When someone blacks out, they lose consciousness temporarily before returning back in a disgruntled and groggy state. It is important to add that there are also several types of blackouts: sleep deprived blackouts; heatwave blackouts; PTSD blackouts; hypoxic blackouts; and even alcoholic blackouts.
In the case of an alcoholic blackout, the first few seconds before a blackout features the blockage of the transfer of electrical signals from the short-term to the long-term memory.
Whereas a sleep-deprived blackout is caused by the build up of stress and fatigue. These type of blackouts are often caused by vasovagal episodes whereby the affected person has a drastic drop in blood pressure, slowing the heart and therefore inhibiting the transfer of oxygen to the brain.
Heatwave blackouts are the penultimate result of extreme dehydration and a lack of haemoglobin flow to the hippocampus.
PTSD blackouts are when the affected person may have flashbacks to a previous time in their life that would have mentally scarred them for a long period of time.
And a hypoxic blackouts are caused by the lack of oxygen when underwater. It is often caused by breath holding or hyperventilation (rapid breathing) before going under the water.
However Thalia, had none of these symptoms. Her blackouts were different from the rest - it was one that would eventually lead her to choose between life or death. She jolted upwards out of her trance. Head throbbing furiously, she spluttered out blood from her mouth. Where was she? Her head was on fire. The sound of a million warning sirens all went off inside her head - she felt like she would explode any second. Wait, they were in the bus before. 'Oh no, where is Ophelia?!' Her eyes darting across her surroundings but it was taking time for them to adjust. 'Fucking hell, what the fuck is this?' She started to get up but soon faceplanted into the ground. Her stomach was burning and she desperately clutched it, trying to close the wound again. By now, a small pool of blood had formed on her side. 'Wow, this is great. Really great,' she remarked.
Thalia scraped the ground hoping to find any clues; it was a dark crystalline colour, embedded with pitch black rocks. She was on unknown terrain. She cautiously took a sniff, and all of a sudden a pungent odour had overwhelmed her. It smelt like rotting carcasses, whatever that smelt like. Curling up her nose, she crawled around the floor trying to make progress, but it seemed futile. She was in a crevassed dome-shaped opening, with exits at both sides. The good thing was that there were exits, but the bad thing was which one did she have to go through? She chose the one on her left and started the 100 metre trip on all fours. She was just glad no one saw her like this. Halfway through, Thalia had started to regret her decision but there was no going back. She could sense a familiar presence, but she didn't want to encounter weirdos anymore.
The closer she got to it, the more clearer she could see it. A long, winding stretch of water had started to materialize before the exit, as if egging her to follow it. It was luminescent blue, eerily illuminating the cavern walls. Thalia wasn't sure if she was hallucinating but she crept closer to the river, awe struck by its beauty. Vaguely humanoid puffs of gas swirled on the surface- she was definitely hallucinating. The surface of the water sparkled like dew, reflecting dazzling lights across the ceiling of the dome: she squinted her eyes and saw what appeared to be, an expansive drawing spanning the whole length, like Michelangelo's artwork taken directly from the Sistine Chapel. She was intrigued by the depictions of humans; some were drawn lining up in front of a massive gate, and others were frolicking in vast fields of golden crop - the two were completely the opposite. However, in the corner, there was a man playing a lyre, sitting on the side of small dinghy. Standing at the front of the dinghy was a tall skeletal figure, cloaked in black, rowing the dinghy towards a shrouded opening. Thalia felt a shiver race up her spine - the image looked weirdly familiar. Where had she seen it before? A distant memory had clicked to her mind, she stuttered, 'tha-that's Orpheus!'
In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a legendary poet and musician, famous for crossing the underworld in order to bring back his lover, Eurydice from the dead. He sang so mournfully, he had moved Kharon the ferryman (the cloaked skeletal figure) and had even managed to move Hades, the god of the underworld, with just his singing and his lyre. It was believed his lyre was gifted from his father Apollo, and being taught how to play it by Apollo himself, Orpheus was willing to use it to take the soul of his loved one back. After losing Eurydice to a venomous snake bite, he was so distraught that he journeyed through the land of the dead and finally after convincing Hades, he was allowed to have her back. However, there was one condition: he had to lead her out the darkness without looking back at her, until she reached the light. Orpheus was so overjoyed, that he hadn't paid full attention to the rule. Upon reaching the light of the human world, he turned backwards to embrace his wife. But she wasn't there. She was still in the darkness. Orpheus had failed a simple task, it was her who had to reach the light. Upon realising this, the poor man had quietly teared. His wife, smiling weakly at him, was soon consumed by the darkness. She was condemned to the underworld forever.
Thalia had learnt that from a school trip to a Greek museum. Instinctively, she glanced at the drawing of the River Styx and was horrified; it looked like the exact same river that waited in front of her. It couldn't be? She was at the border crossing of both worlds... Silent rustling sounds soon grew louder behind Thalia. She stopped dead in her tracks. A raspy breath filled the atmosphere and the temperature had plummeted to sub-zero.
she looked back-