The Brothers of Death and Sleep

Entering Hades castle.

 

 

 

                The enormous doors of Hades’ palace opened far easier than I had expected. Grayson and I stepped in, drenched from head to foot, sprinkling drops of water onto the black marble floor. The doors closed behind us with a whine and a muffled boom and instantly, everything went dead silent.

            We shook our heads violently, trying to get the bulk of the water out. The room we had stepped into was incredibly dim. Pillars lined the walls and behind them, roaring green fires glowed in fireplaces that sat a neat few feet apart from each other. The ceiling was cast in complete darkness making it impossible to tell how high up it went.

            “So,” I said. “This is Hades’ place huh?” My voice echoing down the large room and wherever this place led to.

            “Yeah,” Grayson whispered next to me. “Just keep your voice down . . . please?”

            I nodded quickly, then proceeded deeper into the dimly lit room. Green fire glanced about my hot face as I walked past the large, ornate fireplaces, Grayson trudging hesitantly behind me.

            Every once in awhile I heard a noise that sounded like a whimper or a short gasp, but other than that, it felt like the two of us were alone in this haunted place. The entranceway ended to a large black staircase that separated at the far wall into two smaller staircases that stretched off east and west. The staircases were illuminated by a series of green-fire torches that followed them up to their respective ends.

            “Phenomenal,” I whispered.

            “You wanna flip a coin or something?” said Grayson, standing next to me.

            “No, I’ll go right.”

            “Wait, we’re splitting up . . . Are you freaking kidding me?” Grayson asked, his voice rising slightly. “You know what? Fine, but next time, I’m coming up with the plan.” With that, he marched up the black marble stairway, mumbling incoherently under his breath.

            I watched him go until his feet disappeared behind the outcropping in the ceiling. I sighed and walked up the main staircase, only to turn right and proceed up the stairway that led to the eastern wing of the building.

            I entered through a black doorway at the end of the staircase into a large, circular room. In this room, a massive chandelier hung. It contained thousands of tiny candles, each glowing with their own flickering green ember. The room opened out into a large hallway eerily illuminated with the same sort of light.

            Walking down this hallway, I rubbed my arms nervously. It was cold in the hallway, despite the large heat source.

            At the end, another black door, one of the largest I’ve ever seen. It was thrown in green light that was cast aside as I pushed it open with a grunt of effort. I stumbled into pitch blackness as the door closed behind me. Immediately, I felt a strange fog come over my senses, making it hard to think clearly.

             What is this place? I thought, walking forward with my hands out in front of me, waiting for a wall or some sign that I had reached the other side of the room. The wall came a few moments later. My hands came into contact with it, and I could feel it was cold and made of intricate stone work. I felt along it, hoping to come to a doorway next, but I felt nothing in the darkness other than that wall.

            The further I moved into the room, the more something became noticeable; a large green light that hovered about halfway between the floor and the ceiling. I left the safety of the wall to move towards the new light.

            Soon, I could make out the dark silhouette of a large mass beneath the light. I crept closer, trying to stay as quiet as possible. The silhouette shifted slightly, whatever it was, it was alive.

            “Who enters?” The creature asked as I froze in my tracks.

            “Umm, Nicolas--”

            “Why are you here?”

            “I want to speak to Hades,” I said, standing up. The need for secrecy was over.

            “No, you may not.” The creature stood up. At first it looked like a normal boy, but then large black wings unfurled from its back. They stretched to full length, spanning thirty feet in both directions.

            “I cannot see you,” The creature said. “Come closer.”

            Ignoring the numerous red lights that began going off in my head, I approached the winged boy. “Who are you?” I asked him.

            The boy didn’t respond. He instead removed a large sword from a sheath around his waist. The boy wore almost no clothing, revealing a mass of toned muscles.

            “Kneel.” The boy commanded. My legs gave out beneath me, and fell to the floor in a bowed position. What’s happening to me? I thought, trying to force my body move. Suddenly I felt the cold tinge of steel on my bare neck. I looked up to see the winged boy with his sword in hand, ready to bring it down upon my neck.

            There it was, poised, deadly, and a few inches from sending me back to the fields.

            “Wait brother!” The voice rang through the room loudly. “Look at his face.”

            The winged boy lowered his sword and looked down at me. “Yes brother, he is quite good looking, but Lord Hades’ orders were very clear.”

            “Brother, you know as well as I do that Hades is not in his right mind, and has not been for a very long time.”

            The winged boy groaned in frustration. “Yes brother, I do know. It has been rather disturbing for many in the underworld. However, no matter the state of Lord Hades’ mind, orders are orders.”

            Suddenly, I was laying spread-eagle on the floor of a room lit brightly with green fire. I stood up and looked around. There, a few feet from me, two creatures argued. One was the winged boy I had seen before, the sword still attached to his waist. The other however, had a pair of wings that jutted out from the top of his head. The wings shifted colors from white to black and had a sort of entrancing effect on my mind. Both boys had the same mop of black hair, deeply tanned skin, sharp bone structures and strong body builds.

            “Brother Thánatos, please understand,” said the one with wings on top of his head.

            “I do not need your lectures brother Hypnos. Lord Hades’ word is law, I implore you, do not question it,” said the other child with wings on his back. “You’re simply angry because no more flowers grow in the fields.”

            I noticed the dream-like qualities of their voices had disappeared.

            “It is not just the flowers, brother!” Hypnos yelled. “The whole of the underworld has been in turmoil since that snake Chiron took over . . . how I hate that man . . .”

            “But"”

            “Tell me you have not noticed this, Thánatos!”

            “I have brother. It would be a lie to say that it hasn’t thrown me deeply into indecision. But what can we do? We have little power in the kingdom of the dead.”

            “Umm, I’m sorry,” I cut in. “What’s going on?”

            “You, boy,” said Thánatos, turning to me. “Lord Hades’ intends for us to capture you. Why is this?”

            Hypnos turned to me as well, cocking an eyebrow expectantly.

            “Because,” I began to stutter, “because I escaped the games.” I didn’t know what sort of impact this would have on the brothers. For all I knew, it was a death sentence. I wasnt exactly sure what emotion I was supposed to be feeling either.

            “I thought as much,” Hypnos said, putting a hand to a small scruff of hair beneath his chin; a feature both boys shared. “My brother, Thánatos and I have heard of these games. Competitions between the dead over immortality . . . It’s terrible.”

            “It’s disgusting,” agreed Thánatos. “I am what the humans call death; the physical embodiment of the end of life. This,” Thánatos said, gesturing to Hypnos. “Is my twin brother.”

            Hypnos grunted as if he was preparing for a speech he had given numerous times. “I am sleep,” said Hypnos. “The weary knives that prod at your mind.”

            “So . . . what’re you doing here?” I asked.

            “We used to walk the world of the living,” started Hypnos.

            “But recently, Hades has gone into what you humans would call a ‘funk’,” finished Thánatos.  “And now we guard him.” The two said in unison.

            The two reminded me of Kale and Fin . . . which gave me an idea.

            “What if I could help you?” I said, preparing the same speech I had given Hermes. “My friend and I are trying to get rid of the games for good. Do you think you could help us?”

            “Hmm,” mumbled Hypnos, spreading his wings slightly. “We would like to help, for the games are truly a disgrace to our Lords Kingdom . . . but"”

            “But we have nearly no power in this place. We would be useless against the Lord, or Chiron,” said Thánatos, his dark feathers ruffling themselves up.

            “Then could you do me a favor?” I asked humbly.

            “If your request is within our power, then we shall consider it,” said Thánatos.

            “Indeed,” agreed Hypnos.

             “good,” I said.

            I told the twins that Fin had gone to Colorado, and that I needed them to bring him back. At first they seemed astonished that someone would so recklessly journey to the world of the living. They explained that often times when the dead venture to world of the living without a means of coming back, the dead would be trapped and living would believe it a poltergeist. However, when I told them that he had a twin brother who had been killed in the games, they were appalled.

            “This deed cannot go unpunished!” Thánatos had yelled, moving closer to his brother. They agreed to find Fin and bring him back to wherever Grayson and I were. Then they vanished into the green flames above, and I was left alone in the room. A door resided on the opposite side of the room from me. It was tough to open, but I managed to crack it far enough for me to slip through.

            Another hallway lay beyond. I stalked past the rows of green torchlight towards the final door on the far side. It was an agonizing walk.

            This door was massive. I stood before it, looking upwards trying not to get nauseous at the sheer height of it. I moved to push it open, only to find that there was nothing there. The door was made up of a thick cloud of black smoke that my hands fell though and I stumbled forward into Hades’ chamber.

            “Well, well, well, look who’s here.”

            My blood turned to ice and my heart began to beat like an African drum. I looked up to see Hades; a large man who sat in a massive throne of assorted bones. The room was circular and surrounded by fireplaces from which emerald fire roared. The worst thing about the room however, was the pale man with slicked back white hair, wearing a black suit and carrying an equally black cane.

            “Chiron . . . what"”

            “What am I doing here, you ask?” Chiron said in his icy voice. “Well, let’s just say I’m watching over a rather important investment.” He proceeded to pat Hades on the shoulder.

            Hades’ greasy black hair fell nearly to the floor, he wore a black robe that cocooned his body in silk, but the most disturbing thing of all was the eerily blank expression on his face. It was almost . . . pathetic, I thought.

            “What . . . What did you do to him?” I asked, my anger rising.

            “Don’t give me that look.” He said lightly. I continued to glare at him.

            “I said . . . don’t give me that damned look!” Chiron waved his arm in the air and my body was suddenly overcome by the familiar feeling of carrying the weight of a building on my back. I collapsed to the floor, uttering a sharp gasp. I could hardly hear Chiron's wordsover the extreme pounding in my ears and in my chest.

            “Since I’m a man who deserves recognition for his work, I’ll explain things so even your tiny brain can understand it,” Chiron began.

I couldn’t speak, my mouth felt like it was glued shut.

“I guess you could say that I was . . . unhappy with my situation as the ‘ferryman’. Insulted, tricked, mocked by the dead as well as the living. First it was that Orpheus, then it was Heracles. Big man here never let me live that one down,” Chiron said, gesturing to Hades who did nothing but sit, unmoving in his throne. “But all I could do was paddle that damned boat every day for the rest of eternity.

But you know what? It wasn’t so bad. I heard stories, many, many stories. From everyone who I ferried, I got a little update on what was happening upstairs, as well as pick up some tips on new fashions,” Chiron posed for a moment in his suit. “And new ways to talk. I just adore modern slang, it’s so . . . cool,” he said, letting the word roll of his tongue. “Anyways, I came to understand that the world of the living was a violent place. Just war after war, after war. You have no idea how annoying it is to hear the complaints of all of these soldiers that came down here without proper payment . . . imbeciles.” Chiron paused in front of one of the fireplaces to slick back his hair again, then turn to look at me, his eyes glowing red with malice.

“So, I decided that I was done with that job. I came to Hades and requested"humbly I might add"a competition where the physically capable would compete for immortality, just something to interest the crowds. But no, It would ‘throw off the perfect balance of the underworld’,” he mocked with a voice I could only assume was meant to be Hades’. “So, I may have drugged him a little bit; my own little concoction. It worked splendidly, as you can see.” Chiron patted the underside of Hades’ chin. “He now has the attentiveness of a boulder.” Chiron began to rub his hands together greedily. “Anyways, I digress. Now the question is; what to do with you. I could just throw you back into the fields, but really, what fun would that be?”

Shadows fell to the floor on either side of me. “You’ve met the Keres,” Chiron said, keeping his back turned to me. “Interesting creatures, They’ll follow the orders of whoever’s in control, which, I guess would be me.” He explained sarcastically. “Take him away.”

My vision went black, and the next thing I knew, I was being hulled away, into the unknown.  

Author's Note

tell me what you think, I was trying to get out of a case of writers block.

Reviews

[HorrorMaster]

sweet chapter. I love your writing skills.

[Star Wolf]

I really enjoyed this chapter. Loving your story a lot!

[WriterSki7]

Better so far. heh, drugging the Lord of the Underworld. Why can I imagine myself doing the same exact thing?

My personal opinion aside, this was a good Chapter (albeit define Good). I could spot few Gramatical errors (I still want to know what a "Gree Torch" is) but regardless, it was a rewarding read in and of itself.

[James Watts]

Writers' block can be a b***h. A thing I do, it helps, is to take a break from whatever story I am working on and write something different. You could do an essay on the life of a light bulb, it wouldn't matter, not as long as it rested your mind. This was a great piece for having writers' block

[WriderParker]

I bow to your imagination! haha nah but seriously good work man

[Dutch Jr.]

Good, natural dialogue was the first thing I noticed about this, which is a vital compartment of every story. You used if sparingly, which makes it that much more effective.

Another thing you did well was suspense, it kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen to the main character. I want to read the rest of the book, after reading this chapter.

Your vivid description of the characters involved, and the way you told what was going on, was also quite impressive. Keep up the good work.

[The Analog Kid]

not bad. good dialog. you built in fear. I felt the suspense, but I didn't quite feel Nick's fear quite soon enough. That's my only issue. Love how this is progressing!