(Recap)
“I told you this place is a place for tormenting the mind. You cannot trust your eyes. Stay close to me; it appears this place affects you deeply.” Akil said and grabbed my arm to drag me along. I went without a word, everything that had happened, everything Ethan and my dad said, hit on the mark, leaving me feeling raw and exposed. In that moment I wanted to die so much, I didn’t want to kill my family; I didn’t want to watch them die one by one.
“We’re nearly there. I can see the river” Akil said, his voice low and emotionless.
We crossed the street in front of my house and instead of the usual row of houses that was in front of my house, there was a field and a hundred yards away was a giant river. It smelled like the sea and freshly cut grass, I remembered smelling this before. It felt like a long time ago, but the memory was forever etched into my mind.
“The River Styx.” I said in a hush voice and I saw in the corner of my eye Akil do a double take as if he hadn’t expected me to know, but I remembered it and the chill that passed over me wasn’t from the cold.
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Chapter 41
Ethan’s POV
We had been travelling none stop, the amount of damage that worldwide earthquake caused not to mention the hysteria that followed was insane. It was as if the end of days had truly come about, but without the mass attack from hell and it left me feeling sick to my stomach.
The sun had been up for a while when we had finally reached the Mayan temples. We hadn’t rested at all and my legs felt strange as we begun to slow.
The temple was uncharacteristically empty, usually you’ll have the place crowded with ghosts all amped up for a sacrifice, or you would see the long dead tortured souls milling about lost and confused from their sudden and horrific deaths, but it was deserted as if the entire lot of them were reaped.
“I don’t - like the looks - of this.” Tommy said panting from exhaustion as he also slowed down at the sight of the deserted runes.
“They - where here.” I panted out, stopping altogether to rest on my knees. “The well is close.” Taking a gulp of air I straightened up, and said, “We need to keep moving.”
I felt Tommy grab me and say, “We need - to prepare and - protect ourselves. No telling what - we’ll find at the well. First- we rest a little.” Tommy said and I nodded, as we caught our breaths.
I knew what he was saying, but not wanting to think about it. They could have caught Violet and where right at this moment sacrificing her to the Well in the hopes that it would bring them back. That thought in mind break time was over and it spurred me on, Tommy trailing behind after we cloaked ourselves. Making us virtually invisible to them.
It wasn’t long until we came across the first ghost, his attention was on the activity going on at the Well.
The Priest was talking about a fair girl of the dead that could bring them back, that the four Chaac had heard their prayers and accepted their blood sacrifices, and answered it by bringing a girl of the dead for them to feast on to return them to their bodies.
He was now praying over the well asking the great Chaac to bring her back to them so that they could be made whole again.
I almost let out a relieved breathe… Violet was safe, I mean at least she had gotten away from them, but did she make it through the portal okay?
Tommy started muttering something under his breathe and it wasn’t long before his Reapers smoke was swirling around him and making him look more menacing. He cloaked himself in a cape of smoke, and started floating above the ground. The swirls of smoke spread out from him, making him appear as if he was made of air, the Earth seemed to be rising up helping the smoke give him form. He looked to be made of the earth as well as the air, his hood hid his face in shadows giving him an ominous look and then he revealed himself right in the middle of the crowd.
There were a few shocked gasps, the Priest’s eyes going round as saucers as he muttered Gukumatz and fell to his knees, face planted to the ground.
Gukumatz was the god of the four elements. He is also believed to be one of the most important gods to the Maya, because he helped create the earth as well as mankind. It was said that he would return during the end of days… Nice one Tommy.
Tommy glided through the ghostly crowd towards the priest, stopping just before the well.
“Rise Abdiel.” Tommy said in Mayan. His voice ringing out, seemingly echoing off the surrounding structures. The priest guy unsteadily rose to his feet, never looking Tommy in the face, while Tommy glared down at the man.
“Where is the girl that I have sent?” Tommy asked, his voice seeming to vibrate off the Earth itself.
I heard the gulp of air from the ghost and he stammered out, “S-she went down t-the well your holiness.”
“Have you harmed the gift I had sent to save you?” Tommy asked, the Earth shaking and rolling, the ghosts screamed as lightning rained down in torrents. I was just standing there in awe, still hidden from the Mayan’s in my cloak. I had no idea Tommy could do any of this, never mind that it was at all possible. He was seriously powerful for a Reaper, almost as powerful as D himself…no wonder D sent the Reaper Killer after him.
The priest whimpered and stammered out a “No.” I sighed relieved to hear Violet hadn’t been hurt by these spirits.
The priest continued, “She was with a Reaper and he had taken her down the well to the underworld.”
Tommy said nothing, but just let his power seem to grow, as he marched to the well. He was about to descend when the priest called out, “What of us your faithful servants? Will we be made whole again?”
Tommy turned around very slowly, letting his power grow making him look like he really was a god, “You dare ask favors of me. I am the creator of gods, you have displeased me over the years, and when I send aid to help you to be made whole in a form of one of my servants; you seek to harm her. For that your punishment remains until the end of time.”
I had never seen a ghost go pale before as Tommy made the very Earth seem to move in time with his words, lightning punctuating his last word, while the thunder boomed loudly above.
The priest and the other ghosts cowered by the show of his power and fell face first to the ground. Pleading his forgiveness of their rudeness, Tommy just turned his back on them and slowly descended into the well.
I crept through towards Tommy, still hidden by the ghosts until I had reached the edge of the well. My body stopped by itself, my feet no longer wanting to work as I stared down at the water, filled to the brim with the dead.
The usual light sweat started to spread across my body, as my hands begun to shake. I could feel my camouflage slipping.
Tommy grabbed my hand and pulled me into the well before the ghosts saw me.
We floated above the water, Tommy looking me in the eye.
~Are you alright? I can go from here on my own~ Tommy asked me, projecting the question inside my mind. All Reapers could communicate telekinetically; it came in handy when we had to do collections.
~I’m fine, I just need a minute. ~ I replied, knowing well that I didn’t have a minute. I swallowed my fear, reminding myself that I couldn’t die from this, not again at least. I shut my eyes as my mind recalled the feeling of the water filling my lungs, as it weighed me down. I don’t need to breath, I need to do this… to save Violet.
Violet needs me. For once in your life don’t be a wimp Ethan, it’s just water, you can do this… for her… you can do anything.
With that I took a deep breath and before I lost my nerve, I went down into the murky depths. I felt the bodies around me, as I sailed pass them. I kept telling myself that I don’t need to breathe, that I can’t die from drowning, I kept think of Violet, she needed me, she needed me to save her and I had to do this.
The pressure around me built, until it felt as if I was being squished and the impulse to breath was weighing heavy on me, even though I didn’t need to.
Soon I felt the pressure lessen a sign that we were near the opening to the under realm and it wasn’t long before I felt myself falling until I touched golden sand.
I was still soaking wet from the well, so the sand stuck to my body like it was a second skin. I looked around squinting through the bright sun. It was so hot, we appeared to have landed in the middle of a desert.
I heard a groan from behind me and glanced back to see Tommy with a pained look on his face, “Anywhere but this place.” He muttered, and I looked at him confused.
I looked around and saw nothing but sand and sun. Obviously we were in the desert and I know that we had passed through the gate to the under realm, so this must be a type of torture.
“Where are we?” I asked uselessly dusting off my pants in a pointless effort to get the sand off of me.
“Egypt.” Tommy said and stood, not even trying to dust off the sand. He started towards the dunes just ahead of us, speed walking past me, without a glance back.
“How do you know?” I asked as I began to follow him.
“Because it’s where I come from. My home is there in the distance. We need to move before they come.”
“It’s true… your King Tut.” I said in awe as I squinted into the heated waves of the desert and saw a huge palace. Then the rest of his words came through.
“They? Who’s they?”
“The feeders.” He simply said and carried on walking. I swallowed, I knew who the feeders were; all Reapers did. Feeders are a breed of demon, created from humans that live off the misery of others. They fed off your pain by displaying things that would hurt you, they would drain you to the point to where you felt like you were going insane. They have no physical body, and often take the form of someone you would already know, someone you loved or trusted, sometimes someone you had wronged in some way.
Suddenly something shimmered in front of Tommy and he let out a low growl before it could manifest,
“Do not tempt me creature. I am the eldest Reaper and I am among the very few who knows how to destroy you.”
“Big words for a little man.” Said the feeder as it took the form of a woman dressed in the traditional Egyptian wear.
Tommy said nothing to the woman as she circled him, he just stood perfectly still.
“You weren’t meant to rule. You were too young, too… weak.” She sneered at him.
“I know my true self but do you… creature?” Tommy asked turning to the woman for the first time and looking her in the eyes. She hesitated missing her step for a beat, then as quickly as if it had never happened, she carried on her slow peruse over him.
“You did this. You sent me here.” She said sneering at him.
“No you did this creature, you did this to yourself. We do not have time for your games Feeder.” Then without blinking Tommy slammed his fist into her chest and seemed to hold onto her heart and with his other hand he grabbed the back of her head and tilted her head up to look into his eyes.
“You wished to feel my pain. Now feel it, feel what over three thousand years of pain feels like.” He said his expression hardening as he held onto her heart and stared into her eyes.
Her face contorted and she began to scream, I wasn’t sure if it was in pain or fear. She screamed until she hardened and then shattered. Her remains blowing in the wind, blending in with the desert sand. Tommy opened his hand to drop the rest of the sand and then began to walk again.
“What the hell just happened?” I asked coming to my senses. I have never heard of a feeder being defeated, ever. I mean they had no body to begin with and they take the form of the people you love the most, it virtually impossible to kill them, even under the emotional strain their kind relishes on.
“There is a reason why Greed is among the seven sins.” Tommy said without turning.
“I don’t understand.” I said not getting what greed had to do with him defeating a feeder.
“Sometimes your strengths can also be your weaknesses. Feeders thrives on the pain of their victims, it’s where they derive their strength. I gave that feeder more than what it could handle.”
“How did you know?” I asked in awe that he would know what a Feeder’s weakness would be.
“I didn’t.” He said in all seriousness.
“Then how…” I trailed the question when I saw that he wasn’t about to answer.
I looked ahead, where the Giant white and gold palace was and in it’s place was a giant river. We were close, the River and Violet where within reach. I just hope that we’re not too late.
Violet’s POV
The light from the dying sun glistened off the water’s top, reflecting its brilliance in a hundred dancing lights.
The green of the surrounding trees and the playful chatter of passing birds added to the peaceful ambiance the lake seemed to always have.
It seemed like it was just yesterday when I was here. The salty sea smell mixed with a blend of freshly cut grass hung heavily in the air, and I breathed deeply of the sweet smelling air, needing the comfort it gave, but as I closed my eyes I realized that none of it was real, the sun kissing my skin or the playful chatter of the birds, it was just a tempting disguise.
Slowly as the sun began to set, the scene of peaceful bliss melted away and a new scene came to life in its place. Giant grey boulders littered the area, and the green grass turned to white sand; as we neared I started to hear voices. At first I couldn’t make out where it was coming from, what they were saying, but as we neared the river I started realizing that the voices were coming from under the water, and I could not only make out what they were saying but who was saying it.
“Violet…stay away from the water.” My mother’s voice whispered into the air.
“Mom? I’m coming.” I shouted.
I ran towards the river, shooting passed Akil towards the voices calling me like a siren, as I neared the river’s edge I started to see them, their images, where there, staring up at me, but before I could get to them, Akil pulled me back away from them.
Then I had a sudden thought, “Are they real? Or are they like the thing we saw at my house?”
“Yes they are real. They are the spirits of your deceased parents.” Akil said hesitantly, still not letting go of me.
“Then why did you stop me, they won’t hurt me.”
“They will not, but the river will.” He said as he looked down at me.
“I-I don’t understand?”
“This is the River Styx, it is not meant for the living, only the dead. If you touch the waters, you will become the dead, not even Death himself can touch the waters without being affected, let alone Reapers. It is meant for the dead and will stay that way.” He said a hard edge taking over his mouth.
I looked back at the waters, I could still see my parents looking up at me, as if this was a window they were peering through. They looked panicked and then my father… my real father said hitting the water, but it never rippled or even moved,
“Run Violet. RUN. His going to kill you, RUN… RUN…RUN!!!” I tried to break loose from Akil’s death grip, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Why are you doing this? Is ruling the left overs so important?” I asked desperate to get away, desperate to live.
“No… there are more important things than ruling, it is only an added benefit.” He said and started to drag me over towards a large flat rock, near the water.
“What? And here I thought ruling the left over human race was the most important thing for you. What can be more important than ruling over mankind?” I asked sarcastically.
“Freedom.” He said on a whisper, I nearly didn’t hear him.
“What?” I asked caught off guard with his response.
But he never replied, just kept dragging me. I dug in my heels in my effort to slow him, but he just hoisted me up, and threw me over his shoulder, like I weighed nothing.
“Stop it, put me down. Please Akil, I don’t want to die. Please, please don’t do this… please.” I sobbed slamming my fists onto his back, knowing that it was a useless last minute attempt at saving myself.
He put me down on the giant flat rock, he looked sad, “I’m sorry little Somniator, but this must be done. I have waited too long, you need not worry, you’ll never witness the destruction of what comes next, all that awaits you after this is bliss.”
“No but my sister will witness it, my aunt, my friends … and Ethan.”
“It’s too late.” He said and flicked his finger and I was being pulled down by an unseen force and tied to a giant rock, limbs spread out like a starfish.
“You don’t have to do this Akil. There are other ways to get what you want.” I screamed as the rock floated off the ground, I was upright and facing Akil. He had an old looking book floating in front of him, this must be the infamous bible of death I had heard Ethan and Tommy talking about, but how did he get a hold of it. Then I remembered that the book was with us in the basement and he must have grabbed it when he took me. His head was down, reading from the bible no doubt and his hands were together, it looked like he was praying, except that his ring fingers were down, and his hand was pressed against his chest and tucked under his chin. He was muttering something in another language and with his head down I could hardly make out what he was saying let alone what kind of language he was speaking, then I abruptly turned towards the River.
“AKIL, PLEASE DON’T DO THIS.” I shouted as I neared the water. My parents were still there in the water, watching, my mother had tears in her eyes and my father was holding her. There were others gathered around them, just standing and watching me.
Akil said nothing as I watched the people staring up at me in the water as I sail by them, the water under my feet rippled when I moved over it and got deeper as I neared the center of the River and more populated.
When I had reached the middle I abruptly stopped and got turned back around to face Akil. He looked so small on the shoreline. He was as close to the water’s edge as he could get without touching it. He was still in that kung Fu pose, his hands tucked under his chin, and I was pretty sure he was still muttering under his breathe, what I came to think of as a spell or something to that equivalent.
Then the rock started to rotate, I was slowly being turned upside down, the tips of my hair hung just above the water, I could see hundreds maybe even thousands of people just looking up at me from the river, my parents followed me to the center, and no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t break the surface of the water, it was as if they were hitting a shatterproof glass surface, so all they could do was watch. My mother kept saying I was brave and that everything was going to be ok.
She was crying a lot, contradicting her words, and not making me feel better in any way, it only made me more fearful of what was to come.
“Akil, please. I know you don’t know what it’s like to want to live, but I do and I want it. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be the cause to the end of the world. Please Akil, I’m begging you, please let me go.” I sobbed, my tears dripping onto the water’s surface below me, making it ripple with the contact.
“I’m sorry Violet, but some things are more important than your life.” He simply said
“I want to live. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.” I sobbed, and I heard him sigh and I looked up.
He was pacing the shoreline, and running an agitated hand through his hair…
“Damn it.” He swore when he finally stopped and he looked defeated.
“Is that a good damn it or a bad damn it?” I asked, too scared to hope.
“You are the most annoying, whinny female I have ever met… yet… the most likeable.” He said, his shoulders slumping.
My breath left me in a rush, “Does this mean you’re not going to go ahead with your evil plan to set the forgotten army free?” I asked hopeful, but before he could say anything, he was thrown to the side and like out of some dream Ethan was there.
I wanted to sing and dance, heck I was so happy I couldn’t stop myself from laughing and calling out to him.
Tommy was with him and soon he was on Akil, while Ethan went for the book and started to read from it. Soon I was turned the right way up and I felt all the blood rush away from my head and immediately felt a little light headed.
I could hear grunts and groans with the occasional clash of metal coming from Tommy and Akil, but I couldn’t see anything, they were hidden behind a particularly large boulder, more like a mountain than a boulder.
Once Ethan had righted me, I was slowly pulled towards the shoreline. I looked down to see my mother hugging my father, I heard her whisper, “Everything’s going to be okay; she’s going to be okay.”
I was so close to him, I could hear his voice, I could see the sheen of his dark hair, and I could even see the smug of dirt on his cheek. He looked up, reaching out when I was nearly close enough to touch him, when suddenly D appeared behind him.
“Ethan look out.” I shouted but D’s minion was already on him. The ink which looked like a Minotaur, back backhanded Ethan, sending him sailing into the air and away from the book. Ethan tried to get up, but the Minotaur ran him over, pushing him further away from, me and leaving me tied and defenseless, waiting like a virginal sacrifice for D to do with as he pleased.
“Hello Violet, I told you I would see you soon.” He said a smirk on his face, then he begun to read from the still opened book and I felt myself moving backwards, back towards the center of the river.
“No, no ETHAN!” I shouted as I moved back across the river.
“Ethan’s busy at the moment, why don’t we keep this between you and me love.”
“You asshole. I hate you.” Screamed at him.
“Now Violet words hurt.” He tsked with a giant smile on his face, as he begun to turn me upside down. The blood rushed back to my head, my hair hung above the water and my mother’s face wafted into view.
“You’re going to feel a slight prick.” D shouted from the shore and then an unseen force slowly tore open my wrists, letting the blood fall into the water. I screamed at the pain, because the skin was literally being torn apart, I could feel it being slowly ripped open.
When the blood touched the water, it did something strange, it caused a sort of vortex instead of a ripple, and the more blood that fell, the bigger the vortex got, until I could see the bottom of the River. The ghosts or spirits in the River, moved when the water moved and soon when the bottom was exposed, they stood at the bottom of the water in a circle, staring at the ground as if they were expecting something to happen and I had a sinking feeling what that was.
Once all the water was gone, I was dangling a hundred feet in the air and when my blood dripped onto the bone dry soil below, it split open. The Earth groaned and shook as the earth split wide open, an orange glow could be seen from the crack and I was expecting lava to come spewing up like a fountain and disintegrate me, but what I saw wasn’t lava… it was much, much worse. I saw them…The forgotten Army.