I woke up to the sounds of crickets chirping vigorously in the middle of the night. I don’t think I’d ever heard so many at once or so clearly in my life. It wasn’t as dark as it should have been, and was kind of cool with a gentle breeze. I thought my bed felt a little strange. It was a little damp and cool to the touch. It felt like…grass? I bolted straight up.

Me: What the fu--!

I was back in the clearing in the dead of night. I looked around for any clues that might tell me how I got there. Unfortunately, there were none to be found. I didn’t even have any footprints to go off of. I looked to my left and found the same towering wall that I woke up next to the last time.

Me: Of course…

Frustrated, I got to my feet and began my long walk around this thing. I wasn’t expecting anything to be different, I just needed a little exercise to warm up and something to help me burn time. I didn’t know how I got there a second time, didn’t know how I got back home the first time, and didn’t know how I’d get home this time. What I did know, however, was that Mom was going to eventually wake up, see I was missing, find me, and kill me. She was particularly heavy handed when I got to high school. Those slaps to the face evolved, going from splitting my lips to knocking me to the floor, and now included body blows. I’d get punches to the center of my chest and gut now, industrial broomsticks broken over my back, and even heavy objects thrown at me.

It’s because of crippling poverty. Time was short, work was hard, pay was low, and tensions ran high. It was easy to set someone off when someone made a mistake or ran into a situation that made their provider’s / parents’ lives harder. It’s like they never get a break. They become bitter and feel like everything falls only on them; like they’re trapped under the weight of the whole world with no assistance. They panic and lash out.

You know, a lot of people make jokes and talk about how comedians exaggerate the truth for the sake of comedy. That’s not really true. Well, maybe it’s true for the individual telling the jokes, but they’re really discussing something that actually occurs in many minority households across the nation. Then, of course, you have to get the delicate privileged folk who have to completely miss the point so they can brag about how they got spankings too, in some meager attempt to relate to and minimize the subject. You’d see 99 racial minorities verifying the joke as realistic for every 1 of those guys trying to fit in and attempt to subliminally make some case against a supposition that hadn’t even been made: racism. If you’re one of these shitheads, let me just explain something to you VERY quickly. No one in these discussions is trying to say you specifically did not, or could not, have a hard life. We’re only pointing out the FACT that yours isn’t due to the color of your skin. No one built an institution and economy on the suffering of your people exclusively. Mine? Well, we’ve been living with it for around 1300 years now.

Now that I’ve made about 90 million new enemies, I guess I’ll get back to my story.

This structure seemed even bigger than the first time. Actually...everything was bigger than it was the first time - except for the creatures, foliage, and myself. I mean, like, the clearing was larger, the walls were taller, and they were longer. I carefully counted time to the best of my ability. Each side took several minutes longer than before. I had to tilt my head back even more than before to see the tops of the walls too. That was crazy. Someone had been making changes to this already gargantuan box between my visits. I ran my fingers along the wall and it felt smoother. The niches between the blocks were smaller; tighter. It was like they were designing it to be even more difficult to get inside of. They were only somewhat honed, not sealed, so suction cups wouldn’t work. It was great craftsmanship.

Along the fourth wall I stumbled across an imposing metal door. I don’t mean it was just large, I mean it was also rugged and intimidating. For starters, it looked like iron. It was black like cast iron and it wasn’t at all polished. It was still rough to the touch and cold. There were imperfections across it that looked like bars were embedded in it, and the edges were jagged. You would think I was wise enough to leave the door alone, wouldn’t you? I wasn’t. Being a foolish child, I opened the door and stepped inside.

Me: [exasperated] Really? Like, REALLY, really?!

There was almost NOTHING inside. The moonlight came from above, naturally. There was more grass. Okay, I’ll say the grass was much longer than it was outside. This grass strangely grew to just above my knees. The grass outside was barely ankle high. I saw something glinting in the pale moonlight off in the distance. I didn’t notice it when I first entered but it was definitely something shiny or flashing at me. I was careful to leave the door open and moved toward it. As I approached the object, I felt vibrations in the ground and air, and the walls seemed to growl at me. It was a barely audible, bassy rumble that made me nervous. Still, I pushed forward. It didn’t seem loud but I knew it was. You ever heard of infrasound? It was something similar to that. That must have caused all the vibrations I was feeling.

The closer I got, the better I could see and the more difficult the trek to the center of the area. The walls almost seemed to be breathing. After living with the conditions I had to endure for so long, however, it’s goes without saying that I had little to be afraid of. I had survived the worst, so I could handle something that was just a little creepy. I kept it moving. I didn’t even slow down.

The object appeared to be red. I sped up. The growls intensified. Then I could see that it was a red object on a dark object, like a stand. I started jogging and the growls became more like a whine. The vibrations in the ground and air subsided periodically, like a heartbeat. I found that freaky but didn’t let the change stop me. The closer I got, the higher the frequency.

Me: What IS that?

The air started to move against me, then draw me in. It was like waves. It was strange for the wind to suddenly pick up in here because the walls were easily high enough to block it that gentle breeze outside. This was something different. It had to be coming from the thing I was trying to get to. It came into focus now. It looked like some kind of stone now. I was less than 50 feet from it now. It looked like it was doing something.

Me: [shocked] Is it - is it moving?!

The strange activity around me stopped suddenly when I got within about 20 feet of the object. It was definitely on a pedestal in the center of this area. It was a black pedestal made of the same rough iron the door was made of. A beautiful red stone rested on top of it, and it was heart shaped. It wasn’t shaped like an emoji heart either, it was shaped like a real heart.

Me: [surprised] Who the hell would leave something like this here? It looks like some kind of roughly cut ruby. I guess that’s good reason to build something like this around it. But why here? And why add a door? Why leave it unlocked?

Normally I’m not the stealing type but this was just too good an opportunity to miss. A jewel this big had to be worth millions if it was real. It could have changed my life. No more beatings, no more gangs, no more evil teachers ruining my chances at a good education, no more bullies to fight, and no more doing without. I just couldn’t pass that up. I don’t think anyone in their right minds could.

Me: [mumbling] Shit, they got me fu--

I turned to walk away with the stone and four VERY heavy walls fell down around the area I was in, pedestal and all. They were just like the exterior walls and growled viciously as they landed. Heavy clouds formed in the sky and loud thunder stung my ears, shaking dust and debris from the walls as the sky darkened. The ground quaked beneath me and I fell backwards to look up at the intimidatingly high walls.

Me: [stunned] Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit…

It was at that moment I realised...I fucked up.