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“But the poem isn’t true,” Heath continued, just as my flashlight sputtered once before turning off completely. Panic infiltrated my lungs as I banged my flashlight repeatedly against my leg, willing it to turn back on. Only Kace’s hand in mine and the thin glow of his flame allowed me any peace of mind whatsoever. “Limbo is actually where the souls rest while they’re waiting for Judgment Day. Where they are either devoured by Death…or returned to the land of the living. But if you choose the latter option, you need to fight. You can’t stand idly by. You need to—”
“What the fuck was that?” Tanner interrupted, his voice unnaturally shrill. I spun towards him, keeping my hand locked with Kace’s, to see his head turned in the direction of one of the passageways we didn’t take. Beau held his lantern up as well, trying to see what had captured Tanner’s attention, but the tunnel was empty, nothing but darkness and stones as far as the eye could see.
“I don’t see anything,” I whispered. Somehow, I found that I couldn’t raise my voice above a breathy exhale. I couldn’t explain it in words, but the silence felt…fragile. I feared what would happen if I spoke above a soft murmur.
“No! Right there!” Maria screeched, and we all whipped our heads towards where she stood in the back of the group, pointing. Her entire body shook as she slowly began to back up. “Is this some kind of joke? I want to go home! Now!”
“I don’t see anything,” Caleb told her gruffly, though I noticed he took a step closer to Kelly, as if he planned to physically shield her with his body if it came to that.
“I don’t—” My flashlight flicked back on, the soft golden glow illuminating the passageway directly to the right of me.
Terror expelled all coherent thoughts from my mind.
A…a creature lurked at the very end of the tunnel. I didn’t know how else to describe it, except that it was a monster, something plucked straight from my nightmares.
It had no face.
It was nothing but a slab of gray skin, as if someone had used sandpaper to rid it of all distinguishing features, including eyes, nose, and mouth. Its body seemed to be made entirely of shadows, dark tendrils coiling around a form that was twice the size of me, with a reptilian-like tail and tiny claws for hands. As I watched, horrified, the creature darted away.
“What the fuck?” My voice was nothing but a whimper.
“As long as we stay on the pathway, we should be fine,” Heath whispered. “Walking the path of the righteous.”
“How the fuck do you know that?” Brett demanded, but Heath didn’t answer, continuing to follow the trail of water trickling down the stone walls.
Another creature raced through the darkness directly to the left of me, its featureless face twisted in my direction. But when I turned to stare directly at it, there was no one there. Nothing but unrelenting, oppressive darkness.
Maria began to cry behind me, and both Beau and Tanner put their hands on my shoulders. I let them, mainly because I needed their comfort now more than ever.
A growl echoed through the tunnel, and we all jumped, pausing in our movements.
“What was that?” Kelly whispered, her tiny voice trembling.
“Just keep walking,” Heath told her, already picking up the pace.
“What are those…those things?” Maria demanded.
I didn’t think Heath was going to answer, so it surprised the shit out of me when he did. “Souls,” he responded, just as in front of us, brilliant white light exploded from the end of the tunnel. “Souls who have tried to escape and wandered off the path. Souls who have become lost in the darkness, becoming nothing more than monsters wanting to feast on the flesh of the righteous.”
Silence reigned after his announcement, broken only when Tanner exclaimed, “Holy fuck.”
The light in front of us seemed to beckon me forward, and I found myself practically sprinting to reach it. I needed to get out of here, needed to get away from these shadowy, faceless monsters lurking in every direction.
We took another right, closer towards the mysterious tunnel, and the only sound we could hear was the stomping of our shoes on the compacted dirt.
Just before we entered the bright tunnel, Heath paused, turning towards us. His expression was uncharacteristically grave, his lips curved downwards.
“The next circle we’ll be entering is Lust,” he explained. “You guys need to be prepared for that.”
“Circle?” A slightly hysterical laugh escaped Maria. “Where the fuck are we? Can someone please explain what is happening?”
“Lust?” That was from the blond man who’d arrived with Kelly. His expression remained utterly impassive as he fixed his glacial eyes on Heath. “We really are in the Nine Circles of Hell, aren’t we?”
“Purgatory, technically,” Tanner murmured, but we ignored him.
“What should we expect?” Kace interjected, his hand tightening around mine. “All of us to begin pawing at each other and removing clothes?”
I tried to give his hand a reassuring squeeze, tried to remind him that I was there, but I knew his mind was too far away to focus on that.
Amusement and sadness flared in Heath’s eyes, a corrosive mix I couldn’t even begin to understand.
“I guess we’ll know in a second, now won’t we?” And with that, he turned back towards the tunnel of light, took a deep breath, and stepped through.
