I stepped through the Gate and immediately regretted every life choice that had led me to this moment.
The transition felt like being dragged through ice water before being spat out into a dark, cold hell.
My stomach lurched violently, twisting in on itself like a wet rag being wrung dry. For one terrifying split second, my body forgot how to be a body. Muscles twitched without commands. Lungs seized mid-breath. My heart stuttered like a broken metronome searching desperately for its rhythm.
Then reality reassembled itself around me with all the gentleness of a sledgehammer to the skull.
I was standing ankle-deep in frigid, murky water that immediately soaked through my boots and turned my socks into cold, clinging nightmares.
The chill crept up my legs with malicious intent, settling into my bones like it planned to stay awhile. But the cold was nothing compared to the stench.
It hit me like a freight train loaded with corpses.
