As soon as I kick off the tangle, it starts to unwind, starting the clock. The extra, momentary weight causes a visible heave at the anchor point for the vines. Frankly, I'm lucky they've supported my antics this long. I get my knee into the top of the twist and frantically try to push into a standing position. The extra weight on the twist is shortening my time, speeding the unraveling. Precious seconds tick by as I regain my balance and make a grab at the shiny rock. It comes loose surprisingly easily after I touch it, so much so that I almost lose my balance. Stifling the momentary heart attack, I stuff it down the collar of my shirt, wincing slightly as it bashes my hip on the way down.

Don't look down, it doesn't matter, do or die.

One shot.

I grasp the left vine with one hand, crouch, and launch upward with everything I have.

The vines themselves give out before the twist does, sapping the power of my jump and turning a fairly sure grab into a hail Mary. There's a single, crystallizing moment in which it's impossible to tell whether I'll make it. There are no thoughts of failure, just about making sure my tired grip will hold me when I make it. I have to.

My hand latches onto the side of the cliff. Immediately, the edge crumbles slightly, showering my face with small rocks and sending my heart into my throat. By some miracle, about half the edge manages to hold my weight long enough for me to get my other hand up. There's no time to celebrate, the hardest part is pulling yourself up a sheer cliff, especially when there's only empty space beneath it. I have no footholds and my arms are already screaming. Agonizingly, I pull up enough to get my arms on the rim, straining as hard as I can and kicking at the empty air to try and shift my weight a little more over the top.

Each laborious breath burns in my throat, my body inching steadily closer to safety even as my muscles lock up. With a fairly anticlimactic flop, I heave myself onto the grass.

Oh sweet flat land, how I missed you. I don't even care about the grass taste anymore, there's nothing better. This is bliss.

I lie on my back, taking a moment to savor the relative safety.

There's something profoundly satisfying about not dying. More than the normal, day to day being alive, but being faced with death and avoiding it. It can probably be boiled down to your brain flooding you with endorphins for defying natural selection one more time, but I can tell you that knowledge doesn't diminish the reward in the slightest.

…

I open my eyes and struggle to sit up as best I can. Doing so is rewarded with quite a bit of pain, not only from my aching muscles and bones, but also from the inevitable result of letting a large shiny rock slide off one's chest and onto one's genitals.

My movement to sit upright flows easily into a more 'downward dog' position, but far more laden with shame and regret than the traditional yoga pose. Untucking my shirt, I let the sizable rock fall to the ground. Though I want to hate it for the wrong it has done me, it really is pretty. It has an amorphous shape, and is colored a deep yellow, almost gold. It seems to glow with its own luster, as though it generates light just from being so polished and perfect...

Wait.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I grab the discarded blanket from before my fall and wrap the rock in it. Sure enough, by poking my head into the nearly complete darkness of the bundle, I confirm that the rock actually generates a small amount of light. I love this thing, so I start tucking it back into my shirt for safe keeping... when I hear something odd. Like... mocking laughter? But coming from my head. The inside. Directly in my brain. Right! The mother fucker that scared me off a cliff!

That same voice was now, very obviously, laughing at me.

“Something funny?”

- Oh no, (snicker) not at all. Frankly (cough) that was the most majestic display I've seen so far! You get all kinds of responses from beings suddenly hearing a voice in their head, but that? Wow, you really rank up there. Is suicide a survival trait among your kind? Do mates find it attractive? You must be quite the catch!

“You... were watching that whole thing?”

- Recording would be the better word. That one's going in the scrapbook.

“I...don't.... what?”

- Never you mind. Why don't you take your bonus and finish what you started?

“What, nearly falling to my death? So suicide's attractive in your culture. How exciting that I'm bonding with aliens today.” The bitterness is really leaking into my voice at this point.

- A smartass, eh? Think you can do a flip this time? That'll really show me.

“Not like I just spent an agonizing few minutes climbing back here, but you want me to go back? Best idea I've heard today. Fuck off.” I start looking around, trying to make sense of what's going on. There's not much in the way of food here... maybe I can build a boat and try sai-

- Don't bother, the current will force you over the side anyway

I frown. It can read my thoughts? That's... unpleasant. But...

You can read my thoughts and you just let me keep talking to myself like an idiot?

- Frankly, you need none of my help to look foolish. Besides, this way is far more fun.

I briefly consider flooding this unwanted mental connection with whatever horrible images and ideas I can come up with, just to spite whatever being is taking the time to fuck with me, but decide against it

- It would be pointless anyway, just jump.

and I move to more closely examine my environment.

- Again, nothing to do here. You don't even keep anything but the rock anyway.

WHAT. WHAT DO YOU WANT.

- I've been very open about this. Jump. Waterfall. Now.

Ah, yes, of course. Now if you would be so kind as to tell me WHY THE FUCK I WOULD DO THAT.

The voice sighs inside my head.

- It's the only way for you to move on to the real meat of this thing. Come on, as fun as this was, I have...like a million and a half more of you to go through in the next nanosecond. Chop chop, time's burning at an arbitrarily slow pace.

…

What... do you mean?

- You don't get to find out till you jump. It's the first test. You even found the bonus already. Go.

I don't respond, instead walking to the edge of the cliff. Yep, still intimidating as fuck. I turn back to go actually think out my options back in the house, but instead I see a shimmering, smiling shadow in the shape of a person. I can tell it's smiling because... it has human teeth, twisted into a grin without lips... and human eyes... that are surrounded by inky blackness

- Boo

I instinctively jump back. Directly. Off. The cliff.

What can I say, I scare easily.

AND A FUCKING NIGHTMARE DEMON IS ENOUGH TO SCARE HARD.

This time, I'm resigned to it. My stupid ass fault for going near the cliff.

Arms stretched skyward in a futile attempt to grab a vine, I'm met only with the unblinking gaze of the shadowy manifestation as I fall into the dark below.

God, if I survive this, I'm going to have nightmares forever.