Episode Four

The air danced in front of my eyes as the heat rolled around the cavern. I could hear the crackling of fire all around me as well as smell and feel it. My exposed cheeks and arms stung slightly as if I was standing to close to the heater in the winter. Despite the heat I could see no fire around me.

            In fact the only light that I could see was in the cracks of the floor below me and the far off walls. They glowed against the darkness just as the walls of the elevator had. From them a tremendous wave of heated air rose. The air was strong enough to blow my pants legs back and hot enough to make me unable to find cool fresh air to fill my lungs with. I stepped forward to try to escape the heat but there was nothing to cause any kind of comfort.

            Once again my mind wandered to the elevator. I could easily walk back and press that red button again. I could travel upwards and away from this torture. I halted for a moment as the idea stirred in my mind. I could feel my lungs expanding with the cool air that was abundant in the region above.

            I quickly cast the idea away though and forced my body to continue forward. I had only been here moments and I found this barren land unbearable, Alice had been here since the accident, could possibly be here for the rest of eternity. I couldn’t abandon her now. Nothing waited me up there if she wasn’t there with me.

            I pushed forward, over the dark cracked earth that spit out heat like a suffocating hot breath. Despite the heat there was no perspiration on my body to fight the temperatures. My skin stayed dry it felt as though it were an autumn leaf, left out to dry and crack under the torturous sun. My mouth felt just as dry and with every labored breath my throat felt as though I were swallowing a mouthful of dry Caribbean sand.

            I quickened my pace and soon noticed that the cavern I was in had begun to taper. The walls on each side of me had closed in. Before I had to squint to make out their glowing cracked surfaces and now they were clearly in sight ahead of me. I could see that they almost toughed in the distance. Only a thin red glowing line flickered between them.

            As I approached their meeting place I was able to follow the lines of each wall upwards. I craned my neck back to follow them as far as my eyes could go. There was no ceiling that I could see; only darkness swallowed them up before they came to an end.            As I came to the opening I stopped. I didn’t know if I could go on. Then I felt that I would have turned back, if I had the strength to do so. My body was weak, but it seemed that my heart was even weaker. My heart cried out. I didn’t have the courage to go on in this place, but I knew my body would give out before I made it back to the elevator. Even as I rest there in the mouth of the entrance way I could feel the heat draining my body. There was nothing forgiving about this place. Every inch of it seemed to sap your strength and weight heavily on your very soul.

            “And you might you be?” I heard a thundering voice hiss in front of me. I could feel its deep bass reverberate through my body. I could feel the heated air of its breath push back my bangs but I saw nothing except the twin walls in front of me.

            “We weren’t expecting visitors.” I heard another voice, higher pitched yet just as raspy. I haltingly took a step backwards. I though of taking my chances and running as far back as I could and hoping that I could make it to the elevator. Then just as my shoulders began to pivot and my body preparing to follow their path, the walls in front of me shifted.

            To my left and to my right, both walls seemed to separate and two figures stepped away from the wall towards me. They had been standing there the whole time, I realized. Their massive bodies were made out of the same cracked and glowing rock as the walls and flooring. They both towered over me. My head would have come to their hips. As they moved their bodies ground against themselves, sounding like stone clamoring against stone.

            “Who are you?” The deep voice buffered against me. It was the larger of the two figures speaking on my right. “We know all who step forward us, yet you, we knew nothing about.” His shoulders moved underneath a statue like carving in the shape of an ox head, but as I looked farsightedly upwards I could distinguish no mouth from which he spoke. Glancing at the other figure I saw the same expressionless carving upon human like shoulders. Except this head was in the shape of a horse’s head.

            “I- I came to-” I stuttered, as my voice rose in pitch. I felt my throat tighten painfully.

            “Well speak up.” I heard the horse headed one laugh out at me. I took a step back again and looked up at their expressionless faces. The heat that rose off their bodies choked me.

            “I came here on my own.” I whispered. I had meant to speak clearly but my dried throat would only allow me the faintest of whispers.

            “On your own you say?” The deep bass flooded me again as the ox spoke “That is impossible.” He spoke quizzically. His shoulders pivoted loudly against his body until he seemed to be facing the other figure.

            “We have been guarding the gates of hell since their existence and we have yet to see any mortal soul enter through on their own will.” He spoke to his counterpart in an aghast tone. “Isn’t this correct Gozu?” He asked.

            “Your right, Mezu.” The raspy voice echoed out to the other. “What are we going to do about this interesting change of pace?” He asked the larger ox headed entity. He seemed to be the leader in this duo.

            “What drives you to ask for entrance into the gates of hell mortal?” The horse asks. I gulp deeply and straighten my back. I wanted to seem as confident as possible to these two.

            “I am here to retrieve my wife.” I spoke as loudly as I could against the parched insides of my mouth and throat. “She came here by accident. She doesn’t deserve to be in Hell.” I said.

            “Everyone who comes before us deserves the fate they sealed for themselves.” The horse faced Gozu shouted down to me.

            “Please,” I shouted back at him. “Just let me pass.” I begged. “If I can even find her but if I cant what can it hurt to have one more person stuck in hell.” I stood breathless before them. My shoulders sagged.

            “Well we have our orders,” He replied in a thoughtful tone. “But I must admit that as we stand here and the time passes us by and century after century leaves us. I grow weary of our labor.” He pivoted his head to look at me. His stone like eyes seemed to carefully take me in as I stood in front of them.

            “What shall we do?” The horse asked the Ox. “I too grow restless of this monotony.”

            “There is no hope that you will ever find the one you seek.” Mezu hissed at me. “But I will let you pass, if only for a few moments of entertainment.” He finished sarcastically.

            Gozu chuckled at this and I could hear the hiss of his laughter swirl around me as they both stepped backwards and slowly melted into the wall again until I could not make out their shapes against the rest of the surface.

            Nothing blocked my entrance into the dark walkway into hell now. With a deep quivering breath I stepped forward and through the faucet before the two guards could change their minds.

Reviews

[gombeggar]

you need a little better description when u introduce the place where the 2 guards are and a line or 2 to describe the horsehead and ox figures' images before u have them speak

their banter between themselves is well done

[Craig2591]

You described a very scary place indeed.