Clark picked up his phone, which he had left outside.
The moment he glanced at the screen, his pupils widened, and an involuntary smile spread across his face.
Several minutes later, everyone arrived at Clark’s house.
White stopped for a moment and raised her eyes toward the sky before saying in astonishment:
“Strange…
It hasn’t become night here, even though it was already night when we left that place.”
Ben looked up at the sky, then said:
“Yes, that’s true…
It seems time was moving at a different pace there than it does in our world.”
No one found anything to say in response.
Clark stepped toward the door and knocked.
A few moments later, Max opened it, but the moment he saw the group of friends, his expression froze in clear surprise.
“Huh?!
You only just left…
What happened?
Why are you back so soon?”
They exchanged glances.
Before any of them could answer, Clark quickly said:
“Ah…
The restaurant owner called us.
Ben’s friend told him the restaurant is closed today because of some maintenance work.”
Ben froze in place.
His eyes widened, and he stared at Clark for several moments, as though his mind could not process what he had just heard.
Max turned toward him and asked:
“What’s wrong, Ben?
Did something happen?”
Guanda hurriedly stepped in and said with a nervous smile:
“No, nothing.
Everything’s fine.”
Then she looked at Max and added:
“Can we come inside?”
Max continued staring at them in confusion for a few seconds before stepping aside and letting them pass.
Everyone entered in silence, while Ben remained fixed on Clark.
One question kept pounding relentlessly through his mind:
How much time had actually passed since they entered that place?
Mario noticed everyone and smiled, waving a hand in greeting.
White and Guanda smiled and waved back, while Nerv stood beside Max, trying to calm Ben, who still seemed unable to comprehend what had happened.
Everyone went upstairs, then closed the door behind them.
Ben remained standing in the middle of the room for a few moments before he began pacing back and forth, running a hand through his hair several times.
“No…
No, this is too much.”
He suddenly stopped and looked at everyone.
“I have so many questions.
I want to know the truth.
I’m not sleeping tonight until I find out why that damn door exists!”
He gestured toward the floor below, then continued, his voice rising with agitation:
“We saw a room that shouldn’t even exist, doors leading to other places, paintings depicting entities we can’t even begin to understand…”
He drew a deep breath, then said:
“How the hell can that door do all of this as if it were perfectly normal?!”
Silence fell for a few moments.
The question sounded simple on the surface, but it left behind an idea none of them wanted to approach.
If time inside that place truly moved differently from the time in their world…
then how long had they actually been there?
Clark looked at his friends in silence.
For the first time, none of them were certain that they had returned to their world at the exact moment they had left it.
Suddenly, Clark said:
“Wait…”
Everyone turned toward him.
He pulled out his phone and studied the screen for a few moments before saying:
“I figured it out.”
Ben furrowed his brows.
“Figured what out?”
Clark answered:
“How long we spent inside the Fallen Gate.”
Silence fell.
Clark continued, raising his phone:
“I left my phone outside the door before we went in and kept the time recording.”
He looked at the screen again, then said:
“By the time of our world…
we were only in there for 0.1 seconds.”
Guanda’s eyes widened.
“Impossible…
The best comparison I can think of is that we were on another planet…
or even in another galaxy.”
Clark slowly shook his head and said quietly:
“No.”
Then he continued:
“Another universe.”
He raised his eyes toward them, then said:
“We saw the extent of that world…
and there was no end to it.
When we were flying there, I kept looking around, searching for some kind of boundary, anything that would prove the place had an edge…
but I saw nothing.”
He fell silent for a moment, then added:
“At first, I thought it was just a planet or some distant place in the universe, but it goes far beyond that.”
He held his phone up before them and said:
“And the proof is that the phone never stopped recording the time.
When we came back out, less than a tenth of a second had passed.”
No one spoke as the images they had witnessed came rushing back into their minds.
They had spent enough time inside the corridor to walk around, look through the place, and talk among themselves…
And yet, only 0.1 seconds had passed in their world.
Nerv spoke while still staring at the closed bedroom door, which reminded her of the Fallen Gate:
“The fact that this world defied the laws of physics we know, laws that govern our entire universe, is enough to conclude that it truly was another universe.”
Clark slowly nodded as a bead of sweat slid down his forehead, then said:
“Exactly…”
He fell silent for a moment before continuing:
“And that’s the terrifying part.
We still don’t know why that gate exists, or who made it.”
He raised a hand to his head, then said softly:
“As for that strange message written on the door…”
He paused for a moment.
“I don’t know why, but I remember it word for word.
It’s etched into my mind as though I’ve read it thousands of times.”
Suddenly…
Everyone spoke at the exact same moment.
In a single voice, quiet and slightly different from their usual voices:
“Your attempt to protect your world from the darkness has begun.”
Everyone froze.
Their eyes met in silence.
None of them understood why they had said that sentence…
Or where it had come from.
Guanda suddenly clapped her hands, trying to break the silence:
“All right, all right!
It’s not like anything happened today.”
She glanced at their filthy clothes, then added:
“Today was supposed to be our fun night out, remember?
And now, come on, guys, get out of the room and go take a shower.
We’re changing too after all that mud.”
Then she smiled, as though trying to convince herself before convincing them:
“And we’ll forget what happened…
as if none of it happened today.”
Clark went into the bathroom for a quick shower, while Ben stood in the other room, getting his clothes ready so he could shower after Clark and waiting for him to come out.
His hand kept moving nervously, as though the adrenaline that had surged through his body moments earlier had not completely faded.
Downstairs, Max and Mario were preparing macaroni and cheese together.
The atmosphere between them had settled somewhat, though a trace of their old tension still lingered.
Meanwhile, the girls were changing their clothes in the room after their long journey through the sewer tunnels, along with all the foul smells, dampness, and rats that had come with it.
Under the shower, Clark stood silently while his thoughts continued circling around everything they had seen inside the gate.
He closed his eyes for a few moments, then whispered:
“I’ve always dreamed of having control…
I dreamed of living in a world that transcended this dull material reality.”
He slowly opened his eyes, then added:
“And now…
perhaps I’ve found something that transcends everything I know.”
He fell silent for a moment before remembering the words in the book.
“I need to find out who Spinoza is.”
Several minutes later, Clark stepped out of the bathroom, and Ben went in immediately after him.
Then they heard Mario’s voice from downstairs:
“Guys!
Girls!
Dinner’s ready!
Max and I made some amazing macaroni and cheese!”
Clark quickly got dressed, then headed toward the girls’ room and knocked on the door.
White opened it and said:
“I’m coming.”
White and Guanda stepped out of the room and began making their way downstairs.
But Nerv remained inside, sitting on the edge of the bed and flipping through one of Clark’s books, with some of his notes spread between her hands.
Clark stopped for a moment when he saw her, then approached and said:
“Dinner’s ready, so come on.”
Nerv raised her eyes toward him, then quietly closed the book.
Before Clark could say anything else, she suddenly leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek.
Clark froze in place, his eyes widening in utter shock.
Nerv said nothing.
She simply gave him a small smile, then walked toward the door and headed down the stairs as though nothing had happened.
Clark remained standing there for several moments, one hand resting against his cheek, his eyes still fixed on the doorway Nerv had disappeared through.
“What…
was that?”
A few moments later, he followed her downstairs.
Everyone sat in the kitchen on tall chairs arranged along both sides of the large counter, while Mario began setting plates of macaroni and cheese in front of each of them.
Clark smiled at Nerv, who returned the smile shyly before taking the seat across from him.
Mario sat beside them, while Max took the other seat.
Then Mario looked at the plates and smiled with nostalgia.
Mario looked at the plate in front of him, then smiled and said:
“Do you remember when we used to eat this during our free time?
Wasn’t it always great?”
Max laughed for a moment, then said:
“Yes, yes…
How could I forget?”
He fell silent for a moment, then looked at Mario with a smile tinged with nostalgia.
“I also remember when I was arrested over an assault case, even though I hadn’t assaulted anyone.”
Mario smiled as he listened.
Max continued:
“You were the only one who stood by me and helped me get out of that mess.”
Max lifted his plate slightly and said:
“You were a true friend, Mario.”
Mario smiled and said:
“As though I would’ve ever left you to face it alone.”
The two of them laughed, while the friends watched them in silence, enjoying for a moment the simple warmth of something that felt almost like family.
Ben came down from upstairs, and the moment he reached the lower floor, he caught the smell of the food and smiled.
“What’s going on?
And what’s that delicious smell?”
His eyes fell on the plate of macaroni and cheese on the table, and he said appreciatively:
“That looks really good.”
He pulled out a chair and sat beside his friends, then began looking at them one by one.
There was something strange in their expressions.
The five friends exchanged glances, then each began whispering a few brief words to the others.
After a few moments, they exchanged one final look and said almost simultaneously:
“I swear I’m never going back there again.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Then they continued eating, as though they had just agreed on something perfectly ordinary.
But deep down, each of them carried the same feeling, one none of them could ignore…
They would return.
Then laughter and conversation filled the room again, as though they were one strange, yet strangely wholesome family.