This is my first story for Fiction Press, so please send me suggestions on improvement and your opinions on my story. Thanx!!! ghostpen13

HELL'S GATE

I

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Elorie Jacobson, I am 27 years old today and I have quite a story. For you to fully understand my story, I will have to start back at the beginning.

As a child, I had very strange interests. I was always doing things to scare myself and to get an adrenaline rush. If it would give me a rush, chances are I would find a way to do it. People would often ask me if I realized the danger I put myself in, the truth of the matter was that the danger was the entire point of my escapades.

My best friend, Elise, was the complete opposite. When we were together, she was the cautious one. One day, we were walking around our hometown of Brockville looking for something to do, as usual. Then all of a sudden, Elise stopped in the middle of the street. Luckily, our town is dead for a majority of the day.

I walked back to where she stood and instantly saw the reason she had stopped. Looming before us was a building I had never noticed before. It had broken windows and a sagging roof. Covering every entrance was plywood and caution tape. We gave a sideways glance at each other and I darted toward the shambled structure. She followed behind me slowly.

As we neared the building, I noticed a small red sign pinned to the massive door.

Condemned

City officials have deemed this building unsafe.

Scheduled for demolition July 30th, 2001

Any person(s) found in this building will be prosecuted!

As usual, I was the first to make a decision. As I reached up to open the door, Elise grabbed my arm.

"Elorie, really don't think this is such a good idea," she said hesitantly.

"Why are you always so nervous? You do this all the time, then I convince you to change your mind, and we have the time of our lives," I huffed.

"That is NOT true and you know it!" she protested, "I don't do it all the time, you're the one always making hasty decisions and not thinking things through! How many times have I saved your skin because you don't think your actions through?"

I didn't answer. We both knew she was right, but I was not about to give her that satisfaction.

"That's what I thought," she said triumphantly, "Now let's go home where I can keep you safe until your little tantrum is over."

The words she uttered made my blood boil. I turned and looked her straight in the eye, and then turned and ripped the sign off the door.

" Now, I am going inside this building with or without you," I said defiantly. There was no way she was going to win that easily. I turned around and heaved the door open far enough to slip in.

I walked about 15 feet inside and waited. I could hear Elise scuff her feet in the gravel just outside and mutter. Then the big door swung open and she stepped inside. It was my turn to be triumphant.

We stood just inside the building and looked around silently; each waiting for the other to break the stony silence. Elise gave in first.

"Just so you know, I'm not coming because of what you said," she told me indignantly, "I came so I don't have to read your name in the obituaries".

Her words echoed in the massive rafters of the building.

I nodded silently and smiled. We both knew that wasn't true. In fact, I think she loves this kind of stuff just as much as I do, she just doesn't want to admit it.

"So…what kind of place do you think this was?" I asked awkwardly.

"No clue," she replied with a kind of nervous and anxious tone in her voice.

I looked around to try and decide which direction to go first. There were many different hallways and staircases leading out of the room. The floor was cement with long cracks spider-webbing their way around the room. Weeds grew thick between the cracks. It was obvious that no one had taken care of it for a long time; but that many people had been there. Graffiti covered the walls from the floor to about 15 feet up. The floor was littered with empty cans, bottles, broken glass and other types of trash.

As I looked around, one staircase caught my eye. It was steeper than all the other staircases, more like a ladder. I nudged Elise and nodded toward the staircase. I could tell from the expression on her face that the same force that had drawn my attention to the staircase had taken a hold on her. In hindsight, I wish that we would have left that building and never looked back.

Neither of us spoke as we walked slowly towards the staircase. The excitement grew inside me with each step. As we neared the first step, Elise grabbed my hand and gripped it tightly. I think she was more frightened than excited, because her hands were hot and sweaty.

When we reached the staircase, we stopped at the bottom. I only stopped because Elise had a pretty strong grip on my hand and she refused to move.

"What's wrong now!?" I asked impatiently.

"I—um—have a really bad feeling. I mean, one of the stairs could break or something like that" she said as she scrambled for a good reason.

"Elise," I said slowly, "we've been best friends for about 7 years now, right?"

"Umm…yeah, something like that, why?" she said, looking puzzled.

"Well, being friends so long, do you really expect me to believe that load?" I asked, "Now, how about telling me what's really going on?"

"Nothing, I just have a really bad feeling about the stairs is all!" she shouted.

I was taken aback by her outburst, but even more shocked by the tears that had formed in her eyes. I walked over to her and put my arm around her shoulders. She stood in one place for a few more seconds, then she pulled away from me and sat down on the bottom step of the staircase. She put her head in her lap and covered her face with her arms.

I had never seen this side of Elise before. She was always so level-headed and calm. I had, of course, seen her cry before, but nothing like this. She was sobbing as if a very close family member had just died.

I sat down beside her and pulled her close to me. She cried on my shoulder for about another 5 minutes, then she started to calm down. I waited silently for her to cool down and regain her composure.

"Elise, please, tell me what's really wrong," I pleaded.

She sat silently for a few seconds as if trying to decide whether or not to tell me. Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke.

"I've never told anyone this before. Not you or any of my family" she said slowly, "I've been in this building before".

I stared at her for a few seconds, trying to figure out where this story was going, and why it had upset her so badly. She sat in silence for a few seconds, then looked at me as if to say "please don't make me go on", but I couldn't help it, I had to know what had happened. Then, she took another deep breath and kept going.

"Well, do you remember that guy that I went out with a while back, Daniel?" she said.

"Oh, you mean the slimeball?" I said with disgust; Daniel had been the only guy Elise had ever truly loved, and he had cheated on her the entire time they were together, once even with her cousin.

"Yeah, him", she sighed, despair creeping into her voice, "Well, last summer, before we broke up, I came out after my parents had went to bed one night to meet him. We walked around town for a while and talked, and before I knew it, we were standing in front of this building."

(I had a sneaking suspicion as to where this was going.)

"Before I could think of an excuse to go home, he grabbed my arm and pulled me in the door. He dragged me up these stairs. I didn't know what was going to happen to me, I just prayed with all my strength for God to not let me find out. He really does work in mysterious ways, because I didn't have to find out, but not in the way you'd expect," she said with an ironic humor in her voice.

My stomach was tying itself in knots while I waited for her to continue.

"As he pulled me up the stairs, I hit my head and blacked out. When I came to, he was standing over me in a dark room. Then, he walked away; out of my line of vision. I don't know where he went, and my head was pounding too much, and my vision too blurry to care. Then, my mind snapped back to reality and I realized this was my chance to run. I climbed shakily to my feet and tried to walk to the door, but my legs were too weak. I fell to my hands and knees and kept going.

He must have heard me fall, because he cam running back into the room. I scrambled back to my feet and ran. He followed close behind, and he almost caught me when I reached the stairs, but I fell out of his reach and tumbled down the stairs. When I hit the bottom, I scrambled to my feet and kept going. I ran as hard as I could all the way home.

As I ran, I could hear his pounding footsteps behind me, but I never looked back to see where he was.

When I reached my house, I climbed through my window and into my room. I sat on my bed and tried to catch my breath until I heard a light tapping on my window. My whole body froze and I was paralyzed with fear. Then I came back to reality and turned around slowly. There he was. He started talking; mouthing words to me," she stopped suddenly, breathing heavily, " He said if I ever told anyone…..," she buried her face in her hands.

I leaned forward to hear what she had to say with goosebumps and the tiny hairs on my arms and neck standing up.

"He said he would kill me" she whispered.

I put my hand on my face, trying to comprehend what she had told me. Maybe I had misunderstood her, but from the mixed look of terror and shame on her face, I could tell I had understood her perfectly.

We sat silently for what seemed like an eternity, hearing nothing but her quiet sobs.

"How could you not tell me that, Elise?" I whispered, "I'm your best friend, why would you keep that from me?"

"I don't know, Elorie! I just don't know!" she exclaimed, " I was scared, he said he would kill me, what was I supposed to do?"

"Don't you know you can trust me?" I said, hurt by the fact that she didn't feel like she could tell me.

"I was scared, I thought maybe if I never told anyone, and just forgot about it, it would all go away, like it had never happened," she explained desperately.

"And did it work? Did it feel like it never happened?" I said coldly.

"No…..," she said, " I have nightmares every night, I can still feel his breath on me, and sometimes, late at night, I think I hear him tapping on the window. When I'm outside alone, I'll turn around and I think that I see him behind, following me, watching me to make sure I never told."

I wasn't sure how to react, I felt her pain and I knew how she must be feeling having to be back here, but I was also hurt and angry that she had never told me. I was her best friend, how could she not tell me?

"I've been through a lot with you." I said slowly, "Who was the one who spent all that time listening to you talk about Daniel? Whose shoulder did you cry on when it was over? Whose house did you stay at whenever you and your parents fought and you ran away from home?"

"You," she said quietly as she wiped her eyes.

"Yeah, so why…."I stopped in mid-sentence, "C'mon, let's get outta here"

I stood up and held out my hand. She gave a relieved sigh and grabbed my hand to pull herself up. I had wanted to ask her why this was different, but then it hit me; it must have been killing her to be in here reliving that night. We walked out of the building, swinging the door shut behind us, never to return. At least that's what we thought.

II

About a month had passed since Elise's breakdown. We hadn't mentioned that day or that night in summer since then. I thought about what she had said often, and thought about all the skeletons I had in my closet, buried deep in my mind, but I didn't realize that they were much closer to the surface than I thought, and they were about to break out.

One night, I was in a deep, dreamless sleep, when all of a sudden, I was slammed back to reality. I didn't know what had woken me up, or why, but I was far from going back to sleep again. I dressed into my jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. I quietly slid my window open and hopped to the ground. I headed out across the wet yard to the road. I had only planned to walk around the block a few times; just until I was tired again.

As I walked, I could faintly pick up what sounded like footsteps behind me, but when I would turn around, all I would be able to see were the glare of a car's headlights on Main Street. Then, I heard the leaves rustle, and this time I was sure that was what it was! I turned around as quickly as possible, and there was Mrs. Bruin's cat, Penelope. I had to get a grip on myself. I had freaked out over a cat! There was no way I was going to walk alone anymore, so I headed uptown.

I reached Elise's house in record time. One reason could be that I was really freaked out, and the other could be that it was getting really cold out! When I walked around to the side of her house where her window was, I saw the dim glow of her bedroom lamp. I crept up quietly to her window and listened. I could hear her stereo turned down low so she didn't wake up her parents. (They were very strict when in came to when the house was to be quiet.)

Luckily for me, she had her window open, this allowed me to get he attention without scaring her, I was very careful about scaring ever since she told me about that night.

"Hey, Elise, are you awake?" I whispered quietly.

"Elorie? Is that you?" she asked inquisitively.

Elise had always had fantastic hearing, which was good when I came over at night.

"Yeah, it's me. Can you come out and walk around?" I whispered.

"Hold on a sec, I gotta change, meet me at the end of my driveway in five minutes, okay?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, meet you there," I said, and took off across the yard.

A few minutes later, Elise appeared from the side of her house. As she walked toward me, I could see a slight presence of anxiousness on her face.

"Okay, so what's up?" she asked.

"Nothing really, I just couldn't sleep and figured I'd come see if you wanted to walk around or something," I said casually.

"Oh, alrighty then, let's hit it!" she said brightly.

I was glad to see her in a good mood, for the past month, she had been kind of quiet and solemn. It had been fine with me, I mean, if that had happened to me, I would have done the exact same thing.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before Elise spoke up.

"So, where are we going exactly?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure. Wanna go to the park and shoot some hoops?" I replied.

"We don't have a basketball, though," she said.

"oh, yeah, that's right. I guess we can go back to my house and get one," I said.

She watched me for a second, but soon something else caught her attention. She stopped dead in her tracks and inhaled sharply. I was very confused by how she was acting. I looked in the direction she was staring, and my breath caught in my throat.

There he was, blonde hair and bright green eyes glowing in the moonlight. Blocking our path was Elise's greatest fear. She had finally come face to face with the monster in her nightmares. Daniel had finally found her.

We stood in dead silence for what seemed like forever. Elise had tears streaming down her face, she was undoubtedly reliving the last time they had seen each other.

"Hey babe," he said calmly, almost serenely, "long time no see. I've been following you for a while. I thought you almost saw me outside your window, or behind you when you were walking at night, but obviously not. You must have forgotten. Don't you remember what I said would happen if you ever told?"

Elise began to step back, shaking her head slowly and pleading with him softly. He began to advance on her with slow, determined steps. A sinister grin spread slowly over his face with each step. Then, he began to reach into his back pocket, as he withdrew the object in his pocket, a muffled scream escaped my lips.