The Gateway to Hell

This is a deeply personal topic for me, so please try and be kind and respectful of my feelings. A lot of this is hard for me to open up about to others, but I could use some help.

My Mother died giving birth to me, and my Father, alone, raised my older Sister JoAnne and I here in Anderson, South Carolina. We've had a somewhat hard life, and despite my Father never remarrying, he was a good man, a hard worker and could always make my Sister and I laugh.

He also had a knack for scaring us.

When we were younger, he'd sometimes do a little fire in the backyard for us, where we could cook marshmallows, hotdogs, even apples . I have fond memories of those times, but I wasn't particularly fond of this one scary story he would always tell us.

He always referred to it as the "Path to Hell", this place that actually exists on Earth. I remember once when I was older (teenage years) and less scared of it (and I myself had become a bit into weird stuff too) had my friend Kyle over and I was trying to scare him with the story.

I recall the next morning at breakfast, we all sat around the table and my Father was being a lot quieter than usually (he loved the sound of his own voice) when out of nowhere he just blurted out "It's not the 'Gateway' to Hell son, it's the 'Path'." My obvious response was "Huh?" He didn't respond any further and it was a pretty awkward silence, especially for my friend Kyle, to say the least.

Apparently he had been eavesdropping on us and apparently I called it "Gateway" which I guess is wrong, I didn't really see the difference between the words or why it was important to him until last year when he died of cancer.

We actually had a bit of a falling out, I dropped out of school and moved out when I was 16, we hadn't talked in years. My Sister stayed close with him, but she had more patience than me. He picked up a bit a of a drinking problem and I couldn't stand being around anymore.

Only a few years ago when she called me and told me that he was sick did I come around again, trying to help out and make amends. Him and I were cordial, but there was always a bit of tension. Anyways, on his death bed, and if you think my life is weird already, this gets a whole lot weirder, his last words to me were something along the lines of:

"Son, those stories I used to tell you and your Sister..."

He got pretty out of it at this point, not sure if it was the meds, he lost his train of thought or maybe he was pondering whether to tell me or not, not sure? He finally followed up:

"It's all real. The path is always there, but it's hidden and safe. That's not the problem, the gateway needs to be protected. There are men that would love to have that information."

He said this with a completely straight face, no smirking, no storytelling tone like he used to use when we were kids.

For the past year I've had this floating around in my head, and only now am I saying anything about that day.

So, what do you guys think?

Is this just his wicked sense of humor, trying to scare me one last time like he used to, maybe as a way of bonding with me or is this something I should look into more?

While I am easily scared sometimes, I'm not especially religious, so I'm not even sure if I believe in a Heaven or Hell to begin with. But, maybe he was being symbolic, trying to give me a life lesson?

Thoughts? Is this an urban legend you guys have heard of before?

a reply to: HerbertLove

We have the intention to undertake good actions but nevertheless fail to take action. This inaction may be due to procrastination, laziness or another vice.
Another way of saying it is that good intentions, when acted upon, may have unforeseen bad consequences.

If you don't mind me asking, what was his religious beliefs and what did he do for a living?

I've heard of one. In Stull, Kansas:

Gateway To Hell

I most certainly believe this and I believe it is not a story but completely real. Not only do places like this exist, but not all of them are known by I would say, those in charge or those in the know. I'm certain some of these places are actually on private property, known by families, either through the generations or found in more recent times. Some small communities (mostly rural) probably know about them and refuse to speak with outsiders. Ranging from locally known entities, anomalous sites to people.

Stuff happens, and I'm certain there's many average citizens who know these locations but just decide to keep quiet. Good post, I believe.

a reply to: HerbertLove

Excellent,

Thank you for contributing to this much beloved but often neglected forum.

You're a good one.

a reply to: HerbertLove

Great thread so far. But... what's the actual story he would tell you?

a reply to: HerbertLove

Certainly a weird story left by your pops but with not much else to go on.

Could be he was just trying to bond one last time with the only thing he knew had bonded you two(since he heard you retelling the story and all).

Or there could be a pathway to hell. But first you'd need to A. Define Hell and B. Define "path" and C. Define those two words together.

Then if he didn't leave anything else in his possession I'd say you are SOL but at least with a clear understanding of the etymology of what you are searching for.

I was raised in Kansas, and the legend of Stull Cemetery is pretty well known.

There are also supposed to be 7 gates of Hell, one for each continent. It's pretty easy to find with a simple google. One of them is supposed to be under the left paw of the Sphinx, for example.

a reply to: ketsuko

First one that came to mind. Seems to be the most well-known path.

I recently moved away from Greenville, SC (lived there for 10 years). I had read a good bit into paranormal things in and around the upstate, but have never heard of anything at all like what your father told you. It is certainly an interesting tale. Have you gone through any of his personal items? Maybe he has some journals or papers that could shed some light on the mystery.

a reply to: HerbertLove

Could you post the story (as close as possible to the way your dad always told it to you)?

I don't think his last words can really be 'analyzed' unless we have as much context as possible...

Actually, it might also help if you could give life history info as well...I mean, 'where' in his life could that story, or the events/experiences involved in it have come from?

@AnteBellum - Yes, he was quite religious, though not the church-going kind. He once told me he stopped going after my Mother had died. He worked in construction.

@Cuervo - I probably don't remember it exactly as he told it, but the gist of it is that sometime after World War II a number of "discoveries" were made by certain US government agencies, discoveries that would be impossible to be allowed to be leaked to regular citizens, discoveries that weren't unbelievable, but because they were believable would be the cause of societal chaos.

So chaotic he said that murder and suicide rates would go "off the charts" and that law, the monetary system etc. would crash (you can imagine how confusing this would be to a child, I only understood some of this in subsequent years).

Keep in mind that my Dad wasn't even born yet (he was born in 1961). I know he was a volunteer firefighter, but I don't think he did anything for the military, I could be wrong.

Anyways, one of the discoveries he mentioned was that there were actual paths to Hell, one of which was in our own backyard and that he was tasked with the protection of this information, keeping an eye out that kids wouldn't trespass in these areas etc. (could be a tool to get my Sister and I to be good?).

Now, as a child I don't think I could grasp the concept of a generalized/broad statement, so I thought there was literally a portal to hell in my backyard ha ha! Now, I think he meant our town, state or really, the US.

He'd tell us that while some kids really were taken by bad people, some simply disappear, like into a black hole where these hotspots exist.

@OrphanApology - There's still a lot to go through, but I know he kept journals and drawings.

@fiendchikx138 - Hey, small world! Yes, there's a lot to go through, a bit daunting and it stirs up feelings I've been putting off revisiting.

@lostgirl - Update above in this reply.

Thanks everyone!

If you feel comfortable delving into his journals and drawings, you might find out the 'root' of the story...Looking thru these things also might help with your grieving process...

Once you've done the above, if you feel comfortable sharing the info, a lot of us on this thread would be interested.

I don't believe in heaven or hell, but I knew I shouldn't have read this. Creepy as hell! But anyways, sorry for your loss he must've been a pretty cool dad!

It may have been a story to try and get you and your sister to adhere to the path of good in a religious or just societal way. By claiming there is a physical path to hell it reinforces your will to behave, to not go into places you have no business being in, to stay clear of strangers etc. We all get told as kids that there's bad people out there, there's places we shouldn't go, maybe this was your dad's version of this?
I don't know, maybe he did know of pathways to hell on the physical plane, I sure hope not, I'd hate to blindly stumble upon one

a reply to: HerbertLove
If you feel okay to discuss this more -

I am wondering how much you know of your dad's family - could his father have been in the military or some government agency and told him the story?
Because with your dad being born in 1961, the timing is right for his father to be involved in military or government stuff in the years just after WW2...

Also, when you think of the way he told the stories, could the word 'Hell' have been metaphorical? I mean some sort of 'place' that was not literally Hell, but they called it that because whatever it was was so horrible as to be 'hellish'...

I can't do this anymore, I'm sorry.

I just received this incredibly creepy email last night. I don't know how someone got my email, if someone on these boards is messing with me, please stop.

I feel like I'm being watched, if that wasn't enough, someone broke into my Dad's house and stole some of his things, the boxes that I'm pretty sure had his journals in them are gone.

I don't understand, it feels like I'm receiving signs that I should keep looking into this and I know you guys have encouraged me to keep looking, but I receive this email that I should "start digging", but at the same time I feel like I'm being intimidated to stop. I don't understand the conflicting messages?

I'm not a coward, but in fight or flight situations, I'm all flight. There's nothing courageous about being dead.

That's just silly talk anyways. Whoever is stalking me, if you're reading this, I'm done, I swear, I'm leaving. It's clearly just a story and I have no business stirring up stuff I don't understand. I understand now that it was just a story, make believe. Anything else is just a hoax or overzealous people from these boards teasing me. I'm just being paranoid, I get that now. It's all good.

I won't be returning to these boards. I'm sorry guys, good luck (but, like I said it's clearly just a hoax so don't waste your time). A screenshot of the email is below. I'm only sharing it to warn you guys, if you get an email from this creepo, just delete it. Obviously, don't go to the link, it's probably a virus or something.

Some doors are better left unopened. I don't belong here anyways, I'm going home. If my Sister wants the house, she can deal with it. Goodbye everyone and thanks for trying to help me.

Well...that escalated quickly...
Not sure what to say to that. Someone's probably just messing with you though dude.

a reply to: christmaspig
You brave enough to click the link in the screenshot? 'Cause I'm not...

i went to the link! its a riddel or something i found it from twitter and then found this page searching on google i cant figur out the anser tho

oh duhh!! i forgot the twit link but also the screengrab is broke her is the link gatewaytohell.org...