Hellscape

Chapter 14: The Wheel of Misfortune

    Walking along the red haze of Tartarus, a maniacal and ceaseless musical tune seems to follow them around. Every so often, when they wander close to the mountain that consumes most of the space, the jingle will intensify. But fearing that the faint sound is only in their heads, none of them speak of it.

    "Do we know where we're going or are we just wandering around aimlessly?" Lazarus asks from the back of the lot. Charon carries on, not responding or even flinching under his question. The hellhound trots close on his heels as Lazarus calls out again, "is there an exit we're looking for? Are we planning an escape at all?"

    "There is no exit," Melinoe says, turning around to face him. She shakes her head, looking around with a sigh, "and no one has ever escaped Tartarus."

    "That's not entirely true," Charon corrects, calling out over his shoulder.

    "Apollo did." Lazarus nods. "Sort of. If we can believe the stories, Zeus freed him."

    "You know-" Charon scoffs, walking closer to the mountains. He presses his ear to it, knocking and listening against the flat surface. He lifts his dark eyes and soot covered face to look at the boy, "for someone who can't remember anything about his life, you have a real knack for remembering stories."

    "They're all just in here," he says, tapping on his dusty forehead. He shrugs, "I don't know why."

    Charon raises his eyebrows — not completely buying that the human is telling the whole truth when it comes to his memory. Rolling his eyes as he goes back to listening against the mountainside, the hellhound at his feet barks and covers his ears with his paws before digging into the wall.

    "So, you think all of our Gods are just stories based on angels," Mel starts. Charon scowls at her, watching the tiny beast dig. "What do your stories say about Tartarus? Maybe you know a way out."

    "Well," Lazarus says, sitting down against the mountainside. "Apollo is meant to be here, watching over those that needed to be severely punished and isolated. Zeus needed his strongest and bravest son to be here and keep an eye on things. But he couldn't keep Apollo's mother away so he granted him permission to come and go as he pleased.
    I think Apollo is based on Uriel. Uriel is known as God's fiery sword and he presides over Tartarus, watching a select few. Apollo and Uriel have a lot in common actually — they can both come and go from the Underworld as they please, are mighty warriors, and are meant to be watchers." Lazarus looks above him, examining the sky. Lazarus bites his bottom lip, squinting as a chill runs over his skin, "in fact, I bet he's watching us right now."

    Melinoe follows Lazarus' gaze to the skies, blinking into the red glow but unable to see anything through the heavy clouds. Suddenly, the soft and hauntingly whimsical music breaks through, echoing around them and it's clear to each of them that the music is not just in their heads. Charon scoffs, "well, he's not going to be watching us for much longer. Check this out."

    Lazarus crawls towards the hole dug out of the mountainside and he peers into it. Mel and Charon bend over, spotting the hellhound sitting happily on the other side, wagging his tail in front of the yellowy overcast of Hellscape.

    "You've got to be kidding me," Lazarus sighs. "We have to go back — in there?"

    Mel drops down on her hands and knees, crawling past the human into the tunnel to join the hellhound on the other side. Lazarus lifts his gaze to Charon, beseechingly. With a wicked grin, the demon gestures into the tunnel after Melinoe.

    With all three of them free from Tartarus and standing inside the amusement park once again, Charon pats Lazarus on the back with a happy sigh. A cloud of bloody soot expels off of the boy and Charon laughs, "welcome back to Hellscape."