The Open Gate

Chapter 14: Day 8 - The The Difference

The most awaited day had finally arrived.

Day 8 on Twin 1 Island began early in the morning as everyone woke up with excitement and nervousness. Rickey quickly gathered his friends outside the hut and suddenly began showing attack moves using his axe. His swings were fast, sharp, and surprisingly accurate.

Everyone stared at him in shock.

“When did you learn all this?” Alex asked.

“Yesterday night,” Rickey replied calmly. “I didn’t sleep. I was training.”

The others looked at him silently. Rickey was changing more and more every day.

Soon, everyone quickly got ready and finished breakfast. Henry and Tracy were surprised seeing how serious and fast the children were acting.

The four boys secretly carried the ancient hammer beneath their bags along with the tools before heading toward the buried gate in the middle of the island.

As they reached the underground opening, Rickey looked seriously at Julie, Stacy, and Samhitha.

“You may not believe this,” he said quietly, “but everything is real. Stay together no matter what happens.”

Julie remained shocked, still struggling to believe everything, while Stacy and Samhitha looked completely confused.

Rickey then stretched his hand toward them.

“Welcome to the group… The Gate Seekers.”

“What does that even mean?” Stacy asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Rickey replied. “Just trust us for now.”

One by one, everyone joined their hands together.

Finally, the four boys carefully crawled into the gate because the gravity inside was horizontal. Julie, Stacy, and Samhitha widened their eyes in shock after seeing the boys standing sideways inside the wall.

The girls slowly entered too.

The moment they looked behind, Samhitha panicked.

“There’s no door!”

“It’s an illusion,” Rockey explained calmly. “You only see a wall, but the gate is still there.”

They marked the wall carefully and continued forward.

Soon, they entered the endless structure filled with rooms and locked doors. Using their tools, they began breaking each door one by one while also searching the rooms carefully.

Hours passed.

Everyone slowly became exhausted until they finally reached the last door. It was much larger and stronger than the others.

Rickey stepped forward holding the axe tightly.

With one powerful strike—

CRACK!

The door was destroyed.

It was night.

The streets outside were completely silent, and there was nobody anywhere on the roads.

The building they exited looked exactly like the building from the first strange world they had visited earlier.

Then suddenly, Vickey checked his watch.

“It’s 00:00 a.m…"

Everyone froze. One full day had already been completed in that strange world.

They had entered the gate at 11:00 a.m.

Confused and frightened, the group immediately rushed back through the rooms and returned to their own world. The moment they arrived, they checked Henry’s watch.

Only a few hours had passed.

Nobody understood anything.

Finally, Alex slowly looked at everyone and said,

“I think one full day in that world… is only a few hours in our world.”

Everyone stared at him with wide-open eyes in complete shock.