The Dark Somnium - We Found a Gateway That Leads to Another Dimension

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

a collection for you! this one is Other world/Strange Dimension stories where the main character finds themselves in another world. let me know what you think! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apparently, there was once a city in the north of Sweden called Corona, but somehow we've all forgotten about it. I'm a police officer working in Calyx, a municipality close to where the lost city of Corona is supposed to have been. At that place, there are no signs of the city, only a dense forest, but certain details related to my own family makes me certain this place was indeed real. The entire world just forgot about it. I can't imagine how or why, but it's the only conclusion I've been able to reach.

For me, this all started when two Romanian blueberry pickers came into my small office to report something they had found deep in the dense forest. They didn't know enough Swedish or English to explain what it was that they had found, but it was immediately clear to me that it had terrified them completely. And what I understood, it seemed to involve a human corpse. Eventually, after having brought in an interpreter from the town next to mine, it was revealed that they had stumbled upon a dead child, no more than ten years old. They led me and two of my colleagues, followed by an ambulance, to the location where they

had found the child. The sun was setting behind a thick mist when we got there. I lit a cigarette when we left the main road and walked into the forest, to where the child was supposed to be. I felt a bit uncomfortable having to deal with a dead child, but I had handled cases like this before, some car accidents, and didn't feel too affected by it now. It was just another job, more so I thought. The Romanian stopped when we got close and refused to go any further.

There was panic in their eyes, more than I expected, even given these extreme circumstances. One of my colleagues stayed with them while the rest of us continued. We soon came upon a huge boulder that had been placed there by the ice sheet that covered Europe during the ice age. My colleague walked around it and a few moments later he came running back, pale as if he had seen the devil himself. He bent down and puked right in front of me. It's on the other side. I didn't ask him any questions. I only proceeded to check it out for myself with the medics following behind me.

What we found on the other side of the boulder, it wasn't natural. The child, a blonde little girl, was fused with the boulder, just as if she had been passing through it as a ghost and then suddenly turned into a human before she had time to exit the rock. Or, as my colleague later remarked, it was as if she had been teleported into the rock. The girl's sorrowful, dead gaze into the forest seemed to tell a story of tragedy unknown to the living. The medics quickly shield away from her eyes in silence, horrified by the fate she must have suffered.

I couldn't look away. I've never been a religious man, but this experience made me doubt everything I'd believed before. I don't just mean the bizarre way the poor girl had lost her life, half engulfed by the boulder. There was something else about the girl as well, something that made me feel completely empty inside, just as if a piece of my own soul was ripped out of me, leaving an empty hole in my heart that quickly filled up with a sorrow I'd never felt before. It was a dreadful feeling, only made worse by the strange fact that a small part of me recognized the girl.

I couldn't tell from where. Her face was like a vague memory of a dream recently forgotten. We collected ourselves and started talking, trying to make sense of the situation without any success while the medics approached the body. I tried to focus on the hard facts while we investigated the scene. The girl was wearing a pink jacket in one of the pockets. We found an odd-looking flower. Its colors were exotic and resembled the wings of a beetle, and a yellow library card with

the text that puzzled us. The library of Corona, it said. The girl had written her name on the card as well. When I saw it, my world started spinning. Isabella Lexellius. It said in the girl's childish handwriting. Isn't that your last name, sir? My colleague said.

It is. I didn't know what to say or think. Well, do you know her? I don't know. No. No, I know. I've never seen her before in my entire life. It must be a coincidence.

That's a pretty big coincidence, sir. I didn't respond to that. There's something on the ground as well, one of the medics said. On the blood-stained moss beneath the girl, there was a notebook. It must have fallen out of her hand, the one that was hanging limply above the book. I picked it up and opened it. The pages were covered with small text, written with a different handwriting than the girls. Sir.

One of the medic said, We'll have to bring some tools to cut her down. Yes. I said absently. There's one more thing. The medic said. I put the book in a plastic evidence bag. What?

There's too much blood. The medic pointed to the ground. What do you mean there's too much blood? I asked. beneath the boulder, sir." The medic explained, It's impossible for that blood to come from a child. A moment of silence, then I said, we'll have to come back here with better tools.

A day later, we successfully removed the upper body of the girl and brought it back to the morgue where it was examined. We also tried to lift the boulder with the help of a crane, but it wouldn't budge. Instead, we dug a hole under it, but we didn't find any new body parts. All we could do this day was sample as much of the blood as possible. During the examination of the body, I read the notebook. It contained the story of the city of Corona. I was convinced it was fiction.

A deranged story written by the man I thought must have killed the girl until a few weeks ago when the forensic lab called me. I still have a hard time believing it, but they told me there's no other way. They attested the DNA of the girl and compared it to mine because of her last name. It was my idea since I didn't want anyone to suspect anything. We didn't think it would reveal anything, but it did. The 10- or so year old girl, Isabella, was my daughter. I was sure it wasn't possible.

Ten years earlier I lived with my ex-wife, I never cheated on her, and certainly didn't have any children with her. We stayed together for five more years, so I would have known if she had had a baby during that time. And yet, there was nothing wrong with the test. Here's the transcript of the notebook. I've typed it out here in hopes that someone will remember the city of Corona or someone who might have lived in it.

Please contact me if you have any information. This is what was inside the notebook. Five years ago, I was a different person. I was younger back then. Not just in the ordinary sense, but in spirit too. There was joy in my life and I had hopes and dreams. That's all gone now. I don't have much time to write this down, but I will try and explain what happened to us.

to our entire community as well as I can. The event, as we have come to call it, occurred on July 9, 2013. I was only visiting Corona over the day to take my niece Isabella to the grand opening of the Red Grove, the city's new amusement park. It was supposed to be the biggest one in Sweden and Isabella had begged her parents to go to the grand opening, but neither of them had been able to do to work. So they called me and asked me to do it for them. I was their go-to person for when they needed help with Isabella, the only one they trusted.

How I wish that hadn't been the case now, considering what happened. We arrived pretty early, a few hours before the opening, so that we wouldn't need to stay in line the whole day to get inside. The weather was amazing. It had rained earlier in the morning, so we had been a bit worried, but when we got to the city, there wasn't a cloud in sight. Isabella couldn't stop talking about how much fun we would have, and it warmed my heart. to see her so happy. It took us a bit longer than expected to get to the amusement park since one of the main streets had been closed off for a military parade.

This didn't bother us that much. It rather increased the feeling of celebration in the air. To avoid the parade, we had to take a bus to the city center, the Freya Square, and from there we had to take the subway to the yellow neutral business cluster, the tallest skyscrapers in Sweden. It was possible for us to walk to the Red Grove from there. There were people everywhere. It turned out that a lot of them had taken a ferry down the river that I didn't know about.

This meant we had to stand in line after all. Isabella didn't mind, but I knew she would get hungry soon, and I worried that it would ruin her mood. Luckily, there was a man selling hot dogs from a cart that was pushing down the line. I bought a hot dog in soda for Isabella. Her parents didn't really like it when I bought her junk food, but a day like this, I thought they would understand. The man was also selling red balloons to children.

Isabella said she wanted one. I tried to tell her that she would have to carry it around all day, that there would be more balloons inside the amusement park, but she wouldn't listen. Reluctantly, I bought her a balloon as well. At this point, no one knew that their entire lives were about to change in a matter of minutes. Isabella accidentally let go of the balloon. I feared it would make her sad, but it didn't seem to bother her that much. We looked at the balloon as it rose up into the air and drifted the balloon.

it away. Soon, it was but a red daw against the vast blue sky. Then suddenly, it vanished. Where did it go? Isabella said. I couldn't explain it. It had just disappeared. I don't know, I said. Maybe it popped. But something, an uneasy feeling I couldn't rationalize, made me doubt that. Then, only a few minutes later, strong winds came from every direction. It carried a smell with it that reminded me of something rotten. Ew! Isabella said as her long hair was blowing in the wind. What's that smell?

I held her hand harder. I don't know. People looked around, confused, and their joyful voices became concerned. Something was happening, but no one knew what it was. Sirens echoed in the distance, seemingly coming from the business cluster. Oh my God! said and pointed towards the skyscrapers. The top of the building is gone.

It wasn't that easy to see, but she was right. The top of the tallest building was gone as if it had been cut off with a knife. Isabella was too short to see it, but she picked up that something wasn't right on everyone's faces, and she became worried herself. I think we need to get out of here, I said, acting completely on instinct. I don't think it's safe. Isabella teared up. But the opening, aren't we—

We'll come back later, sweetheart. I said as I walked away from the crowd with her. One of the fairies were just about to leave. We quickly stepped aboard. A few others joined us, but most of the people stayed behind in hopes that everything would be sorted out. Isabella cried, but she wasn't mad, as the fairy slowly drove away from the riverside promenade. A commotion of some kind erupted among the crowd back on land.

I couldn't see what was going on, but suddenly everyone screamed in the river side. terror and tried to run towards the water. They were clearly escaping from something, but I couldn't see what it was. All I saw was people stepping on each other while they tried to jump into the river and swim away. It was a horrible sight, and I'm glad Isabella wasn't tall enough to see over the railing. Next, the sirens from the emergency alert system began blasting its eerie sound of imminent catastrophe.

Everyone asked questions no one had any answers to. Most people I heard thought we were under attack, either by terrorists or the Russians. I picked up my phone to call my sister, but there was no signal. I tried with Isabella's phone as well without any luck. I soon discovered that no one had any signal. At the sides of the river that passed through the city, people were looking out of their windows, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on, but the only thing they could see that was out of the ordinary was the cut-off building in the yellow neutral business cluster.

Look, Isabella said and pointed at the sky. I've never seen such a big bird before. An enormous bird-like creature soared high above us. It was pitch black, although it was impossible to say for sure. It seemed to be just as confused about seeing us as we were seeing it. It circled the city center a few times and then flew away again. The side of the giant bird, or whatever it truly was, turned our anxious confusion into terror. We still didn't know what it happened, but now we knew it didn't have anything to do with terrorists

or some foreign power. This was something else. Something impossible to believe, and yet at the same time, impossible to deny. The ferry led us off a bit further down the river, close to the Frasia Square. People seemed to be in a state of panic, although no one knew what was wrong. Some were packing their cars to escape the city, others were running somewhere, perhaps to their loved ones, but most people clustered around police officers, city workers or military personnel from the parade to try to get some information.

But they only got the same answer over and over again, yelled at them so that it could be heard over the sirens from the emergency alert system, that nothing was known and they needed to return to their homes and listen to the radio for more information. How are we supposed to listen to the radio when the power's out? The voice came from an old woman. Look around, there's no power. She was right. Go home and close your windows and wait for the power to come back.

A policeman said, We don't know what's going on, but the safest thing to do is to follow the procedure. He was interrupted by something happening a few meters away. The first person who had tried to leave the city, a man on a loud motorcycle, had come back. I was carrying Isabella, comforting her at the same time as I tried to hear what the man on the bike was trying to tell everyone. I pushed through to get closer to him. He walked to the center of the square and climbed up on the foot of a statue.

A few people believed him, but everyone that had seen the creature in the sky had no doubt He was telling the truth, however impossible it seemed. There's no way out. The man yelled. The main roads cut off at the edge of the city, and there's only jungle. I can't explain it. I'm sorry, but it's true. We are surrounded by a dense, thick jungle.

There's no way around it. Then it's true. A policeman whispered to himself next to me. For the love of God, it was all true. I asked him what he meant. First, he didn't want to acknowledge my car. question, but when he saw my confusion and tears in my niece's innocent eyes, he turned to me and said quietly.

Before we lost contact with the helicopter that was surveying the parade, the pilot said something that simply didn't make sense. He was crashing. Something had cut off his rotor blades, and he said that it all had changed somehow. The view had changed. Before he hit the ground, he yelled that he had seen a jungle to the west and an ocean to the east. More and more rumors came in, and even though it was impossible to tell rumors from facts, they

were all telling the same story. The entire world around the city had been replaced in an instant. The city was the same, but the sky above it wasn't. Eventually the screaming sirens went silent. Cars stopped beeping their horns and the cacophony of voices died out. An uncanny silence fell over the city. The feeling was beyond unreal. I didn't know what any of this meant.

I tried to explain it to my niece, but she was only five years old. She couldn't understand. She wanted to go home to her parents, and I didn't know what to tell her. She was tired and needed rest, so I went to the hostel nearby and paid for a room. Soon the economy of the city would collapse, but for the first few days in this new unknown world, people still accepted money as payment. What followed was five years of unending trials and hardships. A continuous battle for survival with no hope for help or rescue.

It started during the first night. The sun, identical to our own yet new and strange, sat due north instead of west and was replaced by unrecognizable stars covering the entire sky. As I looked up at them from the small window in our room, I didn't feel awe, but rather I felt completely lost. The strange feeling during all these years must have been the parent. paradoxical sensation of familiarity on the streets mixed with the awareness of total displacement. I think this was partly why people kept close to the city center, to drown themselves in the

illusion of being home even though they knew, deep down, that they couldn't escape their fate as stranded in the unknown. Then, as I leaned out the window, I heard the sounds. People screaming, gunshots, cars driving madly through the streets without anywhere to go, the occasional odd howling that made my blood run cold. I never saw anything of what happened that night, but it changed the population. More than two million people. Forever.

I closed the window and hid behind the bed with Isabella. She wanted to cry for her mother, but I kept my hand over her trembling mouth. The next night was calmer, probably because no one dared venture outside. During the days, I soon realized the threat didn't come from the unknown jungle outside of the city. but from the people within it. It was impossible to tell how much crime was committed, but given what I saw with my own eyes, looting, robberies, even murders, I figured the rate of crime must have gone up by a lot. However, it wasn't total anarchy.

The police and the few military units that had been in the town for the parade kept some vital order to the community. Since ordinary people didn't have guns, the police and the military weren't threatened by the average citizen. A leader stepped forward, the man on the motorcycle, and after a few weeks everyone seemed to cooperate peacefully. The food that was left in the stores was mostly distributed fairly, and everyone that could work seemed to do it without hesitation.

Even I. The scientists that had been working at the university at the time of the event couldn't figure out what had happened. But with the help of hundreds of citizens, they managed to build a small nuclear power plant that could return electricity to the city. I mostly helped out with that project. I didn't know anything about nuclear physics, but I did what little I could. It was amazing what we were capable of as a people, and in all my dreadfulness a feeling

of pride grew in my chest, although our time in this world wasn't simple. Far from it. Aside from my personal problem with keeping Isabella healthy and safe, which I succeeded with although she never felt safe, there were three major problems that kept in the problem. growing larger for every week. First one was the food and water situation. Some people had managed to grow wheat and potatoes in parks and soccer fields, but it wasn't enough. We were running out of food and water.

It did rain from time to time, but very few people felt safe drinking the rainwater. To battle this problem and to find solutions to some other problems as well, expeditions were sent out to explore the jungle. These typically ended the same way. with no one coming back. Only once or twice did someone manage to return to the city, but they weren't themselves anymore. It was as if something in the jungle had captured their souls and let their bodies walk back unscratched. The second problem was nature.

It seemed to have spared us the first couple of months, but soon after we got the electricity back it turned on us. It took a while before I saw it with my own eyes, but seemingly at random, mysterious creatures entered the city. Sometimes they just walked right through it, never to return again. A policewoman, one of the new recruits, told me that she had followed a naked blue child as it solemnly walked into the city and then back out of it again. At other times, indescribable monsters wreaked havoc on the streets, killing as many people as they could before returning to wherever they came from. At one point, and this I actually saw for myself, an enormous centipede, pure white with hundreds of red eyes, suddenly

appeared from a manhole, it quickly climbed up against a building as if it knew exactly what it was doing and entered one of the windows on the top floor. Next came the screams from people inside the building. A few escaped, but everyone else inside were ripped shreds. Only after about five minutes did the centipede exit the building from the entrance, its white segmented body stained with blood and returned down the manhole. These attacks, as they were called, aroused fear and panic. panic in all of us.

Although it didn't happen that often, it happened often enough for everyone to be on edge all the time. The third problem also didn't become noticeable until later. It was the problem of health. There was no pattern to who was affected or not, but some people, probably more than 1% got sick. It started out like a fever and solely progressed with nightmarish mutations randomly hitting the body.

Most of these mutations made the victims handicapped and disfigured, but sometimes. Very rarely, the victims developed properties that were seemingly beneficial to them. The most extreme case of this that I saw was a young girl who grew a third eye in the middle of her forehead. The iris of the new eye glittered with amazing colors, and the girl claimed that she could use the eye to see other people's emotions. At the beginning of the health crisis, the sick people were treated badly, as if they had been monsters from the jungle.

This treatment only got worse when it was revealed that the creature was the creature from outside, never attacked but sick. At one point, a mob gathered at Frasia Square, set on chasing the sick people out of the city. Luckily, this was stopped by the military. In the end, however, the sick people were sent into the jungle. Not to be away with them, though, but to make use of their immunity to the nature of this world. This turned into a huge success that eventually solved the food and water problem.

They could venture out and explore the surrounding area and return with edible fruits, vegetables, and small mammal-like creatures that they had hunted. This was a turning point for us, and then luck struck again. All attempts at fishing had failed so far, but all of a sudden there were fish everywhere in the river. We soon learned that there were different periods for when the fish were out to sea or close to land. However, as soon as they came close to land, mysterious purple thunderstorms that lasted weeks

tormented the city, and yet we survived. Many people didn't, of course, but life was possible. In the end, we prevailed. During the five years that followed, there weren't that many catastrophes and our focus on survival kept most of our thoughts of home away. Even Isabella thought less and less of her parents as she grew older. Over time, most people got used to the bizarre situation they found themselves in back in July 2013. Many people did commit suicide, yes, but most people just. chose to live in this unknown land.

Two events, however, changed things. First, it was what happened to a planned expedition at sea. Hundreds of people, mostly men, decided to venture out into the ocean with one of the luxury cruisers that had been moored next to the city. This was going to be a great adventure, and perhaps a way to find some answers, and perhaps a way to find some answers to where we had ended up. It inspired all of us. of people, Isabella and I included, had gathered to watch as the huge boat slowly sailed out.

It all felt similar to that day five years earlier when we had waited for the amusement park to open. We all stared at the horizon as the boat, named Burdo de Espero turned into a small dot against the setting sun. We imagined the amazing adventures they would be on and look forward to their return, but then something that must have been larger than anything that we'd seen so far came out of the water and swallowed the ship hole. Some people screamed and others cried.

This was a hard blow to the city. Just knowing a being like that, a being able to eat an entire luxury cruiser in one bite could exist, deprived many people of their hopes of the future. The next event was different. It was a miracle, to say the least. It happened only a month after the destruction of Berto de Espero, a military guard. A young man who had been only 15 at the time of our disappearance from Earth, and discovered discovered that when we stood at a certain place at Frisia Square, he could tune into a specific

radio station from our old world. The station's name was synthwave mix and dedicated most of its broadcasting to that kind of music. Hope returned immediately, but this time the hope was different from the one we had spent five years building up within ourselves. This was the hope of seeing our loved ones again. The hope of returning home. The people at the university investigated the area to try to determine where the radio signal were coming from.

They didn't have much success, but soon realized that they emanated from the ground beneath Frasier Square. While the area was investigated by scientists, ordinary people showed up in mass. They all had radios of different kinds with them, like children carrying stuffed animals to feel safe, hoping to tune into this synth wave mix, and to get a taste of their lost home. Of course, the area where the radio station could be heard was too small, and police had to chase away everyone to give the scientists the room they needed. A few days later, though, the scientist placed a set of large speakers at the foot of the statue of Frasia and connected them to the

receiver they were using to listen in on the radio station. Day and night, the relaxed, somewhat melancholic, synthetic music played non-stopped the entire city. People congregated around the statue. They even defied the dangers of night. This became our city's new tradition, ending the day by going to the statue and sitting down. around it, as if in prayer, became our pilgrimage. It wasn't exactly the music that drew people to the square, but rather its origin. Still, the electronic melodies soon turned into a symbol of all of our hopes and desires. From time to time, people got up and danced, sometimes while crying from a bittersweet joy,

difficult to explain. Although, the thing that made us all go silent and become totally focused was when the The host said something. Usually they only spoke about the music they were broadcasting, completely unaware that an entire city full of people were listening to them almost religiously. But on rare occasions, they talked about the world outside. At those times, it felt like our hearts collectively stopped in anticipation. Would they say something about us?

About their efforts to figure out where we had all gone and how they would bring us back? But there was never any news about us. as if they'd already forgotten about us or never known about us at all. The tragic fate of the city of Corona never came up. Yet, we never lost faith. It took a long time, and now I'm getting closer to the present day. But eventually, the scientist decided it would be worthwhile digging a large hole right where the radio waves seemed to sip out of the ground.

This was no easy task, and neither was it safe, but the work took weeks. Again, we all helped. No one really knew what exactly we were looking for. We only knew that it was something. When we reached the bottom, where the rock was too hard to dig through, a mountain of dirt covered the entire square. Our efforts hadn't been in vain. We discovered, right beneath the place where the radio waves had been picked up, there was a small hole in the bedrock. People were asked to back away from it while the scientists investigated it. First, they tried to measure how deep it was. This took some time since it was hard to find a long enough rope.

In the end, it was estimated to be about 700 meters deep. Next, some equipment was sent down, tied to the end of the rope. Everything that was sent down was swallowed up by the hole. Of course, no one knew where it went, but we all thought the same thing, that somehow it had returned home. It was a reasonable assumption given that the only thing coming out of the hole, the radio waves, came from Earth. We all rejoiced in this discovery.

More experiments were done, and although some questions remained unanswered, the consensus, even among the scientists, was that the hole really was a portal back to our own world. There were two large problems that needed to be solved, though. The first was the safety. Every time something tied to the rope disappeared at the bottom of the hole, the rope was cut off just like the skyscraper five years earlier. This meant that it was possible that whoever entered the hole would be cut off as well. However, this problem was solved pretty soon by tying a camera to the rope connected to

a screen above ground. It was discovered that the rope was only cut off when pulled back. As long as it wasn't pulled back, the screen still received signals from the camera. The camera never recorded anything other than darkness on what was assumed to be the other side. But since it continued to work until the rope was pulled back, it didn't seem to be such a big problem. After all, some technical issues were expected under the circumstances.

The second problem was that the hole was too small for anyone to fit into. Many attempts were made to widen the hole, but the bedrock seemed to be made out of stronger material than any of our machines could tear into. This was extremely frustrating. It made us feel like we had reached the finish line only to discover that we were unable to cross it. In the end, one of the scientists said she wanted to send her 10-year-old son down the hole. He was small enough to fit into it.

This was widely debated for some time before it was approved. The mother argued that the city of Corona was no place for her son, and that all evidence suggested the hole was the only way home. The boy was brave. He knew he would probably never see his poor mother again, but still went through it. He was given a walkie-talkie, and after a tear-filled goodbye to his mother, he was sent down the 700 meters deep, pitch black hole. He was instructed to radio in after he reached the other side, confirming he was safe.

After the rope was pulled back, the mother waited and waited for her. her son to report. However, he never did. For weeks, the mother sat at the edge of the hole, under merciless heat and under pouring rain, calling her son over and over again with her walkie-talkie. No one knew what, if anything, had gone wrong, since no other radio waves had been picked up other than the synth wave mix. It was possible that other radio waves simply couldn't enter into our world for some reason. Still, the authority deemed the hole too unsafe for anyone else to enter. This didn't change people's minds, though.

The hole represented the only true hope we had felt in years, and given all the terrible things in our world that could destroy us at any moment, as easily as it is for us to blow out a candle, the small risk of going through the hole seemed to be more than acceptable. The hole was guarded by the police, but most of the police shared the city's collective opinion that the whole was the only way out. Not for any of the adults, but for our children. And now I'm sitting here, in the room I paid for five years ago, writing this down. During the last few weeks, many parents have been sending their children down the hole at night.

This world is truly no place for them. Although they could survive, they deserve better. Hence, like many others, I've decided to send Isabella home. When I told her about it, she looked at me with happiness in her eyes I hadn't seen since we were transported to this dreadful, god-forsaken world. I've been writing this all day now. It's a testimony to what happened to Corona. I will give this notebook to Isabella.

I'm sure that she will be able to give it to her father. Somehow, I know it in my heart that she will find her way home to her parents. Soon it will be dark, and I will bring Isabella to Frasia Square one last time. I'm sorry it took so long. Subject 23, Project Entryway, derivative of the Montauk Project. and an absolute horror show. My name is Joshua A. Jameson, and I was part of the United States Air Force from 1978 to 1998.

I spent the first third of my service as a pararescuman, and that much I'm proud of. The other two-thirds is eating me away inside. Now, for starters, I'm going to let you know that I'm going to avoid flair and filler. I will, however, provide you with what little evidence I've retained over the years. Skip over it if you want. the truth remains the same. I've noticed that the infamous Montauk Project has gotten a little more notoriety over the past few years, and most of us have heard the story by now.

Military scientists kidnapped children and expose them to torture all to try to unlock innate abilities, most notably the ability to conjure something out of nothing. The sister project of Montauk, Project Entryway, has stayed silent even over the growing years. I won't let that stand any longer. Us at Project Entryway followed a similar direction as Montauk, with the only major difference being that we weren't trying to make something new. We were trying to find something already here.

While the geeks over at Montauk tried to conjure up vases and monsters using their minds, we were trying to explore the unexplored. I can't tell you how the scientists got involved, mostly just folks from Brookhaven Laboratory, I'd guess. But I joined when I heard about a long-term Joint Forces mission, needing volunteers. to form medical insecurity details. Well, as a pair rescuemen, I had both, so I applied to the jobs posting and submitted my resume and hoped for the best.

I got the job. Soon enough, I was being flown down to New York with three other security guys being ushered down to Camp Hero. At this time, no one really knew about Montauk. The internet was in its baby phase, and fear from the Cold War left the information, what was available, double encrypted. and ciphered. As far as we were aware, Camp Hero was just another radio site.

After our landing and a bit of a drive, we hit Montauk Point, New York. We passed through the small, friendly-looking town and through some forest before reaching a small, gated military outpost. The only thing of note was a large radio tower, which we all expected from our research. Our driver pulled up to the security checkpoint, and all of our gear was confiscated. I'd assume they'd search it and give it back to us, but instead they just threw it in some vault, and I never saw any of it again. To make up for our stolen gear, they gave us brand new uniforms, along with whatever else we needed.

Me and the rest of the security boys weren't used to this kind of treatment. It was just too clinical for the usually sarcastic and snide security police members we were used to. Our whole conversation consisted of this. They'd ask a question, we'd answer. They'd ask if we needed anything. We'd say no, and then silence. I'm not sure if the boys we interacted with knew what was going on inside of the facility, but they sure as hell didn't try to make friends with us.

Given enough time, we were geared up and ready to go. The captain in charge of in-processing told us our debrief would be first thing that following morning, and for us to try and get some rest if we could. That's when a few uniformed men escorted us across the field and into the radio tower. When we entered the facility, we walked right to the communication center, staffed by only a handful of men, and down a tight hallway. We found ourselves facing a large concrete door. A few guards nearby pushed it open, exposing a flight of stairs leading straight downwards. Wherever we were going had to be in the bowels of the earth.

The stairs seemed to continuously descend. Our walk down took whatever courage we had. There was a certain electricity in the air that was unnatural. It didn't feel like you were being watched. It felt like you were alone. I think we all took a deep breath of stale air when we hit the bottom of that staircase. What lay in front of us now was a hub of hallways and doorways. People in lab coats were walking around, conversing, and eyeing us.

We were guided over to our living quarters, separate from Montauk security members, of course, and we were once again instructed to get some rest. Now, one thing you should know about military members. matter what branch, we're all just kids. We talk, we gossip, we're inappropriate, and when you leave us to ourselves, we do the opposite of what you want. We were told to sleep, therefore we were told to chat each other up like giddy schoolchildren. It was then that I got to know everyone. There was Bobby Wilkerson, former speech champion from Washington State, then was Gregory Caporelli, all-star college baseball player from Jersey, and of course, Tanaka Yoshida.

a child of Japanese soldiers during World War II, and the biggest American patriot I knew. Why did I tell you their names? Because they deserved to be remembered. They were good people who just wanted to do the best they could out in the world. Each had dreams. They all wanted to be something when they left the service. Bobby wanted to be a congressman. Georgie wanted to work for his father at their lumber mill,

and Yoshida just wanted to retire as a United States servicemen with full honors. That's it. That's all they wanted. After our brief yet giddy exchange of words, we managed to get what little sleep we could. One thing I remember about sleeping down there, once the lights went out and that place was darker than dark. We were, God knows how many feet underground, and there was absolutely zero natural light. Once the man made lights were out, all lights were out.

After an undetermined amount of time, morning must have hit. We were all awoken by a scraggly looking and frail scientist. He introduced himself as Dr. Grant Hargrove and asked us to follow him to the experiment area. We walked down the maze-like corridors, passing all sorts of men from all different backgrounds. Some seemed dishevelled, while others seemed to stare off into space. Besides a few whispers between each other, this facility was dead quiet around us. After a couple of minutes of walking, we reached our destination. A big metal door with black paint reading Sub Project 23 in Blocky Letters.

Dr. Hargrove turned towards us and began his speech. Inside these doors is where you'll spend most of your time. We don't have much funding, so the four of you will have to do for security. You can work the details of that on your own, as long as we have two armed members inside of this room at any given time while our experiment is running. You are to take the title of Squadron 08-23. At these words, we glanced at each other. Four members certainly didn't make a squadron.

At our glances, we heard Hargrove make a grunt before continuing. Yes, I'm well aware there are only four of you. It's just to provide leeway in case members need to be exchanged or replaced in a timely manner. If you have any questions, you may only ask them to me or one of the other scientists involved in Subproject 23. You won't speak a word about what we're doing to anyone, including the other workers down there. Understood? His tone was matter-of-fact and rehearsed. Who knows how many times he's told this briefing, and who knows what happened to the others

that were working down here before us. I had always hoped we were the first, but something tells me we weren't. He turned his back to us and typed in some numbers into a small keyboard next to the door. We heard several clicks as the locks disengaged. Hargrove opened up the door for us, and we stepped inside. The room was a massive concrete rectangle. The ceilings had to have been as tall as a small auditorium. The only structures inside this facility were right next to us, a set of steps leading up

to an observation post. A door, similar to the one we just entered from, stood at the top of the step. The steps themselves seemed to be nothing more than a glorified rolling step ladder. There were indents in the concrete floor, allowing the stairs to be pushed away from the observation door. I remember thinking to myself. Were dozens of feet underground in a highly fortified facility, what good could these extra safety measures be in place for? Each of these doors are installed with seven magnetic locks, four divided on the top and bottom and three on the side.

They can withstand about 1,500 pounds of force each and can only be disabled with the code of the day. The codes will change daily, so make sure you check the logs in the observation room up those stairs. He lifted his frail-looking arms toward the observation deck. Sir, what will be our daily duties? I heard Bobby's soft voice ask. The doctor tried to give a warm smile towards Bobby, but it seemed pained and forced. Hopefully, all you'll have to do is sit down in front of some machinery and let us scientists do our work. If something should happen to us, you may have to provide security or search and rescue operations.

We all looked at each other, then back to the nearly empty warehouse. The only thing standing out in the barren room with some metallic pillars and beams aligned to the opposite side of the room from the observation deck. Wires ran from the pillars straight into the concrete of the nearby walls. Search and rescue as in here in this room? Georgie's loud Italian voice echoed in the concrete shell we found ourselves in. Dr. Hargrove's gaze turned behind us, his eyes defocusing and forming into thought. In a way?

He muttered quietly, more to himself than us. Before he could clarify, the door to the observation room clicked open, giving a loud groan as the metal fought against the arms of whoever was pushing. Jesus, I get these doors, but really? A voice rattled off from behind the door as it opened, eventually revealing a man of good stature. He looked like one of us, a serviceman rather than a scientist, though his lab co-expressed something different.

Hey, everyone. Sorry for interrupting. My name's Dr. Carter, and I'm the exploratory scientist of this project. He gave a charming smile before nodding towards Hargrove. I overheard Dr. Hargrove mentioning saving one of us. That will most likely mean me. In case something happens, I just want to say I'm appreciative of you guys. I know you're in the dark right now, but we're going to be doing some exciting things down here.

Dr. Carter flashed another smile, exposing his pearly white teeth. Dr. Carter was clearly more of a people person than Dr. Hargrove. Just behind him stood half a dozen other scientists writing things on clipboards, pulling levers and activating switches. It was such a large room, yet the only space that seemed to be in use was the observation room. I could feel my hair stand up as a feeling of apprehension came over me. Something was off here.

I was just a normal kid for the time we were in. I never much watched science fiction movies or shows. I never believed in the boogeyman, and I believed wireless phones were the work of the devil. What I was seeing made me double think all of that. Well, except maybe for the devil part. So, Dr. Hargrove, if you wouldn't mind stepping up here and taking control, I'm going to introduce these guys to Project Entryway. Dr. Carter eagerly headed down the metal stairs, skipping a few steps here and there. Oh, you guys are going to love this.

He waved his arms at us, beckoning for us to follow. Dr. Carter took us nearly all the way to the other side of the facility before stopping and turning around. I saw his eyes meet Hargroves in the Operation Center. Carter lifted his hand and gave a thumbs up to Hargrove. You guys might want to close your eyes and open them when I tell you to. Most people faint after seeing this their first time. Brains can't process it much, but exposure helps. I saw Georgie cover his eyes with his hands and turn around, heeding the doctor's advice.

Oh, forget this! Georgie muttered under his breath while shaking his head. Bobby, Yoshi, and myself all decided to keep our eyes on the empty concrete wall in front of us. Within just a few moments, we heard the whirling mechanical sounds of machinery coming to life from the metallic pillars jutting out of the floor. Before we knew it, something appeared in front of us, or rather stopped appearing. The back wall completely disappeared into a thick and syrupy black shadow. It seemed to give out a pulse that made our bodies react in the worst way.

It felt like whatever this thing, this shadow was, had the power to radiate the symptoms of vertigo. Each pulse sent a wave through our brains that told us to look away. I saw Yoshi and Bobby both fall to their knees beside me. Bobby had buried his head into his lap and covered his ears, trying to stop the pulsing from getting into his mind. Based on how he was acting, I don't think it helped. This wall is now a door, gentlemen. A gateway to another plane of existence.

If you haven't already viewed it, then please look. Georgie uncovered his face and turned around. Immediately, his face turned a pale and sickly color. We've ran tests after test to get this right. We brought you in because we're finally ready to send a person through. That'd be me. Dr. Carter stood in front of us with a wide grin on his childish face. His back was towards the pulsating black void behind him.

I couldn't help it anymore. I threw up. We all exited our meeting that day without a word between us. We received our mission statements and were told the testing would begin next afternoon after a morning of calibrations. We had off until then. It wasn't until we entered the mess hall that one of us spoke up. What the fuck did we sign up for?

Georgie mumbled angrily to his food. I don't know, man, but just stay positive. Maybe it's not as strange as we think it is. Bobby replied, trying to reassure our little group. Not as strange. A fucking wall disappeared. Fucking gone. And what took its place?

I goddamned. Yoshi cut him off as his voice was. starting to rise in anger. Remember what they said. No talking about it unless we're in that room. Georgie listened to Yoshi and quieted himself down, shaking his head in disbelief. I had nothing to add to the topic. I still felt sick and my head wouldn't stop pounding.

I dreaded the morning. Sadly, as much as you dread something, it doesn't stop it from coming. We were woken up a little later than usual as the science crew did their calculating. It didn't help much. I think we were all still shaken up about what we saw the day prior. In light of that, we all agreed that each of us would sit in to see what was going to happen that morning. We grabbed our weapons from the armory and headed to the project room. Once inside, we saw nearly three times the previous staff walking back and forth.

They must have had the whole project's science division prepared for what was about to happen. We took some seats near the observation room staircase and watched the men work from afar. Amidst all the lab coats running back and forth, we saw a man who looked like he came straight from the moon. He had heavily padded and sealed off clothing with a wide visor. There was no other way to describe him. He looked like an astronaut. The rest of the crew did function tests on his gear, checking the pressure levels and making

sure he could see properly through the visor. A few lab techs dragged out a large piece of machinery with a large bundle of wires and tubes attached. They hooked up a large tube to the man using a fist-size opening at the small of his back. At this point, I could safely assume that the individual inside the suit was Dr. Carter. I didn't envy him for what he was about to do. I did, however, notice the four other suits similar to his stacked up on some crates near the far side of the wall. I knew those would be ours if something happened to the doctor. All the prep work took upwards of an hour. They were trying to make everything as suitable as possible for what they were trying to do.

Soon enough, the scientists backed away from Dr. Carter and joined us on the opposite side of the room. Their expressions ranged from giddy to frightened. I don't know what tests they ran before this, but no one seemed to know what to expect. I heard an exchange between the scientists while we are waiting for the next step. It's a ten-minute trial, right? No exploration today, just making sure the device works. I saw the other gentleman nod his head. The room fell silent as Dr. Carter turned around and faced the operation room.

He gave the thumbs-up signal and turned to face the far wall. Everyone watched intently as the machine's word to life, casting away the matter that made up the wall and exposing the void underneath. Over the intercoms in the room, we heard Dr. Carter's voice. Testing. Testing. Can you hear me? That's affirmed, Dr. Carter. We are good to go with the test run. Dr. Hargrove's emotionless voice rang out over the loudspeakers. He walked towards the void until his face was inches from it.

Should I say something important or memorable? Carter's voice jokingly said over the speakers, you could hear the fear he was trying so hard to cover up. It's a be okay, Carter. We have security standing by. Hargrove's voice responded. I felt my body tense up, realizing that he was referring to us. Well, how about our mission motto then?

Dominant, quad, non-intelligent. Hopefully saying that is true and we have nothing to fear. He gave a slight chuckle to himself before quickly stepping into the void. The instant he disappeared from our view, the loudspeakers exploded with sound, high-pitched screeching poured over us, sending some lab technicians to the ground covering their ears. My team and I stood up in reflex, aiming our rifles down the portal. Just then the sound abruptly stopped. and a figure emerged from the inky blackness.

The thing was big with a single large...