Gate of Hell – Part III
The rusty shipwreck looked like a relic forever lost in time. Algae and other kinds of microorganisms had eaten through its metallic surface and turned it soft and rotten. It was a miracle it washed ashore in this poor condition.
“W- we should return
now,” stuttered Tom, visibly fraught with horror at the sight of the massive
ghost ship that washed ashore after the storm. “It’s too dark out here and so bitterly
cold!”
“What are droning on
about? Let’s go inside and take a look!”
“Wait, what?”
Before Tom could get
another word in, Edmund rushed forwards and climbed the tilted shipwreck.
“Hold on! What are
you doing! Edmund! Get down! Get down before something bad happens!”
But Edmund didn’t
listen to a single word he said, and before Tom could make his trembling legs
listen to him and advance, the boy disappeared into the shipwreck.
Reluctantly, Tom
clenched his jaw and went after Edmund. Why was he so stubborn, he thought,
before climbing up to the barely stable deck.
“Edmund! Edmund,
where are you! Edmund!”
When no reply
returned, panic set in.
What if something
bad happened to him? Thinking of the worst possible scenarios, Tom picked up
the pace and searched every nook and cranny while calling out to his new
friend.
Seconds morphed into
minutes, and before he realised it, several hours flew by.
Left with no option
but to seek help from the grown-ups back in the market square, he made up his
mind to return to the woods, when a sudden clamour arrested him.
It came from the captain’s
cabin, which was blocked off by the mizzen and main mast, which collided and
now looked like a cross. It was impossible to reach the captain’s cabin.
There was, however,
a small gap where those two wooden poles crossed. Without a second thought, he squeezed
in through the gap and entered the cramped chamber.
It wasn’t that he
did not expect to see anything but the spectacle before him was anything but
ordinary, or something a kid like himself could conjure up in his wildest
dream.
A mighty portal
ablaze with what seemed and felt like a miniature storm within stood before him.
Taking a careful step forwards, he stretched out his hand only to retreat in
the same second.
Like a black hole,
the stormy portal sucked him in.
“E- Edmund? Edmund,
are you here? Ed—”
Through the raging storm inside the portal, a hand reached out to him and a shrill scream drowned out as soon as it reached his ears. Before he realised it, his feet moved and the portal took him with it to the abode of the damned.
Read part I HERE.
Read part II HERE.
Read part IV HERE.
