Only a few moments passed before I heard yelling, from so many voices in so many directions I couldn’t even focus on my own thoughts. Panic gripped me as I saw shadows rush by in my periphery.
The sound of running, solid footsteps of boots against the stone and dirt floor echoed nearby, mixed in with the yelling.
“What’s going on? Don’t leave me here!” I yelled and begged, not sure whether or not it was a good decision, since I had no idea what was going on.
The running feet stopped, and I risked it again. “Hello,” I said a little more timidly this time.
A young woman, who looked to be about my age, peeked over the edge of the coffin. Her hair was longer on top and cut short around her ears. Her features were small and sharp, with the exception of her large doe-like eyes with black irises. She was exactly what I would have imagined a pixie to look like.
Her hands were perched on the side of my coffin, and at first I thought she had on a pair of black gloves. Then I realized the skin on her hands was black, and slowly blended into the ink of her heavily tattooed arms. The contrast of the black skin and ink, along with the bright colors, all against her alabaster skin, was just mesmerising.
She narrowed her eyes at me and pursed her small lips. “Who are you?”
I recognized the voice I had heard a short time earlier. “I’m Hel, Helena. Hades locked me away down here because I wouldn’t have sex with him. Persephone left me in charge while she was away, and I didn’t know I was supposed to…” I trailed off, and caught myself sniffing back tears.
The pixie girl huffed, and brushed a strand of hair back from her eyes with a delicate black finger. “Ugh, you wait until mum hears about this,” she said.
She gave a signal to whoever was beside her, and suddenly the lid of the coffin was sliding off of me.
She offered me her hand and helped me sit up. I saw that the lid had been removed by two ghosts standing on either side of the coffin. They looked almost like translucent statues hovering just above the floor.
“Thank you,” I said, trying to convey as much gratitude as possible in those two words.
“Anytime,” she winked, and held my hand in hers until I was out of the coffin and on my feet.
I was so happy to be released that it took me a moment to notice all of the spirits still whizzing by in shadowed blurs.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Pixie’s eyes lit up, and a sneaky smile crossed her lips. “We opened the doors between the worlds. All the souls are running about.”
“What?” I gasped. “I thought Thaddeus was negotiating all of that and bringing the souls where they need to go.”
“Oh dear,” she said. “How long have you been down here?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I don’t even know where here is.”
“Thaddeus is gone, love. No longer employed by their majesties. And ‘here’ is under the wall.” She pointed to the doorway all of the spirits were rapidly exiting. “That is the doorway to all the other afterlives.”
I was a little shocked. Thaddeus, gone? What does that mean for the souls he was trying to track down?
“What’s going to happen now—here in this part of the underworld?” I asked.
She smiled again, and I couldn’t help but notice her charm. She looked like an assassin, dressed in a tight black tank top, with black tactical pants and boots. She was both beautiful and handsome at the same time.
“Things are about to get very interesting.”
“How do I get out of here?” I asked.
“You can follow me, but we have to let him know we followed orders. You wouldn’t want to be a part of that.”
“By him, do you mean Hades?”
She adjusted some kind of silver tool on her belt and nodded.
“You work for him?”
She chuckled, “Something like that.”
“I didn’t get your name before,” I said. She was walking quickly, and I was trying to keep pace—not easy after having been immobilized in a huge concrete box for who knew how long. The ghosts floated along perfectly on each side.
“I’m Melinoe,” she replied without even a glance my way.
“Pleasure to meet you. So do you work for both Persephone and Hades?” I pressed on, trying to learn about my rescuer.
“Well, they are my mum and dad.”
“Well he’s my stepdad,” she put her hand by her mouth and whispered conspiratorially, “but he doesn’t acknowledge that.”
“They’re your parents!” I said in disbelief.
Melinoe grinned. “Indeed, they are.”
“Where did you get the accent?” I asked—leave it to my brain to ask the most unimportant questions at times.
“I tried out different ones for years, but this one stuck,” she said simply.
“It suits you,” I replied.
She smiled, and inclined her head to the right to indicate a turn as we walked through the underground tunnels. The ghosts went a little ahead, I supposed to make sure things were safe.
Every now and then, other spirits would come by, as the last few trickled out of the other afterlives.
I pointed to the ghosts on either side of Melinoe. “Who are they?”
“They are my guards for the day. I get new ones every day, so I don’t bother learning their names.”
I looked at her quizzically.
“I’m the goddess of ghosts and nightmares, love. They do my bidding in exchange for me letting them spend time in the living world. Pitiful things they are, insisting on wasting away to but a shell of what they once were, trying to hang onto a life that was only supposed to be temporary.” She shrugged. “But they insist.”
That was a sad existence.
The tunnels were wide and well lit. We passed many doors, some with large locks. I wanted to ask what was inside, but we passed by them so quickly, and I needed to worry about the things that were going on when I got out of here.
Above everything, I wanted to get back to the fields, or even into the Vampire Quarter. I needed to find a familiar face, let them know I was OK, and let them know what was happening.
“Does your mother know what’s going on?” I couldn’t believe that Persephone would just stand idly by as Hades turned the underworld she had created into this chaotic place.
“No, and I’m afraid I can’t reach her at the moment. With Thaddeus no longer running messages back and forth, she is unaware and thinks things are fine. He is the only one who knows where to find her in the above world.”
“So she doesn’t even know that Thaddeus has been fired? How can Hades do that, since Thaddeus was her advisor?” I asked.
“When the god of all the underworld tells you you’re fired, it’s not something up for debate,” she said sternly.
Having met him, I could certainly understand that. “So we just have to ride all of this out until it’s settled, or she comes back and tries to reason with him?”
“Pretty much,” Melinoe said as she bounced up a stairway we had come to.
I could see light pouring in at the top of the stairway, and knew it had to be the entrance back into Persephone’s palace. I was not looking forward to going in there, even if it meant finding a way out.
As if she read my mind, Melinoe said, “Wait here at the top of the stairs: let us see where he is, and I’ll send one of my guards to lead you out another way.”
I nodded in understanding. As she turned to leave the doorway, I touched her shoulder. “Thank you again for helping me.”
She traced a finger down the side of my face and winked at me.
I waited in silence as she and her guards went to find Hades. Just the thought of possibly bumping into him ever again made my stomach hurt. I recalled the vampire Rasputin, and how his very presence had repulsed me with the evil he exuded.
The reaction I had to Hades was different. I was frightened of him and the power he had, but I knew underneath that there was some level of attraction: a
drawing energy that he possessed. He wasn’t evil, he just was, with no thought to good or evil, only “his way.” That indifference was intriguing, and very dangerous.
Melinoe’s ghost guard came back more quickly than I had expected. The pale hand motioned me, and I followed. I found myself creeping through the lush indoor garden, where I had watched Persephone tend to her flowers.
Tall green trees stood above me, their branches heavy with colorful fruit. Water flowed from the mouth of a silver ram’s head into the pond, and the sound of it rushing out played like white noise as we walked through.
Once at the exit, it felt almost too good to be true that I was going to be able to walk out of here—to leave this palace that had become my prison.
I thanked the ghost for escorting me to safety, and received a bow from him in return. I pushed open the heavy glass door and stepped out into the underworld that I had come to call home.
I’d had a feeling things were not how I had left them, and I was right. Spirits roamed the streets, and nothing looked the same.
The streets were dirty, and people were everywhere. I heard crying and screaming, and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I didn’t feel scared—I didn’t feel anything, really. I wanted to check on my friends, and after that, I wasn’t sure.
I made my way back to the streets that were more familiar to me, as I ducked and dodged the people that were crowding and rushing by. I noticed that the floating spirits were starting to become more solid as they moved around. I even watched as a few went from silently hovering, to taking firm steps on the sidewalk.
Andreas’s boutique was on my way, so I ran in, hoping to find him or Grace. But when I went inside and called out, no one answered. I walked through the racks of clothes and looked in the back. I’d never seen the store empty—there are no “business hours” in the underworld. Someone should be here. Things were very wrong.
I considered going into the Vampire Quarter to look for them, but my heart just wanted to get back to the fields where I could see Soren and Billy. I wondered what was happening with the dead right now.
Recalling Rasputin once again, I shivered, remembering how the zombies he had created had clawed themselves out of the graves. Are they doing that now?
I had been able to help when the underworld was in danger from one madman, but this was something entirely different. This was gods and goddesses. I hadn’t even considered how I might help, unless I could figure out a way to get in touch with Persephone—and her daughter, Melinoe, had made that sound impossible.
The familiar path back to the fields of the dead didn’t feel very familiar right now. The energy was so different, it was like another world. Normally, the underworld was calm, with everyone doing their own thing and leaving everyone else alone. The streets I passed by were slowly looking more and more empty, with the few people I saw appearing to be in a terrified frenzy.
The brown and gray fields appeared in my line of sight, and I took off running towards them. I couldn’t wait to jump into Soren’s arms, even for just a moment, to feel something I loved.
As I approached the barren land, I realized it was just that: barren. There were no reapers out digging. I told myself maybe they were just inside resting, but I knew that wasn’t the case. It felt different… empty.
I walked out into the brown fields of dirt and looked down, using my bare foot to move some of the dirt, to see the little silver tags that mark the names of the people in the graves. The tag was there, but there was no name. I moved down the row, and tag after tag was blank.
That’s why there were no reapers: right now, there were no dead people.
I ran to the boxy little houses all of the reapers had lived in, and resisted the urge to first go into the one that had been mine. I knew no one was there, but I did make a mental note to go in and grab some boots and fresh clothes before I headed back into town.
Soren’s house was close to mine, and as I knocked on his door, my heart hurt; there was a lump in my stomach I just couldn’t choke down. He had loved me, and I him. I was supposed to get my Raphael back, and he was supposed to get his wife. I needed to find him, to see if they were together, to make sure at least one of us was happy. And if not, then dammit, I wanted him back.
No answer. I turned the knob and found the door was locked. I sighed. I was glad it was locked. That meant he had taken the time to lock it, and hadn’t left in such a hurry as to leave everything wide open.
I went to Billy’s door next, and found it the same as Soren’s. Of course Billy wouldn’t be home, though. If anything was wrong, he would have rushed into town to see Margaret, his girlfriend.
Back at my own house, I crossed my fingers and lifted up the mat in front of my door to see if my key was still there. When I went to stay at the palace, I wanted to leave my key behind, in case I needed one of my friends to bring me something. I had packed a lot, but not everything. It was there.
Once inside, I tried not to look around—to stay focused, and not let the memories hit me. I didn’t want to see the bed where Soren and I had made love so many times, or any of the little things that might trigger tears.
I wanted a shower, but there wasn’t time for that. I threw on a clean t-shirt, with jeans, and my extra pair of boots. My hair went up in messy bun, and that was as good as things were going to get.
Outside, I resisted the urge to go to the shed and get my shovel and tools to dig in the fields. I missed working. Digging was all I knew, and I craved that routine.
Instead, I headed back towards the city.
My first stop was the Assignment Hall. As I walked inside the plain looking building, with the too-ornate pearly doors, I wished that I had happier memories of this place. It was the first stop for everyone once they woke up from the grave. It was where you got assigned your job, and where you checked in to see how much time you had left to work off before your soul was settled.
The first time I was here and assigned as a reaper, I was still freaking out about being dead. The second time, when I came to check in after working five-hundred hours, was when I discovered it had been taken over by vampires. And the last time was when Grace had handed me the files that said where Raphael and Eira were. Maybe the last one should have been happy… but it was too jarring.
I half expected the Assignment Hall to be as deserted as everywhere else in town, but to my surprise, everyone must have had the same idea as me. Crowds of people and half formed spirits were lined up by the office doors and desks. It did make sense: people liked to know what they were supposed to do—what was expected of them.
If I went into a new afterlife that I knew nothing about, my first stop would certainly be the place where new souls got assigned.
I stepped into a corner beside a potted plant, out of the way, so that I could watch the goings on and figure out where I should be. I touched the leaves of the plant, not sure if I expected it to be real or fake. It was real, and I recalled all of the lush greenery back at Persephone’s palace. I shivered a bit, and moved so that the wide leaf no longer touched my arm.
Every now and then, a new person would come inside and choose a line to stand in at random. I was surprised at how calm everyone seemed to be. The hall was filled with the sounds of people talking to one another, but no one was screaming or yelling, and no one was smiling or laughing either.
I snaked my way in and out of lines, looking for a familiar face, and found myself at the door that I knew led to the basement. Maybe Margaret would be down there working, and I could find out where my friends were.
I had just pushed the door open and started to step down when I heard my name called.
“Hel? Is that you?”
I froze. I knew that voice—I’d have known it anywhere, even whispered through a crowd of thousands of people. Of all the people I could have found, I never expected to find him.
He said it again, “Helena,” and this time he was closer.
I felt the heat from my tears as they pour
ed down my face like a faucet had been turned on. Slowly, I turned around and clapped my hand over my mouth to choke back a sob. It was him: the only dad I had ever known. It was Ray.
He watched all of the emotion wash over me, and I saw the tears falling from his own eyes. I ran to him and grabbed him in the tightest hug I’ve ever given anyone.
We cried on each other for a long while, and finally, he was the first one to pull back.
He took my face in his hands and searched it. “My girl,” he said. “What happened? You should still be home and living your life.” He said it with so much sadness in his voice that it hurt my heart.
“It’s a long story,” I sniffed, not wanting to elaborate. “I’ve been here a while—how am I just finding you?”
“I just got here. I was in another area, sorting through my last life and deciding when and where I was going to go back. A big door opened up in the wall and everyone started going through it, thinking they were supposed to. Once I realized what happened, I was stuck here.” He smiled at me. “But now, I’m so glad it happened.”
“I’m so happy to see you.” I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. He looked like he did before he got sick, before he died. He was still older, with white hair, and skin permanently dark and aged from all the years digging in the sun. His blue-green eyes sparkled at me, and the sound of his raspy voice comforted me like a baby being held by it’s momma. He was my momma: my momma, and my daddy, and for the better part of my life, he was my best friend. I just couldn’t imagine how people lived without a Ray.
I tried not to get too caught up in my sentiments. “Do you have any idea what they’re going to do with everyone? Will you be able to get back?”
He shrugged, and it was a strong movement; I watched as the muscles in his shoulders moved.
“I have no, idea,” he admitted. “Do you know anything about any of this?” he asked me.
I couldn’t really say no, but I didn’t know enough to be helpful. “Eh, it’s some deep shit. I’m trying to learn more.”
Digging to Hell (The Gravedigger Series Book 3) Page 2
