Chapter 39

-The Clash.

Kayla had been searching like a rabid dog on the verge of starving. She dragged her scythe behind her in weak effort. She liked how safe the scythe made her feel. She knew if anything touched this thing, their soul would be trapped in it for a long, long time. Unless she wished otherwise.

Yes, it was like… the third time she had ever decided to pluck the thing from around her neck. But still. It fit naturally in her grasp, thankfully.

She had no clue where Luke got his heating from in their Labyrinth base, but hell, was it colder out here.

She hadn’t stopped moving since escaping. They probably already knew by now. And Kayla didn’t know if she would be able to forgive herself if they ever captured her again. For not moving fast enough, for not being more aware.

So far, the Labyrinth seemed okay. It stunk like a dusty basement, yet it was chill.

The further she got away from the base, the more prominent radom sounds became. More specifically; spirits. Those shadows she always used to see in Kronos’ room, they were able to speak out here. Or… she could hear them because of her parentage, probably. Like back at her cabin. They said similar lines. Some spoke to themselves. Others?

Others could see her. Kayla knew it. She could tell with the way their shadow would stop on the walls. Instead of rushing along walls as a shadow, or fading away gently as they moved, they would slow down to a halt on the wall wherever Kayla was and ask if she could help. If she knew where they were, or what year it was.

She pretended not to see them at first, or hear them. But as time dragged on as she moved,  the odd spirits that lingered by her side  seemed to be relentless with their questions.

It was more depressing than scary. They might have no memory of being dead or alive, sure, but their souls still held that personality from their most recent life.

Like how these ones were stubborn, and needy. Some that drifted past did nothing but wail and cry. Some hummed songs that didn’t quite sound like real songs. But little snippets of different songs put together.

God knows how long these spirits had been wandering.

“You are different, you can help.”

One whisper stated. It’s shadow showed on the wall to her left. Shadows were not distinct, but more like a blurred form. No features, no side profile. Darker than the dark- hence being able to see them in such a dark place.

Kayla was relying purely on the torch she had stolen from one of the walls a few hours ago.

“No, I can’t. If you haven’t noticed, I’m quite compromised.” Kayla replied groggily. She’d had enough of their depressing whispers and her own equally depressing thoughts.

“I knew you could hear us.” The same voice whispered.

“Ask her again.” The one to her right prompted quietly.

“Don’t ask me again. I can’t help, I don’t know how. And I’m not strong enough. Carry on, now.”

“We shall follow you until you find what you seek, whatever that is. It’s nice to talk to you, lady.”

Kayla couldn’t manage any facial expressions with both how tired and how focused she was on listening for the dreaded sound of life. She hummed in reply.

“What is it you seek, miss? We could help, couldn’t we?”

A small group of around two other responses gave sounds of approval and agreement, switching their shadows from wall to wall to floor and so on. “When are you from?” Kayla replied, wiping her runny nose.

“I can’t… can’t remember. Can you? I’d like to know, I can’t quite place who I am, if you excuse me.”

The other shadow besides the one currently speaking agreed with it’s words and let out a small cry when being reminded they had no memory of a past life.

Who knew you could yearn for something you never even knew about so bad?

“I don’t know, no,” Kayla replied. “And I want an exit. Can you remember any down here?”

“Exit? Not sure what they look like.” It replied.

Kayla huffed, turning a corner.

“Don’t!” It whispered sharply, the shadow taking place on the floor infront of her. “Bad presence down there. Back, back.”

Kayla inhaled her yelp, her lips quivering as she backed up slowly. It made her lift her scythe up onto her shoulder to minimise sound. Bad presence? That was terrifying. She took different corner, instead. “Thankyou,” She whispered. “Exits, remember. If you see a doorway, or a grate, or some words on a wall, then that might be an exit. Maybe you could get out too.”

“Perfect!” It whispered in a high voice, switching back to her left on the wall. “I saw one… I can’t remember when. But it was somewhere down here. A door!”

Somewhere down here? Oh, how promising. These poor things had no senses, did they? “Can you guide me?”

“This way,” It put itself on the floor again along with the two other shadows following, acting as a guide. “We shall find a way past closed corridors, do not fret.”

Okay, so they knew something. How long had these poor things been down here to the point they started remembering how to try and navigate the Labyrinth?

On their journey, which was unfortunately slow due to Kayla, she pieced together that these things seemed to know which corridor led to bad things. Any time they tried to guide her down a corridor, they would deem it safe or unsafe first. That’s one thing Kayla couldn’t sense: any bad energy. She dreaded to think what these spirits could sense that she couldn’t.

Kayla didn’t even think of stopping for the first few hours of following these spirits. Until her knees started to give in and her back pain made itself present. “We need to stop,” She mumbled to them, rubbing her throat. “Me- I need to stop, I can’t go…”

“Stop. Rest? Oh, I don’t need rest. You do, you say,” The spirit paused and went silent with the two others. For a second, Kayla thought it had disappeared. “We can stop here.” It deemed. Kayla let out a sigh of relief, popping her wings out and slowly falling to her knees. She crawled over to the side of the wall, placing her scythe besides her and taking a rest.

“Thanks,” She sighed. “I can… I can help you, by the way. Now I think about it.” She closed her eyes, running her hands along the sandstone floor. Her eyes didn’t stay shut for long. A few seconds before she snapped them wide open. Too scary.

“Help? Yes, please. Share your idea.”

She inhaled sharply as she got her words together. “Don’t do it now, but when- if we find an exit, you should let me reap your soul.”

The spirits went silent.

“And you become trapped in my scythe, then I can leave with you and- and I’ll try to set you free. Outside.”

“Try to?“

“I have a book at home,” She coughed. “If I just read up how to free souls after reaping them with my scythe, you could roam outside, not in here.”

If you’re even real, She thought.

“But I… I don’t know about taking you to the underworld. I dunno.”

The spirit spoke up after a few extra seconds. Were they even capeable of thinking? “Alright, find exit to be reaped. Perfect plan, my lady.”

Kayla really hoped these guys were real.

They had to be. They were the exact same instances she would hear in her cabin. Lost souls. Except, she could see these ones. She could even see them back at Luke’s base, the only difference was, back in there she couldn’t speak to them.

That is mostly the reason of why she considered these spirits maybe were just a fickle speck of her imagination. She wouldn’t exactly be surprised if she was losing her sanity, it made sense.

But what was the difference whether she listened to them or not? She wasn’t dead yet. Either they were real and actually leading her somewhere, or her mind was keeping her from over-stressing about which directions to take and what to do. 

When she started to move with them again, her surroundings started to change. The floor switched to dirt, so did the walls and the ceilings. It was kind of disgusting. She couldn’t touch the walls or the floors anymore without being covered in dirt. And walls didn’t exactly shift. Instead, Kayla heard common sounds of rumbling in different corridors. Like the dirt walls would move around my simply collapsing in on themselves. That was horrifying.

Kayla would much rather hear and see walls slowly shifting in on eachother like she had back with the sandstone area earlier than have no warning but an angry rumble when dirt walls gave up and decided they wanted to suffocate any victims within a second flat.

But thankfully, she had these guys to help her avoid the corridors. Or… hopefully, she had these guys.

Kayla was sort of scared to ask if they actually were real. “How come… there’s only a few souls that actually hang around, like you. The others just… move past.”

“I am not sure.” It replied, taking appearance on the left wall. “Younger souls tend to always be on the move down here.”

“Young souls,” Kayla whispered, stroking her thumb over her scythe’s handle gently. “So, kids?”

“No, no. Young souls.”

“So young souls aren’t kids?”

“Not necessarily.”

Kayla hummed. Young souls must be less educated on how to interact with the other side, or something. She tried not to think too much about it. “And you’re an old soul?”

“I think, yes.”

“You need a name. You can’t remember it, can you?”

“A name? No, Miss. I can’t remember.”

Kayla smiled at its answer. They didn’t know much, any of them, did they?

“Well, I’ll call you… vodka. Because you’re technically a spirit.” She managed a brighter smile at her own joke, yet it only reached her face for as long as five seconds.

“Sorry? I’m not quite-“

“No, no, never mind. I’ll call you Iris.”

“Iris, the rainbow Goddess? How flattering.”

“Nice and colourful name. Nice and happy.” She hummed as she walked. Her speed had slowed down alot, now she seemed to be on something that resembled more of a jolly stroll.

“You’re odd, you know, most spirits don’t forget their past life until they reach Asphodel, from the river there. But you… you seem to remember bits and pieces. Like how to somewhat navigate the Labyrinth. Something about this place…”

“I certainly know I died down here, ofcourse, and I know I am dead.”

The dirt scuffed her shoes up as she came to a halt. Sure, her shoes were already very scuffed from being the only pair she had down in the Labyrinth. Some random pair that Luke had gotten her, slightly too small for her feet. “What do you mean, you know you’re dead? Then why did you ask so many questions earlier, before I acknowledged you?”

Iris shrunk to a quiet little thing once again. “Why I’m confused, ofcourse. It slips my mind sometimes.”

Kayla frowned. That made sense. “Then how are you so confident you know where you’re taking me, and the others, too,” Kayla glanced to the shadow spirits on her right hand side. “Hasn’t that slipped your mind?”

“No, Miss. Just alot of other things, and a bit more. The Labyrinth is home, I can understand the basics of it.”

Kayla bit the inside of her cheek. Alot of other things and a bit more? Right. Because that wasn’t odd phrasing at all. These poor things. “I think you belong in Asphodel,” Kayla announced quietly. “The Labyrinth is messing with your memory more than it should, that’s all. You shouldn’t be forgetting already.”

Kayla could imagine the frown on Iris’ face, whatever that looked like. Being in Asphodel was one thing. You had no knowledge of anything to the point you were comfortably mindless. But being aware you were dead and could only remember certain things? That was probably worse.

“Don’t worry,” She reassured. “I’ll get you onto the Living Land. You’ll like it in Asphodel, it’s comfy.”

Kayla didn’t recognise the lack of following shadows, or the lack of reply until she came to a pause ten seconds after.

“Back.” Iris spoke up.

“Made a mistake, got caught up in talking… bad corridor.”

She swallowed, quickly redirecting herself to Iris and the others, catching up to their faint shadow. “What? Bad with-“

Her question was answered with an animalistic screech. A few scattered sounds, like legs shoving into the dirt. Fast ones. Multiple ones.

“Might be an exit.” Iris stated in her whisper.

“Good! That’s good… why isn’t that good?”

The screech of whatever made the sound prior came closer. Still not visible. But very insect like.

“Fine for us, bad for you, big scorpions.”

Kayla grimaced, getting her scythe ready. “What are the chances I could get through them? I need the exit.”

“You’re weak, you said. No chance! One touch from a pincer, and that would kill you. Not strong enough, miss.”

She considered her options. Either let Iris and the others guide her away, stay in the Labyrinth and spend godknows how long trying to find another exit without and food and water- most likely to die- or try to get through these scorpions, with a possibility of leaving. With success, she would be out of the Labyrinth. “I’ll take my chances. I need out.”

“Iris, you guys, um…” Kayla held her scythe up, staring at it. She glanced back up to the shadows. “Stand in a line, you’ll be safe.”

“Safe? You are sure? Have you done this before?”

The giant scorpions and their screeches neared when they finally caught onto the commotion and sound of Kayla. “Um, no! Just-“

As Iris and the others moved in panic when she said she hadn’t, she made a quick, swift motion and captured all of them in her scythe before they could hover away. “I promise you’ll be okay, okay?” She lifted the tip of her scythe up to her eyes in worry. Nothing looked different about it. Just her normal black scythe.

Without another second to marinate in her possible death, she ran as fast as she could towards the scorpions- that she still couldn’t see even with the torch she held. God, this exit better be an easy one.

Out of the dark, she saw the tail of the scorpions before she saw the heads. She didn’t know if that was better or worse than seeing the heads first. With a pathetic scream she didn’t even know she had enough strength to muster, she dodged all three and ran for her life.

Eh, that was easy enough.

Until one came from around a corner, blocking her inbetween the ones catching up to her and this one infront. Kayla yelped. It must have been the size of a van, atleast. As it went to strike her with it’s tail, she countered it with her scythe, chopping the stinger clean off and running away. The scorpion flailed in pain, it’s legs immediately buckling underneath its own weight. Hopefully she didn’t just reap a scorpions soul… that would be stupid and unneeded.

Ahead of her, a dead end came to view. Exit? Kayla whined. What exit was Iris talking about?

Kayla ran into the wall.

In a mix of running for her life and thinking about surviving too much, she ran into the wall. Not a very good survival tactic.

Thankfully, she regained herself quickly due to the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the fact one of the three remaining scorpions was trying to sting her ass. It hadn’t been a dead end; but the left corner she took as the only option after that was. At the end of this corridor- which was a very short corridor- was some sort of closed off storm drain.

Why was a storm drain in here, and why was it closed off? Neither of those things added together, but Kayla had no time to question it before dropping her scythe to the floor and pulling onto the handle with all her might.

It was quite embarrassing and painful that the latch opened up with little to no strength. Kayla had simply figured it would need a good tug. It hadn’t, and now she was inbetween a scorpions front legs on her back.

The most ungodly of screams left her lungs- right as the scorpion she was under stung her in the stomach. She yelped, and the scorpion pushed her around with its pincers instead of picking her up.

Thankfully, one of the directions it rolled her in was onto her front, where in all of her fear and lack of lust to die, she picked herself up and made a weak leap for the storm drain.

Anything and everything after that really, really hurt. Tumbling down head first was definitely a recipe to the World’s Worst Concussion. The sting, too? Instant death in approximately ten more seconds. Kayla managed to sit upright half way through tumbling down the storm drain that was much more like some deathly slide. When her limp body fell out of it, she sunk into the ocean. The world was quiet. Deeper, deeper. Why couldn’t she move?

Her arms would not help to lift her to the surface of the ocean. Her legs were like jelly. Her fingers… Paralysed.

Oh. Oh.

The stinger had paralysed her. She let out a panicked breathe, bubbles Rising to the surface. No, no, no, what a stupid way to die! And the most painful!

…To her delight, she passed out before she could try to inhale and suffocate herself, her vision turning black.

Please vote!!

I said change of scenery in the last chapter SOON. Like. Next chapter soon. This chapter was needed for the plot, okay? And character development. Being able to see a little more into Kayla’s godly powers. If you think about it; if not for the aware spirits, Kayla would not have gotten out so fast. W spirits. The next chapter was SO FUN TO WRITE if anyone has any suspicions mwahahaha. Please let me know if you find any spelling mistakes, I went through this the other day but still.

And don’t worry, the reuniting of Clarissa is also soon.