Chapter 1 – Shade
SHADE
Istand in the shadows of the Underworld, afraid. The woman who brought me into this world had said that I must untie the thread that binds me to this undead place. Quickly, before they see me, or I’ll forever be a slave to this dark world.
But I’m afraid. All I know is what she told me, this Cerberus. I’m risking everything by trusting her. I can sense that fact, even though I understand so little about the world I was so recently reborn into.
Trembling, I step from the shadows. Transparent souls gather on the shore, waiting for the ferryman to bring them across.
But each of them has a shiny golden coin that glows in their hands.
And after observing the shore of the Underworld for hours, I now know that the ferryman takes his payment before he allows the souls into his boat.
I don’t have a coin.
Just the glowing thread tied around my throat that pulls me toward the massive gates on the other side of the water.
I’ve tried to teleport across, but somehow, my powers won’t let me cross the distance of the lake.
And so, there’s only one choice. I just have to be careful not to get caught, which means moving forward through the souls of the undead, and hiding the fact that my skin crawls and goosebumps erupt on my flesh as I walk through their chilling bodies.
When I reach the edge of the lake, I stare down at the dark water flowing with sad-looking souls. The souls swirl together, like they’re drawn by an unseen current.
I wonder what it’ll feel like to step into them. Will the water be freezing? Will the souls push me away? What will it be like to swim with the dead?
But I know nothing of this world, only what the woman told me. And so, I am here to get my freedom. No matter what I must endure.
Slinking into the water, I stiffen at the chill against my naked body.
I feel hands and feet, not quite human but still there, tugging and pulling at me.
But they aren’t strong. Not as strong as my living body.
And so I start to swim through them. Every hair on my body stands on end, the chill of the bodies and the magical water sinking deep into my flesh.
When I reach the other side, I climb up onto the shore. I feel drained. And strange. But I get to my feet on legs that shake, and I follow the golden, glowing cord to where it’s tied to the giant wall.
There are people here. Everywhere. The undead. Harpies. And shades like me.
I ignore them all, reach the wall, and with a gentle touch, remove the thread that ties me to the wall.
Like an invisible force, the thread flows slowly to the ground, a leaf in an unseen wind.
When it touches the dark sand of the Underworld, the glowing thread disappears from around my throat and from the ground.
I’m free! It was almost too easy…
Turning around, I start back toward the river of souls.
A hand darts out and grasps my arm.
Slowly, I look up into the eyes of a shade like me. She too glows with the softest purple light that seems to hover around her like rain. And her eyes… they glow the same purple as mine.
“You’re new,” she says.
My gaze goes to the thread around her throat. Blood leaks from beneath the thread, oozing down her neck and naked chest. It takes everything within me to hide my shudder. Already I’m grateful I listened to the hellhound’s advice.
“Speak!” she commands me.
“Yes,” I say, then look to the river, feeling nervous. Cerberus said not to get caught.
“Already you must love this life. Our Hades commands us to kill the sinners of his choosing, and then we drag their screaming souls here to be tormented for eternity. It is a good life.”
I tremble. “It is.”
Her gaze snaps to the gates of the Underworld. They stand cracked open. Guards made of sharpened bones line the path, and the souls the ferryman brings over walk in a line through the guards and into the dark place.
“Some will go to a life of pleasure and peace,” the shade whispers. “But others will not be so lucky.”
At least some will have a happy life.
“When we shades aren’t busy with our master’s will, we like to go to the places of torture and watch. Sometimes we help.” Her smile turns into a vicious one. “There is nothing better for the soul than listening to the screaming of the damned.”
I can never be like these women. I need to get out of here. Now!
“And what sinner did you bring to the Underworld for our lord the great Hades?”
My tongue feels heavy in my mouth, and blood rushes into my ears.
“Did he murder a lover?”
I whirl to find more shades closing in around me.
Another one smiles. “Did he kill his child?”
“Was it a woman who watched as harm was done to an innocent?”
Their voices seem to grow louder, and they laugh cruel laughs as they close in around me.
“Tell us, young one, what did your sinner do?”
It takes me a long time to answer, but it’s my first lie. “He beat the woman he loved. Nearly to death.”
They cackle as one.
“Hades will see him punished, oh yes, a lifetime of being beaten. Waking every day with his flesh unblemished, only to experience it again!”
They talk as one, describing punishments that the sinners receive on the other side of the wall. But with each word, my stomach twists harder. I don’t belong here. None of this feels right.
The woman was right to tell me to leave.
I know my memories of my life before being a shade are gone, so I am innocent to this world. A blank canvas. But I still recognize that this isn’t right, all innocence has been taken from these women. All kindness. All empathy.
Could I really be like them? Could I lose what makes me…human? A shiver rolls down my spine. I might have been reborn as a shade, but there is something inside of me that I know makes me…different from these beings. A deep sense, like staring at another species and knowing you aren’t the same.
But were they ever like me?
Perhaps it’s because of the threads that cut their throats. I can see it now so clearly. The threads are far too tight, cruelly so, and they all bleed.
Pain can make people cruel. Would pain make me cruel?
Or perhaps it’s just their job. Killing and punishing the guilty. How many times can such a thing be done before all goodness is gone from their souls?
They continue talking, their faces twisted with unkindness, their laughter and expressions like a nightmare.
I slink back from them towards the shore, my heart in my throat.
I don’t belong here. I must not get trapped here.
“Hey!” The first shade who spoke to me holds power in her word.
My gaze meets hers.
“Where’s your thread?”
“My thread?” I repeat.
Her tone holds ice. “All of us are bound to this life, little shade. None of us can be free. Removing your thread was foolish… Lord Hades himself will have to reattach it.”
All the women gather behind her, and I know that everything is about to change.
Leaping into the water, I hear the shrieking of their cruel laughter.
Around me the souls begin to whisper, “Faster. Faster. Must escape. Faster. Faster.”
The hands seem to push me forward. But behind me, the other shades leap into the water.
I swim harder, terror making my blood turn to ice. Just a little further and I’m free. Just a little further.
A stick blocks me in the water. I look up to see the ferryman in the boat beside me.
“No one leaves. Not you, not me,” he says, his eyes cold and empty.
My heart races. I hold my breath and dive under the water, moving under his boat, moving away from them all. After a time my lungs scream for air, but I hold my breath until I see stars before my vision.
Exploding out of the water, my hand reaches out and grips the side of the ground. Using it, I pull myself out of the water. I know now that I just need to reach the tunnels leading to this shore and I can teleport out. Just a little further.
Leaping to my feet, I race to the tunnels, glancing back once to see the shades have nearly reached the shore. But just as I see the darkness of the tunnels, creatures emerge.
They were once human. But now they are something so much worse. Beings made of sharpened bones, with flesh hanging from their skeletal forms.
Red eyes burn into me. An army of them. An army of Hades’s undead warriors.
Behind me are the shades. The Underworld. And my lifetime prison. But perhaps not the pain that this undead army could bring.
I look back at them, shaking with terror. A movement at the gates of the Underworld draws my gaze. A man stands staring out at me, almost glowing with power. His red eyes seem to tear straight through me, even from this distance, and his dark robe swirls around him.
Hades. It could be no one else.
Behind me is nothing but life as a prisoner. But ahead of me? There’s an army I can’t hope to stand against.
What do I do?
I make a decision then. One I hope I won’t regret. Pain I can handle. That life…I can’t.
I dive toward the army of the undead, praying to reach the tunnels, but their bodies stop me.
Their bones are sharpened to knives, and those knives slice into my flesh, over and over again.
I scream out in pain, red filling my mind, but I keep pushing forward, images of the cackling shades flashing through the red.
The scent of blood fills the air. A bone slices through my shoulder. Another through my legs. I stumble, but keep going.
Behind me, I hear the laughter of the shades.
And then a shadow falls over me.
Praying to every god in existence, I will myself to teleport.
And I do.