The man had left the hideout for good. 

As he walked through the trees, he could see something. The rain trickled through the leaves, dripping across the cloak the man was wearing. 

His hand was attached to the firewood, which never dulled in its flame. Despite it being dampened elsewhere, the pain the man felt was everlasting.

He walked further through the forest, and came across the coast of the island. The beach here was made of pure orange sand, as a contrast to the deep blue sea.

The man looked out into the sea, seeing nothing but an abyss of despair and emptiness. His mission had failed. Everyone was dead. And the government was still active. No one had found him at this point, or perhaps they didn’t care enough to find him.

He wouldn’t have cared anymore. Nothing mattered to him. All the feelings, friends, values, communities that he thought he was building were taken from him. Or perhaps he never truly had them in the first place. He was an outsider after all, what place did he truly have in a world like this. 

A world which was full of contradictions, a world which would never know true peace. The key to true peace was never going to exist. 

At this point the man started to venture towards the depths of the sea itself. He knew that whatever it held for him could be no worse than the life outside anymore.

As he went closer, the waves began to form into some kind of reverb, and echo of sorts. Though it had never been formed from anything physical, a spiritual, hypothetical situation had formed within the man’s mind.

It was a strong form of pure emptiness, perhaps a desire for it, one which never can be escaped at all costs. The waves continued to echo, forming themselves into something. 

This went to the extent that they formed over the water itself, and began to take on a strange, malleable form. This looked familiar at the start, but now it had formed into something he recognised.

It was a portal. 

A portal into the Abyss itself. But unlike the first, it went back in, with the neverending nature of itself in full display.

This is what the man was after, a true world. Devoid of conflict, harm, cruelty, expression, hope, loss. 

It was a pure world of nothing, and he wanted all of it. 

The man’s voice felt slightly different, and more strained. Perhaps due to his shouting earlier.

I KNEW IT. THE KEY TO THE ABYSS WAS WITHIN ME THE WHOLE TIME.

He wandered towards it, the waves platforming his way there. 

He turned back to the island, which was being drenched in rain. Fitting, he thought.

He walked into the portal, and the Abyss portal wrapped around him, and finally, he was home.