A/N: Book 13 starts after this series.
Cockroaches are disgusting. "Alright...this is the first challenge...facing a deep seated fear of yours. Climb into the hole to your left and wait." I looked at all of the disgusting cockroaches gearing up to be poured on me and I froze. "Are you backing out?" I looked back at the source of the voice. I saw nothing. "Don't bother looking for me. You can't see me." I looked at the hole. It was deep, dark, and dirty. I climbed in slowly, and shakily. "Brave move." the voice said. I curled up in a ball at the bottom and waited for the cockroach rain. Just when I thought it would never happen, it did. I felt all of their disgusting little legs on my skin...some of them crawled down my shirt and pants and I wanted to rip my own skin off. I'd scream if I wasn't certain that a family of them would make their home in my stomach. I stayed down underneath the pool of cockroaches for what felt like hours before being told that I had to crawl my way out of them while they grew more aggressive. Aggressive? I know the little fuckers hiss and bite, but I'd hardly venture to call them aggressive. I started clawing my way out of the pit, being bitten on my ears, hands, feet, and face. The more they bit, the faster I climbed. Eventually, they began to morph into something terrible. They grew sharp nails and teeth and started to tear at my flesh harder. I panicked a bit, and slipped back down to the bottom. I calmed myself and realized I had to stay calm in order to get out of the mess I was in. I carefully climbed the pit until I reached the top. I shook myself off, losing the cockroaches which eventually swarmed climbed into the pit, turning to ashes. "Well done. You can continue." "Gladly." I hissed, examining the bite marks I had acquired. I walked the terrain, feeling hot and tired in no time. This is what tired feels like? I fucking hate it. I came to a pool of water and decided to drink it. Bad choice, it tasted like sulfur. I stared at my reflection for awhile, wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Small ripples formed in the little pool and I could hear a thumping in the distance. I looked up to see a giant lazily walking around across some sort of river. Must be one of the monsters Osiris was talking about. So be it, they're easy enough to avoid. I hid and waited for it to walk on. I had a feeling I'd be facing him again soon. I came to a river...a long, winding river that was the color of oil. "Welcome to the River Styx, Arioch. If you want to back out, I'll give you a piece of property in front of it. Riverfront property is hard to come by here." I was silent. "No? Fine then. The River Styx marks the beginning of the underworld...and it divides the side of punishment from the side of rewards. You are still in the lobby. You have yet to enter the underworld...and you'll of course, be entering the side of punishment. Eternal suffering...eternal pain and torment...in order to get there you must cross the river. There are 3 ways: swim, climb, or use the guide." I saw the guide...and his boat. I wasn't willing to trust either. I looked up and saw the twisted branches of the trees...they sorta formed a half assed path across. I bit my lip. Choices, choices. I dipped a toe into the water of the river and immediately, specters and sprites leaped from beneath the surface, hissing and biting at me. The beasts from below attacked with them, doing the same. Decisions, decisions. "What's your deal?" I asked the guide. "I take the dead across the river....the others like me keep the damned from mingling with the rewarded ones." he replied in a cold, monotone voice. "What do I have to do for you?" I asked. "Trust me." I saw his fangs under his hood. "Take your hood off." I said. "It isn't the job of the dead to command me." he replied. "But I see no harm in removing my hood." He took it off and I studied him. A skeleton. Nice. I don't trust talking skeletons...especially if they have abnormally large fangs. "I'll find another way." I said. I climbed a tree and was surprised to find my hands and feet burning up. Toxic trees...didn't see that one coming. I released the trees and dove into the water. It was murky, ice cold, and dark. I could feel the hands, teeth and claws of monsters grabbing me and tearing at me. The pain was frankly, unfair, but I swam on. My lungs stung, and I remembered, that I could no longer breathe underwater. I made a beeline for the surface and barely made it in time. I took a deep breath and was dragged beneath the surface by a beautiful ghost. I stared at her and she stared at me right back. Suddenly, her face changed. She was a monstrosity, and she took a swipe at my chest, slicing it. I swam toward the banks, fighting against the current and the monsters. I clawed at the shores, dragging myself onto the small beach. The screaming and shrieking of the spirits behind me started to fade into the soft sound of flowing water. My adrenaline faded out and I calmed myself. I scurried away from the banks and ran for the forest. What appeared to be a regular forest quickly turned out to be the forest of doom or some shit. I fought some of the monsters, and the rest I ran from. I left quite a trail of blood from the last one. I pressed my hand against my wound and held it there until the bleeding slowed. A cold wind whipped through the trees and my body was wearing out on me for the night. I had to rest....I also had to eat. I was hungry to the point of nausea. I ran after small animals hoping to catch one, but they evaded me. Clearly they hadn't had their energy sources depleted like me. I decided to just build a shelter and look for some water. Water is more important than food according to humans. I dug a hole that resembled a shallow grave and searched the surrounding area for water. My eyes landed on a waterfall. I lapped up some water and surprisingly it didn't taste terrible. I drank as much as I could and washed my injuries before returning to my grave/bed. I watched small creatures skitter around and I desperately wished I was eating one. I shivered a bit, realizing that it was possible for me to freeze to death. I scooped some dirt on top of me, feeling the bugs crawl on my skin. I was too tired to look at what kind they were or what they were going to do. I fell asleep easily ready for the next day. I woke up to bright sunlight coming into my eyes. I shoveled the dirt off of me and got back to my feet. I scrambled through the forest and into a mountain range where I saw Abraxas. He was pushing a boulder up the side of a steep mountain. I watched him get to the top, and suddenly a beautiful being appeared at the top of the mountain and pushed the boulder back down. Abraxas tiredly walked all the way back to the bottom of the mountain and started pushing the boulder up again. He saw me hiding. "Arioch?" he said. I presented myself. "Help me." he said, extending a hand. Abraxas, desperate and asking for help? Is this a challenge? A trick? I looked at him. The desperation showed in his face. "I'm sorry for all I did." he said. "You were right, I was awful. I tortured so many for no reason. Me and Xibalba both. Please, help me." I stared at him. "Arioch..." I turned from him and walked on, ignoring his pleas for help. "Good move, Arioch. He would've harmed you. The guilty are never sorry enough." I fucking knew it was a test. I reached the top of the mountains and slipped and stumbled down the side into the valley. I came to a lake where I saw a woman who had her back turned to me as she bathed in the beautiful water. God she was hot. My lustful nature started coming out as soon as she turned and faced me. She was drop dead gorgeous. "Come and play with me and my friends." she sang in a voice as sweet as sugar. "Friends?" I asked. Two more women just like her rose up from the water, wringing out their long beautiful locks. Oh shit. They were naked, too. I waded through the shallow water toward them. I saw skulls and plenty of other bones beneath my feet, but at the moment I was sure they had nothing to do with it. "It's okay to touch me." the first one said. "I'd love it if you did." "Oh I can manage that." I replied, reaching out. As soon as my fingers touched her silky smooth arm, she and her cronies lunged at me, dragging me under the water. I fought them and broke free, coming to the surface choking and spitting out water. They followed me. "Come to Atlantis, Arioch." they purred. "Follow us down...it's beautiful there." I felt one of them pressed up against my back, grinding against me, and I wanted so badly to turn around and...do things. They started to sing songs...songs about me, them, and a bed somewhere under the surface. Every inch of my body tingled with desire, but I knew they'd kill me. I waded through the water stirring up bones until I couldn't hear their gorgeous voices anymore. I resisted the temptation to dive right back into the lake and try something...and believe me, it was just as hard as I was. Guess all those bones were others who tried to get to Atlantis with those broads. Poor fuckers. I know enough about this place to understand that if you die here, you're simply given a new body while your old one rots. There must've been a billion bones in that lake. I shuddered a bit. I pressed on reaching the other side of the valley. I dread the climb, but made it anyway. Upon reaching the top, I saw sand...nothing but sand below me. Great, the fucking desert. I hate heat. I slid down the mountains, picking up bumps and bruises along the way. I landed in the blazing hot sand and immediately jumped, wishing I was able to levitate. "How bad do you want to go home, Arioch? Can you run across the desert while you watch those you love suffer?" Those I love suffer? They're not here. Before I could think anything further, my mind was flooded with visions of all of my human friends, my parents, and my demon friends suffering. "The only way to make it stop is to give up, or run across the desert of broken dreams." I took off, sinking down in the sand which was burning every part of my body that touched it. I stumbled and fell several times, I dragged myself a time or two, I was desperate to get out of this place. I must've run for an hour before I finally felt the sand beneath my feet turn to grass, and the visions stopped. I swallowed my nausea. I don't have time to puke. I dragged myself into a cavern and curled up in a ball. Fuck mental trauma. I need to rest. I closed my eyes, but couldn't sleep for the life of me, so I picked my tired body up and searched for food. I found an already dead something or other that had barely begun to rot.I looked at it, and it looked back at me with its dead eyes. I made a face, but ate it anyway, somehow managing not to vomit. I wiped the blood off of my face and pursued water. I found an empty clay pot, but there was nothing in it. The sour taste of rotten flesh was hanging around the back of my throat, and I swallowed hard to keep it from coming any further. Fuck sleep, I had to keep going. I scurried through hillsides, not paying any attention to the stony old temples that sat atop them. I had to be getting close to the end of this maze. I came to the edge of a cliff and looked down into blackness. "Careful, Arioch. If you look into the abyss for too long, the abyss looks into you." I backed away from the edge. "This is your final chance to quit. Before you lies the Canyon of Lost Souls. You've made good progress...and that's good for you. Navigating the canyon will prove difficult. Your most difficult challenges lie within it...and getting into it is no easy task." I gathered that. It just dropped straight down. "You have to leap just right to hit the ledges. You can't see them." Well, that's just fucking great. "Good luck." "Fuck you." I muttered.
