Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future

The murky water laps up and almost touches the soles of my shoes. The dark gray stones of the shore are wet witha thick gelatinous coating, making them slippery under my feet. I shuffle back slightly to avoid letting its poison get too close. One drop could kill me.

The landscape is dead and soft at the edges. There is no bright white here, there is no pure black either. Just a world composed of shades of gray. Purgatory.

I assumed it would be awful here, that it would be full of pain and suffering, but it’s actually still and peaceful. I close my eyes for a moment and let the silence engulf me. Finding my way here has taken me halfway across a world! never knew existed. Now that I've witnessed what purgatory is like, I'm pretty sure it would satisfy me to exist with its blank, empty feeling. It’s better than the darkness that has taken over. It is a comforting contrast to the Mavri Magea apartment. Trying to reforge a cursed blade and block out the pitiful whining of my sisters locked in their rooms has been exhausting.

Fabricating the blade has not only consumed every waking moment. It has also filled the nightmares during my rare periods of sleep for the last three days.

“Don't get comfortable here, Kas,” Lex warns, “There is still a lot of work to do. Losing yourself in this place is dangerous.”

“Just a fantasy, I suppose,” I sigh at her,

"It doesn't really matter, Lex. I'm already lost. I can feel it in my soul.”

“We've still got this. Just hang in there,” she comforts me. '

I look out at the water and watch the souls trapped under the glasslike surface. They try to rise, but cannot break the surface and sink again. Their beautiful, sallow skin reminds me of what my own has become. The eyes of the dead are clouded over with a fuzzy pale gray coating, which makes me wonder if they know what they are trying to escape from.

What if they're better off here and they just don't realize it? How pathetic were the lives they must have lived to be stuck here for eternity? Not allowed into the underworld, not allowed into the kingdom of the dead. Would I suffer the same fate at the end of my spirit’s journey? Would I finally feel relief in a place like this or will my suffering continue?

I don’t know how long I've been standing here. It may be five minutes. It may be five years. Time doesn’t seem to matter when you stand on the shore of the River Styx. The only thing that matters is that my meeting is successful.

I try to look out past the fog, but it is like thin layers of gauzy fabric. Each layer on its own is thin, but stacked against each other, unpenetrable. I wrap the thick black cloak closer to my body and pull the hood down to hide my eyes when the bow of a boat cutting silently through the dark water full of lost souls becomes visible.

There’s no noise when the boat runs ashore. A bearded man with a limp and a brimless hat climbs off the boat using a flimsy plank of wood and stands on the shore. His gravely voice interrupts the comforting silence, “Do you need passage to the underworld?”

“Yes. Are you Charon?” I ask calmly. I have read too many stories of evil spirits trying to escape the underworld to trust he is who he says he is.

“It is one name I go by. Do you have payment for the ferryman?” He asks in a gruff voice, holding out his hand.

I pull two golden coins out of my pocket and lay them in his hand. He wraps his fingers around them and rubs them with his thumb until they disappear into his skin. There is a soft glow, showing he has accepted my payment. He looks up and gives me a creepy smile, “A deity? A child of the Olympians?”

what I am. I pause, then nod my head without

he walks up a plank onto the boat and holds his hand

while he prepares to launch from the shore. I keep as still as possible as we make our way across the endless river. Screams and cries from the underworld get louder as we glide across the water. Jagged stone

of souls trying to grab at the boat makes my lip curl in disgust. The Spirits I was just jealous of for being able to live in

Kas,” Lex hums quietly in my mind, “We need her help.

at

white hair contrasted by his solid black eyes and permanent sneer give away his identity. Hades and his three- headed dog, Cerberus,

bows and holds his hand out to help me off the boat. I hesitate,

off it, lokaste,” he rolls his eyes in frustration, “You're not getting to Melinoé’s part of this realm without me and my dear brother insists I need to help

my hood back and let him see my face, “I am grateful

isn’t it?” He says, sounding annoyed, “It isn’t her given name.

press my arm closer to my chest, securing

Call me Hades,” he says, waving

a maze of twists and turns for miles until I'm hopelessly lost in among obsidian stone mountains. He is quiet for some time, but eventually stops and turns

he sneers, looking down his nose at

feel my eyes shift back and forth, finding it difficult

with the Manae, but it effects all

more energy for what I plan to attempt,” I lower

my brother's energy," his sneer

going to need unprecedented amounts of power. What I have taken so

are you willing to follow, Iokaste?” he

go home to my pack after this is all said and done, Hades. I can’t do

looks at me with what I assume is compassion

hand, then

have collected. You're going to need as much dark energy as possible, so

him willingly release his dark, angry energy for me. I close my eyes and take a deep, satisfying breath as it fills me and calms my spirit. When I open

give him a small smile,