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Hecate’s smile broadened, and she tilted her head to give me a glimpse of the hag. “Which do you think it is?”
I wasn’t in the mood for games, but I played along, hoping to expedite our deliverance. “Well, we’re here. So I’m going to guess it’s the path of the wise.”
This made her chuckle, and she stepped to the side, giving us an unencumbered view of the night road. “You’re here, yes. But your journey isn’t done. You have both been at this crossroads before. And you both turned back.”
Leo glanced at me then, and his expression was in between awe and exhaustion. I shared his concern.
Nothing in this trip was going to come easily, was it?
“And?” I asked, knowing there was another shoe, and it was about to drop.
“You cannot take that path again. One does not walk away from the crossroads a second time.”
The hope that had guided me here cracked, turning from a glowing light into a thousand little fireflies, threatening to fly away from me at a moment’s notice.
“You can’t be serious. How are we supposed to get back if not by the night road?”
Hecate angled her face coyly to show the maiden. Round cheeks curved up in a grin that almost managed to convincingly convey innocence. Except I wasn’t dumb enough to buy it.
“You dig.”
Leo groaned audibly. “Come on.”
The woman face snapped forward, now deadly serious. “Did you think you’d just walk out? As if this was a play you no longer wanted to watch? No. If you want to live, you will prove you want to live. Now you will dig, or you can turn around and go back the way you came.”
Her anger was so sudden and fierce it took me by surprise. Leo, too, didn’t seem to know how to respond. Instead of fighting it any further, I dropped to my knees in the center of the crossroads and dug my fingers into the ground.
Though it looked firm and had felt hard beneath my feet, it yielded easily to me now. Large clumps fell away as if it were nothing more than cake, crumbling beneath my fingers. I continued to dig, spurred on by my need to find whatever was waiting for me on the other side. Soon Leo was kneeling beside me, and with his large hands to help, the ground fell away beneath us, and I could no longer see Hecate or the night road.
We dug and dug until the dirt started to tumble down around us, on top of us, burying any hope of an exit. The weight of it pushed down on both of us, filling in the space we’d made until it was a struggle to move our hands for another scoop.
Soon we weren’t digging so much as we were burrowing.
Dirt flooded around me, and I lost sight of Leo, lost sight of anything but the moist, dark earth that tried to force its way into my mouth and nose. I closed my eyes and continued to fight against it, clawing forward until I was sure all my nails were broken and the breath in my one good lung was about to be crushed out of me.
Every part of my body said this was hopeless, that I was struggling in vain, but my mind didn’t agree. My brain made its demands, and my limbs had no choice but to follow orders. So we dug.
And dug.
And just when I felt absolutely certain I had dug my own grave, my fingers passed through something solid and hit cold, fresh air. A breeze tickled my skin, and I almost cried out in relief but didn’t dare for all the dirt trying to drown me.
I clawed at solid ground and pulled myself forward. Only when the night air was on my face did I gasp for breath. I drank it in by the lungful, desperate for it, not caring how badly each inhale hurt, because I was actually able to breathe, and the pain was a worthwhile tradeoff without a doubt.
I wormed my way out of the earth, swiping dirt from my eyes and shaking it off me as I dragged my lower body from the hole I’d made.
A few feet away a rough gasp drew my attention, and Leo emerged in a similar fashion, fighting his way out, his breaths raspy and quick.
It took a moment for me to realize where we’d come up.
The hundred or so corpses lying around us were the big tip-off.
Crumbling two-hundred-year-old tombs helped complete the perfect picture of a Louisiana graveyard.
I staggered to my feet and went to help Leo out of his would-be grave. If I looked anywhere near as terrible as he did, coated in dirt and blood and sweat, we must have made quite a pair. He glanced around, and once his breath was back, he said, “We did it?” as if he wasn’t entirely sure.
I nodded slowly, patting him on the arm. “We did.”
“So…you won the bet.”
