Prepare.
That ominous word startled me and left a sour taste in my mouth.
Astaroth’s upper body appeared farther up the wall. He pulled himself up and blocked my path, hands flexing ready to grab hold and whisk me off to erase my memory of anything but him.
Dive.
Without hesitation, I dove into the rushing waters below. I heard a splash behind me, but never saw where he went as the realm rushed me into the next corner. Bruises formed as I hit the hard, smooth ground. A sizzling steam rose as the water spread out around me and disappeared. Warmth soaked through my clothes and into my bones. It was almost soothing until the heat made it unbearable to breathe. It was way too hot for comfort. Where the desert was dry and the swamp was humid, this place was a blazing inferno with no air flow. A furnace the likes of a car in summer with the windows rolled up tight, suffocating you slowly. After everything I’d been through, I was terrified to face what I had to do next.
Exhausted, I lifted my battered body up to have a look.
“Ho-ly shit.” I scrambled to my feet and checked all around me to make certain I was safe where I stood. My head spun from the movement, and I leaned against the rock wall behind me.
Neon bright magma cascaded down hills to form a flowing pit. It reminded me of blown glass when heated, thick and gooey. The lava gurgled when it hit the pool and expelled noxious sulphuric farts into the nonexistent air that coated my tongueand made me nauseous. I covered my nose with my damp shirt and sucked what little water I could from the fabric.
This would be the most difficult leg of my journey yet. How was I supposed to traverse the bowels of hell and survive? There were no exits I could see inside the cave. The lava seemed forced between cracks in the rocky terrain like Play-Doh.
I wanted out of this hellhole. Focusing on the song, I walked the bank far from the edge of the bubbling goo. At times, I hugged the wall and stepped over gaps. The rubber soles of my shoes became slicker as the heat flattened the tread to nothing. There would be nothing separating my feet from the ground soon.
Just when I thought this might be easy, the ground quaked. I bent at the knees and braced for what was to come. I wasn’t expecting the rocks to split under my feet and drift apart on the rising lava.
“Oh my God!” I jumped to a larger piece and nearly fell in. “The floor is literally lava.”
Terrified, I studied the shifting checkerboard ahead of me as I surfed over my nightmare. This put a new spin on my childhood game. Only this was real, and if I so much as touched the liquid fire, I was dead. Game over. No extra lives, and no starting over. Sweat rolled down my face and sizzled when it hit the rocks. The temperature elevated the farther I drifted to the center, leaving me foggy. I had to move and now or I’d pass out and incinerate in the molten pit.
Pieces of rock floated closer to me and bumped the one I was on. I tested my weight on one of them. It wobbled but didn’t sink. As carefully as I could, I moved onto it, the other stone drifting away when I pushed off. With the speed they drifted, I had to trust they could hold me, or I would lose my balance. This proved to be a quick reminder that I couldn’t doubt, or the realmwould leave me stranded in a place I couldn’t survive. The song was well ahead of me, and I had some catching up to do.
Every step made my confidence grow until I leaped over bigger gaps and progressed quicker through the pit. The tune was clearer, so I knew I was nearing the end of this insane gauntlet. But as I rounded a bend, the floating steppingstones became fewer and there was no ledge on the sides to aim for, only walls going straight into the lava. I floated there, waiting for more stones to meet me. None did.
I was close to collapsing. The other corners didn’t kill me, and this one wouldn’t either. Well, that’s what I kept telling myself. I focused on Kaiden and the fun we always had inventing ways to get around the house without touching the floor. Sometimes we created our own rules, but I had nothing to climb onto and no household items to use to my advantage. Maybe this was the realm’s plan all along—not an escape, but a punishment for trying to leave in the first place.
A glint far across the gorge caught my eye. A solid bank of glassy stone glittered in the neon glow, much like my stone flashed when I made a wish. I lifted it from my chest. Never doubt and never lead. There was no mention of altering my circumstances to help me navigate the terrain.
“I wish for rocks to rise so I can pass.”
The stone pulsed and the lava bubbled in front of me. Excitement renewed me as I cringed from the awful smell the single stone emitted when it emerged from the depths. Then irritation set in. After everything I suffered, I could’ve done this all along.
I waited a moment for it to cool before stepping forward. Nothing else happened.
“Rocks, plural,” I reiterated.
Nothing.
Exhausted and frustrated, I screamed, “Give me rocks!”
My voice bounced off the cave walls back to me. There were no other branches to travel or openings that I saw. Only a lagoon of lava.
A dull rumble responded. The pool began to churn until it jumped like boiling water. Steppingstones bounced to the surface, riding the waves. I choked on the fumes blurring my vision and winced when something sharp hit my head, then my shoulder. Pebbles sprinkled around me and over the pool. I looked up as the ceiling fractured and chunks of rock tumbled into the pit. Lava geysered into the air and splatted over the rising stones as it landed. It was going to bury me alive.
I took off, bouncing from one stone to the next as rocks pelted me from above. I understood how Chicken Little felt when he screamed, “The sky is falling!” Only, it wasn’t just the ceiling falling. The stones immediately sank as I stepped on them. I didn’t have time to think or balance, just move my ass. Hardcore parkour.
Lava burned holes in my clothes, the fibers melting to my skin, as it splashed around me. I sizzled like a piece of bacon frying in my own grease. It popped on my already welted arms and legs with each jump. I labored to breathe in the increasing heat and gases rising into the air. Fear of death and adrenaline held exhaustion at bay. For the moment. Blisters formed on my soles and immediately ruptured from the melting rubber oozing into my shoes. It was pure, unequivocal agony, and my predicament was dire.
A loud crackle reverberated through the cave. Every hair on my body rose to attention. I couldn’t see what was happening or how much farther I had to go, because if I took my eyes off the dancing stones, I’d jump right into the lava. I had nothing left to give. My body blew through its reserves and operated on fumes. I’d expended it all to get me to this dreadful place.
The glittering bank came into view as massive rocks fell around the cave. Survival was within reach. I had to keep moving. Autopilot kicked in as I jumped from stone to stone, raising my arms up to protect my head from the debris. When I reached the last stone, I launched myself across the bubbling gap and crashed onto the sharp, jagged rocks with a shriek that rattled my eardrums and shook the remainder of the ceiling loose. Massive slabs dropped and with it an ocean of magma. I curled into a ball and screamed as it enveloped me.
