Nerv suddenly switched on the room’s lights, flooding the place with a harsh brightness that dragged everyone from their sleep.
She said loudly,
“There’s a big problem.”
White slowly opened her eyes and raised a hand to shield them from the light, then muttered irritably,
“What is it?
And who turned on the lights?
I want to sleep.”
Nerv approached her and said,
“White, come on, wake up.
There’s a problem.”
White turned back toward her pillow and closed her eyes again.
“Okay, okay…
I’m coming.”
Clark raised his voice.
“Everyone, wake up!”
Ben jolted where he lay and snapped irritably,
“What the hell is wrong with you, idiot?
What’s with that voice?
I was having a beautiful dream, and now even the details of that door are starting to fade from my mind!”
Clark paid no attention to him and said seriously,
“Mario is missing.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Clark continued,
“He went into the sewer system beneath the city and still hasn’t come back.
We have to find him before Max wakes up…
or before his wife finds out what happened.”
Ben covered his face with one hand and let out a heavy sigh.
“Not again…
man, not again.
Why does this always have to happen to us?”
Clark was already getting dressed, while Nerv stood beside him and said,
“Come on, guys.
We don’t have time.”
Then she turned toward Guanda.
“Guanda, get dressed.”
She added as she looked at Ben and White,
“You two as well.
Come on.”
Everyone got dressed and prepared to leave, then left the house together.
After they had put some distance between themselves and the house, Guanda spoke.
“I have no doubt he found the gate and went through it.”
Ben looked at her.
“Damn…
we’re really going into that damned place again.
It was beautiful, yeah, but what Clark said made it even stranger.”
They continued on their way, and a few minutes later they reached the area beneath the city, where the sewers and tunnels stretched beneath the streets.
White stopped for a moment and looked up at the sky.
“The sun hasn’t even risen yet, it’s cold, and the rain has eased up a little…
This is very comforting.”
Everyone took out their phones and switched on their flashlights, then approached the entrance to the sewer system.
The darkness inside was thick, and their phone lights revealed only a few meters ahead.
They entered one by one, and soon the tunnel swallowed them once more.
This time, they knew exactly what they were looking for.
The Fallen Gate.
Clark took a few steps forward, then suddenly stopped.
The door was open.
Everyone stared at it in silence as a faint light seeped from beyond it, mingling with an unnatural chill that made the place feel even more tense.
Clark kept staring into the darkness for several moments before saying, his voice heavy with sorrow,
“He really went inside…”
He turned toward Nerv and added,
“Looks like your dream may actually have come true.”
Ben, Guanda, and White furrowed their brows in confusion.
Ben asked,
“What dream?”
Nerv answered quietly,
“I dreamed that a huge black entity swallowed Mario…
after he entered the Fallen Gate.”
Everyone’s eyes widened.
No one said a word for several moments.
Then Ben took a step back and said quickly,
“Okay…
let’s get out of here.
I hope Mario’s okay, but we don’t have to die with him.”
Ben turned toward the way they had come, but Clark didn’t move.
Instead, he took another step toward the door.
Ben stared at him in disbelief.
“Clark, what are you doing?”
Clark placed one foot inside the doorway and answered without looking back,
“We need to make sure.”
He fell silent for a moment, then continued,
“Nerv’s dream might have been nothing more than a dream…
and Mario might still be alive.”
“But we won’t know the truth if we leave now.”
They exchanged glances.
Then Clark stepped inside.
They had only two choices: follow him…
or leave him behind.
Everyone entered the mysterious room, where the large bed and strange paintings hung from the ceiling, while the Lobby door stood completely closed.
Directly ahead of them was another door they had never noticed before.
Above it was the number 1, clearly visible in gold, with a single word beside it:
“Chaos.”
Unlike the number, the word did not glow.
Instead, it looked as though it had been carved into the surface of the door in some strange manner.
Clark stared at it for several moments, and beyond it lay a strange corridor with no wall on its left side.
Its floor was covered in smooth, white ceramic tiles, unnaturally clean, as though they neither absorbed nor retained heat.
In the middle of the space stretched a colossal abyss, pitch-black and bottomless, separating the two sides of the corridor.
On the opposite side of the abyss was another corridor, perfectly identical to the first.
The apartments were arranged in the same way, but without doors, while the walls on the right and the flooring followed the exact same design.
Clark made his decision and moved toward the corridor without hesitation.
Ben looked at him in confusion, then gave a mocking smile.
“Why do I feel like Clark suddenly found a whole lot of courage he never had before?”
Clark didn’t answer.
He simply kept walking.
Everyone followed one after another until they reached the edge of the abyss.
Ben stopped and looked down.
He saw nothing.
There was no bottom, no light, not even a reflection that could give any indication of how deep it was.
Just absolute darkness stretching somewhere beyond the reach of sight.
A shiver ran through Ben’s body.
He took a step back and whispered,
“I wonder…
what’s down there?”
His eyes remained fixed on the darkness.
For a moment, he felt as though the darkness below wasn’t completely empty…
Clark pointed toward the other side of the corridor.
“Stay as far to the right as possible, beside the apartments.
Don’t go near the abyss.”
Everyone moved closer to him as Clark began walking with complete composure, showing no signs of fear.
He carefully examined the area around him, as though curiosity had overtaken his fear of the place, and thought to himself:
“[I’ve always dreamed of strange things existing in this world…
and now I’m seeing them with my own eyes.]”
He passed one of the apartments, then reached out and touched the wall made of white ceramic.
He knocked lightly against it.
Tap…
tap…
tap…
But the sound did not fade as he had expected.
Instead, it spread through the wall in a strange way, like successive pulses traveling through the structure of the place.
Clark furrowed his brows.
“Hmm…
strange.”
Suddenly, Guanda’s foot struck something on the floor.
She looked down.
It was a metal screwdriver.
“Ah!”
The screwdriver rolled away, then fell directly into the abyss.
Everyone waited for the sound of it striking the bottom.
Nothing.
Guanda froze in place, while Ben stared into the abyss and said,
“Those were Mario’s tools…”
No one answered.
At that moment, Clark felt a faint movement in the wall beside him.
He stopped abruptly.
His expression changed, then he said aloud,
“Everyone…
stay calm.”
They turned toward him.
He didn’t explain anything.
Instead, he quickly pointed toward one of the open apartments.
“I can’t explain right now, but get inside.
Quickly.”
No one asked why.
They all rushed into the apartment while Clark stayed behind for one final moment, watching the corridor and the abyss.
Clark noticed something strange at the bottom of the abyss.
For an instant, it seemed to him that something had moved within that endless void.
He didn’t hesitate.
He quickly retreated, then returned to the room and motioned for everyone to remain silent before they settled into one of its corners, where two spaces seemed to overlap, as though two rooms had been merged into one, connected by more doors and exits than a single room should have had.
Nerv looked at him in confusion, then whispered,
“What’s wrong?”
Clark moved slightly closer to her and spoke in a low voice.
“Did you feel the vibration?”
Nerv shook her head, not understanding.
Clark continued, staring toward the abyss.
“The abyss isn’t just an endless void…”
He fell silent for a moment, then placed his hand against the wall.
“There’s something down there…
something massive enough that its movement reaches all the way here.”
He sighed, then reached toward the white ceramic wall.
“Put your hand on the wall.”
Nerv hesitated, but did as he asked.
Clark closed his eyes and said,
“You’ll notice that the sound travels through it in a strange way…
as though the wall itself is carrying the vibration.”
Nerv remained still, watching the wall beneath her hand.
Then she felt it.
A faint vibration.
It wasn’t strong enough to be seen, but it was unmistakable beneath her fingertips.
Clark whispered,
“That’s how I knew.”
“The wall isn’t shaking on its own…”
He fell silent for a moment.
Then he said, looking toward the far end of the apartment,
“Something…
is moving down there in the abyss.”