Deathless (Editing)

Chapter 34: Of Gods and Monsters

I was not as afraid as I should have been, staring into the abyss of the cavern. Maybe I had never been afraid of the dark. I knew in the end that it would bend. Lord Death was my consort, after all.

Confidence, or perhaps arrogance, forced me forward. I drew my short sword the moment I past the first pair of green torches. The blade's light, shining with the intensity of a thousand stars, cut the darkness, peeling the Shade back, like servants clearing the corridor at the sight of their master.

My own monster flared, filling me with unbridled, brutal confidence. This place, I knew it. I had walked these tunnels. I had survived the small and large fears that slept in these dark places. The sensation building in my chest and humming in my bones was a knowing one, even though I did not actually remember any of this place. It was a heady déjà vu.

In the distance, there was a groaning hiss; its sound echoed through the cavern tunnels, before morphing into a chorus of growls. With the sound amplifying every step I took, I knew I was moving closer, but, upon reaching a large chamber of the cavern, I realized that this was an easy place to lose one's self. I stopped, holding my sword up, letting the blade light my way.

As I moved into the center of the chamber, I found two spoking tunnels. The paths were at a 90-degree angle from one another. And, with the creature's rattling growl diminishing in the distance, I could not quite triangulate where it was by sound alone. So, I waited for its next hiss, groan, or roar to signal where the beast may be waiting.

When I was equidistant between the two paths, I heard a low, reverberating growl. It was the kind of noise you felt in your bones, that sparked a primal urge to run. Whatever creature made that sound surely wanted to eat you. It was hungry and inhuman, almost reptilian in its cold intonations.

From the opposite end was the sound of a thousand women wailing. I might have ignored it, had I not felt immediately drawn to the wailing tunnel. My stomach churned. Horror laced my blood; blood that rushed through me, blotting out all sound except for the wailing. There was no resisting, even as I much as I wanted to. I was leashed to their anguish, and they reeled me closer.

Entering the tunnel, the first thing I noticed was the glistening ebony rock that surrounded me. The ceiling hung low, and the walls were narrow and tilting toward me, making the area even more confining. Yet, despite the cramped space and the wailing, I did not feel endangered. To the contrary, I felt almost at ease as I continued forward.

On my ninth step, the slick black stone of the cavern pulled away to reveal a hallway of mirrors. In every direction, my reflection seemingly replicated, until I was infinite. My skin appeared waxy and blanched of its color from fatigue and stress. My hair in a long, deep red braid. My dress, brown with blood-red hems, like I was fresh from a kill.

Moving closer to one of the mirrors, I placed my hand against the glass. It burned to the touch, but I did not pull back. I couldn't. It yanked me closer. I tensed, bracing against its force, but, the more I sank into the mirror, the more my body relaxed, until I had fallen through to the other side.

The other side of the mirror wasn't much different. While there were no mirrors, my reflection continued infinitely replicating in all directions, as if by magic. I glanced around the chamber to see if my eyes had played a trick on me.

"How can this be?" I whispered, turning to find that the chamber had become infinite as well, as if I was standing at the bottom of the ocean. Taking a few steps forward, I watched as my reflections shifted and followed me, in perfect rows.

When I stopped, I caught a flash of disunity. I paused, eyes scanning each row, taking in each reflection one by one.

Turning, I continued to stare, until all of the reflections shifted, each becoming a different woman. Some of the women were pale, some dark, some were dripping with expensive silks, others in tatters. All were young.