6. What the Monsters Fear
Chapter 6
What the Monsters Fear
A silent gasp of fear left my ghostly lips as I took in what looked like a whole other planet. Naturally, I had never seen anything like it before and well, right now, in this vision of the past, it was clear that I wasn’t the only one. Anástasi and I seemed to be now sharing this terrifying experience together. Yet, seeing as I was now a ghost and she was nothing more than a memory, I wasn’t quite sure what could happen to either of us in this haunting experience.
Although, it soon became apparent who, exactly, it was we were both here to see. A mighty roar ripped through the deathly passage ahead and caused the floor beneath us to rumble with its unearthly presence.
Anástasi looked just as frightened as I did; her eyes wide and her body tensed. I didn’t have to try and put myself in her shoes, as I had lived just as much of a sheltered life as she had compared to this. I may not have been brought up in a mountain temple that admittedly was more like a glorious prison, but I know we had both never experienced a place like this before.
Before Jared, my life had been pretty normal, all things considered, given the true and hidden nature of half my family.
Despite facing such a Hellish domain, I was proud to see that it wasn’t enough to deter from Anástasi’s destination. This despite the unwelcome sounds of the beast we could hear from deep within the dark valley pass.
Granted, it wasn’t like any valley I had ever seen. It looked as if someone had hammered an entire mountain in half before pushing the two sides apart to create a jagged valley pass. A barren grey wasteland as far as the eye could see, it offered little in the way of color or landmarks. It was nothing more than imposing sharp and ragged rock formations, some that in places looked so dark and ominous it could have been shards of black glass embedded into the grey stone.
I looked to Anástasi just as she released a determined sigh before lifting the bag further up her shoulder. A clear sign that she was ready for this, still feeling confident that at the end of this journey she would find who she had been waiting to meet all this time. So, after taking one last look behind us and seeing the shimmering veil between two worlds that she had obviously just stepped through, she turned back to face the winding trail ahead.
“Well, looks like we are going to get our steps in,” I joked, even though she couldn’t hear me. But I had to say that I found a strange comfort in talking to myself, rather than continue with this awkward silence that would have stretched out for as long as this valley seemed to be.
“God, I have so many questions, you wouldn’t believe… or who knows, maybe you would, seeing as you too are obviously curious about this stuff. Although, I have to say, when I first met Jared… he’s our Chosen One by the way… I don’t know why I stayed away. I don’t know why I didn’t just dig a bit deeper, press Faye for some more answers…” I paused long enough to nudge her arm, not that she felt it. Then I went on to explain,
“…oh, and by the way, she’s our kick ass, geeky cousin, although we are more like sisters… anyway, I guess if I am being honest, I was scared to find out more about Jared. Like holding on to the dream of him was more important than the chance at losing the man he became in my mind. Does that make sense?” Naturally, I didn’t wait for an answer but instead just carried on.
“Like the threat of losing who I had made him out to be was too great a risk. Because what if I had found out that he killed innocent people just for fun or was cruel to animals? What if he really did butcher his victims, like some sick tyrant, only to then feast upon their mortal flesh…? You know, all those gross things that a person would never have been able to get past,” I told her, and continued to do so despite her not hearing a single word.
“But in the end, it was foolish because he was none of those things. In fact, he is the best thing that ever happened to me, despite me ending up in Hell. He is the greatest man who ever lived, despite how much I love my father and my uncle. And as for bravery and integrity, well don’t even get me started, because it’s seriously on another level,” I told her, wishing she could hear all of this so that she too would know the type of love she had waiting for her.
“But even after all he has been through, the grief, the guilt, the heavy burden of an entire kingdom on his shoulders, he is still the kindest, most loving man… and funny, God, you should hear the way we tease each other. And as for the sex, well that’s out of this worl… wait, what in God’s name is that!?’ I asked, ending this one-sided conversation the second we rounded a corner and saw the two colossal sized statues that looked to be standing guard.
The two great haunting figures were carved right out of the dark rock either side, and they created a sort of bridge above, although from this far away I couldn’t tell what part of them formed this connection. Only that the closer we became, my focus switched to the two bright lanterns standing at its entrance. Because despite the world not being totally dark, being that it was grey enough to navigate our way along the path, it was the only light source we had seen, making it a welcoming sight.
Each long staff held some kind of white glowing orb inside a cage of a skeletal, Demonic hand sitting interlaced at the top. I watched as my other self clearly knew what to do. She walked up to the one on the left in such a way that the closer she got, the more she looked like some ethereal Goddess selecting her fate.
Her white dress was practically its own glittering source of light because it seemed to absorb the power, making the material glow. It was utterly mesmerizing to watch and for a few short moments, it turned this Hellish place into something beautiful. Something serene and holy. Like an Angel had fallen from the Heavens and graced this Demonic domain with its divine presence.
She picked up the staff like it had been calling out to her. I swear I had to shake myself to rid the image of Lord of the Rings from my mind because it was too unreal for my brain to take. The only images it knew were from the stuff of fantasy fiction, and even after all that I had seen, it still wasn’t enough to aid me in making this place real.
Especially when she started to make her way through the enormous arch of statues that I could now see were God-like figures dressed as ancient warriors. Giant swords were carved out of the length of the cliffs as each was held proudly and valiantly, their gauntleted hands gripping the hilt of their mighty weapons.
Of course, with every nervous step she took, I did the same, keeping no more than five steps behind her. Which also meant that when she glanced anxiously up as she passed under the statues, I did too, an action that enticed a startled gasp from us both. However, only hers was heard as it echoed down the dark and ominous valley. This was because the second the light touched the shadowed warriors above, the true nature of them was revealed.
From the front, they had seemed whole and untouched by the evil that obviously made up this cruel world. But the further we travelled passed them, the more the truth was revealed. For they were indeed skeletal phantoms.
It was as if they were each caught between being life and death. Two sides of the coin once more as the closer to the gates of Hades they were, the more Demonic they became. Their Heavenly armor started to look crumbled and flowed into a shroud of darkness. As if morphing into a reaper's cloak caught in the nonexistent wind. The once mortal-looking hands gripping their swords were now carved bones that looked too brittle to aid in any fight.
It was all the reminder we needed as to where we were and it became a warning sign we both ignored as we continued on. Unlike Anástasi, I had no choice but to do so. Because I had no idea what would happen at the end of this vision. Would I be cast straight to another?
If I stood still and did not follow, would my time eventually run out? Meaning I would be here forever until I had completed the macabre story? Either way, I didn’t want to risk missing the chance of both learning something of my past and also getting out of here. And more importantly, getting back to my own body. Not this ghostly version of my present self.
With this fear firmly in place, I followed on, unable to help mirroring her actions as we both looked back together the moment we passed through the arch warriors. I could see now the way they joined at the top was the Demonic side of them reaching for one to the other.
I had first believed that it was just a part of the mountain they had been carved from that had left jagged pieces to touch. But now I could see that wasn’t the case. Thousands of Demonically carved souls made up each cloak that consumed half of the warriors, as if an army of the dead had been commanded by Hades to strip them to their bare bones and try and drag their righteous bodies into his territory.
It was by far the most haunting sight I had ever seen, and I had a gut-wrenching feeling that this wasn’t to be the last. Not down here in what I now knew was my father’s domain.
After this came a sea of death. It looked more like something from a disaster at Pompeii after the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Broken statues of people looked half frozen in time. Most of which were praying up to the sunless sky, one void of white clouds along with its comforting blue skies. But instead, there was nothing but angry looking swirls of black and grey, like some biblical storm would soon be upon us.
Crude and jagged steps were cut from the rocky floor, weaving their way up the mountain pass in between thousands of these stone figures that looked half suspended in time. Some were crumbled, as though they had been here the longest. Others were pristine, as if they had been made only a few days ago. Their features were twisted in pain and suffering, as if this was the position they had been in when dipped into molten rock. This before the dead were left to cool and form an eternal crust.
I knew the second I saw my past-self wipe a hand at her face that I wasn’t the only one affected by the sight, because I would have felt my own tears shed for such loss of life had I been really here. I knew back wherever my body was, that it was no doubt weeping for all these poor unfortunate souls. This place was nothing more than a tomb without feeling or respect. It was a mass grave site with its bodies of horror left as a reminder as to what might happen should anyone think to try and pass the Gates of Hades uninvited.
Both those that wanted in and out.
It looked like an entire army had tried to storm the realm, which clearly had only angered the God of the Underworld. I looked up the cliff face, trying to search for the tops of the mountain that looked to have been split in two. There, I found swarms of dead statues as far as the eye could see. At the top, the signs of a dormant volcano could be seen, making me realize what must have happened. Could a supernatural being really be so powerful to have ripped open a volcano and force its eruption to spill upon the land?
I started shaking my head, despite seeing the evidence of it everywhere I looked. Because now I knew what had created those cloaks of death upon half of the warriors. It hadn’t been a carving at all, and not built by any hand, but instead the hand of a God had commanded it. Had swept a wave of lava across the land and washed away bodies, making them crash up against the giants in a flood, covering half of them in the dead army they had once fought with.
This had been a war at the Gates of Hell.
One lost by the souls that had very nearly escaped it.
I didn’t know how I knew exactly, but I did. I just felt it somehow. Like a bedtime story told to us as children, over and over again until it became engrained within us. The realization that this was proof of that very story took my breath away. I felt a tightening in my chest, letting me know that wherever my mortal body was right now, it too was being affected by what I saw.
I also wondered if Anástasi had also realized what this was, or whether she too focused on getting to those gates, just like every lost soul here had been trying to escape them.
And speaking of gates…
“Great Gods of Olympus,” I heard her mutter as we finally made it close enough to see what awaited us. Each side of the mountain had since rejoined and now, at its center, a giant arch had been carved into it like the entrance to a cave. One that rose up as high as a twenty-story building. Its enormous pillars had been cut with such precision, I couldn’t fathom how they had accomplished it down here… or why?
In this vast wasteland of death and unyielding landscape of nothing more than jagged rock, I couldn’t help but see this as being so out of place. Its looked more like the entrance to some grand temple, one ten times the size that it needed to be.
Large square plinths held half-moon shaped pillars against a perfectly straight facade. As for the part where these pillars met; the top of the arch was in a Corinthian style, with ornate images carved into the stone. However, from this distance, I couldn’t yet make out what exactly was at the top, only that the design seemed to match whatever was depicted above.
This was a framed area that almost seemed to tell a story, with figures that almost looked as if they were fighting with each other. One symbol I did recognize, and that was the sigil on the huge overhanging keystone situated at the very center of the arch.
It was the sign for Hades.
I recognized it from the book, and also the same symbols that had decorated my armor when first arriving and faced with whom I had thought was the enemy.
As for the gates, or the door that this great statement would have framed… well, there was nothing. No, it was simply a thick orange-red fog that filled the space, as if an everlasting fire blazed from within the opening. Let’s put it this way, it wasn’t exactly welcoming and would have been enough of a sight to turn most people away without wanting to get too close.
Although, I didn’t have a choice, because my former self was obviously far braver than me. I was forced to follow her when she made her way closer, and all the while I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that we were being followed. I found myself continually looking behind us, only to find nothing following in our path.
As for Anástasi, she didn’t look back once, being totally focused on finding what she had left her sanctuary to find. Because that was exactly how I viewed it… no longer the prison I believed her to be forced to live in. I now knew exactly why Hades had placed his illegitimate family there, because this was no place for a being like Lerna.
Clearly, my past-self thought differently in regard to herself. Because here she was, with the decision made that I knew must have been what had started everything. One that set the wheels of fate into motion. It was like Lerna had said, no one had known that they were there, let alone of their existence before this point.
So, I was forced to watch unheard as I caught up with my past, again feeling the unease seep into my ghostly core and finding myself looking back behind us more than looking ahead. It was if the very shadows were following us, although what created shadows when there was no sun, I didn’t know. Not when we carried the only light source with us.
As for the rest of the place, it wasn’t exactly too dark that we couldn’t see, but more of a grey light. As if all the color of the day had been stripped and left only a grainy grey haze to see the world through.
And well, as for my instincts, I knew them to be true when I finally caught sight of more shadows, ones that seemingly raced between the figures of the dead army.
“This is not a good idea,”’ I said to myself, although she still couldn’t hear me. A fact that wouldn’t change, not even in my desperate attempts to get her to. I stood in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“We have to hide! Something is coming, can you not hear them?!” I shouted desperately in a pointless attempt at getting her to listen. But she simply walked straight through me, making me shiver at the feel of her doing so. It was so unnerving that it gave a whole new meaning to someone walking over your grave.
Although when a second and even mightier roar was heard, then it would likely be the cause of that grave, because it once again shook the ground we stood on, making us both take pause.
Anástasi gasped at the sound but, unlike me, it still didn’t deter her from rushing closer.
“Anástasi, no!” I shouted in vain as she took off running toward the gate, giving me no choice but to do the same. However, in no time at all, the cause of the monstrous sound became clear as she came to a swift halt. I tried again to get in front of her and make her see the danger getting closer to her back.
But then I started to take in the look of shock and fear on her face, making me realize what was now at my back was far more terrifying. So, I slowly started to turn around and didn’t miss the sight of the first giant paw start to emerge from the flaming smoke. Something that was enough to override my fear and good sense to run. Instead, I stood there frozen. Meaning that I was left only to look up and, upon doing so, the warning sign came all too late. Finally I was close enough to see that it wasn’t a war depicted on the stone above at all.
It was a single beast they were all trying to fight against. Both sides with their spears aimed at one single monster.
The keystone didn’t just show the mark of Hades, but directly above it was the fabled three-headed beast.
The Guardian of the Underworld…
The one and only… Cerberus.