Eurydice

11

Now walking for a whole two hours, I wondered when we'd finally see the earth again. The cave was closing in, the roof steeping down until it was a merely a jump away. I kept glancing at the ceiling to make sure it wasn't coming down.

"This is a good sign," Orpheus said, looking up. "The cave will grow smaller as we get to the entrance. We're almost there, Eurydice. Just a little longer."

I grinned broadly as I took another step, my heart jumping when a feeling washed over me. I stepped forward again, amazed at the sensation of being solid and having weight. I looked at my feet and found that my silver skin had a brown tinge to them, as if I had been walking through dye.

I no longer felt numb nor as light as air, and the chill of the cave took hold of me. I guessed that as I got closer to the land of the living, I was becoming more and more alive. Whole.

My sandals began to scuff against the floor, making the tiniest sound. Orpheus, thankfully, hadn't noticed, and kept walking.

Then the temperature rose, all signs of clamminess and cold now gone. A familiar heat flew to my cheeks and chest, toasting my heart and melting the frost of death off my lungs. I took my first breath since arriving at the Underworld, and I smiled again.

A golden, cheerful light waited for us at the end of the cave, making me blink. Orpheus now doubled his pace, and I hoisted my chiton up to my knees to keep up. Then my cheeks began to tingle, an odd chill clinging to them.

I gathered my skirt in one hand, and with the other I felt my face.

Tears were streaming from my eyes. I cried in silence as I looked at my tan arms and black hair, thinking that there was nothing better than having color and being alive. I could taste salt as my tears ran down and dripped into my grinning mouth.

I looked to Orpheus, and my eyes stung even more. We were merely two dozen paces away from leaving this place, twenty-four steps from being together.

I gripped my chiton as I followed Orpheus, who had begun to sing.

"Sunlight, ne're before
Have you shined this way for me.
Sunlight, you make
Diamonds green with envy
With radiant beauty
As Apollo rides on."

His perfect voice bounced off the smooth cave walls, making the tunnel seem to hum. Gooseflesh raced up my arms, and Orpheus had a spring in his step as he continued his song.

"Sunlight, ne'er before
Have I smiled this way,
A flame in my chest
As I see the new day
And we leave the dead to rest."

A bird chirped. It called out to us, cheering as we came ever closer to the entrance. I could see trees and grass, and they had never seemed so green before. It was as if Demeter had cut each blade and leaf out of pure emerald, Apollo's chariot in the sky making them sparkle.

It's beautiful, I wanted to say. Instead I hurried on, transfixed by the scene outside.

Orpheus stopped.

I froze before I could bump into him, and I stared at the back of his head. He breathed in small, sputtering gusts of air, then exhaled long and slow. Orpheus' feet twitched, and I watched open-mouthed as one of them began to turn my way.

No. I waited, heart racing. No! We've come too far! Don't turn around, please!

My lower lip quivered as his other foot began to twist around, his hands shaking.

"We're so close," he whispered. He didn't move, and I was sure he could hear my heart pounding against my rib cage, struggling to leap out. He was not a fool. Orpheus wouldn't dare turn around. Yet my legs went numb just the same.

Then he pulled himself back to the entrance, and I sighed, light-headed. My mind buzzed as Orpheus took the five last steps, his sandals settling into the grass and the sunlight burning a halo over his dark mane.

"We made it." Orpheus said, eyes locked on the sky. His words rang in my ears, loud and somehow brighter than the sun.

My cheeks hurt from smiling as I stepped forward, the heat of the day making me blush. My husband stood tall in the middle of the forest, his skin less gray and his hands no longer trembling. I stared at him as I came to the entrance, a new kind of happiness and relief trickling into my bones and pooling in my stomach.

But I didn't see the small, unimportant stone in my path. I barely even felt the pebble as I knocked it aside, and I certainly didn't hear the whisper it made against the cave floor. But Orpheus did.

I had no time to react when he whirled around at the clatter, his brown eyes wide. I smiled instinctively, then my insides turned to ice.

I was still one step away from the entrance. Orpheus gasped as he rushed to me, reaching for my arms. But I felt my heart freeze in place, dead again, as his hands went through me, my limbs like gray smoke.

"Euryd-"

He melted away. I watched, numb, as his eyes and narrow face dissolved into a dark cloud that swallowed me whole, swirling with colors of obsidian and death. It choked out the sunlight and emerald forest, and I heard myself scream as a familiar scent rushed into my nose, solid ground appearing under my feet, soft things brushing against my arms.

I blinked the smoke away, and held back a sob when I found Asphodel flowers on all sides, threatening to close in and choke me. Their smell made me gag, yet my frozen lungs wouldn't let me breathe, my eyes forbidding me to cry.

I was back in the meadows, alone, dead, and a whole world away from Orpheus.