Gateway

I remember the day we first saw the gateway on the horizon. You thought it was further away while I saw how dangerously near it really was. I told you my worries and you changed them saying that we'd never get close that we would never go through that gateway but a different one. Our journey stopped as we sat on the side of the road talking, the grass whispering and the wind caressing us. Night fell and our worries eased by the sparkling stars and the silver tone of the world from the moon up above.

Before the night was over we packed our things and continued down the road, blind. When dawn started to come I saw how close we were to the gateway. I told you to stop, begged, pleaded, gave advice about how we should go anywhere but this way. You kept pushing forward while I started to lag behind only for you to return and drag me the last of the way and through the gateway.

Once through I saw how bad things really were and I took off leaving you to your devices before the sun even rose. Then the light came, shining through to reveal a new beginning and the end. I quickly found my way through a different gateway escaping where we were before, my injuries from your force ever present.

I looked around where I was. Alone. From the gateway I just escaped from to the one where I am the scenery had a drastic change. Before it was a dark forest, demons lurking in the shadows pulling us apart; whispering their lies, suggestions and seductions. Now it's an open field the sky a vibrant blue the grass wild and rejoicing in the calm breeze, the beauty almost overwhelming.

I stopped to rest letting my wounds heal; scraped knees, bruised arms from fighting back and a busted lip from biting it hard to prevent myself from saying words I would regret. There I remember when I first saw the gateway and got lost in the memory until the grass touches my arm allowing me to come back to reality. Hesitantly I stand again, wobbling at first, but finding a newfound strength. I turn and look back at the gateway I just passed through.

I see the dark forest, darker than ever. There's more people caught in its maze now. Others make their way out where I am only to be scared of the light and return through the gateway into the darkness, teleported to a whole other world. I watch as they get what they want in the forest not realizing the price the demons make them pay. Hints of happiness, hunks of heart, and slivers of soul slowly removed without those in the forest knowing.

The friends of the lost dance on the edge of the gateway, diving in to bring them closer only to run out again; a steady tug of war between the demons and the light. The gateway to the field is thin and narrow whilst the gateway to the dark forest wide and looming. The gateway is ever changing with each person who runs through or back and forth though none can stay in the gateway. They're either on one side of it or the other.

After a while I can't watch anymore. I turn away from the gateway and run across the field as fast and as far away as possible, leaving you and others behind. I run and run and run until I collapse, the horrid gateway far out of sight. There I find solace.  I see that the gateways crossed needed to happen, so I could have made my way to the field.

For that's what a gateway is; a way to take you from one place to another, a place to enter and depart. To let go and gain. Just another passage in the journey. The question is how long are you going to stay in between gateways, until you make the next passage or if you will return where you came from?