Digging to Hell (The Gravedigger Series Book 3)

by Willie E. Dalton

  I closed the distance between us and kissed him. He kissed me back with the ferocity that I remembered and loved so much. I wanted more of him, all of him, the way I had had him so many times: with tongues, and teeth, and scratching and screaming, until we were sticky with sweat and too tired to move. But after a moment, I broke the kiss and pulled away from his tight embrace.

  “You settle things with Eira, whatever needs to be done. I’m going to get Raphael. If I come back, we will see where we stand,” I said. My voice was distant as I pushed the emotions away so that I could function.

  Soren cupped the side of my face in his palm. The gesture made me feel small and delicate. “I don’t care if you come back with him. Just come back, Helena.”

  I nodded as I stared into those cold-steel eyes, and this time when he walked away, I didn’t stop him.

  “Wow, that was intense as fuck,” said Melinoe as she stepped around the side of the shed door.

  I jumped, having nearly forgotten she was there. “Did you just stand there and watch all of that happen?”

  “Well it all happened kind of fast, and neither of you seemed to care that I was there. I was afraid it would have been more disruptive to call attention myself by moving.”

  I really couldn’t argue with her on that.

  “OK,” I said, “how do I get to Hell?”

  I was back in the dungeon where I had been entombed. I cringed as I walked by the stone coffin and saw that the lid was closed.

  “Don’t worry, no one is in it right now,” said Hades, noticing my lingering stare.

  That only made me feel slightly better.

  Hades was leading the way with Cerberus by his side, and Melinoe was at his back with her two guards on either side. I brought up the back, but would have preferred being in the middle. I didn’t like feeling like someone could sneak up on me.

  I gasped suddenly as a realization hit me. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone! I’d left the mansion in such a hurry, and I had never gone back to tell them anything that I learned or decided. Guilt overwhelmed me, and I almost stopped walking—almost said that I had to turn around and go to my friends. But I knew if I left, there was a very big chance that Hades wouldn’t be as generous next time—and I also wouldn’t have put it past my friends to lock me up and not let me leave. I wouldn’t even blame them. I would have done the same to them. It did make me sad, though, that it hadn’t hit my mind until just now. I had people who loved me and wanted me safe. For most of my life it just been Ray that cared for me, and once he was gone, I was on my own for a long time. I felt so bad doing this to them, but I knew it was much too late to turn back.

  “Melinoe,” I called to her.

  She slowed her pace to walk alongside me. “Yes?”

  “Can you look in on my friends for me, please? I didn’t tell them that I was leaving so soon. They’ll be worried sick, and angry with me. Tell them I’m sorry, and that I love them, and I’ll do my best to get back to them.” I won’t cry.

  “Yes, I will tell them,” she said as she walked along.

  I caught her forearm and made her look at me. “Promise me.” I was closer to her face than I had been before, and I was still struck at how she managed to be both handsome and beautiful at the same time.

  “I promise,” she said keeping full eye contact.

  We resumed walking down the long tunnels, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking towards the death chamber in a prison—which was mildly amusing, since I was already dead, but there were many different ways a person could die.

  “Tell me about Grace,” Melinoe said.

  “Why?” I asked, as if I didn’t have an inkling.

  “She seems fascinating. I’ve never spent much time around any vampires, and her scars are marvelous.” Melinoe sounded almost breathless as she said the last part.

  “Grace is very young,” I said first. “She hasn’t been turned long. She was a suicide that I reaped. I signed for her because she was underage, and we became best friends. She works at the boutique Andreas runs in town. He was her maker,” I said.

  “And who is the dapper red-headed vamp that’s around her?” Melinoe asked.

  “That’s Boude, her boyfriend.” I looked at her while I said it.

  “Are they serious?”

  I wanted to tell her that they were, and she needed to back off and not ruin my best friend’s relationship, but that wasn’t my place. “I believe that he is serious about her.”

  “She doesn’t return his level of feelings?” Melinoe pressed.

  “Like I said, Grace is very young,” I said once more.

  I saw a slight smile cross Melinoe’s lips as she realized she might stand a shot at Grace. I liked Melinoe, but I also liked Boude. Boude had proven himself more of a relationship person than I had imagined, and I knew he loved Grace. Melinoe was sexy, and striking, but she seemed like someone who would just want to have fun. Maybe Grace wanted to explore other people, since Boude was the only healthy relationship she’d ever been in. Maybe she just wanted to have fun and not be so serious for a while. Again, it wasn’t my call to make. I just hoped that I made it back from this to see what she decided.

  I was suddenly feeling claustrophobic. The ceilings were getting lower, and the tunnel was becoming narrow. My heart was beating hard, and I had to keep reminding myself the thudding wasn’t real.

  “Almost there,” Hades announced from in front of us.

  We were all having to walk single file now, even the big black dog, who’s claws clicked against the stone floor.

  The gas lanterns on the wall were fewer and farther between, giving the already creepy space an even eerier glow from the flickering flames. Flames. Hell, what was I thinking?

  We stopped where the tunnel ended. It was a wide spot, just large enough for us to stand together.

  I looked at the walls and floor, everything was stone. “Are we in the right place?” I asked. “Did we miss a door?”

  “This is it,” Hades said, and the way he shifted from foot to foot, and kept eyeing the tunnel back to the main areas made me uncomfortable.

  “Well, what now?” I asked.

  Melinoe looked to her step-father for clues; she didn’t know any more than I did.

  Hades took a cold torch down from the wall and lit it from the flame of one of the gas lanterns. “Step back,” he said.

  We all backed up until our backs hit the wall, which was only a step or two. Hades leaned down with the torch in hand, and seemed to be looking for something on the floor. “Ah,” he said after a moment. He touched the fire to the floor, and flames shot up in a rush of heat and power, like a geyser made of fire.

  Melinoe and I covered our faces from the heat, and Cerberus whined and moved closer to me. Unable to avoid the flames, Hades patted out the small fires that were burning on his robe. His skin and hair were untouched, and he only looked mildly annoyed.

  The fire slowly shrank, from being so tall it was over our heads, to the size of a small campfire. As it burned, an odor filled the tunnel; it was so pungent that even Hades covered his face.

  “What is that?” Melinoe asked, pinching her nose and coughing.

  “It smells like sulfur,” I said.

  The fire slowly faded out, and where the stone floor had just been was a perfect circle of a pale yellow substance. Hades swiped his finger through the powder and recoiled at the scent.

  “Otherwise known as brimstone,” he said. He dusted his hands off and began walking back towards the tunnel. “We’ll leave you to it.”

  “What do I do now?” I asked, still as confused as ever.

  “Honestly, I led you here, and even opened the door. Must I spell it all out for you?” He turned to the circle filled with the vile smelling powder and pointed. “Under there—start digging.”

  “Good luck,” Melinoe said, as she turned to leave me too.

  I took a shaky breath and sank my shovel into the circle as far as it would go. I removed scoop after sco
op of brimstone from the hole, and it never seemed to make a dent, even though the pile beside me was starting to grow.

  The longer I dug, the more frustrated I became. “Dammit,” I yelled at no one, and dropped my shovel in frustration.

  I hear a whimper, and then felt something nuzzle my waist. I looked down to see one of Cerberus’s heads against me, while the other two panted.

  “Hey boy... boys,” I said, and scratched each head behind the ears. The dog’s tail wagged like mad, and then slowed as my disappointment resumed.

  Cerberus, like all dogs, could tell I was unhappy. He looked at the spot where I had been digging, and back to me.

  “There’s too much. I don’t think I can get through it all,” I told him, because it wasn’t like talking to a three-headed dog was the strangest thing I’d done lately.

  The dog snorted, ran to the hole, and began digging furiously; brimstone was flying out of the hole and all over the tunnel.

  “What a good boy!” I praised him as I watched him do his best to help me.

  He worked tirelessly, as fast as he could go, but when all three mouths were hanging open and panting, I stopped him. We were both yellow with the powder, and the poor dog had yellow tongues—I knew that couldn’t taste good. I wished that I had water to give him.

  Looking down, it appeared that we had maybe made the tiniest dent in the brimstone-filled hole.

  “Fuck,” I sighed. The dog joined me in swearing by letting out a very annoyed whine.

  I looked around for other ideas, and my eyes fell back on the torch. Digging wasn’t going to do it this time, and the brimstone had to be out of the way for me to get through. I hoped that by lighting only the brimstone in the hole, the fire would be contained, and not spread through the tunnel, or over me and the dog.

  Just to be on the safe side, I dusted us off the best I could, and made Cerberus stand as far away as I could get him. I tossed the lit torch into the center of the brimstone circle, expecting the same reaction as last time. But flames didn’t shoot up, and the tunnel didn’t fill with fire. Instead, it looked as though the fire was melting the brimstone.

  The abundant yellow powder started to glow red as the fire sank down into it. The hole became deeper and deeper, until all of the red and yellow was gone, and there was emptiness. I smiled at the effectiveness of my ingenuity, and then realized I was going to have to go into that hole, and the smile vanished.

  I sat on the edge of the stone floor and dangled my feet down into the hole, trying to work up the nerve to jump in. Well, this is the last thing I ever wanted to do, I thought.

  Cerberus was by my side, sniffing the opening and backing away.

  “Don’t worry, bud. There’s no way I’m letting you come with me,” I told him. “I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  The head on the left barked at me as if to say, “But I’m supposed to protect YOU!”

  I shook my head at him. “Go back to your master.”

  The head on the left snorted again, and I wondered if each head had its own personality.

  “Well, if you want to stay, that’s fine. But stay here. I might need you to help pull me out when I get back.”

  He laid down and rested his heads on the floor facing the hole.

  “Guess I need to get this started,” I told myself. And before I could second guess myself for another moment, I jumped.

  The scene from Alice in Wonderland played in my mind: the one of her falling and falling down the rabbit hole. The image in my mind was all I saw, though, and I hit something before my brain could translate the image to the thought of, I wonder how long I’ll fall.

  The landing wasn’t what I would have called easy, but I didn’t hurt, so that was good. The bad part was that I was in total darkness and didn’t know if I should turn left or right, forward or back. Panic started to overwhelm me, and I couldn’t move. Oh God, what if I’m stuck here in the darkness forever? It was just too awful a thing to think about. Even though I didn’t need to breathe, my body still tried to make it seem important, and hyperventilating still hurt.

  I felt like I was being strangled by the dark, by my clothes—and what is that awful weight on my back? I clawed at the dark, and even at my own skin, until I could feel the straps and bits of cloth and get free of all of it.

  It was only once I was mostly naked, and was able to take a full deep breath, that I realized this was probably not the most ideal place to be unclothed exposed. However, I was no longer freaking out as badly. I was blindly sorting through the things I had ripped off, when I realized the crushing weight I had felt was my backpack. What was in that backpack? Yep: the flashlight.

  I pulled out the heavy cylindrical object and flipped it on, anxious for the comfort of a light in the dark. The darkness sprang to life in front of me in ways I couldn’t have imagined—and it was horrible.

  The things I saw were burned into my brain, even though I only viewed them for a split second before turning the light back off. I couldn’t find Raphael without the light—couldn’t move out of this spot without the light. I was a sitting target if I didn’t move, and I was a moving target with the light on.

  I was so out of my league. I knew with all certainty now that I really wasn’t going to make it out of here. Going back the way I came wasn’t an option, so giving up now would be pointless. I resolved myself to at least find Raphael before I was captured by Lucifer or one of his demons.

  A few of the nightmarish images I had seen nudged me to reconsider as I got ready to turn my light back on. I knew there was no way to avoid the things I would have to see and face. I told myself maybe it was all an illusion—just tricks set up to spook me. It’s not real, I said to myself. And as I clicked on my flashlight and let myself take in all the nightmares of the room, I just kept repeating my new mantra over, and over, and over again.

  I couldn’t tell if I was in a room, or cave. Without my light, it was blackness, but even with it, there were no walls or ceiling that I could see. I shined my light up and it seemed to go too high, until the light of my flashlight was lost in the dark beyond it. I knew I hadn’t fallen so far.

  I decided to move forward, passing by things that one part of my mind wanted to try to make sense of, but the other part wouldn’t allow.

  There were strings, and wires—contraptions of all sorts. There were faces frozen in expressions I didn’t want to understand, and things added or missing where other body parts should have been.

  I tried not to look, but they were everywhere. The more I saw, the more I believed the mantra I was chanting—there was no way these were real people. They couldn’t be dead, and there was no screaming, no blood. It was just for shock-value.

  Once fear no longer had the upper hand, I moved much faster. I half walked, half jogged—still too cautious to break out into a full run—and I was trying to listen as I went. It was so quiet here, at least in the part of Hell that I was in.

  I remembered the copy of Dante’s Inferno that was on our bookshelf in the cabin. I’d first read it at fourteen, and then again around twenty. It was a book that had stayed with me through the years. Even though I wasn’t religious, I was always fascinated by the beliefs of people about what happened to us after death.

  Now, walking through Hell, I wondered if there was any accuracy to Dante’s book. Am I walking through the second circle of Hell, perhaps? If that was how this worked, I really hoped that Raphael was in one of the first few levels.

  I didn’t realize how lost I was in my own thoughts, until my skin began to tingle and goosebumps ran along my arms. Trying to notice what was different, I stopped to take in my surroundings. I rubbed my head and came away with sweat—not a small amount of sweat, either. I was soaked. My body was trying so hard to cool itself down, that was what caused the goosebumps. The heat must have been increasing incredibly slowly for me not to notice the temperature shift until now.

  A sound caught my attention. It was the first thing that I had h
eard down here besides my own breathing. The things around me weren’t alive, so it had to be coming from somewhere in the distance. I wanted to run towards the sound, towards another person who could possibly help me.

  Hades’s voice echoed in my head, reminding me to be wary of demons. I wasn’t sure what a demon would look like, but I was pretty sure I’d know when I saw one.

  The sound changed in tone: sometimes it was louder, and sometimes more distant, but it was a constant sound. As I went along, trusting my ears and feet to take me in the right direction, I noticed an orange-red glow in the darkness. It became brighter and brighter until my flashlight was no longer needed. I clicked off the light and put it back in the pocket of my backpack. Excited to at least move into a different area, I let myself increase my speed, making sure to still move as silently as I could.

  My clothes clung to me as if I had showered in them, and I knew that my body was hot because of how much I was sweating, but I didn’t feel the heat like I should’ve been able to.

  The glow was even brighter now, and I couldn’t tell if it was fire I was seeing, or just the light from another place. It captivated my sight and I ran towards it, no longer looking down at where my feet were landing.

  Even as the light got brighter, I felt like I had been running for ages, and I briefly wondered if this was another trick, like the brimstone. Will I run forever and never get there?

  My question was answered as my right foot went down, and suddenly there was nothing under it. I was about to run off of a cliff. My body was already moving forward to take me down, and it took every ounce of my strength to halt that momentum. I screamed, and managed to throw my body backwards to keep from plummeting over the edge. My legs were dangling off the ledge, and my head smacked hard on the ground as I went down, filling with pounding, searing pain that reminded far too much of the way I had died.

  I blinked as I saw fire shoot up from the pit below, and heard the popping, sizzling sound as flames licked at the bottoms of my boots. I knew I should move, but I couldn’t. Then darkness pulled me back in, as the pain became too much to bear.