SONG: WAY DOWN WE GO BY KALEO
It takes all day to make it to the valley. The trail is grueling and eerily vacant.
“We should set up the tent and get some rest. At this pace, we should make it to the entrance tomorrow morning. Who knows how long it will take us to get to the bottom level, though.” Garrison instructs. I’m grateful for the break. I’ve been ready to stop walking for the last mile, my feet allowing only a shuffling motion near the end. Blisters eat at the bottom of my feet.
“Here, help me set this up.” Garrison says, yanking the tent from the backpack.
We work together, tired, hungry and on the lookout for anything that might be prowling around in Hell at night. Pierce digs out some granola bars for us to split. It’s stale, but better than nothing. We’ll need to keep up our strength.
If only my dad could see me now. He’s always been so disappointed in me, Thinking I could never live up to his expectations, I’d embraced the demon. Looking back now though, I was barely existing. Always doing the bidding of others. Never living for what I wanted. That stops now. I know what I want now, and it’s this. This little family we’ve become. My feelings for Salem grow every moment I spend in her presence. Her acceptance of me feels like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. She demands better from me in a way not for herself, but for me.
We curl up into the tent. It’s tight, but it helps shield us from the elements. None of us are feeling particularly talkative. I can’t speak for the other guys but seeing that lake full of tormented souls has me wondering what will become of us one day. For our actions, I can’t imagine it’ll be good.
I let myself fall into a fitful sleep as my thoughts churn.
* * *
“What the fuck is that?”I point to the strange figure in the distance. It looks like a boulder being pushed up the mountain at an agonizingly slow pace. We’re almost to the entrance, the mood one rife with irritation. Everyone is snapping at each other when we do talk. Everyone, except Salem who is uncharacteristically quiet. I wonder if seeing her mom like that shook her up, more than we realize.
Garrison found a pair of binoculars in the bag and has been wearing them around his neck as we walk. He brings them up to his eyes and frowns. “That’s exactly what that is. I wonder what that’s about.” He shrugs, urging us on.
“Holy, fucking hell.” Pierce stops walking. “Is that the way down?”
I find where he’s looking and feel my jaw drop open in horror and awe. An ominous red glow creeps out from the arch twisted with gnarled branches from the trees that are embedded into the side of the mountain.
“Enter at your own risk.” A voice calls out.
“Oh, holy shit!” Salem jumps back, seeing a man stuck in the bark of the tree.
“If you must enter, beware the edges. Do not stray the path.” He warns.
“What happened to you?” Salem reaches out to touch the tree, but Walker snatches her hand mid-air.
“This is my torment. To be stuck forever in one place. My penance for the life I’ve lived. Do not make the mistakes I did, or be doomed to suffer the same fate as I.”
“What did you do?” Pierce asks but the man’s eyes are closed, struggling to breathe as his torso meshes in with the tree’s bark.
Pulling at Pierce’s arm, Salem links her elbow with his, and forms a chain with him and Walker.
“Let’s get this over with.” She says foot cresting into the Levels of Torment lighting her up with a red glow.
“Here the fuck we go.” I murmur. Apprehension churning in my gut with the man’s warnings ringing in my ears.
CHAPTER50
Chapter Fifty
PIERCE
SONG: USED TO THE DARKNESS BY DES ROCS
Water drips from the ceiling landing on my neck and runs down my back. As we trek deeper, the pathway narrows. Bats flutter above us screeching their little lungs out. The air tastes bitter on my tongue as I breathe deeply to calm my nerves.
I keep getting flashbacks of my torture in those dungeons. Had I not escaped, I’m sure I would have rotted away down there. Stuck for eternity, just like these poor souls whose feet were stuck in a lake of tar on both sides of the path. They reach their arms out at us, begging for our help. It takes everything in me not to pull them out, knowing I would only get sucked in and trapped just like them. We’ve already passed a whole area where people were lit on fire over and over again. I can still feel the indents on the palm of my hand from my own nails after passing their agonizing screams. Unable to do anything but pass in horrified silence. Forced to smell their charred flesh, I’m surprised none of us vomited from the stench.
Maybe we’re all more broken than I realize, finding the will inside of us to continue, despite the horrors that surround us.
“Fuck, this is creepy.” Emmet breaks our silence.
