by Amy Marie
After all the intense treatments Joseph had suffered through, she’d called on the one last resort. She’d sought the help of the voodoo shadow man from New Orleans, Louisiana. She’d called upon him, and, in the shadows, he’d appeared. He hadn’t made everything better, nor had he made it worse. If one were trapped in a hurricane in the presence of the voodoo man, everything would become still, like the eye of the storm. He had simply threatened her on the assumption that any moment, the end would come and, when it did, all hell would break loose. In the end, her brother would die unless she sought his help.
And hell, in this case, was the loss of Joseph’s mind. He would erupt like a cataclysmic catastrophe. Once he was lost, there would be no going back.
Joseph was the eye of this storm. Once the top hat laced with the shadow man’s magic was placed upon his head, the gears came to life. It was as if the hat were living for Joseph, and he now merely existed in a world he no longer understood or recognized.
After receiving the clockwork hat, Joseph left his homeland of Switzerland in hopes of finding a more permanent cure for his condition. Wearing a hat every moment of every day for the rest of his life was not his idea of living. Was he alive? Yes, barely, but it wasn’t enough. He was no longer himself, just a shadow of the man who used to be Joseph.
At least until he’d spotted the white rabbit! Why couldn’t Scarlett see the rabbit? Joseph didn’t care, he just knew he needed to follow the furry creature. The rabbit hopped side to side as it made its way through the forest. Joseph felt a connection to this creature, a link he hadn’t felt with anyone or anything since his change.
The rabbit ran ahead and hid behind a large oak tree. Joseph chased it and hid in front the tree. He peeked around the trunk and half expected to see the animal. Instead, there stood a woman in a white dress. He stumbled back, and his eyes widened in surprise. Was this creature a shifter? Joseph wasn’t sure, but at that point, with magic in the world, anything was possible. When he approached the woman, she simply vanished into fog and the rabbit reappeared.
He followed the rabbit once more until it led him to another tree. It was no sapling he approached. It had to be over three hundred years old, and in the front most part it was hollowed out.
Stepping closer to the darkened area covered by shadows, he leaned in, hoping he could see inside the darkness. He was blind in the shade of the tree, however was curious what was inside. He held his hand into the hollow part of the tree, then pulled it back. The air felt the same, it wasn’t damp, and nothing touched him. He looked over both sides of his hand. Then, Joseph felt something touch his leg and gasped. It was the rabbit! It skipped past him and hopped inside the opening, not to return.
Joseph gnawed on his bottom lip, then scratched at his chin. What did he have to lose? Taking a chance, Joseph stepped into the hollow of the tree and fell inside the darkness.
Chapter 2
When one fell for what felt like ages, at some point, the screaming stopped. The wind rushed around Joseph’s body, but there was no end in sight. What would happen when he landed? Would he survive? Instinct told him no, but what if he fell onto something soft, like a pillow? Or maybe it would be warm water? Or a bed of feathers?
He felt along his hairline, then grasped the brim of his top hat. He couldn’t lose his mind once he landed. He would need to find shelter, food, and people. Maybe in this new place he would arrive at, in time, he would discover a new species of people. What’s to say civilization didn’t exist in the center of the world?
Then, without warning, he stopped. No air blew around him. Nothing caught him or touched him. He simply hung in the air and floated.
What an odd sensation, he thought. He wasn’t sure if up was up or down was down. Maybe up was down and down was up? He reached out in hopes of touching a wall, maybe the floor, a ceiling perhaps. But where would a ceiling be after he’d fallen for what felt like hours?
“Oof!” Joseph’s body landed on what felt like grass. It didn’t hurt. Considering how long he’d fallen, he felt somewhat shocked he’d survived. He pressed his palms onto the surface, then gasped at the texture. It was like pushing his hands into warm, boggy ground. He maneuvered himself to his feet and stood, then wobbled for a moment as he got his balance.
He reached up for his hat and touched the brim; it was still in place. As his eyes began to focus in the darkness, he realized a table sat before him. It was small, the size for a toddler. He bent down and picked up the note that sat atop it. The top had his name scribbled on it.
Joseph gasped and dropped the note and took a few steps back through the wet, saturated ground. It was then he realized his clothes were soaked. He ran his hands over his chest and looked back to the table once more. There was a cup that had steam billowing off the top, with an inscription.
“Drink me.”
“Right,” he said to himself. “Because that’s what people do when they fall down a long hole, as far as the universe. They drink something just because it’s there.”
“Well, why not?” a female voice asked. It was soft and high pitched, as if the sound came from a small figure tucked somewhere out of sight.
“Who’s there?” Joseph asked. His heart raced and he took a few more steps back, at least until a wall behind him stopped his movement. He looked up, hoping not to find someone there. He couldn’t tell what it was and dropped his hands to his side and pushed off the hard surface. He made a few quick steps forward and held his arms out to his sides, hoping to protect his body from any form of attack.
If something did attack him.
“Get a hold of yourself, Mister Rose. I’m not going to hurt you. But you need to drink the cup full of hot cocoa if you plan to survive the next few days. No, the next few hours.”
“Who are you? What do you want?” Joseph walked back toward the table and spied the cup once more. He looked inside and found exactly what the voice had said it was, a cup of hot cocoa.
“Drink it,” the small mouse-like voice called. “Then you’ll understand.”
“Maybe I don’t want to understand,” he whispered. “Maybe I just want to go home.” There was truth to his words, but only partial. He didn’t understand what was happening, yet the excitement of a new adventure also thrilled him. He didn’t want to fall back into the same mundane routine of whose-mind-are-we-today? in Switzerland when he could drink this concoction and venture into uncharted territory. He was frightened but the only fear in this was not taking the leap.
“Do you trust me?” the female voice asked, and, in the shadows near the table, a woman stepped toward Joseph. It was the same woman he’d followed who’d shifted into the rabbit. She had beautiful, long, golden blonde hair, eyes the colors of sapphires, lips slightly full with a hint of pink, and she wore a beautiful, sleeveless, white gown. She was slender and her figure was slightly opaque. Was she actually there? If Joseph could see through her, then probably not.
“I want to,” he told the woman. “You found me, and ever since I’ve had the notion to follow you, but I don’t know why.”
“You will understand in time,” she told him. “Now, please, drink. We need your help. I…I need your help. There’s not much time, Joseph Rose. Please, drink.”
Be it far beyond Joseph to understand what was happening, he found it hard to argue with a translucent woman who knew his name. A woman he’d never met, but somewhere in the pit of his stomach, he felt he knew her. But how?
He picked up the cup and sipped the beverage. The flavor exploded on his tongue and he felt starved for more. Joseph salivated for more of the liquid and drank it back in greed, devouring every ounce of it.
When he finished, he set the cup down and licked his lips. That was when the magic started. The translucent woman then vanished from his sight. That was when he realized this had probably been a mistake, but did he actually care? Not really. What did he have to lose? That was also when everything around him went black and Joseph passed out . . . cold to the new world he’
d fallen into.
Chapter 3
The wind blew, and the smell of flowers enveloped Joseph’s senses. It felt like a warm spring day in the meadows of Switzerland. He smiled and stretched, enjoying the warm sun. When was the last time he’d felt like this? It had been a while, he thought. He inhaled deeply, and upon the exhale, something poked at his arm, like a sharp stick. It probed him twice more. He rubbed at his bicep and waved off whatever bothered him.
“Leave me be. I want to sleep a little more. It has been so long since I’ve slept.”
“Joseph, wake up. please, wake up.”
The voice was merely a whisper, but it was hers. The woman in white. The white rabbit. The same being, one in the same, same in the one. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
Reality slammed back into Joseph and he opened his eyes wide to the world around him.
Not my world. Not my home. Where am I?
The ground he lay upon was nothing but dead, brown grass. It had the distinct smell of spring flowers, regardless of how it appeared. He rolled to his stomach and glanced to his side where he was being poked. A lizard with purple skin and dark green spots flicked its tongue out and his eyes rolled about in different directions.
Joseph frowned and tilted his head. “Were you poking me?” He didn’t expect the creature to answer, but there was nothing else near him.
“Yes, quite possibly. You are in the road, sir.”
Joseph blinked and leaned a little closer to the lizard. The reptile once again flung its tongue out, but, this time, it extended far too long for its own body. The tip of his tongue flicked Joseph on his cheek.
“Eew,” he whispered and tried again. He cleared his throat. “Am I in your way?”
“Did I stutter, stranger to the underworld?”
This time, Joseph watched the mouth of the lizard actually move. His brows rose and his mouth opened, agape in shock.
“If you don’t close your mouth you will surely catch flies,” the lizard said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to carry on home.”
He decided to play along, knowing he was dreaming, absolutely dreaming. He had to be. Lizards didn’t talk.
“What is this underworld you speak of? And why don’t you go around me?”
The lizard flicked its tongue out and this time, slapped Joseph on his nose. “Ow,” he yelled. “Stop that!”
“Then move, human who does not belong in our world.”
Joseph frowned. “How is it I can hear you? Have I gone completely mad?” With a start, he reached for his head and sighed in relief upon the touch of his hat. He hadn’t lost it, therefore had kept what was left of his mind. Maybe he’d hit his head a little too hard when he’d passed out.
The drink.
The woman in white.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
“What’s your name?” Joseph asked.
“Richard,” the lizard answered. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get home.”
Joseph realized Richard didn’t answer his questions. “My name is Joseph. Wait, please. What is Underworld? How do you know I don’t belong here, and how is it I can hear you speak?”
Richard’s eyes bobbed left and right, not looking at Joseph, but looking at him at the same time. He was an odd creature, so small, yet so demanding.
“Underworld is where you are. Anyone left living has been turned into a creature like me, so, therefore, it becomes an obvious guess you do not belong here. And I move my mouth as my voice comes out, just like you, you idiot. Now, will you please move along so I may pass?”
Joseph nodded, still confused over the answers, but he moved, nonetheless. He scooted back on the ground and watched in awe as the lizard named Richard passed him by.
“Who’s the white rabbit?” he asked.
Richard cocked his small head back and blinked his small, beady eyes. “The white rabbit of the underworld? No one has seen or heard from her in many years.” Richard tilted his head. “How did you see this rabbit?”
Joseph shrugged. “In my world, if I’m truly not there anymore, which is something I’ll need to try to understand later, she found me. I was close to . . .” Suicide. I was close to suicide. “I was close to changing things on a permanent basis. The rabbit found me, and I had a sudden urge to follow her.”
“And here you are, passed out on our grounds. Bravo for arriving like the fool you are, Joseph.” Richard turned and began to scamper off.
Richard frowned. “I’m not a fool. Where do I find the rabbit?” Joseph called out.
“You may not be a fool, but you are quite mad. It would help to follow the trail to where the queen’s castle once stood. Find the trail, you’ll find the rabbit. Good luck, earthman named Joseph.”
“I’m not mad,” Joseph whispered and got to his feet. He swiped at his clothes and checked his hat. Everything was in its place, and the place was in everything. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
He shook his head at the ticking that constantly repeated. He took in a deep breath and slowly released it. He looked to the sky. It was blue like on Earth. There were a few white clouds like on Earth. He breathed air, with oxygen, like on Earth. Was he no longer on earth? What was this underworld?
He looked to the ground and took in the darkness of the dead grass. Why did it smell like flowers if it was dead? There were trees in the distance, and like the grass, also dead. The lands were nothing more than a horizon of death and the sight was sad, yet, terrifying. When did this land die? Why would someone do this?
He held his hand above his eyes to block the rays of the sun as the ticking echoed in his mind.
“Joseph, this way,” he heard whispered next to his ear.
He turned with quickness, but found no one there. He looked to the ground. Had Richard the lizard returned? No, he was a male in a lizard’s body. He’d heard a female voice.
“Wait,” he spoke aloud. “Richard said anything left was changed to a creature like him.” He rubbed the back of his neck and pondered the words.
“Nope,” he spoke aloud. “I have completely lost my fucking mind. I followed a fucking rabbit down a fucking hole, drank a substance, having no idea what was in it, talked to a fucking lizard named Richard . . . yes, I’ve lost my fucking mind. My mind has gone mad, mad has gone my mind.”
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
He growled and closed his eyes, then rubbed them with his fists. “Wake up. Wake the fuck up.” When he opened his eyes once more, he was still in the underworld.
“No,” he whispered and rubbed his eyes again. “Make it stop. Make it stop. Stop it make, make it stop!” Panic rose. Scarlett wasn’t there to help him, nor were the doctors who could give him a cocktail to calm his senses.
“What do I do?” He cried through his clenched eyes, and that was when he felt her.
A calmness settled over his body, like a veil of snow, so light, so cold. His heart slowed, and when he opened his eyes, the woman in white stood before him.
“Calm yourself,” she said with a smile. “Follow the trail, this way,” she motioned to her left.
Joseph blinked and stared at the woman, through the woman. He slowly turned in the direction she pointed, and it was as if he’d known the entire time where to go. He’d just needed to realize he already knew.
Which way.
Which way.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
“I’ll be waiting just there. Come find me, Joseph. Please, come find me.”
When he looked back to the woman, her translucent body faded into the midday sun. He took a long inhale and held it, then let it rush past his lips.
“Right,” he said and began to walk. “A lizard named Richard and a woman I can’t really see or touch, and no one else but me can see her. And Richard said I was mad. So all of this isn’t real. Perfect. I’ll go on this journey in a world that appears to be dead, but smells of life, and find someone I’ve never met. Perfect.”
He shook his head and started down
the path laid out before him. If he was already mad, what was the worst that could happen?
Chapter 4
A chill ran through Joseph, and his body shivered. The sun began to set in the horizon he followed, and his belly growled in hunger. A loud squawk rang out overhead. He looked up and found a black bird flying through the sky. It was a crow. Where there was a crow, there was corn. Corn had water. Water had food. Food was life and life was sleep.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
He growled and shook his head. The ticking grew louder. It was quiet, too quiet, in this part of the underworld. He had no lizard to entertain him, and the woman in white had not reappeared. He would soon begin to talk to himself for his own entertainment.
“Did you know a group of crows is called a murder?” he told himself. “A murder of crows. Who the hell thought of these names and called them appropriate?”
The crow called out again and sure enough, another one appeared. Then another. Joseph started following the crows rather than keeping on the trail. He would get back to it later. He needed food and water. These crows had to have something somewhere.
He wasn’t sure how far off course he walked, but he’d gone a long distance from the road he’d been traveling. He glanced back over his shoulder and could no longer see it. Fear clamped his chest, but when he turned back to his current direction he saw he was almost at the top of a hill. Maybe at the bottom there would be food!
Suddenly, his detour didn’t seem so bad. He quickly ran the rest of the way to the pinnacle and once crested, he gasped. There were green bushes with what looked to be red apples. How? He didn’t care; it was food. Apples were mostly water so there was that. Food, water. Water, food. Food. Food. Food!