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BEYOND THE G|A|T|E
CHAPTER THREE: SARAH'S WORLD
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Sarah laid motionless under the weight of the rubble. Her face was badly burnt by a stage light falling on top of her. Luckily, the light wasn’t left on very long prior, so it wasn’t too bad, and she also managed to push it away. Even so, she was stuck and couldn’t move. Her burns were painful, but the anxiety and adrenaline helped to drown it out. Shrouded in darkness and a faint smell of smoke, she just closed her eyes and hoped for the best. If this reality is not ideal, the best course of action then is to escape it. That’s what Sarah always did; she’d let her mind wander on and on. This time, her mind took her back to a place she never wanted to return. As she laid motionless, her mind took her back to childhood. She was in her parents’ apartment. Like a ghostly apparition, Sarah watched as her younger self came jumping out of bed, running straight through her ethereal body. Perhaps it was because of her delirious state, or something else, but Sarah couldn’t make out a word that was being said in her old home. Floating aimlessly, she watched her younger self be shooed away by her parents. Day in and day out she saw little Sarah cooped up in her room, staring at the ceiling and drawing pictures in the air with her fingers. Sarah was an only child, and her mother was always too tired to play, and her father was barely home. Nevertheless, Sarah still saw the joy in the little things. She might have been tiny for her age, but she had enormous imagination. She could cook up an entire galaxy’s worth of places to explore and people to meet and friends to make. In her world, she could have a sister, a brother or even a whole new family.
Still floating around in her memories, Sarah is suddenly thrust into a new reality. Everything was bright and bathed in a brilliant white glow. They were in a jewelry store, her and her dad. She could still hear faintly the sounds of the cash register and how she started to tear up when her dad hung the necklace around her neck. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple silver necklace with a purple jeweled pendant. That day, for the first time, she felt like she had something special. She had a family. Sarah watched as her dad sat her up on his shoulders while he and her mom stood and watched a parade later that day. The sights and the sounds were enough to pull her little shy self out of fantasy land. Each bang of the bass drums and crash of the cymbals filled her heart with glee. BOOM....BOOM...BOOM! She heard nothing like it before. BANG!
Startled, Sarah was roused from her dream-like state, frantically grasping at her chest. Letting out a deep sigh of relief as she felt the presence of her trusty silver necklace, she opened her eyes. Though she was still out of it for the most part, she could see some streaks of light shining through the rubble. They were beautiful waves of turquoise, moving across her face with subtle motions of a calm day at sea. What’s going on? She started trying to clear the rubble as she heard even more commotion and felt rumbling. As she worked slowly to free herself, she could feel the rumbling get even more intense, causing the rubble to shift. Sarah hissed in pain. Still, she persisted, eventually freeing her top half. But unfortunately, her little triumph was cut short, as she was immediately hit by a powerful gust of wind blowing dust and soot right into her face. After heartily coughing her lungs out, she was able to clear her vision as the dust settled. Slowly looking upward, she saw something unimaginable.
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“What the hell,” She whispered to herself, totally in awe at the sight of the behemoth that floated above her. Using her hands to clear away the bigger pieces of debris from around her lower half, she carefully wiggled free. Although she could feel that her legs were bruised and scraped up badly, she still made an attempt to crawl to her feet. And then she saw the tentacles.
“Wha—What is this,” Sarah questioned, still stunned by the sight of it all. Then...a different realization started to set in.
That thing in the sky destroyed the auditorium. Her eyes began to widen, then she broke down in tears. Everyone....John, Mia, Patrick. She clutched onto her necklace.
“JOHN,” She yelled. “Are you okay?!”
Just then there was a loud metallic bang not too far in front of her. Something hit the roof of the auditorium. Hard. She managed to get out into the open, peeking around a corner. That’s when she saw a whole bunch of tentacles swiping at some shadowy figure on the roof. But then she heard yelling. John? That...is him. John may be tough but there’s no way he was the one being bashed onto the roof like that. That kind of force could turn your bones to mush. She peered once more around the corner and lo and behold, it was him. What’s going on? A bright blue light flashed, nearly blinding Sarah and causing her to stumble backwards. Squinting through shielded vision, she recognized it as the same light from before. A pained expression was stretched across John’s battered face as it was revealed in the turquoise glow. Sarah could only look on in a mix of fear and amazement as John, her little brother, was seemingly about to stand off against some alien monstrosity. Sarah had to use every fiber of her being to restrain from calling out to John right then and there, as that most likely would’ve put them both in danger. Just what are you planning to do, John? Sarah watched with bated breath.
Then the light faded. Huh? But almost instantaneously the beast’s grey-ish tentacles were obliterated by a different blue light. The light was a deep lapis color. Some kind of energy? Sarah’s thoughts ran wild with possible explanations. But wait, if that wasn’t John then....
“JOHN!!” Sarah screamed his name as loud as she could. But her pleas were muffled by the beast’s loud, reverberating groans. Sounding like a baritone screech, the monster’s cry bounced around the surrounding area, making the ground and everything around vibrate.