Beautiful Cries

Chapter Twenty: Haunted Melodies

The slap of Damari's sandals against stone as he left Alena echoed in her ears as he moved to the entrance of the cave.

She had picked up the brass spy glass and held it tentatively in her hand as she remembered what Kaiya had warned her about, that she would be lost if she were to use it wrong.

But surely wanting to find an entrance to the underworld to save one's best friend wasn't a reason to have her lose her way from the true path..was it?

Just look through the spyglass already Alena, she grumbled to herself, rolling the brass in her hands a couple of times before cursing and raising it to her eyes with both hands.

At first, it looked like the glass was blurred, nothing could be seen through it except for the faint outlines of rocks around the cave, causing Alena's frustration to grow all the more.

Grumbling under her breath, she pulled the glass away from her eye momentarily before inhaling deeply. "Just breathe and look through the bloody spyglass before you lose your mind more than you already have."

Letting out an even deeper exhale, she lifted the spyglass to her eye yet again, struggling to quell her anger as she peered through what she thought would be muddled glass yet again.

At first, it was just as it was before and she nearly tossed the useless spyglass across the rocky cave, until a small glint caught the corner of her eye.

Daring not to lift her spirits too high, she situated her eye once more to search through the looking glass, her breath hitching as the glint became a far brighter light to the right side of Hades Helm.

It stunned her for a moment as she leaned closer to make the anomaly move closer while a faint humming sound began to reach her ears.

Ignoring the insistent melody, Alena moved even closer until the same shining glow seemed to be radiating from somewhere outside her line of sight.

She turned quickly to find the glow peeking out from her bag, giving her caution, but also curiosity as to what could possibly have caused it.

As she reached her hand inside the bag, still holding the spyglass tight in her hand, she heard another loud screech sound from the entrance of the cave.

Her head shot up and she looked out in the direction she had seen Damari last. "Damari! Are you all right? Something's wrong and Hecate could be closing in."

A muffled thump, like a body falling to the ground, echoed through the caverns, worrying Alena even further.

"Damari! Please answer me!"

"I'm okay." he called out breathily. "It just appears that Hecate has decided to send in the first wave of forces."

Raising the glass back up, Alena searched hurriedly through her bag in hopes of finding the source of the light. "What do you mean the first wave?"

"I mean that we haven't even begun to see what she can do. What she did to our minds a few hours ago, that was child's play. The real battle has just begun."

Nearly clearing out the entire bag, Alena carefully pulled out one of the items that she had yet to remove from the bag.

The scroll that held the prophecy glowed almost like a star on a clear night, shining brightly for all to see.

Lifting up the paper, she held it next to the brighter light, inspecting what could be in common with the two when the same, eerily soft melody spilled itself through the air.

It caused a shiver to run up Alena's spine as she listened intently while reading the prophecy yet again, but through the use of the spyglass; hoping it would reveal something deeper than what was seen by the naked eye.