The Gate Keeper

Chapter 2

The severity of Melody's nightmares had deescalated into small dreams of limbo over time. Now, she'd constantly dream about being in the dark, not a dark room, but in a vast sea of darkness. She could feel something cold moving in the darkness around her. She'd try to chase after it, reaching blindly into the void, but she'd never grab anything or anyone. Then, she'd see a hand reaching out to her, but before she could take it, a bright light would blind her, and she'd wake up. It was always the same, and always left her feeling exhausted and cold.

*

The next day, she went to work, just like yesterday. The news still talked about the amount of darkness coming into Coelum from Vacuus being too extreme, and how another couple gates were shut down.

This went on for a week straight. Same nightmares, same work days, same news reports. That is, until today.

Melody laid in bed, fast asleep. She was dreaming again, but this time, the dream was different. It was as though it was playing backwards.

It started with the blinding white light. After a couple of minutes, it eventually dimmed into the black nothingness she had had grown accustomed to. All around her seemed still and quiet. She looked around calling out into the void. She soon heard a whisper. At first, it was indistinguishable. Then, she made out what it was saying; it was calling her name. She turned, looking all over. A black doorway appeared before her. It was a gate. The gate stood tall, and looked like a suspended body of water flowing about in midair. She approached, skimming her fingers over the surface. Suddenly, a dark hand shot out from the gate. The shock nearly toppled Melody backwards. The hand hovered there, fingers moving about. It was trying to grasp at something. Hesitantly, she reached up to the hand. This time, she was actually able to grasp it. It felt so real, rough, and cold.

"Melody..." it called to her again, pulling her toward the gate. She could barely make out a face on the opposite side of the gate. It was a man's, but it looked very withered and dark. "Help... me," it cried out in a gruff voice. Tears began to welt up in her eyes has his pained voice escaped his lips.

"How? How can I save you? Please, tell me what to do." She was full on sobbing now, hot tears streaming down her face.

"Gate," he whispered back. An image of a metal staircase appeared in front of her. She looked around at her surroundings, barely making out a gate a few feet in front of her. The vision was distorted and grainy, like an old television with poor signal. She was in an alleyway, and there was a doorway at the end. It was boarded up. "Gate," he repeated. She saw a version of herself, another her, walk up to the doorway, reach into the gate, and pull him through. The vision ended, and the blinding white light filled her sight once again.

She woke up, sitting up in bed, tears streaming down her face. She sat there for a moment, processing what had just happened. Her breathing was slightly uneven, and her face was sticky from her tears. The dreams had never been this intense before. As she sat in bed, still running over the vision in her mind, a sudden knock at the door shook her back to reality. She quickly scampered out of bed and rushed to the door. As soon as it swung open, a dark woman rushed in.

"Hey, girly, are you ready for..." Alexandria's expression turned from eager to panicked. "Oh god, are you alright?" She wrapped her arm around Melody and led her back inside.

"Yeah," she answered, her voice scratchy. She cleared her throat. "Just another dream." Alexandria looked at her with much skepticism.

"These dreams have never made you look so beat up like this. Was it the same one, or did something different happen?" The both sat down on the bed. Melody took a deep breath.

"Yeah, this one was different. The thing that keeps reaching out for me, it had a face and voice this time. It was begging me to save it. It told me to pull it through a gate." Melody shook her tangled hair from her face. "It was weird. The gate was located outside a couple buildings, at the bottom of a stairwell." Melody kept her sights pointed at the floor. Her eyes stung from the drying tears.

"Mels, that is pretty weird. What's weirder is that the gate you're talking about, it sounds exactly like the one they found a couple blocks from here." Melody looked up at Alexandria with confusion. "You didn't know?"

"Know what?"

"There's a gate that a Renovationist opened late last night a couple streets down from here. The area, which is like an alleyway with a stairwell, is all taped off. The keepers are going to try and close it tonight." Melody's eyes tracked back down to the floor.

"That's impossible." She breathed aloud.

"Well, it's their job," Alexandra replied,a hit of sarcasm in her voice.

"No, I mean the dream. It felt so real. The gate was open, and I pulled who, or what, ever it was through into our world. You said you know where it's at?" Melody jumped up and began throwing clothes on.

"Mels, don't you think you should stay away from this?" Alexandria pleaded, watching Melody run back and forth in the small apartment. "For all you know, it could be some demon trying to get at you..." Alexandria went quiet, trying not to bring up the death of Melody's parents.

"This isn't like that. The visions and dreams, they're like some sort of message. If a demon wanted me to go to a gate, I'd be possessed. You should know this. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to look." Melody grabbed her purse and started for the door. "Come on, let's go." She pleaded. Alexandria shook her head in disappointment.

"If we die, or worse, I blame you."

*

Melody, eager to see this alleyway, kept to Alexandria's heal, rushing her along.

"How much farther?" She asked impatiently. Alexandria shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Just around the corner." They turned past a little pawn shop and were greeted by keepers, yellow tape, and signs asking pedestrians to stay behind the barricade. Many neighborhood know-it-alls and people with no regard for public safety or privacy annoyed the keepers, constantly asking questions varying from seeing the gate to if anyone had come through. Since Alexandria and Melody were employees of the official government gating and realm control, they were allowed passed the first barricade, but were not able to approach the gate.

"There, you saw it. Can we go now?" Alexandria asked, feeling uncomfortable being around the darkened archway. To her, it looked like a sheet of tar that didn't understand gravity. Melody stared in awe at the alleyway; the details of the alley, from the odor, to the placement of trash and litter, matched her dream exactly.

"Wow..." she sighed to herself, wondering if she should be afraid or excited that the detailed matched so precisely.

"Come on," Alexandria blurted, grabbing Melody's arm. She escorted herself and Melody back to the street, behind the first barricade. "I am so never coming back here." She looked back at the alley, shivering.

"Why are you so afraid? It's not like the gate is going to swallow you whole." Melody joked, trying to bring up Alexandria's thoughts about the situation.

"Why aren't you? You have the same weird dream since forever, then the one different dream you have, it just so happens to lead you to the very gate you dreamed off, and you just see it as 'awesome' or 'cool?' I would be getting my ass to a healer, or at least some specialist who could explain all of this crap." Panic started to rise in Alexandria's voice with each and every word.

"Alex, stop. I'm not possessed or crazy. It's just some coincidence-"

"Well, whatever this 'coincidence' leads to, I don't want any part of it. You said you'd get help and you'd talk to someone, but that was months ago. If you aren't going to listen to me, then fine, go get hurt, but don't drag my ass in this." Alexandria threw her hands up in the air out of frustration and stormed off, her pumps clicking hard against the cement. Melody didn't chase after. She knew, deep down, that Alexandria was right. She had begged Melody to get help, to find someone with answers. She was the only who tried to help, cared, understood that different didn't make someone a nut-job.

Guilt started to eat at Melody a bit as she grabbed her phone, logged into the GKRC (Gate Keepers & Realm Control) page, and looked up the nature of the gate on the active files. The gate was to be closed at 11pm that night. She would be there at 10, not to get a closer view of the gate, but to see if someone would reach out, begging for help.