The Park

The Park

      The park has been closed for a long time, yet the locusts take shelter. The little boy stared at the gates of Hell as they rusted into red-brown crusted doors, about to break down into dust. The little boy was named “Raven,” which he was named by his mother before her death. Raven walks towards the gate and touches it, nothing happens.
As the doors were pushed by a light touch, they slowly opened and Raven walks with no anxiety and jitters beneath his skin. He lives near here, but never went to this abandoned park before, since his caretaker doesn’t let him go to dangerous places.
      Raven has been to abandoned places a lot, and is not afraid of anything, except for one thing. Here is the park, field of grasses now sun-burned hay, muddy sand with twigs and dead insects, rusty swings with no seats, and a single slide, covered in animal blood and nobody to play with. Raven is surprised to see blood spread-out in a forgotten children’s hang-out. One of the sidewalk tiles has a pentagram with a goat’s face on it, he wonders what that meant. Good thing he bought his H.P. Lovecraft books with him in his backpack. He even has a personal spellbook given to him by his mother, and it is engraved in his name at the bottom of the book, “Property of Raven Muerto”.
      As he flips through the aged pages of his spellbook, he found a page that is covered by pentagrams and has the info to this symbol. Raven has learned that the pentagram is a satanic symbol or is associated with Satanism. The spellbook said that “Pentagrams that appears in abandoned places are actually portals to the spirit world; the following spell will help you open the portal and you will enter it with no problem. The other thing is that if you stay at the spirit world for more than 6 hours, you will be trapped in the spirit world for all eternity.”
       Raven now has the spell in front of him, and stands on the pentagram. He reads in Latin, “I call upon the gatekeeper to the portal. If you can hear my voice, appear to me. I am the one to summon you, my dear gatekeeper.” Silence…has took his voice, the pentagram cracked, then orange rays peeked out. Raven looked down with his dark gray eyes, now bright from the light. Boosh! He moves out of the way, the ground he was on has exploded into a hundred pieces, and the circle-shaped portal has open for him to see. Came out was a shadow, a dark being with a dragon skull for a head.
      An inhuman, deep, but soothing voice exclaimed,“Who dares open the portal without my acknowledgement!” The boy opened his eyes slowly, seeing who had said that. “Answer me now!” Raven now answers his rude demand, “My name is Raven Muerto, I’m the one who summoned you.” “So, you’re the mortal who summoned me, well ain’t that delightful,” said the dark being sarcastically. “May I ask, who are you?”
     “Who am I? Well, I am the gatekeeper of the spirit world, and you can call me Derwood.” Raven felt pretty unsure about the creature, he looks pretty evil telling from his looks. But as his caretaker said, “Never ever judge a book by its cover, it’s very disrespectful to the community we have here.” That was one of the rules that Raven learns from the orphanage. Raven asked, “Can you show me what the spirit world looks like?” Derwood had thought for a minute, after observing the boy’s fearless behavior. He has now thought of an answer, “Well, I’ll give you a tour of the place, but first, you must make a deal with me, my dear boy.” “What type of deal?” “Well, it’s difficult to explain and you must agree with this deal before you can enter.”
       Raven nodded, “Go on.” “Ok then, now you have to give me something to be able to enter, I want you to give me your soul, and it’s not in a negative way. It’s the way to watch over you and be your guardian ‘demon’.” Raven now is puzzled about giving his soul to a demon, but he still agrees to the deal and goes with the flow. Derwood takes the boy’s hand and suddenly disappeared. Raven squinted his eyes to the bright light swirling around him and the dark being, like a wormhole sucking them in.
     Bam! Raven lay still on the unfamiliar onyx floor, waking up as Derwood looks down on him. “Hello Raven, welcome to the other world.” The little boy takes a good look at the place and, with caution, he touches the floor, which evaporates into smoke after being rubbed on. The dark being signaled Raven to follow him; the boy is still unsure. After a few minutes of walking, they found in front of them a gate that resembled fused icicles. Derwood turned around and said cautiously to the boy, “Now, my dear boy, since we are at the gate, you must tell me what you wish for, and what you desire the most the whole world.” Raven tells him to come, so he can whisper to his ear. As Derwood listens, he gives a grimace of amusement and he knows what to do now.
      “Alright, I’ll let you in, for now.” The demonic gatekeeper unlocks the golden lock and lets the boy in. “Now Raven, in order to get what you want, you must finish these challenges that I request.” “I’m ready.” “The first challenge is that we find the Three Poets and challenge them.” “What do they do?” “They challenge souless people to give out the best poems or sayings. If they win, they get to have their souls back, but if they lose, they lose their souls for all eternity.” Raven thought for a minute and said, “I’m sure I might be able to win this trial.” “Are you sure?” “I’m very sure, I’m known to have great poems and sayings.” “Is that so? Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
       During the first hour, they walked on the green brick path and found a cave, where the Three Poets lived. Raven poked Derwood on the leg and asked, “Is this where they live?” “Yes, they live here because they don’t like to be outside.” As they walked through the cave, they saw three hooded women sitting around the fire. One was tall, slim, and had black hair, one was short, wide, and had blond hair, and the middle one had a voluptuous and curvaceous body, and auburn hair.
        The black-haired one was the first one to speak, “Who dares enter our cave!” “We don’t have time for anything right now, we’re very tired and in no mood for a poem-off,” said the blond one. The curvaceous one stood up and said, “Settle my sisters, we have time.” Raven didn’t know what to think of the hooded sisters, even the auburn one was someone he couldn’t take his eyes off. Derwood whispered to Raven, “Aren’t they charming.” “Yeah,” replied the boy, “They’re very charming.” He’s still mesmerized by the auburn sister, walking towards the boy as she swayed her hips in an intimidating manner. “Who are you and what is your purpose of being here.” “My...my name is Raven Muerto, and I came here to challenge you to a poem-off.” “Oh really, why such a young boy can be so brave enough to challenge us, we are the Three Poets and we make the best poems and sayings ever.” “What are your names?”
      “Oh! Pardon me, we didn’t introduce ourselves, this is Avalie," pointed at the black-haired one, "Then there's Gisela," pointed at the blond one, "and my name is Jezebel." After an one-second silence, Raven said, "Shall we begin?" "Yes, we shall," said Jezebel. Avalie then stood up with a piece of paper on her hand and read her poem. "The mangy mantis perched on a branch. It prayed for prey to come. As it waited too long, it died of starvation and slipped into eternal sleep."
       Gisela pushed Avalie, "My turn!" She then cleared her throat and began to speak, "Death is not the Afterlife, but it is the beginning of the end. No mortal will survive this, not even the strongest would survive the apocalypse of their body and mind." Jezebel clapped with amusement; now it was her turn to impress everyone with her recent poem, "Love is a black widow. It's quick and painful. It seduces you with its own beauty and then it bites you and kills you slowly. Love is a black widow."
       Now, it's Raven's turn to impress. The good thing is that he had a poem that he loved so much, even the kids at the orphanage loved it. "Alright, your poems are impressive, but I believe this is a piece of cake." The Three Poets looked confused, then looked at the boy to see what he's got. "This is called, 'I Once Known Someone Special' "
The little boy then cleared his throat and began to speak out his poetic words,                                                                                                                                            "I once known someone, someone special.
She was very special indeed.
She was known to be kind and gentle.
She was every children's need.
She used to bake tea and cookies for me.
Until she croaked and choked.
She taught me what was like to be free.
She taught me jokes that were meant to be joked.
I known what was like to have a family.
I even known what was like to be loved.
But I wished to have a multi-part family.
And when she was gone, I was unloved.
Until I had a miracle, oh how I was blessed.
A caretaker that was so gentle.
To be in an orphanage was definitely my quest.
Luckily, I once known someone very special.”
  The Three Poets were speechless, they thought it wasn’t dark enough but it was simply enchanting to them. Jezebel was the first to speak, “Raven, that was very endearing and my sisters thought it was wonderful, right?” Jezebel turned her head to her sisters. Avalie and Gisela spoke in unison, “Oh, absolutely!” Derwood was also impressed by Raven’s poem. “You are free to go off on your journey,” said Jezebel, “We hope to see you again soon.” The two other sisters also said their goodbyes and Derwood and Raven waved back. Now on to the second challenge.
   The second challenge was to defeat a cyclops that was attacking the City of Lost Children. Raven won the fight with the cyclops by stabbing its eye with a Bowie knife. The third challenge was to feed the great worm of Chamim, and Raven successfully fed the worm with animal guts and chum. The fourth challenge was that he had traded one of his books with a ghostly sailor in exchange to go to his final place in the spirit world to do his last challenge. His final challenge was to do a blood pact with Derwood, which sounds pretty simple to do, but he didn't know what a blood pact is.
   Derwood then said, "It's when we make a tiny cut on our palms and shake hands, so we can be blood brothers and trust each other." Raven is now sure that he could trust Derwood this time, since he's been through a lot with him for the last four to five hours.
That reminded him that he must get out of here before he will be trapped for all eternity.
Derwood had a Roman dagger on his hand, and carefully grabbed Raven's hand. "This is just a prick, don't worry, trust me." He made a small slit on his tiny palm, which stung a little like a needle. Derwood then made a huge cut on his palm, which bled blackish-red with a hint of shine to it. "Well, go ahead, shake it."
    Raven shook his hand and squeezes it, which made the demon smile lovely for the first time at Raven, who also smiled back. Suddenly, a door appeared in front of them.
Derwood finally figured out what door it was and unlocked it with his handy dandy gatekeeper key. They both opened it very slowly, and a bright light was shining on them.
There was a womanly figure, standing near the doorway. Raven thought, "That woman looks very familiar, I wonder if I could get closer and closer enough to see her."
    Raven walked toward the woman, gazing at her like she was a work of art. He could not understand this feeling he has within his soul and heart, that how come he feels like he's being pulled by an unimaginable force. As he was closer to her, he can almost see her pale face, and long dark-brunette locks. He can't believe his eyes, it just can't be her, but he made sure that it must be that special someone. "Mommy?" He uttered.
    The woman's face was fair with beauty, looked down on the boy, slowly her once beautiful face started to turn into rotten flesh and screamed at the top of her lungs like a banshee. Her face melted into distortion and scared the boy half to death. Her blue eyes rolled over her white lace dress, laying on the ivory floor bloody. Flashing lights around him, and it made him almost had a deadly mind-blowing seizure. He screamed, "It is the end! It is the end!" He felt like he was going to pass out from her blood-curdling scream, and he felt suddenly floating in the ghostly air with no care for the world around him.
   He woke up with shaking all over his body, he was in someone's arms. It was the caretaker, from the orphanage. A jolly middle-aged man, who cared for the boy more than the other kids. Raven whispered sickly, "What happened." "I told you not to go to abandoned places, they're too dangerous for a lad your age." Raven then understood, but he wondered if the woman from the spirit world was his mother or not.
    Regardless of what just happened, they went to the orphanage to have hot chocolate to stay warm for the upcoming storm. As Raven was sitting on the comfy couch, drinking his hot cocoa. He began questioning to himself if he will see Derwood again.
"Is he watching over me liked he promised, is he my blood brother forever?"
Is the park representing a senseless illusion or is it just the beginning of his unknown journey, to find his hope and dreams, to see his beloved mother again.