It's been about 18 years. I still haven't found anyone with a time related ability but I knew it wouldn't be that easy. What's another 20 years or so?
Pope Zackariah passed away in his sleep a couple of years ago but if I had to say, he's practically been immortalised with how well renowned he's become throughout the country. He had to have had what looked to be the largest funeral ever held by mankind.
He's many times more popular than me and I'm supposed to be the face of this church. I mean I haven't really done anything besides sit in front of people at large gatherings but still... I'm the fucking face.
I honestly couldn't tell you how he did it. One day we're just a small group of about 50 or so people and now here we are with over 30 church branches throughout different states within the United-Nations and he did all that without an ability.
I'm currently located in the North-Western continent of our planet that used to be filled with a variety of different countries but that was well before I was even born. Now it's all just a bunch of countries gathered into one known as the United-Nations.
All the countries from back then have since been turned into states. Instead of creating new names, they kept the old ones. So what used to be a country is now both a state and, in many cases, the name of its central city. So Liremont is technically a state, but people also use the name to refer to the city itself.
Anyways, I asked Josephine who's now about 40 years old if she wanted to become the new Pope but she flat out declined. She said it was too much responsibility for a klutz like her. I totally would have agreed with her if not for the fact that she asserted herself as the High Priestess of the Angelic church with that ability of hers.
It all happened when she turned 24 years old. She ended up getting cursed with the ability to heal others. Hell, she's as famous as old man Zackariah. It's just not fair. what the fuck did I do to receive the curse of immortality while other people get curses that have no down sides to them.
Whatever, I'll just leave the Pope's seat empty for another 10 years or so.
***
Anywho, what I should be focusing on is this yellow gate that suddenly appeared right in front of me.
It all happened after I left the church to go on one of my leisurely strolls throughout the city of Arellano situated quite far south from the city of Liremont which by the way, has made a steady recovery, though definitely nowhere near completely rebuilt, it's still progress. Actually, the first church that we ever made in Liremont is now currently more of a tourist attraction.
"Haaaah" I sighed. "Now what the hell do I do about you?" What stood before me was a pretty big yellow vortex the size of a bear swirling around in circles like a whirlpool.
If I enter through this gate, I'm practically giving up on my first ever dream of dying, but with how famous the Angelic church has become, I think my dream of finding a time traveller might be a lot easier than my dream of dying.
Am I really willing to forsake one of my two ambitions? I am pretty weak, all things considered. And if the time traveller I find happens to be really strong I might need to be quick enough to catch him and for that, my power's gonna need a major upgrade.
"What to do, what to do?" I muttered to myself.
Curse users have been warned countless times not to enter a gate alone because of how difficult and dangerous it can be, but gates don't stay in one place for very long so I might not ever get a chance like this ever again.
My entire life, well ever since I was cursed, it felt as though every gate in the world has been avoiding me. I used to think it was a pretty normal occurrence that happened to everyone but it seems as though I was wrong. One day, while I was sitting on my throne in another church branch situated in a different city, I read in the paper that the average curse user stumbles upon a gate at least twice every 5 years. Some people are even able to track gates down by using some kind of pattern.
You see for some reason, gates like to just spawn out of nowhere and they always seem to pop up in front of cursed one's. The annoying part is that for some reason the gates like to perform a disappearing act within 10 minutes of appearing. Sounds like a pain right?
But seriously what the hell. Why the fuck am I so unlucky. I mean sure, back then if a gate popped up right in front of me, I probably would have walked right by it as though it wasn't even there. But that was then, and this is now. For the first time in my life, a gate appeared directly in front of me, but was I ready to give up on one of my dreams? Something in which I shed blood, sweat and tears in hopes of one day achieving it. Literally.
But now that I think about it, it's really strange. Why have I suddenly encountered a gate now of all times? What was the reason for gates avoiding me for so long but now one just decided to materialise in front of me. Is there something… different about this gate?
I mean the swirly vortex looks about exactly the same as what I've read in the newspaper and picture-wise it looks the same too. Still… I can't shake the feeling there's something off about this gate. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but… why do I feel like I'm missing something?
As I examined the yellow gate as closely as possible I couldn't quite shake the fact that it appeared differently compared to the yellow gates in the papers. I mean yeah, the pictures are black and white so it would naturally look different but the colour of the gate isn't what's bothering me.
As I searched through my memories to find what it was I was thinking so hard about, I finally came to a conclusion. "Ah-ha, I've figured it out." It had nothing to do with the colour of the vortex or it's rotation. In the picture, I remembered that there was a person standing near the gate, and comparing the size of the vortex to the person, I'd estimate that the gate from the photo was about 7 feet in diameter while the one that stands in front of me stands at a whopping 10 feet in diameter.
"Hmm, why are you so much bigger than your normal everyday yellow gate?"
'Should I enter' I thought to myself briefly contemplating my life's choices.
The possibility that this gate could be a never before seen anomaly didn't stray from my mind and it made me wonder if I might be biting off more than I can chew by entering it.
After a brief moment I decided. "Ahh fuck it." and with that I jumped into the gate.
But what I didn't realise was that as soon as I entered the gate it slowly started to change in colour. What had once been a bright yellow gate suddenly turned into an eerie orange, but I had no way of knowing that. Of knowing that for the next 6 years of my life, I'd be stuck in that hell-hole.