When most people think of gods, they only think of one or two. Only one or two gods that created the entire universe, and the singular personalities of the people in it. I’ve always thought differently. I knew that there had to be more than one god, or else the world would be much different than it is today. There would be only one kind of person. Only one kind of planet. There was no way that there wasn’t more than one god. I set out on a mission to prove this. Even though I thought that I was making a conscious decision, I was part of something bigger than I could possibly imagine…

                It all started when… well, technically when I was born. But my quest began when I turned seven. My mom had informed me about Christianity, about the one true God. This was the first time I had learned about God. Then, when I thought about it a little more, I concluded that there had to be multiple gods. I talked to my parents about it, talked to my friends, talked to my teachers. No one would agree with me. That was when I realized that I had to complete my journey on my own. Even though I had to do it myself, I would see that the world changed.

                Fast forward when I was nine years old. I was sitting in my living room when a gentle breeze started to flow through the house. I thought that a window must be open. Except that there were no windows open. As soon as I realized that, the breeze started to get stronger, and stronger, and stronger. Then… it stopped. Just at quickly at it started, the wind disappeared. Then, suddenly the sound of thunder started. In the thunder, I could hear a faint, “You… are… special… you… are… special…” Then, I thought I saw a faint outline of a blue figure standing on the top of the stairs. I reached out to touch it, and then it disappeared. All the sounds of thunder disappeared. What happened…

                The next odd encounter was at ten. I was walking down the street when a hole opened up in front of me. I jumped back in surprise, and stared down into it. It went down farther than I could see. It looked like it opened up into a large cavern, held up by lava pillars. I couldn’t see the sides. Then, I could see a small creature with wings flying near the hole. It looked up and me, and I ran as far away as I could. Then, another figure, red this time, appeared off to the right. I ran towards it, and a hole opened underneath him. He started to drop down it, and my fingers scraped the top of his head. All of the holes suddenly closed. I just stood there for a second, and rested. Then, I just walked away.

                My next interaction with a god was when I was eleven. I was in school, writing an essay in my writing class. Suddenly, everyone froze. People’s fingers froze in midair, and all of the typing sounds stopped. The teacher was in the middle of talking to a student, and then suddenly she stopped. Everything went silent. I didn’t freeze like the rest of them, but the keys on my keyboard wouldn’t press down anymore. I couldn’t move my chair backwards, and I couldn’t get up. I heard a faint ticking sound. A gray figure appeared right next to me and started to reach for me. I ducked underneath the table and reached out for its legs. It disappeared, and I was suddenly typing again, and everything went back to normal. Little did I know, this last encounter was what made the gateway.

                Skip to just a few hours ago. I was walking down the street, going home from school. It seemed like a completely normal day, with no thunder, no holes in the ground, no time freezing. I had no idea that this day would be the most important day of my life. Turning a corner, I walked right into a blue circle, standing upright on the pavement. Suddenly, I was falling, and falling, and falling. I looked down and saw black. I looked up and saw black. I looked to the sides and saw black. There was nothing around me, nothing to support me. There was just nothing. Suddenly, the ground rushed up to meet me and I blacked out.

                I was in a cool, damp cave. I sat up quickly, and looked around. It looked like a normal cave. Even though I had fallen down from a great height, there was nothing above me. That got me thinking. How am I still alive? It was evident that a normal human being would not have survived that fall. I must have had help. I needed to find out what was going on. When I looked a little more closely, I realized that it wasn’t a cave, but a wide tunnel. The cave only went off in one direction. I went that way, and I thought that I saw a faint blue light in the distance. I ran to it, and it was the blue figure that was originally in my house. The one that had caused the thunder. I reached out to touch it… and I saw the truth.

                BOOM! There was a bright flash of light and a loud popping noise, and I was suddenly standing in a large cavern. The figure was standing in front of me. Floating, actually. It looked at me, and then it started to change shape. It became a man, standing ten feet tall, with white hair and a white beard. Water droplets fell around him. “I am your father,” he boomed, “and you are my son.” I was speechless. I started to say something, but he interrupted, “Do not attempt to speak. Just listen. I had you a long time ago, and I knew that I could not keep you. I placed you on Earth to remove you from myself. Now, we have a little bit of a problem…”

                “We need you,” he continued. “You are our last hope to save the mythological world… from the Lockbox. The Lockbox is an entity that visited our world many, many years ago. The three figures that were sent after you? Those were from the Lockbox. I managed to gain control of one and bring you here.” “Just one question,” I cut in. “Why me?” He replied, “There is great power within you. That is why you were pursued by the Lockbox monsters. No one else has ever been able to defeat them, such as you did. This is why we need you. You’re about to be transported inside the Lockbox. Three warnings: don’t die, don’t step in the lava, and never, EVER, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, enter the palace.” I asked, “So when is this happening?” He answered, “Good luck!”

                I was suddenly standing in a green field, full of grass and flowers. I looked around. It looked like the land my house was built on! I looked around, and saw my small house on top of the hill. I went inside it, and there were pancakes flipping themselves on the stove. Suddenly, a black version of the figures appeared, staring at me with blood red eyes. I reached out to touch it, and it disappeared. The pan clattered on the floor, at my feet. Suddenly, I was transported into another place, one that I had never seen before. I looked around. There was a wall, a gate, and… a palace. On the wall there were thousands of the creatures, and the gate was the way out. Either of them would result in my failure. My only option was to go into the palace.

                Inside the palace… it just looked like a castle. There were pillars shooting up into the sky. There were black granite floors, and there was faint light coming from the outside. It was completely quiet. All I could hear was the tapping of my feet… and a humming. A quiet humming, coming from farther into the castle. I ran towards the sound, intending to stop this once and for all. I went inside and saw a small altar. There was a ball of glowing white light above it. I reached out to touch it.

                BOOM! The light was gone. I was standing back inside the cave, and the strange man ran up to me. He exclaimed, “Did you do it? Did you save us all?” I answered, “I don’t know, it seemed too easy…” That’s when the ceiling in front of us collapsed. Another black figure dropped in from the ceiling… but it was more than twice the size of the man. I had set it free. The figure grabbed the man and flung him against the wall. He collapsed, laying on the ground with his eyes closed. It then reached for me, grabbing me and squeezing me tight. I couldn’t move my arms, and I couldn’t reach out to touch him. I blacked out.

                When I woke up, my legs were feeling numb. It was starting to cut off my blood flow, and soon enough I would be dead. I needed to destroy the thing, and quick. But how could I destroy it if I couldn’t move my hands? The man’s voice rang in my head. The importance of the action is nothing without the intention. I thought about that for a second. Did he mean… I decided to try something. The fate of the entire world would depend on whether I had the strength to pull this off. I focused my mind. I emptied my thoughts. I floated away. I could suddenly see myself on a small platform with the figure. I started to reach out, and its grip started loosening, ever so slowly. But, as soon as I tried to move, its grip tightened again. So, I channeled all of my thoughts, all of my meaning, everything I had, into one move...

                and so I reached.