Remnant Of The Gods

Chapter 30

The pressure against my body was unimaginable, it felt as though I was being sucked through a straw. I managed to keep my grip on Demetrious as we fell, crying out in pain as the suction intensified then -nothing. We fell against the ground, rolling along the floor from the momentum of the fall and coming to a halt at the base of a gigantic rock formation that loomed above us.

Demetrious moved so slowly and deliberately I began to cower away from him well before the intense anger from his gaze reached me. He stood with his chest heaving from breath, stiff from the head down as the fire in his eyes focussed on me and me alone. We remained like that for a few moments before it occurred to me that he wasn't even speaking to me.

I knew then how angry he was. I was expecting to be called every greek foul name there was but his silence... His silence made me feel so alone.

"Demetrious," I said quietly, "I'm sorry Demetrious but I had to come." I held my hands out to him pleadingly.

His ears flicked when I spoke but otherwise he remained motionless, daring me to continue. There was still a small form in his mouth that had begun to writhe, distracting Demetrious from his glaring as he deliberated his actions. He stepped forward as I inched back and he grew a little in height. We moved like that until I backed into the rockface behind me and he placed a single paw on my chest, the weight crushing me and making my knees buckle, pinning me to the ground. Confused, I tried to get up, only to be pushed to the ground again. He was the size of a horse and I certainly wasn't going to try and fight him.

Backing away, Demetrious continued to glare, enforcing what he meant as it finally clicked.

Stay.

He wanted me to stay. I nodded my head to assure him that I understood and swung my legs around to sit with my legs crossed in front of me, relaxing. Raising an eyebrow I looked at Demetrious.

"I'll stay here, I promise. Go and take care of whatever it is you do - I won't move." He didn't move immediately causing me to sigh in exasperation. "I'm not stupid enough to go running around here without you, I'm not suicidal!"

The expression he had made me pull a face, "I chose to come here and I have no intention of staying," waving my hands in front of me for him to shoo, he stepped slowly away, bolting when the writhing thing in his mouth became too much.

When he was out of sight I could finally look around and inspect what every single human feared or at least feared for thier souls. Hades. Hell. Death. It was nothing like a fiery inferno filled with screams. Instead it seemed to be made of rock formations, much like the one I was backed into, that seemed to rise like mountains from the depths and there seemed to be no end to it. The mountains and formations stretched impossibly in all directions. It was certainly warm but nothing that set me skin alight.

I seemed to be situated in the middle of two mountain ranges as they cast their shadows over the top of me. The sky was relatively dark, though by the time my eyes had adjusted it was a dull red that reminded me of the northern lights that streaked through the clouds. In my amazement it was easy to forget what type of place I had actually landed myself into as I soaked in its beauty. Hades was indeed filled with beauty, deadly -for all intents and purposes- but beautiful.

I wondered at the impossibility of me even being here. I didn't think it would work, I thought Demetrious would have realised as soon as I had grabbed him what was going on. My eyes had closed the moment I had touched him so I would still follow his rules, ensuring no demons would latch only me but now?

I quickly scanned the area around me. Where were the demons? Why hadn't they all come out in droves to attack me like it seemed they had wanted to when I travelled with Demetrious before? That wasn't to say that I was not happy that there were no demons. If Demetrious had left me here (and no demons had appeared) then I suppose I was safe for now.

A few meters in front of me was a river that took my interest straight away. How could there be water here? I sighed. Everything that I thought I knew had to be thrown out the door when it came to anything in this new world I suppose. There was no logic for the existence of water in hell.

Driven by curiosity, I approached the river I cautiously dipped a finger into the liquid, drawing my hand back suddenly when it touched as the cool water touched me.

Laughing, I scooped my hand into the water and watched it trickle from my palm in amazement as the remaining drops beaded in my hand. The heat from the rocks was beginning to get to me so I slipped off my shoes and socks, hitching up my dirty jeans to dip my feel into the water. Smiling to myself, the feeling of relief flooded through me as my eyes closed in bliss.

Beneath my lids however, was the haunting face of Lysander as he watched me grab onto Demetrious. If he had put two and two together by now he would have assumed that I was now dead, leaving me feeling guilty for his involvement in the first place. Sitting back, I remembered the times we had together at the foster home, he would always be there and he still could be if I went back to live as a normal human.

The decision to leave my life behind to begin with was relatively easy as there was no longer anything to tie me down... But with Lysander I felt like there was a reason for me to go back home. There was now a reason to keep living like a human instead of chasing into the realms of fantasy as a being. Shaking my head I knew there was one thing I had to do before returning. Cleaning my mind of everything I tried just to live in the moment and enjoy the soft waves lapping at my calves, imagining I was at the beach.

"Alexis!"

Just as I had started to relax something charged into my side, hands pulled me from the water wrapped around my torso, squeezing the wind out of me. I screamed, looking up and behind me I saw the same fiery eyes I had grown accustomed to, only they were attached to a human nose, a human mouth and the body of a...human.