The Dead Are Living And Beautiful

Chapter One: The Sky Is Falling

It was a normal day for Lethe and I, we decided to skip out on cliff jumping with the other floaters to have a more peaceful day; we were having a picnic and skipping rocks on one of the few pure streams in Elysium when the sky started to tremble. I grabbed the worn, wicker picnic basket with one hand, and grabbed Lethe's with the other; we panted as we doged rocks falling from the glitching clouds above our heads, proof of the simulation of Elysium. Lethe and I made it safely into the grove with only a few minor cuts and bruises, nothing a two minute healing couldn't fix. We found the old rusty sewer drain and I let go of Lethe's still shaking hand to knock three times. I could hear someone coming up the ladder accompanied by the sounds of clinking tools on a belt; the drain cover rotated and two grimy hands popped the metal disc out of its weathered base.
"Hey Connor," greeted the dirt crusted face of the boy in the sewer, "Oh!" He continued, almost loosing his footing on the ladder. "Sup Le, nice day isn't it?" He stammered as he eyed Lethe behind me. She rolled her dark eyes and nudged me aside. "Geo we have a code red, is anyone else here yet?" Geo's usual smile faltered, "Yeah, everyone 'cept for Vix," he huffed, shifting from one leg to the other on the rusty ladder. "Everyone else was hanging out by the Phleg and Sebby said that he hadn't seen her all day." Lethe looked back to make sure I was still behind her, I wasn't. I was already sprinting to the nursery, darting between tree stumps and fallen logs; I could hear Lethe's boots pounding on the ground far behind me but I didn't stop to let her catch up. It wasn't until I escaped the thick canopy of trees that I stopped outside of the gleaming greenhouse covered in vines of deep greens and light yellows and flowers in colors that I had never seen, even in life; It stood out among the bleak background of the underworld.
I opened the frosted glass door to see Vix on her knees, cradling a crying child and the goddess Persephone at her side, sprouting various flowers from her open palms to entertain the little one, all hide trying to console Vix herself. I'd seen the goddess Persephone a few times before when visiting Vix at the nursery, but every time I couldn't help but find myself gawking at her reverential beauty. She wore one of her simpler togas, tan with gold hems and stitched embellishments of various flowers. Her usual flowing, chocolate brown locks were braided into a circlet upon her head with some loose braids that reached her lower back. She noticed me standing in the doorway and I bowed from the waist, she acknowledged me with a kind, but worried tilt of her chin and I walked to Vix, who was now cross legged on the cobblestone floor of the nursery. Vix looked up at me with a tear streaming down her cheek, I wiped it away and lifted my hands to her eye level; "what-is-wrong?" I signed, brushing a strand of her sage green hair behind her reddened ear. She shifted the baby with whisper-like cries to one arm, took a shaky breath and signed, "He-is-like-me." "Whisper-like cries" I thought, I then realized that Persephone had stopped her flower show to copy the last sign that Vix had made by pointing her index finger to her chest, "me." "What did she say Connor?" Lady Persephone asked, worried for her young apprentice. "This baby is deaf," I smile, "just like her." The goddess was relieved that her apprentice and the newest addition to the nursery are not in danger. As this wave of relief passes through us, a sharp tremor shakes the Underworld, causing some small succulents to fall from their glass shelves. The goddess and I exchanged a worried glance as I hold Vix's arm to assure her that she's safe. "I must go to my husband," breathed the goddess, "it seems that another soul is being ripped from their paradise." She adjusted a loose braid that I didn't think needed fixing, "You two will be safe here for the time being, I keep a shield over the nursery." "That would've been nice to know before I ran here thinking Vixy was under a Boulder, surrounded by shattered glass," I thought, but didn't dare say. I stood to bow as the goddess vaporized, leaving a single rose and the faint scent of fresh soil; she also left a very confused Lethe in the doorway. "I FELL INTO A DITCH, AND SLAMMED INTO A TREE," she shouted, even Vix got the message. "I'm really sorry Le-Le, I was-" "Don't Le-Le me Connor, I could have died!" We stopped as the silence in the room grew as thick as The Styx, before we erupted into laughter. Side aching, head spinning laughter; because all of us are dead, every blessed one, it may seem strange but through many nights of tears and yearning for what we lost when we left Earth, we've grown to love our new home as floaters in The Underworld.