CHAPTER TWO
"Eternal Awakening"
Tao was cold, and as a matter of fact, she was on the floor. The very cold floor. Using her elbows, she lifted herself up, flipping her hair back to take a look around the room she was currently in.
The first thing she noticed was the walls, painted in Prussian blue and accompanied by a complement of Greek-style columns painted white.
To her left, she took in the large vanity, bright LED lights aligning the mirror, attached to an empty white desk that sat before a feather-lined white chair.
She turned her head again to look at a wall lined with bags, from Fendi all the way to Hermes, though it wasn't the Birkin bags that did it for her.
It was the sole Dior bag, a Lady Dior to be specific, perched on one of the columns.
It was a limited edition in Pearl Cannage, gifted to her by her brother, who had not been aware of his sister's blatant distaste for the brand.
She had kept it anyway, because he had given it to her, and that had always been reason enough.
She was in her closet. Well, one of them. This specific one belonged to the seventh Montgomery house in Zamalek, Egypt. She lifted herself up slowly, memories of the house coming back to her in pieces, then all at once.
Wealth is normally flushed out by the third generation, typically by spoiled and ungrateful children.
The Montgomerys nine generations before Tao's parents had been architects and had built most of the major city attractions known widely across Europe today. They had also built nine of the fifteen Montgomery houses scattered across the globe. It was around the third generation after them that the wealth and status of their family had started to dwindle terribly, causing mass sales of many of the family’s assets.
It wasn't until generations later, when Vincent Montgomery had taken over as head of the family, that the houses were returned to Montgomery possession and renovated one by one.
This was also around the same time that Tao was trying to convince her father to build another Montgomery house in Greece, which to her dismay he had refused.
Tao being Tao, if she couldn't have her way, she would simply bring Greece to wherever she happened to be.
It wasn't only her closet that was modelled after Greek architecture.
It was the whole house. That had been the first time she had ever truly stuck it to her father in quite that way, and she had enjoyed it enormously.
The nostalgia continued to hit Tao as she walked around the room, her head turning from left to right, taking everything in.
The closet was just as she had left it the last time she was in Egypt, minus the jewellery she had left scattered all over the centrepiece, which she assumed the staff had cleaned up.
Everything else was exactly as she remembered. Exactly how she had left it.
That nostalgia left quickly once she realised she had no memory of why she was here.
Something was wrong. Very wrong. Her eyes soon found a man lurking in the corner, dressed weirdly.
His yellow coat looked entirely out of place.
Tao bit her lip. She would have a word with the head of staff.
He wasn't on theme, so she could only assume the servant was new.
"Don't just stand there," Tao's voice softly echoed through the walls. "Help me up."
The man sighed. Humans were funny. It was always best to keep things as close to reality as possible for an easy transition. The realm had seen enough theatrics to last for an eternity.
"Tao-Lee Montgomery, welcome," his lively voice called out, clearly unaffected by her unimpressed look.
Tao wasn't impressed. If this was his way of gaining her favour, he had fallen terribly flat.
"I am Sidius. Welcome to the Netherworld, or as your kind refers to it, Hell or Hel, whichever you like. I will be your guide," Sidius said.
Acceptance was always the hard part. No one liked being told they were dead. As the humans said, it was always easier to just rip the bandage off.
"This is some sick joke. Tell Taron he tried," Tao said, laughing calmly at the absurd news.
"I'm afraid it's no joke. You have met your timely demise. I am here to guide you through your memories until it is decided where you will be placed in the Netherworld."
A shiver ran down Tao's spine. "I'm dead?" She wasn't shocked, not exactly. She was a capital B-I-T-C-H, and her deeds had always been destined to catch up with her. She just hadn't expected it to be so soon. Above all else, she simply wondered who had had the balls to do it.
This was the moment Sidius had been waiting for. The tears and theatrics. It never got old.
"How did I die?" Tao questioned. Her calm voice surprised the waiting guide, who had braced himself for something considerably louder.
"Come with me. All questions will be answered."
As they walked through a splotchy grey door that Tao wondered how she had missed, she noted that the colour of it was dreadful to look at. Clearly no one had consulted her on the interior design of the Netherworld.
"Crying only makes you weak. You plan and hit them when they least expect it," her aunt's voice sounded far off, coming from somewhere behind the walls.
On the walls were portraits of memories Tao had buried deep.
Her eyes watched intently at the moment her aunt had taught her the beauty of vengeance.
This had been a pivotal moment in her life.
A lesson that had stuck with her, where she had vowed to never be weak again.
Not long after, her aunt had taken her life along with her husband's and his mistress'.
A bit dramatic, Tao had always thought. She herself had never been that kind of vengeful.
The next portrait was a not-so-proud moment.
Her first love, whose name she could barely remember.
What she did remember was how embarrassed she had been finding out he was only dating her to get closer to her best friend at the time.
The first time she could truly say she had been so blinded by her emotions that she hadn't been able to see she was being used.
She had never made that particular mistake again.
She quickly diverted her eyes from the embarrassing portrait.
A picture of Monica was the next. Tao remembered how desperate the girl had always been beneath the surface.
Her soft, calculated smiles had made Tao question her true intentions more than once.
Tao shrugged. The chapter was closed. There was nothing she could do about it now.
The next few portraits were of fun memories: baking with her father in the Edinburgh kitchen, flour on both their faces and neither of them caring.
Shopping sprees with her mother in Milan, her mother's laugh carrying down the length of an entire boutique.
Fun games she had played with her brother over the years, the kind that ended with both of them on the floor, helpless with laughter over something long forgotten.
The hallway felt like a museum of time, each portrait marking a pivotal moment that had helped mould Tao into the cold, calculated, and deeply loyal person she was. She walked slowly, looking at each one, taking her time with them in a way she hadn't often had time for things in life.
"Where do I go now?" Tao asked.
It didn't take a genius to know Tao wasn't an exactly good person. If the Bible stories were as she remembered them, the journey ahead was going to be a fiery ride.
"It hasn't been decided yet, I'm afraid. You have to meet with the keeper of this plane first," Sidius said, hesitating briefly.
"Who?" she questioned.
"You mortals refer to him as Death," Sidius said, his tone eerily flat.
With that, Tao was led through the dark hallway.
Fear wasn't an emotion Tao was particularly used to, but the undertones of Sidius's response were doing something to her composure. Within the undertones of her slight fear was also curiosity, she hadn’t been particularly religious but she was familiar with the many tellings of the afterlife.
"So, who was correct?" She voiced her thoughts.
"With regard to?" Sidius asked.
"The afterlife," She responded watching him walk before her.
"Everyone, but at the same time, no one. The Netherworld is simply a collection of human belief." He said leading her further down the hallway.
The grand door at the end of the hallway opened, and the brightness from the room beyond cast a soft, ethereal glow back into the dark corridor, like light through a crack in something very old and very closed.
It was a throne room of such grandeur that Tao was genuinely in awe, which did not happen to her often and which she would not have admitted to anyone.
Diamond-encrusted ceilings. Rich purple carpeting.
Two-toned sculptures and pillars lining the walls on both sides.
It was a level of wealth and grandeur that even Tao was not used to.
Her attention quickly shifted to the throne itself.
Seated on the otherworldly throne was a cloaked figure, his fingers adorned with gems of the finest quality.
"Tao-Lee Montgomery," the figure said. His baritone voice rattled the chandelier on the ceiling. The vibrations were so deep that Tao felt his words tugging on the strings of something inside her chest she hadn't known could be tugged.
"I am Death, known by many names: Hades, Pluto, Anubis. Ruler of the Netherworld. Welcome."
Tao's eyes widened. Her breath caught in her throat, and as the fog cleared she could make out his form a bit better.
She wasn't very good at math but his figure stood tall, almost seven feet, and she could feel something forming at the sides of her mouth the more of his form she was able to make out.
He was a god. Tao wasn't a believer, but seeing Death in his full glory, she was completely and utterly awestruck.
His head was coated in thick black locs of hair, and her fingers itched to run through them.
"Whoever said Death had horns?" she pondered to herself.
The supreme being spoke in clear, measured terms, his deep blue eyes fixed on Tao with an attention so complete she felt it as a physical thing. "Your presence in the Netherworld is quite intriguing, I must say," he spoke.
"Where do I go now?" Tao asked, her voice carrying a mixture of fear and a hint of curiosity that she couldn't quite suppress.
"That is up to the fates and I to decide. Sidius will show you to your quarters," he said, with an air that was fairly dismissive but not unkind.
Tao nodded. Words were not needed at this point. She understood the gravity of her situation. Her fate was in his hands, and for perhaps the first time in her life she was in a position she could not negotiate her way out of. She understood that too.
The journey had only just begun. She only hoped she would be left unscathed at the end of it. Though she was more elated at the fact that she wasn’t being burnt to a crisp and being shown to a room instead.