Crossroads (34 page)

‘Get off,’ Olivia wheezed. She wasn’t sure who it was but someone was crushing her.

‘Sorry,’ Sam whispered and the pressure on her chest eased.

‘Olivia?’ she heard Theo’s voice in the darkness and she felt a hand groping her breast.

‘That’d better be you copping a feel Theo,’ she whispered.

His quiet chuckle made her smile despite her aching limbs. ‘Sorry’ he replied, running his hand down her arm to touch her hand.

‘Hang on a minute this is no good, I can’t see a damn thing.’ Olivia snapped her fingers and two of her dragonflies burst into flames but instead of the warm gold and red of her Earth fire they blazed the fiery black and sapphire blue of Hellfire.

The dragonflies hovered close casting an eerie blue glow over them, but it was enough to see by. The boys were already standing and Theo leaned down and grasped a hand, pulling her gently to her feet.

‘Are you okay?’ he cupped her neck gently as he checked her for injuries.

‘I’m fine’ she smiled, ‘just bumps and bruises.’

‘You went down pretty hard in the cemetery.’

‘I’m good’ she nodded, ‘I banged up my elbow a bit but like I said it’s just bruises. What about you?’

‘I am uninjured,’ Theo reassured her.

‘Sam?’

‘I’m good.’ He turned to them both, ‘so this is the Underworld?’

‘I take it you’ve never been before?’ Olivia asked curiously.

‘Nope, first timer’ he replied, ‘so I hope you weren’t hoping for a guide because I’ve got no clue.’

‘I guess we will just have to figure it out together.’ Theo took Olivia’s hand and turned to look around, unable to see anything outside of the circle of blue light. ‘I can’t see anything,’ he frowned, ‘why don’t you try the compass?’

Reaching into her shirt and pulling out the small golden compass, she flicked the lid open and stared down at it. Nothing happened. She shook it a few times and waited. Definitely nothing. She was beginning to wonder if Hades realized he’d given her a dud, either that or he was having a joke at her expense.

‘Zip,’ she snapped it shut irritably.

‘So now what?’ Sam frowned, ‘there’s nothing here. We could end up wandering aimlessly for eternity.’

‘Well I don’t have that long,’ Olivia sighed. ‘I just want to go home, so let’s find my mom and get this done.’

‘Any ideas?’

‘I guess we just start walking’ she shrugged, and squeezing Theo’s hand reassuringly they set off at a brisk pace.

‘You know we could be walking in completely the wrong direction,’ Sam grumbled.

‘Not helping,’ Olivia blew out a frustrated breath.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered.

They walked in silence for the most part. There was something about the darkness that seemed to set a quiet reflective mood. Olivia’s mind wandered and she found herself relaxing. She could now feel the low hum of power beneath her feet and that feeling of eternal vastness. She cocked her head unconsciously as they moved, trying to listen. It almost felt like the darkness was whispering to her. To the left, at the edge of her peripheral vision, she thought she caught something. She turned her head quickly but it vanished.

‘What is it?’ Theo asked in concern.

‘Nothing,’ she murmured, ‘I just thought I saw…’ she shook her head, ‘nothing…never mind.’

They pressed on into the darkness, their way lit by the glow of her dragonflies but after a while the strange apparition came again, ghosting along at the edge of her vision, dancing just out of sight. She turned her head again and caught a wisp of fine smoke-like vapor.

‘I don’t think we’re alone,’ Olivia whispered to Theo as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in closer.

The ground under their feet gradually began to change and the smooth surface changed to a more uneven gravel-like consistency. Even the ground itself seemed more uneven, rising and falling in mounds and dips. They began to pass by boulders and outcroppings of dark grey rock. The strange silvery blue smoke once again brushed past them, this time remaining visible. Theo sucked in a sharp breath as a pale ghostly figure swept past them, followed by another. All three of them stopped and looked around, realizing they were surrounded by them. Like a bloom of jellyfish, they drifted along silently, completely unaware of the three mortals standing in their midst.

‘Are they ghosts?’ Theo asked.

‘Shades’ Sam murmured, as an old man sailed past him, blissfully ignorant.

They were for the most part in human form. They were made up of a thin wraith like mist and seemed to be hollowed out shells of their former selves, content to drift along not knowing or caring about anything around them. Although they still had heads, arms and torsos their legs had disappeared to be replaced with filmy tentacle tendrils which floated and billowed as if they were underwater.

‘I think I know where we are,’ Olivia whispered.

‘What?’ Sam frowned, ‘where?’

She suddenly grabbed both Sam and Theo and dragged them behind a large outcropping of rock.

‘What the hell Olivia?’ Sam grumbled.

‘We can’t follow them,’ she shook her head.

‘What’s going on Livy?’ Theo asked his voice low and soft. ‘Where are we?’

‘Erebus,’ she whispered, ‘a place of darkness between Earth and Hades.’

‘Hades?’ he asked in confusion.

‘Hades the place, not Hades the person,’ she clarified. ‘The first level of the Underworld was named for the God that ruled it.’

‘Okay,’ Theo guessed, ‘so this is what? A place where the dead pass after dying?’

‘That’s exactly what it is,’ she nodded.

‘So this is an in-between place’, Sam spoke up, ‘not the actual Underworld?’

‘No,’ she looked over and pointed, ‘that’s the Underworld.’

As they turned to look, Theo gasped and Sam’s mouth fell open in disbelief.

‘Holy mother of God,’ Sam breathed, his eyes wide. ‘That thing must be nearly five hundred meters tall.’

Olivia gazed up at the colossal stone gateway. She realized Sam was probably right, and at around five hundred meters it was probably higher than the Empire State Building. The word Hades was etched deeply into the crest of the arch and the rest of the stonework was engraved with lettering that she couldn’t make out at this distance. Inside the great stone archway were two gigantic thick oak doors, each with a huge black metal ring on the door to serve as a handle that no mortal could ever possibly open.

‘We need to get closer,’ Olivia whispered. She glanced up at her dragonflies which were now hovering close to her shoulder and had dulled to a muted throbbing blue, as if they knew to make themselves as unobtrusive as possible. ‘Stay low and use the rocks as cover.’

‘Olivia’ Theo frowned, ‘I don’t think the shades can see us and even if they can, I don’t think they care.’

‘It’s not them I’m worried about,’ she replied.

‘What then?’

‘That,’ she pointed.

‘Jesus Christ.’ he gasped, ‘what the fuck is that?’

Olivia’s mouth curved in fleeting amusement. Theo never swore but he’d obviously been around Jake and Tommy too much as the word had fallen easily from his startled lips. She turned back to the creature he was staring at, which prowled back and forth across the gateway. It was enormous and padded slowly on thick paws. Its body sleek, shiny and back glimmered in the pale light of the huge torches burning either side of the vast doors. Three heads sprouted from its powerful shoulders as it growled at the shades approaching the gates.

‘Cerberus,’ Olivia breathed, ‘he’s Hades’ pet.’

‘That’s a pet?’

‘He guards the gateway. From what I understand he’s there to prevent anyone trying to escape the Underworld, rather than to stop anyone trying to enter,’ Olivia told him.

‘That’s probably because no one has ever been stupid enough to try and break into the Underworld before.’

‘Well you’re wrong about that,’ Olivia muttered, ‘but we don’t have time for a history lesson right now. I don’t think he would try to stop us from entering but I sure as hell don’t want to put it to the test. Besides we don’t know what we’re walking into on the other side.’

‘Then how are we supposed to get in?’

‘I don’t know yet,’ she shook her head. ‘Let’s try to get closer, I can’t see much from here.’

They did as she suggested creeping forward slowly, using the rocks as cover until they were only about ten meters from the gate itself. Set out at intervals in front of the gate were nine tall thick columns and each bore one word. Below that word was a mortal suspended by chains. The first one was a fairly young looking male and although he seemed more or less unharmed, his face was filled with indescribable grief. The next one was a middle-aged female whose expression bore the marks of great anxiety. Next to her was another a male, by the looks of it, but she couldn’t tell for sure as it was ravaged by disease, flies buzzed around it and its skin was red, raised and angry covered by boils. She ran her eyes along each column taking in the object lesson, an old woman and then a man so emaciated he was barely more than stretched flesh over a skeleton with dark sunken eyes. The next appeared to be dead and next to her one whose face was filled with absolute agony. The last one seemed to be sleeping.

‘What are they there for?’ Theo whispered.

‘I’m not sure,’ Olivia murmured. ‘Maybe they’re warnings, or object lessons or fears, I don’t know.’

‘I wonder what the words say?’

‘You can’t read it?’ she asked in surprise.

He shook his head and she turned to Sam, ‘Can you read it?’

He shook his head too.

‘You can?’ Sam asked her in surprise, ‘that’s one of the ancient languages. There are very few who can read it.’

‘What does it say?’

She went along the row reading each one in turn.

‘Grief, Anxiety, Disease, Old Age, Fear, Hunger, Death, Agony and Sleep.’

‘Jesus,’ Theo raked his hand through his hair. ‘I don’t know what they’re for but I’d just as soon not end up as one of them.’

‘I hear you,’ Sam agreed, ‘but there’s no other way through.’

‘Yes there is,’ Olivia spoke up suddenly. She didn’t know where the words had come from or why she knew they were true but as she turned to face them she could feel it deep inside her, a knowledge that had been sitting there all along just waiting for her to need it. ‘Not far from here there’s another way in, a secret way.’

They followed behind her curiously as she ducked down behind the rocks and began to head away from the gigantic gateway. The further away they got, the more they realized it wasn’t just a single gateway in the middle of nowhere like the one on the lake had been, outside her house. This gateway split a huge rock wall which speared up into the blackness, as high as the gate itself or possibly even higher. They turned quietly and followed the perimeter, creeping along the edge of the huge black wall like thieves, until Olivia stopped abruptly.

‘This is it,’ she smiled.

‘Err…Olivia,’ Sam paused, ‘it’s just a wall.’

Theo frowned, Sam was right. He couldn’t see anything but the wall stretching into the darkness.

‘Livy, are you sure?’

She took a step closer to the wall and then a step to the left and disappeared.

‘Olivia!’ Theo rushed forward.

‘What?’ she reappeared.

‘How did you do that? Sam asked suspiciously.

‘It’s just an optical illusion,’ she beckoned them closer, ‘look…’

They stepped closer and realized there was an alcove cut into the wall which they couldn’t see until they stepped forward. Once inside there were stairs cut into the rock, which led upwards.

‘How did you know this was here?’ Sam asked carefully.

‘I don’t know,’ Olivia shook her head as she began to climb. ‘It’s like the knowledge was there stored inside my mind, but I didn’t think of it until Theo said there was no way through the gateway. It kinda feels like Deja vu.’

Theo and Sam shot each other a concerned look, before climbing up after her. It seemed to take forever to reach the top of the steps. Their calf muscles were burning in protest and they were breathless as they finally emerged onto what appeared to be a walkway or parapet which had been carved straight into the rock face.

‘God, that was…’

Olivia clamped her hand over Sam’s mouth and dragged both him and Theo down to the hard ground so they were concealed behind the low wall. She placed her finger over her lips and then pointed. Sam turned his head to look. They had emerged on the other side of the wall and now had a good look at the gateway from the inside. It looked much as it had from the front, with an exception. Instead of a monstrous gigantic three headed dog prowling back and forth there was a row of strange vicious looking birds perched on the arch of the gateway, looking down and watching the emerging shades, like vultures trying to decide which corpses to pick over.

Sam’s eyes narrowed as he looked closer and he shuddered in revulsion. Each of the birds had the body and wingspan of a bird but the head and face of a woman with a cruel pointed beak instead of a mouth. Harpies, he thought in disgust. They hunted for the Erinyes and were never far from them. His gaze swept down to the gateway which opened onto the shore of a river and beside it lounged three incredibly beautiful, identical, black haired women. They wore diaphanous gowns of blue black which were draped with jewels and protruding from their shoulders were leathery looking bat-like wings.

‘Damn it,’ Sam whispered. ‘The Erinyes.’

Olivia looked over to the three exotic looking female creatures. She knew exactly what they were, the Furies as they were more commonly known. Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone, the three Goddesses associated with the souls of the dead. They avenged crimes against the natural order of the world, particularly crimes by children against their parents such as Matricide and Patricide and their punishment was to inflict madness upon the murderer.

Now although Olivia hadn’t committed matricide as yet, she had set fire to her parents’ house with her mother in it and she did intend to cause her mother some serious harm if she got her hands on her. It was a bit of a grey area and one she preferred not to flash up on the Furies’ radar, probably best to just avoid them at all costs.