“To whomever it may concern;
I am writing this letter in the hopes that it will be able to shed some light on my regrettable involvement in the death of my colleague, Dr. Franklin Robert. In order for you to understand my reasons for doing this, it is imperative that you comprehend the sequence of events that led up to this incident. So, let’s start from the beginning.
This all began almost three years ago, when I was approached by Franklin with a proposal to work on a project regarding wormhole generation. Ever since empirical evidence proving the existence of wormholes was found, it led to a paradigm shift in the scientific world. After this a lot of things changed. New theories were formed and many old theories were discarded as they were disproved. After many experiments and observations, it was theorized that the wormhole led to a different place but the location remained unconfirmed. But the space probes sent through the wormhole, that was nearest to our planet, had picked up a radioactive signature that had never been seen before. Some speculations were made that this wormhole led to a distant part of the universe, possibly outside the observable universe. This was considered a breakthrough in the field of science as traveling through a wormhole could make space travel faster, which in turn could allow us to expedite our research on the universe.
What Franklin wanted to do was, basically, take the knowledge that we had accumulated over the course of a few years, regarding the workings of wormholes, and use it to create the machinations of interdimensional traveling. I knew him for many years and was familiar with his extreme fascination with other dimensions and spatial manipulation. So I was not surprised by his idea because I was sure that he had made all sorts of calculations and arrived at the conclusion that it was possible before even proposing this idea to me.
Thus we began working on this project. Even though we had the plans for the machine already prepared, assembling it was still a difficult task, as it required a lot of complex procedures. We were still unsure of what could be used as the fuel that would be able to power a portal to, possibly another dimension. We were operating on the assumption that we wouldn’t have a lot of fuel to conduct many experiments, due to which we were trying to be as precise as we could.
Finally, after three years of non-stop work, we successfully finished building the machine. We decided to name our creation the “Quantum Gateway Generator”, or the “Gateway” in short. The next step was to activate it and send a space probe to collect data, in order to figure out what was on the order. Only then, could we think of sending a person through it. So we began preparations for sending a man-made device to transverse through an interdimensional portal for the first time ever, completely unaware that it would be the beginning of everything crumbling to pieces.
A few days later we were ready to launch the space probe. We initiated the activation sequence for the Gateway. At the start, it was looking good. The portal was stable and all readings were normal. Everything was precisely how we had envisioned it. But as soon as we let our guard down to celebrate a tiniest bit, the readings on the monitors suddenly started fluctuating wildly. Sparks of electricity scattered through the room, leaving destruction in its path. In a frenzy, the engineers and scientists started quickly moving out of the room. The machine was beginning to overload and I knew that it had to be shut down. I turned to Franklin in the hopes that he would assist me in turning it off. But I saw that he that he didn’t meet my eyes as he was looking straight at the portal, with a determination in his eyes, as if he didn’t want to turn it off, as if he wanted to keep it going. I knew that if this portal were to keep on going like this, it would cause more damage than we could even fathom. Realizing that Franklin won't be aiding me, I ran towards the main supply of power, in the hopes of shutting it down myself. The power supply was not very close to the machine itself but I was still in proximity of the electrical discharge coming from it. Watching out from the falling debris, I reached the main power controls and began activating the shut down sequence. Just before I could completely turn it off, I felt a powerful pull towards the machine. The Gateway had generated a strong gravitational force, sucking in everything near it. With much difficulty, I was able to complete the shut down, but the gravitational pull had gotten too strong and, unable to hold on any longer, I was sucked in. I don’t remember what happened after that because I was hit on the head by a piece of debris and got knocked out.
I woke up with a sharp pain to my head. It took me a while to get a clear bearing of my surrounding area. I looked around and saw a vast open area with a deep black sky with a white light dimly illuminating the path. Having no clue as to where I was, I started moving in the direction of the light. As I trudged along the path, I noticed that the ground was almost covered in a slimy black mire. Unable to identify what it was, I dismissed it from my mind and continued to move along my path. I had been walking for about fifteen minutes, and had yet to come across anyone or anything. Just a dark empty expanse, as fast as the eye could see. In this abyss of nothingness, I was feeling curious, yes, but also scared. And my ominous sense of foreboding rang true when I saw the first thing that I came across ever since coming to this place; a pile of bones.
I tried to identify as to what creature could this skeleton belong to, but I had never seen it before. Its head resembled an avian, while its body had the shape of a mammal. Ict was quite large, possibly larger than an elephant. As I moved along, I saw more skeletons. Some were similar to the one before and some were different, and they came in varying sizes, ranging from a chicken to the blue whale or maybe bigger. My unease was growing by the moment because I had no clue if these giant creatures had died a natural death, or if they had a predator roaming around that was bigger than them. And I was not willing to wait and find out. So I quickened my pace moving faster towards the light, with the hope that I might find a way to go back after reaching my destination. After running for a while, I slowed down to catch a breath and to organize my thoughts. I had yet to come across anything living yet, and all I had found were skeletons so that could mean one of things, either there was a predatory life form that had eaten these creatures. Or these organisms had died from natural causes over time and now all life was dead in this space. I decided that it was impossible to confirm any of these things at the moment and that it was in my best interest to keep on moving for now and deal with any situation as I go.
According to my mental clock, it must’ve been about 4 hours since I had been walking non-stop. My body was tired but I didn’t want to stop. The situation demanded that I keep on going. After some time had passed, I saw a change in the landscape. In the distance, there appeared to be what looked like a small hill. While moving forward, I noticed that the black gooey liquid that I was walking on till now had gotten slightly thicker and risen up to my ankles, making it harder to walk. Soon, it had risen to my abdomen, and a sense of panic came upon me for fear of being completely submerged. But seeing that I was nearing the hill, I let out a sigh of relief. It was only after getting close enough to it, did my relief turn into pure terror after realizing that what I once thought was a hill, was actually an enormous pile of corpses of strange creatures. And atop it stood a solitary entity.
With its eyes closed, it had a face similar to that of a fish while the body resembled a human but was about three times my size. As I kept staring at the being, suddenly it opened its eyes and sharply glanced in my direction. At that moment, I felt the blood drain from my body. Its piercing gaze welled up a feeling of terror from within me that I had never felt before. My legs started moving on their own and the next thing I knew, I was running as fast as I could, trying to go even faster just so that I could get away from that horrifying presence. Even though the level of the black liquid had gone back down to normal again and the mountain of corpses had disappeared into the horizon, I kept on running. Hours went by and my pace started to dwindle before I finally collapsed on the ground due to exhaustion. Whether it was the physical weariness of running for hours or the mental fatigue due to fear and anxiety that I faced in that moment, it all culminated into my body unwilling to move anymore and I passed out.
I woke up in a daze. My body was hurting and it took me a second to gather my thoughts. As I laid there, I remembered why I was there, and what had happened till now. I don’t know how long I was asleep for, and frankly, I didn’t care. I was thirsty, hungry, tired and most of all, I was angry. Angry at Franklin. Because if he had shut the Gateway down sooner, then I wouldn’t be stuck here in this bizarre place, where danger was lurking at every corner. I started to punch the ground and stomp on the gooey liquid as hard as my body allowed me. It was sort of to allow me to let off some steam. After I was done throwing a tantrum, I took a few deep breaths and decided to continue moving towards my destination. I looked on in the direction of the light and marched on towards it.
As I slowly continued my journey, I started making mental notes regarding this place. This place was entirely covered with this black sticky substance of unknown nature. I had no trouble breathing here which means it had atmospheric properties, similar to that of earth. There were lifeforms there that I have never seen in our dimension. The good thing was that they were mostly dead. The bad news, some of them were alive. And if they could kill those big creatures, then I hoped that I wouldn’t run into them again. The face of that creature flashed through my mind and I held my hands together to stop them from trembling. I tried to put that thought in the back of my head and proceed onwards. As I was moving, I noticed that there were more carcasses and bones near the path and they were increasing. It felt like an ill-omen of sorts which made me rethink going further. But in this sea of blackness where everything looked the same, that light was the only thing different. And I knew that I had no option besides going there, otherwise I would remain stranded in uncharted territory and die. Rekindling my resolve to survive and go back home, I decided to continue moving forward, unbeknownst of the danger that would soon befall me.
A couple of hours had passed and I seemed to be getting closer to the light. The more I got closer, the more brighter it got, to the point where it was getting difficult to keep my eyes open. Struggling to see, I eventually made it to the source of the light. And what I saw there left me stunned. A gigantic creature was curled up in a ball, atop an altar and the white light was exuding from its body. It had claw-like hands and the body of a giant snake with a pair of small wings attached to its body. With its eyes closed, I suppose it laid in a deep slumber, due to which I remained unnoticed. I looked around and saw nothing of much importance. Realizing that was a dead end, I became extremely disheartened. All the time and energy spent had been wasted with nothing to show for. While I was wallowing in self-pity, a single thought crossed through my mind. While I was feeling frustrated and angry, a being that looked terrifyingly dangerous, was soundly sleeping near me. Although I didn’t know whether it would be hostile or not, I was sure of one thing; I needed to get far away from this thing. I didn’t know when it would wake up and I didn’t want to be in its vicinity when it did. As soon as I made the decision to move on from this place, all of a sudden, I felt an incredible chill down my back. Slowly, I turned around and was met with a sight that left me petrified to my very soul.
Two gigantic monstrosities were towering over me. One was a massive blob of yellow eyes with small tentacles protruding out of its body. The other one was an enormous being that had a strange humanoid-like body with scales on its body and big tentacles as well as large wings. Both the entities were bizarre but incredibly terrifying. As I glanced at them, I felt a profound fear welling up within me. My body gave in to immense pressure that I was feeling while standing in front of those monstrous beings, and I fell to my knees. My breathing became staggered and I was gasping for air. My eyes began tearing up uncontrollably. Those monsters just kept their piercing gazes on me, as if they could see through my soul. As I sat on the ground waiting for my inevitable demise, suddenly, I saw a flash of light that blinded me completely and I fell unconscious.
As I lay submerged in the sea of my subconscious, I saw nothing but darkness. I couldn’t move my body nor could I feel anything. I remember thinking to myself that this might be what the afterlife looks like: cold and lonely, just aimlessly floating away. In a flash of light, I started seeing these weird visions. Monsters, like the two I saw in the other dimension, but substantially more in numbers and size, were bursting through a massive tear in space, and wreaking havoc on Earth. I saw tiny glimpses of these life forms beginning colonization on Earth and extending it to other planets, before engulfing our entire universe.
I woke up with a jolt and found myself back in my world, right outside the collapsed research building. I had a hard time believing I was back from that desolate place. I checked my body and only felt some bruises here and there. I quickly got up and started searching for anybody in the area. A minute later, I encountered some paramedics and firefighters who were stationed there. They were surprised to see me and quickly took me to the hospital. Later, I found out that it had only been nine hours since the accident, and that due to the machine being turned off quickly, the damage from the explosion was only limited to the research lab. I was confused about a lot of things and decided to go meet Franklin after leaving the hospital. From what I gathered, I was considered still stuck under the debris, so I expected him to be surprised and happy to see me alive and well. But what he said to me was something I never anticipated. He told me that it was my fault that the explosion happened and how I ruined the experiment. And if I hadn’t been such a coward, then the machine would’ve eventually stabilized on its own and the Gateway would’ve worked. This made my blood boil. Instead of thanking me for causing less of a damage than it could’ve done, he was blaming me. I wanted to punch him across his face right then but I contained my anger and furiously stomped out of his office.
That night as I laid in my bed, I had the same dream, where those grotesque monsters were invading our universe. I woke up with a start, sweating profusely and my heart thumping out of my chest. I tried to calm myself down but to no avail. The same thing happened the next night. And the next one. And the one after that. Every single time, I had the same dream and then woke up feeling the same trembling fear that I felt that day. It got so bad, to the point where I spent most of my nights unable to sleep.
A few weeks passed like this, when one day I heard rumors that Franklin was starting up the project again. I immediately went to confront him about it. After meeting with him, he confirmed the rumors. He told me that since the machine wasn’t completely destroyed and was fixable, he would start working on it in a few weeks and then restart the experimentations soon after. And also told me that this time I will not be a part of it, considering I ruined the last experiment. I explained to him about my experience in the other dimension. The horrifying monsters, the bizarre world, the vision I keep seeing in my dreams, everything. As I was telling him, I started shaking and sweating, as if I was reliving the terror I felt at that time. And the only response I got back from him, after recounting the bone chilling events I went through, was a scoff, before being told that I was being delusional from being hit on the head. After saying this, he motioned me towards the door, before continuing to go about his work.
After leaving his office, instead of going home, I continued to wander the streets. I was feeling quite upset with the whole situation. The fact that a person that I considered my friend of many years would treat me in this manner, as if I was a disposable pawn. Even after the past three years we spent working together to bring the Gateway to completion. And the fact that he didn’t heed my warning of an imminent invasion and instead mocked it, this left me fuming. I knew that I had to do something to stop him from building that portal. If he were to successfully sustain the Gateway, it could lead to those grotesque monsters from attacking our planet. That’s when I decided to head back to his office. But this time, it wasn't to talk.
I opened the door to his office and saw him sitting at his desk. He didn’t even look up to acknowledge me and kept on with his work. A few seconds went by and none of us spoke a word. Then, he looked up to me with an inquiring expression. I told him that this project was a bad idea and that it would bring about the destruction of the world. He stood up and chuckled, saying that I was jealous and that I was trying to spin a web of lies in order to impede his success. That was when I realized that his ego would never allow him to stop and consider the dangers that I was presenting to him. He was too prideful and his pride would never let him think straight. That’s when I knew that I had to be the one to stop him. I picked up a letter opener that was sitting on his desk, and with his back turned to me, I quickly stabbed him. Blood started pouring out of the wound and he slowly fell to the ground. As he laid there, he gave me one final look before being embraced by death. I stood over his body and as I saw the light leave his eyes I only felt pity for him. Because he got what he deserved after succumbing to his greed and pride.
After destroying all the research material for the Gateway, I left his body there, and set out for the research lab. After reaching there, I showed my ID card to the security stationed near the demolished building and entered the ruined structure. After reaching the broken down machine, I began further destroying it with some pieces of debris that were on the ground, until it was completely wrecked. After I was finished decimating it, I returned back home.
After I had discarded all the research material that I had, I started thinking back on the events that had occurred. The realization that I had killed someone finally began to dawn on me. Even though I felt guilty, I knew that I had to do it. This was needed in order to protect the world and all the people living in it. Apart from him and I, there was no one so deeply involved in this project. There were some engineers and assistant scientists that worked on the machine, but nobody knew the math behind it. So apart from us, there was no one else who could carry on this project. And now my job is done. I know that for as long as I live I will be haunted by the images and memories of that place and those horrendous monsters. And every time I see those visions and remember those entities, I feel like I lose a little grip on my sanity. Now that I know that there are beings as terrifying as those out there, I will never be the same again. So that is why I have decided to end my life now.
I am leaving this letter hoping that whoever reads this will understand why I did what I did and also spread my story, so that everybody understands about the imminent danger and that no one else tries to open the gates of hell and turn my visions into a reality.”
After reading this note left by Dr. John Walton, Detective Jonathan Graves took a few seconds to digest all the information he had learned. Jonathan was the lead investigator on the murder of Doctor Franklin Robert. After investigating the crime scene and watching the security footage from Franklin’s office, he had concluded that John was the prime suspect. And the next day, John was found dead in his room; suicide by cyanide poisoning. So the case was considered close. But the detective inside Jonathan felt that there was more to this story. And after reading this note that he found in John’s house, he was half convinced that there may be some truth to his story. But he then got a call from his subordinate who had done a background check on him. After he was done talking, he lit a cigarette, sunk back into his chair, closed his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. He recalled in his mind what his subordinate had just told him.
“Sir, I did a background check and everything checked out. I also looked into his medical history, and I learned that John had recently developed a psychiatric disorder and was getting treatment for it. The side effects of the pills he was taking included hallucinations, delusions and mania.”
