by VS Winters
Her red darkened eyes shifted over to mine and she howled, the sound echoing all around me. She spoke, but just like Lilith, her voice was not her own. It was the corrupter's voice, and it said only one thing with disgust and anger. "The Hope Bearer."
My mouth fell open, everything beginning to move back into place. It was as if the corrupter's words had been the missing ties to make me understand. That one single memory that was so important finally cleared in my head. I was the Hope Bearer, and I had done it to myself. I could see me, but not Kora, Persephone. I stood in front of the raging and evil Pandora's box as it released its blight on all of humanity. I could tell that I wanted to shut it, that I wanted to end the pain and suffering, but I couldn't. The sounds were almost deafening around me, and as I approached, I looked down into the deep cavern of darkness within the box, finding one small sparkling sliver of light.
I shook my head replaying the memory. Persephone had known. She knew when she took that light that things would never be the same, but it was the only way. We reached down into the box and took the glistening hope from within and hid it deep inside of ourselves, leaving it there to nurture and grow. The light wasn't just good, it was everything humanity stood for when times felt unbearable, when we thought that we couldn't go on any longer. The light that felt the corrupter, that fought the corruption, was created from hope.
Chapter Twenty
Just as we had been before, I would join Crius in the attack. I wanted fight back the corruption. I knew that in some life, whether it was that one that I was in just comingled with Persephone, or a life I had lived before, Crius and I were a team.
Feeling the power surging within me, I raced forward, leaping up on one of the broken, mangled wood shelves and launching myself forward next to Crius. As he turned to me, a sound echoed out from above us. It sounded like the roar of a dragon and was quickly followed by the cracking and breaking of the roof above us.
We spun around, seeing the creature heading straight toward us. I had never seen anything like it before. Its mouth was split into three, and inside there were rows and rows of teeth. It had gnarled and featherless wings, and its body was a deep gray covered in knots and scars. It was enormous, taking out the house layer by layer as it dragged its copper leg through the steel and stone exploding everything it touched.
Crius shook his head, grabbing my arm. "It can't be. Zeus killed the Empusa."
As soon as I heard the word, I knew exactly what it was. The Empusa, a creature only known as a myth. It was a shape-shifting female soul of hell with one copper leg. In its more human form, it was a beautiful woman who seduced young men and within the throes of passion, drank their blood and ate their flesh. But the story was, along the road to hell she found a young man sleeping and approached him. When she attempted her beguiling ways, she realized it was Zeus. Revealing himself, Zeus killed the Empusa.
Apparently, somebody had gotten that story way wrong. As the beast streamlined straight for us, Crius tucked his head and wrapped his arms around me, shielding me as we were thrown from the force of the beast. The room blew apart in all directions and we sailed through the air, landing within the debris, and slid down the black stone that led to the river. Crius took the force of the blow, keeping me tucked tightly against his body. He didn't let the wounds keep him from jumping up though, pulling me to my feet and shaking me. Everything was so mixed up in my head and it took him grabbing my chin and staring deeply into my eyes to get me to snap out of it.
The force of the blow had messed up my hearing and everything was muffled with a loud ringing in the background. I could see Crius's mouth moving, but I struggled to make out his words. My eyes shifted down, seeing the gash across his chest and the blood trickling down through the hole in his pants on his thigh. He was wounded, and his skin had turned a pale color. His arms didn't hold me as tightly, the grip from his hands nowhere near what it had been before.
My eyes met back with his and the ringing stopped. I could hear what he was saying. "Come with me. I cannot run, but you have to. Take the water's edge around the corner to the next pier. Ring the bell. The ferryman will appear and he will help you. He will get you out. You have to go as fast as you can."
I shook my head pulling back from him as he tried to push me along. "No! I know where it comes from now. I know where the light comes from. It comes from hope, the hope placed in Pandora's box. I…Persephone…we put it in my chest and we've nurtured it and grown it. I know that hope can save the situation."
Crius shook his head and for the first time he smiled at me. "You're so stubborn. If you've had that hope in your chest and you've been nurturing that this whole time, then the whole reason you feel as weak as you do is because it's rendered you nearly mortal."
I shook my head putting my hands on his arms. "It doesn't matter. I know I can use it. I know it's strong enough to stop this monster."
"Kora…I…" Just as he began to speak, his face shifted and he was ripped from my hands.
His eyes stayed locked to mine and I screamed out for him as the Empusa wrapped one of her gnarled other legs around him and yanked him off into the air. "Crius!"
Before I could move, before I could chase after him, the third Fury hit me hard, slamming me sideways into the stone. It hissed and snarled, its red eyes staring down at me, its one good hand reaching back, ready to claw at my throat. My eyes went dark, and my lips twitched staring at her. "I don't think so, Winnifred, your sisters Mary and Sarah are waiting back at the apartment. We've been waiting for a fucking remake of Hocus Pocus forever."
She tilted her head to the side, confused, and I reached up, grabbing her by the neck, watching as the light shot out of me, cleansing every single bit of corruption from her body in almost an instant. This time, the smell of flowers and purity was barely recognizable over the ash and smoke of hell, but nonetheless, the third Fury fell to the ground, transforming back into her former glory.
With my eyes poised on the horizon, no longer able to see Crius, I stepped over her and began to walk in the direction in which he disappeared. I rubbed my hands together, focusing on the light, pulling it from my chest into the palms of my hands. It began to spark and trickle out, rays of energy shooting in all directions. If I could just push it a little further, if I could just make myself a beacon, I could spread the light a little farther, maybe even reach where Crius had been taken. The light could show me the way. It could force him from the clutches of that maniacal bitch that snatched him right out of my hands.
As I continued forward, my feet began to slow. There was a voice in the back of my head, that familiar voice that I had heard multiple times over the last couple of weeks. I didn't want to listen to it, I wanted to ignore it, but her warning…it made sense. "You can't… You could hurt Crius… You know the truth."
I stopped, frustrated by it all, the light surging from my palms. I screamed out at the voice as if it were not part of me but around me instead. "What truth? She took him!"
Just as calm as before the voice whispered to me. "He's a god of the dark."
Chapter Twenty-One
As the light seeped back into my palms and I pulled back from the beacon I was trying to create, my body began to revolt. It took a toll on me, singeing every last bit of energy that I could possibly muster. I gripped my hands tightly into fists and dropped to my knees, tears rushing down my face.
The last of the three Furies came running up to me, grabbing me by the arm. She was cleansed, and she could see that I was not in any shape to be left alone. "We have to go. Things like this don't happen here. If we don't go now, the ferryman…he might not let us pass back down the river. We have to get you out of here."
I didn't even look at her. My eyes were still staring off in the distance as if I would magically know where Crius went. Did she know what she was asking of me? She wanted me to leave him, to go back and leave him in hell. I didn't care where he came from, or how long he'd spent in the underworld, it was not a place for him. Dark or l
ight, Crius was good. I could feel it.
I pushed her off of me shaking my head. "No! I can't leave him here! He will be lost in hell. He's with that creature. We can't leave him here."
The Fury walked around in front of me and grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking me hard. I barely felt any of it as the exhaustion had begun to take over in full effect. "You can't even hold your head up. What good would you be to him right now? We have to go back. We have to get out of here. We'll come back for him, but you can't help him now."
With that, she bent down, lifting me up and slinging me over her shoulder. I wanted to fight back, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I had nothing left inside of me. Everything that I was had been stolen from me, and all I could do was whimper and whisper, begging her to stop and turn back. "Please, don't leave him here. He would never leave me, not here."
I hung over her shoulder, feeling lost, lost in a sea of grief and agony. The Fury ran us around the bend and rang the bell, but I could barely hear it. When the ferryman arrived, she flipped me back over and sat me in the boat. I wrapped my arms around my shoulders and stared off into the distance. My feet were bare and bleeding, my body felt bruised and broken, and I couldn't put into words the despair that was surging through me.
The Fury scooted forward and put her hands on mine. My eyes slowly drifted over me. "You can't give into despair. Your light can cure a lot of things, but one thing that can quickly extinguish it is despair. It will poison all hope inside of you until you're left with absolutely nothing. You'll get the Titan back, but you have to hold on to everything that you've kept near and dear to you this whole time."
I gave her a small nod, and let my eyes drift back off into the distance. How was I supposed to find hope when I felt as if it was all gone?
A week had passed, and I sat in Crius's apartment, wrapped in a blanket watching the darkness out of the window. I felt lost, like I didn't know what to do from there. The truth was I didn't. It wasn't just Crius, it was the realization of everything that I had ever known all being half of the truth. I was someone else, or I used to be, and that someone else had an entire life so much different than my human one.
Recovering from what happened in hell took a lot longer than the other injuries I had sustained since everything began. There was a pain, both physical and emotional, that drifted through my entire body. No matter how much I slept, no matter how much I sat still, the pain was still there. I had no strength in me, but I still had to muster enough to push away as much despair as I could. Hope left me in a tight position. If I allowed the depression, the anxiety, and the complete lack of caring take me over, that would be the end of the light. Any and all creatures from then on out would be doomed to the corruption. It would be exactly as it was named, a killer of the gods. Beyond that, from what the corrupter had said back in hell, humanity would be doomed as well.
My sadness ebbed and flowed, shifting to anger and back again. I wanted to rebel against the world, take on everyone and everything in my path. I was so angry that he was taken away from me again. I pulled my hand out from beneath the blanket and looked down at the twisted vine ring around my finger. At least I still had that, a wedding ring connecting me to him. It was a finite glimmer of hope, the only thing keeping me holding on.
"Knock, knock," the third Fury said, cracking open my door. "Are you about ready to go?"
The party. I'd completely forgotten about the party. The three sisters were back together, a full team. They had waited to celebrate the return of Tisiphone, or Tisi, as they liked to call her. But it was a big deal, and so were they. Everyone had planned a big party at the speakeasy to celebrate the sisters, and multiple others who had been released from the corruption. Everyone knew that it wasn't the end, and they also knew that Crius was still missing, but they needed a little bit of light in their own darkness. Hope was an interesting thing. A jubilant and wild party gave them an excuse to feel hope in a situation that I struggled to find outside of the ring on my finger.
But I had promised I would go. "Yes, I'm ready."
They talked and laughed, circling around me and hugging me tightly as they teleported me to the speakeasy. The teleportation thing still made me nauseous, but I couldn't even tell the difference between that and the pain I felt from my recovery. Alecto kept ahold of me for a few minutes longer than the other sisters just to make sure I had my feet under me as we headed into the speakeasy. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of creatures, including the ones that I had saved when I was in my old house. I forced a smile and hugged people, and made my way back next to Grogg, who was sitting on the couch I had spent so much time sleeping on.
As I sat there, the world seemed to spin around me, but I felt stuck in place unable to move. I was checked out, not there with everyone else and I knew they could tell, but they didn't say anything. I wanted Crius back. I had never even gotten the chance to tell him how much I wanted him. Maybe it wasn't love yet, at least not for me, Kora, but I knew it would eventually get there. I had seen it with Persephone and if she was me and I was her, then it would only be natural.
I wondered if he never came back, if I would ever stop wanting him. I missed his snarky and snide comments, the way he protected me against everything. The truth of the matter was, I just missed him and I was starting to realize that I wasn't whole without him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I held on to the same exact cup for hours. They had ordered me what they like to call "mortal beer" and no matter how much I appreciated it, I really didn't feel like drinking.
From time to time I would pour out my mortal beer and let them refill it so it made them feel better. The rest of the time, I just sat there on the couch, tucked away from everyone's attention, watching the party but not really seeing anything. My mind was on Crius, wondering where he could be at that point, wondering if he was okay, if he was still alive, and how I could get to him.
There was something about losing him that made me feel like I lost part of myself. My normal sarcastic and funny wit had just drained away. I didn't want to know people, and I didn't want to shake hands and accept thanks. I just wanted to be left alone. I wanted to figure out how to get Crius back and then I wanted to go and get him. Beyond that, I hadn't thought about it.
As the night progressed and the creatures danced around the room, singing along to the music, and celebrating the three sisters’ return, I began to feel suffocated within the sea of beings. I was no longer the center of attention. I was no longer the strange mortal asleep on the couch. No one gave me nasty looks or even stared at me as I passed by them. What I had done had brought me closer to them, and I was grateful for that, somewhere inside of me.
I set my mortal beer down on the table and stood up, ignoring the fact that Grogg and some of his friends looked over, a look of pity on their faces. That was a face I was really tired of seeing, whether they had one eye or eleven. I didn't need their pity. I headed for the door, but before I could get there Alecto stopped me. She was smiling halfway through conversation with someone else. "Where are you going?"
I pointed toward the door. "I just need to get some air. There's a lot of people in here."
She nodded and patted me on the shoulder. "When you get back, come dance with us. Maybe it'll help make you feel better."
That fake smile curved on my lips again and I turned and walked away. The three-headed dog at the front pushed open the door with one of his heads and nodded at me as I passed through. I trotted out of the door and stuck my hands in my pockets, turning left and walking to the side of the building. From what I had come to understand, the speakeasy sat somewhere between the underworld and my world, tucked away and hidden from those trying to hunt the creatures that had fled Olympus. I didn't know how to get there, or get out of there, but I had nowhere to go anyway.
I walked to the edge of the building and took in a deep breath, wishing that the air was cool and crisp like it used to be in my backyard. There, it was stagnant, but it was
better than inside the speakeasy. I didn't think I could take another wild conversation between Grogg and his friends. Every time he got laughing, he would lift up my end of the couch and I would go rolling right into him. He smelled kind of like human body odor and old cheese. Of course, on top of that was the spice, but that didn't seem so pungent anymore. I probably just had gotten used to it or blocked it out because it reminded me of Crius.
"All is not lost," a voice said from behind me in the alley.
Out of habit, I spun around, my hands instantly clenched into fists. I narrowed my eyes at the darkness. "Who's there? Show yourself."
From the shadows a woman stepped forward. Her hair flowed down her back and past her knees. She wore a white dress that clung to her body and cascaded down to the ground, pooling at her feet. Part of her radiated, but the other part of her, the part I could see in the red of her eyes was dark with deception, the corruption taking her over.
I took a step back. "That's far enough. Who are you?"
The woman tilted her head to the side, a small smirk on her lips. "My name is Eris…"
"The goddess of strife and discord," I said, completing her sentence. "It makes sense."
"What does?" she asked, her tone so calm she almost sang her words.
I took in a deep breath, putting my hands back in my pockets. "You're known to be a manic goddess, so it only makes sense that even with the corruption you can be both good and bad. I have to admit, I don't believe you'll be the most popular person at the party. Red eyes don't seem to go over well with this crowd. Or with me."
"Yet you haven't touched me," she replied with a smile. "You know I've come for other reasons."
My eyes shifted up and down her body and I turned away, looking in the opposite direction. "Or maybe I'm just tired of saving everyone."
