Chapter TWELVE

With a jerk, I startled back to reality though it wasn’t much of an improvement on the images that had kept me prisoner within my own mind. I was too well trapped in there. It made me wonder what had managed to pull me from my own nightmares and to the reality that is Tartarus. I didn’t have to wonder for long.

A head popped into my vision startling me as the owner was hanging upside down so that her long dark tendrils of hair drifted in front of my face. I could handle the fact that she was swinging carelessly above me, if it wasn’t for the fact that the woman looked certifiably crazy and she was staring straight at me.

I winced as the manacles dug in tighter into my wrists and more blood dribbled down my arms leaving trails of crimson in my white flesh. I watched with a strange morbid fascination as the droplet trailed over the crusted brown lines where blood had made its path down my blanched skin. However I was quickly distracted when chains jangled and the head of the manic woman started to swing before my face.

“Who are you?” I managed to croak out through my parched throat. My features contorted into a frown as I tried to follow her to-ing and fro-ing before me. It made me feel slightly sick as I waited for her reply.

Dropping down before me, the brunette whipped her hair from her face and smiled at me with her surprisingly alert eyes. I had always assumed that crazy people were away with the fairies but this girl seemed to have a spark of intelligence within the depths of her eyes – familiar dark eyes.

“I am the mighty Star. And to you I am your lucky star.” She giggled childishly while she seemed to sway on her feet like she was caught in her very of tide of lunacy. I knew in an instant whom she was but how she came to be down here and acting like a complete nut job was beyond even my skills of deduction.

“You’re Lucius’ star?” I questioned even though I knew the answer. “Can you get a message to him for me?”

She stared at me for the longest time causing a chill to run the length of my spine, it didn’t help that my feet kept slipping and sliding in my own blood so the manacles would dug in deeper into my wrists. Taking in a shuddering breath I briefly allowed my eyes to close as I breathed myself through the pain.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself nose to nose to the crazy girl before, could feel her breath fanning across my face. And then like it was the most obvious answer of all, she muttered, “no.”

With wide eyes I wanted to protest, question why she wouldn’t help but the way her eyes looked into mine told me not to question the crazy girl. Instead I was ensnared by her strange eyes that reeled me in and held my attention so raptly that I barely felt it as her hands trailed from my waist, up my corseted curves, before skimming up the length of my arms. And then leaning forwards she planted her lips on mine … and kissed me.

Shock coursed through me at the mere fact that some woman, some demon, was kissing me but was relieved that it wasn’t anything passionate. Actually it was rather the opposite. If anything it was like it was mechanical, she was doing it because she had to? I felt confusion swirl within me as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on. She had kissed me for the longest time, not even moving to deepen it. But then I felt it, something edging into the back of my mind but I couldn’t explore it.

This new thing darkening the corner of my mind was foreign but hidden behind so many thick barriers that I couldn’t determine what was buried there. Somehow Star was doing something to me and I was completely powerless to stop it.

Pulling away Star grinned, her hands gently lowering my wrists down to my sides. She had undone the manacles and released me from their painful grasp.

“I do not need to pass on a message but you will pass one on for me. Tell him to stop looking for me. I am safe. You have everything locked within your mind – but only Lucius will know how to retrieve it.” She paused to waggle her eyebrows in that moment causing my heart to still at the implications. “I will show you the way out. Just tell Lucius that I love him and that we will see each other soon. It’s just better for people to think me dead.”

Shaking her head back and forth, the not-so-crazy crazy took my hand and tugged me along behind her as she started along the bloody paths.

“How am I supposed to tell Lucius you are okay but not tell him where you are?” I asked in desperation as we reached what looked to be a lift.

I gulped as I fully took in the structure, a vain attempt to push back the nausea that was welling within me. The lift itself was made out of bone, held together by a black solid metal that wrapped around each bone like death’s fist so that the damned would never again escape from its all-consuming clutches.

“Get in the lift. Talk to no one until you are back with Lucius, you won’t know who you can trust.”

 Drawing open the door of the skeletal elevator, the crazy brunette then placed both of her hands on my shoulders and smiled at me innocently before she shoved me. I stumbled a few steps before I could regain my balance but by then it was too late. Glancing down at my feet I saw that I was standing on someone’s bones and felt physically sick. If I didn’t have an empty stomach I probably would have been throwing up all over them.

As it was, the door clanked shut and Lucius’ crazy star smiled and waved at me like we were friends that were saying goodbye to each other for the first time. I was startled to even see a tear gleaming at the corner of her eye as the lift clanked and jarred as it started its ascent. So badly I wanted to console the strange woman and protect Lucius’ friend from harm – I guessed it was my maternal instinct.

But then she started to grin manically and giggle to herself as she skipped out of sight. Before I could even shake my head at the strangeness of it all, the lift sped its ascent until it came to a stomach lurching halt. Reluctantly, I pulled open the doors, cringing at the sound of bone grinding on its bone hinges before stepping out into the main corridor.

There were several people milling about but they walked like zombies. Curiosity got the best of me and I noted that each and every one of them had a glazed horror struck look about them which made me think that they were inmates rather than the hell wardens. But they were too lost in their nightmares to escape.

Taking unsteady steps, I noted a doorway down the other end of the room. There wasn’t any supervision in this area that I could see; the souls were left to simply destroy themselves. I hated it. It made me feel uneasy. There was the underlying urge to decapitate them in case they tried to bite or maim me. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t some zombie horror film. This was hell – if I decapitated them, their heads would probably grow right back.

I wandered on for what felt like an eternity. Again there was no sense of time passing only that the distance was slowly getting shorter between me and the doorway. And then I felt it, the sensation of the back of my neck telling me that someone was watching me. Giving up the pretence of being casual and trying to blend in, I full out ran to the doorway.

Footsteps sound behind me and I could hear dull thuds as comatose souls were forced to the ground in the wake of my pursuer. Terror ran through me as I heeded Star’s warning. Pushing myself faster and faster, I was running faster than I ever had in my life but the gap was closing – closing too quickly.

“Savannah, please wait!” A voice hollered behind me causing me to falter and collide with one of the zombie.

We fell to the ground hard and pain radiated through my exhausted body. I couldn’t even find the energy to get to my knees as the zombie man flailed beside me like a turtle on its back. I decided to mimic the zombie and rolled myself onto my back so that I could stare up at the billowing fires in the sky.

Footsteps slowed and came to a stop beside me so I allowed my glance to move up to meet the gaze of the looming figure. My heart thumped for a moment and then tears of relief poured from my eyes.

“Hey, no more tears now,” Hades soothed in a quiet voice as he crouched down beside me. After brushing back the hair from my face and taking in the full extent of my damaged body, his mouth set into a firm line, the redness of his lips blanching white under the pressure.

He glanced at me before tentatively placing one hand under my knee and wrapping the other behind my back, the large mountain of a man scooped me up into his arms and cradled me against his chest. “There’s a special little boy that wants his mother, so you hold in there Savannah. We will take care of you now.”

Unable to stop it, I felt my body relax into his hold and pure exhaustion, emotional and physical, called me into unconsciousness. I briefly wondered as it welcomed me into darkness, why my agreement with god didn’t give me any special powers to get me through these wearisome trials. The thought fled as soon as it came and I was soon plagued with horrific dreams of blood, murder and pure unrestrained torment.