The Phantom, The Gate and the Fourth Confrontation

Luis, Leonardo and Lucas were three boys who lived in a small town, they were great friends, people knew them for the peculiarity that their names coincided with the initial letter of each one, but they were also known for their stories, they had adventures in that small town, and every week they told a new story in front of the other boys of the town, but within these stories there were always 3 lies, They challenged people to guess their three lies, three weeks ago a reporter from the big city had appeared and had challenged them winning two of their three encounters, Mr. Times as the three friends called him, he was carrying his notebook and his camera, this was the fourth week he was going to see them, the people had multiplied by the thousands, more than 300 people were looking expectantly at the duel between them, Luis took the floor and began to speak.

"I see too many new faces so I'll start by saying the rules of our show", having finished, the audience was expectant and with their eyes fixed on the boys, even more so because in front of the stage where the three of them were sitting, Ruth laughed under her breath and went to sit in her VIP seat. Once seated, Luis raised his hands and shushed everyone and began.

This week's story is a story that my friends and I had sealed, but for our dear and adored Mr. Times, we decided to break the seal and tell it to you dear public, so let's hope you like it and it doesn't change your way of thinking too much; more than 2 years ago my father used to take me to school early, and I mean very early just before 6am, as he went to work very early and his job was far away on the highway, so I usually arrived early, waited at the front door for classes to start, and on several occasions, I was alone until about 8am, So I took the opportunity to finish my homework at that time and the day before I used it to relax and play a little more, that school had its apparitions, the ghost of the security guard that we told before was one of them, so after what happened I rarely approached more inside the classrooms, but one day I had company, Leo and Lucas decided to arrive early with me to finish a task that we could not solve individually, between the three of us we looked for an open room to do it, but all of them were blocked, It was when we saw some stairs to some kind of storage or basement, until that day we had not noticed that there were such stairs, but in the heart of the matter we did not give importance and went down, when we finished and reached the break, we saw 2 doors, one of them had the name of storage, and the other had the name scratched and worn, and had a broken police line on the door knob, as you may already know we decided to open the storage door first, we needed to finish the task, and indeed it was open, but our curiosity was stronger than the rest and we decided to open the other door as well.

Luis smiled and gave a little bow to the reporter, the public made a little commotion wondering where the lie was, but they were silenced when Leonardo stood up, the reporter Ruth wrote down some things in his notebook and turned his attention back to the boys.

We opened the other door and the worn sign fell to the floor making a lot of noise, inside we could see mountains of papers arranged in towers of more than 2 meters, file cabinets with crushed folders and a smell of ink that permeated the clothes, strangely it felt cold in that place, as if a refrigeration equipment was working continuously despite the abandoned place, astonished we walked after the door and it closed as soon as we let go of it, with great force, we heard a squeak as the door struggled to close, but it did not make any noise when it closed, although it did move the paper towers and some of them fell sideways, Lucas tried to open it but could not, so we confirmed that we were trapped until someone opened it from the outside, thinking a little, if it was cold and it opened from the outside, it is most likely that we were in an industrial refrigerator.

Although this did not agree with the papers, nor with the school that is where we came down, a little fear took over us but still we decided to move forward, we pushed aside some cobwebs as we passed, but there was not much to stop us, until after a few minutes of trying to move forward among so many things, that Luis realized how wrong this place was, he turned around alarmingly and told us... or tried to tell us that there was no sound inside this place, Lucas tried to shout without any result, and with those few attempts we gave up, Luis took a sheet of paper from the piles that were there and took out a pen. or he tried to tell us that there was no sound inside this place, Lucas tried to shout without any result, and with those few attempts we gave up, Luis took a sheet of paper from the piles that were there and taking a pen out of his backpack he wrote down what was going through his mind; -I turned to see Lucas and raised my right hand, waiting for them to take us out was thinking like an idiot, Lucas affirmed with his head and also raised his right hand, so we walked towards the door, when we reached it, we saw a green light bulb above the door, Luis pushed it and we entered through it.

Leo sat and smugly observed the audience, again his lie was the best hidden, it would be strange that the Reporter could measure the mentality of each one without knowing them openly, he turned to see him and with a gleam in his eyes he imagined his defeated face like last week's. His whole being poured into seeing him defeated, but his imagination dissipated when Lucas stood up, this story was too strong for him, and what had happened to him came next, her whole being poured into seeing him defeated, but her imagination dissipated when Lucas stood up, this story was too strong for him, and what had happened to him was coming next, she watched him as he settled down and a sad look came over his face, a look that Ruth did not let pass.

The door "pulled" the three of us to open it and we entered a dark and cold place, the smell of wet earth was felt everywhere and a noise like cicadas echoed throughout the place, the floor was made of stone and was rough with small plants sprouting on many sides, three arches rose one after another in front of us, the three illuminated by a small flame of a different color, differentiating them at sight, red, blue and purple, were the colors that illuminated them, and under these three arches was a stone pillar also illuminated by small flames, the three of us approached and looked over the pillar, it was tall and seemed to be made with marble, it was polished and seemed to shine the more you looked at it, under it there was an engraving on a gold plate, and inside the plate it said the following;

"Here lies a power beyond imagination, here lies that for which the world is at war, here lies your worst fear, here lies a forgotten idea."

The audience held their breath in unison as Lucas' voice cracked as he made the comment on the plaque.