Dark Heirloom (An Ema Marx Novel Book 1) (29 page)

“Fine,” she grunted. “Can you see anything yet? The sky, perhaps?”

I looked up. The web of vines was thinning, thank goodness, but what I saw beyond the end of the briar bush wasn’t what I expected.

Leena gasped as she saw the image in my mind. “Tell me you are joking.”

“I wish,” I said as I glanced up at the ground. This couldn’t be right. I was sure we had climbed
up
the vines, yet the ground stared back at me, the vines ended just before the cool brown earth.

“No,” Leena spoke. “This is exactly right. Up goes down, and down goes up. We went up, so we really went down to the ground, just like the old crone said to do.”

“Leena, I don’t know about you, but I am positive that I am not hanging upside-down right now. If I let go of the vines, I’m positive that I will fall down… or up… whatever. My point is, I won’t land on the ground, I’d land in the briar bush again.”

“You’re right, gravity is not going the right way.”

“So, what do we do?”

“Well, the crone has been correct so far… so, the next step would be to eat the earth.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled my weight up the vines until I was within arm’s reach of the ground. I dug my fingernails into the soft dirt and broke off a fistful. I expected bits of debris to shower down, but nothing happened. The loose dirt stayed on the ground above my head. Apparently,
some
form of gravity worked here.

I lowered my arm and offered the dirt to Leena. She took one look and then smiled coyly. “You first.”

I grumbled and wrinkled my nose. With a deep breath, I stuck out my tongue and touched the tip against the dirt. It tasted the same way everything non-bloody tasted to a vampyre. Like ash. I waited a moment, expecting some big revelation of the real hell, a neon sign that pointed to Apollyon’s grave, or something. But nothing happened.

“I don’t feel any different,” I announced. “And, I don’t see any dead people.”

“You probably have to eat more than that.”

“Well, why don’t you go right ahead and show me how it’s done.” I dumped the pile of dirt into Leena’s palm. She frowned, then took a large bite.

The ground began to tremble. I tightened my grip on the vines, even though the thorns cut deep into my skin. The earth parted and a deep black canyon ripped opened just feet from my head. A gust of wind blew from beneath us, and I realized we were being sucked into the ground. I held on with all my might, blood running down my forearms and legs, as I tried in vain to resist the sucking vortex.

Leena screamed. “I can’t hold on!”

“You have to.” It took all my strength to glance at her, because the motion went against the direction of the wind. Her hands and legs were entwined around the vines, holding on for all she was worth, but her torso was lifted by the wind, and she flapped around like a flag in a storm. I had to help her.

“Take my hand!” I reached out, but she only looked at me.

“I can’t. If I let go…” Her eyes widened to say the rest.

“I’ll climb down.”

But, before I could reach her, she shrieked as she lost her grip. I reached for her hand, and she fumbled for mine, but we both missed. I screamed in horror as I watched her fall deeper and deeper into the pit.

When I could no longer see her, but still hear her screams, I decided that I was extremely pissed-off, and sick of the underworld.

“Hey,” I shouted to no one. “Hey, screw you, God damn it!”

I must have gone crazy, but I didn’t care. My blood boiled. As if the devil himself could hear me, the ground quaked, and the briar thorn bush was ripped by the roots as the earth crumbled into itself. Before I knew it, I was falling into the canyon right along with a huge chunk of the bush. Fear erupted from my core as it dawned on me that I might not live through this, but the feeling was quickly replaced by a surge of adrenaline.

“What, you want me too? Fine!”

I gulped, squeezed my eyes shut, and let go of the vines, diving headlong into the pit.

Chapter 29

Bile burned the back of my throat as gravity righted itself, but I wasn’t falling. I was being sucked down into darkness at a speed I couldn’t possibly survive. I tried to fly against the vortex, to no avail. The gust was too strong. It forced me down farther, until the little bit of light that came from above quickly shrank to the size of a star, and then disappeared.

I flailed my arms around, trying to find something to hold on to, something to break my fall. There was nothing, but the sharp wind whipping my hair, tugging my clothes, rippling my skin.

I thought of Leena. How much distance was between us? Was she still falling, or had she already hit bottom? I called out Leena’s name, but was dropping so quickly, the air muffled my voice. The space smelled like wet dirt. An omniscient type of fear bubbled in my stomach. I had only felt this way once before, when Jalmari pointed his dagger at my heart. I wished the end would hurry up and get here.

The darkness stretched on forever. I fell for so long, that I no longer knew if my eyes were open or closed. When the air began to shimmer, I couldn’t tell if it was real or just my imagination. The blackness slowly divided itself, and I blinked.

Closed.

Open.

My mind felt groggy, like I just woke from a very strange dream. My vision spun from what I assumed was the impact of the fall. I rolled onto my back, laying on something lumpy. I wanted to get up, but forced myself to stay still until the vertigo passed. Thick red storm clouds drifted past a crimson sky. The air reeked of blood. Human blood, animal blood, and the blood of other things I couldn’t name, all rolled into one. For the first time, I did not desire a drop of it, and I took a moment to bask in that simple pleasure.

I ached all over, but forced myself to sit up and inspect my surroundings. I sat atop a large, lumpy, brown hill surrounded by identical hills. The land between the mounds was flat and barren. Phasing my right hand, the air felt uncomfortably dry and hot against my molecules, but not a single trace of energy vibrated. I sighed and surveyed the land more closely, looking for any sign of Leena.

There was something odd about the hills—they moved, they moaned. They were piles of something live, piles of bodies. I gasped as I became aware of the lumpy hill I sat on. Someone under me groaned and I jumped in terror.

Just then, a body fell from the sky and landed a few feet from me. I screamed and leaped back, tripping over a limb. I landed on my hands, coming face to face with a young girl. She looked dead with her eyes closed. Mud caked her hair and face, and the rest of her body was buried under the mound of flesh. Then her eyes opened. I clasped a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. She didn’t speak, instead she looked past me, as if she could only sense my presence and not actually see me.

Before I could find my voice, a dozen bronze hands reached out and grabbed me from all directions, trying to pull me into the pile.

“Oh no you don’t!” I wiggled and kicked them. The hands let go and shied away. I pushed myself to my feet.

“Who are you?” I meant to ask the girl, but she was gone, sunken into the pile. I didn’t think the bodies were alive or aware of themselves. They seemed more like sluggish zombies piled on top of each other. In that case, I couldn’t help them.

I climbed down, being careful not to step on anyone’s head. As I reached the bottom of the hill, Leena’s voice called out.

“Ema? Ema, is that you? I’m over here.” Her hand waved from just around the side. She was half-buried under bodies. I rushed to her and pulled her out, ignoring her groans of pain. Helping her to sit up, we both took a moment to gather ourselves.

A layer of reddish-brown dust coated her matted hair. Streaks of dried blood and mud stained every inch of her skin. Perspiration wrinkled her clothes beyond recognition. The vine that held her eye shut was still just as gruesome.

I winced, knowing I must have looked just as bad, but at least I had both eyes. Would pulling the vine off be better or worse?

“Maria can take care of it later,” she breathed. “Please, help me up?”

Nodding, I gently pulled her to her feet. When she was able to stand steady, I asked, “What is this place?”

She glanced around and then whispered. “These people have recently died. They have no idea.”

Another body fell from the sky and landed with a thump nearby. I cringed. “Is this where we find Apollyon?”

Leena looked thoughtfully at the piles of zombies. “No, but we’re close. King Apolloyn has been dead a long time. His soul will be somewhere else. We should move.”

“Which way do we go?” Mounds of bodies surrounded us for as far as one could see. The effect sobered me as I realized how many people died each day, and I thanked God I was still alive.

“I’m not sure,” said Leena. “Actually, I doubt it matters, if directions are still backward here.”

She glanced around, and then pointed as seven crows flew overhead. “We follow the crows.”

“Why?”

“They favor the company of the elderly, and Apollyon is ancient.” She began walking. I couldn’t think of a better idea, so I followed her.

The underworld began to look more like hell with every mile. The farther we went, the larger the pile of dead zombies became, until they were mountainous heaps of bronzed skin and soulless faces.

I shuddered and kept my eyes down, which wasn’t much better. The earth bled beneath my shoes. I knew, as nausea knotted my gut, that the seeping blood came from the massive piles of dead.

At first, hands reached out, and muffled voices called for us. Their grasps were so weak; a simple swat sent them recoiling back into their pile. It was difficult not to scream. It was worse to look at them. However, the farther we went, the quieter they became, until all was still and an eerie silence stiffened the air.

“This is horrible,” I whispered. “I always thought people had some sort of afterlife, even if they were being tortured by demons. But these people are just dead, as dead as their bodies in their grave. Doesn’t something happen to their souls?”

Leena shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

I was about to say something else when she ducked behind a pile of bodies and yanked me with her.

“Do you hear that?”

The soft mumble of voices and the crunch of careless footsteps drifted into my ears. I sniffed the air. Big mistake. I had to hold my breath and clasp my hand over my nose to keep from gagging. The atmosphere smelled of smoke and rotted eggs.

Sulfur.

Leena motioned for me to take a look. I frowned and shook my head. She rolled her good eye and then pointed at the bad eye. I bit my lip.

Fine.

Being as silent as possible, I stood just enough to peer over the mound of dead people. In the distance was a clearing. It might have been a forest once, but was burned down or something. A few dead tree stumps dotted the dry, lifeless wasteland. The ground was so hot, heat rolled off the land in waves of visible vapor.

That wasn’t what worried me. The hundred or so bone-thin people walking around did. A few wore rags, but most of them were naked. They were all as skinny as skeletons, like they were starving to death. The old woman’s voice replayed in my head.

There ain’t nothing you can eat around here.

I crouched before they could notice me. “There’s a bunch of skinny people walking around,” I whispered. “Are they dead?”

Leena nodded. “Those are the souls you speak of.”

“They don’t look like souls to me. They look like starving zombies.”

Leena wrinkled her nose. “Most humans no longer believe in leaving food out for the dead.”

I had no idea what that meant.

“They probably will not notice us,” she went on. “They’ve been dead a long time, and have probably gone mad.”

Oh,
that
was reassuring.

She snorted at my thought.

“So, what, we just walk right past them?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

I didn’t. We stood and came around the last mound of bodies.

“Do not stare at them,” she warned.

I shrugged. I couldn’t help glancing at them. What little bit of hair they had was thin and greasy, and stuck flat to their scalps. Their bones and joints popped out. Their skin looked gray, wilted. Their black eyes sunk low in the sockets, and looked as though something was missing, like the person they were before they died was no longer there.

We walked carefully past them. Some of the zombies wandered around and looked beyond us, into the distance. Others sat on the ground hugging their knees, rocking back and forth. Most of them mumbled something unintelligible.

We stepped around fallen logs and scrawny branches as the trees became more numerous. Gigantic spider sacks stuck to several of the tree trunks. The more we walked, the more frequent the spider sacks became. They were the kind of cocoons spiders spun around insects when they wanted to save them for later. Only these were big enough to hold a person.

Oh God
.

A new kind of fear took me so completely that I froze in my tracks. “Leena, if there are gigantic spiders here…”

She shook her head. “I do not see any spiders, do you?”

“No, but—”

She squeezed my hand. “We should start looking for your grandfather. The crows have landed.”

The big black birds perched on top of the dead trees. There were many more than the original seven we had followed. I scanned the zombies, and realized I had no idea what Apollyon looked like. How was I supposed to pick him out?

“Good point,” Leena grumbled. She let go of my hand. “I’ll do the searching. I’ve seen Apollyon’s face in Jalmari’s memories before. You watch for danger.”

I nodded. “All right.”

To my horror, Leena approached the nearest spider cocoon and began peeling back the sticky webbing. I could feel the blood drain from my face as she worked. After removing several layers, she uncovered a dead man’s face. Really
dead. Mummy dead. His skin was paper thin, his eyes and tongue rotted away, and maggots filled the gaping spaces. Bile rose to my throat.

“Not him,” Leena called out. She moved to the next tree. It was unbelievable. I had to turn away and look at something else—anything else.

I noticed a shadow skid across the horizon. It went from the cover of one tree, to another, in one fluid motion. I narrowed my eyes. This wasn’t one of the wandering zombies. This shadow knew exactly what it was doing, to move that way. My hands trembled.

“Leena? Leena!”

“What?”

“I saw something.”

The sounds of sticky paper ripping stopped. Leena whispered. “What was it?”

“I don’t know.” I squinted, trying to see the figure again, but it was gone. “Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s not dead. It moved fast.”

Leena stood beside me and followed my gaze to the spot where I had seen the shadowy thing last. All I could think was that it had better not be a spider. Not even a little one.

A black figure emerged from the vapor. I gulped in fear. Leena stood silent, studying it with her good eye. The thing stepped closer, fluttering in the heat as if it had wings.

“I don’t think it’s a spider,” Leena whispered.

“Oh, thank goodness. Now everything is peachy again.”

She narrowed her eye at me.

I shrugged. If it wasn’t a spider, then what was it?

The figure drew closer. I realized it really didn’t have wings. It wore a black cloak. The hem of the cloak was what fluttered in the air. A black hood masked most of the face, but I could make out the pale lanky chin and wisps of white hair poking out from under the hood.

Leena huffed as the old woman smiled. I noticed how she walked with a certain grace, gliding over the land. She stood with her back erect and relaxed. Not hunched over or hobbling like she had the last time we saw her.

My lip quivered. “How did you get here?”

“Same way you did. Ain’t those thorns a bitch?”

I knew better. Leena and I had hardly made it out alive, and we had the bruises to prove it. The woman looked as though someone carried her over on a gold chariot, and even gave her an energy drink along the way.

She grinned. “I see you two made it.”

“You didn’t come through the thorns,” I yelled. I might regret it later, but I didn’t care. If there was an easier way to get to this point, I wanted to know about it.

The hag frowned. “No?”

She peeled off her cloak and flung it to the ground in one motion. I really wished she hadn’t. I could have lived without seeing her body.

She was naked underneath, and her body was nothing but flesh and bone. She didn’t have any skin from her wrists to her collarbone, to her ankles. Maggots crawled around and burrowed under her organs and muscle tissue. I fell to my knees and vomited. Leena merely looked away.

The woman put her cloak on. “That’s what happens when ya go through them damn thorns too many times. They rip all your skin off, they do.” She said this like a grandmother warning her granddaughter not to go out at night.
The boogie man will get you, he will
. I wiped my mouth with my hand and stood.