1 The Gate

It was finally the day, it's been a long summer of strenuous work and waiting. But Daniel finally has the chance to meet his family across the oceans, on a different continent. Though he has this slight fear in him, he has been chatting with his family for ages, and one text keeps coming to mind, Pluto's Gate. Daniel is superstitious of the stories he hears, the myths that get fed to him weekly. He decided on research, thinking the stories were fake, he quickly pulled out his laptop and got looking.

While on his research he saw many things that were intriguing and questioning, it is called the "Gate to Hell," a place of worship for people who lay their allegiance with the underworld. Deadly gasses still drift out of this portal, able to kill living creatures, notably today, birds. He saw quotes from an old Greek named Strabo, describing it: "This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground."

Days later it was time to go, Daniel packed and then they flew over. He was ecstatic to meet all the new people and test out how well he had practiced the language, "merhaba ben daniel" he said. They quickly looked at him and laughed as they spoke fluent English greeting him back. All week they traveled all around the beautiful country, the packed city of Istanbul, the beautiful capital of Ankara, and the mountainous terrain of the east. Then the day came, they were to see the ancient ruins of Hierapolis.

As soon as they arrived, there was this sudden eerie feeling, all of his research suddenly came back to his mind and he was scared. As they walked the ruins and looked around it had this strange beauty to it, the ruins and landscape. The small waterfalls that you could hear made it seem like a peaceful place, but everyone knew the evil beneath their feet. Daniels cousins would mess with him, give him jump scares and tease him saying things like, "the God of the

Underworld can smell you, he calls you to his cave." This only added to the horror of seeing dead birds and other animals laying near the actual gate that leads to the depths. He was confused as they sold these dead animals killed by what locals called "Pluto's Breath."

Suddenly all went black, he saw this long and sharp spear right next to his stomach being held by a strange man. "Who enters my realm," Daniel was shocked and scared, unable to breath or speak choking on the dense air around him. The man relaxed and looked at Daniel simply saying, "I am Pluto." Daniel scared and freaked relaxing from the stunning beauty of this seemingly underground landscape, waterfalls, griffons, phoenixes, things of legend. He walks down from the cave entrance at a long stairway down to the bustling city streets. Everywhere he looked, there were happy people and he was confused, "this was supposed to be the portal to hell, why is it beautiful." Suddenly behind him came Pluto, he burns a strange symbol in the ground, "look for this now, it will tell your destiny, as my acolyte." Suddenly the people in the beautiful city turned into crimson red demons, the waterfalls into lava flows, and the buildings into ruins. All of this at once as Pluto suddenly pierced him with his spear screaming, "GET UP! GET UP!!"

Daniel Suddenly wakes up back in his small American home, his mom shaking him, "Daniel get up, we have to go." Burning up and terrified Daniel got up and composed himself, finishing packing. As he gets dressed and looks at himself in the mirror, focusing on one thing only, Pluto's Sigil imprinted on his chest, right where his heart is.