Gate

"Hey, guys? What is this?"

Hearing the young girl's call, Norman, Penny, and Ray walked up to her.

"A gate. It connects the inside and outside." Ray answered.

"Inside and outside?" Penny asked curiously, clutching one of the bars.

"Outside?" Emma repeated. "We've never been outside."

"That's because we haven't left here since we were born!" Norman pointed out to her.

"So is this what Mom always tells us about?" Little Emma grinned excitedly, clutching the bars of the gate. "'Never go near the gate or fence in the back of the forest because it's dangerous.'"

"Oh, yeah!" Penny grinned. "This is it!"

Ray frowned, glancing inside the gate. "She says that, but it's not true."

"It's not?" Norman asked curiously.

"What's not true about it?" Penny asked.

Before Ray could answer, Emma grinned at him. "Hey, Ray! What would you do outside?"

"I don't know." The spiky raven haired boy glanced down for a moment and quickly glanced up at Emma. "You, Emma?"

Emma grinned. "I'd ride a giraffe with Penny!"

"That sounds fun!" Penny squealed, hugging the older girl.

Ray turned around and relaxed his back against one of the bars, glancing away from the gate. "Good luck."

Norman glanced inside the gate and clutched the bars, frowning. "This gate...you know, I wonder what it's really keeping us protected from."

"I've started wondering about that too." Penny muttered. She moaned and clutched Ray's arm. "Thanks for putting that thought in my head, Norman. Now I'm scared."

Ray chuckled.

What really laid behind the gate...they would never know until just a few years later.