I cursed myself for my naïve stupidity.
But then, as I continued replaying the meeting over in my mind, I recalled another little sentence she’d dropped into the conversation…
“My patience wears thinner than a ghoul’s skin.”
The analogy was certainly an uncommon one. In using it, had she been foreshadowing what was to come? What was meant to happen? Or were these just more of her endless mind games?
But would she really be so malicious as to send me to this hellish place just for her own amusement? Would she really be so evil?
I could describe the oracle in many ways, but she’d never struck me as evil.
Whatever the case, it didn’t matter.
I was here.
But I can’t just sit here.
I gazed once again toward the rippling surface of the pool. No matter how many warnings I’d received against it, I was going to try to escape.
“Not try.” For some reason I imagined the oracle’s voice correcting me in my head. “Trying is for cowards.”
Not try.
I am going to escape.
Ben
I surfaced near the edge of the pool, at the side that was closest to the path that ran through the cavern. Slowly, I raised my head above water and glanced around the chamber. There were no signs of the ghoul anymore. Either he had made himself invisible to me or he had gone.
There was only one way to find out for sure.
I cast one last glance back down into the pool, eyeing the ghosts. Chantel, Nolan, and Marcilla were staring at me, as were several other ghosts.
They already knew what I was about to attempt.
“Good luck,” Nolan mouthed, even as Marcilla grimaced.
I nodded back curtly in response, refusing to allow their expressions to dampen my resolve.
Then I dared lift fully out of the pond, all the while keeping watch on my surroundings. In one swift motion, I swept across the chamber toward the same tunnel entrance the ghoul had escorted me through. That was the way to the exit. The ghoul had never given me a chance to see whether I could actually pass through the main door. Now was my chance to test it. I zoomed back along the path that I had been brought down, even as I gazed around me in constant worry of being spotted by a ghoul. It was endlessly unnerving to think that one could approach me at any time and I wouldn’t even know it.
By some mercy, I managed to reach the main door, and as I sank my form through it, I was able to pass to the other side. I’d been hoping against hope that this would be the case but now that I’d actually managed it, I found myself almost in shock. How could they just allow that?
I emerged in the dark cavern that enclosed a vast black lake. My eyes immediately fixed on the tunnel that I had traveled through on the boat with the fae. I zoomed across the water toward it and, entering, I wound round and round the ghostly canal until I reached the first cavern I’d visited. The entrance cavern.
Here, I was met with a stunning sight. A sight I’d not been able to see before due to my limited view from within the coffin. I gazed up at the towering ceiling to see that… it wasn’t all ceiling at all. In the center was a large, gaping hole, swelling with spiraling water. And it was through this hole that faint trickles of light emanated. It was the base of the strange vortex I had fallen through. I wasn’t sure by what magic, but only droplets of water trickled down to the lake beneath. The main mass of water remained suspended in the ceiling.
I was about to begin advancing toward it when something else caught my attention. Ghouls. There was a crowd of them—ten altogether if I counted correctly—hovering near the entrance to the whirlpool. They appeared to be conversing amongst themselves, making strange, eerie tittering noises.
I thought for a moment that perhaps they were about to exit—depart on an excursion to kidnap some ghosts, or perhaps rob some graves—and if I just waited, I would get my chance. But they showed no signs of approaching the eye of the vortex. They remained as they were, hovering nearby. They must be guards.
Great.
I had not noticed these ghouls either, of course, when I’d arrived with the fae. They too had been beyond the scope of my limited vision. Though I would have been a fool not to expect this. I didn’t have any clue how many ghosts the ghouls kept imprisoned in their realm in total, but I would’ve guessed in the thousands. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got dozens of escape attempts a day. Marcilla had indicated that the ghouls preferred not to chain ghosts because it ruined the fun of keeping a pet, so The Underworld needed guards to keep watch, day and night… If there was such a thing as day in this forsaken place.
My eyes averted from the swirling base of the vortex to the solid stone ceiling.
Surely, I could just pass through that. We were underground, as the name of this realm made obvious. I was a ghost. If I could just keep passing through the earth, surely I would reach the surface. I just had to sink into the ceiling without the guards noticing me.
Remaining close to the shadows of the craggy walls, I drifted upward, higher and higher. Every moment that passed, I kept expecting one of them to catch my movement from the corner of their eye, so I went slowly. Painfully slowly. Anticipation brewed within me as I reached within several feet of the roof. I sped up a little, wishing I could just vanish out of this place already. But when I reached the top of the ceiling, it was like a barrier. I could not pass through. No matter how much I pushed and willed myself to sink into it, it was impossible.
After shooting another glance at the guards to make sure that they were still preoccupied, I attempted to pass through the ceiling yet again, in a different spot this time. Then again, and again, at various intervals. Dammit. I didn’t know how, but just like that coffin—and Julie’s box—they’d managed to make these ceilings impervious to ghosts. I found myself wondering whether the Elder box had originally been the possession of a ghoul, rather than the warlock Julie had claimed it was a gift from.