Another Love, Another Woe || Wednesday Addams & Enid Sinclair

It Doesn't Get More Disgusting Than Trufern

Their canoe spun out and slowly came to a stop as they reached the second layer of hell. Ajax covered his mouth with his hand, the spinning making him a bit nauseous. "I'm gonna be sick," he mumbled.

"Me too," Enid said covering her mouth and nose. But for her it was a different reason. The stench of rot and pollution filtered through the air, and with her enhanced sense of smell, it was about a hundred times worse to her than the others. But she still looked around with the others.

The sky was a cloudy dull green, constantly brewing with rain, sleet, hail, and lightning storms. The thunder rang out over head, and the slamming of rain and hail hitting wet ground echoed out. The ground was an endless bog of vile pollution and disease riddled swampland with dead trees. They could hear screams that kept getting cut short and it sent a chill down all but one of their spines.

Their boat was currently stopped where the Acheron river merged into the swampland. Wednesday stood up and stepped onto the gross land, ground squelching beneath her. She looked to the left where ten miles away stood the black walls to the demon city, the palace of Edall The Ravenous against the north eastern edge. It was black and green with lots of spires, and according to the book, the river Styx circled it and became a river behind just like the Acheron. That was their way down to the third level.

She turned to the others still in the canoe. "We'll need to walk to the city and get to the palace again. And we're going to have to carry the boat."

"Why?" Ajax asked as he got out.

"Because we'll need it to go down the next waterfall."

"Plus it'll be good cover if we have to cross this storming swamp," Bianca added as she got out too. The storm in question was just ten feet away from them.

Enid was digging through her backpack for something to plug her nose. She ended up going with some tissue and then finally got out of the boat. "Ew," she whined as her shoes touched the mucky ground. "It can't get more disgusting than this, can it?"

Wednesday thought about the other circles and what the book described. "Disgusting? No, I don't think so. Now come on, let's lift the boat and get moving."

They worked together to grab and lift the canoe over their heads, Enid doing most of the work thanks to her enhanced strength. Then they began walking toward the city walls in the distance. The ground squelched beneath their feet and the rain and hail pounded loudly onto the canoe, making it hard to hear anything around them. Only by yelling could they hear each other. The canoe protected them from getting wet, but as they walked it felt heavier and heavier, making their arms ache to hold it up. And it didn't help that it was getting harder to walk through the swamp, the ground giving way beneath them like mud. Enid whined about her shoes being ruined, but at least they weren't her favorite ones.

"Can we please take a break!" Ajax shouted over the constant storm in the very back of the canoe line.

"And stop where!" Bianca asked. All around them was just the disgusting swampland. There wasn't anywhere they could sit and rest.

"But we've been trudging through this place for like an hour!"

"And we still have seven miles to go!" Wednesday informed. "So suck it up and keep moving!"

Ajax whined but stayed silent and did as Wednesday said. He managed to last another hour before he felt like he couldn't move his legs anymore. His right had sank into some of the muck, and as he forced his body to pull it back up, he felt a hand wrap around his ankle. "Ahh!" He immediately screamed at the contact. He tried to pull his foot up, but he couldn't.

Enid glanced back at him along with the others as they stopped walking. "What is it!"

"Something's got my leg!" He kept trying to pull it up, making his left foot begin to sink deeper.