Prologue
The Underworld
The rain and stench of rotting flesh permeated the Harbinger’s senses.
He dragged his victim through the massive gate leading to the ferry.
The man, whose name he didn’t care to learn, was another fine upstanding citizen of the human race: child molester, rapist, murderer. This fate was almost too kind for him.
The man kicked and screamed obscenities at the large winged creature that held him.
“Where are you taking me, you ugly fucking beast?” The screaming man looked around and the scene he saw was something out of a horror movie.
Several massive winged creatures dragged both men and women to the edge of river, unfazed by their victim’s screams or cries for help.
Each stood sentinel, waiting for their turn to board the ferry.
The mountains and terrain were charred black.
No life grew here; no sunlight penetrated the sky above that swirled with red and black clouds unlike any he had ever seen.
The lightning marred the landscape, setting fire to brittle, lifeless trees.
He held back gagging as the smell of burning flesh overwhelmed him.
“I never did anything, bring me back.” He struggled against the thick chain wrapped around his neck, pulling with all his might; yet, unable to budge the beast that dragged him further into this nightmare.
The Harbinger lifted the man by the thick chain, cutting off his supply of putrid air; his black claws dripping with blood from where he had reached into the man’s chest, pulling out his soul to drag it to hell.
The man stared into eyes that were solid black pools, devoid of any feeling.
“I am not your judge, nor your jury.” The creature pulled him closer, revealing his massive fangs.
“But, I have seen what you have done. Death is too lenient for you.” The creature flared its black wings and let out an unearthly growl.
Urine ran down the man’s leg and onto the Harbinger’s booted foot. He tossed the man back down onto the ground, still holding tight to the chain. He heard the distinct crunch of breaking bone as the man’s body hit the ground in the most unnatural of positions.
A smile curled along the Harbinger’s lips, the soul had corporeal substance in the underworld. More importantly, it felt pain, but would not die. This man would beg for a death that would never come. Each day would bring endless pain and suffering, no other existence waited for him.
“You have no right to bring me here, I repented!” The man’s screams were one among many as the souls of the unrighteous waited to cross one of the five rivers.
“Did your victims beg? Did you show them any mercy?” His clawed hand came down over the man’s skull and inundated his mind with images from his young, helpless victims. Flashes of an innocent face stricken with fear, a mother’s grieving heart as she identified her child’s broken, lifeless body.
“Stop please, I repent, I repent! I’m sorry for everything I have ever done. Please, I repent my sins.” The man shook with such fear, and broke into prayer. “The lord is my Shepherd…”
The creature looked down at him as he heaved him closer to the river’s edge. “There is no God that will save your soul now, it belongs to me. And, my payment lies beyond the river.” He pointed across the river to their destination.
The man watched as creature after hideous creature approached the ferry with their victim dragging behind.
The ferryman held out his hand for payment to cross.
The man watched as the creature held out its hand, revealing a coin that floated just above its palm.
The ferryman took the coin and turned it back and forth, inspecting it, testing its weight.
When he was satisfied, he nodded his head and the creature and victim entered the ferry.
This was repeated as several of the creatures and their charges entered the ferry. His creature stood, waiting, as the boat drifted into the mists of the river.
“Why did we not board the boat? There was clearly room left.”
The creature, again, lifted the chain and looked into the man’s eyes as he watched him struggle for breath. His eyes began to bulge and his face puffed out in bright crimson. “Those people still have hope. You, do not. Our destination lies elsewhere.”
The creature dragged him along the river’s sulfur coated banks. He looked in and saw that the water was full of bloated bodies that still wriggled with pain, their skin bursting open and oozing a black liquid.
“Where is our boat?” Though he tried to sound as if he were the one in charge, the man’s voice rattled with fear. He picked up a stone within his grasp and threw it at the Harbinger’s head, hitting him square in the back of his skull.
The Harbinger swung around, grabbing the man by the throat and pinning him against the dead trunk of a tree.
His features seemed much more demon-like now that he was truly angry.
His cheekbones jutted out at an extreme angle, his horns curled back along his bald head, and his fangs protruded from his mouth.
A growl emanated from him as he sniffed at the air, scenting nothing but the man’s fear.
“Perhaps you are unaware of the severity of your predicament, human.” He spoke with ultimate disdain for the man.
His claws began to penetrate the struggling man’s throat, small drops of blood running down his neck and arm, dripping onto the ground.
“You are the lowest form of vermin down here. You have no idea what true torture is.” A grub-like creature crawled from the petrified bark of the tree.
Its mouth was rows upon rows of rotating teeth.
It was attracted to the blood that dripped down.
He watched in horror as its head began to burrow into his arm, its body slowly disappearing under his flesh.
The man screamed as the creature ate its way up his arm, under his skin.
The grub continued to work its way up the man’s arm, its white body covered in an acidic slime causing the skin above it to bubble. The Harbinger held the bug under his skin and sweat ran down the man’s face, the stench of feces permeating the air.
“Your skin will be flayed from your body, your eyes will be gouged out, and every orifice you have will be violated by creatures so hideous, your nightmares couldn’t conjure them.
” The Harbinger continued his detailed description of what the man’s eternity would be like, projecting the images into the man’s thoughts as he spoke.
“Then, finally, when you think you can’t take another minute, your body will be healed, your pain will be gone, and the process will start again. ”
The Harbinger let go of the man and he slumped down the tree trunk to the burnt ground. Tears and uncontrollable sobs left the man. Covered in his own waste, the man crawled to the massive creature that stood in front of him and groveled at his feet.
“What can I do? Please, tell me what I have to do.” His words were barely understandable between his sobbing and screaming as the grub ate its way out of the man’s neck and dropped to the ground, having gorged itself.
The Harbinger looked down at his palm that now had a light glow to it. The coin that usually sat as a tattoo now hovered just above his palm. It’s distinct and unique emblem of a skull surrounded by thorns clearly evident.
He looked down at the man groveling at his feet. “Our ride approaches.” He grabbed the end of the chain and hauled it over his massive shoulder, allowing the man to dangle and scream behind him as he made his way to the dock.
The Harbinger walked toward the ferry, holding out his hand. Charon took the coin and nodded for him and his charge to board. No other passengers boarded this ferry.
“Why do no others board?” The man had to know why he was the only passenger aboard this ferry.
The creature put the man down and let go of the chain, knowing that if the man decided to jump into the river, his fate would be the same as the other bloated bodies that drowned for eternity. A far better fate than this man deserved, but would allow no option for payment.
The ferry drifted slowly down the river instead of across as the other boats had done. Again, the man questioned his fate. “Why does this boat not cross the river? Surely this is the famed River Styx. My doomed fate must await me on the other side.”
The Harbinger looked down at the man. “Your fate does not lie on the other side of the River Styx. We will cross Phlegethon, the river of fire.” He pointed down the river to a fiery orange glow just beyond the horizon.
“And, what if I jumped and swam to freedom? Wouldn’t I then be allowed a second judgment, having made it to shore?” The man looked at the shore line a mere twenty or thirty feet from the boats edge. Surely he could make it.
The massive man-creature approached him, grabbing him by the wrist. “You are more than welcome to try.” He lowered the man’s hand into the black water of river.
Pain shot up the man’s arm as he watched his skin then meaty tissue melt from his hand, leaving only bone.
His bloodcurdling scream did nothing to stop the creature from lowering his arm further into the muck.
The black water seemed to grab onto his arm and crawl up to his elbow, blood gushing into the water.
The creature released the man’s arm and looked at his own hand that was unaffected. The man clutched his arm, now nothing more than bone and dangling tendons. “You are more than welcome to swim.” The Harbinger laughed out as he spoke.
At the sight, the man vomited bile over the side of the boat. Curling his knees against his chest, he watched as the fiery glow grew closer, the stench of sulfur and rot overwhelming him once more.