The Triple Goddess

by Stephanie Hudson

  “I think I’m good on my own this time.” Lucius took in my flustered state and nodded for Liessa to sit back down. I was surprised I was allowed to leave on my own but considering how everyone in this room obviously feared their Lord then I didn’t think I was going to encounter too many problems.

  I made my way through the crowd like I was spitting venom, as everyone backed away from the scary little human. Once in the toilets I leant on the counter to try and compose myself.

  “Don’t have a bloody melt down Keira!” I said out loud looking at myself in the mirror. Thankfully I was alone in here, not that I cared if any of Lucius’ freaks thought I was weird talking to myself but being on my own definitely helped. What exactly was Lucius playing at? One minute I didn’t think I could hate him anymore than I did and the next he was turning me to mush with his flirtations that were showing me a different side of him. That what he said about the scars of my past being wrapped in soft material was a sweetness I couldn’t comprehend coming from him. Was he doing this for a reason? Was he hoping to turn me against Draven?

  There were too many questions swarming my mind making it hard to do simple tasks like having a pee. I was just glad I realised that my skirt was stuck in my knickers before I walked back out there and showed every Tom, Dick and Demon my pale bottom.

  Once outside the bathroom I was getting ready to walk back to Lucius when I heard a voice that I had only the pleasure from my dreams.

  “Draven?” I whispered putting my head down to hide the fact that I was speaking.

  “Keira, come to me!” It was Draven but where, how? I looked around and noticed a low archway to the left of the stage. I heard his voice again and it sounded like it was coming from in there. Was this the plan he had spoken about? Did he need me to follow his voice to safety? There were too many questions to just stand here wondering what to do. I found myself storming that way without another thought about right or wrong. I knew if Lucius caught me I was in big trouble, but what was the worst he could do, he couldn’t kill me that was for sure. After all, you couldn’t bargain with a dead body!

  I made it through the stone arch without one person stopping me and once there I had to stop and take a breath that I had been holding in.

  “Keira come now, follow my voice.” I heard from down the dark passageway. I took one last look at the great hall and when I didn’t see anyone coming this way I decided to listen to what Draven was telling me. I started to run down the dark passage and just when I thought I was going to run out of light, torches hooked on the wall by massive hoops lit up by themselves. I jumped at first but then found comfort in the sound of wood crackling.

  “Keira, come on my Keira.” Draven said in an echoed call that had me moving again. The passage looked made from rough stone blocks that built up into a low arch. The smell of damp and smoke that came from the torches filled my nostrils and my skin started to sweat but not out of being warm. I hugged my arms around my stomach but kept going. Why didn’t I like this plan?

  “Don’t be afraid Keira, I’ve come to take you home.” Draven spoke as if sensing my fear. It was enough to keep me walking until I came to a cross section that opened up into three different options. It was left, right or straight ahead.

  “Draven?” I said whispering, hoping he would hear me.

  “Straight ahead Keira!” Draven said and I followed blindly through the lit tunnel. Every time I came to a section that was too dark another set of torches would spark into life and every time I would flinch away as if I would get burned being too close.

  After a little while walking without an end in sight I came to another section only now the choices weren’t just left or right but now up or down. For some reason I really hoped the next instruction from Draven was up but of course I wasn’t surprised when his stern voice said,

  “Down here, I’m down here!” I closed my eyes and wiped my sweaty palms on my dress before doing as instructed.

  “Ok, I can do this.” I said as I took the first steps.

  “Draven, tell me your really here?” I said feeling the fear creep along my skin the further I went down. It felt as though I was walking into the belly of the mountain and I could feel the trickle down my spine as a result of my fear.

  “Trust me Keira, this is the only way out.” It was so hard doing anything other than trust in that voice and my continuation was proof of that fact. The staircase started to curve round and then continued on straight down once again. I wondered how far it went down and hoped it wasn’t much further.

  “I thought you couldn’t come here?” I asked after not hearing his voice for a while and each passing minute getting a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “I found a way but you must hurry or they will find you.” This didn’t sound like the Draven I knew. He wouldn’t put me in danger, would he? I stopped and looked back to the way I’d come. I could still find my way back couldn’t I?

  “Keira, why don’t you trust me? I would never let anyone hurt you, come with me.” His words penetrated my doubts and the last of my cautious walls crumbled.

  After the next turn in the stairway I could see a door and I let out a breath of relief. I didn’t know how much longer I would have lasted. The door was ajar and after a few heavy whole body pushes I managed to get it open enough for me to slip through. The room opened up into a huge space and the torches in this room had bright green flames. It reflected off the stone and created an eerie glow from every space. The floor couldn’t be seen with the heavy fog coming from nowhere that didn’t make sense. The ceiling was at least thirty foot high and arched over in decorative stone work. It was carved into a sea monster taking apart a ship in stormy seas. And in the middle of the sea were two whirlpools that were actual holes in the ceiling. They matched perfectly the holes in the floor being the mirror opposite and were about the size of a Mini Coupe. I wondered what they were for as the ones on the floor were edged with silvery bricks that looked wet and reminded me of two wells. The room also smelt damp but more so in here than the passageways.

  I got a bad feeling about this and kept to the walls to avoid the wells. I kept looking at the ceiling, expecting something to happen.

  “Draven?” I whispered, quickly wishing I had never come down here.

  “Just walk to the other side of the grate and you’ll find the exit. I promise.” I looked to where Draven spoke about and saw the other side of the room had a door and on the floor was a metal grated section, the width of the room and went from the second well to the wall by the door. There was no way around it and to get to the door I had no other choice but to cross it. I decided just to get it over with before I chickened out and I made a run for it.

  The door was made from heavy wood and had a small arched window that had three bars in the middle. I pushed and tried to turn the thick ring handle that hung down on one side.

  “Why won’t you open you stupid thing!” I said pushing and twisting as hard as I could.

  “It’s locked!” I shouted but didn’t get an answer.

  “Draven?” I said fearing the worst. I started to hear something move, like stone grating against stone but it was coming from above. I closed my eyes and shook my head fearing what I was about to see. I looked up and forced my lids back to take in the cause of the noise. What I saw was my fears come real. The sea monster was moving round on the ceiling and when one tentacle unwrapped from around the well it smashed down onto the carved stone ship breaking it in two. The room then started to shake and the stone ceiling started to crumble and come raining down in patches.

  “DRAVEN!” I screamed as the sound of immense pressure on the stonework could be heard. I felt like something was coming and I turned and started to pound on the door with my fists.

  “DRAVEN!” I shouted again but he had left me. Had I not made it in time? I turned again as the noise got louder and then drops of water started to rain down in the cracks that had appeared. I had a really bad feeling about what the noise was and when
I saw the holes in the ceiling start to move round, each turn getting faster I knew it was close.

  “LUCIUS!” I screamed the only other name that I had any chance at being saved.

  Then it came.

  The water erupted from the walls and came crashing down into the wells on the floor. I plastered my back onto the door and just as I thought the room was going to flood causing my definite drowning, the water seemed to flow straight down into the holes in the floor and nowhere else. I took a relieved breath that I wasn’t going to die and this depressing room wasn’t about to become my watery tomb.

  The spray from the water soaked my dress to my skin like an extra wet layer and I decided to try the door one last time before heading back. I turned round and screamed louder than I ever had before. The face that had appeared in the window was the root of all my fear. It was what nightmares were bred from and I was staring into the face of Hell. You could have wrapped all the faces that haunted my darkest dreams, Morgan, Sammael, Gorgan Leeches and every Demon face I had ever seen before and it still would not have amounted to the face that was staring at me right now. I couldn’t stop screaming.

  It had more of an oval shaped head where the skin had been pulled tight across the jagged bones underneath. The eyes were the size and shape of tablespoons but were black and hollow, soulless eyes that had thick serrated skin around them, almost as if they had been gouged out. There was no nose, just a horrifying mouth that took up three quarters of the face. Long pins about six inches in length spanned from one side of the face to the other and there were around forty of them all splaying over the open grin. Behind them was a split face of razor pointed teeth for three rows one after the other that reminded me of a shark after tearing into a limb as there was an endless amount of blood dripping down from the mouth, if you could call it that. I would have said it was more like a weapon than a facial attribute. The hair line was a ripped scalp peeling away from the forehead like demonic fruit.

  I started to back away but the floor beneath me started to move and when I looked down I saw the metal grate that I was stood on started to disappear into the rock. I was too late to try and jump across and had nowhere to go. I had no other choice than to grab onto the bars in the window near the face. I think it started to laugh and ended up spitting blood at me in a spray. I swallowed down the bile that rose over and over but at the last few feet of grating I turned my head to the side to throw up. I gripped on tighter as my last space of footing was disappearing and didn’t think as far as what I would do after it was gone completely.

  I looked down as my toes held on, leaving just enough space from the metal. I slipped a few times but regained my footing, scraping my boots along the rock step below the door. The face got nearer and I was torn between plunging to my death and being snapped at by this Demon. I looked down one last time and back up again to find the face was at my hands and I screamed again.

  “TIME TO DIE NOW!” It said in its demonic voice that vibrated the walls before it turned it head to the side and opened it huge mouth. I didn’t even have time to let go to get away, as it plunged six inch bloody pins into my fingers spearing straight through to the other side.

  I screamed in agony and let go of the bars, falling backwards to my death, wishing that hadn’t been the last face I saw before I died.

  But it was.

  Chapter 17

  An Unlikely Saviour

  I was starting to get used to relating my death to falling into a dark abyss but landing had never happened before.

  Until now.

  I crashed on my back into water and let my limbs float in front of me. My hair danced around me in slow motion and I saw the blood coming from my fingers like red ribbons before mixing with the dark water. It took me a moment to react to the fact that this was not my death but my survival. I started to grab at the water, the way one does in a panic and realised I wasn’t that far from the top. I broke the surface and took in deep mouthfuls of air trying to fill my lungs over and over.

  Once my body began to respond to the intake of air I took in my surroundings. It looked like I was in a cave under the room I had just fallen from and I could hear the water fall from above. I tried to get my bearings and find a way out of the water but it was quite dark with the only light being the green glow from above. Thankfully it reflected off the water and lit the cave to a degree. I looked around and saw the water was vast and went off into different bits of the cave but to one side looked like a miniature beach that sloped upwards from the water. It looked as if I would have to drag myself out which was going to be difficult given the pain in my hands. Fortunately I think the cold had numbed them, as all I could feel was a throbbing every time they moved.

  I used my arms, trying not to move my fingers, in big circles pulling the water towards me and I started to make progress. I tried to be as quiet as I could and I just prayed that the demon that obviously wanted me dead wouldn’t come back. I moved slowly but was getting closer to the embankment. I couldn’t help but go a little faster at the thought of getting out of this freezing water and hoped that I would before I broke all my teeth from them chattering so violently. I was not in a good way but I was breathing and that’s all that mattered for the moment.

  I came closer to the side and my feet finally started to find something underneath them but they kept slipping on what I presumed was mud. I kicked one foot in as hard as I could underwater and launched myself at the side. I managed to get part of my body out of the water but couldn’t help the scream from erupting as my fingers grabbed onto the earth. I could see the blood spurt from them onto the sand but when my fingers sank into the embankment I realised that it wasn’t sand at all, it was more like…like soap? It was white clay like substance but was foamy between my bloody fingers and far too slippery to hold on to for long. I bit through the pain and tried to pull myself up but I wasn’t getting enough grip.

  Then my situation got worse as the walls started to shake and the water vibrated in little waves that splashed onto the strange cave floor. I heard something behind me, a chanting coming from above and then the waves started to get bigger. My fear spiked until it wasn’t just down to the cold that caused my shaking. I battled with the fear and tried in pure desperation to get out of the water. I looked up and saw an opening in the rock that could have been a way out, if only I could get there. I yelped again at the pain I was putting my hands through but my survival took over and flooded my body with lifesaving adrenaline. I had to get out.

  I heard another noise behind me like something was rising out of the water and I stupidly looked behind me to locate the source. A body started to rise out near one of the rocks which was a tiny island in the water and it looked like a burnt skeleton with pieces of flesh hanging off in big sections like flaps of muscle that had been sliced. It climbed out onto the rock using all four disgusting limb bones that cracked with each movement creating a horrifying echo in the cave. I couldn’t help but heave to one side but from being sick already I had nothing left. Upon hearing me its head snapped up and its face added to my sickness. It had flesh melting down its skull like some invisible force was pulling it downwards, stretching the tissue across the holes where eyes, nose and mouth should have been. It made a clicking noise like a giant cricket and still down on all fours it turned its head to look at me like a man sized Praying Mantis.

  I had to move! I had to get to the exit or there was no making it out of here alive. I cried out again at the pain of trying to dig my way out. I clawed at the clay but it just slipped and squelched through my fingers like it really was mashed up soap. My whole body was getting covered with the stuff as I thrashed around in a panic. I turned round still trying to pull myself out when the creature started hammering its bony fists into the rock it was stood on. I couldn’t understand what it was doing but I didn’t care, I just needed to get the hell out of here!

  “Oh come on!” I said in frustration when my foot slipped and I went further down the slope. The white thick clay
stuff started to move under me, pulsating and forming bubbles that got so big when they popped it splashed my face, neck and bare shoulders. But I couldn’t let go, my only hope was that opening, if I went back into the water I was never getting out of here. I knew that and that thing knew it as well. I got one more good footing and bent my knees to then throw my body upwards. I made better progress and for a minute thought I really was going to make it. Most of my body was covered in thick white foam that felt heavy like cement.

  But then something happened. I looked down and started to make out thousands of little red veins in the ground and the mud started to pulsate and vibrate harder around me. It was as if the mud was alive and soon I found myself feeling it penetrate my skin like it was slowly sucking the life right out of me. My arms could no longer support my body and I fell, face forward with my elbows sticking straight up in the air. My legs had stopped moving half in the water and slowly started to drift like two dead floats.

  I didn’t just feel cold but I started to feel…hollow. I opened an eye to see the veins growing bigger and it was as though my body was fuelling them and they were travelling back to the creature with my essence. But how? I thought no one could feed from me. Well they sure got that one wrong, didn’t they, I thought sarcastically. I know it was hardly the time, considering I was lay in this shit hole about to die but it was too heartbreaking to think of Draven’s voice that had led me to my death. My only hope was that no one would ever find me down here as this lifeless shell. I would never want Draven to know how I had died, it was too painful to even think about.