One More Mug: Gatekeeper's Bell

"Would you risk everything for a glimpse?" A worn-out gatekeeper is slumped on his chair by the counter.

"Yes," the old blind man answered.

"But what if it takes everything?"

"Kid, I'm blind," he chuckled.

He fixed his raggy clothes as he raised his mug.

"I'd give everything for a glimpse."

“Oh, I am sorry…”

The blind man pats the air, trying to find the gatekeeper’s shoulder.

“Don’t beat yourself up, I am just glad my mouth wasn’t taken, or I won’t be drinking! Hahaha!” He downed his mug and let a heavy breath out as he called for another one.

“Now, what got you all weak and scrawny-sounding. I don’t need eyes to hear a whiner.” He started while searching for his mug, and the gatekeeper had to guide his hand

“Well, you see, I am a gatekeeper, but there's something strange on this job.” He rubbed his thumb on the mug before drinking. “We can’t look at what we are guarding or look behind us.”

“Sounds like a normal job, I mean if guards of the king can look around, we’d hear the queen has someone else… but you didn’t hear that from me,” and he stared in the air, “I dont know if my eyes are winking, but pretend you saw me wink.”

“Then being summoned by a bell is normal?” he bickers to the old man

“Like walking to the one who rang it, right?”

“No, as soon as the bell rang, even we couldn’t hear it, we were there before we could blink.” The gatekeeper looked down at his mug. “The gold is good, I’ll say that, but it feels like danger is just at arm's length.”

“What makes it dangerous? I mean, I don’t need sight to hear a sword drawn or heavy foot steps coming at me! I am the master of blind arts,” he punches the air and accidentally hits the gatekeeper.

“Ouch! Easy there, wizard.”

“My apologies, my blind magic acted up.”

The two shared a laugh, but the gatekeeper’s joy slowly dwindled, and he followed up.

“If that’s the case, then nothing makes sense.”

The blind man simmered down and began to find his shoulder first, then pat it.

“There, there, how about you tell me what makes sense”

The gatekeeper lets out a heavy sigh after a huge swallow of his drink.

“Where do I begin… You see, when no people are coming, or no one has entered yet. I hear multiple footsteps, like from a crowd… When people are coming to it, I only hear one footstep, light and heavy.”

His voice shakes more as he explains.

“I hear voices, but not the ones you’d understand. Screams from a man, a child, and a woman. The roar of a beast that has not been known, some even sound like a viscous liquid is gargling in its mouth. I feel the chill of it when there's light, and a hot cloud of mist climbing up our back, like it is clinging there and pulling us back… all of that unanswered as I can’t look.”

He looks at the blind man, witnessing a disfigured face.

“Tell me, does any of it make sense?”

Silence was the only answer of the blind man, and after a moment, his demeanor slowly dropped.

“Answer this, upon hearing that, do you want to see it even?”

“I-I… no..”

“Then why are you tempted to look back?”

The gatekeeper looks down at his mug, staring at his reflection.

“My partner and mentor.”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t work alone back then, I had my buddy… you’d actually like him, he knows how to fill the silence of our job.”

The blind man chuckles as he lets down his mug.

“I think I would, you are quite a downer for a young man, I mean, you sound young, but you talk old. At this point, the ladies might go to me instead of you, I mean, I do have a look to die for, heh”

The gatekeeper replied with an annoyed but smiling chuckle. “Your face looks like it’s been stepped on”

And the blind man rebutted, “..and your attitude is alive as the dead”

They both laugh, and the gatekeeper slowly recollected himself.

“But that's the thing, one day he swore he heard someone he knew, and was tempted to look. I did try to stop him, but he told me that he would tell me what he saw, so I don’t have to”

“And what happened?”

The remaining glimmer in the gatekeeper’s eye faded for a moment.

“He went and looked back.”

“I mean, what did he see?”

“He didn’t tell me.”

“Wow, so all of that, just to leave you hanging?”

“No, I didn’t see, but when he said he was looking back, multiple screams were happening, mixed with his scream for help, I can’t risk it… But after that, I heard a ring, and everything went silent, even the thing behind me, leaving me alone for the rest of the day.”

The blind man went silent

“I bet he didn’t mean to.”

“I know him, he wouldn’t, but I hope I went with him, maybe I could have saved him…”

The blind man finally got the gatekeeper's shoulder on the first try and patted him.

“It’s not your fault… I shouldn’t have been tempted”

“Huh?”

“Look closely, I know my face ain’t the same…”

It took the gatekeeper a moment, but the moment he gasped for air, the blind man butted in.

“Missed me, kid?”

“YOU!? YOU’RE ALIVE?!”

He lunged at the blind man and hugged him tight.

“WHAT HAPPENED?!”

The gatekeeper started shaking him as if all the pent-up emotions he had for missing his mentor burst out

“St-t-tt-o-o-o-p i-ii-it”

And the gatekeeper calmed down, realizing what he was just doing with the blind man

“I am blind, but I can still get dizzy!”

The man, slapping the gatekeeper, accidentally hit the pole of the tavern instead

“Ouch!”

“Sorry about that, it's just… It's been months”

The blind man slowly recovered his hand as he shook the pain away

“Heh, really? I haven’t noticed since, I thought it's only been a week or two!”

The gatekeeper chuckled a little as he stated.

“I am not joking, it's really been months?”

And the gatekeeper’s smile slowly faded.

“Yeah, don’t you know?”

“I thought… no! Last I remembered was…”

Then suddenly, he groaned in pain as he tried to and fell off his chair.

The gatekeeper quickly aided him and held him

“Sir? Are you ok? Look at me!”

Despite the groan in pain, he couldn’t help but shoot a face of disbelief, then groan again

“Sorry, I mean just don’t try to remember if it's painful”

The blind man slowly calmed down and was finally able to get back into his chair.

“I… I can’t really remember what happened, all I know… I looked back, just the thought, nothing else.”

Surprised, the gatekeeper confirmed again.

“But that time…”

They sat in silence, thinking about what could still be behind them.

“Could it be too scary in your life that you don’t want to remember?”

He shook his head as he tried to line up bottles.

“No, it's just like this… Look at the bottles, those are my memories, now I’ll take one away.”

He accidentally knocked multiple down.

“I’ll take some away, and the ones gone are basically that moment… All I can remember is the start of when I tried to look, and when I am back here.”

The gatekeeper is cleaning the mess he made and following up

“What about the bell, do you remember ringing?

“I..I think I do, it was too faint, but if I try remembering, I think I remember people, I remember animals, I re- ngh!!”

As he was about to fall again, the gatekeeper caught him in time.

“Easy there, old man, don’t try to if it's hurting you…”

“Thanks, it seems not only my sight and face were taken that time…”

The gatekeeper, not knowing how to reply, allowed silence to fill the tavern.

“How about you? Why haven’t you been tempted?”

He placed his mug down and let out a heavy sigh as he placed down his gauntlet

“This is the only thing you left, a grim reminder”

“I did feel callouses on your hand earlier, you are doing well then on fighting on.”

He slid the gauntlet to him

“You can have it back if you want”

And the blind man slid it back

“It's more of a use to you than it would be for me now.”

The gatekeeper didn’t take it and let it sit between them as he looked at it, remembering the times it almost won.

“I heard my friends and family… I heard you and my girl… I heard monsters…”

The blind man didn’t flinch or react.

“I heard them screaming from pain and pleasure, the heat trying to burn me, the cold trying to freeze me… and I am not sure if it really went and touched me…”

The blind man tapped his mug on the counter, stopping the gatekeeper from telling more

“What you say… is nowhere near what it felt witnessing it… the memory is gone, but the feeling… it remains.”

“But I never saw them enter”

“Neither did I… and yet I paid the price of being a fool”

The blind man now reaches for the gauntlet and slides it further to the gatekeeper.

“Always remember what I can’t”

"Don't look back, but if you do..."

Then a ring

"Just wait for the bells."

"..."

"Are you still there?"