Hers

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six

I stepped around the stalagmites and ducked under the stalactites that littered the entrance to Hell.  Drops hit the damp ground of the cave with a deafening plunk.  A few times I stumbled and caught myself with a shaky hand on the wall.  Every few minutes, the almost silence that surrounded me would be shattered by a scream or sobbing.  The smell of smoldering ash burned the back of my throat and made me want to gag.  But the worse part was the darkness.  It was everywhere I looked, interrupted only by the flames that danced somewhere in the distance.

I strained my ears, hoping to hear the rushing water that signaled the river of souls, but it was to no avail.  Instead of rushing water, I heard a cracking sound.

The cave morphed almost all at once and seemed not like a cave at all, instead, there was a large pit with people packed together in the middle of the hole.  The cracking sound vibrated against the walls, rocks fell from the ceiling, hitting a few of the people on the floor.  A long, spidery crack spread on the floor and crawled from one end of the pit to the other.  The people screamed and shoved one another in an attempt to crawl out of the nadir that contained them.

The crack spread, rock falling into a furnace.  Some trampled one another to get to a side with solid ground, but it became apparent that there was none to be found as body after body plummeted into the flames.  Soon, the entire floor of the pit was consumed by the fire and no one was left standing.

Then something strange happened.  It was as if someone had hit the reset button and the floor was restored, the people pulled from the flames.

I stared at the people below me, my heart pounding in my ears.

One hour.  My thoughts reminded me.

I stepped around the edge of the pit, squeezing my eyes shut as the cracking sound reverberated through me.  Screams erupted as the first few fell in again.

Find Ace.  Find Ace.  Find Ace.  I chanted mentally, hoping to block out everything else.

Just as the last person fell into the flames, I heard the sound of water crashing against rock.  The pit reset and the light from the fire was gone, but dimly- like a single candle a mile away- I saw a light shining from the turn of a stone.

I moved towards the light and found an opening in the wall that lead to the left.  I turned, leaving behind the pit and the screaming people as they fell once again into the flames below.  The light was bright and held a blue tint.  It pulsed and breathed so unlike the light from the fire that licked the pit behind me.

I turned again, feeling like I was a lab rat following cheese to the end of a maze.  The sound of water crashing became louder, deafening almost.

Finally, I entered from my maze.

The river of souls started off as a waterfall that could have easily been a hundred feet tall.  But the water glowed a pale blue and as I stepped closer, I saw that it wasn’t the water that glowed, there were circular orbs floating throughout the water that pulsed with life.