A Psychopomp Anthology

Brisbane Line

They were a strange bunch. People the likes of which Thanatos hadn't seen before. They were rugged in looks. A scruffy beard and unkempt hair as well the stench of death upon there pale, sick bodies. They were young but wore tattered rags of a soldier.

It hadn't been hard to convince them to get on the boat. The soldiers were skittish. They seemed to be put off by the sounds of the underworld, or rather the lack thereof. Five of them were seated in the boat per Thanatos's orders. If it weren't for the fact that the laws of Gods weren't in a match with the laws of physics, the ship would have tipped over merely from how far they wanted to get away from the deity. A young man, however, sat at the feet of him. He couldn't have been over the age of 20. He had a rough looked to his face, but it was softened with the dawn of his spectacles.

The boat took off down the river. It was a slow and tedious journey, and with each passing minute, the men were becoming increasingly nervous. They began o fidget with the insides of there sleeves and tie their shoelaces repeatedly. He could hear their breaths quicken, but when he turned around, they dare not breathe. Thanatos looked towards the young man closest to him. The boy gave him a forced smile, and Thanatos nodded before driving his oars back into the waters. Miu, who was nesting in the back crease of Thanatos's robe, comfortably playing with Thanatos's braid that kept the hair out of his face. The small sparrow started singing a tune. It was reminiscent of the riff of 'pop goes the weasel'.

"Up the Brisbane mill, we go
It's captain Logan's Bill we sow
The chains around my wrists they grow
A convict's life for me."

Thanatos didn't look back, but he knew the young man from before had joined in with the bird's song. The bird continued the song, and the boy hummed along. Looking at the boy, Thanatos shrugged "Don't let me stop you. You're hardly going to annoy me." The boy nodded and looked back to his fellow soldiers.

"The labour-intensive slaves we were
We worked for our freedoms worth
From Melbourne to Darwin to Brisbane to Perth
A Prisoners life, a plead."

The others hummed along if to keep themselves from fidgeting. They harmonised with Miu while trying there damnedest to stay quiet.

"My family's away in England you know
My brother, my sister and children at home
Their stomachs are growling, it's the food they're owed
God save the Queen."

"Do you know how it ends sir?" The boy asked Thanatos. The others held there to breathe in anticipation. He curved his lips slightly, and he sucked in a gulp of air.

"A rope around my neck they said
or shipments to the states they read
But they sent me to this place instead
An Australian man I'll be."