The Chasm

The monolith had been standing outside the school for as long as Jan could remember. It towered over the building and kind of just… stood there. Menacingly. It had been there since they started attending that school. It had always been there. Jan didn’t know why, but they heard that the monoliths just appeared outside all of the schools in Scotland. Nobody knew how they got there or what to do about them, so they just accepted that Scotland’s youth would have to continue their higher education under the watchful glare of the monoliths’ nothingness.

It was there and it wasn’t at the same time. It was rainbow and it was monochrome. It was black and it was white. It took up space, but Jan would forget about it whenever they looked away. It had positioned itself some metres away from the building’s front door. All of the students were forced to walk around it to get inside.

It loomed so high that everyone on the top floor could still see it out of their windows. It seemed to go on forever. It ascended into the murky skies of Edinburgh and faded away into the clouds. Auld Reekie had never lived up to its name more than it did now. Jan would often find themself staring into the blankness of the thing standing outside the window. They would stare into the void and the void would stare back. They remembered an episode of Doctor Who that they had seen when they were younger. The daleks had come to Earth in a void ship and The Doctor had said ‘You could sit inside that thing, an eternity would pass you by. Big bang, end of the universe, start of the next, wouldn’t even touch the sides. You’d exist outside the whole of creation’.

Jan wanted to go into that monolith and exist outside the whole of creation.

‘Jan,’ their teacher snapped at them, dragging them out of their trance. ‘Stop staring at the monolith.’

* * *

They found Kenzie on June 22nd. She was standing right beside the monolith, her face pressed against the smooth surface, her arms stretched out as far as they could go. It looked like she wanted to extend them out and wrap them around the monolith completely. But alas, she was just a normal girl with normal arms, and so she stayed pressed flat against the offending object.

It caused a great deal of upset. The presence of a human girl smooshed against the monolith forced people to look at it. Looking at the monolith forced people to acknowledge it. The monolith was not meant to be acknowledged.

Some people tried their best to pointedly look away from it. Some people couldn’t look away from it. Some people dropped their schoolbags and curled up onto the concrete, shaking and muttering.

‘It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real!!!’

The teachers had to come out and talk to her. That didn’t work.

Then the police were called. They threatened her with a fine. That didn’t work either.

Then the fire brigade were called. They tried to force her apart from the monolith. That didn’t work either.

She couldn’t hear anyone or anything. She couldn’t see anyone or anything. All she could hear and see was the monolith standing in front of her.

Eventually, everyone gave up. The police and the fire brigade went off elsewhere and the teachers and the rest of the students went inside the school to get on with classes. Jan followed them, begrudgingly. They all left Kenzie outside with the monolith.

* * *

It was June 23rd. The next day.

Kenzie was gone.

The school receptionists called her parents and asked them if she had come back home. Her parents said they hadn’t seen her for days.

* * *

Other students started to go missing over the rest of the week.

Ruaridh disappeared on June 24th.

Nick disappeared on June 25th.

Maisie disappeared on June 26th.

Nobody knew what had happened or where they went. But everyone knew it had something to do with the monolith.

* * *

It was Monday. June 29th. A whole week had passed since Kenzie had pressed herself against the monolith and disappeared.

Jan went to school, same as always. They sat in class and listened to their teachers, same as always. They sat in the lunch hall and ate the pizza that the lunch ladies served in square slices, same as always.

Then the bell rang and they went out into the playground.

Jan knew that they weren’t the only person that had left the building in that moment, but they found themself standing outside the school alone. They were sandwiched between the front door and the monolith.

They suddenly felt very uneasy and turned around to go back into the building. That was when they realised that there was a chain and padlock around the door handles. They looked up at the sky and realised that it was already pitch black. Jan had no idea what time it was. They really wished that they had a watch or a phone so they could check.

The monolith loomed over them, demanding their attention. It had allowed them to look away for a split second, but no longer. Jan could feel themself being pulled towards it, physically pulled, like something had managed to lasso their waist and was tugging them closer and closer to the chasm in front of them. They tried their best to fight it, digging their heels into the ground and gritting their teeth, but it was pointless. They found themself pressed against the cool glass-like surface of the monolith anyway.

A sudden calmness passed over them. It was like all the thoughts had left their head all at once. They had become somnambulant, existing but also not existing at the same time. It almost felt like the monolith had started to change texture, shifting from cold, hard glass into silky water. Jan could feel their arms and head slipping further into the monolith. They barely registered the other students floating inside as they became fully submerged. Those other people didn’t matter anymore. Jan had finally found their own void ship. They didn’t have to worry about the world or its stupid problems anymore.

They just had to stay here.

Forever.

And ever.

And ever.