Iis's+Gate

Iis Oble sat with a strange content on the front porch steps of her house. Under delicate fingertips, she turned the small notebook over and then back again, opening to that one page and taking in those three words again and again. The voice that had spoken them rang in her ears as though it were just yesterday. But it had been longer than a week since they’d last spoken. The source of this voice was told to be sleeping. It was said that this sleep would never end.

“What a shame,” they said.

“He was too young,” they said as their tears poured over the ground beneath which he slept. Under mourners gaze, a tombstone marked the only true part of him that they would ever see: The name. The letters curved and twisted and choked their readers. A fragile, dark-haired woman, with a heart that thought it had seen it’s worst, spoke nothing. She listened. His name, those curves and twists, rung through the air, ensnaring and choking.

“Jones Detta.”

“Jones Detta.”

“Jones Detta.”

There was a secret deep in the back of Iis’s mind that pressed against her lips. A grinning guilt loosened her tongue and whispered in her thoughts that this was her fault. She could make everyone smile again but she stood there speechless. She watched Jones’s mother cry but she stood there saying nothing. She watched the ignorance but she stood there knowing everything. When they spoke of the loss, she locked her eyes on thread after thread of her lacy funeral dress. She suppressed that strange little smile that tugged at her lips and hid that glow in her eyes that told her secret.

That little green notebook with the gold bindings documented their last moments together.

//“It’s magic. It’s from the outside world.” Jones had handed the little book over to her. “It’ll take down everything we say here. You can’t forget this stuff.”//

//“Alright,” Iis uttered before breaking down under a waterfall of tears. Jones held her tight.//

//“Don’t cry. I promise you, it’ll be alright.” He opened the notebook to its first page. “It’ll make sense soon. Don’t worry.” The notebook started to fill with his words. “I should start by telling you that I’ve been keeping something from you. Remember that night that my dad got taken away? Well, after that they still couldn’t find the things he had been working on. They searched everywhere but they couldn’t find a single document. The only person who could find it was me and I did. I’ve been working on it since then. I’ve figured it all out. I can’t tell you too much. They’ll get you too.”//

//“Please. I want to know.”//

//“The only thing I want you to know is that I’m not going to die.”//

//“What?” Her attention was caught by the first piece of good news to come from his mouth.//

//His voiced dropped as he explained, “That’s the whole secret. When our light goes out, we die, right? Common sense.”//

//“Yeah.”//

//“Well, that’s the thing. When our light goes out, we actually live. We just become a regular human beings.”//

//“How come no one knows?”//

//“That’s the part I can’t tell you. There’s really only one bit of solid proof and I don’t have it. Neither did my father. It’s in the outside world somewhere and that’s where I have to go. Here’s the thing though. I need you to come with me.”//

//“You’re joking.”//

//“I couldn’t trust anyone more than you, Iis.”//

//“But what do you need me for?”//

//“I just- I just need you, alright?”//

//“I can’t. I have school. I have my family.”//

//“You can tell your family you have to leave for a school thing. I don’t even need you to go right now. Just wait a week or so. Please.”//

//“Do you really trust me that much?”//

//“Of course, Iis. I trust you. I love you. Please just come with me.”//

“I love you.”

Those words hung heavy in her heart. She flipped to that page in the journal more than any other page. Those were the words that sold her. It had been a week, and now she sat on those front porch steps waiting. Jones would already be a normal human being and he would have found his escape from the cave walls that enclosed their world of Mondiluce.

It was nearly impossible for Jones to leave unnoticed. All exits were under the close eye of the Three who ruled over Mondiluce. The Three had a belief that the purity of the lumihuman race was far greater than that of the normal human race. Because of this, the one entrance to Mondiluce was held under tight security so that no impure humans would enter their home. Jones had mentioned that a friend of his father’s knew a safe way to leave the cave without being seen. This friend went by one strange name: The Fox.

Iis flipped to her favorite page again. Those words. Was it the look in his eyes that suggested that it meant more? The way he paused before saying it? No. She was just being crazy. Her and Jones had been friends for years and nothing more would ever come out of that. Nonetheless, in the back of her mind, she continued to wonder and that wonder kept her going.

The little wooden door behind her swung open.

“I heard you’re leaving.” Delicate footsteps approached Iis from behind and tiny barefoot feet with nails painted pink appeared at her side.

“Yes, I am.” She looked up her sister, Adarine who cast the most beautiful glow on anyone in her presence. Her voice, like baby birds and snowfall, was soft but perfect. Her blue dress curled and crashed like an ocean when the wind blew just right and settled under a foam of lace trimming. Her hair was tucked back in a matching lace hairband to reveal the tiny pearls that hung from her ears.

“Are you going to trade?” Trading was Iis’s designated job. She could only do it because being a parslumihuman made it safe for her to leave the cave. This was why she was safe enough to leave and find Jones.

“Yeah.” This was a lie.

“I thought you didn’t start learning to trade until next year.” She was too smart for the lie but Iis pressed on with the same story.

“Well, technically, yeah. They have to take you out way before you start learning though so your skin can adjust to the sunlight.” Brilliant.

“Oh. When are you leaving?”

“I don’t know. They have to contact me.”

“Who?”

“The school.” She was still playing with the little journal, flipping through the pages casually until one page suddenly caught. She looked down. A piece of paper was wedged into one of the pages and words that she hadn’t really noticed before caught her attention. For all she knew, it could be from Jones. She closed the book quickly so that Adarine wouldn’t see. Adarine wasn’t paying attention. Her blue eyes had wandered to the eerie black ambulance down the street. The black ones meant that someone wasn’t coming back.

“Do you miss him still?” The black ambulance had sparked thoughts of Jones in Adarine’s mind.

“Of course.”

“I miss him too.” The girls watched as the ambulance pulled out of a driveway leaving a sobbing wife who held back her five-year-old son as he cried and screamed for his daddy. With tears in her eyes, Adarine ran back inside the house and up to her bedroom where she could hide under her blankets as though they were a shield from the horrors of the real world.

To Iis, who remained on the steps outside, the world became a very dark and scary place. That poor family was torn apart because of a lie. That poor little boy’s father should still be alive. Iis felt the heartbreak fully and truly for the first time which filled her with determination. She opened the journal and flipped through until she found the right page. This page was in the back of the book, far from where words had last been written and where Iis had thought, until now, no words would ever be written. There they were though, gleaming in fresh black ink at the top of the page:

//The Fox will help you. Do what he instructs without question. Trust me.//

This was a message from Jones. Somehow, he was telling her that this was her time to find him. She then turned to the paper tucked into the page. It was folded three times so that it fit perfectly inside the journal. Between those folds were secrets, secrets contained by a golden seal with a pressed image of a fox. This was it. Her heartbeat quickened as she unfolded the message.

//My friends,//

//I hope this missive finds you all as well as maybe expected. I know that many of your regions are suffering right now, with plagues and illnesses, famines and disease. This has not gone unnoticed, nor is it confined to only your region. You are not alone.//

//The time has come for us to meet again, friends. You may not be surprised to know that I have been making contacts in all the regions of Pyrosium for some time now. In fact, my family has been doing this for generation upon generation, back to the beginning of our world.//

//But now, the time of the Great Prophecy is upon us. It is imperative that we meet together to discuss this and that we set aside regional differences and animosity in order to confront the evil which besets Pyrosium.//

//You must now find the Lost Gates in your land. Look for them in hidden places or in plain sight. There may be legends of these Gates or rumors of them. They may appear broken and disused or new and clean. They may be guarded by the stuff of nightmares. They may appear to be unguarded. Regardless, you must find them and then find the way to enter them. This you must puzzle out for yourselves, but come soon. We have little time to waste.//

//I await you at the Forum.//

//The Fox//

Immediately the tears filled Iis’s eyes. This was wrong. This was all wrong. Her heart felt heavy. She felt hopeless. This couldn’t be her message. It was wrong. There were no plagues or famines. It was more than that. It was worse than that. The Fox wouldn’t help her. Jones would never contact her. Mondiluce would never be saved.

She stood with the journal in her hand, ready to throw it when her eyes caught the words. The spine was bent to open at that page.

“I trust you. I love you.”

Jones trusted her. He trusted her to help and she had to try. Whether it all seemed wrong or not, she had to try. The Fox was supposed to help her, right? She had to try.

She ran inside to pack. What was the outside world like? She had always imagined it very dark and wet and covered with the most intelligent creatures. It would be filled with things from movies like wizards and robots and everything could fly. Maybe the outside world was a world in the air. Maybe it always rained since they were in the clouds. She decided on a snug pair of peacock feather rain boots for her feet. Rain boots went out of style a year or so ago. They were only worn as a fashion statement considering they never got rain in Mondiluce. She wore a pair of jeans and a fleece jacket. There were cooler clothes packed in the little blue bag she wore on her back. As always, the little diamond necklace given to her by Jones hung around her neck. After telling her parents it was time for her to leave, she walked out the door, journal in hand, ready to go.

Then, it hit her. A gate. There were no gates in Mondiluce. At least there weren’t any that she knew of. She flipped frantically through the pages of the journal. Nothing. There was no way to find it. No maps, no directions, no nothing. She started to cry again. This couldn’t be what Jones wanted her to do. This was too difficult. She couldn’t stop though. She had to keep going. Somehow, under the stress and the worry and the tears, a tiny plan formulated in her mind. Who better knew the labyrinth of Mondiluce than the miners?

The rain boots proved a silly option as they dragged against the stone sidewalks while she ran, but it was too late to turn back. She was headed for the edge of Columba, her city. There was a tiny shop there, like at the entrance of any city. It had to have a map.

The entrance wasn’t too far away and after 30 minutes of running and 20 of dragging her exhausted body down street after street, hating those rain boots more and more with every step, she made it to the entrance. The shop was empty and only one light shown from inside but she went in anyways.

“Excuse me?” There was one employee asleep at the counter. “Hello?” He didn’t wake up. The clock behind him told her it was midnight. This was impossible. How was it that late? She decided to leave him be. She took a map from the pile beside him and left some money on the counter.

She took the Shuttle from Columba to the mining city of Circinus. The Shuttle was the only form of transportation between cities. It could only be activated under the touch of a lumihuman’s unique star-shaped fingerprint. This was to ensure that other creatures could not travel easily. The tunnels were dark and filled with millions of ghost stories. The tunnels twisted and turned like a maze. To try to travel through them would drive someone insane. If the insanity didn’t kill you, the giant spiders and other mysterious beings that lurked in the dark would. Iis couldn’t let these stories get to her, for there was no Shuttle to take her from Circinus to the gate. She would have to travel these tunnels and make it out alive.

The Shuttle came to it’s usual deathly halt and Iis stepped out into Circinus. The air was filled with dust and debris as picks hit every bit of stone it could find. Here and there were screams and shouts from workers who found valuable stones or perhaps fell victim to a cave in. The houses were little dirty boxes where only workers slept if they didn’t have time to travel home to their families. The biggest box was at the entrance. It was a store that, upon entering, one would realize looked just the same as any other city’s store despite it’s location. There was nothing particularly touristy about Circinus but the counters were piled with maps and key chains anyways.

The worker was awake here but the circles that hung under his eyes blended easily with the black dust that hid his young face.

“Can I help you?” he asked in an accent similar to those Iis had heard on television shows filmed in the capital, Ara.

“Well,” she gingerly approached the counter. “This might seem like a weird question but has anyone around here mentioned anything about a gate ever?”

“Well, yes, if they’re completely mad,” he laughed.

“So, it doesn’t exist?”

“Oh no, you don’t get it. It certainly exists.”

“Explain then.”

“What’s the magic word?” He leaned forward with a grin like he was enjoying this. In fact, it was the most fun he had had since he got a job here. The usual people who passed through his shop were grumpy, dirty workers and noisy children on class field trips.

“You’re joking.”

“Not joking,” he continued to smile.

“Please,” she put plenty of emphasis on the word, “explain what you mean about the gate. It’s important. It’s a matter of life and death.” She knew the words sounded silly as soon as they left her mouth and she braced herself for the boy’s criticism.

“Life or death! Well! I’m terribly sorry for standing in your way of this massively important life or death situation! What would you like to know to better help you save the planet?” Sarcasm.

“I’m serious!”

“I know!”

“No you don’t! You’re being a jerk!” This was some sort of game to him. Iis would never find Jones. No one would take her seriously. Then, she began to cry. This shocked the boy. Just now did it click with him that this was as important of a situation as she had said. He came out from behind the counter and put his arm around her. She shrugged it off.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was that big of a deal. I’ll help you if you want.” She didn’t reply so he kept going in hopes of making her happy again, “A good handful miners have seen the gate. I mean, it’s pretty far from here but if you’ve got a map, there’s a nice straight route right over to it. But, of course, take the wrong turn and you’re down by Pyxis. It’s terrifying though. Some miners go mad half the way there and turn back. I don’t know what’s out there. It’s supposed to be just spiders and stuff but a lot of people say it’s not. I can show you where it’s rumored to be on a map, if you want.”

“What?” To the relief of the boy, this caught Iis’s attention.

“Here, let me get a map.”

“Wait,” she stopped him. “I have one.” She pulled the folded up map from Columba’s store out of her pocket. The boy grabbed a pen off the counter and put an X over a spot in the upper righthand corner of the map that looked almost like a really tiny city. He connected Circinus and the X with a long, thin line.

“There’s the gate,” he told her, showing her the map.

“It’s not that dangerous, is it?”

“You heard my stories.”

“Well, I suppose I have no other choice.”

“Wait a minute. You’re not going out there to the gate all alone, are you? Just some fragile little girl against whatever’s out there with no one to protect you?”

“I have to! And I’m not that fragile!”

“No, I refuse to let you go. That’s ridiculous.”

“I have to. Sorry.” She turned and went to leave but stopped before she reached the door. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Tross Weller. And yours?”

“Iis Oble.”

“Hmm. Iis Oble. That’s interesting. Suppose you could write it down for me so I can make sure they spell it right on your gravestone?”

“Oh, stop it.”

“Look,” he followed her to the door, “at the very least, let me come with you.”

“I couldn’t make you do that.” This boy was about to risk his life over a girl he had just met.

“Come on. I need a little adventure.”

“No. I’m not letting you do that.” Before he could argue any further, she left the shop and the doors closed between them.

Outside, the dust hung thicker in the air and settled on her map. She left Circinus and began to walk the tunnels, following Tross’s line. Left. Right. Left again. The path began to curve around in a shape like a snake. The walls grew tighter and rounder as though she were walking through a tube. The pebbles on the ground beneath her rolled along the sides of the cave and finally settled above her. She was upside down. She was standing on the ceiling, she was sure of it. It made no sense. Surely she was going crazy already. Then came the tapping sound. It started off slow, and distant. She squinted ahead to see the rocks clicking back to the ceiling of the cave. More rocks clicked to the ceiling. They sped up, grew closer. Suddenly, with a violent snap, Iis fell and the cave was upright again. She let out a quick scream. Beneath torn jeans, her knee was bruised and bloody. She was relieved though. She had survived her first attack from the cave.

The second attack came after the next right she took. The was a heavy breeze. It wasn’t a normal breeze, although those were rare enough deep inside a cave. This breeze had hands. She swore it had hands. It touched her waist and neck and pulled at her hair. It grabbed at her feet. It swirled up in the air above her and she could see it. She could see it for that split second before it dropped on her, crushing her body under the weight. It rolled off and touched at her shoulders, sliding up to her neck and holding tightly. It squeezed into her mouth and down her throat, into her lungs and filled her up. She couldn’t breathe. Her first instinct was to run. The first attack ended further down the tunnel. This one would too. The breeze burned inside her as she ran. She stopped, panting, and pulled out a bottle of water. She forced the water down her throat. Her insides crackled. A thick, dark foam poured from her mouth and she collapsed.

“Iis Oble. Wake up.” Iis recognized the accent immediately.

“Tross?” She managed to choke out the name.

“Yeah. I followed you. I couldn’t let you go alone. Are you alright?” Iis nodded. She opened her eyes. This was not the part of the tunnel she had stopped in, was it? Had he carried her further? Or had she just forgotten?

“We moved,” she stated, hoping that he would explain.

“I carried you.” She had guessed right. “You don’t have very far to go now.”

“You didn’t have to follow me.”

“I know.” Then it hit her. Iis came to her senses. He had followed her. He was in danger now and it was her fault. She got angry. She stood up quickly.

“You followed me!”

“Yeah.”

“I told you not to!”

“I know but-”

“I told you not to follow me! Now you’re not safe! Go home! Don’t follow me!” She was yelling so loud that she almost didn’t noticed the echo when she stepped away from him. She stepped again. It produced the same echo. The echoed sound of a million footsteps flooded the tunnel. Tross was the first to see it. He looked behind him. The footsteps weren’t millions of echos. They were millions of feet. Spiders. Spiders the size of houses swarmed in on them. Their cold eyes locked on their target and they began to run. Millions of feet scuttle forward.

“Run!” Tross yelled. He grabbed Iis’s arm and pulled her along, judging their direction only by memory of the map. The spiders were far enough behind them. They had time. They’d make it to the gate. He turned right and then left and then they saw it. It didn’t look like a gate. It was a giant mirror. Their reflection was framed by a golden oval that hung in the air without rope or cables. It just waited there, floating, reflecting their terror and giving them no way inside. There was little hope.

Iis looked at the mirror and said, “Hello.”

“What are you doing?” Tross asked.

“Trying to open it.” She glared at him and turned back to the mirror. “Hi. The Fox sent us here and we need to get through. We’re about to die. Please let us through.” In the back of the mirror they saw the spiders coming, the millions of little feet echoing with every step. They were about to die. “Please help! They’re going to kill us! Let us through!” She pulled out the necklace from Jones that she had tucked in her fleece and squeezed it tight as it may be the last thing she ever holds. At least she tried.

Suddenly, the mirror disappeared. Their eyes sealed shut. They screamed. They had died, hadn’t they? Then, it was quiet.

“Iis, open your eyes,” came Tross’s voice. It was calm. She was surely dead. She opened her eyes to reveal a circular room filled with several people she didn’t know. Aside from Tross, only one stood out as familiar: The Fox. They watched her, waiting for her to speak. She opened her mouth. She struggled to produce words before they finally flowed from her sore throat.

“Oh boy. This is heaven, isn’t it?”