Story - @GreenLime (Me)

Voice - Natewec

Art and ambience - @Guileness

(Disclaimer: This is the late entry of "NG Creepypasta Collab 2023" but due to shitty internet i can't submit it in time so I'm posting it where i have good internet)

"Widening gap"

It was the day before the test, they're recruiting subjects for their new teleportation machine for research purposes on the "Other place". I was one of those subjects.

Its my turn, i entered the lab the machine is huge but I don't see anyone else, they said they got teleported to the other side but they'll come back soon.

I step in the machine and they activate it, once they do everything turn pitch black, its like I'm floating on nothingness like I'm stuck in between worlds, in the void.

It was like that for a while, and then suddenly i see rocks floating everywhere and everyone else is there too.

We waited for 5 minutes before the machine began to blink, that means we can go back now.

One by one we stepped in the machine and then just like before it was pitch black.

We got back safely, but the engineers told us it would take another day before we can continue and the project would be carrying on tomorrow.

They ask us is how it went and we told them it took too long before we got to the other side, they took that feedback and started to modify the machine.

Tomorrow we'll do it again but hopefully it'll fix that issue.

Another day starts and we continued the test, this time they modified the machine so it'll take us less time to teleport.

Before they activate it they told us to be careful because one of the test subjects has gone missing, we step in and the same thing happened again.

As I'm teleporting i noticed that it took longer than the last time, i couldn't breathe, and then i was back to the same floating rocks as before.

And again in the crowd as I'm looking nervous, it took a few more minutes before the machine to blink, i feel anxiety as I'm stepping into the machine, fearing it would take even longer than the last time.

As we returned the engineers are panicking, half of us were gone, it took 5 weeks for us to return this time and they kept asking us the same questions over and over again, it had taken us even longer this time.

They said they'll fix the issue and dismiss us, some of us wanted to quit, but the top brass said we couldn't back down now, the project had to be completed no matter what, i needed the money.

We're testing it again today, apparently the machine got even worse, we plead for them to abandon the project, we already done enough but the engineers said the if we resist they'll punish us, really at this point, punishment and getting in that machine are one in the same. Its my turn now, as i step in the machine i grow anxious.

I know it'll take longer before i even get to the other side, the gap between worlds continues to grow, i fear it'll grow so long that i stop existing in either world.

But we have to keep going, one by one some by some until there's only three of us.

Maybe i was lucky or maybe the lucky ones were the ones who were no longer with us, i heard another subject throw himself off the rocks on the other side.

This time the engineers assured us, everything's been fixed and so i stepped in.

I don't know where i am or how long its been, i counted the minutes, the hours, i lost track.

I forgot if i was even breathing, if i was even alive.

Then i was back there, same floating rocks, by myself i wasn't even sure if i was alive, maybe i was in hell, maybe i just been trialing it for the past few years.

So I waited for the machine to blink and once again to go back, but this time i got a message, they said they needed someone to stay behind and for one of us to go back, I'll be the only one who might come back.

I hadn't even noticed the other person that was here, to be honest he wasn't exactly moving too much anymore and so when the light turned green I stepped back in and I waited.

I don't know how long it'll take but i waited and then i kept waiting and waiting and waiting. Maybe this is what test subjects meant when they kept saying "Its eternity"