Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 17-

Day: 2

Days Left: 5478

Lives Saved: 0

Corinna awoke from her sleep, stretching her arms out, then curling her body back into a ball, wrapping herself in the duvet. She sat up once she had remembered where she was. She was still in the Eternal Abyss, in the monster's lair.

Looking around for her spear, she found that it was no longer where she had left it.

The monster had taken it.

She clutched the duvet covers, wanting to hide away her fear and herself.

The folding screen door that separated the bedroom from the rest of the house was ajar. The black silhouette of the monster seeped through the screen paper, spreading darkness over the bed.

Creeping, Corinna made her way to the folding screen door and peeked through the gap. The chimaera was in the kitchen, wearing the green apron and making breakfast by heating up the silver food packets in a pan of boiling water. Corinna's eyes were drawn to the holster at the monster's waist, seeing the dagger that she had used to craft the spear, along with the stick and rope on the kitchen units. The monster had dismantled her spear. She had nothing to defend herself with. She was unarmed. She was vulnerable.

After it finished preparing breakfast, the chimaera made its way to the bedroom area carrying a bowl of food. Corinna panicked, diving back in bed and pulled the duvet covers over her head, hiding underneath it.

The chimaera pulled aside the screen door and placed the food on the bedside table near to Corinna. She could see the monster's dark outline through the covers, standing beside the bed. It then placed something against the wall then left her side and went down into the basement.

Corinna waited for a moment until it was safe, then emerged from the duvet covers. Against the wall was a spear. It wasn't a crudely constructed one like she had made, but an actual spear with strange markings engraved into the metal. Resting the spear on her lap, she ate her breakfast whilst gazing out of the window.

The chimaera returned to the surface closing the basement door behind itself with its snake-tail. Corinna wondered what could be down there and why the monster spent so much time in the basement. She knew it was where the clothes and duvet covers were kept, but was it merely just storage space? Or was there something else down there?

Once she had finished her breakfast, she placed the bowl near the sink, still holding onto her new spear. The chimaera slung its bag over its shoulder, which Corinna gathered meant that they were about to head outside. So, she put on her coat, shoes, and the other outdoor wear that the chimaera had given her. Before they left through the door, the chimaera handed Corinna a white backpack, which, after showing her confused appreciation, put over her shoulders as they exited the house.

The Eternal Abyss was brighter than she had ever seen it, although that was not difficult to challenge, she still welcomed the dim light as it allowed her to see further.

After a long trek through flatlands of dead grass, the chimaera guided her up a steep hill. Corinna gasped, stumbling backwards. A mountainous and monstrous pile of objects stood before her. It was a scrapyard of items that almost reached the ceiling of the prison.

Every so often, an object of various size would fall out from an opening in the sky and tumble down the pile, sometimes causing avalanches. Corinna and the chimaera headed down the slope.

Crouched down, the chimaera rummaged through the pile, packing anything that it deemed valuable or useful into its satchel. Corrina copied, looking through the items. She found objects from her own time and ones from the past that was now obsolete or replaced with a new model.

There were...

-Books

-Furniture

-Clothes

-Letters

-Bricks

-Decades-old computers and gaming consoles

-High school students' homework

-Photographs

-A piano

-A hamster cage

-A panini maker

-Smashed bottles of unopened wine

-Unused gift cards

-A brand new pair of toddler's shoes

-Keys

-Odd socks

-Plastic tupperware lids

The majority of the objects were beaten, battered, and broken. Some due to  falling down from the sky opening while others had arrived in that state.

Corinna looked over her shoulder and saw the chimaera collecting several planks of wood or any other flat and robust pieces of material, along with lengths of rope, and an unopened toolkit with the price tag still on. Wanting to help the chimaera, she formed her own pile of planks of wood, rope, and tools, then paused out of confusion once she saw the chimaera pocketing objects that were brightly coloured into its bag. What use could it have for an old sweet-tin, a pack of coasters, or a sequined toy frog?

Eventually, the chimaera had collected enough material it needed and motioned to Corinna that they were leaving. Taking some of the wooden planks from the chimaera which had attempted to carry all of them in one go, they walked alongside each other heading back, Corinna assumed, to the house.