The Day Death Died

The Day Death Died - Chapter 26

The door creaked open, revealing a passage that led us away from the suffocating torment of the Fields of Punishment. As we stepped through, I felt a momentary sense of relief, but it was fleeting. The heavy, sulfurous air and the agonizing wails were replaced by something far more sinister—an unsettling stillness that hung in the air like a shroud. The transition was abrupt, as though we had crossed into an entirely different dimension, one where silence itself was oppressive.

The dimly lit corridor stretched out before us, its walls cold and smooth, composed of gray stone that seemed to drink in the scant light that fought to penetrate the darkness. The floor beneath our feet felt solid but unnervingly lifeless, as if it were absorbing more than just our footsteps—our presence, our very will. The faint echo of our steps bounced back at us, only to fade into nothingness moments later.

I glanced over at Edwin, who looked just as alert as ever, his gaze scanning the corridor with an unsettling calm. His features, usually unreadable, seemed even more guarded here.

"Yeah, I don't like this," I whispered, my voice almost lost in the oppressive silence. "This is really giving me an uncanny valley vibe. I want to get through here fast."

Edwin merely nodded, his grip tightening around the handle of his scythe, his eyes never leaving the path ahead. "Tread carefully. This is the Prison of the Damned," he said, his voice low but steady. "And trust me, Maddison, this place is no less dangerous than the Fields."

The corridor continued on, stretching endlessly before us. The silence was deafening, pressing in from all sides. The weight of this place was palpable, as though something unseen was watching us, waiting for us to falter.

Suddenly, the narrow corridor widened, opening into a vast cavern that took my breath away for all the wrong reasons. The Prison of the Damned lay sprawled before us, a labyrinth of endless cells and shadowy corridors, all twisting and curling into each other in a way that made it impossible to see where the maze ended or began. A chill ran down my spine as I took in the sight—every corner of this place seemed to seethe with a dark, malevolent energy.

"How big is Tartarus?" I muttered, my voice trembling.

"It isn't measured like the living realm," Edwin replied, his tone as detached as always, but there was a faint edge to it. "It bends. Expands when it needs to. Contracts when it wants."

"I think I seriously misunderstood the assignment," I said, feeling the weight of my situation settle over me once again.

Edwin gave me a sidelong glance. "Yeah, you probably did. But we're here now. This isn't a quick fix, Maddison. What you're trying to do has never been done, and the Keres have been left unchecked for millennia. This was always going to be hard."

I bit my lip, casting my gaze over the endless cells lining the walls. The prisoners inside weren't screaming like they had been in the Fields. Their silence was somehow worse. Gaunt, hollow figures huddled in the corners, their eyes vacant and lifeless, as though the hope of freedom or even an end to their torment had long since evaporated.

"What did these people do to end up here?" I asked, more to myself than to Edwin.

"These are the souls that Tartarus itself cannot contain in the Fields," he explained, his voice hardening. "The ones whose sins were so vile, so unspeakable, that this is the only place that can hold them. They are beyond redemption."

As we moved deeper into the labyrinth, I caught glimpses of the horrors the prisoners endured. Some were chained to the walls, their bodies twisted and deformed by their eternal punishment. Others were suspended in mid-air, trapped in cages that seemed to press in from all sides. Still others were crushed beneath enormous weights, their moans of agony barely audible over the oppressive silence of the prison. Every cell held a different nightmare.