About half an hour later, White and Nerv arrived at Guanda’s house.
At that moment, Guanda was still changing clothes, while Ben remained in the living room, watching television in silence.
It was not long before a knock thundered at the door.
Ben rose and opened it, only to find White and Nerv standing there.
A broad smile spread across his face as he said warmly,
“Hey, both of you!
I haven’t seen you since our last lunch at the restaurant.”
The two sisters stepped inside, and at the same moment Guanda emerged from her room, having changed out of her university clothes and preparing to leave.
She cast a quick glance at everyone and said,
“Alright…
let’s go to Clark’s house.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and they left together, heading to Clark’s place to check on him.
About fifteen minutes later, another knock sounded at the door.
Max heard it and let out a quiet sigh before rising, leaning on his cane, and walking slowly toward the entrance.
As he approached, he muttered,
“Coming…
coming.”
He opened the door and found Ben, White, Guanda, and Nerv standing there.
Ben smiled and said,
“Grandpa Max!
How are you?”
Max smiled at once and, in a swift motion, hid his cane behind the door, then straightened himself as though trying to recover a liveliness his age no longer truly allowed.
“I’m fine, son.
Come in, come in.”
Everyone entered the house, while Max studied their faces one by one.
Then he stopped on Nerv and said,
“You’re Nerv, aren’t you?”
Nerv looked mildly surprised and asked,
“Yes, but how did you know?”
Max chuckled softly.
“Clark talks about you a lot, haha.”
A faint blush colored Nerv’s cheeks, and she lowered her gaze with a shy smile.
After a moment, she asked,
“By the way…
where’s Clark?”
Max pointed upstairs.
“He’s up there.
Still asleep.”
Ben helped the old man sit down in a chair, and Max let out a tired sigh.
“Being old is terrible…
don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.”
Ben smiled and patted his shoulder.
“You’re still young, Max.
Don’t say that about yourself.”
The two of them laughed quietly while the others exchanged quick glances.
Then Guanda said,
“So we should go up and wake him.”
Everyone agreed and moved toward the stairs, heading up to the second floor, while Max remained seated in his chair near both the kitchen and the door.
But only a few moments passed before another knock echoed through the house.
Max lifted his head in surprise, then rose and made his way slowly to the door.
As soon as he opened it, he found an elderly man with slightly dark skin standing there, wearing a calm smile.
Max’s expression froze for a single second before his surprise turned into clear irritation.
“Mario…”
Mario smiled and said in a friendly tone,
“Max!
How are you, my old friend?”
Max stared at him for a moment, then said sharply,
“You came here to cause trouble again?”
Mario laughed softly, then stepped inside and helped Max back toward his seat.
“Of course not.
I just came to visit an old friend and talk for a while.”
Max frowned.
“Do you remember 1988?
When we were in Hawaii and you threw me into the water with all your strength?
Then I got stung by a poisonous jellyfish and had to go to the hospital?”
He pointed at Mario and added,
“All of that was because of you.
So don’t make me start remembering the past.”
Mario laughed again, then walked into the kitchen as if he belonged there, took out some eggs, and began frying them in a pan.
“Relax, Max…
I didn’t come here to fight with you.
I just came so we could talk a little.”
Max looked at him suspiciously and muttered,
“I haven’t trusted that smile since 1988.”
Upstairs, everyone reached Clark’s room and entered slowly.
The room was buried in chaos.
Books were scattered across the floor, clothes lay tossed here and there, and Clark sat in the middle of his bed, silent, his eyes drifting through some distant void.
Ben moved closer, sat down in front of him, and asked gently,
“What’s wrong, Clark?
Is something bothering you?”
Clark remained silent for several moments.
Thoughts clashed inside his head in a chaotic tangle, as though he had not yet fully escaped the grip of that dream.
He tried to steady his breathing and gather himself.
The others sat on the bed across from him, and White looked at him before saying,
“Is something upsetting you?”
Ben tried to lighten the mood with a small smile.
“Just tell me if someone made you feel bad, and I’ll beat them up for you.
Don’t worry, haha.”
Guanda smiled faintly, while Nerv continued to watch Clark in silence.
Then she said softly,
“So what is it…
did you have a bad dream or something?
Heh, or what?”
Clark suddenly lifted his eyes to them.
He stayed quiet for a few seconds, as though merely speaking of what he had seen would be enough to bring the fear surging back into his chest.
“A place…”
He stopped.
Everyone waited for him to continue.
Clark swallowed hard, then went on uncertainly.
“I saw a place…
no, I don’t know…
I saw places…
countless places.”
He frowned and pressed a hand to his head, as though trying to sort out his thoughts.
“But I…
I can’t describe them.
There were too many of them, and they were all different from one another…
I feel like I was seeing them all at the same time.”
He fell silent for a moment, then said in a more shaken voice,
“I don’t know…
were they even places?
I feel like they…
weren’t places at all.”
Worry began to creep across everyone’s faces as they looked at Clark, who remained distant, as if he were still trying to understand what he had truly seen.
Ben moved closer, sat beside him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Calm down, man…
it was just a dream.”
Clark looked up at him and said in a hesitant voice,
“I…
I don’t remember everything.
Only a strange door, covered in symbols I’ve never seen before.
And behind it there were worlds…
or universes…
I don’t know how to describe them.”
He paused, as if words themselves were failing him.
“It was like surreal dreams, but nothing like anything I’ve ever seen in my life.
Everything was so strange…
so strange that I couldn’t even understand what I was looking at.”
Nerv suddenly stopped speaking.
Her eyes widened slightly, and her expression changed in a fleeting instant, as though Clark’s words had awakened something buried deep inside her that she had never wanted to stir.
Guanda, meanwhile, had grown more alert.
Clark looked at her, then gave a slow nod.
Ben rubbed Clark’s head gently and said, trying to calm him,
“Do you really believe in dreams, man?
In the end, they’re just things your subconscious makes up.”
Clark shook his head.
“But this wasn’t anything familiar…
I’ve never seen anything like it before.
Everything about it was completely new to me.”
Then he added with clear seriousness,
“I feel like my mind couldn’t have invented something like that out of nowhere.”
Guanda spoke suddenly, as though remembering something long forgotten.
“A strange door…
covered in geometric symbols.
I remember now.
I’ve actually seen something like it before.”
White turned to her with interest, but quickly noticed that Nerv was not merely listening to her.
She was staring at her with a different kind of look, as though Guanda’s words had pulled the cover off a memory that had been buried for a very long time.
White frowned and asked,
“Nerv?
What is it?”
Nerv stayed silent for a few moments, then lifted her head abruptly and said in a louder voice than usual,
“I…
know something.”
Everyone exchanged glances, while Nerv kept staring ahead as though trying to decide whether she had the strength to say what weighed on her.
After a short silence, she whispered,
“The Fallen Gate.”
Guanda frowned and asked at once,
“What is that?”
Nerv swallowed hard.
Fear was clear in her eyes as she said,
“I had a dream like Clark’s…
I saw a strange door, and I heard that name.”
She paused, then continued,
“The Fallen Gate…
a passage leading to other worlds, worlds beyond the reality known to humans.”
Ben stared at her for a moment, then stood and said with a mocking tone,
“Enough nonsense, girl.
It’s just dreams.”
Guanda did not answer.
Instead, she quickly opened her bag and took out her notebook.
She placed it in front of Ben and opened it to the page where she had drawn the door and its geometric symbols.
Ben read the notes written beneath the sketch, and his expression gradually changed.
“I know this theory…”
He lifted his eyes to Guanda, the sarcasm gone from his voice.
“It’s theoretically possible, but…
if we wanted to create something like that, we would need an enormous amount of energy.”
Guanda nodded in confirmation.
“That’s exactly what Professor Nicholas said.”
Before anyone could comment, Clark spoke in a quiet voice.
“It’s below.”
Everyone turned to him.
Clark continued, trying to recover the details of his dream.
“I remember now…
I saw the door in the network of tunnels beneath the city.
In the sewers.”
Silence fell.
The five friends exchanged glances, and for the first time they seemed to realize that what was happening might not be a chain of coincidences at all.
Ben was the first to break the silence, hesitation evident in his voice.
“You’re not saying we’re actually going down there…
are you?”
Guanda gave a small smile, while Nerv said in a low voice,
“Don’t you want to know the truth?”
Ben looked at the door, then at his friends.
After a moment, he sighed.
“Fine…
we’ll just take a look.”
And so, driven more by curiosity than courage, the five friends made their decision.
They would go into the tunnels in search of the Fallen Gate.