Eva’s chest heaved. She drew deep breaths, trying to steady herself. She had not stopped running until the gates of the city had vanished from sight. She refused to look back. It felt as though the whole city were staring at her.
“Saw ‘em, did you? Right terrified me too.”
The woman who spoke wore a brown woolen dress stained with mud and singed in places, carrying a faint acrid smell of sulfur. Her eyes were soft and brown, full of feeling.
“Pompous asses, the lot of them,” she continued. “Especially that fellow talking to you. Would serve him right if he became one of them”
“How do you…” Eva stammered. “How did you get here?”
“Same as you. By ferry,” she said. “I’m Anna.” She held out her hand.
Eva took it. “I’m Eva.”
Anna bowed in mock sincerity, stopping her lips just short of Eva’s hand. Then she gave it a quick tug, released it, and started walking away from the city. “Can’t leave that horrid place behind fast enough.”
Eva fell into step beside her. The air was intoxicatingly sweet, rich with the earthy fragrance of the surrounding vineyards and faint traces of exotic flowers. She searched the distant horizon for the reddish glow and billowing smoke she had seen from the temple. That was her destination.
“No,” Eva said. “Here.” Surely Anna had to understand what she meant by here. But she only looked puzzled. “How did you arrive at the harbor?”
“I was…” She scrunched up her nose. A blank look crossed her face. She shook her head. “That’s odd. I was just…”
Song drifted across the rolling hills, but not birdsong. Soft. Sweet. Enticing. It blended perfectly with the distant notes of a flute. The same music she had heard mingled with the screams of the Abyss. So much like the song the satyr had played for her, and yet completely different.
“The dance,” Anna said. “I remember dancing with Charity.”
“Yes,” Eva whispered. “Me too.”
“She told me I was special,” Anna said. “That I deserved to be loved. I’ll never forget her eyes. Wonderful shade of green they were. And then there was the mountain. And the valley. That’s where I met… him.”
She sighed. “I believe in love. Tell me, Eva, is there anyone you love?”
“Perry,” she breathed. It felt good saying his name. “I am going to him now.”
Anna’s eyes grew distant. “This music,” she said, listening intently. The flute seemed closer now. “The enchanted creature who played it brought him to me. We wandered through the bog. He put flowers in my hair.”
Something felt wrong. Nothing Anna described quite matched her own experience.
“He laid me down on the grass and we made love.” Anna trembled in memory. “I’ve never been touched like that before.”
The vineyards had ended, and petals drifted down around them from cherry trees in full blossom. It was the most beautiful place Eva had ever seen. But she would not be fooled again. She did not know what this place was. But beautiful or not, it was still Hell.
“He didn’t care I was from Stupidity. Wealth and power weren’t everything, he said. And then…” A look of confusion crossed her face. “And then…”
Eva took Anna’s hand in hers. “You can tell me, dear-heart. And then?”
“He went back to his wife.” Anna’s eyes glistened with tears. “And I…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t remember.”
“He promised.” Her voice trembled. “He said he would tell her. That we would be together forever. Here in Beulah.”
Oh no. Eva gasped and squeezed Anna’s hand. “Turn back. It’s not too late.”
Anna pulled her hand away.
“Charon will take you back. Cerberus won’t stop you.” Eva’s voice grew urgent. “The Prince won’t turn you away.”
Anna’s eyes flashed with jealousy. “I know your type. You want him for yourself.”
“You can’t stay here. You can’t go forward.”
“How are you any different from me?” Anna demanded.
Eva opened her mouth, but no answer came. Was she any different?
Anna pulled her hand free and turned away.
“Anna, wait.”
Eva followed, but Anna slipped away into the blossoms. Gone. Perry. She had to reach Perry. No. Anna. She remembered Perry standing firm before Beelzebub. He would be fine.
The song of the sirens had become a lament. The wind circled through the grass, sending ripples across the hills. Specters flitted among the trees.
“Come back, my love,” one man begged, the apparition slipping through his arms.
A woman clung desperately to a skeleton, kissing him again and again.
A man leered at her. Eva ignored him.
“Hey, pin-box, are you alone?” She stiffened and kept walking. Her heart quickened. Her fingers drifted to her dagger.
“Has your lover abandoned you too?”
She made up her mind. She would find Anna, no matter how long it took. Then she would bring her back to the surface herself. Tie her up and carry her if she had to.
Hour after hour passed, and still she searched. There seemed to be no end to the horrors.
A man knelt before a woman. She struck him with a whip. His eyes rolled back in delight.
“Again,” he demanded.
A man sat among the skeletons of children. A skeleton rested in his lap, a faded blue ribbon still tied around her skull. He stroked the brittle strands of hair clinging to it.
“My sweet girl,” he murmured. “You’ll be old enough soon.”
Eva’s temper flared. She wanted to pummel him with her fists. She turned away in disgust. The bastard would probably enjoy it.
She came to a bog so strangely lovely it hardly seemed real. Trees draped in silver moss. Flowers blazed with impossible color. Their perfume drifted on the breeze.
In the middle stood a booth, its walls hung with rich tapestries and its posts twined with carvings of cunning workmanship. At its center stood a bed draped in fine linen, and Anna reclined upon it.
Eva gasped. In Anna’s embrace was a corpse.
The air was heavy with fragrance—myrrh and aloes, sweet oil and clove. Beneath it lingered the smell of decaying flesh.
“Oh, Eva,” she gushed. “I’ve found him!”
A worm crawled from an empty eye socket. Anna brushed it away gently and pressed her lips to the gray lifeless flesh of his cheek.
Eva’s eyes stung. “Oh, Anna. Oh, Anna. I will walk with you. Just come with me. Perry can wait.”
Anna stared back at her, no trace of blankness on her face. She knew she was in Hell.
“No, Eva. I’d rather be damned than leave him behind.”
No blow from Cerberus had ever landed harder.
