~Death~
It's been a while since I last took a tour around Purgatory. It was different than just a hospital or a police station, which are natural nexuses to the afterlife. It was much more than that.
It looked so similar to Earth that I never really bothered to do pay much attention.
I also didn't have enough much time; too busy being Death, reaping souls left and right. I wanted to get my mind off of him. I don't know who he is yet, but he resonates stronger with each memory. Sometimes, I'd remember his wavy, black hair while I play with it; his calming presence and smile that kills any of my doubts to death; his ever mysterious persona and adventurous goals.
He was the love of my life, I think, yet I do not remember his name nor what he looks like.
"Death." Alex's hand held on to my shoulders, looking through me with his dark brown eyes. "Are you OK?"
"Yes." I kept my gaze on the beauty on the reflection of the sky on the river. "I'm just thinking of something."
"Charon's calling us to her cabin." He puts his hands on the wooden railings. "But let's stay here for a while. This looks so real."
I looked at him. He looked so calm and in control, knowing well that he might not have a chance for him to go back, while he scanned the horizon.
"It's hard to believe that we're sailing on the road while in a ship manned with skeletons." sarcasm with a tad of awe detected. "All while I'm on a hospital bed in a coma. I know you'll get me back."
He's still full of hope after everything, after what he's all that he's been through today. How does he do it?
The sun seem to glimmer in his eyes, reflecting every bit of light that bounces off of his eyes.
"Hey, how is this possible?" he stared at me, expecting me to answer. "I mean, it looks like a river but every once in a while I'll see it turn back into a road."
"Oh." Ok, Death. Time to unload the things that you've learned since day one of reaping; roughly three hundred years of experience. "Well, the mortal plane "Earth", Purgatory, Heaven, and Hell all exist in different planes of existence, but they are all connected, constantly colliding against each other."
"Hm? How?" He crosses his right arm and puts his left elbow on the back of his right palm, raising it up and rubbing his chin with his fingers.
"Think of it as two walls that constantly crashes and phases through the other, temporarily establishing a connection between the worlds. Every time we phase through each other, part of our reality enters yours."
"So are nexuses different?" Compelling thought, considering he's just been exposed to this kind of reality.
"Well, yes. Nexuses are fixed point in reality that have a strong connection to Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven." I expounded.
"Is that why we can see ethereal beings like ghost, angels, and demons?"
"Yes." behind us was Charon, now dressed in a rather stylish greek chiton. "Did I not ask you to meet me in my cabin?"
"Right. Sorry." Alex apologized. We followed Charon to her cabin.
I've been sending souls to the Flying Dutchman but I've never really step foot in it, let alone step inside the captain's cabin.
"What the -" Alex looked dumbfounded; his jaw dropped as his eyes glanced around the room. I had to put my palms under his chin to close it.
"It's so big." I looked around the room. "How is it even-"
"Possible?" Charon continued my question.
"Magic, dear." She turned her head to my direction. "Anything is possible with magic, specially if you've been alive for thousands of years."
Charon's room was well-lit and looked indescribably beautiful, unimaginable; beyond normal boundaries. Simply put, it is a room fit for a queen. It was humongous; almost bigger than the ship itself.
The walls and ceiling of the room was still made of wood, mahogany, but this time lined with mysterious golden runes that glimmer. On the ceiling was four chandeliers (yes, it needed four chandeliers to light the room up) with six arms that looked like it's made of solid gold, decorated with diamond glasses and candles with blue flames at the end of each arm. At the bottom of all chandeliers was a ball which also emanated blue light.
Around the room was all sorts of objects. Near the back of the room is an assortment of neatly stacked weapons ranging from range weapons like bows and crossbows to melee weapons like swords and axes. To the left is a golden frame royal bed with lavish design, and white silk sheets and pillows. Closest to us, to the right, is a pile of gold coins.
Alex knelt down and picked up a couple of them. It was like how I remember them, old offerings of the dead. One coin has a face of an woman facing the left on one side and an eagle surrounded by what looked like Egyptian writing on the other. The other coin has a face of a middle-aged man with a laurel facing the right on one side and a leopard surrounded by roman writing o the other.
"This is an Egyptian drachma." I grabbed the coin with the old man from Alex's hands. "This one looks like a roman denarius."
"They are." Charon looked at us. Well, not looked. She had her eyes covered after all. "They were offerings of the dead in ancient times. They thought I wouldn't let them aboard if they didn't have any."
"You DIDN'T let them aboard if they didn't have any." Loki said, raising his an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Well, we all had that kind of harsh nature before." she proceeded to walk once more. "Keep those, soul. I have no use for them anymore."
So he did and he slipped them in his pockets.
We stopped at the center of the room. At the center was a large, rectangular table made of cedar, lined with gold ancient hieroglyphics, and small obsidian orbs going from the top to the bottom of its legs. A map was laid flat on top of the table as well as silver wine cups and a few bottles of wine.
Michael and Loki were already on the table talking about Atlantis and analyzing the map. Alex and I stayed on one side of the table where Michael was while Charon moved to Loki's side opposite to ours.
"We have a lot of ground to cover if we want to get to Atlantis." Charon touched the map and it lit up, projected itself out like a hologram. "First, we have to go to the floating isles of Kroy Wen, and talk to Apollo and Thoth to bless his soul." She pointed at Alex. "I won't go around the world with an unblessed soul. Second, are we going to pick up the rest of the council?"
"Some." Loki mentioned. "I already sent word through reaper shades. Hades and Thanatos are waiting by the port of the floating isles."
"Great." She turned her gaze to Michael. "And the pillars?"
"They're on the way." He spoke. A wisp of light was hovering by his ears before shooting out the room.
"What was that?" Alex whispered.
"Those are angel sprites; angel's messenger. Kinda like our reaper shades." He tilted his head at me as of he looked even more confused. "Uhm, they're messengers for reapers like me."
"We might encounter some trouble along the way," Michael exclaimed, pointing at the Atlantic ocean. "specially with a soul on board. Soul hunters might go after us."
"This is the Flying Dutchman." She stood tall and proud, crossed her arms. "We ALWAYS come prepared."
"Alright." Loki took a sip of wine from his wine glass. "Any questions?"
Alex looked like he wanted to ask something but can't make the words out.
"No doubt you have a lot of questions, Soul." Charon tilted her head.
"A whole lot of questions" He added. "For one; Why are we going to Atlantis?"
"It is an ancient place, a place unlike any other. It predates that of any nexus; a direct gate to both heaven and hell." Michael explains as he zooms to a place in the shape of an eye on the map somewhere in the area of the Sahara desert of Mauritania, Africa.
"Exactly. It is a direct power source for our powers; life and death." Loki into my eyes with his emerald iris. "Though, it is still the very same revered city that it was on the mortal plane. A counter part to the once great city of King Atlas."
"OK, then." Michael put his hand on my shoulders. "Let's set sail for the floating isles."
We exited the captain's chambers and back to the main deck.
"Ah, we're just in time." Charon walked faster towards the comparably small pair of doors of this behemoth-sized room.
It was dusk; the horizon looks breathtaking, slowly being engulfed by darkness with moonlight coming from the rising moon. The river captured the beauty of the moon and the Flying Dutchman's elegant, Victorian design. Its crew, hustling and shuffling about, ignoring the scenery as they have scene it a thousand times.
"We're about to enter the duat, the underworld, the land of the dead." Charon walked to the left and up the stairs to the helm. She looked forth, her gaze locked to the front of the ship. And with her breath, she uttered the words; "Purgatory."
As the glimmer of the sun dissipated, everything was now engulfed in pure darkness. It was as if I have lost all my senses, not just my sight; I couldn't see, hear, or smell. The only thing I could feel was Alex' grip on my hands, getting tighter as the seconds past.
After a few moments, ever so slowly, a light seemed to approach us from afar, as if we were in a dark tunnel. I was starting to see again; though not that much. Everything seems to be the same but felt different.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Maya held my right shoulder, her grip didn't feel bony. Instead it felt more like a human hand.
I turned to my left and saw a not-so-dead Maya. She was no longer made of bones! She had whole human package; Flesh, muscles, organs, everything a human body should have!
"Maya, you're-" Alex muttered, looking at her from head to toe.
"Not a walking skeleton with hair and an eye?" She raised her eyebrows. She laughed at us who looked at her strange. Really, what the hell? I've been Death for three hundred years. You think maybe I should've seen everything by now.
"Well, yeah." he played with her hair and pinched her shoulder with disbelief.
She laughed and tapped his shoulder then pinches his cheeks. "I am very much real, Alex."
"How in heaven's name?" His mind is now starting to see more that he can't understand.
"Our existence is deeply rooted with purgatory. Every time that we leave it we revert back to the images our old decaying bodies in the mortal plane." She waived her hand in front of Alex and made snaps with her finger to prove the flesh on her bones.
"That's just weird." He around him and there he saw that every single crew member was now made of flesh and bones with fixed naval uniforms.
Alex and I walked from the helm to the bow. We took in the amazing view, looking at every minute detail.
"This is so weird." His gaze switch around; left and right, up and down. "This is the mirror version of New York?"
"Yes. To us it's called The floating isles of Kroy Wen." I pointed towards a part of the horizon where little lights glimmered like stars. "That one, over there, is Manhattan, the floating isles itself."
"Crayon?" He asked, associating a word he knew with how it's pronounced.
"The 'w' is silent." I laughed and he laughed with me.
"Wait, I thought we were already in Purgatory?" Even more confused-Alex-face time.
"You were, technically." Landing in the small spot behind us was a man in a trench coat that was darker than black, Vanta, crimson shirt, and slacks. On his back were broad, black wings that was nine meters long (I measured it). "But not in the entire underworld, just part of it. You were near part of the mortal plane that was permanently connected with the underworld."
"Thanatos!" I hugged him. He was taller than me. The top my head barely grazed his chin.
"Whoa there, Death!" He laughed as I snuggled his chest. He patted the top of my head like a dog. "I missed you, too."
"I thought you were waiting by the docks of Kroy Wen?" I pulled myself away from him and looked up, literally.
"I got bored. Besides, I had wings. I could just go here." He stretched his wings and he folded them behind him. As they folded, they seem to disappear through the holes of his trench coat.
"Where's Hades?" I asked.
"He said he had some business to take care off, but will be there by the time we get to the docks."
"What kind of business?" Loki suddenly appeared behind Thanatos.
"Well, hello to you too, Loki." He put his arm around Loki's neck. "Anyway, the reaping kind. Some poor, fat, rich bastard died from choking a gold coin that got mixed in the food he was eating."
"You sure he's not just keeping himself bu-" Loki was cut off by blowing horns from the main top.
"Captain Charon!" Shouted by a man on the main top. "We have company!"
From a distance were three ships similar to the Flying Dutchman except they were black, and looked more damaged and battle scared. By the main mast was a flag that waved in the air. It was a black flag with pirates signature; a white skull with crossbones.
Did I mention that the ships were on fire?
"I see you have a soul on board, Charon!" A man shouted from the center frigate.
Charon approached the starboard bow whispered, "Go below deck, hide yourselves 'til I tell you otherwise."
I sensed wrath with a touch of anguish in Charon's grip. Almost like she had dreaded to see this day but wish for it anyway. "Go! Now!"
Alex and I ran until we reached the door that led below deck. Alex felt scared; shivering and anxious from the fiery ghost pirates. He did not know who these were, but I did.
They were Hunters, Soul Hunters, here to eat his soul.