“Well, I can’t say I am sorry about that.” I said leaving the destruction alone and walking over to where he stood. I hoped this was enough of a hint for us to get going. He raised an eyebrow before whispering a cocky,
“What’s wrong pet, had enough of me already...? Are we that eager to jump to a hotter playing field?” My answer was to shrug my own shoulders at him, knowing that I had no great urge to see Hell up close and personal but was still buzzing at the prospect of seeing Draven again.
“Then give me your heart, pet.” At this request the organ in question started to beat a lot quicker. He must have noted my reaction because he started laughing at me.
“Don’t panic sugar, I don’t mean it in the literal sense or that I want any declarations of love, just the heart you have in your bag.” I bit my lip as a blush rose with his gentle teasing.
“But I…I thought you couldn’t touch it?” This time he grabbed my shoulders and guided me over to a darker corner where something lumpy sat under a dirty cover. He turned me and walked me closer to it and I screamed bloody murder when he suddenly grabbed the cover and yanked it hard enough to come off in one whoosh.
“You jerk!” I shouted moving back with nowhere to go but closer into his hold.
“Calm down pet, I think you can see he won’t hurt anyone.” I was seething mad with the man at my back for forcing me to see the only other one in the room with us.
“He’s…he’s…”
“I can assure you Keira, he’s quite dead.” He referred, of course, to the heavily decomposed corpse that sat in the corner on a low wooden stool as if he just needed a rest. Well, he was most certainly getting a good rest alright, nothing more relaxing than death!
The skeleton figure sat there patiently, still dressed in his 18th century finery, with a long jacket embellished with buttons down the length and large cuffs. Even his embroidered thigh length waistcoat and knee high boots could be seen under years of filth. But more than any of this, I had to say the main feature had to be the ripped open chest cavity, where even the rib bones had been broken back like the lid to an old tool box.
“I just thought that it would be better done swiftly…what is it they say, rip the band aid quickly for less pain.”
“Plaster…so why is Captain McRib down here anyway?” Jared burst out laughing at my nick name for him and then sobered enough to ask,
“Plaster?”
“Band aid…It’s called a plaster where I’m from, so answer the question, who is he?”
“That handsome fellow is none other than Paul Whitehead of course. Now all you need to do to make him dance is give him back his heart and it will open the gateway.” This time I dropped the smart ass comments and snapped round to say,
“Oh, sod that for a bag of chips! There is not a cat in Hell’s chance I am going anywhere near Mr chatty pants over there!” Ok, so I didn’t exactly drop all of the smart ass comments but I couldn’t have been more serious with them!
“Assuming I understood you in all that northern charm, if you don’t, then I am afraid the tour is over and there will be no more passing Go and collecting 200 for you, so…” He leant down, as most supernatural men had to do around me and whispered,
“…Game over.”
“Ok, Fine! I get it…jeez you want me to do gross stuff but I swear I am drawing the line if you ask me to give him a makeover!” I said stomping my foot in frustration. He again just laughed at me. I decided not to bite and fuel his humour anymore but just get on with it. I did the easy bit first, considering I had begun to get to know Mr Whitehead’s heart on a sharing shower basis. I reached in my bag and grabbed my new friend.
Then came the hard part.
I walked closer to what used to be the living, breathing and breaking the law, Paul Whitehead and couldn’t help but take pause before getting too close.
“I must say, as amusing as this is, I would ask for you to get on with it before time catches up with you and you end up looking like his sister.” I shot Jared daggers making his grin grow a notch. I refrained from the comeback I really wanted to say and opted for a grumbled swear word. Then I got back to the gruesome task at hand…or should I say at heart?
I held the wrapped package in one shaky hand and closed my eyes as I stepped closer to my target. I couldn’t tell you how happy I was at least, that he was that far decomposed so as not to have any rotting fleshy bits or the smell that goes with death. Thinking along these lines gave me another new mantra and I started to whisper,
“Just a large stick man…it’s just sticks, not bone, just sticks…”
“Keira!” Jared said my name like he was losing patience and I snapped out a,
“I’m doing it, alright!” Then I used my anger and frustration to open my eyes and ram it home with one strong thrust. Then I jumped back like a little girl, jumping up and down like trying to get rid of a spider.
“Eww! Eww, eeewwww!” I shook my head, pulled a face like I just licked in between cheesy toes and continued to jump up and down in a circle like this would somehow drive out the last two minutes of my memory!
“Good girl, now if you could just control the girly shit, then that would be nice.” I decided to take a page out of his brother’s book and flip him my middle finger as my reply. This was quickly ignored by both of us when stick man Paul Whitehead started to move! I screeched out an unattractive sound and hid behind Jared’s back to watch.
The once very still corpse now raised his head as a series of shudders started to vibrate his old bones, starting from his chest. It was like his heart had actually started to beat again after all this time. Then in a blink, his arm shot out, causing me to yelp at Jared’s back when Whitehead’s bony hand slapped the rock behind him. I raised the lantern Jared had given me back to hold and watched in morbid fascination as I made out the blood that oozed from the organ and started to wrap around his bones like a red ribbon. It only went one way and travelled along his arm, leaving the rest of his body untouched.
Then Paul Whitehead’s fingers, complete with long fingernails, tightened on the stone, causing his nails to clash with the it. The lantern in my hold started to shake as I saw what he was doing and noticed, just as the blood reached the tips of his fingers, he drew his nails down the grooves left there by Jared’s claws. Blood reached the thin crevices and filled the gaps in the rock like little dried river beds flooding for the first time in years.
“Shit!” I shouted as the whole cave started to shake. I dropped the lantern and held on to Jared’s back with both hands, grabbing fistfuls of leather. I was about to shout over the noise, but then all senses became transfixed as moisture started to bead on the walls like condensation from an intense change of temperature. Heavy droplets fell just from one space above, like heavy rain that was concentrated just by the wall. Soon it formed a puddle and then started to boil.
“Wh…what’s hap…?” I never got to finish the question as the rumbling increased and Jared started to take steps back, pushing me along with him. I didn’t know how the cave was still standing and thought for sure any minute we would be buried under an entire hill full of rock!
I managed to keep my gaze riveted to the spot where everything seemed to be happening, when a piece of the wall came away. It was about the size of a few bricks and an intense orange glow could be seen shining behind it. It looked like sunrise and, as if attracted like a bug to light, I started to step round Jared to get closer. He turned quickly and held me still and to his chest.
“You don’t want to do that just yet.” And just as he promised, the orange glow showed its true form, as burning hot lava started to flow over the small gap.
“Oh God!” It started to spew out in a more powerful gush and in doing so, broke away more of the rock, until it resembled a glowing molten waterfall. It hit the puddle with a hiss as steam automatically rose before it evaporated the water. Once it hit the cave’s floor, it started to turn into a wave of smooth black rock that built up in layers as more lava
fell. I didn’t know what we were still doing here as surely it would soon consume the cell’s space and us along with it.
“Do you trust me, Keira?” Jared asked in the calmest voice and my panicked gaze told him I didn’t know if I could. He turned his head to look briefly at its progress before turning back to me and on a shocked breath he lifted me into his arms. Then he turned and for a relieved second I thought he was getting us out of there, but this turned out to be the opposite. He started to stride straight for the pouring lava and for once, I was too stunned to scream.
Then something amazing started to happen. The closer he got to the floor’s flowing lava the quicker it turned into ageing grey dust and started to float away as though it never should have been there. By this time the scorching waterfall was now the size of a door, having melted the remaining rock away.
I gripped onto his shoulders and started making little panicked noises by the side of his face. His hold told me he wouldn’t be letting me go any time soon and coupled with what we faced, I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or bad! One step, two steps and I hoped not our last step breathing as we approached the opening. Then, as if by a sensor, the lava started to part at the top and began to only to flow at the sides, still making the space large enough to fit through.
Then came our very last step as we walked through the overflowing magma, straight into another world…
Jared’s Underworld.
Chapter 42
Say Hi to the Devil When You Get There
“You have got to be kiddin me!” I uttered after minutes of stunned silence with my mouth hanging open in unattractive shock.
“Not what you expected?” I turned to look at him and he laughed at the dumbfounded way I shook my head.
“Then enjoy it for the time you have here.” He said and I happily did as he suggested. After the fiery entrance getting here I would have thought the theme continued, but I couldn’t have been more wrong if I had tried.
We had walked straight from inside the mountain at our backs and onto sun bleached decking that ran on for miles in each direction. Then surrounding every square inch of us was nothing else but water like an enormous lake, rather than the raging river I would have expected. The water was so deathly still it didn’t even lap against the mountain we stood next to.
The decked walkway was constructed above the water next to the rock, with stilted poles running along in intervals, until they went out of sight on either side. I then faced forward and saw a long dock that reached out over the pearlescent water as though it floated, so as not to disturb its harmony.
It was one of the most tranquil sights I had ever seen and I instantly felt a sense of peace flow over my soul, inducing a warm calm of the likes I had never felt before. It seemed to somehow reflect back from the turquoise surface, like a gentle blanket of morning mist rising up, giving it an ethereal feel.
“What is this place?”
“Keira, you don’t have to whisper.” He said smiling.
“I feel like I have too, this place…it’s…it’s so…”
“Serene?” He added helping me.
“Flat.” He laughed out loud at my description.
“Well it is, I mean just look at that water, it doesn’t even move…what type of water doesn’t move?”
“The type that has no weather to guide it.” I looked up to the sky after he said this and took in the infinite space of white. There were no fluffy clouds, no blinding sun, and no vast ocean of blue…just… still… white.
“I don’t understand this place.” I said looking back to Jared, who gave me a sympathetic look.
“The easiest way to understand it is if you think of it as a waiting room at a train station. There is a ticket office you walk up to but only they know your destination. They give you the right platform and you get on the train waiting there, after that…well…only the life you’ve lived determines that.”
“And if you don’t believe in any of this?” I asked looking back out on to the still topaz water.
“Then my guess is that none of this happens.”
“Your guess?” His answer surprised me enough to ask.
“Keira, try to understand, this is all I know…I am a part of this world just as much as you are, so it matters not what we believe because we are already a part of its very makeup, it’s DNA, both of us, we are not solely of your world.” I frowned at his explanation.
“I’m human, Jared.”
“As was I, but I always had something else inside me, a light or darkness that called out to this place, to one of its masters…why do you think you were chosen… Electus.” I cringed at hearing the name I had first heard come from Draven’s lips. Ever since the day that Draven no longer was of this life, I had become to hate it! Hearing it again felt like being struck with a back hander across the face and from the looks of Jared, he saw it there.
“Keira.” He said softly and I turned from him as he reached out to cup my cheek.
“Don’t!” I warned stepping away, putting some distance between us.
“Believe it or not pet, I had difficulties coming to terms with what hand my fate dealt me, but unlike you I had those choices taken from me…both times.” When he said this last bit in an emotional whisper I turned back to him.
“Both?”
“That love you spoke of, the reasons that brought you here… that part of my history was also out of my control and no matter the amount of power gained that night, it could never bring me back what I lost.” I let the bitter attitude I felt evaporate on hearing his pain. It was amazing to look at this creature of Hell, locked in the body of once a simple man, and see the common ground we walked on. To realise how similar we were was strangely heart-warming to me and I couldn’t help my reactions to it. I threw my body into his and hugged him until it took my breath away.
Silent minutes passed us by, but no words were needed in our own private moment. And even stood on the edge of this hellish quest, it was one of the most beautiful moments I had ever known and for that, I couldn’t have been more thankful. Not only for his friendship but for his complete understanding. It turned out to be all I needed to see me ready for this upcoming trial I had facing me.
“Thank you my friend.” I whispered into his chest and I felt the gentle kiss placed on my hair at the top of my head. We both released each other and I sighed, knowing that my time was up. His look told me his understanding of the same thing.
“So…do I have to give this ferryman a call like I would a taxi or what?” This got me another handsome smile framed by that trimmed black wiry beard of his. Even the scar along his face didn’t seem that frightening to me anymore.
“That won’t be necessary.” He said tapping me under the chin and then taking my hand to lead me.
“Come on, I’ll show you.” He started to take me down the dock which didn’t even creak once at our combined heavy weight. This was something else I noticed, as other than I and Jared, not one sound was heard coming from this place. In such an open space like this that was beyond eerie.
Once we got to the end of the dock and I looked out over the water, the colour changed as the mist got thicker and it suddenly became harder to see where the water ended and the sky began. After a few moments of Jared not giving anything away, I was about to speak, when I saw a shadow in the distance getting closer. This had to be the ferryman and suddenly it dawned on me what I was really about to do.
The closer the small boat got, the more the fog lifted and soon all of the water was shining bright and vibrant as if the sun had just popped back up. I looked up, almost convinced I would see it there but there was nothing but vast empty white space.
“Any last words of wisdom?” I asked watching the boat getting bigger.
“Here, take this.” I looked down to see a coin in his hand with a three headed dog engraved in the silver.
“Why?”
“Because it will let the ferryman know where to take you. There’s a friend of mine wh
o might be able to help you find what you are looking for, or at the very least will be able to give you some answers…here, take it.” He tried to pass it to me but I shook my head and reached into my jeans pocket. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw what I held in my hand.
“That’s alright, I have my own.” After the initial shock his eyes turned hard and he scowled down at my hand as if what I held was a blasphemy.
“Keira, where did you get this?” His voice was serious and hard, making me shiver. When I didn’t answer he growled out my name in warning making me take a step backwards. He grabbed my forearm to both stop me from going too close to the edge and so he could lift up my hand to examine the coin.
“Fuck! Keira, you can’t use this!” The sound of his fresh anger was startling and for a moment I couldn’t react until he tried to take the coin from me. I closed my fist as tight as it would go without causing pain and wrenched my arm from his grasp.
“Why not?!” I shouted back.
“Because I know where and to whom it will take you and trust me when I say you do not want to go there. Now Keira…” He said in warning that was ringing in my head like an alarm I had no choice but to ignore. I took another step back as he made to reach out for my arm again.
“Stay back! Jared you know why I have to do this, I have no choice…I was given this coin for a reason!” His furious gaze turned into one of soulful worry.
“Look pet, I don’t know who gave you that coin but it is dangerous…that place, Christ even I wouldn’t want to go there! That level of Hell is not for you to see, let alone go and spend time there! Please honey, please…now just listen…” I bit my lip as I felt frightened tears rise, but I had to remain strong. So I silently shook my head at him and prayed for him to stop scaring me.
“I’m sorry, Jared.” I said in an emotional whisper and turned away just as the boat was nearing the end of the dock. When I didn’t hear anything but heavy breathing from behind me, I thought he had given up. Then I was roughly spun round and in an attempt to save the coin as he reached for it, a soundless ‘No’ was my only reaction when the coin flew from my grasp. I watched in slow motion as my only chance gathered more distance from my outstretched hand. In that precious moment time stood still and I couldn’t breathe. How could I have come this far only to fail now?!