The ring

Leo was a high school student when he and his brother were orphaned. He loved both his parents but was closer to his mom because, he saw what she had to go through on a daily basis. The atmosphere of the house back when both his parents were still alive was mostly sad. Watching the people he loved most always arguing with each other broke him. He became secluded, not expressing himself when he needed to and this behavior did not stop at home. He was unusually quiet for a kid his age. This must have been the beginning of his shy nature.

After their mother's death, Leo and Jax were taking in by their mother's younger sister. She had kids of her own and was definitely not nice, at least not to Leo. She basically turned Leo into a housekeeper. Always nagging him about how he was a good for nothing that didn't appreciate what she was doing for him and his brother. The food they ate was always different from what their cousins were given but he never complained. Why would he? this was his life now.

Leo raised the glass of milk to take another sip, but soon discovered that the glass had been emptied

"Aw man, and I was really enjoying it"

The moment Leo turned 18. His aunty began maltreating him even more, as if she wanted him out of her house. Leo had gotten use to this lifestyle but did his best to make sure that his brother was shielded from it. Leo eventually moved out and rented a small apartment with the little money he had saved up over the years.

It was not until he started working for Mr. Edward that he moved to his current house. Mr. Edward took a liking to Leo and offered to allow Leo to live in one of his houses, rent free and in exchange, Leo and his brother would take care of the cleaning and maintenance of the house.

[Creak]

The door opened up rather quickly and someone rushed in while screaming on top of his voice.

"I'm bacckkk!!!"

Leo put up a smile as responded

"I'm right here, you fool. No need to blow out my ears with your shouting"

They both laughed as Jax tossed his bag on the ground right beside one of the seats.

"Well? How was your day?"

Jax's face lit up with excitement.

"It was awesome! During our math class today, the teacher asked a question that everybody got wrong except me. The teacher praised me in front of everyone and gave me this cool pen as a reward"

Jax reached out to give Leo the fancy pen. Leo examined the pen.

"This is a really nice pen"

"It sure is"

Leo was happy that his little brother was excited for the right reasons and confirmed that the boy was on the right path.

"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. I met a man on my way back. He said he knew you"

Leo was puzzled

"You met someone that knows me?"

"Yeah. He said he met you at Tasty where you work and that he goes there every day"

Leo calmed down after he heard that the man was a customer and realized that he must have also seen Jax once or twice when he came to visit.

"Ok, but did he tell you his name?"

"Nope, I didn't ask"

"Oh…ok then, what about his looks, can you describe him?"

"Sure, he was…no, he had on a…"

The room grew silent. Leo staring at Jax who was now looking unhappy and scratching his hair desperately trying to remember.

"Sorry bro, but I don't remember anything about him. It must've been all the excitement"

Leo now terrified, came to a conclusion that the man at the restaurant was the same man that met his brother.

'What's going on'

Jax picked up his bag and took out a ring.

"He also told me to give you this"

He stretched out his arm to hand the ring over to Leo.

"A ring?"

He too stretched out his arm and collected the ring. He stared at the unusual shaped of the ring and the tiny engravings around it.

"I'm off to my room, if you need me, you know where to find me"

Leo still analyzing the ring, raised his head

"Ok, remember to do your homework"

"You know I will"

"That's what I thought"

As Jax went up, Leo continued to stare at the ring. He dropped it on the table and went to a box close by, he opened it up and after searching through it, pulled out a magnifying glass. He went back and picked the ring up again and examined it using the magnifying glass. Most of the words on the ring were written in a language unknown to Leo, but he was able to make out one sentence that was written in English.

"BESTOW THE GATE UPON ME"

The moment he spoke those words, he got a burning sensation on his right arm. He screamed in pain and quickly pulled up his sleeves, only to discover that markings similar to the ones on the ring had appeared on his arm. As Leo breathed heavily, he let out the words.

"What the fuck is this?"

Leo's breathing slowed down as he twisted his arm trying to understand how this tattoo looking burn appeared. Not too long after the appearance of the burn, Leo began feeling dizzy and passed out from the effect.

The ring now on the floor after Leo had dropped it began vibrating vigorously. All the lights in the house were flickering at the same pace of the vibrating ring. Soon after, the light went off and in the dark the ring shined with a bright golden color. The intensity of the glow from the ring was gradually increasing and zooming in, it is seen that the words that Leo was able to read out earlier slowly vanished from the surface of the ring. Then almost instantly, the intensified glow went out and the lights came back on.