By Opie Membrino

     Ben Mosgrow

    and the

Purple Portal 

    Chapter 1 - Normal Life

    Chapter 2 - Mysterious Wondering

    Chapter 3 - Cats Day

    Chapter 4 - Grocery Store

    Chapter 5 - The Trapdoor

    Chapter 6 - It Goes Down In Flames

    Chapter 7 - The Farm

    Chapter 8 - The Portal's Secret

    Chapter 9 - The Choice

    Chapter 10 - Unforgiving Battle

Chapter 1: Normal Life

    I was an 11-year-old boy living in California with my parents, Maria and James. My name is Ben. My parents were both 43 and owned a company called LiveStock, which made them very wealthy. We lived in a huge house—seven floors and 19 bedrooms. It

felt like a mansion, and sometimes I would get lost in the hallways.

    One evening, after finishing my homework, I walked into the kitchen on the 6th floor. The tiles were cold under my bare feet, and the room smelled like garlic and tomato sauce.

    "Hi, Mom," I said, leaning against the counter.

    "What's for dinner?" I asked, hoping it was something I liked.

    "Spaghetti," she answered, stirring a pot on the stove. Her voice was soft, but distracted, as if she was thinking about something else.

    I didn’t wait for her to say anything else. My stomach wasn’t that hungry, and the last thing I wanted was to sit at the table.

    "Cool," I said. Without another word, I turned and trotted to the elevator. The house was so big there were no stairs, so I had to take the elevator to the second floor, where my bedroom was.

    I pressed the button for the elevator and waited, tapping my foot. The display above the door showed it was on the 7th floor. I checked my watch—it was already past 7:00 PM. Where had the time gone?

    The elevator arrived with a quiet ding, and the doors slid open. I stepped in and pressed the number 2. The elevator moved fast, and I felt that familiar whoosh of air as it descended. A few seconds later, the doors opened again, and I stepped out onto the second floor.

  I walked down the hallway, passing the giant paintings on the walls. When I reached my room, I opened the door and flopped down onto my bed, grabbing the remote control. My YouTube playlist was waiting for me.

    About 30 minutes later, I heard my mom’s voice from downstairs.

"Dinner’s ready!"

    I groaned. I wasn’t hungry anymore, not after the long video marathon. The clock on my nightstand read 10:00 PM. I hadn’t even noticed how quickly the time had passed.

    "I’m not hungry," I called out, not bothering to get up.

    "Suit yourself," my mom replied, sounding a little distant, like she was busy with something else.

    I glanced at the clock again. Ten o'clock? It felt like I’d only been watching videos for 30 minutes. My mind started to race. Was the clock wrong? Was I losing track of time?

    I got up and walked to the bathroom, brushing my teeth quickly. The cool water splashed against my face, trying to shake off the strange feeling. Something didn’t seem right.

    When I finished, I walked back to the elevator. The little screen above the doors still showed the number “2” and didn’t change.

    Weird, I thought. I pressed the button to go up, but the elevator didn’t move immediately. It stayed stuck on the second floor for a moment longer than usual.

Finally, it gave a soft hum and started moving.

    The ride up felt too long, as if the elevator was taking its sweet time. By the time it reached the 7th floor and the doors opened, I felt uneasy, like I wasn’t supposed to be taking the elevator so late at night.

    I stepped out and walked back to my bedroom, trying to shake off the strange feeling. The clock on my bedside table read 10:15 PM now.

    I pulled the covers up to my neck, closed my eyes, and tried to ignore the odd sense of time slipping away. But just before I drifted off to sleep, I heard a faint sound from the hallway... like the soft whir of the elevator again.

    I woke up to the wind brushing against my face. It was cold—unnaturally cold for an early morning. I blinked and sat up, feeling an odd heaviness in my limbs, as if I’d been lying in one position for days. The room around me looked the same—my childhood bedroom, familiar but somehow distant. I rubbed my eyes, hoping to shake off the lingering sense of discomfort. Something wasn’t right.

    I slowly swung my legs over the side of the bed, my bare feet landing on the cold, smooth tile of the floor. My body ached, and the air felt heavier than usual. I stood up, 

    I walked across the room, the silence growing louder with every step. I opened the door to the hallway, but there was no sound. No one was around. I called out softly, “Mom? Dad?” but my voice echoed back to me in an empty, hollow way. I felt the familiar pang of anxiety rise in my chest. I tried to shake it off, but the growing emptiness seemed to press down on me, suffocating the air.

    I made my way to the elevator, feeling strangely detached, as if the weight of the situation hadn’t quite sunk in. I pressed the button for the first floor, the doors of the elevator sliding open with their usual mechanical hum. It was so eerily quiet. I stepped in, and as the elevator descended, I could hear the faint creaking of its cables—the only sound breaking the silence of the vast house. The elevator jolted to a stop at the first floor with a soft thud.

    I stepped out into the hallway and approached the front door. The glass panel outside was clear, as if nothing had disturbed the world beyond. I grabbed the handle and twisted it, pulling the door open. The usual hum of the city—cars, people, the bustle of daily life—was gone. There was no one. The street, once busy with morning traffic, was completely empty. It was as if the entire city had disappeared.

    My heart raced in my chest, the reality of what was happening starting to settle in. I stepped outside, my shoes tapping against the pavement with an oddly muffled sound. My legs felt like they were moving through molasses, each step heavier than the last. I walked toward the nearest shop, hoping—praying—that someone, anyone, would be inside. But when I reached the door, I found it wide open. The sign above the shop swung gently in the wind, but no one was inside. Just rows upon rows of clothing, perfectly arranged.

    I felt a shiver run down my spine. It wasn’t just empty—it was unnatural. I turned, walking quickly to the next shop, hoping that maybe I had just missed something. But as I stepped inside, the same thing greeted me: nothing but empty shelves and clothes. I felt a cold sweat gathering on my neck as my mind began to race. What happened to everyone? Where did they go?

    I stumbled out of the store, my head spinning. This couldn’t be real. I had to be dreaming. I could feel my breath growing shallow, panic beginning to rise in my chest. I had no idea what was happening, but I knew one thing for sure: I was completely, utterly alone.

    I walked back to the street, trying to process everything. My mind buzzed with questions, each one more terrifying than the last. What if there was no one left? What if I really was the last person on Earth? The thought struck me like a punch to the gut. I forced myself to breathe, to slow my thoughts.

    I kept walking, my eyes scanning the streets for any sign of life. The sun was high now, but it felt wrong. The light seemed too bright, too harsh. I spotted an Apple Store in the distance and, without thinking, walked toward it. Maybe, just maybe, there was something inside that would explain all of this.

    When I stepped inside, the air was cool and sterile. The glass and metal gleamed under the fluorescent lights, but again, there was no one. Just rows of empty tables with the latest gadgets neatly displayed. The stillness was suffocating. I walked past the display cases, barely noticing the latest iPhones and iPads that were perfectly arranged. My hands hovered over them for a moment, then without any more thought, I grabbed one of each—an iPhone and an iPad.

    I couldn’t explain why I did it. There was no one here to stop me, no one to judge. So I took them. I wasn’t even sure what I’d do with them, but at that moment, I needed something to hold onto. Something that felt real.

    I left the store, the weight of the devices in my hands grounding me in this strange new reality. I could feel the wind again, cool and sharp against my skin, but this time it didn’t feel refreshing. It felt like a reminder of everything that was missing.

    I wandered down the street, my feet moving on their own, until I found a car parked along the curb. The keys were inside. I didn’t know how to drive, but something compelled me to get in. I slid into the seat, and for a moment, I just sat there, staring at the dashboard. Then, almost instinctively, I turned the key in the

ignition. The engine roared to life.

    I had no idea what I was doing, but I pressed the gas pedal, and the car jerked forward, too fast. I slammed on something—brakes? The car stopped, and my heart skipped a beat. I could feel the panic rising again.

    It was just like everything else. Out of control. But I had no choice. I had to keep going.

 Chapter 3: Cats Day

 Seconds went by and I got out of the car. I hopped out and cut my leg on a wire.  My leg was in serious pain. The pain seared through my body as I lay on the grass. 

     I looked over to my left. There was a black and partly gray cat lying in the grass. It was if it ment to be there to tell me something, to protect me. 

      I tried to stand up but my leg didn’t allow me to. The cut was badly infected by the rusty wire.  I tried even harder to get up and I managed to get on one knee but the pain was only getting worse.

    I limped over to the cat and petted it softly. The cat raised its head and licked its nose. As soon as the cat raised its head it was startled to its feet. The cat started walking backwards slowly as his eyes looked into mine. Every step the cat moved faster and faster as if he was warning me of danger. He turned his head. I knew he

was going to start running. I placed my feet ready to follow the cat that was now headed to my phone that lay straight next to the cat. The cat was now very close to my nice and shiny phone. The cat quickly lowered its jaw down to the ground as I wave my hand to tell it not to grab it. The eary cat was now holding my phone by the mouth. I started running as fast as I could followed by the cat. I was running out of breath. The sun was about to set and I was getting tired. I was still running but really slow. The cat ran into a bush and I stopped. I bent down and opened the bush and started crawling through. The bush was tickling my skin but it did not hurt. I got through the bush and saw the cat. The phone was on the corner of the shelter. I started slowly pushing my hand towards the phone. I grabbed the phone hoping the cat wouldn't notice me. I saw the cat's ear go up but I couldn’t see if he heard me or not. I kept moving my hand backwards. The cat turned its head more and more. The cat's head fully turned his head. The cat lunged at me. It grabbed the phone by the tip. I kept on tugging. It was like a game of tug of war.

        I finally managed to rip it out of the cat's hand.

     I got out of the bush and started walking home. 

    By the time I got there it was dark. It was 9:00 o’clock and I was getting tired. I got in bed and closed my eyes. 

Iwas walking in the hall on the 2nd floor. I turned the corner. A big green monster was standing right infront of me. The monster looked like he had been covered in 1

thousand boogers . The monster had a gun and shot a green bullet at my face and it hit me square in the chest. Everything went black. 

        Suddenly my eyes opened and  I was alive. I realized that it was just a dream. I jumped out of bed and went to my closet. I saw a bunch of clothes. I decided to put on a red t-shirt and blue shorts. I was also really hungry. The thought of thinking of food was making me even more hungry. 

    When I got to the pantry I opened the door. I was very relieved to be able to eat. I looked around but saw nothing. I needed food. I had to go to the market.

    “ Uhhh,” I moaned.

    I have never gone shopping alone. I was scared since I was alone. 

    My stomach grumbled more. I felt like an alien had burst through my back and took my heart right out of my body. I was really hungry since I hadn’t eaten in days. I

started to walk slowly to the street. I was really hungry and my feet were hurting as if I had walked on lava for 21 hours straight and never touched water after. I was still on my street. I was walking really slow. The pain in my feet was slowly getting worse by the minute.

    By the time I reached the street where the market is on, my feet were burning. It was hurting badly. I picked up my feet to look at them. I slowly took off my shoe because if I did it too fast it would hurt. 

    I finally took off my shoe about 2 minutes later and I was glad to finally get it off. I turned it over slowly. It stung a lot and I didn’t know exactly what was hurting but I knew something was wrong. I gently turned my foot over. I saw a little thing poking out from the flesh of my foot. I grabbed the pointed object and as soon as I touched it I pulled my finger back. It stung bad. I knew it was not that far in the skin. I glanced down at the object.

     I could now see it was a bee stinger that had probably been there for a while. I inched my hand closer but it was not easy to tug out. It also hurt really bad since it had swelled from the shoe.

    Once I had put my shoe on,I had a sigh of relief. I continued walking since my foot was now not as in pain as before. I was now at the front door of the grocery store and was happy that my foot was not hurting anymore.

    I walked closer to the front door. As I got closer I got a tingling feeling that I was not going to make it out. I wanted to go in and rip out a candybar from the nearby shelf that was the only one in the store that was black not white. I opened the door as if I was a cop and a robber was in the shop stealing all the candy. I was really hungry but I can’t describe if I was starving or just really hungry. Once I entered the store I went for the hot dogs. As I was running I was also thinking of the way my family would play with me. I also missed them. In my head, everything was about to be fixed. I kept on running towards the hotdogs. My legs felt sweaty and numb at the same time. 

    When I reached the stand that the hot dogs were sitting at, I wiped my tongue across my face. My face had a smile that was almost as big as a toaster. My hand was so ready to dig into the red slimy sausages waiting for me on the gray plate in front of my two green eyes. My hand was slowly inching forward to the meat. 

    Finally my hand touched it. I picked the hot dog up. It was slowly moving towards

my face. I was so happy to get my hands on good food.

    When the hot dog reached my mouth, I shoved it down my throat in one bite like a hippo eating a fish. Once I gulped down the hot dog I went to gobble down another one. I looked at my hand to see if it was clean or not, but it was red and the flesh was ripped like it was cooked in a 1,000 oven and burnt. I was so hungry I didn’t realize how hot it was. I was in pain now that I had eaten a hot dog.

    A couple minutes later it didn’t hurt as much. I was also very thirsty. I remember when I looked at my hand I also saw a red lever. I looked around a while and found it in the corner of the room. I walked over to it. When I reached it I  put my hand on it gently. I got my thrust ready and yanked the lever backwards.

    I waited a few seconds to see what it would do.

    Suddenly the ground under me disappeared. I felt an urge that I would fall to my death. 

        I started to fall and prepared for my ending.

    When I awoke I lay on a cushion that looked to be blue but I couldn’t exactly see the color cleanly. I was in a dark cave underground. I got up and looked around for a little bit, but there was nothing but rock and a passage through rocks that seemed to

be small and sharp.

     I started slowly walking towards the pointed and small rocks that were along the edge of the dark cave. I was feeling scared since I had never seen this place in my lifetime, not even on camera. I kept on walking into the darkness even though I couldn’t see 

Anything. I heard noises up ahead of me and that was freaking me out.

    After a little bit of walking, I saw a squirrel that seemed to be fighting another animal. 

    When I got closer I saw that the squirrel was fighting a beaver that seemed to have a red and also bloody scratch on his back. The beaver was badly wounded but the squirrel only had a scratch that was probably already there. I was not sure if the beaver was in pain or not but he was limping on one leg.

    The squirrel, which I am going to call Facter, was ready to attack the beaver who I am going to call Liam. 

    The squirrel was leaning back ready to lunge at the wounded beaver who was 

whimpering in the corner near a rounded rock. 

    Facter, who was now ready to jump and was on two legs, lunged at Liam fast. 

    Liam, who was now trying to beg for mercy, puts his hand up to dodge the attack. Liam’s claw that was as sharp as a pencil that had just got sharpened went into Facter who had thought he would stab Liam in the head. The claw went up the leg of Facter and put a hole through the other side.

    “ Errrrrr!” cried Factor who was now dripping blood from the top of his leg.

    Facter, who was also now wounded, started shaking like a machine that had just printed 127 papers. 

    On the other side of the cave Liam was climbing up a rock that was sharp and had dust on the tip. 

    Liam leaped from the rock and tumbled onto Factor. The two animals kept rolling onto each other. Around the animals a dirt tornado formed. It kept rising higher and higher. 

    At an instance the animals separated. Liam, who looked dead,  went flying across the room and hit a sharp tip of a rock.  The tip went right through the animal's harmless body.

    The winds grew fiercer as the autumn chill swept across the land, creeping through the cave like a cold breath. The cave itself felt colder than the world above, its temperature sinking ten degrees lower with each passing moment. The wind howled through the cracks, carrying a sense of desolation that mirrored my own. I knew little 

of the weather outside, but I knew the bitter loneliness of this place all too well.

    My stomach growled in protest, echoing in the emptiness. Days passed between meals, and often, I had to survive on whatever I could find. If I was lucky, a dead animal might lie in the darkness, but most of the time, I had to make do with bugs—crickets, which tasted far worse than the rare rabbit, but they were sustenance, and I needed whatever I could get.

    I felt like a scavenger, like an animal myself. I hadn’t bathed in what felt like weeks—maybe months. My clothes, torn and stained, clung to my body as I walked through the cave, tracing the path I knew so well. It was a lonely existence—one that felt more and more like being a wild dog in the desert.

    Suddenly, the cave split into two paths, and my heart quickened. I instinctively chose the left, where the rocks were smooth, glistening faintly in the dim light. The right path, jagged and sharp, had an odd shape to one of the stones. It reminded me of some cartoon character from my forgotten past, but I couldn’t place it. My mind was slipping.

    The deeper I walked, the colder the air seemed to grow. But then, through the darkness, I saw it—a faint orange light. My feet moved toward it, drawn by the warmth of hope, or perhaps by desperation.

    "Robby, you know I hate being alone," a voice drifted toward me, soft but insistent. "I want someone to talk to, even if it’s a boy... Uhh!" The voice faltered, then there was a strange, high-pitched noise that made my skin crawl. My instincts screamed that something was wrong. The chill that had faded from my limbs returned in full force. Every part of me told me to run, but my feet were rooted to the ground.

    The figure that emerged from the shadows was a girl, her eyes glowing red like embers. My heart raced as she moved toward me, her steps slow but deliberate. My body tensed, my skin prickling with unease. She was only a few feet away now, her presence suffocating the air around me. I felt a weight press against my chest, like the very cave was holding its breath.

    Then, from somewhere behind her, I heard the crackling of something—another noise, something unnatural. The cave's ceiling groaned, and rocks began to fall. I backed away, but the portal was already opening above me. The rocks formed it—a swirling vortex of purple light and shifting shadows. At the bottom, I saw the outline of two brown feet.

    "Ahh... please help," a boy's voice screamed from the portal. The girl, her eyes wide with terror, bolted into the darkness, disappearing before my eyes.

    I turned to run, but the cave itself seemed to collapse behind me. Rocks fell, blocking my path. Panic surged, and my legs pumped harder as I sprinted toward the light. The cave was shrinking, and I was running out of time.

    I reached the end of the tunnel, but before I could leap to safety, a massive boulder fell, hitting me in the back. Everything went black. 

    When I awoke, I was no longer in the cave. Instead, I lay sprawled on the hard earth of the field of a desolate farm. The sky above was dark, the wind still howling, and I had no idea how I’d gotten here—or what awaited me next.

    The air tasted different here—fresher, but somehow off. I sat up slowly, my head spinning, the ground beneath me firm but foreign. I blinked into the dim twilight, trying to focus. The landscape around me was vast and open, but empty. The field stretched endlessly in all directions, with rows of crops that hadn’t been harvested, wilting beneath the heavy sky.

    I didn’t know how I got here. One moment, I was running for my life in that dark cave, and the next... I was sprawled on the ground in some kind of abandoned farm. My pulse raced, and I could feel the adrenaline still tingling in my limbs, but there was no time to rest. I had to figure out where I was, what had happened to me, and why.

    My legs wobbled as I stood, and I instinctively brushed the dirt off my clothes. The wind had died down here, and the silence was deafening. No birds, no cars, no sounds of life at all. The kind of silence that made you feel like you were the last living thing in the world.

    I glanced around, looking for any sign of life. A farmhouse sat in the distance—its roof sagging and windows dark. It looked abandoned, just like everything else.

    I started walking toward it, my stomach growling in protest. I hadn’t eaten in what felt like forever. The field underfoot was uneven, the crops long dried up and brittle,