Author: Anna Jackson
I couldn’t look at it, but it stood tall and imposing before me, like it was begging me to see. I knew it was time, I knew that I didn’t have a choice, but that didn’t make it any easier. The Gateway was open and it was my turn to step through it. Eventually, I had to look at it, I needed to see. I stared into the deep blue core with wide eyes, the wind scorching them as I stood, unblinking. It felt as though it was absorbing my stare, pulling me closer, waiting for me. Then my eyes met hers. My wife. She couldn’t be on the other side could she? No, I had already resigned myself to her loss. But what if? What if she was waiting there, waiting for me? I couldn’t leave her again. Before I could even think about it, my legs were moving, one step in front of the other in some hypnotic dance. I hesitated inches away from the blue surface, fear enveloped me as I placed my fingertips to the strange liquid. It seemed to pulsate under my touch, like it was alive and breathing. One more step, that’s all it would take. I took a deep breath and thought of her. Then I stepped in. It felt like I had plunged myself into a pool of freezing water, the blue washed over me and filled my eyes; I was drowning between breaths. The substance, whatever it was, stung my skin like shards of ice coursing through my veins. Shivers ran up and down and up my spine again until I was in so deep that I couldn’t see the gateway anymore. All I could see was blue. I raised my wrinkled hands to my face, only to find them fading, crumbling almost into dust. I was slipping away into the emptiness. Then I knew that the gateway was taking me, and that I would never see her again. It lied to me. My eyes were the last to go, the image of blue emptiness burned into my vanished corneas.