The Infinite Castle

sorry it took so long.

The dark water rushed up at me as wind ripped through my hair and froze my skin. I screamed as I twisted, turned, rolled and spun towards the water. Suddenly, the wings got caught in an updraft and I stopped dead a few hundred meters from an early return to the fields. I heaved as the wind was knocked out of me, but thankfully I managed to keep down my lunch.

I simply hung there as I floated softly towards the rocky shore, wondering exactly how nice and easy the landing was going to be, though I wasn’t getting my hopes up.

“Hey kid!”

The voice called from somewhere below. I looked down and noticed a tiny black shape move out from behind one of the black rocks. Amongst the crashing waves, Hermes maneuvered the boat expertly underneath me. I yelled “Hey!” to him and waved casually. Occasionally, strong gusts of wind would force me to sweep from the path, but Daedalus’ wings adjusted themselves so I didn’t stray too far.

When I came close enough, Hermes took the oar out of the water and reached up with it. It took a few tries, but I was able to latch onto the dark wood and be pulled into the boat by Hermes’ remarkable strength.

“I thought you said you were only staying around for a few minutes,” I said to Hermes, breathing hard.

“Eh, some weirdo with wings on his head told me to wait around a bit longer,” he replied, shrugging and shoving the oar back into the water. I suddenly burst out in laughter. I couldn’t control myself, I kept thinking about how mad Chiron would be when he found out I escaped yet again! I sighed to myself, then noticed Hermes’s squinting, curiously at me.

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Just get us out of here.”

Hermes shook his head and focused his attention on powering the small boat over the waves and back into open seas. I gave the leather strap draped across my chest a tug and watched, curiously, as the tiny metal feathers clinked, folded, slid and locked back into the frame and then collapsed back into the strange-looking contraption Daedalus had strapped to my back. I unstrapped it and tucked it securely beneath the bench. Looking around at the sea, and up at the cliffs as they began to disappear behind a quickly thickening cloud of mist, I pulled the shreds of my shirt closer around me as the cold wind picked up.

The tiny boat moved, stoically, through the dark waters, completely alone. It was an eerie silence, and it made me nervous, and I had to remember, I was still in a prison. I was still dead. A whooshing sound overhead caught my attention and I looked up. A large black shape moved swiftly above the boat, but I couldn’t get a good look at it because it was concealed by the mist. Hermes hadn’t noticed anything, so a tapped his charred shoulder�" grimacing slightly at the fleshy texture of it�"and motioned up and put a finger to my lips, signaling silence. Hermes nodded, shifting his jaw and stopping the boat.

The shape moved over a few more times, each time my heart fluttered a little. Sometimes multiple shapes went past. Chiron knows I’m missing then, I thought, feeling a small sinking feeling in my heart as reality set in again.

There was soon another problem. Though we were floating still, the mist was moving around us. A few times a clearing had formed and the boat was momentarily vulnerable.

“We have to get out of here,” I whispered to Hermes, doing my best to show the panic I was now feeling. Hermes nodded.

“Where to?” he asked.

I thought for a moment. Obviously we couldn’t turn around and head back to Hades’ palace. Not after we had just awoken the lion, and I doubted we could go back to the Hotel. No, I thought, we would have to go someplace else.

“Head towards that city that we saw on the way here,” I told Hermes.

“Alright,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s not the best idea kid.”

“You have someplace else in mind?” I asked him. Hermes looked away for a moment, thinking to himself, then looked back, shaking his head. He gripped the oar tightly in his hands and pushed off some intangible riverbed.

“I’m just saying, it’s a bad idea.” He said, skeptically.

“Yeah,” I said to myself. “I’m starting to see a pattern with the ideas I’ve been having lately.” Hopefully though, this one would work out. I sat back down on the stiff bench, wishing that I could vanish from this place.

We moved through the rivers without a word, except for when Hermes would point out some sort of landmark. I didn’t know what any of the places were, at least, I didn’t think I did. But if I was who Grayson said I was, well, then I had a lot of rethinking to do.

We broke through a final, thick bout of mist and before us sprawled Erebus’ city. It was just as dark and creepy as I remembered it. The dark spires rose, unevenly, from the course earth, the blue sky had become black storm clouds, and the air became noticeably more humid. There was movement along the shore line. The same sort of movement I had noticed the first time we had passed through this area.

“What is that?” I asked Hermes.

“I told you kid, they’re the damned,” he said. “You’ll understand what I mean when we get closer, but trust me it’s not a pretty sight.” He left it at that and continued to look forward hauntingly towards the dark city.

“There!” I exclaimed, pointing towards a lonely isle a few hundred yards out to sea from the coast of the city. Upon the random mass of black rock, a house stood; a broken down, pathetic square of a building. Hermes directed his strokes to it.

Once we were in clear sight of the shoreline, I finally understood what Hermes had said. There were people. Thousands upon thousands of people, stretching of not only down the entire length of the coast, but as deep into the city as I could see. Their skin was burnt black and peeling just as Hermes’ was. Most of the people wandered around aimlessly, while others closest to the shore had become aware of boats presence and moved as close as they dared to get. They reminded me of zombies.

“Whoa . . .” was all that escaped my mouth.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the people to catch on to us. They grouped in masses by the shore. Some raised their hands as if in prayer, others shook their fists and growled angrily, like feral beasts, and some just stood there, indifferent to the boat master and his company.

“What are they doing?” I asked, looking to Hermes.

“Well, these are your fans.” He answered.

I looked at him confusedly.

“Who do you think Chiron talks to all the time? This is the crowd; the screaming, cheering onlookers. Everyone in the underworld gets to watch the events, even those at the shores. It’s their entertainment. It’s what keeps them calm and under control.”

“They don’t look too happy,” I commented.

“Yeah well, the games aren’t for everyone. Plus, everybody has their favorites,” He said, motioning to a large group who had their hands raised to me. “And then there’re the others.”

I figured the large majority of those who were growling and shaking their fists angrily weren’t exactly ‘fans’ of mine.

“This is . . . ridiculous,” I said, flabbergasted. These people were pathetic. If anyone in the world of the living looked remotely like some of the people who had herded towards the shore, they’d be sent to the emergency room of any hospital in the world.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t always like this,” Hermes said.

We came so close to shore line that I could see the hollowed pits the people had for eyes. There were men, women, even a few children of all shapes and sizes. Some of them reached out to touch me, desperate looks on their faces. I had the sudden impulse to reach out and give them comfort, but Hermes read my mind.

“Don’t touch them,” he said. “If they grab onto you, they won’t let go.”

It was a sad thought. I tried to cover it up and get it into my head that these people were dead, but I had the feeling that the image would never leave my mind.

Even as we approached the island, people still cried and yelled in different languages that I didn’t understand. But I understood their meanings well enough.

The boat crackled as it ran aground in the shallow water near the island. I grabbed Daedalus’ wings from underneath the bench, slung them over my shoulder and hopped in the knee-deep water with an echoing splash.

“Well, see you around kid,” Hermes shrugged.

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess you will.”

Hermes waved lazily, then pushed off a large boulder with the oar and headed back out into the river, where he soon disappeared into a swirling cloud of mist. I turned and walked up the shoreline and over a series of large boulders to the short cliff above. The small cottage took up most of the island, and I had to step around the outside to get to the front door, which stuck and squeaked when I tried to open it. Inside, there was nothing. No furniture, no lights, only a few uneven windows spotted randomly along the walls allowed dim light to flow in.

I slung the wings off my back and onto the floor with a thud. Then I stretched my back and wrapped my arms around my body, one at a time, then yawned.

What now? I thought. I had escaped, sure. But how long could I wander this place without getting caught? Chiron was in charge here, and Chiron wanted to kill me. I settled down and rested my head against the leather back of the contraption. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but at least it was something.

The moans of the diseased people, as well as the slow churning and spraying of the dark waters outside did nothing to keep from falling asleep. I was exhausted after all.

It was one of those times when you don’t remember falling asleep. In fact, when you wake up, you doubt that you were asleep at all. But whether the horrible shrieks outside were a dream or not, they frightened me.

I jumped up from the floor, my heart pounding, and my stomach did a back flip every time one of the old floorboards squeaked. I rushed to the window. Outside, the black shapes were darting through the skies again, though this time; I recognized the horrible, dog-faced monsters that had dragged me from Daedalus’ room. Also, I could see the shore of the dark city. More shrieks and cries came, and the entire place seemed to be in an uproar. Bodies of the burnt people who lined the shore were in an enormous tangle, fighting and roaring angrily at each other, while the dog-faced creatures shrieked overhead.

I grabbed the broken and splintered shutters and slammed them shut. I did the same to the other windows around the cabin as well, and then the front door, which I cursed myself for leaving wide open.

I sat down against a wall beneath the window with the metal contraption next to my outstretched foot. I sat there, wide eyed, for what felt like hours. I couldn’t stay here. I didn’t know why I had thought this place would be safe, but now I was regretting it. I raised my hand in a desperate attempt to escape. I need a way out, I thought, squeezing my eyes shut in concentration.

I opened my eyes, and . . . nothing. No door. No escape. I tried once more, but again, when I opened my eyes, I was staring at a blank wall. I wanted to swear and shout in frustration, but the noises outside were growing more violent, and the shrieks from the creatures were getting closer. Soon, I thought, they would find me here. My stomach growled in a hunger that hadn’t struck me until then. I groaned in frustration. Why was I hungry? I thought angrily. When did I become human enough to be hungry?

A door opened up. I looked ahead, not registering the sound of splintering wood at first, but then the white door came into view against the graying walls. I stood up without hesitation, grabbed the metal contraption, ran to the door, and threw it open.

A man looked up at me from a pot of boiling water. His skin was burned away, but he wore a white smock and a towering white chef’s hat. His eyes went wide at the sweaty teenager carrying a steel backpack and a shredded tunic who had randomly stumbled into his kitchen. A few other chef’s were wandering around the kitchen, taking care of boiling pots, large trays of smoked pork, a bowl of fresh fruit  and another of chocolate pastries. The chef who stared at me wide eyed, seemed to be preparing some kind of soup.

“Hey,” I said, starting through the kitchen. “If anyone asks, I wasn’t here.”

The chef nodded, completely bewildered.

“Thanks.”

I grabbed a handful of the pastries and a few cuts of ham when the other chef’s weren’t looking, then hurried through a pair of double doors that swung back and forth as I pushed by them.

The dark hallway was lit with a line of windows that followed the walls and let in deep blue light, as well as the usual green torches. Not again, I thought irritably. This hallway was enormous. It stretched off in both directions until the walls met at the vantage point. I looked both ways, wondering which way to go. Well, I thought, I am left handed.

I turned and went left, running awkwardly so my footsteps wouldn’t make a noise on the stone floor.

I got to the end of the hall and came to another hallway, and a set of stairs. I took the stairs, eating a few of the pastries as I ran up.

This place was like a castle. It wasn’t like Hades’ palace; that place had had more rooms and was more open and dark. This castle felt like that picture where the stairs went all different ways and directions. I got to stairways that separated into more stairways, and then more stairways, and then hallways, which ended in still more stairways.

I was exhausted. By the twentieth flight of stairs, I was done. I sat down on the third step of a particularly wide set of stairs and sat there, slumped. I had eaten all the food I had grabbed from the kitchen, and the strips of my shirt had all but fallen away.

“What am I doing here?” I mumbled to myself. My words echoed around the room, then came back to me in a quiet whisper.

“What am I doing here?” I shouted, grabbing my head and curling into a ball. I felt alone in this castle. I felt alone in this world. But then again, I wasn’t alone, was I? Avra was here, and Grayson too. I couldn’t give up. I stood up and ran up the stairs, adjusting the straps of the contraption as I moved.

More stairways . . . more hallways. This place was endless, I thought. Aside from the chef’s in the kitchen, it was practically abandoned. I was about ready to cry for help, no matter who came. But then something fell to the ground in front of me; a shadowy form that I recognized immediately. What was it called? A Keres?

The shadowy form produced two pale, deformed hands from its depths. I backed away from it as it drew closer, groping in the air as if to embrace. I panicked and stumbled backwards onto a landing, where down below stretched past winding staircases into darkness. A gust of wind blew up from its depths and whipped by my hair.

The Keres made a wheezing sound, which evolved into a sort of a squeal. More shadows dropped from the ceiling, each unfurling mutated limbs, then moved towards me in a freakish mob. I gasped out in fear, stumbling down the stairs so fast I hadn’t even regained my balance before I started sprinting. I jumped down as many steps as I dared without hurting myself.

More shadows continued to spawn from above. They were everywhere, surrounding me. I scrambled backwards as they dropped in front of me, blocking my path, but already they had accumulated at the top of the stairs and were flowing out of the hallways like an infinite shroud of black smoke.

I can’t believe I’m doing this again, I thought, tightening the straps on the pack of folded metal wings on my back. The crowd of Keres moved towards me at once, and without a seconds hesitation, I dove off the landing, and down into the depths of the castle.

Author's Note

Again, sorry it took so long. Tell me what you think.

Reviews

[Daniel Gardner]

This is a good story. If you would have rushed it you would have made way more mistakes then you have. You would have also made the story not understanable. Good job on this one. Like everyone is saying it is well worth the wait. BRAVOO!!

[Star Wolf]

I agree with the other reviewers, well worth the wait!

[Domenic Luciani]

yes, some of the punctuation didnt transfer over correctly from microsoft word.

[Erin]

I like this. At one point, it says: shoulder" grimacing slightly at the fleshy texture of it"and... I'm pretty sure those quotation marks aren't supposed to be there. Aside from that, though, good work.

[WriterSki7]

So far, so good. Your writing is good; but I still find myself wanting something . . . more. I dunno, maybe this is as good as you're gonig to get and I need to live with it. I hope not, though. Maybe use a Thesaurus? I'm not sure.

[HorrorMaster]

It was worth a wait. I hope this book turn into a movie. I love this chapter so far.

[James Watts]

Another nice write. I like how the section about his fans. That was clever and pretty nifty. He's like on "Survivor: Hell Edition" lol. Nice touch.

[Dutch Jr.]

Well worth the wait. You write so well; vivid, descriptive, great job.

[The Analog Kid]

Great suspense and descriptions:)