Chapter Four

E and Diane encounter Cerberus.

BAD COMPANY

- Chapter Four -

The boat pulled up gently to the riverbank on the other side of the water. It was lighter over there " no fog there to create murky shadows and there were more lanterns filling the vast space before them. The air was thinner, cooler; more comfortable. The black marble path still continued away from the river in a straight line, surrounded on either side by pure white expanse. The path stretched over a hundred feet down the way toward a set of doors at least fifty feet tall, guarded by a hulking shadow.

“Okay, so, Orpheus,” E began as he stepped off the boat and flattened out the creases in his suit, “Long story short: Orpheus followed his deceased wife’s spirit into the depths of Hades in the hopes that he could get her back. He endeavoured to do this by appealing to Hades through the music he plays on his lyre. He was relatively successful and was granted the opportunity to have his beloved Eurydice back. He was doing really well until, after being told not to look back on the journey out of Hades to see if she is indeed following him, Orpheus falls at the last hurdle and glances behind himself as he’s about to step out of the Underworld. His wife is in fact behind him however because he breached the contract and looked before stepping out of Hades, he got to watch helplessly as Eurydice was dragged back into the Underworld and he never sees her again.”

Diane raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“That’s a tragic story but I fail to see its connection to our present endeavour,” she retorted as she disembarked the vessel also. Charon wasted no time in pushing off from the riverbank and disappearing into the gloomy fog on the water again.

Diane took a moment to look longingly after the boat before she turned her attention back to E and his History lessons.

“The lyre.”

E reached into the pocket on the inside of his suit jacket and retracted a small, what looked like makeshift, instrument.

“Do you have everything you could possibly ever need in those hidden pockets of yours? First lightning and now a flute?” Diane quipped.

“Granted, this is not, in fact, a lyre,” E continued as he polished its surface on the inside of his jacket, ignoring Diane again, “But a flute can achieve the same ends, regardless.”

“Are you going to play music for Hades in the hopes he aids us in our suicide mission?”

E began walking toward the towering doors and their guardian with a small amount of trepidation. Diane consciously mimicked his pace.

“No, no; not at all. I’m going to play the flute for the big guy at the end of the corridor in the hopes that our mission does not, indeed, prove to be one of suicide.”

Diane was about to pose the question of ‘who’s the big guy?’ when the enormous shadow at the foot of the doors began to move. The sound of the soles of E’s expensive shoes as they tapped against the marble floor had alerted the guardian to their presence and awaken it from its slumber
.

“Orpheus encountered the same obstacles we already have encountered and will no doubt continue to encounter. And he, essentially, overcame them in the same ways we have " and will. He paid Charon a silver piece. And he played Hades’ beloved Cerberus a lovely tune to put him back to sleep,” E explained.

“Did you say Cerberus?!” Diane demanded exasperatedly, though as quietly as possible; she cast a sharp glance in the direction of the black mass at the end of the corridor.

“The three-headed beast himself!” E replied with a little more excitement than Diane deemed necessary " or sane, for that matter.

Diane barely had time to chastise E for his secrecy on this matter before Cerberus was standing up at full height. Lying down, sleeping, Cerberus had covered just the bottom quarter of the door with his vast size. Standing up, he was taking up more than half the length of the door. The better lighting on this side of the river allowed Diane the opportunity to fully appreciate "and abhor at " Cerberus’ fearsome appearance. Three heads would have been more than enough to have rooted her feet to the ground out of fear but Cerberus’ overall appearance was enough to knock the air from her lungs and drain her face of all colour. E, in stark contrast to the giddiness he displayed moments ago, didn’t look much better but he was trying his best to wet his lips and bring the flute to his mouth to play.

Cerberus’ skin was black and tattered with numerous gashes, cuts and bruises. Beneath his flaking flesh though, where muscle and bone should have been seen, was fire. It leaked out from every gape in his skin and cascaded down his body in rivers " red rivers as it morphed into blood when it came into contact with the atmosphere. The three heads were strikingly different in appearance. The far left head was missing both ears and its eyes were black like its flesh. The middle head was afflicted with a wide scar which reached from the bottom of the right-hand side ear to the left side of the chin; its eyes were sheer white. The head on the right was pure bone from the tip of the nose to halfway down its neck; the fire from beneath the flesh had turned permanently to blood and dried in the crevasses of its skull and in the hollows where its eyes should have been.

In all her fear and astonishment, all Diane can think to say was: “There appears to be a running theme of black down here.”

E hushed her quickly as he licked his lips again and tried to steady his breathing. Cerberus took a few cautious steps toward them but E couldn’t bring himself to play a tune; all notes and arrangements had somehow disappeared from his memory.

“E, you better play your goddamned flute already,” Diane warned, “I didn’t come down here to become f*****g dog food.”

As Cerberus got closer, it dawned on Diane that the beast was entirely blind. It was taking trepid, calculated steps as it closed in on them; all three noses were thrust into the air and sniffing fervently. It paused every now and again to listen carefully " for footsteps maybe but most likely their heartbeats. This was the kind of beast which could detect your heartbeat from a hundred feet away " and those hundred feet were dwindling away with every step he took. He was sure to hear them soon enough.  Diane began tugging fervently at the sleeve of E’s suit.

“E.”

He patted her hand away as he tried to still his mind and calm his nerves. Cerberus’ three heads all whipped in their direction and Diane’s heart jumped.

“E!” she tried again. Cerberus started taking heavier, more confident steps in their direction. His noses were still poised in the air and sniffing.

E looked at Diane now with a furiousness in his eyes that she hadn’t quite expected. Ignoring it, she implored, He’s blind, in a sharp, furtive whisper.

Now sure of their position, Cerberus began leaping towards them with all his teeth bared; a trail of blood followed him in his wake. He was snarling and barking and growling all at the same time and Diane was panicking. E was thinking. His eyes took on a look of puzzlement.

“Blind?” he repeated. Diane nodded feverishly at him " her eyes darted between him and the beast rapidly.

E then relaxed with the dawning realisation of it and a small smirk tugged at his lips. It was only a little discovery but it was an advantage to them nonetheless.

Cerberus was closing in on them with about fifty feet to go. Diane’s eyes continued to flit back and forth between him and E " all the while she still wondered why the f**k E hadn’t started playing something yet.

“Play something for f**k’s sake!” she howled at E.

With a great deal more confidence, E brought the flute to his lips and took a deep breath. The hall was soon filled with the cartoonish melody of a tune unfamiliar to Diane. Cerberus stopped in his tracks, ears perked as he listened intently.

It took barely even a minute of E’s skillful playing before Cerberus began to display hints at the idea of falling asleep. His heads were drooping as he continued to pursue E and Diane. His pace was slowing. He was about thirty feet away when his back legs began to give out and he started slumping to the floor ungracefully in a puddle of black shaggy dog and bones. He tried to drag himself along the floor even when his legs wouldn’t work but sleep eventually took its toll on him and stopped fighting it. Eight feet from Diane’s toes, he splayed out across the floor in all directions, a snoring hump of flesh and blood; his tongues were hanging out of their respective heads and his back feet were twitching in his sleep. He almost passed for your every-day household pup. Almost.

E began to take apprehensive steps forward which mirrored those the beast had taken before it had fallen asleep.

E continued on with his rendition of whatever it was he was playing. He took more confident steps towards the beast; Cerberus’ snoring was loud enough to echo in the hall around them. Diane followed E as quietly as possible; the rubber soles of her boots made little noise on the marble floors.

E was careful not to stop playing the flute until both of them were safely on the other side of the double doors.

“Jesus Christ!” Diane exclaimed as soon as the door closed behind them both, “A little f*****g warning wouldn’t go amiss you know.”

“My apologies,” E replied with a distinct lack of sincerity, “We are, however, alive, so let’s not dwell on it too long.”

Diane raised one accusatory eyebrow; her whole expression and stature from head to foot suggested an imminent explosion of anger. Before the outburst though, E raised a single index finger to her lips and grandly gestured to their surroundings with his other hand.

“Behold, The Underworld.
”

It took a good bit of effort for Diane to tear her seething eyes away from the lying sack of s**t in front of her but when she managed it she couldn’t help but gawk at what she saw.

If Diane thought she’d known darkness before she was wrong. Granted, there was glowing, orange light emanating from raging fires in the distant background, and you could see where you were going without blindly walking into people. But there still was a certain gravity to the darkness down there that was almost suffocating; it felt like the shadows had shadows.

A small, perilous pathway led down into a vast expanse of nothingness before them; and that nothingness was filled with the same kind of wandering, empty souls that they had met on the banks of the river Acheron. The restless souls were meandering amidst an imposing landscape of deep crevasses and looming arches of rock a lot like the inside of the Earth’s most cavernous caves. A black river cut through the bed of the terrain several times in sweeping, grand curves that ended in a waterfall somewhere in the distance. Down there, the heat was even more stifling and the sweat which bubbled on E and Diane’s skin evaporated as soon as it surfaced only for the pores to bleed out salty again. Small geysers punctured the ground beneath the souls which let off blasts of steam and water every so often. Some hundreds of feet in the distance, Diane just about saw another set of doors flanked by lanterns.

“This is the Fields of Asphodel,” E explained, “For all of us who live simple lives; who don’t upset any of the gods on a grand scale; who also, coincidentally, don’t do anything of note to please the gods " we end up here. It’s as good as it’s gonna get for the Average Joe.”

Diane nodded with little conviction; she was still wordlessly impressed by the sheer vastness of the area.

“Your dad’s probably in here.”

At this Diane glanced briefly in E’s direction; briefly but with an acute alertness and interest.

“You don’t know that,” Diane disputed patiently as she returned her gaze to the treacherous terrain before them, “There’s nothing to say he was buried with a coin or two. He had his lucky coins he liked to keep around, sure, but I highly doubt he had them that day.”

Despite her words, Diane found herself again scanning the faces she saw.

“He worked as a cashier in a shop though, right? And that’s where he died, isn’t it?” E reasoned gently, “Just something for you to consider.”

Diane made a point of not responding as she tried to extinguish the hope which was now fizzling within her. E had promised she would see him again. Given the state of the spirits that were before her though, something told her she might not really want to.

“Let’s crack on, shall we?” E rested his fist on his hip, making an arch of his arm which he encouraged Diane to hook onto. Ignoring him, she took her first few steps deeper into the Underworld.

“So, what’s the deal with this place? What’s our obstacle to encounter down here?” she called back to him as she skilfully negotiated the land beneath her feet. She was incredibly light-footed and nimble. And she took calculated steps that gauged the sturdiness of each rock before putting any of her weight on it.

E followed her with a lot less grace and steadiness; he exhibited a severe misunderstanding in what a Centre of Gravity was and why you should never have balanced your whole weight on one foot, on a single loose rock. Diane paid no attention to E as he reached the Underworld floor before she did in a mess of wild, tangled blonde hair and dirty clothes. He lay there on the ground for a few minutes, just assessing what had happened. Diane waited patiently beside him as he came to terms with his tumble.

“I’m throwing this suit out when I get home; it’s beyond salvation and dry-cleaning now,” he announced from the ground.

Diane merely rolled her eyes at him " a response she had become all too familiar with.

He found his grounding a little better with both arms stretched out away from him for balance. He abandoned all previous attempts at vanity he had ever exhibited, resolutely refusing to dust himself off and pat the suit down " instead he resorted to just sweeping his blonde locks out of his face, “To answer your question though, there is no obstacle here. Except perhaps ourselves.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Sentimentality. Nostalgia. Love. Longing. All those human emotions can come into play. This is the Underworld: population some inconceivable number. Chances of bumping into a soul you know are slim but they’re there. Six quadrillion to one or something ridiculous like that. And if you bump into one such soul who held perhaps a very special place in your heart, well, I might just find it that tad bit difficult to drag you away.”

Diane scrutinized E with narrowed eyes, “So that promise about seeing my dad again " a one such special soul, an’all " was just empty words was it?”

“Ah, well, sort of,” E admitted " and with the good grace to look marginally ashamed of himself, too, “It was mostly the clincher in my argument to get you to accompany me. In my defence though, I never used the word ‘promise’. I distinctly remember saying you could see your father again. It’s not my fault you blindly trusted that possibility.”

“Rule number five,” Diane stressed steadily with folded arms.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” E threw his hands up, defeated, “Yes, I did tell you you could see your father again but it wasn’t a total lie " I just didn’t tell you exactly how small your chances of seeing him actually are. But you still can see him; you still might. You could be that one in six quadrillion, you never know " let’s not lose hope here!”

He smiled weakly at her with a meagre attempt at encouragement.

“Hope is all we have,” he finished quietly.

Diane took a moment to think over the situation.

“Remember the planet and humanity and the big picture and stuff, Diane; Armageddon, floods, the end of ours and the world’s existence as we know it,” he whispered urgently. There was piteous persuasion in the tone of his voice that made Diane laugh.

“Despite my better judgement, I’m going to continue on this journey with you. You know, despite the lies " and whatever the next best thing to a lie is,” she resolved. “If not to satisfy my own curiosity and if not to make a conscious effort at supposedly saving the entire planet from destruction " it’s so I don’t have to face that f****r on the other side of those doors again without a god-damned flute and any kind of musical bone in my body.”

E moved to make an excited, grateful response but now it was Diane’s turn to hold up a single index finger to his face. His expression fell.

“No more empty promises,” she cautioned pointedly, “No more lies. No more manipulation. I’ve come this far with you and I’ve seen more than enough to assure me of the existence of everything I previously learned wasn’t true: you don’t need to convince me anymore. I’ve seen a three-headed dog and dead people for f**k’s sake; we’re good. Just don’t tell me things you can’t prove and don’t make me promises you can’t keep. I haven’t got time for that " and neither do you, for that matter.”

Diane extended her hand out to him in a warped gesture of truce. E nodded resolutely and grasped her hand in his.

“I would promise not to make promises or lie anymore but I don’t think that’s what you want.” He made an attempt at a smirk in the hopes of cracking a genuine laugh from her. He didn’t quite hit the jackpot but he’d be damned if he said he didn’t see a twitch in her lips.

Author's Note

For those of you who've been reading this from the beginning, you may notice a change in tense. I submitted all of the novella thus far written to my tutor and he told me to tweak the narrative as omniscient and present tense wasn't working so I've converted it all to past tense. Will edit the other chapters accordingly for continuity!