Tears of the Moon

The Underworld

~Haiden~

"Oof!" I abruptly slammed face-down onto a hard stone surface.

The impact forced all the air to leave my lungs and was bruisingly painful on my left cheek. My rheumy, faintly-glowing eyes cracked open, taking in the sight of the starlight dagger softly gleaming next to my face. It cast a chiaroscuro of pale light and shadows over the rough stone, looking radiant amongst the gloom. The memory that I had just died and was now in the underworld flooded my mind, igniting a churning pillar of fury within my soul. I grabbed the dagger with determination and pushed myself up, gazing around at all the macabre yet familiar scenery with a discombobulated stance.

Libitina will suffer for what she's done to myself and my mate...

I appeared to be inside of a massive dark cavern, full of sharp speleothems and formidable cliffs. The mephitic air was damp, heavy with the stench of everlasting decay and moldering mud. Whispering mist clouded the impossibly lofty ceiling, giving glimpses of menacingly sharp stalactites looming above. It eerily rolled in a single direction as if doomed to voyage onward forevermore. I stood upon the precipice of an unfathomably deep chasm full of more swirling mist. Sickly rotting hands reached up from the opaque darkness, their bony fingers twisting unnaturally through the fog as though hopelessly grasping for some enigmatic salvation. Groans of agony and deranged chatterings of madness distantly echoed all around, accompanied by the occasional scream like a forlorn menagerie of invisible souls.

Before me, a large menacing bridge stretched out across the dark chasm. Gnarled black stalagmites held up the cracked stone expanse of it, their haggard tips curving inward to give the appearance of sinister arches as one walked across. A plethora of precious stones were embedded along its twisted black railing, gleaming dully as though all the life and luster had been sucked out of them by some evil spirit, leaving just an empty shell of their beauty behind. Beyond the bridge was a vast chasmic valley obscured by more mist. And furthermore were fathomlessly dark openings to a web of labyrinthine tunnels leading to various sections of the underworld, littered with bones and covered in haunting frescoes of death and bloodshed.

...Wait, how do I know so much about those tunnels? 

I ran a hand through my disheveled hair, furrowing my brows in confusion. The sour air burned my nostrils as I sucked in a breath and peered across the ghastly bridge before me. It was then that I noticed the strange clothing I was adorned in. Everything was black, from the tight long-sleeved tunic, to the leather pants, hooded cape, and laced-up boots. It was nothing like what I wore while alive and made me look like some sort of underworld assassin... Which would be correct, considering my mission here. 

Movement on the other side of the bridge caught my eye. The silhouettes of a man and a woman took shape within the low-drifting layers of fog, accompanied by a few very familiar-sounding voices. An amalgamation of excitement and dread set the surface of my skin alive like pins and needles, making it so I didn't want to budge yet had to move. My heart should have been racing, yet it failed to beat even once. I was no longer a living man, but rather, just another soul trapped in the underworld.

"...Costache?" I warily called out while taking a cautious step onto the bridge. Loose stones crunched beneath my boot and an unnatural breeze played with the ends of my hair. 

Is that really him on the other side, or just a cruel illusion? 

"Haiden!" His familiar voice momentarily stopped me in my tracks. "We're over here! We've come to greet you!" The fog cleared just enough for me to see him waving his hand high above his head. His top bun bounced and there was a genuine smile on his face despite everything that had happened.