Changing the Future

Chapter 85

I'd seen more souls than the average person in my lifetime. God knows the number of hours I've spent in the Underworld and the countless oddball jobs I've completed in Punishment and Asphodel.

I met Hazel while she was still in Asphodel, and who knows how many hours we sat there under a poplar tree, exchanging stories.

I've traversed the Styx in Charon's boat numerous times, helping guide souls to the afterlife if they got lost along the banks.

I've fought souls who came back to cause harm and chaos, banishing them to the worst parts of Punishment or Tartarus based on their crimes.

None of those experiences adequately prepared me for this.

Maybe I should've brought Psyche with me.

If it wasn't for the fact that I'd brought myself into Nico's mindscape, I'd have no idea what was going on. Everything looked like it had gotten thrown in a blender without the lid. Puddles of memories laid on the ground, overlapping each other, turning the edges to static. The sky had turned into Swiss cheese, massive black gaps punching out the faces of those in the memories.

My eyes burned if I stared at one memory for too long.

Voices leaked out of the memories, quietly at first, rapidly reaching a crescendo that left my ears ringing. The black and white images now blazed in fluorescent colors, utterly blinding. Under the sensory assault, the ground rhythmically pounded in what I recognized as Morse code after the third cycle.

Dot, dot, dot. Dash, dash, dash. Dot, dot, dot.

SOS.

"I'm here!" I shouted into the void. "Let me help!"

"A-A-A?" asked a disembodied voice.

"Yes! Yes, Nico, it's Andy!"

The colors and noise ebbed, dialing down from a twelve to a much more manageable four.

"Andy! Andy!"

It was Nico's voice but not at the same time. There was someone else speaking, too. It sounded deeper, older.

Refusing to get my hopes up, I lifted the winged sneaker charm into the air.

"Reveal yourselves," I whispered.

A moment of pure darkness, as if the universe had blinked out of existence.

Then brilliant light brought me to my knees.

The charm scalded my palm, bringing my flesh to boil. I held on for all I was worth. Nothing short of death would keep me from completing my mission. Even that wouldn't be enough to stop me.

It felt like eternity.

It felt like nothingness.

It felt...

I made no move to stand. Exhaustion ran deep into my bones. My muscles trembled. Everything hurt.

There was no more of me left to give.

Slowly, my arm lowered to my side. The charm clattered onto the ground, perfectly intact despite having gone supernova.

I glanced at my hand expecting a mangled mess and a sneaker branded into my flesh. Instead, my palm was as smooth and scarless as ever, only tinged the slightest hint of pink.

The feeling of a set of hands on my shoulders had me pushing through any exhaustion, hunting knives in hand in a matter of nanoseconds. Hunting knives which were then immediately tossed aside as I threw myself at the people connected to those hands.