I. The Wish
The relentless drumming of rain against the tin roof was drowned out by the cacophony inside the house.
In the corner of a dimly lit room, a thirteen-year-old boy named Alpha curled into a ball, trying to make himself invisible. His eyes were swollen, a fresh bruise blooming across his cheek like a dark rose. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the scene before him.
His father, reeking of cheap liquor, loomed over his mother.
"You shouldn't have been born!" the man roared, his voice slurring with venom. "Both of you are curses on my life!"
Another blow landed. Alpha squeezed his eyes shut, his fingernails digging into his palms. In the darkness of his mind, he clung to a desperate fantasy. *If only I could leave... If only I could escape to one of those worlds in the Donghua stories. A world where strength meant survival. A world where I could finally protect her. *
II. The Cycle of Misery
Seven years bled away, but the nightmare remained frozen in time.
Alpha was twenty now, taller and stronger, yet bound by chains of guilt and circumstance. The moment he crossed the threshold of his home, the routine played out with sickening precision. A heavy hand struck his face. Crack.
Alpha didn't flinch. He didn't speak. He simply absorbed the violence, a silent vessel for his father's misplaced rage.
Late that night, the house finally fell silent. Alpha lay with his head in his mother's lap, the only sanctuary he had ever known. Her frail fingers ran through his hair, soothing the chaos in his mind.
"Ma," he whispered, his voice thick with suppressed emotion. "One day... I promise, one day I will end all your suffering."
She smiled, a sad, weary expression that broke his heart. "I know, son. I believe in you."
Lulled by her touch, Alpha drifted into a restless sleep.
III. The anomaly
When his eyes snapped open, it was the dead of night. Suffocated by the atmosphere of the house, Alpha climbed up to the roof. The cold wind bit at his skin as he stared up at the vast, uncaring expanse of the stars.
"Is there really nowhere else for me?" he murmured to the void.
As if in answer, the sky tore open.
A streak of fire plummeted from the heavens, tearing through the atmosphere and crashing into the distant mountains. BOOM. The ground trembled.
Alpha's heart hammered against his ribs. It wasn't fear; it was a pull. A magnetic urge screaming at him to investigate. Should I go? The hesitation lasted only a second. Anything is better than this.
He ran.
IV. The Illusion
Breathless, he reached the crash site in the valley between the peaks. There was no crater, no debris. Instead, hovering silently above the ground, was a massive, archaic Door. It pulsed with an ethereal blue energy, humming with a song that only Alpha could hear.
He stood before the swirling vortex.
If I step through, I leave everything behind. But if I stay... I remain a punching bag. And Ma... Ma suffers because I am here. If I leave, maybe he will stop.
Steeling his nerves, Alpha stepped into the light.
Gasp!
He sat up violently, drenched in sweat. He was... in his bed?
The smell of breakfast wafted from the kitchen. His mother was humming.
"A dream?" Alpha clutched his head. "It felt so real."
Three days passed. Alpha tried to forget the glowing door, dismissing it as a hallucination born of desperation. But the universe had other plans.
On the third evening, he returned from college to the familiar sting of insults.
"You are useless!" his father spat, throwing a bottle against the wall. "Why don't you just die? It would be a favor to us all!"
Something inside Alpha finally snapped. Not with a bang, but with a cold, quiet resolve. The numbness was gone, replaced by clarity.
V. The Plunge
It was 10:00 PM. Alpha grabbed his bicycle and pedaled into the darkness. The wind whipped past him, carrying away his doubts. When the terrain became too steep, he abandoned the bike and scrambled up the rocky path on foot.
He reached the spot. The clearing where the Gate had been.
It was empty.
Just cold rocks and silence.
"No..." Alpha fell to his knees, his voice cracking. "It can't be gone. It was real. I know it was real!"
The despair was crushing. The one lifeline he thought he had was a lie.
GRRRRR.
A low, guttural growl vibrated through the ground. Alpha spun around.
Emerging from the shadows was a beast—eight feet tall, covered in obsidian fur, with eyes like burning coals. It lunged.
Panic seized him. Alpha scrambled backward, his foot finding nothing but air.
He fell.
The wind roared in his ears as he plummeted off the cliffside. He braced for the impact, for death... but it never came. A cushion of invisible energy wrapped around him, slowing his descent until he landed softly on the lower ledge.
VI. The Threshold
He scrambled to his feet, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He looked up, expecting to see the monster, but his gaze was drawn to something else.
There, nestled at the base of the ravine, hidden from the world above, was the Gate.
It hadn't vanished; it had been waiting.
The energy swirled violently, inviting him in.
Alpha stood at the precipice of destiny. Behind him lay a life of pain, abuse, and helplessness. Before him lay the unknown.
The question was no longer if he should go.
It was what he would become when he did.
The choice was simple, yet life-altering. Behind him lay a world of familiar pain; before him, an abyss of unknown destiny. Will Alpha surrender to the shackles of his past, or will he dare to cross the threshold into a world that has already rejected him