The Third Sin

by Tamara Geraeds

  I prepare to land next to Vicky, but suddenly the invisible force keeping me afloat vanishes.

  I drop from the sky like a ton of bricks and land on my Morningstar.

  I scream and roll over.

  Vicky looks over her shoulder. “What is it? What happened?”

  I gasp for breath.

  Her eyes widen. It takes her only half a second to reach me and kneel by my side.

  Her hands gently touch the skin around the weapon. Blood oozes through her fingers. She shakes her head, while tears form in her eyes. “No. Please no.”

  The howling of the vortex gets louder. Gray branches with black leaves attached to them fly past us.

  Behind Vicky, a white, crooked form hauls itself up. It braces itself against the storm and reaches for Vicky’s neck. Slowly it opens its mouth.

  Anger flushes over me and makes me forget my injury. With a growl, I pull my Morningstar from my stomach and throw it at the hollow-eyed creature. It hits the thing square in the forehead and it topples backward.

  Vicky pushes her hands on my stomach with a cry of surprise.

  My insides go cold. “What?”

  She lifts her hands and for a moment I’m dumbstruck. There’s nothing there. No hole, no blood.

  I start laughing. Vicky frowns when I pull her into a hug. I push her down when a monster ball flies past.

  “What are you laughing at?” she finally asks above the roar of the approaching vortex.

  “I thought I was dead. And then I wasn’t. We can’t get physically hurt here, but I keep forgetting that.”

  “How’s that funny?”

  “It’s not. But your face was when you saw that the hole in my body was gone.”

  She moves her sword behind her back, slicing an arm off of a mutant. “If we weren’t in such a hurry, I would kick your ass right now.” With two more strokes, she kills the thing.

  I smile. “No you wouldn’t. You’d kiss me.”

  “This is not funny, Dante. We opened a portal to the wrong world. Now creatures are coming through it.”

  I get up, haul in my Morningstar and swing it toward the vortex, making sharp balls fly everywhere. “I know. So let’s close it already.”

  I take my athame, which is safely tucked beside the notebooks, and start moving forward, one slice at a time. I can hardly hear the monsters howling above the racket the wind makes.

  “Should I say the spell in reverse or do you have a spell to close a portal?” I yell.

  Her answer gets lost in the screaming of three monsters simultaneously attacking her. She moves her sword like lightning and pieces of flesh surround her for a moment.

  When they are blown away by the wind, Vicky is no longer there.

  “Vicky?” I turn my head in every direction until I’m dizzy, and squeeze my fingers around my weapons. “Vicky! Are you okay?”

  The only answer I get is a dark laughter that chills me to the bone.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Looks like your love went home without you.”

  With my chin down, I blink against the strong wind. The portal and moving vortex are darker than ever and seem to suck all the light out of the Shadow World.

  I squint to clear my vision and raise my athame in front of me.

  “Opening a portal to Tartarus is never a good idea, didn’t anyone ever tell you that?” the raw voice continues.

  The bow of a small boat slides into view. An oar moves through water that appears under it. The last of the mutants and spike monsters dive out of the way and disappear screeching.

  “Well? Don’t you have anything to say… chosen one?” He extends the s’s, like a snake.

  I look around quickly. Every creature in sight has run away. There’s no sound, except for the splashing of the oar. Even the wind is holding its breath.

  There’s still no sign of Vicky. The hairs on my arms stand up at the thought of something bad happening to her.

  I step back, but change my mind and straighten up. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”

  Half of the boat is now visible as my eyes slowly adjust to the dark. Bones held together by black strings and skulls still attached to the spine cover the wooden boards it’s made of. The high bow ends in a hand holding a lantern.

  The boat comes to a halt and a large figure steps closer. “My name is Charon. You might have heard of me. I am the ferryman of the Underworld.”

  “No way…” I whisper. My mind whirs. I’m trying to remember whether this man is good or bad.

  “I am neither,” he says calmly. “My only job is to carry the dead across the river Acheron. I do not judge those who arrive on my shore.”

  “Oh good,” I reply, mimicking his calm tone, while my hands and feet tingle with fear.

  Now that the lantern lights his face, I can study him a bit. Not that I want to. I’d rather turn and run as far away from him as I can. He may sound like a friendly old man who smoked too much, but he certainly doesn’t look the part. Dark rags hang upon his tall, slender form. A hood covers most of his face, but not enough. I can still see the sunken cheeks, bony nose and lipless mouth. I’m glad the hood covers his eyes, if he even has those.

  Charon leans on his oar. “So why did you open a portal to my world?”

  I grimace. “That was a mistake. We were trying to get home.”

  “I see.” His skinless fingers tap the wood of his oar. “I’d better close it, before something crosses that disturbs the balance.”

  I lift my head, automatically trying to make eye contact. “You can close the portal?”

  He puts the oar back in the water and pushes the boat back slowly. “Sure.” His mouth twitches into a dark smile that shows sharp teeth.

  While he retreats, darkness creeps up on me again. My palms get sweaty. Something tickles the back of my neck.

  “Could you perhaps…” I clear my throat. “Would it be possible for you to open a portal back to my world for me?”

  The boat comes to a halt and I swallow.

  The ragged cloak ripples as the ferryman pulls the oar out of the water. “There’s no need to be afraid of me, young Dante. I am one of many appointed to keep the balance in the universe. This balance currently depends on your success.”

  So even he knows about the prophecy. I drop my gaze, emotions raging through me. Doubt and fear take the lead.

  “A little insecurity is good for you,” Charon’s voice says right beside me.

  I jerk my head up and gasp for breath. The boat is still in the same place, with the ferryman on it. I am, however, no longer standing a couple of feet away from him. When I look down there is no white ground. I am standing in the boat.

  “Wait,” I say hoarsely. “I don’t-“

  “You’ll come with me for a while. There are some things I need to show you.”

  When I open my mouth again, he raises a bony finger. “After that, I will send you home, so you can finish your quest.” His skinless finger moves down slowly. “Sit.”

  We float through the portal, where the spiky balls crawl away as soon as they see the boat.

  I look back and gather all of my courage to ask a question. “Are you sure that Vicky is no longer there?”

  He remains silent, stroking the end of his oar and moving his head slowly from side to side.

  He whispers something in a language I don’t understand and a blue glint slithers down the oar and drops into the water. It moves like a snake towards the portal and when it hits the dark edges, the hole starts to close.

  “Your girlfriend is fine. For now.”

  My head swivels back to the dark figure.

  “She is back at your manor, with your other protectors.”

  “What do you mean: ‘She is fine for now’?”

  “I’m sorry, I cannot tell you more. It is part of the path you must follow.”

  Great, another mystery to add to the list. And another person telling me I’m n
ot ready to know everything.

  “This has nothing to do with you being ready or not,” Charon interrupts my thoughts. “You have a destiny. This curse is part of your path towards victory. You have to carry certain burdens to get to the end.”

  I wet my lips. “Will she be alright? Vicky?”

  “I cannot tell you.”

  My hands ball into fists and I stare into the water. There’s nothing but blackness there. Just as much as what is waiting for me. But I don’t want to drag Vicky with me.

  “I cannot tell you the outcome of this curse, because I do not know. But the currents of the Five Rivers speak of strength and endurance.”

  I rub my face with both hands. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you will win this battle if you don’t give up. Keep your head up and trust in your own strength.”

  I sigh. “Thanks. I’ll try that.”

  When I look back, the portal to the Shadow World has closed completely. I want to ask how soon I can go home, but I don’t want to seem ungrateful. He told me he needed to show me something. A man as powerful as him must have something important to say.

  So instead I ask, “Do the currents say anything else about me or my quest?”

  “Oh yes.” The corners of his mouth twist up. “They say that if you fail, there will be a change of power in all worlds, not just in yours. This will mean the end of my existence, along with others. Therefore, I will do my best to help you.”

  “That is… great. Thank you,” I mumble. His words weigh heavy on my conscience. How did I change from a normal sixteen-year-old worrying about a boring summer break, to a chosen one responsible for the fate of not only earth, but all existing worlds?

  “It is wise not to think too hard about this. Just remember that you are very important and that many beings depend on you for their survival.”

  I groan. “Oh yes, that is so much better.”

  “Your human mind is too small to wrap around the whole meaning.”

  I massage my temples. “You must be right, because my head is really starting to hurt.”

  “There is no need for that.”

  His imperturbable composure is starting to get on my nerves. “How can you stay so calm? Aren’t you worried?”

  He lifts the oar out of the water and gestures at the dark river. “Like these rivers, life has its own course. It will keep flowing, even if we disturb the surface.” He drops the oar back into the water. “Our influence on its course is limited. We can only change it so much.”

  My eyes follow the flow of the river. “But if we can’t change its course, then why would we even try?”

  Charon moves the oar slowly, in small circles. “We can change part of it. The harder we try and the longer we persist, the stronger our influence will be.” As he increases the force of his movements, the circle around the oar gets deeper. The water around it is sucked in. “With strength and endurance, we can alter the path of life. Even if only for a moment.”

  My mouth has fallen open and I close it quickly when he looks up again.

  “I get it,” I say. “That moment may be long enough to change the fate of the world.”

  He shows his sharp teeth. “Exactly. You are a quick learner.”

  I grin back. “I have my moments.”

  I expect him to stop stirring the water, but he just makes the circle bigger and bigger, until it looks like a whirlpool.

  “Eh… what are you doing?”

  His movements are strong and slow now, his gaze locked on the darkness below. “I’m creating a passage through the water. We need to get beneath the rivers.”

  I grab the edge of the boat when it moves forward with a jolt. “Why?”

  “To show you what you need to see.”

  The boat dives forward, into the whirlpool. It turns until everything around me is a blur. My stomach is pushed up into my throat and my hands ache from the force with which I hold on to the boat.

  Charon has pulled the oar back in. He leans on it calmly, and watches my discomfort with growing amusement. “Three, two, one…”

  CHAPTER 6

  Another jolt makes my teeth chatter. Darkness swallows us whole as we get sucked through the bottom of the whirlpool. Up is down and down is sideways. My eyes hurt with the effort to follow every move we make.

  “Almost there,” Charon says. He is still standing straight, unaffected by the rollercoaster ride we’re on.

  With a loud splash, we land in a shallow stream. The water rises up high, but somehow I stay dry.

  It takes a moment for the nausea to fade. If I move too much, I’ll throw up, so I just lift my head.

  That distracts me immediately.

  High above us a river meanders through the dark sky. Mist curls around the shores and arms reach out.

  “Welcome to my realm,” Charon says, with a wide gesture.

  I look beyond the river and see more currents. They cross each other and move at different speeds. One flows slowly, while the other rages on. One is a dark gray, another is pitch black. They seem to go on forever, looming over the world below. A low moaning reaches us from far away. Unidentifiable things move in the water everywhere. I imagine them clawing their way towards a freedom that they will never find.

  Charon makes me jump when he suddenly speaks. “We have to walk. Follow me.”

  He floats out of the boat to the shore. His oar has changed into a staff not very different from Maël’s. Only his is a lot darker and it has skulls on the top. Bones are wrapped around it like endless fingers.

  I climb over the edge of the boat and step into the water. No floating for me.

  While I wade through the river carefully, I keep an eye on the ferryman. He’s a foot taller than me and moves like a snake, even on land. His rags seem to become one with the mist that covers the shore.

  I shiver as it wraps around my legs. Cold creeps up my body and I cough.

  Charon looks back at me and points his staff at my feet. The mist retreats instantly and I can breathe again.

  “Come,” he says. “Stay close to me.”

  My feet are dry as soon as I step ashore. Charon is already moving, so I run to keep up with him. The mist follows close behind me. It swirls towards me, pulls back and charges again, as if in constant doubt whether to obey Charon or catch the prey it wants.

  I try to focus on something else instead, but looking at the sky full of rivers above us isn’t very reassuring, either. The more I look, the darker it all seems to become.

  Fear grabs my throat. What if this ferryman is deceiving me? What if he just needs to lure me into some kind of black hole to kill me?

  Charon throws his hooded head backwards and lets out a deep, choked laugh. “You underestimate yourself, Dante.”

  I take larger strides to keep up. “I do?”

  “You remind me of myself, many centuries ago. I was so insecure. Failure kept whispering foul things into my ear.”

  Right. We are so much alike. I try not to snort. The powerful ferryman that lives in the Underworld and the chosen kid.

  He waves his staff around. “Do you think I got this all for free? That it was just given to me? That I was always this strong?”

  I shrug.

  “Not at all, Dante. I was once young and unexperienced, like you. All these great powers were brewing inside of me. I just had to learn to control them.”

  He stops and points his staff at the river furthest away from us. “When I came here, there was only one river, the Styx. It was made by the Goddess with the same name.”

  The mist rises as he moves his staff. It forms a female body, tall and slender, with long straight hair. “She was gorgeous, like all Goddesses. But inside, she was weak. Slowly, her power poisoned her.”

  The mist turns darker, the head changes shape. The mouth opens and claws push themselves out.

  “I was appointed to take over, but I did not know how to defeat such a powerfu
l being.”

  The woman bends forward and smiles. “Styx tried to seduce me with her beauty. I played along, meanwhile plotting her death. I expanded her river for her, until it circled around the Underworld seven times. By the time I finished, I had learned so much about my powers, that I knew how to defeat her.”

  The Goddess made of mist backs up in surprise. Small spiky balls jump around her feet.

  “I created the Razorlings. You met them earlier. Their spikes are filled with adamant, the hardest mineral in existence.”

  Styx’s body wriggles as she tries to get rid of the creatures. “As Styx could only leave her river where it ended, I looped both ends together. Then I released my army of Razorlings.”

  He falls silent as the Goddess in front of us is stabbed by the creatures. She cries out in pain and slowly crumbles to dust. The mist scatters with a hiss.

  “After her demise, I was free to explore the depths of my powers. I then created the other four rivers and everything else you see before you.”

  He starts walking again and I follow. His words sink in slowly. So fighting magical beings isn’t just about how strong your powers are. Sometimes you can outsmart your enemies. I sigh quietly. I already knew that. We tricked the ice demons into a demon’s snare. Somehow I doubt the Devil will be so easy to trick.

  “True,” Charon says, making me grit my teeth. He should really stop reading my mind. “But using all your abilities to fight, will teach you your strong and your weak spots.”

  I nod and we walk on in silence for a while.

  We seem to descend even further. When I look up again, the rivers are just a dark blur in the distance. Where the hell is he taking me?

  He chuckles. “Not to Hell, I can tell you that. Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”

  Sure enough, ten steps farther, he comes to a halt. I catch up with him as he waves his staff again. The mist subsides and a white lake becomes visible. In it, little dark and light spots move around, like fireflies.

  Charon points at them. “This is the Lake of Remembrance. All the memories that are taken by the river Lethe before the souls step into my boat, are collected here.”