Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

1

Do you understand now, Doctor?  I’m not insane.  You see it for yourself! 

2

Echo removed the hood as she ambled into the corridor. A blanket of darkness unraveled across its pitted stone walls and ceiling, settled within every crack and crater while agonized moans resonated. A guttural tone, they hardly sounded human. She paused, turned and took a deep breath. Of course they weren't human. No mortal could cross the threshold into hell unless he earned it. 

Clutching the pink bow tied around her neck, she lowered her vision. Her mission though detailed and ready to execute weighed heavy on her shoulders.  Enveloped in gloom she pressed deeper into the passageway. Trembling she pulled the hood back over her chocolate mane and listened to the click of her heels as she advanced. She reached out with a lace gloved hand and allowed their touch to brush the knob there. Slowly the frame of a door came into view, shivered as she yanked and torn it from its rusted hinges.  Entering she held a hand out in front of her. A steady white glow radiated, lined every digit and her palm, providing her with just enough light to see a figure acknowledge her presence.

Reach Hanson Square, it thought at her.

"Hanson Square," she asked, taking a step back. Its crimson eyes bore into her.

Listen to the Cry of Fear, it answered.

"But I don't want to," she replied in a squeaky voice.

Swirling within its smoky depths, lightning streaked and thunder roared as the figure spun toward her. Its mouth contorted into an abyss of flame and razors as it hissed, "You are not a human!"

She recoiled, her hands covering her mouth as she stared at it and said, "I know."

"This is no time for foolish conversation, girl," it bellowed. Grey fleshed stitched together with black satin cord emerged as it flexed its mass and as flesh it took a step toward her. "Nothing has changed!"

A few renegade corkscrew tresses fell loose over her shoulder as she leaned forward.  "But…." She tried to argue, but flames erupted over the mangled mass, consumed its rotted meat as it retorted hatefully.

"Go," it screamed and she scrambled out the door.

3

Don’t fight the truth, Doctor!  You now see my true past!  Continue to let truth flood your senses as time is short!

4

Echo thought as she stepped over a chunk of rock, The world is now a cancer promoted by the plague of tyranny.  Holding the folds of her robe together she took a deep breath. Through an endless maze of cars she navigated and surveyed distorted metal and shattered glass until a body tumbled forward. Its withered fingers reached out from under a flat tire, its hand a putrid meat that started to pull away from bone, and she clenched her teeth. Taking a step toward it she followed the mangled length to where it was pressed beneath the vehicle's weight.

Whoever you were, she thought, is now gone. Death has taken you long since and there is nothing I can do other than spare you this undead life.  She closed her eyes and shuttered. This was reality, she told herself. This is reality. As she resumed her gaze the trapped body was gone and she pressed onward. So much death, undeserved death….

In staggering gulfs smoke and ash swallowed the heavens. She knew nevertheless what flowed overhead and it wasn't a healthy hue. Disjointed lampposts and signs cluttered her path as she turned onto the left avenue. They were annoying obstacles and yet sinister reminders of a time when they were heavily relied upon. Crumbling and burning buildings on either side propelled odor and heat. She hurried along as its kindling was a gruesome assortment.

5

I promise, Doctor, you will reside once more in the present, but for now prepare with these details ensnared in the past.

6

Grime embedded under Echo’s fingernails as she located terrain and pulled herself up. With her legs tucked beneath her shapes formed as her vision cleared.  She jumped to her feet.

Where am I?

She turned to acknowledge the catacomb and watched her inky silhouette on the wall impersonate her every move.  Throughout her rib cage unraveled a stabbing web between each bone. Her hands clutched her left shoulder. Its socket burned and popped. She sank to her knees. Her eyes clamped shut. Behind them waterfalls of color streamed. She shuffled on her knees toward the yawning exit.

Dehydrated soil rubbed against her skin in contempt. When the barrier was within range she reached for it and pulled herself up. Into the constricted hallway she bowed, each step proving more excruciating than the last, and then collapsed in the foyer. A shaking hand extended before her, pushed aside a puny granite boulder and her gaze surveyed nature's gloomy contents. With night upon her there was minimal light to offer her assistance. She squinted as a wounded look settled in her eyes.

A whimper escaped her tightly pressed lips. With her hand closing around a low hanging branch she yanked herself up a second time and stumbled into the dark. She exhaled sharply and even in the vague passing light radiating from the moon she saw her breath steam and rise in front of her.

Slowly she panned shadow infested contours, but as a set of flames opened and blinked she froze. It hovered with phantom arms extending. A single bony finger poked out from its fluttering tattered robe. As it stroked the air her hand again seized her arm. Agony exploded over her sternum, raced left and right across her shoulders and then lifted to a dull ache.

Cherry colored lips opened. They splayed across bleached skin and curled upward into impossible angles. As they pulled back decayed teeth twisted from black, swollen gums. Vapor billowed out between them.  From the formless voids of its eye sockets tangerine embers flared.

She shifted. Her movements were blurs, strangled colors mixing together and reforming again. As she lifted her head, her grainy resolve flickered just as a faltering forty watt bulb might.  With ashen palms pressed again to her chest a cascading flow of raven hair writhed and coiled about her.

"It can't be time yet," Echo cried.  "Mankind is not ready to be judged!”