waste. But Terrence usually aggressively refuses any notion of moving out of the home. Holly always asks why Terrence is adamant about staying in this home. He always answers the same, that he just feels comfortable there. It’s coming up on the year to the date that Terrence’s nightmare happened and his luck change. He has the lake dream again, this time the Eyes have reappeared. This time Robert, Ashley, and Clarence bodies do not appear. But he hears a whisper. “As the Abyss gives to you, you must give to the Abyss.” The lake’s eyes, meets Terrence’s and it’s as if he’s in a Trance. The next thing he knows he wakes up. Nothing feels different and he can’t even remember the dream of the Lake this time. He goes to work, but today’s different than it’s been the past year. No random luck, just a regular day. Which seems normal, but it has been far from normal for the past year for Terrance. He arrived home that night in a daze. He barely spoke to Holly and simply said he was going to bed. He dreamt again of that Lake and stared into it’s eyes, before he was finally woken, by a knock on the door.