A Gateway Into The Unknown

‘You’re Grounded’

Those were the words scribbled on the sticky note placed gingerly on the fridge.

Lucy sighed at the sight of the note, ripping it off from its place and tossing it in the trash.

She’d just gotten out from her room in the morning and realized that everyone was gone, all explaining their absence on the sticky notes on the fridge when she’s also noticed the note addressed to her by her overbearing mother.

She hadn’t expected any thing less though, she had caused it and now she’d be stuck at home all day-or week.

 Suddenly losing her appetite to eat, she made her way to her room

As she reached the stairwell, she heard a sound from the basement, its door at the side of the stairwell.

She chose to ignore it and started ascending the stairs when she heard the sound again, louder than the first.

She battled with her curiosity but still made her way up, hoping something heavy just fell, not an unusual occurrence.

 Lying in bed now, she flipped through a fashion magazine, busying herself with her imaginations on the styles she came across on each page.

 Just then she heard another clatter, so loud, it’d sounded like something hefty had fallen right next to her.

She jerked up from the bed then, concluding that her curiosity had to be appeased for her mind to be at rest,

She made her way down to the basement, still in her night gown and clutching her phone firmly in case she needed to call the cops.

She turned the door knob slowly, making her way into the top of the basement’s stairwell.

She flipped the light switch and made her way down the wooden stairwell carefully.

This can not end like a horror movie of something, she thought as her heart hammered in her chest.

When she got to the bottom, she looked around quickly, sighing with relief as she spotted her dad’s fallen toolbox and two other objects sprawled across the floor, confirming her initial conclusion.

About to turn away, she suddenly felt a captivating tug on her gown.

She whipped her head to the direction of the wall on the farther side of the room, where the grasp seemed to come from, noticing for the first time, a strange spiral movement on the wall.

As she continued to look at it in confusion, she felt herself moving to it, its depth boring into her, drawing her closer and forcing her movements to it.

Before she could process what was happening, her hand was reaching out to feel the spiral entity on the wall.

 It felt like a spiraling pool of water, its colors sparking to life as she touched it.

Its different colors interchanging itself as Lucy watched in awe, moving closer until she’d been sucked into its depths.

 She felt like she’d dived into a sea, its currents taking her in different directions, choking her with its strength. it felt like she was drowning yet swimming perfectly, sinking yet floating.

All these feelings confused her, she wondered what this was, what she was in, where exactly she was and sooner than expected, she felt like she’d been thrown out of the sea, landing abruptly and painfully on the cold hard ground of a dusty floor.

Gasping in pain, she clutched her left side, rubbing the pain she felt from her hip.

She looked up and stared at the spiraling entity that she’d passed through. It was on a different looking wall, its colors dulling again like it’d been before she’d reached for it.

Suddenly realizing the change of environment, she got up slowly staring around the room she was in.

It was bland, unpainted and cracking on most side of the walls. The only thing there was the portal and the door stationed across from her.

She wrestled with herself whether to leave or investigate and see what was beyond the mysterious door. Knowing deep in her heart that she was curious about it, she faced the door head-on, confirming her decision.

Still rubbing her side, she walked slowly to the door, opening it carefully and quietly.

As she proceeded out of the room, she felt a gust of wind that pushed her back a bit but she made her way forward again, shutting the door after her.

Before her was an empty wasteland, the sky above her wrought with viciousness, its darkened clouds and lightening streaks signaling an upcoming storm of sorts. Her heart was pounding as she took in the scene bore her; broken-down building structures like the one she emerged from, dead bodies littered the grounds, polluting the air with a strong pungent smell that overwhelmed Lucy. She quickly clasped her hand over her nose, watching in horror as everywhere collapsed, burned and got destroyed.

She caught sight of some animals eating humans that were still alive at the far side of the wasteland, they didn’t look normal, some with wings and dark and lifeless eyes.

It dawned on her that she might have landed in another dimension, a different time frame even or she’d gone to another planet entirely.

As if on cue, the creatures that weren’t to far from her noticed her presence, snarling and signaling the others that were distracted, making their way towards her.

 Lucy felt the color drain from her face as she watched in sheer horror as they advanced with great speed at her.

She quickly caught herself and rushed back into the room, bolting the door shut behind her and making her way to portal.

The door blew apart as the creatures of all sizes made their way through it. Lucy squealed, diving into the spiraling portal.

This time it felt like she’d dived into a current of water that was carrying her safely to where she wanted to go.

She fell through the ceiling this time, landing with a loud thud, she bounced violently off her bed and onto the side of her bed.

She groaned, engulfed in the pain that donned on every side of her body, she opened her eyes slowly, widening it as she realized the spiral portal still spinning with color and life on the ceiling. A hand passed through it, gnawing and scathing its claws, Lucy screamed, appalled that the creatures might pass over to her.

Just then the spiral portal dulled like it had before, slicing off the hand of the creature and disappearing.

The creatures hand landed on the bed.

its blood spilled over Lucy and her bed, its slimy gloomy green color hot and its texture slimy on the skin.

Its dismembered hand evaporated slowly, turning into dust just as a trembling Lucy got up from the floor slowly.

Her room door burst open, her parents and brother, Matt, making their way in quickly.

“Lucy!!” they all yelled, wrapping her in a tight hug that confused her

“W-why are you guys back so early?” she asked as they all loosened their grip,

They all stared at her in confusion, her mum blinking back tears that threatened to fall.

“what do you mean?” her dad asked, his expression sullen

“like you guys all left here early this morning, I saw your explanations on the fridge like about a few minutes ago” she explained

They all looked at themselves in confusion, then back at her

“what do you mean? We’ve been looking for you for the past three days now. We found your phone in the basement when we got back on Tuesday… we searched everywhere for you, there were no leads, no evidence that you’d stepped out of the house or an intruder had taken you away. You always went everywhere with your phone, if you’d been with it, we would have been able to track you but it seemed so strange. Even the cops had no idea where to start from… we just got back from the station again when we heard you scream, where were you?” My dad said.

Her eyes widened in realization of what he was saying.

The magical portal that had taken her to that warzone she’d barely escaped from had consumed so much time in teleporting her there that she’d lost track of time and thought she’d gotten there so fast. That was the only reasonable explanation or else maybe time moved differently when you entered a portal.

“I-I don’t know, I just fell and screamed… then I just… this thing poured on me then I went to this wastela-”

her dad engulfed her in another hug, shushing her mindless babble, “its okay, what matters is that your safe…. We’ll find out what happened soon enough” he said

she watched over her shoulder as her mum and brother offered her slight smiles of encouragement.

If only they would believe her if she told her story…

there was a portal inside that basement and Lucy knew deep down that she would visit that place again and uncover its mysteries.