Designed by Death

by Melody Rose

  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. Benji and Violet were there, holding on to one another, shaking with anticipation in order to talk to me. Zach was there as well, standing behind Benji, probably for moral support. To my utter surprise, my roommate Janet and her boyfriend Rick were there, which caused me to do a double take. Ansel sat in his own wheelchair, with some bruises and bumps on him, but he was smiling broadly at me. Mac the farmer was there too, clutching his hat in his hands, ringing it along the brim. At his 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.

  Darren 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, Darren hovered his hands over my body and had his eyes closed. I knew he was checking on my injuries in his magical healer way. The room stayed silent as they waited for the prognosis.

  Darren opened his 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, Violet and Janet jumped and proceeded to have a mini fight over who could give it to me. Violet 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,” Benji said.

  “I mean, you were basically in a coma,” Janet added.

  “You weren’t in a coma,” Darren whispered to me as he moved to the other side of my bed to check on the monitors.

  “Basically, we were worried,” Violet said, summing up everyone’s feelings.

  “Well, we’re glad you’re alive,” Janet said as she grabbed Rick’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.”

  Janet blew me an exaggerated kiss and yanked Rick 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 Janet to hustle along faster.

  “Well, that was… interesting,” I said, unable to think of another word.

  “Permission to approach?” Mac asked politely.

  I chuckled a bit at his request. “I’m not a judge, Mac, you can come forward.”

  “That was more of a question for the healer there,” the farmer gestured with his hat towards Darren.

  The son of Asclepius nodded his approval, and Mac took two giant steps towards the bed. He leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. “I’m glad to see you’re well and good,” he 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,” Mac assured me. “All is good now.” He put his hat on his head and gave me a nod. “Best be off now. Need to get back on the fields before the snow hits tonight.”

  Mac soon departed after a hug from Violet and a handshake from Ansel. Arges even gave the farmer a polite nod as he exited the room.

  “Cheyenne,” Zach said as he stepped forward. “I’m glad to see that you’re awake and doing well, but I’m supposed to report to the Olympic Officials when you wake up.”

  “Oh,” I said solemnly. “Man, they couldn’t even give me a minute.”

  “I’ll walk slow,” Zach said with a wink. He gave Benji a quick peck on the cheek and then also ventured out of the hospital room. That left my three best friends, my boyfriend, 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 managed to restrain themselves.

  “So,” Benji said, drawing out the word into two syllables. “How was Italy?”

  Violet promptly elbowed him in the ribs as Darren shot our friend a dirty look over the end of my hospital bed. I couldn’t help but giggle at their reactions.

  “We promised to wait,” Violet hissed.

  “It’s not like we have a lot of time before the officials get here,” Benji countered as he opened his 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 Ruby’s funeral.

  “Well yeah,” Benji 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 his hand. “We want the real story.”

  “The real story,” I repeated the words to myself. Then my eyes inadvertently flashed to Ansel, who sat silently in his chair. He pursed his lips at me knowingly but said nothing. I looked up at the cyclops who eyed me through the doorway, as though he read Ansel’s mind and agreed with him completely.

  It was an uncomfortable sensation. I knew I had to come clean to these three. 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 before they got up on all fours and started panting.

  “Oh, thank the gods,” I said as Ansel plucked the locket from Arges’s hand. “You can go ahead and open it, Ansel.”

  “You sure?” he checked.

  “I’m sure,” I said with a confident nod. “The story won’t make a lot of sense if we don’t include him.”

  “Why do I feel like we’re about to be in for a lot more than we bargained for?” Benji said in a stage whisper to Violet, who shushed him immediately.

  Ansel 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?” Benji 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. Erich… do you want to come out and meet all of my friends?”

  Seconds later, my ghostly half-brother stood in front of the rest of the group. Darren and Benji were completely shocked, the son of Demeter yanking at Violet’s arm and pointing wordlessly whereas Darren stood stock still, as though someone had blasted him with a freeze ray.

  “This is my brother, Erich,” I said to the boys.

  “Hello,” the ghost said with a cheeky wave.

  Benji spun on his heel to face me and released his hold on Violet so he could put his hand on his hips. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

  So I told them everything. I relayed everything I told Violet and Ansel 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 Ansel 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 Benji would have eaten it up to get all of those juicy and dirty details.

  When I finished with the explosion and how Esme 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 Olympic Off
icials arrived to conduct their own interrogation.

  “So, you promised to get Hades the helm by the first of December?” Benji checked.

  “Seriously?” I said, completely surprised. “After all of that, that is your first question? Nothing about Esme or how we might have been wrong about her this whole time? Hell, Benji, 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,” Benji said as he bit the inside of his 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,” Violet 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,” Darren threatened.

  “Cheyenne, you’re not strong enough yet,” Violet warned.

  “Are you crazy?” Benji exclaimed.

  “She 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. “She made a bargain with Hades. As much as we don’t want her to, she needs to go. It would be unwise to break a deal with the lord of the dead.”

  “Arges is right,” Ansel 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?” Violet wondered.

  “They brought it in with her possessions,” Darren claimed. He crossed over to a cabinet by the monitors and opened the drawer. He 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 Ruby and get out of there.” I turned to my brother. “You ready to go?”

  “Wait,” Darren interrupted. “You’re going now?”

  “I don’t exactly have time to wait,” I countered.

  “But the Olympic Officials are on their way,” Darren 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 his concern. “You’ll figure something out.”

  “They won’t believe me,” Darren argued. “They never do.”

  “But they will believe me,” Benji 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,” Ansel said. Slowly he pushed himself up out of his chair. “When we head down to the Underworld.”

  “I’m sorry,” I gasped. “We?”

  “Yes, we,” Ansel said confidently. “If you think I’m letting you go down there alone again, you’re crazy.”

  “She won’t be alone,” Erich assured him.

  “But you can’t physically be with her,” Ansel argued. “You have to hide in the locket.”

  “But she’s not alone,” Erich emphasized. “And plus, I can only take one person down to the Underworld. It just won’t work with two.”

  “Come on, Ansel,” I pleaded. “I can do this. I did it before, what’s different this time?”

  “This time,” Ansel said as he 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.”

  He took my hand in his and rubbed his 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. Violet looked at me with a clear, “I told you so” expression. Benji had tears in his eyes and nodded vigorously. Darren 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,” Erich 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, Cheyenne’s going to have to go it alone.”

  “Actually,” Darren said, his dismayed expression expanding into something enlightened, almost boarding on excited. “I actually might have a way to get you both to the Underworld.”

  “Really?” Erich turned on the healer, hands on his hips. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”

  “Exactly as you said,” Darren said as an evil genius grin spread across his face. “We’re going to kill them.”

  27

  “Okay, you need to go over it one more time,” Benji requested, still not understanding the whole process.

  “Seriously, Benji?” 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 he’s killing,” Ansel added with his own confused look at our friend.

  “Because this whole thing is rather insane!” Benji countered dramatically. “And I want to make sure you actually hear what you are planning to do.”

  Darren rolled his eyes but complied with his friend’s request as he hooked Ansel 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 him, 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 Ansel and Cheyenne drops of nightshade, which will put them in a deep sleep that mimics death,” Darren 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,” Violet reminded us as she stuck a finger in the air.

  “We know,” I assured her. Ansel squeezed my hand to remind me not to be so harsh. Everyone in the room was nervous.

  “Erich will be their guide, being in Cheyenne’s locket. You and Arges will guard the room from the Olympic Officials,” Darren recounted the plan. “While Violet and I monitor their vitals and make sure they are, well, still living.”

  “I still hate this idea,” Benji 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 Benji. “But this is going to be okay. We’re going to be okay,” I said to my friend 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?” Darren asked the pair of us.

  Ansel and I looked at each other and gave simultaneous nods.

  “Okay,” Darren said as he looked up at Violet, who held Ansel’s syringe in her hand while Darren held mine. “On the count of three. One. Two.”

  I closed my eyes and squeezed Ansel’s hand one last time before Darren'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 Ansel's hand in my own anymore.

  Unlike the time I “died” with Erich, 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.

  Feeling came back one nerve ending at a time. It crawled up from my pinky toe all the way up through my body. The lights in my brain fired up, like a slow computer booting up at years of sleep and gathering dust. I felt cold again, mainly against my back. It pricked at my spine until I was sufficiently annoyed. I needed to find out what was causing such discomfort.

  I opened my eyes.

  I knew I should have never doubted Darren’s incredible genius, but I would have been lying if I said I was one hundred percent that this was going to work. Sure enough, though, I found myself back on the inlet of rock in the Underworld. It looked the exact same, with its gray rock and flowing black river. It rushed alongside me, ink spilling from its container. I never thought I would be excited to see that terrible river, but it was a clear sign that we were exactly where we were supposed to be.