The Last Voyage

"Last chance, no going back after this," Azriel murmured, his teeth chattering harshly, hands quivering on the edge of the boat.

The engine had stopped and the boat gently rocks up and down with the slowed, rolling waves of the lake.

"I'll be fine. All I have to do is find her, get her and return." I replied, distracting myself by checking the tightness of the life jacket's straps.

"All in ten to fifteen minutes." Azriel reminded me, rummaging through the box of supplies. He lays out blankets, heat packs, and dry clothing.

There's an emptiness inside me, and it takes everything to argue with him. "The site said that humans could last in the cold water until twenty minutes," I crossed my arms against the cold that hangs in the air, narrowing my eyes at him. "I need this to work, so stop trying to talk me out of it."

Azriel met my glare for a few seconds before looking away. "I know, I know. I'm just worried about you, Orphea. I don't know if your parents will survive losing two daughters instead of one."

My eyes drifted to the corpse lying next to us. We'd stolen the body from my house, and I knew we were running out of time before the rot set in too badly. My parents didn't even know Euri was dead yet.

"It's going to work," I said, more to myself than him. Honestly, even if it didn't, at least I'd be with my sister again.

I clumsily tightened the spare lifejacket around my sister's slowly stiffening body, trying to stop expecting her to wake up and whine about the cold.

Azriel helped me drag the body to the side of the boat and we pushed up her against the side, both of us letting go for a second to catch our breaths.

"The bandages," Azriel said suddenly, grabbing my wrist as I began to tug the body upwards, towards the water.

I ran a finger over the blood-stained bandages on my sister's wrist. "We can't wait, we'll have to deal with it after."

"This plan is getting less and less possible with every second that passes." Azriel sounded tired and a little broken, but I ignored him, struggling with my sister's unwieldy body as I pulled her upwards.

With a pang, I remembered her, perched on this edge, posing for a dramatic picture with the mountains behind her.

I looked into his watery, golden eyes. "I can do this. You just need to believe in me."

He scoffed, swiping under his eye. "And drag your frozen ass out of the water, by myself, in fifteen minutes."

I smiled at that, and him, and took a deep breath, letting my sister's rigid body fall into the water. The splash made the boat shake, and I waited, breathing in the cuttingly crisp air, looking.

Euri's already frozen face broke up through the water, drifting gently away from me.

My heart squeezed. I'm coming for you, little sister, just hold on.

Then I jumped in too...

...and awoke with a gasp in the darkness. My eyes adjusted from the glaring brightness of the icy lake to the darkness of a new shore, and I staggered up.

There were bodies all around me, some frozen in a kind of eternal scream, their eyes wide, their mouths gaping open. They were half-buried, and half emerged, being trampled on the dead that still moved.

The moving ones were wailing, begging, shifting in a restless, herd-like fashion.

Their bodies radiated with a rotting, feverish heat, their skin grey and dirty with mud and ash.

I shoved past the crowd of the dead, my breath stuttering with claustrophobia. They didn't mind my presence, just continued staring, crying out for something in a language I couldn't understand.

Finally, I stumbled through the crowd, falling clumsily onto my knees at a rocky, obsidian shore.

Black waves from the River of Hate swept up with a quiet menace, and I quickly moved, getting back on my feet.

I saw what the dead saw now, and flinched with horror as each one of them reached out, their cries getting louder, as a gleaming, grey boat neared the shore.

A single ferryman stood on the small boat, a lantern dangling in front of him.

As the lantern's yellow light fell over us, the shades of the dead recoiled with a shriek, moving like one unified mass.

The ferryman chuckled as I stepped forward, and I swallowed in horror at his red, stretched skin. He tilted his hat in some kind of courtesy and stretched out a hand to me.

I withdrew one of the coins I had in my pocket and held it close to his dead and withered hand.

When my fingers brushed his skin, he seized my wrist, pulling me perilously close to the lapping waves of the river Styx.

The dead screamed out behind us, some scrabbling to get closer to the boat.

The ferryman sniffed and cackled, "Still alive, little one?" His voice was low and scratchy, and I made myself look into his ruined face.

"Take me across the river," I told him, trying to push the fear out of my voice. I was running out of time.

Charon chuckled monstrously but ignored me, "I'll wait, it won't be too long now. This boat is only to help the dead cross over."

I narrowed my eyes and threw the coin in a swift motion. Charon let out a guttural sound and dove after it.

Quickly, I leapt onto the wobbling boat, and wrenched the oar from the ferryman's hand.

Charon continues to frantically search for the coin and I push him overboard, throwing my hands out to balance myself after.

The dead screech and shoot forward, but I push off the shore fast, the daimon's wretched screams in the river making me paddle faster.

I can feel death creeping towards me, I know my lips are blue without looking at them, my fingers are stiffening onto the oar.

The water splashes up with a vengeance and I bite back a scream as stinging water touches my hands.

I keep rowing, spotting a shore nearby. All I need to do is find Eurydice, get her on this boat, and Azriel will wake us up.

My breaths begin getting harder, and I spit icy water out of my mouth.

"Come on!" I murmur to myself, and finally, the boat bumps against the next rocky shore.

I have to throw myself onto it, and crawl until I reach a poplar tree.

Gasping, I pull myself up, my head swimming from a lack of air.

"Need some help?" A quiet, soft voice asks.

I stare up at the hooded figure in front of me, a pale hand reaching out from under solid robes.

"No!" I hiss at him, knowing this is Thanatos, God of Death. "I need to find my sister."

"You won't." Thanatos informs me, standing back now, as I manage to stand against the tree. "I have a sibling too, so I understand how painful it must be."

"Shut up." I snap, his stupid, meaningless words giving me strength.

Without a sound he drifts with me as I stumble forward, my legs shaking with a burning agony, every muscle stiff.

"The water is cold, isn't it?" Thanatos asks gently, encouragingly, and I nod despite myself.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just sleep?" His voice is a whisper, and I see the lake.

It's splashing over my eyes, water is curled around me in an unforgiving, icy fist. I can't even shake anymore.

Azriel's shouting somewhere, and I shake my head harshly, pushing the vision away.

"I'm not leaving without Eurydice."

"That won't be a problem, because you aren't leaving at all." Thanatos' voice betrays a smile now, and I realize I'm suddenly not struggling anymore.

My limbs feel liquid, loose, strong. I stare up at Thanatos, my hands feeling for a pulse in my chest.

"This doesn't need to be your last voyage. You've cost us our ferryman, so how would you feel about taking over the position?" Thanatos asked, and I saw him now.

His hood was gone, and he had a form. Blue, cold and pale. He gleams with water, and the tips of his ears and hands are dark with frostbite.

"It's a pity you've failed, but better heroes than you have tried. Fear not, your story will live on forever." Thanatos declares and hands me a single coin. The same coin I threw into the water for Charon to catch. "Welcome to the underworld."