JOHN

How I got elected to explain it all to Gemma Kane was easy. It’s a guy’s game of ‘how to get outta the hard stuff’. See, it was my apartment … check. I was the first on Wigand’s chart to have a vision … check. And, then came the all time favorite beer drinking proclamation … “because we want you to do it”. Great. And as the woman entered, I was sure the tables were about to turn, big time. See, up until that night, I was the one who thought she was the nut case. Here goes.

“First off,” I cleared my throat after introducing everyone. “I really appreciate you’re hearing us out here, but it’s gonna be a little … strange, so I need you to give this a chance, okay? What I’m gonna tell you is pretty much gonna sound fucking crazy. Ready?”

She nodded, a smug knowing expression on her wide face.

“All right. My name is John Biebe. I was never born, never lived anywhere, never actually breathed real air until October of 1999. See, that was the day the film, Mystery, Alaska was released. That day, I just … kinda woke up in this place, this other world. Since then I met my wife, married her, built this Inn and we had my son. Over there, Terry Thorne, he’s from the film Proof of Life. Beside you, Jack Aubrey, he’s the captain in the film Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World. Every one of us came from a film … and …” I swallowed real hard, here we go. “And, every one of those films featured the same actor, Russell Crowe. Somehow, someway, something we’ve been calling the Portals has been taking us from our films and dropping us into this life for years … and it keeps on doing it with every new movie the guy makes.”

She blinked, gulped and Cory ran to bring her water. I waited ‘til she looked stable.

“Ms. Kane. How we got here isn’t the question. Why we’re here isn’t the question. The problem is … we suspect that the Portal is trying to take us back … and we just don’t know why it would do that.”

“What …. um … what … right … now, Mr. Biebe, what would make you that think this … Portal … is trying to take you back?”

Fuck, I could see it in her face, she sure as hell wasn’t buying it. Feeling defeated, I just groaned and rubbed my eyes. “Because. Several of us have recently experienced strong visions … no, more than visions … we’ve experienced a few moments of actually being back there. That’s why.”

Well, that went pretty bad.

GEMMA

The man’s nuts.

MAXIMUS

I felt it was time to step forward. “Ms. Kane. I do clearly understand that you may not believe this. But we are all alive, well,” I glance to my Roman brothers, Antony and Pullo. “Most of us are here and alive because of Mr. Crowe. I can only guess that there is some reason for this that means little at the moment. Coming here is our lot, determined by a power we could not control … but until these incidents, we surely felt that leaving was our choice.”

“And,” Ms Kane spat angrily as we had obviously pressed her limit of patience. “What movie are you from, big guy?”

“The film was called Gladiator, ma’am.”

GEMMA

Oh-oh, Lord Almighty and holy crap! Maybe they’re not nuts. Perhaps it was an illusion but I swear on everything holy that I was suddenly seeing the strong resemblance … and that man most certainly did look an awful lot like that Roman Gladiator fellow. I turned and scanned the many men around me. Sheesh, they all looked very, very much alike, the same eyes, same nose … but with amazing differences in mannerisms and speech patterns. One was older, heavier and grey. The one John called Aubrey was blonde. Then my eyes fell on a few obvious misfits. Who were those guys? John had introduced the redhead as Dino O’Leary, and he’d also introduced Antony and Pullo.

Wait.

Antony?

Antony? From that HBO series? What the hell was it called? Rome!

Noooooooo.

“Mr. Meridius, how did that happen?” I pointed to Mr. Pullo and Mr. Antony.  

“When I went to my Portal in Rome and wished to return to my own life and time –”

“Wait, you had no life left at the end of that movie. I do remember that much.” My stomach was starting to twist as he lowered his eyes with embarrassment. Good lord, the man wanted to die! My heart immediately ached for him, for the anguish that must have driven him to that point and I began to envision the difficulties. After all, how could any sane man cope with such a complete manipulation of reality?  “So, you wanted to leave?” I nearly choked.

“Yes, Ms. Kane. I did. But I assure you that I no longer have such a desire to return. I now have a new wife and a child to arrive in the late autumn.”

I smiled, greatly relieved and he continued. Such a remarkable man, this Maximus Decimus Meridius.

“When I realized that I would not be permitted to return, I prepared to leave that place and for my efforts,” he grinned, “I was given Titus Pullo and Marc Antony into my care.”

“So, the Portal giveth whenever it pleases, I assume.”

He nodded, concern knotting his brow.

“And the others?”

“Mr. O’Leary arrived with Mr. Throne, and there is a good Doctor Maturin who arrived with Captain Aubrey. It all seems very random.”

“Huh … let me ask you … has anyone else tried to go back?”

“I did it successfully,” stated Mr. O’Leary. “A few years after arriving I went back and did a little … uh … creative investing for the future … if you know what I mean.” He grinned like a leprechaun.

Then to my great surprise, Cory piped up. “My granddad was one of them, Gemma. He told me a mess of things yesterday up in the tower after you left, and I swear, what he described was similar to the energy fluctuations you sometimes describe. You know, when everything gets somehow altered and the energy shifts around?”

“You say your grandfather went through his Portal to … what? The nineteen fifties?”

“Yup. His film takes place in the fifties.”

“Curious,” my mind was spinning with that little gem. “A fictitious character mysteriously come to life, going through an energy Portal of some kind and siring an entire family from the past. So very curious!”

“It is our hope that you can find some way to decipher this all for us,” Maximus the magnificent said. “You may have the power and the insight and the skills to do this.”

BEN

I listened, getting’ real irritated. It was all foolishness. “Ya know,” I spouted. “I once saw a gypsy lady in San Francisco who said she could read the future. I gave her ten dollars … ten whole dollars … more than a good whore would’ve cost … ah … sorry ma’am … ten whole dollars and she was wrong. That gypsy woman told me I had no future,” I grunted a laugh. “Hell, after that day I went and committed twenty-two robberies against the Southern Pacific Railroad. I had a future.”

“Did you Ben?” Biebe said real thoughtful like. “It seems to me she might not have been so wrong, ya know. Your life ended very abruptly right after you climbed onto the 3:10 to Yuma, didn’t it?”

The asshole was right and I started to get real scared. What the hell did it mean? Were they saying I was stuck here? That I couldn’t go back or that I had nothin’ to go back to? “Goddamnit! This don’t make no sense! What the hell does it all mean? Ah … sorry ma’am. Pardon.”

GEMMA

For a moment I couldn’t breathe. I hadn’t even noticed Mr. Ben Wade sitting toward the back of the room. He was just another similar face until that moment. You see, I adore Westerns and had waited a long time for another good one to come to the big screen. I did see 3:10 to Yuma. Saw it twice, and … that most definitely was the outlaw Ben Wade.

I swallowed hard and turned to John. “All right, Mr. Biebe. I understand your … concerns. I’m just unsure that I can help.” 

JEFF

I’d been observing Gemma’s perplexed expression, inwardly fearing that she thought we were all a bunch of nut cases. Can’t say that I’d blame her, but if her mind was open enough to forge a career out of investigating the paranormal, would she therefore consider our dilemma too much a stretch of imagination? Leaning forward on the couch and clearing my throat, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“My hypothesis is similar to what young Corey here has stated after his experience in the tower – an energy shift of some sort, perhaps creating unstable fluctuations in the Portal’s vortex.”  I held up several sheets of paper containing various charts and graphs of my hastily scribbled calculations for emphasis. “Using Everett’s many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the theory of uncollapsed universal wave function, I’ve been attempting to map the probability of such an occurrence and although I am no expert on the subject …”

Gemma nodded her head as she reached for the papers I was holding, her eyes growing thoughtful as they examined my notations. I could only wonder if she understood what it all signified, but the tilt of her head suggested that she was perhaps considering a few various possibilities.

“Your sensitivity to the existence of other planes of consciousness might be what we need to help find the answer to what’s happening to us.” I felt my own despair growing as I recalled the sensation of looking into my daughters’ sweet trusting eyes. “Is any of this so different from investigating the possibility of life after death?”

CORY

I just had to put in my two cents worth and convince her. “Jesus, Gemma. You can help. You can make contact with this Portal, I just know it. I’ve seen you contact the dead and other entities, see the future, explain the past. I’ve seen it. You can do it and help them all!”

“Help them do what?” She asked sadly and Biebe was the only one willing or able to put their answer into words.

“Help us figure out if we’re going to lose everything we have, everyone we love and everything that matters … and lose it all … again.”

She stood, looked into my eyes, nodded and left the apartment. Gemma always needed a little time to prepare for things like this but I could tell the guys were thinking she’d just walked out on them. I grinned. “Gird your loins, dudes. You’re all in for the ride of a lifetime. We need to meet her up in the left tower in fifteen minutes. I suggest you go potty while you can. Chop, chop.”

Yeah, I was being kinda flip about it, but that was only because I was fucking scared to death. Shit, I hoped we were doing the right thing. I’d sure as hell hate for us to piss off this Portal and have to deal with the aftermath.

GEMMA

I will admit, I was terrified. I had never ventured the chance to do anything like this, carefully avoiding the dangers to myself. But these men were in desperate need and what they needed were answers. It was still hard to believe they were not real … well, not real in the sense that I and Cory are. The sense of regular, normal, nature. But then again, in the various levels of existence, who’s to say they aren’t real that way?

They were all there when I arrived at the tower room and a chair was placed in the center of the space for me. No one spoke, they sat silently on the benches along the walls and I explained the basic rules of engagement, spiritual activity 101.

“Gentlemen. I ask that you please remain silent. If a word comes from you that you had not chosen to speak, permit it, the entity may have chosen to speak through you and we will need everything we can get to accomplish our goal. I also ask that you do not leave your place, no matter what you see or hear, please remain where you are. Do not come to me, touch me or speak directly to me should I go into a trance. Cory has set up to record anything we can get. We will use audio and not video as it tends to detract from the normal electrical energy currents in this particular room. My guess is because of the extensive paranormal activity in this room.”

I drew in a deep cleansing breath and closed my eyes. “Now, let’s begin.”

Almost immediately I was tossed from my own body, pressed against the far corner high against the ceiling, nothing more than an observer. It took a lot to push aside my terror and allow it all, to trust the entity that had fully taken over my earthbound existence. Following the instructions I gave to the men, I remained still and silent.

From my strange, ethereal vantage point, it appeared that I was looking down into a black space completely infested with small, brightly colored tornados, each sparking with brilliant flashes of crackling lightening and pulsating at different rates of speed. They danced and swirled, circled each other and never collided. Toward the far end of the space, one flared with the color of fire and blazing sunset, shooting yellow and fuchsia, bleeding red and purple then again glowing with golden light. That vortex meandered to the center of the room and fully encompassed my human body.

Finally, words began to slide from my human mouth and I was astounded. It was not my voice, not even a human voice. I am unsure what it was but was positive of what it was saying.

“Lessons. Lessons.”

My mind spoke to the entity, begging for more. “What about lessons? Are you the Portal?”

“I am the Portal and lessons are to be learned.”

“Are you angry with these men?”

“Lessons will answer all.”

“Are you planning to take these men back?”

“Lessons will open the eyes and close the doors. Lessons.”

“Who are you taking? Who will be taken from their life?”

“Lessons will answer all.”

“Are they in danger?”

“Finished. Closed. The end.”

“Wait, please … who will be taken?”

Silence.

“Please!”

Silence. My physical body suddenly sucked my spirit back into it and I slumped on the chair. Thankfully Cory was immediately at my side. He offered me water but my eyes could only take in the horrified expressions on the men’s faces. “I tried, I swear I did. It would tell me nothing more.”

John Biebe leaned his head back against the wall and groaned. “God sakes. What the fuck?”

No one spoke and I finally sipped cold water. “Can I ask you all a few questions?” Heads nodded. “What do you all think was exposed here?”

“Not a damn thing,” grumbled the skinhead as he rubbed his eyes. “No answers, no fucking nothing.”

“Do your wives or significant others know about this? About where you all come from?” Most heads shook to the negative, but the Captain spoke up.

“Madam, there are four women who know. My wife Natalie. Riley Biebe. Young Andy’s wife Monica, and Hando’s Meredith. They know because they too were brought through the Portal to be a part of this place.”

My brow curled and I pulled my bottom lip. “Four of them? No,” my head shook, for I was positive of this … if not anything else. “It had to have been a different Portal that brought those women here. I clearly sense it’s not the same one that spoke through me.”

“There are more than one set of Portals?” Cory asked.

“Yes, and you’re incorrect to think there are sets of Portals. There is only one Portal effecting this situation and these men. There is a different Portal that shifted the women, and …” I swallowed hard, unsure if I should tell them the rest. But it was fact; I knew it as well as I knew my name. “And, there are several other, very different Portals all working in the same space. Again, I must stress, no other Portal is currently in such flux. My estimation is that those four women are not in danger of being taken back.”

“But we are, right?” Dr. Wigand asked.

“I’m afraid we can only assume such. Am I to also assume that your women are not aware of the visions some of you have experienced?” When I could see the answer was obviously no, I braced to lower the boom. I didn’t want to, but practicality had to prevail. I stood and turned a full circle to look into each and every man’s eyes. “Then,” I nearly whispered, “I suggest that you all speak to them and gentlemen … I also strongly suggest that you get your affairs in order. I fear the worst.”

I shook off Cory’s assisting hand and left the tower room alone. I went down to my suite and felt the tears soak my face before I even unlocked my door. All I could do was hope and pray for the best possible outcome. There was so much confusion but one thing was definitely clear … these men were about to learn a few hard lessons. How or when or why, was anyone’s guess.
 
JOHN

I watched them all leave and sat there alone in that room. My mind was spinning, turning into sharp splinters of glass that hurt to even imagine. Jesus, I was so fucking mad I wanted to punch holes in the goddamn walls. Why was this happening? Why now? And what was the puzzle of who had the visions and who didn’t? What did the fucking Portal want?