It’s been a hot summer, and the crops had been doing terrific due to the amount of rain that we have been receiving. The crops have been doing so well in fact, that we have been able to purchase my four year old daughter, Mary, the pony that she wanted since school got out. The look on her beautiful little face was priceless when we showed it to her. Her face was a golden flame set in the darkest of nights. “Oh daddy! Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!” she screamed. “Now take good care of him. What’s his name honey?” I asked. “George!” She yelled. Yes, times were beautiful then. Everything was golden, like a flame in the darkest of nights. A beacon, guiding us all home.

1949 was arguably one of the best years of my life, until they arrived. I’ll get to them later. Each morning was a new beginning, and each night was the bittersweet closing. Each night, my wife Ann and I would watch the brilliant sunset in the west from our porch. She was the love of my life, and we relished these moments because they were so rare when you have three children to look after, especially when school is out for the summer. One of these nights, Mary came downstairs to see us before we went to bed. She was crying and asking for her mommy. She was holding on tightly to Snuffles, the doll Ann made for her when she was just the age of two. Ann lifted her up into her lap. “What’s wrong honey?” she asked Mary. “Mommy, I had a nightmare. It…It was bad.”

Off in the distance, I could see lighting, and the air was full of humidity. The weather was cooking up a big one, that’s for sure. “We better get inside. This one looks bad.” I told them. “Yes honey. Let’s go inside so you can tell me about your dream in there, ok?” Ann asked. “Ok.” Mary replied. We got inside just as the heavens opened and let forth, what appeared to be a second Great Flood. The power soon went out. “Daddy!” Mary screamed. She rushed all the way across the living room to the kitchen where I was standing; admiring the show God was putting on from the Great beyond. I grasped her in a tight bear hug. “It’s ok baby that’s all those loud noises. Remember how much he liked to bowl?” she shook her head yes in a scared fashion. If only then I realized the connection between my father and the events that were set to occur. Tears began to gush out of her eyes, and she grasped me even tighter than before. All the strength that she had in her tiny little body was being forced into the bear hug. Ann came over to where we were standing, got down on one knee, and stroked Mary’s golden brown hair. “Everything is going to be alright Mar Mar. Do you want me to read you a story to help you get to sleep?” Ann asked. Upstairs, my two sons still slept despite the epic roars of the thunder outside. Honest to Jesus, they could sleep through an earthquake if given the chance. “Mommy, I can’t sleep. My dream was really bad.” “What happened in your dream?” Ann asked. “Everyone died, except daddy.”

Now that got my attention. I jerked my head away from the window to consider what my daughter had said for a moment. That indeed was a scary dream, certainly one that should not be intended for a 4 year old little girl. I have buddies who had just gotten back from Japan and Germany that had dreams like that. But a 4 year old little girl? That was odd. Quickly, I regained my thoughts. “Honey, you don’t need to be scared. Would mommy or daddy let anything in the world hurt you?” I asked. She shook her head, tears still streaming out of her eyes. “Now let’s go to bed. I’ll read you a story. How about The Little Train that Could?” Her eyes lit up almost at the instant that I said the. The Little Train that could was her favorite story by far. I read it to her so many times that I had lost count. And, thank God, it pulled her mind away from the horrific dream that had occupied her mind just a half an hour before. I took her hand and led her upstairs. Outside, the storm raged on.

I stayed awake for a long time that night. Lighting danced with the shadows of the furniture in my wife and my bedroom. My daughter’s dream struck me deep to the core. The thought of my family suffering some terrible fate was too much for me to bear. I know it was just the dream of a child; but since when does a 4 year old girl have dreams like that? Death and mortality should not be on the mind of a little girl. My mind was racing, so I got up and went downstairs to get a glass of water. It was 2:30 in the morning, and the storm had finally stopped. Outside, I could see water dripping from the leaves of the tree that was closest to the kitchen window. Large puddles of water stood out like sore thumbs in the yard. My mind was still racing as I went for the handle of the faucet. At first, it was only a few small drops, but then it quickly turned into a thick oozy flow of bright red liquid. The copper smell immediately gave it away, for I was not looking at it, I was simply letting it pour into the cup. It was blood. I dropped it on the hardwood floor, and the cup splattered into many pieces. The sudden sensation to throw up crossed my mind, but I held it in, and I commenced to tell my wife of the event that had just happened. The sound of my feet hitting the floor was a miraculously loud sound as I ran up the stairs, which made me question how my family could sleep through such loud noises, like the thunder from the storm that just came through a couple of hours ago. I hit a snag though, for when I reached my room, the door was locked, and a bright light was being emitted from the crack between the door and the floor. “Ann? Ann! ANN!” I screamed out in painful anguish as I pulled the doorknob. It absolutely would not give. The door was locked as tight as a bank vault. After I tried a number of times to get the doorknob released, I ran to my children’s rooms. I knocked over a small table with a vase on it without even noticing. All I cared about at that moment was the safety of my family. First I tried Ted and David’s room. I reached the same end, a fastened door that would not budge no matter how hard I pulled. “DAVID! TED! OPEN UP THIS GODFORSAKEN DOOR RIGHT NOW!” The yelling was useless though, for I reached the same fate that I had when I attempted to coax my wife out of the room by yelling. The light continued to grow brighter and brighter. It became a purple glow as its intensity grew. I ran to Mary’s room last, and put all the energy that I could muster into pulling the doorknob. Tears began to fill my eyes as I loosened my grip, because after all, it was locked like my room and my son’s room. “Mary, Mary be a good girl and open the door for daddy… please honey.” My words became choked up, and I fell to floor, bawling my eyes out. I had completely forgotten about the blood coming out of the faucet. The light around me was growing in intensity. It did for sure give me one mother of a headache. “Ann, Mary, Ted, David.” Me, being a praying man and all, decided that this was a perfect moment to pray to the man upstairs. “Please God, if you’re listening, please save me from this hellish nightmare.” God must have been listening, or so I thought, because at the conclusion of my prayer, all three doors flung open. The light faded away into the darkness, and it was no more. I got up slowly, wiping the tears away from the corners of my eyes, and walked to my room. As I crossed the threshold, I was met by a ghastly sight and smell. “Ann? ANN!” I was greeted by the decomposing body of my wife. Her beautiful brown hair had turned into a pale white. There were only traces of skin left on her whole body, and were her eyes should have been, were about ten to fifteen maggots. I ran to my children’s rooms, and was greeted by the same sights. Dead bodies, all of them were dead. Just like Mary’s nightmare. I was the only one left alive, and they were all dead. “WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!?! WHO KILLED YOU?!?! WHO KILLED ALL OF YOU?!?!” I became enraged, and the wall took the brunt of my rage. I ended up creating a large hole were a picture was once framed. My weight fell out from beneath me, and I crashed to the floor, weeping once again. When I looked up, a pair of dark red eyes were staring at me from down the hallway. They began to move; closer, closer, closer. Then I woke up.

When I woke up, my mother was standing over me. The clock on my bedside stand said 9:30 in the morning, and the sun was streaming through the windows overlooking the front yard. “Mom? What are you doing here?” “We have some matters to discuss, my son. Time is short, and you need to get out of bed.” I was baffled by the seriousness in her voice. Usually she sounded cheerful and pleasant. This voice made her sound worried and distraught. I quickly got out of bed, threw on some work clothes, and followed her downstairs. Ann was feeding the kids their breakfast. I was so happy to see that it was only a dream last night. I didn’t know what I would do without any of them in my life. Ann smiled at me, and I smiled back at her, but the pace at which my mother was moving was too fast for me to have a quick conversation with her. Before I knew it, my mother was out of the door, and into the yard. I followed her to the barn. She yanked open the door, and went inside. “Ok mother, what is it? Why are we out here?” I asked. “I know you had a terrible dream last night. In fact, it was more like a nightmare. I’m correct, right?” She asked. “How did you know that? Did Ann tell you that I was fidgeting in my sleep or something?” “Time is of the essence, child. For now, we must skip all questions. There is not much time at all.” Her paleness was Deeping, and it looked as if she might faint. “Mother, are you ok? You don’t look so good.” She ignored my question, and walked over to an empty horse stall, brushed away some hay, and reveled a large door with an ancient looking handle. I have never seen this door before in my entire life. She heaved, and the door opened. “Come, I will tell you a story.” She climbed into the darkness, and I followed. Destiny was calling, and mine just happened to lay in the dark cavern in my barn.

“It’s quite dark down here, grab a torch.” I did as I was told, and grabbed a torch that was hanging on the wall. She then lit it with her cigarette lighter. The hallway were we were standing in was very small, and I had to duck down in order to avoid hitting my head. There were many writings on the wall. The writings looked as if they belonged in a pyramid in Egypt, not a farmer’s barn in Indiana. “Your great, great grandfather built this house back in 1824. When he first moved here, he was trying to make a better life for his family, and he intended to become a farmer.” We passed many more strange markers on the walls. There were inscriptions that depicted men with wings, and others depicting people sacrificing animals such as sheep and goats. “He settled on this spot because of, in his mind, the proximity to the town. What he didn’t realize was that this spot was pre-chosen for him. One night, in his sleep, he got up from his bed at the inn he hand his family were staying at, and walked down here. You see, God came to him in his dream. He told him that he was the sole protector of the most sacred place on Earth. When he woke up from his dream, he had a shovel in his hands, and he was at the sight of the house. He began to dig, and he got to where we are right now.” We then reached the main chamber of which the tunnel led to. It was a room made out of gold bricks. Moss and fern grew from between the cracks of some of the gold bricks on the floor. Then I turned my head upward, and I saw it. The blazing blue light hurt my eyes at first, but then they adjusted. “Mother, what is this?” I asked. “It’s a portal, Edgar.” “A portal to what?” At that point, I noticed the names above the top of the portal. “Davis, Jones, Edmond, O’Conner…” My voice trailed off. There was English writing on the wall, which looked to be written in charcoal. “All of life is a journey.” I said out loud. A pendulum was inscribed on the wall as well, with both sides equal. “The room you are standing in was created after Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. The original Sin, if you will. This portal is used by guardian angels to move between Heaven and earth to look over the people they are to protect.” “Are you telling me that on the other side of that portal…is…Heaven?” I asked. “That is exactly what I am telling you. Your father devoted his life protecting this, and so did his father, and so on.” She said. “What happened to him? I mean, you always told me that he died in a tractor accident.” “The agents of evil sent an assassin in an attempt to gain access to Heaven. Your father grabbed his pistol, and shot the monster before it could escape into Heaven. But, the monster stabbed your father in the heart before going down.” “Oh..my…God.” I gasped. “Yes, indeed. Before he died, he asked two things of me. One was to name our son after his father, you. The second promise was to protect the portal until the proper time. Well son, that time has arrived. I had the same dream you had last night, except I was looking down on all of the events happening. The dream is a warning sign that now is the time to pass on the protection of the portal.” “I’m sorry…this is just too much for me to grasp right now. I’m seeing, but I am not believing.” I said, as I leaned against the wall. “Don’t you see Edgar, this is what you are supposed to do. You have to protect the portal. If you don’t, and the agents of evil gain access to Heaven; they will destroy it. And if Heaven is destroyed, so will the Universe.”

I was still dumbfounded by what my mother had said. I was in terms “a religious man” but this was… this was insane. “How long will I need to protect this thing?” I asked. “For as long as naturally possible. The king of Evil said that one day he would send his whole force upon this very gate, and catch God with his guard down. You must protect it, Edgar. The whole Universe depends on it.” She suddenly fell to the floor, and her face grew even paler, which was hard to believe because I thought she looked like she was going to pass out when she met me in my bedroom. I rushed over to her and grabbed her in my arms. “Mother! Mother!” Her eyes shifted back in their sockets for about 20 seconds, then they returned to normal. Her expression was even more scared than before. “They’re coming! They’re coming! Good Lord! They’re coming!” “What Mother? Who’s coming?” “The agents of evil! They are coming tonight!” She sprang to her feet and rushed down the hallway in which we arrived. Before she could disappear into the darkness, I saw her spring into a room that I hadn’t seen when we were coming in. “Mother! Hold on a second!” I chased her down the hallway and into the room. From what I had seen, the room was built sometime after the chamber was built, possibly when my great, great grandfather built his house and discovered the tunnel that lead to the portal. Rifles lined the walls, and many rounds of ammunition stood in eight large crates. But, none of these things were what she went for. A copy of the bible was laying atop a marble counter in the center of the room, and she snatched it up. She then commenced to flip through the pages furiously. “Revelations 3:17, Revelations 3:17, Revelations 3:17.” She finally reached the page she was looking for, and she pulled out a golden cross on a chain. She then tossed it to me. “There, you need that if you encounter him tonight.” “Encounter who?” I asked. “Him. As in the devil himself.”

From that moment on, that day seemed to fly by with intense speed. When my mother handed me the cross, it was like a new wave of understanding flew over me. I knew what my job was. My job was to protect the portal with my life, just as my father had, and his father before him. My wife was skeptical at first, but I swear, that cross has the most amazing power over the toughest of believers. When she grabbed it, I saw the expression in her face change from skeptical, to worried, to determined. “They are coming tonight?” She asked. “Yes, they are indeed coming tonight.” I said. “Well, we better get ready. Time is precious.” She paused, and looked into the living room where the children were sitting. “What about them Edgar? What will happen to them when this happens?” “I’m not sure. But we need to protect them with the same protectiveness that we are dedicating to the portal. Take them to the cellar right now.” “Ok, I’ll do that.” She said. Anne rushed into the living room, and gathered the children. I was sure that the questions would begin any moment. There would be questions like why they were going to the cellar, when there wasn’t a trace of any bad weather on the horizon; or why mommy looked so scared. I hoped that Anne would be able to answer these questions in stride. Meanwhile, I walked to the porch were just yesterday me and Anne watched the approaching thunderstorm. I had a new sense of purpose, and I wasn’t about to let it be destroyed. My mother came up on the porch and tapped me on the shoulder, getting my attention. “Are you ready?” She asked. “Yes.” I answered.

Again, as I said, time flew on. Before we knew it, it was 9:30 P.M. In the hours leading up to the eventual attack, we gathered weapons and ammunition from the secret room inside the passageway that leads to the portal. They were all piled up on the porch, while the cross necklace hung securely from my neck. Me, Ann and my mother were sitting on the porch, staring off into the distance and waiting for something to happen, anything, when a bright green light exploded above the corn fields. A mighty wind slammed the house. The trees in the yard swayed back and forth, and the house rattled. It was as if the wind came from a hurricane, and as you may well know, hurricanes are not really that common in Indiana. “It’s time.” My mother said. I was holding Anne’s hand, and we walked off the porch. We hurried over to the barn doors, just as the sun set. A second mighty wind erupted out of another green burst of light over the corn fields. This time, it knocked over the tree that my children used as their tire swing tree. I was knocked back into the barn doors, while Anne and my mother were sprawled out on the ground. “What was that?” Ann asked. “They have their own portal! It only works at the right moment!” My mother screamed. The air grew thick and lighting began to fill the sky. All of this occurred while the moon still hung high over the fields, and there was no cloud in the sky. We were in the same position from when the wind knocked us down when they arrived. They manifested out of thin air. They were hideous looking creatures. Some were hideous, disfigured soldiers from past wars, and some where six legged monsters with ten thousand eyes. There countless other types of monsters that the King of Evil had for his army, but they all had one thing in common. They all had dark red eyes, the same red eyes that I saw approaching me in the hallway during my dream. Then, one man emerged from within the group, and I immediately knew who it was. “Hello, I believe we met before.” He said, in the calmest of voices. “Yes we did. In my dream.”

There was a little piece of information that my mother passed along to me in the time that leading up to this confrontation that I kept squarely in my mind. “He will try to tempt you.” She said. This man, the King of Evil himself, fit the bill of a con artist if I have ever seen one. I was not about to listen to one deal that he was going to make. “I am guessing that you know why I am here?” he asked, with a cheesy grin on his face. “Yes, I do.” I responded. The gun in Anne’s hands rose, and I went to the barrel and lowered it. “Do you know what I intend to do?” He asked. “Yes. You have come here to gain access to Heaven.” The grin on his face grew even wider still, until I thought that his face was going to split into two halves. “Indeed! You are correct! Can we give this man a round of applause?” He turned around to the crowd of hideous beings, and conjured up applause. “Now, how about you put those guns down, step away, and let us through?” He asked, still smiling. “No. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” The smile grew smaller, but it still existed on his face. “Ok! Ok! What if I told you this? I can make you the king of this pitiful little world. Here is the only catch; you gotta let me through to do what I came here to do. I stuck to my same answer. I enjoyed the way it rolled off of my tongue. “No.” The smile faded. His dirt stained face turned dark, and the true evil that was hiding there was begging to make its presence known. “Oh, I see how we are going to have to do this.” He disappeared into thin air, and in a matter of seconds, reappeared with my three children. “How? What? Wait?” I was stammering, because I put a padlock over the door to ensure that nothing would get to them in the cellar. “Daddy!” Mary screamed. “I could do this. Maybe this would change your mind.” The King of Evil took a long knife out of his large coat pocket, and stabbed Mary in the stomach. “YOU SON OF A-!” Anne screamed. She took her gun, and fired. The battle had begun.

The bullet misfired, and struck two of the hideous creatures. They both burst into a bright stream of light, and disappeared. In the commotion, my sons became the next of my family to parish. The King of Evil grabbed them both, took a sword from his back, and stabbed them at the same time. All around us, chaos was erupting like a volcano. The disfigured soldiers set fire to the corn fields, and began to destroy my house. Me and Ann began to fire shots into the groups of monsters, while my mother flipped through the pages of the Bible that held the cross. “MOM! ARE YOU GOING TO HELP US OUT HERE? RIGHT NOW REALLY ISN’T THE BEST TIME TO BE READING, YOU KNOW?” I screamed. “HOLD ON A SECOND! I GOT AN IDEA. IT’S CRAZY, BUT IT MIGHT WORK!” I heard her yelling out loud the page from which she got the cross on, and when she reached it, she screamed out the passage. To my amazement, the whole crowd of soldiers disappeared into thin air. The only one remaining was the King of Evil. “NO!” He screamed. His face was now a sloppy mess of skin that was falling off, and landing on the blood stained grass. He took a couple of quick steps, raced to Anne, and stabbed her with the same knife that he stabbed Mary. “ANNE!” I screamed. Her eyes turned up to the night sky, which now didn’t seem like night at all, because of the fire. “YOU CAN NEVER STOP ME! IT ENDS TONIGHT!” The King of Evil shouted, as he grabbed the bran doors, and flung them open. The two huge doors flew off into the distance, and I did not see them land. He then commenced to run into the darkness of the barn. “Edgar…Edgar.” I looked over to see that my mother was lying on the ground, with a large gash in her side. “Oh mom.” I said, as I began to cry. “No, no don’t worry about me. If I’m lucky, I’ll be going to a better place. Buts it’s all up to you if I can get there. Go stop him, before he gets to heaven! GO!” With that, she faded away. I ran into the barn, and flew through the passage that was already open. The King of Evil was right. This conflict was going to end that night, more precisely, right then.

I raced down the passageway, past the drawings of angles, past the drawings of the redemption of sinners, and found the King of Evil standing at the portal. He was no longer in the form of a man, but now a beast. “HEY!” The beast turned around, and faced me. Its dark red eyes fixated on me, but I was not afraid. “YOU KILLED MY WIFE, MY CHILDREN, AND MY MOTHER. NOW I’m GOING TO END YOU!” I pulled the cross out of my shirt on instinct, and I pointed it at the beast. The beast howled, and a great beam of light shot out from the cross and engulfed the whole room. I was knocked out. When I came to, I was awoken by a man standing over me. He was wearing a bright white robe, and he seemed to be glowing. I flew back to the wall, and bumped my head extremely hard. “You’re not…you’re not…” I trailed off. “The Devil? No, I am not. What I am is your guardian angel. I would just like to say thank you, Edgar. Thank you for protecting the portal, and sending the Devil back to where he and his soldiers came from.”

“Wait! Wait! What happened to…” before I could ask him about my family, he walked through the portal and disappeared. I was in such a daze that I just sat in the chamber for a while, trying to regain my thoughts. The cross was still firmly attached to my left hand, where I had it when I held it up to the Devil. I had done my job; I had stopped the Devil from reaching Heaven. “ANNE!” I quickly got up, and raced out of the barn. All of the bodies were still there still. The sun was now beating down, and it would have been a very beautiful day; anywhere but here. Fires still raged on in the corn fields, and my house was almost completely destroyed. When I saw this scene, I fell to my knees and began to sob. The realization had finally hit home to me that the dream came true. I was witnessing it with my own eyes. My family was dead, and I was the only one left alive.

So, here I am. You heard my story. You are now the new protector of the portal. After I found my family’s dead bodies, I decided that I wasn’t cut out for this job. So now, I am going to end it all, and hopefully God will forgive me for what I am about to do, but I just cannot bear the pain anymore. My final piece of advice is this; guard the portal with your life. When the Devil comes back, he will be far more prepared then he was this time. He will have even more soldiers. He will not stop till he destroys everything. Goodbye reader.






Edgar J. Redman III






July 16th, 1949.

Edgar put the barrel of the gun to his forehead and held the trigger for a moment, and pulled it away quickly. “Please God, please forgive me for what I am about to do.” He put the barrel back to his forehead, when he heard a voice behind him in the burned out office. “Daddy!” Mary screamed. “Mary! Oh my God! I thought you were…were.” “Dead?” Anne asked. She walked into the room, along with his two sons and his mother. “You’re all alive?” “No. We came back here to help you Edgar.” Ann said. “What do you mean?” he asked. “If you were to kill yourself, you will go to hell.” His mother said. “If I kill myself, I can be with all of you.” “No, Edgar. That is not how this works.” He now became enraged. “WELL HOW IS IT SUPPOSED TO WORK! I DON’T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE!” he screamed. “Edgar, don’t be angry. Your job is not finished yet. You still have work to do.” Ann said. “WHAT WORK?” “You have to protect the portal! We cannot stay for that much longer, but we can come back from time to time to check up on how you are doing.” His mother said. “WAIT! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE! PLEASE!” “Daddy!” Mary began to sob. “MARY, DADDY LOVES YOU BABY. DON’T CRY, PLEASE DON’T CRY.” They were all beginning to disappear into a bright light, and Edgar was still screaming when they went. He fell to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably. After a while, he realized that they were not coming back, but he had to protect the portal, because on the other side of that portal was where they were, and if that place was destroyed, he would never get to see them again. So Edgar Redman III carried on, protecting his family, and the portal.