The Man Who Sold the World Part I
By Patrick Gillespie

So you probably want to know what I'm doing here. The fire around me is so hot it melts the skin from your bones, but in this place, your skin just grows right back. There's nothing to do in this place. I've looked everywhere. The only thing I see around me is pain. You can't die here, trust me, I've tried. There's no escape. I'm here forever, and I'll tell you this little tale to save you from making the same mistake.

Not too long ago I was married to a woman named Julie Graves. It wasn't a marriage founded on love. I got her knocked up. I was only 18, I was too young to be a father, I had so much ahead of me, but I thought the responsible thing to do would be to see if we could make things work. We named our little girl Lindsey, after my mother. She was so incredibly beautiful from the moment I first saw her, and as I watched her grow she would only become more and more beautiful. Her innocent little face gave me hope in a world I thought was falling apart.

By the time she was four my marriage to Julie was starting to go to pieces. We couldn't even speak to each other. I had recently lost my job as a clerk at Safeway and Julie would not let me hear the end of it. I looked for weeks afterward trying to find another job, but everything I looked at seemed so bleak. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing something that I hated just so I could pay the bills.

After a while I just went ahead and started skipping the job interviews all together. Julie would look them up in the paper for me and schedule an interview, but instead of going in and offering myself to some soulless employer I would go out and sit in the forest. There were woods all around the city I lived in, and it was refreshing just to sit and take in the fresh air.

I'd sit for hours just forgetting my worries and thinking about my beautiful daughter Lindsey. I'd dream about her life and how it would be filled with so much promise and excitement. She would definitely go to college, no doubt about that. And somewhere along the line I could see her becoming the first woman President or maybe an award winning actresses. She just had that special glow, I knew she could do anything that she wanted to.

After a few days of skipping out on job interviews and hanging out in the woods I started to notice something very strange. It was more than strange - it was bizarre. I started noticing little doorways. They'd sometimes be on the sides of trees, way up near the top or way down near the ground. Sometimes they'd be large and sometimes they'd be small. Sometimes they'd appear on the sides of boulders, and sometimes they'd even be on the ground. They'd never be in the same place twice though, and it was rare that I would spot one, but when I did, it would always set my heart rushing.

All of the doorways had the same golden oval shaped door handle, and all of them were made out of wood with the symbol of a human figure carved in the upper middle. Occasionally I'd open one and stick in my hand in. Inside the doors it was always pure darkness, and inside I would always feel a coldness that would send shivers down the spines of even the bravest of men. It would be weeks before I would finally venture inside one of them, but when I did, it would be the most beautiful and amazing experience of my life. And as sad as it may sound, it would also be the beginning of my end.

To be continued...