by Simon Archer
Suddenly, there was a stampede of feet as a crowd of people surrounded my bed. A flurry of voices erupted in my ears, and I would have given anything for them to stop. Some part of my discomfort must have shown on my face because another booming voice got everyone to be quiet.
“Shut up!” it said loudly. “Can’t you see you’re bothering him? I swear to the gods if you don’t give him some space, I will kick everyone out of this room.”
I recognized that authoritative voice, which would make sense where I was, given the beeping equipment and IV making my arm cold. Daniella popped into my line of view.
“Hi, friend,” she said with a gentle smile. “Can I sit you up?”
“Sure,” I croaked, offended by the own hoarseness of my voice.
A whirring sound came as the bed lifted me up to a sitting position. I wiggled my nose, now noticing the discomfort of the cannula that rested there. I finally got the full scope of my state of being.
I was in an individual hospital room, with pale pink walls and a worn red chair in the corner by the window, whose blinds were closed. There was a thin white curtain with tiny blue dots on it, open and allowing everyone to see me on full display. I noticed that I was in a hospital gown, but wrapped up in two thick blankets and had large socks that were slipping off my feet. There was the IV that dripped into me, the cannula which pushed cold air through my nostrils, and a pulse ox monitor on my pointer finger which beeped in time with my heartbeat.
I must have been in bad shape if they had all of this modern technology helping monitor me.
In the room itself was a crowd of people. Beth and Jade were there, holding on to one another, shaking with anticipation in order to talk to me. Bella was there as well, standing behind Beth. To my utter surprise, my roommate Karen and her girlfriend Rachel were there, which caused me to do a double-take. Hailey sat in her own wheelchair, with some bruises and bumps on her, but she was smiling broadly at me. Ann the farmer was there too, clutching her hat in her hands, ringing it along the brim. At her feet, both Khryseos and Argyreos sat with big goofy grins on their long faces. Finally, Arges stood just outside the doorway, blocking the whole thing, as he was too big to fit through.
Daniella had been right to force them all to give me some space. It was a lot of people crammed into the little room. As I observed everything, Daniella hovered her hands over my body and had her eyes closed. I knew she was checking on my injuries in her magical healer way. The room stayed silent as they waited for the prognosis.
Daniella opened her eyes. “Looks like you’re going to live.”
“Glad to hear it, doc,” I joked. “Can I have some water?”
The minute I requested the water, Jade and Karen jumped and proceeded to have a mini fight over who could give me the water. Jade finally won out and brought the small cup with the bendy orange straw to my lips.
“This is really unnecessary, guys,” I said to the room after I finished drinking. “I’m fine, really.”
“We just wanted to make sure,” Beth said.
“I mean, you were basically in a coma,” Karen added.
“You weren’t in a coma,” Daniella whispered to me as she moved to the other side of my bed to check on the monitors.
“Basically, we were worried,” Jade said, summing up everyone’s feelings.
“Well, we’re glad you’re alive,” Karen said as she grabbed Rachel’s hand. “But feel free to stay in the hospital as long as you need. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t enjoying the empty dorm room.”
Karen blew me an exaggerated kiss and yanked Rachel out the door who offered me an empathetic wave. Arges kindly moved out of the way for them but grunted as they passed, which caused Karen to hustle along faster.
“Well, that was… interesting,” I said, unable to think of another word.
“Permission to approach?” Ann asked politely.
I chuckled a bit at her request. “I’m not a judge, Ann, you can come forward.”
“That was more of a question for the healer there,” the farmer gestured with her hat towards Daniella.
The daughter of Asclepius nodded her approval, and Ann took two giant steps towards the bed. She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. “I’m glad to see you’re well and good,” she whispered to me. “You had quite a lot of people worried.”
“I’m sorry to have worried you,” I said, shame twisting in my gut.
“Don’t be,” Ann assured me. “All is good now.” She put her hat on her head and gave me a nod. “Best be off now. I’m supposed to report to the Elemental Officials when you wake up.”
“Oh,” I said solemnly. “Man, they couldn’t even give me a minute.”
“I’ll walk slow,” Ann said with a wink. That left my five girlfriends, my dogs, and Arges. For the first time since I woke up, I actually felt comfortable.
Khryseos and Argyreos made to move forward and looked as though they wanted to jump onto my bed but didn’t.
“So,” Bethany said, drawing out the word into two syllables. “How was Italy?”
Jade promptly elbowed her in the ribs as Daniella shot our friend a dirty look over the end of my hospital bed. I couldn’t help but chuckle at their reactions.
“We promised to wait,” Jade hissed.
“It’s not like we have a lot of time before the officials get here,” Bella countered from her spot behind Beth as she opened her hands and gestured to the door. “And I want to hear the truth.”
“The truth?” I gulped. The word felt like a ten-pound weight on my chest because I hadn’t been truthful with my friends since Sarah’s funeral.
“Well yeah,” Beth said. “It’s not as though you’re going to tell the Officials everything when they get here, are you?” My friend scoffed and waved her hand. “We want the real story.”
“The real story,” I repeated the words to myself. Then my eyes inadvertently flashed to Hailey, who sat silently in her chair. She pursed her lips at me knowingly but said nothing. I looked up at the cyclops who eyed me through the doorway, as though he read Hailey’s mind and agreed with her completely.
It was an uncomfortable sensation. I knew I had to come clean to these four. If I did trust them as much as I claimed I did, then I needed to show it by telling them every single piece of the story and not just parts of it.
“The real story is this,” I said with a big sigh. I reached up with my non-IV hand and reached for my necklace. To my horror, it wasn’t there.
“Looking for this?” Arges asked as he reached his massive hand through the door and opened it. In the palm of his hand was my locket, forged from the collars of my loyal dogs. The two of them seemed to recognize it because they got up on all fours and started panting.
“Oh, thank the gods,” I said as Hailey plucked the locket from Arges’s hand. “You can go ahead and open it, Hailey.”
“You sure?” she checked.
“I’m sure,” I said with a confident nod. “The story won’t make a lot of sense if we don’t include her.”
“Why do I feel like we’re about to be in for a lot more than we bargained for?” Bella said in a stage whisper to Jade, who shushed her immediately.
Hailey obeyed my wishes and undid the latch of the locket. With a radiant blue light, a piece of the Eternal Flame popped out of the container. It floated around the room, making the rounds and getting in the face of every single person before landing in an open space by the window.
“What the hell are you doing with the Eternal Flame in your jewelry?” Beth asked, getting to the heart of the matter.
“Well, that’s the thing,” I winced, knowing that this wasn’t going to get any easier. I just had to dive right in. “It’s not just a piece of the Eternal Flame. Katlynn… do you want to come out and meet all of my girlfriends?”
Seconds later, my ghostly half-sister stood in front of the rest of the group. Daniella, Bella and Beth were completely shocked, the daughter of Demeter yanking at Jade’s arm and pointing wor
dlessly whereas Daniella and Bella stood stock still, as though someone had blasted them with a freeze ray.
“This is my sister, Katlynn,” I said to the girls.
“Hello,” the ghost said with a cheeky wave.
Bethany spun on her heel to face me and released her hold on Jade so she could put her hand on her hips. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
So I told them everything. I relayed everything I told Jade and Hailey about my Underworld visit and my bargain with Hades. I continued with how that led to my desire to study abroad with Arges in Italy. Then I dove into everything that had happened there. Well, not everything. What happened between Hailey and me in the forge after the helm was built was our business, and no one needed a recounting of that, even though I was pretty sure Beth and Jade would have eaten it up to get all of those juicy and dirty details.
When I finished with the explosion and how Kari essentially saved my life by shoving me out of the chariot, the room fell into a hushed silence. I spoke as quickly as I dared, not wanting to leave anything out but also wanting to finish before any of the Elemental Officials arrived to conduct their own interrogation.
“So, you promised to get Hades the helm by the first of December?” Beth checked.
“Seriously?” I said, completely surprised. “After all of that, that is your first question? Nothing about Kari or how we might have been wrong about her this whole time? Hell, Beth, I would have thought that you might have asked me about the Italian food before you asked me that.”
“Yeah, me too, but I think you have a small problem,” Beth said as she bit the inside of her cheek. “The first of December is tomorrow.”
“Holy shit!” I shouted.
There was a chorus of hushes as my voice carried beyond the confines of the room. I looked around at everyone with my eyes as big as saucers. I thought they were going to pop out of my head.
“I can’t have been asleep for that long,” I said in disbelief. “Do I really only have until midnight to get the helm to him?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Jade winced.
“I have to get out of here,” I said urgently as I whipped the blanket off my legs and moved to get out of the hospital bed. As if they were a hive mind, everyone rushed forward to usher me back into bed.
“I swear to the gods if you get out of this bed, I will kill you myself,” Daniella threatened.
“Cameron, you’re not strong enough yet,” Jade warned.
“Are you crazy?” Isabella exclaimed.
“He has to go,” Arges said, his deep voice shushing everyone else. All the humans turned to look at the cyclops, the room falling silent as we did so. “He made a bargain with Hades. As much as we don’t want him to, he needs to go. It would be unwise to break a deal with the lord of the dead.”
“Arges is right,” Hailey agreed. “It would be way worse for you to back out now or not follow through on your end of the bargain.”
“Okay, then it’s agreed,” I asked the room, even though I wasn’t really asking their permission. “I’m going.”
“Do you even have the helm?” Jade wondered.
“They brought it in with his possessions,” Daniella claimed. She crossed over to a cabinet by the monitors and opened the drawer. She pulled out a white bag and out tumbled out my black clothes, boots, and the Helm of Invisibility.
“But wait,” I said suddenly. “That’s only the prototype. I haven’t done anything to make it magical yet.”
“That’s not your responsibility,” Arges announced. “It is up to Hades to do that.”
“Wait, so that lazy ass just wanted me to make him an ordinary helmet?” I asked the cyclops. “I don’t have to do anything special to it?”
Arges shook his head. “We didn’t do anything to the trident or the lightning bolt either. We just equipped the gods with the tools needed.”
I closed my eyes and tried to tame my mounting frustration. “Okay, okay, that’s fine. I’ll just go down there, hand him the helm, and get Sarah and get out of there.” I turned to my sister. “Are you ready to go?”
“Wait,” Daniella interrupted. “You’re going now?”
“I don’t exactly have time to wait,” I countered.
“But the Elemental Officials are on their way,” Daniella protested, pointing towards the door. “What am I supposed to tell them?”
“Tell them it was a false alarm, or that I need to sleep or something,” I waved off her concern. “You’ll figure something out.”
“They won’t believe me,” Daniella argued. “They never do.”
“But they will believe me,” Beth said, stepping forward. “And Arges has almost the same status as a god in their eyes. They’ll respect his word too.”
“I will watch over you as I have since I took you under my charge,” Arges said with a nod.
“I’m going to watch over you too,” Hailey said. Slowly she pushed herself up out of her chair. “When we head down to the Underworld.”
“I’m sorry,” I gasped. “We?”
“Yes, we,” Hailey said confidently. “If you think I’m letting you go down there alone again, you’re crazy.”
“He won’t be alone,” Katlynn assured her.
“But you can’t physically be with him,” Hailey argued. “You have to hide in the locket.”
“But he’s not alone,” Katlynn emphasized. “And plus, I can only take one person down to the Underworld. It just won’t work with two.”
“Come on, Hailey,” I pleaded. “I can do this. I did it before, what’s different this time?”
“This time,” Hailey said as she took a step closer to my hospital bed,“you don’t have to be alone. This time, we’re saying that we believe you, and we’re sorry that we didn’t before. Let me, no, let us help you.”
She took my hand in hers and rubbed her thumb across my palm, sending goosebumps up my arms. I turned my head so I could see the rest of the people in this room. Jade looked at me with a clear, “I told you so” expression. Beth had tears in her eyes and nodded vigorously. Bella had a soft smile on her face. Daniella looked rather unhappy but stood loyal by my side. And Arges guarded the door to my hospital room with pride.
“This is a tender moment and all,” Katlynn interrupted, shattering the entire pleasant feeling. “But that still doesn’t erase the fact that we have no way to get two of you down to the Underworld without killing you both. So unless you feel like dying today, Cameron’s going to have to go it alone.”
“Actually,” Daniella said, her dismayed expression expanding into something enlightened, almost boarding on excited. “I actually might have a way to get you both to the Underworld.”
“Really?” Katlynn turned on the healer, hands on her hips. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”
“Exactly as you said,” Daniella said as an evil genius grin spread across her face. “We’re going to kill them.”
27
“Okay, you need to go over it one more time,” Beth requested, still not understanding the whole process.
“Seriously, Beth?” I complained. “Do you just have a problem with hearing plans the first time? Why do you want to go over things again and again?”
“Plus you’re not the one she’s killing, so why do you need to hear it again?” Hailey added with her own confused look at our girlfriend.
“Because this whole thing is rather insane!” Beth countered dramatically. “And I want to make sure you actually hear what you are planning to do.”
Daniella rolled her eyes but complied with her girlfriend’s request as she hooked Hailey and me up to a different IV drip. We laid on the hospital bed next to one another, pressed together like sardines. Though I didn’t mind being this close to her, normally it would have comforted me, the thought of what we were about to do made it impossible for even the nicest things to calm my nerves. The helm was pressed between the two of us, each of us having a hand on it so that it seemed like it was being buried with us. That way,
the helm could travel with us to the Underworld.
“We’re going to give Hailey and Cameron drops of nightshade, which will put them in a deep sleep that mimics death,” Daniella explained. “It will allow them to be quote unquote dead for an hour. Once the effects wear off, they will be alive again and be able to leave the Underworld.”
“As long as you don’t eat or drink anything while you’re there,” Jade reminded us as she stuck a finger in the air.
“We know,” I assured her. Hailey squeezed my hand to remind me not to be so harsh. Everyone in the room was nervous.
“Katlynn will be their guide, being in Cameron’s locket. You, Bella and Arges will guard the room from the Elemental Officials,” Daniella recounted the plan. “While Jade and I monitor their vitals and make sure they are, well, still living.”
“I still hate this idea,” Beth pointed. Khryseos and Argyreos whimpered in agreement. “See? Even the dogs agree with me.”
“They hate anything that could put me in danger,” I reasoned with Beth. “But this is going to be okay. We’re going to be okay,” I said to my girlfriend as much as I did to myself.
Even though nightshade could put us in a deep sleep, too much of it could easily kill us for real. I always said I trusted my friends with my life. Now that was really being put to the test.
“Are you ready?” Daniella asked the pair of us.
Hailey and I looked at each other and gave simultaneous nods.
“Okay,” Daniella said as she looked up at Jade, who held Hailey’s syringe in her hand while Daniella held mine. “On the count of three. One. Two.”
I closed my eyes and squeezed Hailey’s hand one last time before Daniella's voice called out, “Three.”
I took two more deep breaths, and then a wave of exhaustion overtook me. It felt as though my muscles were going to sleep, one by one. I lost all of the sensation in my body, to the point where I couldn’t feel Hailey's hand in my own anymore.
Unlike the time I “died” with Katlynn, this time was a lot more peaceful and a lot less painful. I floated on a cloud. It bobbed and weaved, as gentle as a lullaby, as it carried me onward to my destination. There was a stillness in my mind that had never been there before. It was as though I couldn’t conjure a single thought. Everything was darkness and emptiness.
