The Gate

Chapter 1
The End.

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Chapter Description: When I looked in the mirror everything stopped. It wasn’t me. Staring back at me was the face of a three year old boy. What made it stranger was that he had a lot of my features. My straight, dark brown hair, my grey eyes, long black eyelashes and peach stained lips; he even had my fair complexion. Still, it wasn’t me.

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The End.

By: MrChristopher

It was raining. I remember that because it was raining so hard the car had stalled. It was on that Cliffside road on the way to his parent’s cottage. I tried to fix it, but I was getting nowhere. So I decided to go back to the car, with him.

“Liam you goof,” It was him, my gorgeous black haired Adonis was calling, “I told you it was no use trying to fix the car.”

Alec, a name I would fight and die for. My boyfriend. He’s perfect. Smart, kind, generous and beautiful; I constantly ask how so much beauty could fill one man, but then again I constantly ask how he ended up with me.

“I know, but you know how thick headed I am,” I tried to be charming; “I just wanted to get you home safely, me being the big heroic type and all.”

“Well Mister Hero, I guess we’ll have to stay here for a while.”

He gave me one of those looks. A look he always gave me. It was so sexy but at the same time, so clever. It drove me wild.

“What ever will we do?” He mocked as he unbuttoned his shirt slowly.

“I have no idea,” I played along as I went in for a kiss.

It’s funny how contrasted two people can be. How far apart they are but so close. We were so different but we balanced each other so well.

My Adonis, I must have been the envy of the gods.

We were locked in an all consuming passionate kiss. I found it hard for my mind to wander at all, except to the thoughts of his sweet embrace.

“Let’s get you out of those wet clothes Liam, and into something-

“More comfortable?” I completed his sentence.

He started to slowly take off my shirt, his touch was soft and I yearned for it. But he stopped. A bright light appeared through the darkness of the stormy night. I thought it would pass; apparently so did he, so we continued. The screeching of tires was deafening; the wet pavement only made it worse. The almost thunderous sound of eighteen-wheeler’s horn cried out in warning, but it was too late.

The truck had slammed into the back of our car. The sickening crunch of metal and shattering of glass was nothing compared to the screams of my Alec, my Adonis. It seemed the gods were truly envious, for they were trying to take him away from me.

The headlights of the monstrous truck blinded us for a few seconds but soon it faded. My vision cleared, the warmth pouring from my body, through my chest, shoulder and lower abdomen. In the ensuing chaos several long pipes had shot off the eighteen wheeler’s bed and through the car’s back end. As I looked upon him one last time all I could hear were his words. Words he had said so many times but never before had they had more meaning.

“Will you love me forever?” he would ask.

And I would reply, “Forever and ever, babe,”

I wish I could tell you what had happened to Alec, to me, and even the truck driver, but I can’t. I haven’t seen that light yet; It’s been darkness ever since. I’m stuck and it feels like eternity without Alec. I’ve seen glimpses, visions and flickers of him. Flickers of hope that keeps me going; it’s the double edged sword that pins me here, Waiting.

* * *

I had been alone for so long, it felt like decades. So it was strange when the shadow figures appeared. Hundreds of them gathered in a circle around me. Wordless but there silence seemed to fill my ears with an imperceptibly maddening sound. Then, it was as if the blackness suddenly crumbled beneath me, and the light poured in. Uncompromisingly it dragged me back to the moment, that cold, dark moment. As I clawed at the nothing around me I tried to grab at something, anything; all I got was fistfuls of the dark and empty spaces.

Panic surged throughout my entire body as the pale current flared; relentlessly tugging at me. I tried to cry out for help from the shadow figures but my lungs had become tight and breathless. The Light grew brighter hauling me away at a high speed with vicious unrelenting force, beating every which part of my body against the jagged nothingness.

As I gasped for the air I so desperately needed, the light delivered one last devastating blow. The last thing I remember was the light, blinding me; taking me away. How would Alec find me now?

* * *

When I woke up I felt as if I were floating. My head was reeling and everything around me was so bright I couldn’t see a thing. This was nothing like what I expected the bright light at the end of the tunnel to be. Maybe I was finally at peace. But there was no such luck. As quickly as the light had come, it faded and slowly everything started to take form.

“So much for the white light,” I thought out loud.

“Liam?”

My heart ached when I recognized that soft, almost angelic voice. It ran over me like honey. It was so smooth and sweet; it was him. I knew it was him, it had to be.

“Alec…” I said softly, reality seemed to be on hold for me at the moment, “I thought...I died d-didn’t I?”

“It’s okay Liam, you’re not dead buddy,” he said in an almost sad tone.

His words seemed strange to me. Little by little I was slipping out of my dream like state but everything around me remained blurred.

“I’m blind,” I panicked but then Alec chuckled. I heard him move and could see the flesh tones of his hands come close to my face as he placed a pair of circular glasses on me.

Everything was suddenly in focus and Then I saw him, bent over sitting by my bed and I forgot about the hospital, the world, everything. He looked up at me with his sweet, forgiving blue eyes and he was more beautiful than ever. He was more defined, older but somehow different.

“Where are we?” I asked; my body ached. Everything sounded alien to me. Then something struck me and everything snapped back in reality. Something was wrong. Was it my voice? My body? Or maybe it was a voice in the back of my head, itching at my brain.

“We’re in the hospital,”

“What’s going on?” I asked. “What happened to me, I thought I died.”

“No Liam,” he explained; it was as if it were painful for him to look at me, “You’re going to be fine,”

He looked like he was about to cry. Whatever had happened, it couldn’t be that horrible. Was I disfigured? I knew I couldn’t have been paralysed, I could still move, so what could it be?

“Can I see a mirror,” I asked.

“A mirror?” he sounded confused.

“Yeah, is there one I can see?”

Alec smiled sweetly, but we both knew he was hiding something.

“Here you go,” he handed me a hand mirror off the side desk.

When I looked in the mirror everything stopped. It wasn’t me. Staring back at me was the face of a three year old boy. What made it stranger was that he had a lot of my features. My straight, dark brown hair, my grey eyes, long black eyelashes and peach stained lips; he even had my fair complexion. Still, it wasn’t me.

“Alec,” I looked up at my Adonis. I wanted to cry; I could feel my emotions bubbling deep within my chest, threatening to spill out if I said another word.

That’s when he wrapped his arms around my small body and held me. That was different too. It wasn’t how one held a lover in distress; rather it was how one held a distraught child. He kept repeating the words, “I’m sorry,” as he continued to caress me.

“It’s not your fault,” Was all I could manage to think of.

As good as he looked I could tell he had been up for days, maybe weeks. He was unshaven and his black hair messily parted. He smelt of cologne, which he only wore when he didn’t have a chance to shower. His clothes were clean but wrinkled and his breath smelled of mint chewing gum.

“I’m so sorry they’re gone,” Alec mumbled, “Your mother and father, they’re gone.”

“What?” I thought out loud. He wasn’t making any sense. They had died years before.

“I can’t believe they’re gone,” he repeated again, “I’m so sorry Marie.”

“Marie…” it didn’t make sense, “that was…”

My sister’s name; He was talking about my sister.

“No!” I tried to pushed him away, “No, she’s not gone,”

I tried to deny it, make sense of it, but it was all happening so quickly. I began to cry loudly as Alec held me tight. I tried to push and kick but it didn’t help. I denied it a hundred times in my head. I was the one who was supposed to be dead, not her.

“Liam are you okay?” he had worry in his voice again.

I looked up at him but a wet spot forming on my blankets caught my eye. I threw them off and with a look of horror I realised I was pissing all over myself. All I could do was continue to cry.

“Liam,” he said my name again and it started to come together. It wasn’t my name. It was his. My sister had always promised to name her first born boy after me. So it was true.

I’m not me.

 

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