The Gate

Prologue

As I step out of my ride onto a red carpet I’m quickly welcomed by the sound of adoring whistles and cheers. I look around and notice a crowd filled with men and women, all dressed in expensive looking tuxedos and dresses, cheering at me while they wave their arms violently, which seemed odd for people dressed so nicely.  Quite a number of beauties asked for my autograph and a picture with them. Hey who am I to say no to an adoring fan?

Eventually I made my way to the golden steps and began the relatively short climb to the stage. As I made the last step I was greeted by the speaker for tonight, who seemed just as delighted to see me here as I was to be here. He gestured to move on, so I walked behind him into the center of the stage. “Hello everyone” he greeted the crowd, silencing them, as anxious as I was you could practically feel the anticipation coming from them. “We are gathered here today to honor a man who has made one of the most astounding contributions to science in History!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air, this prompted the crowd to cheer and scream louder than when I stepped out of the limo.

“Not more than a month ago this young biologist Eric had the honor of discovering and capturing an animal thought for centuries to never exist” Obama said, leaving a long pause to let the crowd know the quiet down again, “Equus Cornu, more commonly referred to as the UNICORN!”. The crowd greeted his praise with their own, every second growing, and buzzing louder, and louder. Buzzing, still buzzing. Wait buzzing?  How can humans buzz?

BUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

“Ugh” I groaned as I climbed out of my bed, “Huh unicorn, that one’s new. Normally it’s something like the Lochness-Monster or Bigfoot.” I spoke almost as if it were a question.

I was staying in a hotel in central Africa waiting for the rest of my crew to arrive. We came here to search for  an apparently new species of ape that’s been nicknamed a red-back. From what I've gathered so far it is somewhere in between silver-back gorilla and orangutan in size with the same color as an orangutan, and drains the blood of cattle and other farm animals kind of like the chupacabra. According to the locals they are an undead orangutan or gorilla come back to torment humans who live in it’s old home. Though I didn't believe it was undead, I was curious about the cattle killing part. you see the only reason I became a biologist in the first place was because I was an avid believer in cryptozoology.

This was my time to shine, I would become a famed biologist, receive a Nobel prize, and start university specializing in cryptozoology and hunting for supposed “myths” and “legends”. At least that’s what I thought at the time.