by VS Winters
However, just like every other man I seemed to have dated over the years, he too had disappeared in a flight of anger and dust, gone in the blink of an eye. It never failed. As I lifted my knee to climb into the bed, reaching for the light on my nightstand, a loud clatter echoed out from down the hallway. Every single bit of my war-torn reaction came flooding back to me. My entire body froze and I sat there, adrenaline and fear bubbling in the pit of my stomach as I continued to listen, waiting for any other sound to ring out. I had a rule: one crash and it was probably just some bewildered raccoon or magically angered plant messing with the trash can out front. Two, and it was time to move, find a weapon, and decide whether I was hiding or searching for whatever was making the noise. I really hoped I wouldn't hear something else.
Several moments passed, and just as I was about to chalk it up to a rogue rosebush throwing a fit outside, the floor creaked loudly and a high-pitched wail pierced my eardrums. Without thought, my hands clicked off the lamp and I quickly pulled myself off the bed and onto the floor. I kept my eyes poised on the doorway, squinting through the darkness as I reached around under the bed for the metal bat I had hidden there. Whether the war was over or not, strange things still lurked aboveground and I couldn't completely let down my guard. My hand finally fell on the padded aluminum handle and I lifted it up off the ground, trying not to make a sound pulling it out.
Carefully, and as lightly as possible, I crept over to the doorway and looked out. The light from the front porch cast a dull illumination all the way down the hallway. I nervously licked my lips, twisting my hands around as if I were about to hit a home run. I closed my eyes for just a moment, gathering my nerves, trying to remember what it was like to be brave. I wasn't sure if I was ever actually brave. It was more like survival and instinct had taken over. Whatever it was, I needed it back right then.
I began moving down the hallway, turning swiftly into the bathroom, and moved the bat around in the open space. I flipped on the light and jabbed at the shower curtain, but there was no one in there. Moving back into the hall, I closed the doors to the rooms I had checked, not wanting anything to sneak up from the back. I tried to remember the exact steps I had to take down the hall in order to not hit a creaking place on the floor.
One step forward, one step to the right, one big step forward, one step to the left…
When I reached about halfway down the hallway, my brow furrowed and my feet stopped. There was a strange smell in the air, something floral with a hint of spice. A low rumble began to growl, and my eyes shifted back and forth, trying to figure out exactly where it was coming from. The smell grew stronger and fluttered down from overhead, almost blinding my senses. My eyes went wide as I realized, whatever it was, it wasn't in front of me and it wasn't behind me. It was the one place I had completely forgotten to keep my eye on. Very slowly I looked up toward the ceiling, finding a woman scantily clad in black leather, her long black hair hanging down toward me, her eyes a seething red.
"Oh, shit," I groaned, leaping forward. I twisted my body as she fell to the ground, and I swung my bat.
Just as the hard aluminum rounded toward her head, her hand snapped up too fast for me even to comprehend and stopped the bat mid-swing. As her head lifted toward me, she growled again, this time a low crackling coming from her chest. She stood up straight and I looked up, finding her about a head taller than me, her skin tinted an abnormal gray, her body perfect like a swimsuit model’s, but her eyes…it was as if I could see the entire underworld within them.
She yanked the bat out of my hand and crushed it in her palm as if it were made of paper. She threw it behind her in a loud ringing bounce. Before I could move, her arm was catapulting toward me, connecting with my stomach. All the air left my body and my feet lifted up off the ground as I soared backward, slamming into the front door and falling to my hands and knees. I gasped and gagged for air, my fingernails digging into the wood floors. She stalked toward me and stopped a few feet away, tilting her head to the side, snarling and waiting.
With one hand on my stomach, trying not to puke all over the place, I put up my finger. "Give me one second. Mortals don't quite recover from something like that, not like they do in the movies."
To be honest, I wasn't even sure how I was still breathing, much less beginning to pick myself up off the floor. I got to my knees and turned toward her, one eye shut, my lips curled into a frown. Between her thighs I could see the twinkling of the light outside the back door. My eyes shifted back up toward her and I pushed my hands down to the floor, digging my toes into the ground as if I were getting ready to start a race. I looked up at her and nodded. "Okay, commence."
She snarled and screeched, jutting toward me. I pushed off and rolled forward, barely making it between her legs and to the other side as she slammed into the doorframe, cracking the entire front panel. I rolled up onto my knees and looked back at her, my eyes wide. There was no way I was waiting for her to get back up. With one swift movement, I turned back toward the hallway and took off at a run, but I didn't get very far at all. I slammed headfirst into another one, this one with a friend standing next to her. I stumbled backward, and stopped, looking behind me as the first huntress began to stalk back toward me.
I knew those girls. I'd seen pictures of them in books, heard stories of them growing up. They were Furies, three angry yet refreshingly feminist beings that had been under Hades’s control since the beginning of time. What I didn't ever hear of was the three of them being vicious killers. One thing I knew with certainty was that was not the way I wanted to go, ripped to shreds by three tall, perfect women who had fallen victim to a man's control for far too long.
I put my hands out in both directions and the three froze. "Wait. I'm an ally. I totally support your freedom. Men can be jerks, I get it. You definitely got the shit end of the stick, but hey, you're free now. We gotta stick together. You know, female camaraderie."
They all snarled and growled, turning their heads to the sides. One of the two in front of me grabbed my wrist, attempting to pull me toward her. However, as our skin contacted, she let out a sound that I couldn't reproduce even if I tried. An incredibly bright light burst from my skin and I put my other arm up to my eyes, blinded by the brilliant rays. We both fell back, hitting the ground as the other two scurried up the walls, watching the scene from above. As the light cleared from my eyes, I felt dazed, everything blurry, and all the sounds around me muffled as if I were in a tunnel.
Get up, Kora, you're still in danger.
I tried to stand up, but my knees were so weak and shaky I dropped back down to the ground. My vision kept going in and out and the sounds of the Furies around me echoed in my head as if I were stuck inside of a large bell. The Fury that had touched me had scrambled backward, holding her hand, a sob moving from her chest. The other two however, began to creep forward and I took in a deep breath, closing my eyes and holding my fists tightly closed, trying to get my balance back.
Around me I heard several thumping sounds, a shriek, and a loud bang. My eyes flew open, ready to fend off the attack, but instead, I found both of the Furies on the ground attempting to get away. My eyes shifted back and forth, then I looked down at my hands wondering what in the world I had done. I put them down on the floor and began to pick myself up, but it was no use. My legs were so weak. Just as I was about to let myself fall back to the ground, I felt an arm around my waist. Whoever it was scooped me into their arms and flipped me in front of them. I blinked, letting the face come into focus. As soon as it did, I wrinkled my nose and hissed.
"You," I growled. "What are you doing here?"
The Titan nodded toward the Furies, still recovering, waiting for their chance. "Would you like to argue about this now, or would you like to get out of here?"
My head felt dizzy again, and I laid it down on his shoulder, unable to answer him. As he began to move, everything clouded in my mind and I could feel every single one of my muscles relax. My face slid forward into
his neck and as I let the darkness take me, I filled my senses with his musky Titan scent.
Chapter Three
The darkness that engulfed me was not like any normal sleep. I waded through it, a void dark and thick, mentally pulling at my senses.
All around me I could hear a low vibration, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. With each and every step, I wondered if I would fall through, hurtling into the never-ending darkness beneath me. I focused on my feet, feeling the heat trickle over my shoulders and down my thighs. I took a step forward, and as my foot contacted whatever ground was beneath me, it lit up. It was curious, and at first, I thought it was coming from the ground, but the warmth of it ran like a current from the bottom of my foot, up my legs, and into my chest.
The light was coming for me.
I took another step, and another, feeling slightly amused by my new talent. I wasn't sure if it would be good for anything, maybe dancing to the tune of chopsticks on a rogue piano somewhere, but other than that, it just kept me from feeling like I was going to fall. As I took another step though, the vibration whirred even louder in my mind and my body lost balance, flinging me to the side. My eyes clenched shut, waiting for impact, but I never felt it. Instead, that vibration suddenly moved over my whole body. It was a rhythmic tone, and not necessarily a negative feeling.
Weakly, I opened my eyes, finding myself barely able to see through the haze that my mind had created. I blinked, wanting to pull my hands up to rub them but feeling far too tired to move a muscle. The first thing that came into focus was a dashboard in front of me. I followed it to my left, realizing that I was no longer in the Titan's manly arms, but instead, buckled into the front seat of some sort of sports car, the engine roaring loudly in front of us. The interior was a smooth black, and though I thought maybe it was leather, there didn't seem to be any seams. The dashboard was lit up in a neon green, a comfortable glow in the darkness.
Gripping tightly to the steering wheel, I followed the strong, muscled arms up to the elbows and to the shoulders of what was becoming a very familiar man. He was the Titan hobo from the back of my landscaping van, only now he seemed healed, and much livelier. If I had even an ounce of energy in me, I would've said something, but instead I shifted my eyes and slowly rolled my head toward the window. We were moving incredibly fast, speeding down some sort of strange road, still the middle of the night. On each side of us were perfectly aligned trees, and through those trees I could see a shimmering surface, a river running parallel to us, the water black, but noticeable at the same time. It felt as if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
My vision moved up toward the canopy of dark leaves overhead, finding small blips of sky poking through. There was an ominous red glow and the clouds looked gray like smoke. A break in the forest gave me a quick overlook at the land beyond. Off in the distance were rising and falling peaks of stone, bursts of light coming from the ground as if there were running rivers of lava. Across the bank of the large black river was a small pier with torches lit on each side. It was unlike anything I had seen before and I tried to pick my head up but I was too weak.
The flash of scenery was over as soon as it had begun, and the revving engine of the car zoomed into a much thicker area of the forest. Everything went dark except for the neon glow of the dashboard. My attention was piqued, but my body was not playing along. The darkness blanketed me, feeling as if it were soothing my muscles, and before I could fight it, my eyes shut again, drifting me back into the void.
My sleep wasn't nearly as peaceful the second time around. I was plagued by nightmares, the Furies chasing after me, their unnatural sounds echoing through the halls of some dark and twisted castle. I tried to pull up my light, not really sure what I was doing, but nothing came. I just kept running and running until the screeching of the Furies quietly diminished into the background. In its place, I could hear the sound of clinking glasses and muffled conversations. I was pulled from my sleep, feeling each part of my body come back to life, my energy low, but at least not nonexistent. I let my head fall to the side and I opened my eyes, blinking away the haze that covered them.
I could see figures, a lot of them, standing around, talking with each other, their voices all smashed together in a low roar. My brow furrowed, feeling the beating of my heart in my temples. I wasn't sure where I was, but I definitely wasn't alone. From out of nowhere, a head dropped down into my vision, smiling at me. I would've thought him friendly enough except for the fact that he had one enormous eyeball right in the middle of his forehead, his eyelid slowly blinking every few seconds. I gasped and sat up, my arms clasped in front of me, my eyes shifting back and forth wearily.
"Welcome to the land of the living, mortal," the Cyclops said with a deep bellowing voice. "We've all been wondering if you were going to sleep for the rest of your time here."
The sound of a growling dog shifted my head to the left and I squinted through the crowd, making out a large three-headed beast, standing guard at the front door of what looked to be some sort of speakeasy. The sting of alcohol permeated my nostrils, along with a very strong scent of spice. I wrinkled my nose. "Are they cooking?"
"I don't think so. Not that I think anyone would eat here." The Cyclops was enormous, and I had to crane my neck back to look at him. "Are you hungry?"
A tray with bread and water slammed down on the table in front of me. I jumped, looking up into the face of a harpy. She was tall and slender, and from her face to her torso was humanlike. Beyond that, she was definitely not from the mortal world. Her arms gradually turned into wings and her feet were large claws. Feathers covered her legs and inched up her belly covering her breasts like a low-cut dress. Her feathers were a deep brown with brilliant specks of gold flickering through them. Her hair started at the root like any other mortal’s but quickly transformed into feathers, wild and untamed down her back. As she turned, a large feathery tail swished back and forth, knocking into the Cyclops.
She rolled her eyes at him. "She's not hungry, you idiot. All mortals smell mythical creatures and gods in a different way. Apparently, for her we smell like spices. I guess that's better than some of the ones I've heard." She looked down at me, her face thin and angular, her nose long and pointed. "That's all the human food I have here, but you need some strength. You've been sleeping on that couch for hours."
The Cyclops plopped down next to me, lifting up my end of the couch for a second before it fell back to the ground. He chuckled as the harpy walked away. "Don't worry about it. We've all spent time on this couch before. What do you think it's here for? One too many of the banshee’s special brews and you'll be out for days. All you'll hear while you're sleeping is her shriek. It's miserable."
My heart was beating wildly in my chest, and everywhere I looked there was another type of mythical creature, all standing around talking as if it were perfectly normal. I needed to get out of wherever I was, and I needed to do it fast. I licked the dryness off my lips and scanned the room, finally finding Mr. Strange and Sexy standing in the corner, a curvy woman in front of him with long forest-green hair holding his attention. I didn't know whether I could trust him or not. I had to go it alone.
I forced a smile, turned to the Cyclops, and cleared my throat. "Could you point me to the ladies’ room?"
The way that his face twisted and his brow arched, I wondered if they actually used the bathroom, but that was something I really didn't want to picture in my head. After a few moments he pointed his finger as if the wires had finally connected. "To my right, around the corner, at the end of the hallway. There should be a picture of a mermaid on the door."
"Of course," I fake-laughed.
As I stood up, my smile fell and I scooted past several creatures that I wasn't even sure I had ever seen in books before. Turning the corner, I found solace, a straight hall with no one in it. I hurried down the hallway to the bathroom door, but paused a moment before opening it. I turned my head, looking at the picture of the mermaid. "How d
o mermaids go to the bathroom in an underground bar?"
I shook my head, knowing there was no time for that. Yanking open the door, a large red bird erupted from behind, nearly smacking right into my head. I ducked as it soared upward and streamed down the hallway. As it turned the corner it looked back at me with narrowed eyes. "Watch it."
"Sorry," I said before walking into the bathroom.
Inside was just one room, with no stalls. I turned back to the door and clicked the lock, standing there for second with my eyes shut, trying to collect my thoughts. I had no idea where I was, and all I could remember was scenery out the window that looked like something from a horror movie. I really hoped that he had driven us somewhere a little more familiar while I was passed out, but my expectations were low. Taking a deep breath, I turned and surveyed the room, finding a small window on the opposite wall. I grabbed the trash can and dragged it over. Steadying myself with the sink, I managed to climb onto the top of the trash can and pushed open the window. It was still a little bit too high for me to just lean out so I counted to three and leapt up, grabbing on to the windowsill as the trash can tipped over beneath me.
"Great," I grunted as I used my arm strength to pull me up onto the thick sill.
I struggled through, poking my head outside, getting a whiff of hot air all around me. Across from me was another building, and down below was a pitch-black alleyway. As I pulled myself farther out the window, down below in the darkness a pair of bright red eyes began to glow, looking straight up at me. I paused, unsure of what was waiting for me. The pair of eyes became two pairs of eyes, and then three. I chuckled nervously. "Don't mind me. Just needed some air."
I figured I was still going to go for it. There were only three creatures down there versus the entire room back in the bar. However, as I steadied myself trying to figure out how to drop down, a chorus of growls echoed out, and whatever was staring at me opened their mouths, showing three very pointed and sharp sets of teeth. I gasped and my foot slipped, almost hurtling me over the edge. They barked loudly, and jumped for me, but I was too high up. As their heads pierced the light, I could see that they belonged to yet another three-headed dog, only this one looked angrier, with dark black hair and a scar running down one of its faces.
