Warriors of Wisdom

Chapter Seventeen

I woke with a start, gasping for breath. When my eyes opened, I saw Hayden, Alex and Cecilia all looking at me with confused yet scared looks.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked. I looked at his arm to see if it was okay. The bandage was off, and I saw long stitches across his arm. Other then that, it seemed to be functioning alright, and maybe he could even fight today.

I nodded, still a little shook. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." I said between breaths. Alex and Cecilia went back to making breakfast, but Hayden walked over to me and sat down on my bed.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he questioned, concern in his voice.

I gave up trying to hide it. "No, I'm really not okay."

He seemed to understand. "What's up?"

I told him about my dream, the one with the lady in white and the river of souls. I told him about the mossy temple that I'd seen in previous dreams. I definitely did not tell him about the scene with Cecilia. That was something I needed to confront her about.

"And you're sure that this is where Asher is being kept?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure. Like, 99% sure."

"Well, it's always that 1% that gets you. Let's hope you're right." He smiled and beckoned for me to come join him, Alex and Cecilia.

"What were you two talking about?" Cecilia asked.

I shrugged. "Nothing." No one decided to push on the subject.

Cecilia stuffed her mouth with a pancake. "Alright, I know exactly where the Underworld is. Just follow my lead and we'll make it through safely." We finished up our breakfast, got ready, and made it out of the tent. When we were about to walk out of the woods, Cecilia stopped us.

"No need for that," she said. "Watch this." She raised her hands again. Instead of the Mist ripping up and revealing a new scene before our eyes, a massive black portal opened up right in front of us. "Some may say I have inherited my mother's talents." She smiled as she looked at our awestruck faces. "Come on!" And she stepped through the portal. I shrugged, knowing I'd have to walk through sooner or later.

...

I didn't expect a recording studio. We stepped out in front of an old, rotten smelling building. The letters DOA Recording Studios were barely visible since the paint faded away.

"Let's go in!" Cecilia said, dragging me in by the arm. Hayden and Alex walked through shortly after us.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Alex inquired. "The place seems a little, demolished."
   
Cecilia looked at Alex. "Oh, I'm sorry. Let's just walk through the nice field with pretty flowers and get to the Underworld. Of course this is a good idea!"
   
"Jeez," Alex mumbled.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Hayden commented.

"You and me both," I noted. But nonetheless, we followed Cecilia in. It was a gloomy place, with leather furniture and black everywhere. Translucent human figures floated around. Cecilia led us toward the front desk, where a man was standing there.

"Well, well, well," The man said smoothly. "If it isn't Hades' favorite undead visitor of the Underworld."
   
Cecilia straightened. "Hello, Charon. I'm here helping out a few of my friends on one of their missions. And if you know what's best for you, you'll let us in. Otherwise, you'll be hearing from my patron." The man, Charon, didn't argue. He lead us to the elevator at the other end of the room and told us to go in. We did as he said, ad he followed us into the elevator.

The elevator moved very strangely. I couldn't tell which way it was moving, because it made me nauseous and I had to lean on Hayden the entire ride so I didn't barf on accident. My eyes were closed until Alex nudged me and said, "Callisto, look." I slowly opened my eyes and realized that we were no longer in the elevator. We were on a long boat that was traveling down a ghostly white river filled with all sorts of trinkets and gadgets.