Rain Drops

Chapter 9

I told myself that I needed some space and left him on his own, but I never imagined that I would run into him in the forest. I had gone out looking for food to give to him because I knew that he had not eaten properly since the day before yesterday, and when I spotted him eating berries, I couldn't bring myself to stay away anymore. But then... He was crying. Why were his tears falling down onto that beautiful piece of fruit as though he was afraid of hurting himself? I felt so heartbroken watching him cry... I wish he wouldn't cry. I wished I could do anything to change his current state of mind. If he had simply given me a few minutes of his attention instead of ignoring me, then I could've possibly managed to stop him from hurting himself. However, he refused to talk to me after what had happened. All he ever did was stare at the ground while clenching and unclenching his fists every few seconds. When I saw the look of hatred in his eyes, I couldn't bear to watch any longer. Therefore, I decided to try to make him talk. Although, he wouldn't budge. Instead he just sat there silently, allowing the rain to hit his face. I was so sad that I couldn't bear to sit next to him either. It was then that I remembered the letter that he'd written me. So, I made sure that I didn't forget to retrieve it and wrote a reply to him. After reading what he said, my eyes began to tear up, because I felt extremely guilty. Forcing my body into motion despite the pain that ran throughout my entire body, I ran in the direction of his apartment. The sight inside the apartment shocked me immensely. My brother had just killed a man. The same one who kidn*pped my sister years ago. And to make things worse, my brother was acting as though he didn't feel a thing about it as if it weren't affecting him at all. That's when I finally snapped and stormed out. I spent the rest of the evening wandering around in agony, trying to process what was happening. I thought about my sister, how she would feel, wondering how it must feel to witness someone you care about commit such a horrible act in order to survive. The only comfort I found was in the fact that I could still hear her screams echoing inside of my head for as long as I live. I still cannot believe what has happened. How many times has he killed somebody?! And why does it seem like nothing has affected him whatsoever...? How am I supposed to tell mom and dad what happened if I don't even know for sure what has happened? Will they blame him? What if they hate me because of what had happened!? What will happen to me then?! Am I going to die...? Please God, just make it end quickly. The memory suddenly disappeared, leaving me completely confused. I tried searching for it for a while, hoping that maybe I'd find it again somewhere else, but it simply vanished. Confused, I slowly raised my head, feeling slightly nauseous and dizzy. I attempted getting up, but my legs felt unusually weak, as though my limbs had turned to jelly. As soon as I regained consciousness, I glanced around for someone else to see if anyone was there. Surprisingly, I didn't recognize this place. All I could see were tall stone walls surrounding me on all sides with no openings whatsoever. My surroundings were dark as pitch. The only thing that I could distinguish in the darkness was the faint outline of a door near my right hand. It appeared to be made of some kind of metal or steel. I slowly approached it to examine it, but when I got close enough to touch it, I realized that it wasn't merely a door; it was a portal. The idea of traveling through this portal sounded quite interesting and intriguing; however, I also knew that it would likely cause me great pain. In addition to the pain that I would experience from traveling across dimensions, I would feel nauseated and disoriented due to the intense sensation of vertigo I would undoubtedly experience upon stepping into this dimension. It would be the same reason that would prevent me from moving around while I would be in this world. Perhaps something would happen during this trip so that I would fall unconscious. After pondering over what had just happened, I cautiously moved a step closer to the door so that I could grab it with both hands if necessary. This was the only reason why I hadn't already grabbed hold of it, because I wanted to avoid having to move as much. Once I had reached a distance away from the door that allowed me to be able to reach its handle, I began examining the mechanism for any clues that could help me figure out what to do next. To my utter surprise, there wasn't anything obvious that could help me. After spending several minutes trying to figure out how to open the portal, I was about to give up when I noticed two small indentations underneath each other located above it. They looked almost identical in size and shape, so I assumed that they might be keyholes. I carefully placed my hands beside those holes, but I couldn't see anything different besides the faint outline of the indentations underneath them. Not wanting to risk using my powers in case I accidentally damaged the portal, I carefully maneuvered my arms around it and positioned them just above where the indentations were located. Then I pushed upwards and used my super strength, forcing the door to move slightly in front of me. Just to make absolutely sure that I hadn't misjudged what the hole was for, I repeated the same maneuver three times and then removed my hands. However, after being unsuccessful each time, I decided to try pressing one of the depressions again, but still, I received nothing except an annoying sound of creaking, which sounded like a wooden door, when opened. I tried opening the door from both directions and again, failed to see any difference between each side. Either this portal was designed to work with only a certain number of people entering, or there was a secret door hidden inside. However, there was nothing else that I could discover. Feeling frustrated, I closed my eyes and waited for whatever mysterious force might guide me. Within a few minutes a voice spoke to me, making me jump and immediately regret my decision. You may want to open your eyes now.