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Waking up, I could hear voices around me, yet I still saw nothing.
I was shackled and my skin felt hot.
"I don't think she would do it though." I heard as the voices became louder.
"You can never tell. After all she is a human." A lighter, more aggressive voice said.
"She's just a stand-in, why not bring in the real Charon?" The lighter voice continued.
"I won't bring him till he has lived his punishment." The first voice said.
"Now let's see what to do with our guest." He said
Suddenly my sight was brought back to me.
I looked around and saw two people in front of me, although they didn't look like people.
The man had a long beard and eyes that seemed to change colors between coal black and red flames.
He seemed lax but it was clear that he was a warrior as he held his staff firmly and kept his shoulders high. He wore an armour that looked extremely flexible and soft like cotton one minute and hard and dangerous like wrought iron the next minute.
The woman was extremely beautiful, with a thin waist, nice backside and voluptuous breasts about to spill out of the hem of her lovely gown. It was a flowing gown with the edges constantly being burned and sewn, giving up a look of her walking around with a trail of fire flowing behind her.
The man walked towards me and appeared to sit in the air in front.
Immediately a chair of fire appeared and as the fire burnt out it was replaced with a chair of iron skulls.
"Daughter of Charon, don't think that because your father worked for me for millennia that I would go easy on you."
He raised his hand and I floated along with it.
"Where is the soul? I wouldn't accept any falsehoods." He said with a voice that seemed to echo and vibrate through my skin.
I opened my mouth but I couldn't, it felt as though I was in a burning pit, smoke and flames clouded my eyes and all I could do was groan.
"Your aura is killing her Hades." The woman said.
"She can still answer. Charon's Spawn would NOT be this weak."
The smoke clouding my eyes came from within, I could feel it in my chest and see it leaving my open mouth.
It felt as though my soul was burning, not just my lungs and heart which also felt scorched, regardless I knew that if I didn't answer the question I would burn from inside out.
So I drew in my breath and held it, trying to push the burning to the back of my mind.
With clenched teeth, I answered.
"I don't know." Watching little bursts of smoke come out with each word.
"Hmm" Hades said then lowered me to the ground.
Immediately I crumpled down with the chains, breathing hard and fast, my throat felt sore and blistered.
"I've gotten a note from my mother, Demeter, she said we shouldn't torture the demi god anymore. Hera demands it."
"You're mother and her sister can't do anything to me down here, Persephone, besides I haven't even begun to torture her."
I felt my chains pull me up to a kneeling position, my arms held up.
My chest hurt from the burns of the last question, every breath was a burden.
I looked forward and saw Hades sitting on his chair stroking his beard with Persephone at his side.
He leaned forward and the chain dragged me towards him.
"Now, let's try this again shall we?"
🔥
"Kill her?!" I shout in shock at Maalik's suggestion.
"How does killing her stop her body from turning black?" I ask again.
"There is something wrong with her soul that's in the underworld, the blackness and smoke is caused because the soul is taking strain." Maalik explained.
"Normally there's always a strain for bodies of humans who go into the underworld but it is rarely this serious. Usually just stiffness and aches, easy damages that the body can repair by itself but for cases like these.
If we don't sever the bond between body and soul, the body would be damaged beyond repair and the soul would have no place to return to."
I looked to Mary after Maalik stopped talking, taking a hold of her blackened hand, it felt like ice; hard and cold to the touch.
"Is there a chance that she'll survive without being killed?" I asked solemnly.
"The chances are looking very bleak." He answered back, eyes following the increase in area of places blackened.
"Okay, do it." I gave him permission.
Slowly, he put his hands over her eyes and muttered.
I watched as her chest slowly stopped moving and I knew she was gone, although she left almost 30 minutes ago.
"So how do we save her?" I asked after dealing with the initial tremor of watching your wife die by the hand of an otherworldly being in front of you.
"We have to save her soul, meaning we have to go through the gate." He said, making symbols in the air above Mary's body.
Suddenly I saw the body morph to that of Maalik, replicating his clothes and even the dirt on the clothes.
The body didn't move though, she just stayed lifeless and when I looked at him in surprise of the incomplete disguise he simply shrugged.
"Only one being can create life."
We prepped the body up against the wall and then he put up another smaller protective barrier over it.
I looked at the door now closed, wondering what it's like on the other side.
"Stop it." I saw Maalik holding my outreached arm that was just about touching the door handle.
"I-I-I-I'm sorry." I apologized, taking my hand from his grip and tripping as I stepped back.
"The door always tempts mortals into opening it. The void of death always seems way better than the hell of this world." He put his palm to the door and it vanished into the brick wall.
"Which is better? That I do not know..
but if I were to choose I'd prefer to be alive in this hell, at least in life there is hope."
I was left speechless after he had finished his speech.
Even more speechless when he took his bag and walked towards me, his beggar guise changing into that of a respectable man.
"Come now, we need to hurry to save your wife." He says to me.
I stand up from the floor and follow him out of the alley. "Don't we need to follow the door to get to the underworld?" I finally ask.
"What? No... We don't want to leave another body behind, we need a way for you to enter the underworld as a mortal. Hence we need to follow the Trish Route, but first, we need to get some coins."
🌊
I woke up to the slow rocking of my jail cell and a strong urge to pee.
The burning sensation that made me blackout had reduced to just a mild irritation at the back of my throat now and I could talk and think again.
I first looked at my surroundings, there was really nothing to look at as I was in a box of maybe 8 feet each side with a small window.
I looked down and saw a small morsel of food and a glass of water.
The water was pitch black, a kind of clear black that can only be gotten from one River.
Suddenly the rocking made sense and I could hear the one sound that could drive anyone mad, the wails and cries of the lost souls in the River Styx.
