Chapter 5* Dark Time
The familiar winded feeling greets me as we stumble onto a sandy beach. This time, Sam and I have managed not to let go of each other’s hands, and he winds up beside me. Righting myself, I cast a suspicious glance at our surroundings.
We are on an island, that much is obvious. Unnaturally dark water laps at the sand in a sinister manner, raising goose bumps on my skin. A chilly wind blows, and squinting further into the darkness, I realize there are fishing rods attached to a jetty jutting out a few meters into the water.
Behind us is a looming mass of pure, wild, untamed jungle. There is absolutely no light inside, not even a little ray.
But the sky is beautiful. Stars twinkle against a midnight blue backdrop, and I scuttle a few more feet up the beach to avoid the water, and dump my backpack in the sand, flopping onto my back to admire the glittering heavens.
Without a word, Sam flops down beside me. My whole right side is so aware of him that it raises the hair on my arms. Some part of me absentmindedly notices how he leaves a careful gap between each of our bodies.
“There’s Orion’s Belt there,” says Sam, pointing it out in the sky. My eyes trace out the three stars in a straight line in the midst of all the others.
“There’s the Rosary,” I say, not to be outmatched, gazing up and tracing the outline of it with my finger.
“Capricorn,” he says, smirking.
Searching the night sky, I squint as hard as I can but I can’t find anything. A cheeky grin slips onto my face.
“Sagittarius,” I lie.
“Where?” he says, peering into the sky.
“There!”
“Where?” he repeats, frustrated. I roll my eyes.
“I’m lying,” I say, and promptly burst into laughter. He doesn’t laugh with me- his eyes widen.
“There it is!”
Giving a small gasp of surprise, I scan the stars. “Where?” I say through gritted teeth, unable to find it. He bursts into peals of laughter.
“Joking,” he says with a grin. Blowing a raspberry, I elbow him in the gut, though I can’t keep the smile off my face. The breeze is nice and chilly against my face, and I smile.
“That star reminds me of my brother,” I murmur without thinking, and immediately clap my hands over my mouth, horrified.
I promised myself I would never think of them again. It is as if that little sentence broke the dam in my mind, the wall that I build to block all the memories out, and now that it is crumbling down… Everything is flooding back.
My brother’s laugh. The way my dad acted crazy and still made it look cool. The vitamins my health nut mom would force me to take every night before bed. Small, insignificant things come rushing back too, such as the way my mother always failed to get her right slipper on in one try, or how my brother never made it past the eighteenth page of Twilight. Little things like that, and I want to cry.
“Your brother?” Sam repeats beside me. Pressing my lips into a thin line, I blink rapidly and start up a chant in my head.
Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry…
Of course I cry. A tear rolls down my cheek, and the rest follow in a torrent.
Sam takes my hand. His is warm and dry, and reminds me of home, but that only makes me want to cry more. Snot clogs up my nose and it is so disgusting, I don’t even have a tissue.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Sam says gently. Drawing in deep shuddering breaths, I try to calm myself enough to speak.
“I was- walking- home,” I begin in a scratchy whisper, punctuated by the occasional hiccup. “And- I- heard this- this roar, and people- were- were screaming and running and- so- many- of them were d-dead.” I take another breath.
“I got back to my h-house. My mom was screaming on the s-second level, I could hear her. She was screaming for my b-brother. I saw a man, eighteen feet tall, towering over my h-house and the roof was ripped open, and he was holding my brother in his hands. He killed my m-mom, I saw it- He squished her into a w-wall- And he met my eyes, he met them, and he t-tore my b-brother- a-a-apart-”
My throat closes, the pain being too much to bear. The sobs bubble up in my chest and burst out with the force of a bullet train. Rattled by racking sobs until tears blur my vision, I finally shut my eyes against the suddenly bright sky.
“It’s okay,” Sam says in a gentle voice, his grip tightening on my hand. “It’s okay. You’ll be alright. I’m right here with you, and you’re not the only one who went through that. You’re fine. You’re fine.” He rubs soothing circles onto the back of my hand.
Eventually, my sobs quiet down, reduced to sniffles.
“You okay?” says Sam softly, giving my hand a little squeeze. In an attempt to lighten the mood and divert some attention away from my crying fit, I give a shaky laugh.
“Sorry,” I apologize sincerely. I’m not usually one for apologies but breaking down in front of him just calls for it.
“Sorry about what?” he says bewildered, but then a smile breaks onto his face, like the sunlight breaking through the clouds.
“Have I gained your trust? How many percent?”
Despite our circumstances, I chuckle. “Honestly, Samuel Jackson?”
“Just answer it,” he presses. I roll my eyes.
“Hmm… 10%.”
Fist punching the air, a contented smile settles on his face and slips his fingers out of my hand, placing both his hands behind his head. I feel a spark of hope, the first in a long, long time.
Maybe we will find it after all. Maybe there is a resistance. All we have to do is teleport there, keep out of sight, and try to stay alive. It shouldn’t be that hard, right?
Wrong.
It’s been more than three hours and the teleporter is still stuck at zero. I start to get frantic- I can’t stop twitching and grinding the sand with my knuckles.
“How long more?” I ask for the millionth time. Sam sighs wearily and shakes his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Something’s wrong,” I say, sitting up and fluffing up my hair to get sand grains out. “It didn’t take this long the last time.”
“Maybe there’s not enough sunlight here,” Sam protests weakly. Raising an eyebrow at him, gesture to the sky which is alight with stars.
“Something is wrong,” I insist, standing up and hefting the backpack onto my shoulder again. “It wouldn’t take this long even if there is no light. I think… I think we have to go into the forest.”
“Are you nuts?” Sam exclaims, sitting up with a jerk.
“Maybe,” I shoot back, “But it’s the only chance we have.”
Shaking his head, he stands up too and brushes himself off. “Why do I feel like this is a bad idea,” he mutters under his breath. A smile plays on my lips as I see him secure the teleporter in his pocket and stretch his stiff muscles.
“It might be,” I admit. “But it’s better than sitting out here waiting for something that will probably never happen.”
Sam suddenly stops dead in his tracks. “Hey, we can swim! See that little speck there? It’s an island, I know it!” he points to a black splotch out at sea. “It’s not that far!”
It is the most ridiculous idea ever I am frankly amazed he could even come up with it. With a roll of my eyes, I point to his injured arm. “Do you think you could survive with that in salt water? And there’s a risk of being killed by Poseidon.
“True,” he mutters, and we set off.
I badly want to take his hand, but I don’t dare to. It suggests that something romantic is going on between us and that is definitely a lie. Steeling myself and squaring my shoulders, I grit my teeth and enter the forest.
The darkness is complete. It envelopes around me until even when I place my hand directly in front of my nose, I can’t see it. Claustrophobia takes its toll, but I fight back the panic and try to slow my racing heart.
“Sam!” I gasp out, eyes searching the darkness fruitlessly. “Sam!”
“Right here, Kayla,” his worried voice sounds back. His hand finds mine and I am grateful for it. “Where are we?”
“No idea.” There is a pause as we fall silent, using our ears to search for clues instead. Then we hear it.
“Did you hear that?” I say in a hushed whisper.
“Yes,” Sam replied. “Shhh.”
It comes again. With a sickening feeling of dread, I realize what it sounds like.
“It’s someone calling for help,” I tell Sam softly. “It’s someone shouting.” Straining my ears, it comes again.
“Do you hear that?” Sam says.
“Yes,” I reply, thinking that he is referring to the tortured cries, But he is not.
“No,” he says patiently. “Listen again.” I fall silent, listening carefully. Then I hear it- The sound of water running.
“Sounds like a river,” I say quietly. A feel a gentle tug on my hand- Sam is leading me forward. Our footsteps crunch on gravel- or dried leaves- it’s too dark to see which. Fear pounds into me. I never liked the darkness or surprises.
Wetness seeps into my shoes, pooling up in my socks and leaving an icky feeling. Lifting my leg, I give it a good shake and backtrack a few steps, only to find it submerged in water again.
“Sam-”
“Shhh,” he silences me, and I can just imagine him pressing his finger to his lips. “I can hear a boat.”
Yes. There is the gentle swish swash as oars enter and leave the water periodically, and though the sound is calming, the intensity of my fear spikes upwards sharply. Who is paddling it?
The swish swash sound stops abruptly. My hand on Sam’s turns into a vice grip.
“Get in the boat,” a creaky old voice says from directly in front of me. I even get a whiff of sour breath, and, splashing back, I let out the most ear splitting scream ever.
“OH MY GOD!” I yell, and my voice echoes all around the darkness. My heart hammers and starts flinging itself around in my chest, and Sam grabs my hand tighter and pulls me to him.
“Calm down!” he hisses in my ear. A shiver involuntarily runs down my spine, because his lips actually grazed my earlobe.
“Who’s there?” he demands into empty space. There is a soft splash, and the creaky voice repeats itself, sounding crankier than ever.
“Get in the boat.”
“Sam?” I whisper. “I think we have to get in the boat.”
Letting out an exasperated breath, Sam jiggles my hand. “And how do you propose we do that, Kayla?”
Stretching out a leg, I squeeze my eyes shut and take a hesitant step forward, pulling Sam with me. Mentally prepared for my leg to be viciously bitten, or torn off at the sockets- it is a huge relief when it comes down on solid wood.
Lifting my other leg up I get into the boat. A brief sense of vertigo overcomes me as it rocks when Sam gets in too.
There is silence, then the boat starts moving.
“I think this was a very bad idea,” I say faintly to Sam. We are still in total darkness and it is getting increasingly harder for me to fight back the claustrophobia. He seems to sense it, and puts an arm around me protectively.
“We’ll get out of it,” he says confidently.
That’s what I love about Sam in the short time I have come to know him. He doesn’t judge or say “It’s your fault”, he takes it in his stride and acknowledges the fact that everyone can make mistakes.
“Scared?” he teases me suddenly, very nearly making me jump out of my skin.
“No,” I say adamantly.
“Don’t put your hand over the edge of the boat,” he says in a nonchalant tone. “There might be dead bodies or something, piranhas’ maybe, just waiting to grab your hand and pull you in and tear the flesh away from your bones-”
“Shut up!” I say almost hysterically, elbowing him hard in the gut and sidling just a bit closer. Laughing, he tucks me close.
After a few minutes, the boat rocks to a stop.
Suddenly, light fills my vision. Blinking against the pain, I squint, trying to get accustomed to the light. When my head stops aching, I am finally able to get a good look at what is before us.
Beautiful wrought black iron gates, laced with intricate bronze flowers. It is hauntingly beautiful, and yet, deadly, menacing power rolls off it in palpable waves. Behind those gates is a castle, made of obsidian black marble. Peering at it, I realize the rippling reflections on it are ones of dead, mutilated bodies, screaming, tortured faces and small, huddled children stained with blood.
“Get off,” the voice says. Turning around, my gaze meets a hooded figure resembling the Grim Reaper, except that his robes are murky brown. The boatman of the River Styx.
Because I know where we are. We are in hell.
“Get off,” Sam hisses worriedly behind me, nudging my back. Swallowing hard, I get off the boat, entering the water with a faint splash. Black water swirls around my feet, and I can practically feel the iciness it radiates. Emerging onto the grainy shore, I wait for a moment before the gates swing open with the sound of nails scraping a blackboard.
But instead of us going in, an entourage comes out to greet us.
When I was younger I always wanted to dress myself up as a witch. I’d practically begged my poor mom to buy me black, swirling robes and to lend me her makeup to outline my eyes and all that. But now I could see first-hand what they really looked like.
Men and women, all wear long, black robes. So long the hems of it touched the floor. And it wasn’t just the robes that made everything so disturbing- There was death on those robes. Stare at it too long and you started hearing cries of the dead-
“Kayla!” Sam shakes my shoulder, saying my name over and over again. “Kayla, snap out of it!”
“Huh?” Blinking, I realize why he is shaking me. A man towers over us. Unlike the others, he is dressed in robes of red and gold, matching the crimson sky above.
“Samuel Jackson,” the man sneers, lips lifting off yellow teeth. “And Kayla Richards. Have you come calling for death?”
My knees are shaking so hard they are knocking together. It is only Sam’s shoulder pressing into mine that keeps me from falling.
I can see it in his eyes. Like Demeter, like all the other gods. They want to play with us. Because that’s all they’re able to do- Destroy, hurt, terrorize. They are not heavenly beings- they are powerful killing machines. Mindless.
“Show us the way out!” I shout defiantly at the man. He has thick, jet black hair hanging long and lanky to his shoulders, and midnight eyes. He is handsome, but he reeks of death.
“Think about it,” the man drawls. “This is the Underworld. I am Hades. What do I do…?”
I can sense Sam’s confusion beside me. But then I feel his whole body stiffen and turn rigid. Without warning, he sprints for the gates.
“Sam!” I roar, grabbing the hem of his shirt and yanking him back. Some part of me notices that Hades has a smirk on his face. “Sam, are you crazy?”
“No!” He whips his head back to look at me, and I realize with a start that he’s crying. “Kayla, don’t you see? He has everyone in there! The whole world! My family!”
“Why-” I start to say, but then it hits me with the force of a truck. Sam is right. As Lord of the Dead, Hades has all dead people in his realm… just beyond those iron gates.
“No, Sam,” I force myself to say, even though a part of me really wants to run in there. “This is what he wants. He’s going to kill us and we’re going to join them. We can’t, Sam. We can’t.”
“But I want to join them,” Sam says in a bitterly. “I tried, Kayla, I tried. But I couldn’t. I’m a coward, Kayla! Add that to the list of things to hate about me.” He wipes the tears off his cheek with his sleeve and resumes his struggling.
Yanking him back once more, I shake him hard. “This is what he wants,” I say through the block in my throat. “This is what he wants. Don’t give in to him. Stay with me Sam, god damn it!”
Slowly, he stops struggling. Relaxing in my arms, he gives up and buries his head in my shoulder. Fine tremors run through him, quiet sobs. I pat his back and glare up at Hades.
“You’re brave,” Hades admits grudgingly. “But you’re going to die anyway.” He waves a hand. I see the fabric shimmer, and in the blink of an eye, we are in the castle.
Rich, heavy and red velvet drapes spill over from the ceiling like crimson water falls. The walls and all the floors are black as night, and the temperature is so cold that when I breathe out, my breath condenses into vapor before my eyes.
Sam is beside me, disoriented. Taking one look at each other, we turn back simultaneously to Hades, who is in front of us, decked in his black robes, with a wide grin on his face.
I know something bad is going to happen. I can feel it in my bones.
And then it does. Hades waves his hand, and beside him appears a woman. She has black hair, chestnut eyes, a slender body, and she is my mother.
Immediately I lose all coherence. A big, big part of me knows that this is a trap, if I touch her I will join them, the dead, but I can’t help it. An even bigger part of me is screaming for her, this woman who took care of me for seventeen years and I want her back.
“Mommy!” I cry, lunging for her with huge strides. “Mom!” My arms are open wide. Her face is a mask of horror and shock, and she starts to shake her head, her mouth mouthing words she can never say. I don’t care. I just want a touch.
“Stop!” Sam roars from behind me, reaching out and pulling me back by the scruff of my neck, wrapping strong arms around me. I struggle to push him off- ironic, isn’t it, that our roles are reversed now.
“Please, Sam,” I beg with tears in my eyes. “Please, she’s right there.”
“No,” he whispers in my ear. “Kayla, you should know better.”
He’s right. I do know better. But now that I’m seeing her in the very flesh right before me, the pain of losing her, of losing everyone, comes back to me raw.
Smirking, Hades waves his hands again and more people begin to appear. My father, my brother, my cousins. They are all shaking their heads and mouthing “no”. A trembling seizes me and I begin to cry into Sam’s shirt.
I feel him bury his head into my hair, muttering “don’t look” over and over again to himself. It dawns on me that Hades must have summoned the souls of Sam’s family too, just to torture both of us. Anger fills me, seeping into me like a welcome poison. How can I allow myself to be laughed at, to be tortured, without putting up even a decent fight?
But still I don’t look up. I know that if I do, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from running to my family.
“If you want them back,” drifts the soft voice of Hades towards us, “All you have to do is die. Join them. Be with your family, with your friends. Yes, you are in hell, but what is left out there for you?”
Logic sees the truth in his words. But then, Sam mutters “Don’t give in” in my ear and steeling myself, I fight the desire in me.
“Come on,” Hades whispers with icy fire. “Don’t you want to see your family again?”
I do, I do.
There is a muffled shriek. My head whips up and I see my mother screaming, screaming so hard the veins pop out in her neck. Hades looks up the same time I do, and his eyes widen- clearly sometime is happening that he is not controlling.
The shriek gets many octaves higher until it is like a kettle whistling. It hurts my ears. Looking straight at me, my mom continues shouting and screaming her head off. Others begin to join her. Soon their shrieking turn into a loud, wailing chorus, getting clearer and louder by the minute.
“Run!” they all say. “Run!”
My mom has tears in her eyes. She has that look that says she wants very much for me to stay, but she doesn’t say anything because she wants what’s best to be. I swear, in that instant, my heart broke.
Inside, I swore that I’d see her again. Even if I had to come back to hell for it, by god, I’d see her again.
Taking Sam’s hand, I sprinted away from Hades.
Suddenly my backpack weighed a thousand tons on my shoulder as I weaved in and out of the black shadows darting everywhere. Some had claws for fingers, scraping me as I tried to get past them. Never letting go or Sam’s hand, without even knowing where I was heading, I forced my legs to move.
“The teleporter!” I yelled to Sam. “Take it out!”
I hear some grunting as he gropes in his pocket for it. “Hold on tight!” he yells back, and three, two, one, in a flash, we teleport.
The next thing I know I am crashing into a shelf of biscuits.
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I'm sorry if there are any typos, I didn't proof read at all. Please tell me what you think and vote and comment. What do you think is gonna happen next?
Sorry if I sound unenthusiastic. But I got some shitty news today and a big pile of homework is waiting for me upstairs. Sorry.