Chapter Thirty-Two: The Final Challenge

 

As Therese stepped through the wooden door of Than’s room—opening it, for it was solid, unlike it had been in her dream—she wished again Hades hadn’t told her the truth about her parents. She hated the idea that she’d been an inconvenience to them, a burden, even if, later, they loved her. Therese emerged into a tunnel similar to the one in her dream, and for a moment she worried, actually wished, it was another dream. If she were dreaming, then what Hades had said about her being an accident might not be true. She pushed off the ground with her feet, but landed squarely on her sneakers. Pinching herself brought no change. As far as she could tell, she wasn’t dreaming.

The tunnel opened onto a larger cavern, and as soon as Therese stepped inside, a coven of bats was disturbed and rushed in a whirlwind around her before making its escape through a tight opening above. The coven consisted of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of small fruit bats similar to some she had seen once with her parents and grandparents at an abandoned train tunnel near San Antonio.

Hades had warned her there were creatures, but hundreds of thousands? Maybe Ares had multiplied them in an attempt to scare her. You’ll have to do better than that, Ares, she thought.

Had that been a thought or a prayer? What was the difference between the two, especially when one addressed a god? Hoping Ares had no privy to the thought, Therese hiked on along the river of fire. The last thing she needed was for the god of war to feel challenged.

As she hiked, she thought again of her parents and their plan not to have children. Had the accident not occurred she wouldn’t exist. At all? Not even here, or in heaven, or somewhere else? How strange her existence, her whole being, depended on one unplanned act.

People say things happen for a reason and things are meant to be, so maybe she came along in spite of her parents’ wishes. She was destined to live, to meet Than, and to be here, right now, at this moment. Or, maybe life consisted mostly of accidents and there was no plan, no destiny. Maybe you had to make your own destiny.

Hades said her parents had no regret about having her. How could he be sure? What if there were moments when her parents wished they didn’t have to compromise their careers in order to take care of her?

She wondered if it would be possible to see them, even though they wouldn’t recognize her. The dream had seemed so real and had felt so awesome. Maybe she would pass by the Elysian Fields and catch a glimpse of them on her way to Erebus. Maybe.

The passageway turned sharply to the right, and as she followed it, a swarm of rats ran down the ceiling and onto her. They weren’t biting, so she didn’t panic. She had often wanted rats for pets because she had learned, after her parents got her Puffy, that hamsters were generally antisocial, whereas rats loved human company. She had played with rats at the pet store in town and had tried to convince Jen to get some—you should never get just one, because they get lonely and need companionship, the pet store worker had said. Now, as the rats crawled up her arms and legs, along her shoulders and the front and back of her neck, she giggled.

“That tickles.” She lifted one with both hands—you should never lift a rat by the tail, she recalled, because you could injure its spine—and looked into its beady eyes. They were red because of the reflection of the river of fire. She imagined they were black otherwise. “Hello there,” she said to it.

One rat made its way beneath the leg of her jeans, so she bent over and grabbed it with her other hand. “Oh no you don’t, mister.” Meanwhile, several were burrowing in her hair and licking her earlobe. “I have to get going guys. Are you coming with me?” She set the two in her hands down on her shoulders.

Carefully, so as not to step on any of them, she moved forward. Most ran from her limbs and hair, but a few lingered on her shoulders and the back of her neck, their tails clinging to her face for balance. She spit when one of the tails moved across her lips. Otherwise, their company wasn’t so bad.

Jen would freak, she thought.

All but the two perched on her shoulders eventually scurried away. She was glad for their company, especially as she neared the junction where the river of fire met the Lethe, and before she could turn right, away from the flames, a beautiful woman with long green hair and flowing robes of the same hue emerged to the surface of the river and smiled at her.

Therese smiled back, unsure whether she should stop or keep going. Recalling Hades’s warning to be polite, she stopped and said, “Hello.”

“Hello. Who are you?”

“Therese. And you?”

“Lethe.”

“I thought Lethe was a river.”

“Indeed. It’s named for me. Why are you passing this way?”

Therese wasn’t sure whether she should tell the whole story, but when she considered that it might win the woman’s sympathy, she decided to tell all. “Thanatos and I are in love and want to marry, but in order to be accepted by Hades, I have to complete one last challenge of five.”

“Oh? Why would such a young lady wish to join the daemons of the Underworld?”

Therese looked about her. “It’s actually pretty fascinating down here. And, as I said, I love Than.”

Lethe asked her more about her life, about the challenges, about how she came to know Thanatos. When she seemed satisfied with Therese’s answers, she asked one more.

“Do you miss your parents?”

“Of course.”

The woman floated on the river with only her head above the water, and her long green hair streamed behind her like fishing line carried by the current. “It hurts, doesn’t it,” she said without inflection.

“Yes. Very much.”

“I can help you with that pain.”

“How?”

“I can help you forget. Think how much happier you’d be as Than’s wife if you didn’t have to be burdened by that feeling of loss for all eternity. Wouldn’t you rather be happy?” Lethe floated right up to Therese, her face only a foot away, and smiled. “We’d all like to be happy. Happy forever, Therese. Wouldn’t you like that?”

It sounded lovely to Therese just then, and she felt her body relaxing. She could forget how badly she had let Vicki down, how she should have died, too. She could forget about her parents’ death, about all her losses. Lethe began humming a soft melody, soothing Therese, making her shoulders relax for the first time in months. The rats on her shoulders sat very still as the peace beckoned her.

“Don’t you want to be happy? Forever?” Lethe asked again, smoothly. “All you have to do is take a sip of the river; or, better still, take a swim with me and feel its refreshing current move through you, giving you a new life.”

“A new life?”

“That’s right, Therese. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

Therese nodded. The shame over Vicki and the longing for her parents could be erased with one small sip, or one restful dip. Then she could marry Than and live happily ever after.

But would she remember Than? Or would a sip from the Lethe wash away all her memories?

And did she really want to forget her parents altogether, as though they had never existed?

The thought of losing all recollection of her parents made her throat tighten and her shoulders tense. The two rats fled down her arms and legs and disappeared.

“Thanks, Lethe, but I don’t want to forget.”

The goddess rose from the river, a giant, as tall as Todd’s truck, and looked down at her. “Come with me, Therese. Only I will make you happy!”

Therese turned from the goddess and ran, following the river, which flushed white in ripples, like bursting pipes, as she passed it. As she ran away from the river of flames, the cavern became darker, and if she hadn’t slowed because of the darkness, she would have plunged into the canyon below. As it was, she teetered on the edge, struggling to regain her balance. She plopped on her bottom, panting and gritting her teeth, hoping this was all nearly over. Please, she prayed. Please let this be over soon. She stared down the canyon wall and sighed with relief when she recognized Erebus in its purple glow.

Although the canyon was deep and narrow, it spread out near the bottom where hundreds of souls lay around with half-closed eyes in a shallow pool of the Lethe, which trickled down the canyon wall like water from a faucet that hasn’t been properly closed. Hades had said she could scale down to the bottom to look for Vicki, but she was worried about falling into the water and erasing her memory. She sat with her legs dangling over the edge, watching for Charon and his raft.

In the next instant, she felt something tickle the back of her neck. Thinking it was one of the rats, she reached back to pick it up when her hand wrapped around the slimy body of a snake. She threw the snake across the cavern, unsure whether it was poisonous, and climbed to her feet. The snake, which had landed only a few yards away and which looked to be about four feet long, curled into a tight coil and lifted its round head to look at her. She studied its black opened mouth and grey scales, trying to identify it, slowly backing away from its head, now recoiled as though about to strike.

Within seconds, the grey monster leapt into the air toward her face. Therese jumped back, the snake barely missing her as it fell to the ground. As the snake coiled and lifted its head for another go, Therese careened through the air, her knees suddenly wobbly. She looked all about and discovered she was standing beside Charon on his raft sailing through the air toward Erebus in a downward spiral.

She couldn’t be happier to see the old god, his bright bald head and slender, bowed frame. He held his long pole in both hands, circling it to their left, the center of their spiral. Soon they hovered above the shallow pool, unnoticed by those lying in it. Charon pointed one long bony finger across the canyon. Therese turned in the direction he pointed to see Vicki on the edge of the pool only a few yards away.

Vicki sat on the edge of the pool surrounded by others, but Mrs. Stern wasn’t one of them. Her face was mostly expressionless except for a hint of sadness in her eyes, which stared off in a daze. Tears streamed down Therese’s own eyes as she again wished it had been her instead of her friend who’d died. She couldn’t stand the thought of Mr. Stern being all alone, heart-broken, for the rest of his life.

Therese looked once more at Charon, whose face remained impassive. Afraid to step from the raft, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Vicki! Vicki Stern!”

Nothing happened. No one even looked in her direction.

Did Vicki even remember her own name? How could Therese apologize for something her friend no longer remembered? Maybe this apology wasn’t about Vicki. Maybe it was the only way Therese could come to terms with what happened—to accept responsibility for her part. Maybe she’d feel better after. Maybe she’d prove to Hades she’d learned a lesson.

While she was pondering these thoughts, the three Furies appeared floating above the pool of water between Therese and Vicki. “Apologize!” they shouted, blood pouring from their eyes. Their hair lifted up into coils of slithering snakes as they grew closer to her. “Apologize!”

“Um…”

Blood dripped from their lips. Alecto’s hands reached for Therese’s neck, wrapping cold fingers around her throat. “Apologize!”

“I’m sorry!” Therese cried, her voice only a squeak beneath the pressure of Alecto’s fingers. “I shouldn’t have bought the drug! I hate that I’m still alive and you’re not! I hate what I did and wish I could take it all back! Oh, Vicki! Look at me!”

To her surprise, Vicki sat up and turned to look at her.

“I’m so sorry!”

Vicki first bent her brows; then she smiled and waved. “It’s nice to see a friendly face.”

“Do you remember me?”

“Should I?”

“Are you okay?”

Vicki shrugged. “I felt sad for a long time, but I’m feeling much better. They say around here that I’m due to leave this place soon. Supposedly there’s a much prettier place. Are you going there?”

“One day, maybe.”

The Furies disappeared and the raft spiraled upward. Therese fell to her knees, aghast by what had just happened, bewildered by the Furies’ treatment of her, relieved by Vicki’s smile, and dizzy from the circling movement of the raft. She silently thanked Hades as they sailed above Erebus and then swiftly turned down the Lethe in the opposite direction from where she came. Water jumped up at her from the river, threatening to touch her, and in so doing, wipe away some of her past. They sailed so quickly, the underground scenery was a whirlwind. Therese prayed to Hades, to Than, to Hip, and to all the gods to help her even though she knew they weren’t allowed to come to her aid. The raft swiftly turned again, and now they flew along the blackest of the rivers—the Styx. Therese thought she saw a pair of eyes in the water looking up at her alongside the raft, following them, but before she could bend closer to the water, they stopped at the black iron gate, just on the inside, where Charon pointed to the bank and waited.

“I’m to get off here?”

He continued to point, though his face remained without expression or reply.

Therese climbed from the raft and waited near the gate, careful not to look back, but relieved she had made it to the end. She could see Cerberus just on the other side as Charon passed him.

“Therese!” someone called from behind her. It sounded like the voice of her father. “Therese, don’t look back. Just listen to me! Hades has sent us as a gift.”

“Sweetheart!” This was the voice of her mother. “We’ve been allowed to hug and kiss you, but that’s all. Be careful not to look at us.”

“What? Is that really you, guys? You can remember me?”

A hand touched her shoulder.

“We couldn’t for the longest time, but Hades has given you this gift. You’re allowed one moment to be with us again.”

She felt arms wrap around her waist from behind, and a kiss was planted on the top of her head. “We love you so much,” the voice of her father said. “It’s so good to be close to you again.”

“I miss you, sweetheart.”

Therese’s teeth began to chatter and her knees felt weak. “That can’t be you, can it?” She wanted to turn to look at them so badly. What if Hades really did wish to reward her with this gift? “I miss you, too,” she said feebly.

“We can’t wait to see you again,” her father’s voice came behind her. “You’ve grown so much, in just a year. How are those chipmunks doing? Are you remembering to feed them the seeds I bought?”

She wanted to turn to see her father’s face, to touch her mother’s cheek!

“No!” she shouted without turning, shutting her eyes closed. “Whoever you are, you aren’t my parents! I’m not falling for it!”

“You can take us with you,” her father said more gently. “Hades even admitted that there have been rare exceptions to the rule that mortals can’t return from the Underworld. Why can’t we be one of those exceptions? Thanatos loves you, for heaven’s sake! Who better to be granted an exception?”

Therese paused. That was true. If any exception could be made to the rule that mortals could not return, why couldn’t one be made for her parents? If Than loved her, what stopped him from demanding this favor of Hades?

But this had to be a trap. Ares was trying to get her to look back. She wouldn’t fall for it. “Leave me alone! If you are my parents, leave me alone, and, if it’s possible, I’ll come back for you once I’m a god.”

“We understand,” her mother’s voice cried. “Don’t look at me, but come and give me one last kiss.”

Therese fixed her eyes on the gate and shouted, “Figments, I command you to show yourselves!”

A fluttering of wings sounded behind her, but she dared not turn to see what it was. After a moment, she heard only the sound of the river lapping against the bank.

Up ahead, Charon circled across the Acheron where she could see Than boarding with two others. They sailed back to the Styx and past Cerberus. The great gate groaned open as the raft came toward her. She waved to Than and called out his name. The look he gave her puzzled her. Here she was at the end of her final challenge, and his expression was more apprehensive than ever. What was wrong?

She watched him sail past her, and then, without thinking, she turned and followed him with her eyes as he sailed into the Underworld.

Her hand flew to her mouth, and she immediately turned back toward the gate, hoping no one had seen, but knowing they must have. Of course they’d seen! She dropped to her knees, begging any god who’d listen to have mercy on her.

Then Than appeared. “Do you want to do this thing?”

“You mean burn to death?”

“Yes.”

“But the maenads.” She felt herself losing consciousness.

“Forget the maenads. Will you burn?”

“Yes.”