Portals

Thousands of glowing creatures fill the air. At first I think they are fireflies, but as I get closer I recognise little fairy-like creatures. Disgusting, with big bloated heads and bellies. Eyes huge like the one of a pug. I gulp and pause, watching these creatures as they fly around me. Once in a while they blink and a greyish liquid covers their eyes for a second, before it seems to be absorbed by their huge eyeballs. My whole body is tense, ready to sprint back at any moment. Dangerous or harmless?

For a while, I stand there, motionless. Nothing happens and as I continue my journey I encounter increasingly larger groups of disturbing-fairy fireflies.

I circle a large fir tree and hold my breath. A clearing stretches out in front of me that wasn’t there yesterday.

‘Not that those mutant fireflies were there yesterday,’ I think. The trees lie on the ground as if a giant had carelessly smashed his fist into the middle of the forest and in the midst of all this chaos stands a... well portal. It’s not the right word, but it’s the best I can come up with.

In the twilight of the evening it glows as if from another world and I can’t help but climb over the tree trunks.

‘Like a moth to a flame’, I think and despise myself for my weakness. As I nearly reach it I pause on a tree trunk. The portal looks like a piece of cloudy silk cloth fraying at the corners - and it doesn’t actually glow at all.

The light comes from these disgusting creatures, these fairy abominations cling to the fringes of the structure, sucking on it like piglets on their mother’s teats. The sound they make is barely audible, but I’m close enough for it to turn my stomach. A hum like suckling sounds, that makes the hairs in my ear vibrate and my skin tingle.

Now would be the right time to turn around and flee. Would be. I’ve never been good at running away.

‘Curiosity killed the cat,’ I think as I slide off the trunk. This close, the portal looks huge. It wasn’t this big before, was it?

I shake my head. As if a magical portal that just appears in the middle of the forest can’t grow and shrink as it pleases!

The opacity of the material the portal seems to be made of makes me feel uneasy, but I can’t help but circle it slowly. It’s opaque and I cannot see the environment behind it, nor can I look into it.

‘If it’s fabric, can I cut it?’ As soon as I have this idea in my head, I can’t let it go. I can almost hear the sound of the fabric tearing in my head. Unable to resist my curiosity, I pull the knife resting out of its leather sheath.

I take a deep breath and plunge it into the ‘fabric’. I feel as if my insides are being ripped out of me. Incoherently, my head thinks that I must have just destroyed the silky underwear of a giantess, and now she is using me as one would use dental floss, then the feeling stops and all that remains is nausea. Nausea and the distant rattling of an approaching train.

Train?

I look around in confusion, only to realise that I’m standing on a track. Horrified, I swallow. To my left - there are more tracks, same on my right. I look up and see the portal above me. It’s stuck to the ceiling of the tunnel like a shaft cover - out of reach.

The sound of the train is getting louder and a moment later I see its light coming straight towards me.

‘Left or right?’ I ask myself.

‘Does it make any difference at all?’ I answer and jump to the left. The wind from the train swirls around me. And then something hits me from behind. I feel hot metal and then pain as first my left, then my right leg is crushed and severed. For a moment my body is numb, then I scream in agony. My voice is swallowed by the sound of the monstrous train that is over me.

‘So right would have been the right answer?’ I think as the heat from the machine burns my skin. Are trains hot from below? I’m impressed with myself that I can still question the function of trains in this situation. Then it’s quiet. Left alone I lie on the rails and whimper. The pain increases with every breath I take.

I struggle desperately with my stumps, but every movement makes me see stars and sends waves of nausea through my whole body.

‘If I pass out now, I’m dead,’ I think, clinging at reality with all my might, no matter how painful it is.

There was a soft noise to my left - or was I just imagining it?

‘Hello?’ I croak. Why is my voice so hoarse? Oh yes, all that shouting. I forgot!

Nobody answers me, but I’m sure I hear the sound again. Carefully I turn my head. Very slowly, while every movement almost catapults me into a faint. Finally, I see the source of the noise. The creature, it... I scream until the darkness envelops me.