This is a story of something I experienced a long time ago. The reason of me not sharing it earlier is because it is, aside from it being scary unexplainable, extremely personal. I need to tell you about things I am ashamed of and things I am sorry for. Things I would do very different now. Still, it is necessary to begin very early in my life.
Well, here we go.
I have always been a lazy good-for-nothing. You’re stereotype born in a rich family, high intelligence and well spoken guy. Life must be so easy for me. At least, that is what everyone always says.
And yes, it is easy. It is too easy, to be exact. What is life when you don’t have to work for anything, but are expected to just sit everything through. To just waste your time. I have counted so many bricks in my life that I will smash my head with one if I ever enter a school class again. I guarantee you, I am done. I made this clear to my family and said I would like to go travelling on my own, but my dad prohibited me to do that. I needed to stay close if someone happened to him and take care of the company. To convince me, he bought me a house for me in a small village called Even Drops. I moved there and lived there for two years, playing some games and binge watching documentaries. When I was almost turning twenty-one, my dad called me to ask if my nephew could hire a room in the house. I told him he could, as I also was in need for some company. For a year, everything remained normal, until one day my nephew ran up to my room and knocked on my door.
“Joshe, man. You really need to come and see this. Now.” “I’m very busy, Trent. What now.” I opened the door for him. He instantly grabbed me by my arm and dragged me towards the stairs. “You know that monumental gate, right? It changed, man. It changed into a fucking portal or something. It is so damn strange.” “Wait. What are you saying? I don’t have time for this, Trent.” “Yes, you do.” “Trent…” “You gotta see this for yourself!” As he dragged me outside the house, I noticed there are more villagers walking in the direction of the gate. It seemed like it at least wasn’t at a setup from Trent. There must be something going on.
We entered the little ‘square’ where the monumental gate was ocated. Trent pushed a couple of people out of the way, while making it clear to everyone he was the one who saw it first. To my disbelief, he was right. The path through the gate was all black, like a portal. There was nothing to see, just some black water-like surface.
“So, who is going first!?”
Standing before the portal was sheriff Wallington. He was probably waiting for Trent to return. He knew my dad, so he was always way too soft on us. He laughed, already knowing the answer of Trent.
“Is that even a question? Me. I was here first.” “Hold! None of you will go in.”
Before sheriff Wallington could even react, another person stepped forward. It was Johann Vandersteen, the pastor of the local church. He looked very concerned.
“If this is what we think it is, we cannot go in. There is only one way to God. This here is the way to the Devil. If you don’t see that, you’re not even worthy of God’s love.” “Hey, sir. With all due respect, I don’t really care about if God thinks I’m worthy for him. I don’t really care if you join me, but I’m going in.” “Wait, Trent,” sheriff Wallington interrupted. “He is right. First, we will think everything through.” “When you go in, Trent, you will also make us sin. We cannot let that happen.” “Dang it,” Trent whispered, “I forgot this whole stupid village is religious.” “Then we will keep everyone from entering it. When you do, you will be arrested.” “There is no law for that…” I sighed at the sheriff. “There are no other portals either, as far as I know at least,” he replied. “Now, everyone leave!” He was such a simple minded man. There was no evil in him, but this naive trait of him might become someone’s death one day. Slowly, everyone turned around and started walking home. Trent kept standing before the portal for a couple of minutes while grinding his teeth. After that, he turned around. I sent him home with the promise I would get the groceries for that day.
On my way back home I walked past the gate again and to my surprise, the portal disappeared. First I was being surprised by it showing up and not even an hour later I was surprised by it disappearing. It was such a weird fucking day. I also decided I wouldn’t tell Trent about it, as I didn’t want him to be any more confused than he already was.
Then, the day after came. As I walked towards the grocery store I saw a couple of little boys playing soccer near the gate. When I got close, I could see that the portal showed up again. Well, I thought, it is what it is. When I walked back, it was still there. The day after, it was gone. I began to see a time pattern. The more often I walked past it, the more I realised the portal was only open between 3:00 PM and 4:30 PM. Still, it opened itself every day.
But, I noticed more. One of the little boys who played soccer that day seemed to show up more and more near the portal between those times. He was often alone. Something was making him curious. If it wasn’t already clear to the average person, having to deal with Trent for over a year made it almost impossible for me to miss. The boy had to be the son of the pastor, Carl Vandersteen. He got me a little worried, so one day I decided to mention it in a conversation with Trent.
“He is not going in there, right? If he dares… I’m going to get him.”
It’s not like I expected anything else from Trent’s reaction, but from that moment he decided to join me in my walks to the grocery store every single day. He never said anything to Carl. He only observed, seemingly, if he didn’t get too close.
Either way, it was doomed to fail. One day, we walked up on Carl standing before the portal. He sticked his hand forward. All we saw, was it disappearing behind the metal gate bar.
“Carl, what are you doing?” I yelled at him. I got followed up by Trent. “Carl, don’t you dare!” He started running towards Carl. What a nice fucking move, Trent. I was (and still am) convinced he never even thinks things through, not even for one second. I started chasing after him to hold him back, but it didn’t even really matter. Carl didn’t even take a look at us, before he stepped through the portal. I made use of Trent’s speed and pushed him on the ground past the portal. For a second he tried to get me of off him, but he was fast to realize it would be better to stay calm and don’t mess it up any further. The two of us took off to visit the sheriff. We told him everything that happened. After that, he sent us home, told us he would go over and tell pastor Vandersteen about everything. He says he would change the story to him being the witness, so the Pastor won’t be able to take advantage of them by twisting these story to make it their fault.