Abyssum lacerta (Skull Island Abyss-Lizard)

    Around mid-morning, we came across a gigantic chasm that yawned hugely before us. With the dreadful memory of the Brontosaurus still fresh in our minds, we were somewhat relieved to be able to cross the huge log that spanned the chasm – there was no way the long-necked giant could follow us now.

    That relief was abruptly quashed when we were about halfway across the span. Driscoll and I were in the front of the group, and Denham was bringing up the rear when Kong himself crashed out of the jungle on the other end of the gorge. He roared a challenge at us, and everyone suddenly moved at once. Driscoll and I dived into a small, sheltered hollow in the side of the cliff face ahead, while Denham managed to step back off the log onto the side from which we’d come just in the nick of time.

    None of the other sailors were as fortunate as us. Kong heaved up the log, twisting and turning it, sending men flying off into the abyss to their deaths before tearing up the entire log to follow them down. As the men fell, I craned my neck up to see if anyone survived.

    What I saw next will haunt me for the rest of my life.

    There were living things in the depths of that awful pit, things like nothing I had ever seen before. I cannot sketch them accurately, because I never got a clear look at most of them. They lunged and skittered at incredible speed like horrible, clawing, biting venom in the darkness. They were nowhere near as large as the beasts in the jungle above, but even more deadly to our party members. The men would fall, and strike the ground. Sometimes they’d try to get up, but if they were lucky, they would lie dead with a broken neck or a smashed skull. I would see a hint of glistening eyes, clicking pincers, and sometimes, for an instant, the scream of a man trapped in a nightmare. Then he would be gone, save perhaps for a scrap of fabric, or a shoe, or a patch of blood.  

    As we watched, Driscoll suddenly grabbed my arm, making me start so badly I nearly fell, myself. He pointed at one creature that had set its sights on us, a massive lizard-like beast roughly twelve feet long with only one visible pair of limbs. It was clambering up a vine that led to our shelter, and it let out a low hiss as we stared at it. Driscoll moved first, but I was right behind him; he pulled out his knife and sawed frantically at the vine as I tried to hold it taut before the knife. Seconds before the reptile would have reached us, the vine finally snapped, sending the hissing monster falling back into the abyss.