Long Past Dawn

The wind gets stronger and stronger as the chariot starts to dive down towards the ground, or more precisely towards a large cave mouth in the ground. "Where are we going?!" I scream over the wind.

Hades laughs slightly. "Like I said, to meet someone."

The ground gets closer and closer to us and I'm getting closer and closer to peeing myself. Finally, as we're a few feet from hitting the ground I let out a scream and close my eyes tight, waiting for us to crash.

And... there's a whoosh of air and the air turns colder but no sign of the chariot being smashed into a thousand pieces on the ground.

I tentatively peek open one eye and gasp in shock at what I see.

It's a naturally formed cavern, but yet it's so much bigger than a cavern that I can't think of a word to describe it. And a deep abyss goes down and down until all I can see is murky darkness. All around us are beautifully carved buildings the sizes of temples coming out of the white and gray stone. Long stalactites gracefully hang from the ceiling and end in pointed spikes that are all different lengths from the others.

I gaze around at the beauty of the whole thing when I start to wonder how I can see. We must be deep underground so how is there light? Gazing up at the ceiling in wonder I feel tears almost start to prickle. For a moment I mistake it for the night sky before I realize a thousand million glow-worms are dancing across the cavern ceiling and hanging from stalactites. I don't know how I can mistake them for the stars when they are so much more beautiful than the night stars. The blue light casts an otherworldly glow on everything underneath, it feels cold though at the same time it lights up so much. It's beautiful. Actually no, it's not beautiful. It's breathtaking.

"Wow..." The words escape me before I even realize it. Just where are we?

"I'm glad you like it," Hades says as he steers the chariot towards the biggest palace there is at the opposite end. "Not everyone likes the underworld."

Wait, the underworld?! Don't you have to be dead to come here?!

As if reading my mind Hades responds," Well I'd say you're a special case."

Great. Special. I'm starting to hate that word more every day.

The chariot sets down on the white marble of the palace and Hades climbs off and I follow him. Passing a glance over my shoulder I notice cloaked people taking the horses away, for a split second I see one of their hands and I shiver, it's bone.

Hades leads me away from them, "It's best not to look at them for too long."

I nod and shiver again as I remember the white-gray color of the bone. I look around us and the palace is made of beautiful marble. For a split second, I'm surprised when I see what's in the alcoves on the walls. Red flowers sit gracefully from the alcoves with some even spilling over, they have long, thin stems and they seem to be many small flowers on one stem with the petals going in any direction and curling at the ends, the stamens are long and jut out towards the ceiling. After a moment a name for the flowers comes to mind, red spider lily.

They're beautiful and strangely don't feel out of place in the cold and dark palace where the only light comes from torches and glow worms. Then the meaning for them also comes to mind, the flower of the afterlife. The ominous flowers that grow in hell and is poisonous when digested.

Strange decor choice but hey, it is the underworld so fitting I guess if they don't have pets or children who would eat them.

I'm drawn away from my thoughts by the sound of paws on the almost glass-like marble. Looking up I see three dogs running towards us, well I say dogs but they're more the size of puppies.

As the three dogs get closer I'm amazed to see that it's not three dogs but instead one dog with three heads. A very, very big dog.....

The huge dog stops in front of us and I take back the puppy remark as I stare at the over seven-foot dog. How did I think this dog was a puppy?! The dog towers over me and I'm pretty sure it's a giant rottweiler that's trying to decide if it wants me to be its play toy or its dinner. And I'm also pretty sure I don't want to be either right now, or ever for that matter.

The dog gives me a giant sniff and I'm pretty sure I take a step forward it's so powerful. The dog seems to look me over before sitting down with a thud and wagging its tail with its tongues hanging out one side of its mouths.

I hesitate for a second as I look at the eyes that are now asking for pets and love. "Go ahead, he won't hurt you," Hades prompts me.

"He has three heads..." I say as I warily stare at the dog.

Hades laughs and that only makes me feel so much better, "he doesn't bite."

"He has around 120 teeth... And you're telling me he doesn't bite? That's like half the number of bones in my body..."

"Yes," Hades agrees with me and I see amus.e.m.e.nt twinkling in his eyes, "But that still doesn't mean he bites."

Giving up on this conversation I reach out a tentative hand and the dog's faces only light up more. Rubbing my hand over the top of the middle head the dog thumps its right paw up and down shaking the ground slightly. "What's... What's he called?" I manage after a moment.

"Cerberus," Hades says with a small smile and then to Cerberus, "Where's Persephone?"

Cerberus gets up and pads on down the hallway, closely followed by Hades and then me, who is as confused as ever.

The hallway is rather long and we meet no one else as we walk along it, maybe Cerberus's lumbering footsteps alerted anyone who would have come. I sure as hell know I wouldn't walk down a hall that I can hear loud footsteps coming from when the only light is from glow worms and you're in actual hell. But hey, that's me we're talking about.

The light of the glow worms starts to slowly fade away as we continue deeper down the hall and I start to notice that in the walls are lit by small crystals inlaid in the marble and spiking out into the hallway. They don't give off much light but they light they do is a dark blueish color. And strangely I can hear almost a melody coming from them, it's weird to think that stones can sing but for these stones, it doesn't seem so weird. It feels almost comforting.

I reach out a hand to try and touch them but Hades's sharp voice brings me out of my trance, "Dawn!"

His voice then softens slightly, "Don't touch them. Trust me when I say it's best not to."