The 50th Gateway
By Olivia Salter
Word Count: 3,829
Darius Holt had always been drawn to the unexplained. For years, he had dug through UFO sightings, electromagnetic anomalies, and cryptic reports from long-forgotten locales. With his research partner Simone Harris, he’d come close to the edge of discovery but never fully crossed it. Most of the time, it seemed like the world of the supernatural was a game of smoke and mirrors—pushing you to the brink of understanding, only to leave you empty-handed.
But this time was different.
The Alabama woods stretched out before them, dense and wild, a place where even sunlight seemed hesitant to fall. They had come here searching for something. No one knew exactly where, but both of them felt it—the pull of a story left untold. They had been led by an anonymous source, one that claimed to know of a hidden place, a gateway—one of the 50 rumored dimensional portals scattered across the world.
Darius checked his compass. It pointed north, but he’d stopped trusting it a while ago. The needle fluctuated in a way that felt wrong. They were on the right path, but the air felt heavier now, as if the forest itself were pressing against them.
“Darius, look,” Simone’s voice cut through the growing tension.
She pointed ahead, where the trees parted to reveal a strange clearing bathed in an unnatural light. Darius squinted, trying to make sense of the scene. The air seemed to warp, as though a heatwave were rising from the ground. But it wasn’t the heat that made him uneasy.
It was the hum.
Faint, but there. It echoed through his chest like the sound of a distant engine, vibrating his bones. The closer they got, the more intense the sound became, until it was a full-body sensation. Darius felt his heart race, and for the first time in his life, he wondered if he was standing on the edge of something far beyond human understanding.
Simone stepped forward, EMF reader in hand. Her eyes widened as the needle shot off the scale, a confirmation of their unspoken thoughts.
“This is it,” she said quietly, almost admiringly.
Darius turned on his camera, the lens focusing shakily as the clearing in front of them shifted. The air bent as if space itself was liquefying.
Then, without warning, the ground below their feet rumbled, and the shimmer in the air became something more—something real. A tear in the very fabric of reality opened wide, jagged and alive, stretching and folding into itself as though trying to breathe. A flash of dark, incomprehensible shapes twisted beyond the threshold, and for a fleeting moment, Darius saw them—a collection of eyes, ancient and infinite, staring back at him.
And then a figure stepped through.
It was tall, its form shifting, flickering between shapes as if it had no true shape at all. The air seemed to bend around it, warping the space like a broken mirror. Its presence was a vacuum, pulling everything into itself. Its eyes—black as the void—locked onto Darius, and a coldness gripped his heart.
The figure spoke, though no lips moved.
"You are not meant to see."
The world around them snapped. The portal collapsed inward, and everything went silent. The hum ceased, and the air returned to normal—eerily still.
Simone took a cautious step back. “Darius—what the hell just happened?”
Darius stood frozen, his camera still running, but when he checked the footage, his stomach turned. The screen was blank. The recording was gone. His hands trembled as he lowered the camera. What was that thing? And why had it… disappeared?
“Did you see it?” Simone’s voice broke through his dazed state. “What was that?”
“I… I don’t know,” he muttered, his pulse still racing. “But I think it saw us.”
They returned to Birmingham, the memory of the portal still hanging between them like a thick fog. Darius tried to write it off as a trick of the mind, a shared hallucination induced by the oppressive atmosphere of the woods. But no amount of rationalization could quiet the sense that something had followed them. Something had changed.
For days after their return, strange things began to happen.
At first, it was subtle. Darius would look into the mirror, and for a fraction of a second, his reflection would lag—his movements slightly delayed, his expression twisted in a way that didn’t match his own. He would blink, and it would be gone. He chalked it up to fatigue.
But the glitches didn’t stop. They got worse.
One night, after he switched off the light in his bedroom, the shadows didn’t quite vanish. They lingered, stretching across the walls like dark fingers. His own shadow didn’t move when he did. He turned around, his heart racing, but there was nothing behind him. His reflection, however, seemed to twist, shifting slightly before returning to its original position.
Simone called the next day, her voice tight. “Darius… I don’t know what’s going on, but something’s happening to me.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, his pulse quickening.
“The lights. They flicker every time I look at them. And my phone’s acting strange—it won’t let me call anyone who wasn’t there that night. And last night… I saw a shadow at the foot of my bed. I turned the light on, but when I looked again, nothing was there.”
Darius felt his stomach drop. He wanted to reassure her that it was just stress, that they’d both imagined things—but he couldn’t. He had seen it, too.
“I see it too,” he said. “It’s like—something is following us.”
Simone’s voice was barely above a whisper. “We shouldn’t have gone there.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then, Simone broke the silence. “We need to go back. Whatever that thing was, it’s not done with us. And we need answers.”
Darius swallowed. “You’re right. We have to know what we’re dealing with.”
The woods felt wrong when they returned. They had done this journey together before, but now, everything felt… distorted. The path was the same, but it was as though they were walking through a place that had already been altered.
Simone’s hand gripped Darius’s as they neared the clearing, the air thick with anticipation. The EMF reader whined in her hand, a sharp signal that the portal was near.
“There’s something here,” she said. “I can feel it.”
The clearing was exactly as they had left it—the same shimmering, warped air—but now there was a new presence. A chill settled in their chests, deeper than any cold the night could bring.
Then the air parted, and the figure stepped through again.
It wasn’t the same as before. This time, the shape seemed clearer, more defined. It didn’t flicker—it hovered in the space between worlds, its vast, incomprehensible form a constant, gnawing pressure. The black eyes locked onto them again.
"You returned," it said, the words woven into the fabric of the air itself.
Simone gripped Darius’s arm tighter. “What do you want from us?”
The figure tilted its head as if considering her question. "You crossed the threshold. You are now between."
Darius's breath caught in his throat. "Between what?"
"Understanding," it chant. "And forgetting."
The words were a riddle, but they hit him with a profound weight. He had the sense that the thing was offering them an impossible choice—one that could unravel everything they thought they knew.
Simone looked at him, her eyes wide with panic. “Darius, we don’t have to do this. Whatever this is… we don’t need it.”
But it was too late.
The figure reached out with a long, skeletal hand, a silent command that felt more like a certainty. As its fingers brushed against the air, the clearing shifted again, the ground beneath them humming. Everything blurred, bending like a broken frame, as though the world itself had been skewed.
“Leave, or stay,” the figure said, its voice growing distant, as if it were already slipping away into the ether.
Darius’s heart pounded. Simone’s face was pale, but he could see the decision in her eyes.
“We leave,” Darius said, though part of him wasn’t sure they ever truly would.
The figure hesitated, then vanished into the void. The clearing, once again, became still.
Simone let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. "Did we… did we really leave?"
“I don’t know,” Darius whispered.
When they emerged from the woods, the world felt almost too quiet. The sky was a dull gray, the air still. They reached Darius’s car, but the moment he touched the door handle, something inside him twisted—a hollow ache, a sense that something was missing.
Simone climbed into the passenger seat, her gaze unfocused. "What just happened?"
“I don’t know. But it doesn’t feel over. Like we’re still… between.”
Darius started the engine, but the feeling didn’t go away. The trees blurred past them, and he couldn’t shake the sensation that someone—or something—was watching them from the shadows, from just beyond the veil of what they could see. The road stretched out in front of them, but it felt endless, as if the lines between one place and another were dissolving around them. The hum in the air was faint at first, a low vibration under the sound of the engine, but it was growing, building in the pit of his stomach.
Simone looked at him, her expression a mix of exhaustion and fear. "Do you hear it?"
He nodded, the hum now a steady, vibrating pulse beneath everything—beneath the car, beneath the world itself. It wasn’t just in their ears anymore; it was in their bones. The space inside the car seemed to warp as though reality was slipping through their fingers, and for a moment, the familiar landscape outside the window twisted into something foreign, something alien.
"Darius..." Simone’s voice cracked. "I don’t think we can go back."
He glanced at her, a pang of dread rising in his chest. "What do you mean?"
Her hands gripped the armrest, her knuckles white. "I don’t think we can ever leave. That thing… that portal… it’s still with us. I can feel it. I can see it in the reflection. The mirrors, Darius—they’re all wrong."
Darius turned his head sharply, his eyes drawn to the rearview mirror. It took a moment for him to register, but then he saw it. Behind them, in the reflection, the road wasn’t just dark—it was… distorted. The trees bent unnaturally, the headlights of their car flickering like distant stars. The reflection of the car itself seemed to pulse with the strange energy that had followed them from the woods.
Simone gasped, her breath shallow. "It’s like we’re still there. In the woods. Like we never left."
Darius slammed his foot on the gas, urging the car forward, but the road before them didn’t seem to lengthen as it should. The landscape stayed the same—stuck, a mirror of the other side, where time had broken. And behind them, in the rearview mirror, the figure—its eyes black as ink—was slowly emerging, flickering between the reflections of the trees.
"Stop looking at it!" Simone shouted, but it was too late.
Darius felt himself pulled, not physically, but mentally, as if the car had ceased to be a vessel of escape. The edges of his mind frayed, the strange sensation that he was both here and somewhere else took root in his consciousness. His heart beat erratically, not because of fear, but because he was no longer sure if his heart belonged to this world.
In the mirror, the figure stared, its face devoid of expression, its eyes vast pools of darkness.
Simone screamed, and the car swerved violently as Darius reached for the wheel. The world outside the car spun, and for a brief, terrifying moment, the fabric of reality itself seemed to unravel. The trees disappeared into an endless void, and the road twisted upon itself like a serpent devouring its own tail.
The car lurched, the tires screeching against asphalt that was no longer familiar. The air inside the car was thick, pulsing with static as if the very atmosphere was turning into something alien. In an instant, the road disappeared entirely. They were no longer driving through Alabama. The world outside the car was now a vast expanse of dark, swirling shapes—cosmic, distant, and unknowable.
Simone was gasping, her hands pressed against the windows, her face pale with terror. "Darius! We’re not in the world anymore! We’ve crossed over, haven’t we? We left!"
Before he could respond, the hum intensified. The car, the world, and everything in it collapsed into a single point, and the sensation of being outside of time—and perhaps outside of existence—consumed them.
XXX Part 5: Between Worlds
Darius awoke to a crushing silence. He opened his eyes, but nothing was familiar. The car was gone. The road was gone. There was nothing but endless dark, an oppressive void stretching in all directions.
His breath caught in his throat as he pushed himself up from the ground, the air heavy with an unsettling chill. He was no longer on Earth—he was in a place outside of time, a place where laws of reality had no power.
"Simone?" His voice echoed into the void, but there was no response. Panic surged in his chest.
Then, a movement caught his eye.
Simone stood a few feet away, her eyes wide, staring into the distance. Her body was rigid, unmoving, as though she were trapped in some unseen force. Slowly, Darius approached her, but the closer he got, the more the air around them seemed to distort, as if it was fighting his presence.
“Simone!” Darius called again, but this time, his voice was muffled, as if the very atmosphere had absorbed it. She turned to him slowly, but her expression was distant—almost… frozen.
Her lips parted, but instead of words, what came out was a distorted echo of the voice they had heard before—the figure from the portal.
"You are between," it said, not from Simone, but from the space between them. "You exist, yet you do not. You have crossed, and you will never return."
Darius’s heart clenched. "No. This isn’t real. We can’t be—"
Before he could finish, the ground beneath them began to tremble. The darkness around them began to crack, fissures appearing like broken glass. Out of those cracks poured more figures—tall, distorted shapes that flickered between dimensions. They moved with unnatural speed, their forms shifting like liquid.
One of them stepped forward, and Darius saw it clearly—a face, a mask of nothing, devoid of any recognizable features except for the endless abyss that filled its gaze.
"You have seen the truth," the figure intoned. "You were never meant to know."
In that instant, Darius felt the truth burn through him—the unsettling realization that they were no longer in the world they knew. They were in a place that existed beyond the human mind’s capacity for understanding—a place of no time, no space. A place where those who crossed the boundaries became lost forever, trapped between worlds that had no meaning.
Simone, her eyes wide with horror, reached for him. "Darius, we have to get out of here. Please, we have to—"
But before she could finish, the ground beneath their feet shattered entirely, and they were plunged into the void.
Part 6: The Truth of the Threshold
When Darius opened his eyes again, he was back in his apartment. The familiar hum of the refrigerator, the soft ticking of the clock, and the mundane noises of daily life greeted him. He sat up slowly, his head spinning. He looked around, searching for some sign that this was real.
But there was nothing.
He stumbled toward the mirror hanging on the wall, his breath shallow. He saw himself, but it wasn’t him. Not entirely.
His reflection was... wrong. His face was blurred, shifting, like the remnants of a dream struggling to hold its form.
And behind him, in the dim reflection, a pair of black, unblinking eyes watched.
Darius gasped, his heart sinking.
Somewhere, out there, Simone was still between—lost in the endless expanse where reality broke, where the rules of the world no longer applied.
And he would never be able to reach her.
The mirror flickered once more, and he realized the truth.
They weren’t just caught between dimensions.
They were trapped in one.
The reflection of Darius in the mirror shifted again, the blurry, inhuman face flickering like a malfunctioning image. His breath caught in his throat. He turned away from the mirror, a cold sweat breaking out on his skin. His pulse hammered in his ears as he staggered back, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The world around him felt off, like he was no longer truly part of it.
Darius stumbled to the window and looked outside, hoping to see something—anything—that felt like the world he knew. But the view was distorted, like looking through water, the streets below warped and the sky overcast with a strange, otherworldly gray. The faint hum from earlier returned, vibrating in his chest, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It was as if the very fabric of existence was unraveling, each thread hanging loose in the air.
His mind raced. This can’t be happening. This can’t be real.
The memory of the forest, the portal, and the figures from that night flooded back in an overwhelming rush. He could still feel the pull of the void, the strange energy that had latched onto him and Simone. They had crossed into something far more dangerous than they had imagined. They had gone beyond the reach of Earth—and now, it seemed, they could never return.
There was a soft knock on the door, followed by a voice. "Darius?"
His heart skipped a beat. It was Simone.
He rushed to the door, flinging it open, half-expecting her to be standing there, her expression haunted but real. But no one was there. The hallway outside was empty.
"Darius?" The voice came again, but this time, it wasn’t from the hallway. It was a whisper in his ear, as if someone was standing directly behind him.
He spun around, but no one was there.
The hum in the air grew louder, filling his ears, thrumming with an energy he couldn’t understand. The apartment felt smaller, as though the walls were closing in, suffocating him. He had to escape—he had to get out of this space. But where could he go? Everywhere felt wrong now. He was already somewhere else, somewhere that shouldn’t exist.
The reflection in the mirror grew clearer, and this time, Darius didn’t look away. He stared into it, his own face now twisted and strange, no longer resembling the man he had been only hours ago. The figure that had followed him was there again, its black eyes fixated on him, and in its expressionless mask, he saw something—something more—something he couldn’t comprehend. It was like the figure was trying to communicate something, but the words twisted in his mind, an incomprehensible string of symbols and images, flashing in rapid succession.
It was as if the reflection was showing him the truth.
The truth of the dimensions.
The truth of the portals.
The truth of what they had unleashed.
"Darius," the voice whispered again, this time cold and full of malice. "You are no longer just a part of the world you knew. You are between. And you will never escape."
His hands gripped the sides of the mirror, his nails digging into the glass. The world around him swam, his vision blurring as the reflection warped again. The figure in the mirror twisted into a thousand different faces—human and not-human—its shifting form an endless parade of horrors. Each face screamed at him in silent agony, their mouths open but no sound escaping.
"Simone..." Darius breathed, his voice cracking. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
The hum grew louder, vibrating in his bones now, and suddenly the ground beneath him began to tremble again. The familiar sound of the refrigerator buzzing, the ticking of the clock—all of it vanished, leaving only the deafening silence. His feet lifted from the floor, his body weightless, suspended in an unknown space.
And then, just like that, he was falling.
He landed hard on the ground, his breath knocked from him. When he opened his eyes, he wasn’t in his apartment anymore. He was back in the woods. The same dense, dark forest where the portal had first opened.
Simone was standing in front of him.
Her face was pale, her eyes wide with terror. She looked as though she hadn’t aged a day, but her eyes—they were empty, hollow, as if something vital had been taken from her.
"Simone?" Darius choked out, scrambling to his feet. "Simone, we need to leave. We—"
But she didn’t respond. She stood motionless, staring ahead with a vacant gaze, as though she couldn’t see him at all. The same black eyes that had appeared in the reflection in the mirror stared back at him through her own, and in that moment, he understood.
She was gone.
No—she was never truly here, not anymore. The portal had taken her, consumed her in ways he couldn’t fully grasp. And now, the same force was coming for him.
The trees around them began to shift, their bark rippling like liquid. The air grew thick with an energy that made Darius’s skin crawl. Shadows gathered, forming shapes that didn’t belong in this world. Figures from beyond the dimensions circled them, their forms shifting, blurring with the darkness.
Darius backed away, his legs shaking. He wanted to run, to escape, but there was no escape. Not anymore.
The ground beneath him cracked open, revealing a gaping chasm of swirling, pulsating light. The portal—the same portal from before—was opening again, wider this time, drawing them in with an insidious pull.
Simone’s body remained frozen, her eyes still staring into the void, her lips moving as though whispering something Darius couldn’t hear.
A voice echoed in the distance, growing louder, its tone cold and distant. "The truth is not what you think. You are between. You will never be the same."
Darius turned, the world around him starting to collapse, the reality shattering like glass. The portal stretched wider, its edges bleeding into the night. The figures from beyond were closing in, their forms coalescing into something more tangible, more malevolent.
And then, without warning, the world collapsed entirely.
There was only darkness.
And the hum—the never-ending hum—filling every corner of his mind.
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