The professor takes a us out to “the hole” for a lecture. The hole looks like an ordinary abandoned water well in the small forest at the back of the university. Seemingly normal and rather boring, that is until he removed the blue, wrinkly, sun stained tarp that covers it. Even though it is midday and rather bright outside (canopy of trees creating shade) the hole is completely black; looking at it for longer than a few seconds makes you feel like you’re going to fall in, even though it is only about 5x5 feet. The professor says that years ago a student of the university fell into the hole and never came back but somehow we are still able to communicate with him.
He instructs everyone to sit in a large circle perimeter around the hole, and to not let our eyes linger on the hole for too long at one time. He hands everyone a ply of ordinary paper towel. He says that we are to write any questions we have for the lost student on the paper towel. The first student up shows us his question written on his ply “What happened to you?”. The professor takes his paper towel and carefully approaches the hole on his hands and knees in his nice suit, getting it dirty with the dirt around the hole (the vegetation seemed to have stopped growing around it leaving nothing but brown dirt surrounding the hole, about as large as the perimeter we had created). As he approaches the edge he ‘scoots’ the paper towel into the hole - interestingly, the paper towel does not sway back and forth like paper regularly does whilst in air - rather it falls straight down like a heavy weight.
Moments later, it becomes eerily quiet, making everyone look at each other with intrigue and anxiety. The hole responds. It has no audible sound. The way it answers is more similar to a thought, but one we could all hear. “What happened to you?” > “The darkness”. The forest around us had become slightly darker after this answer, without anyone having seen it become darker. It was noticeably darker, but the changing of light wasn’t. The air also becomes heavier with each question given to the hole. “It feels like we are being watched” my friend next to me whispers in my ear.
The professor’s exciting energy from the beginning of the lecture has dissipated into a monotone and rather depressed mood, giving short answers to students questions about topics relating to the hole and the course. Almost angry, bored, and sad at the same time. Most questions aren’t that interesting. One student decided to attempt to provoke the hole by asking “why didn’t you just come out?”. The professor quickly throws the tarp back over the hole and looks at the student with disdain. The environment around us is still quite dark and heavy, despite it only being mid-afternoon. After he secures the tarp, he looks up at the dirt pathway leading out, which is behind some of us, and looks completely shocked. We look at what he is looking at. Standing a very tall and large man wearing dirty jean overalls, no boots, no shirt underneath.
He doesn’t have a face.