Fire Rises

The Dark Place

My shoulder was starting to go numb from leaning on the wall for too long. My brother’s ruby eyes glowed as they bore relentlessly into my clear amber ones. I tried to distract myself from the growing tingles pricking through my arm by focusing on the details on Lucian’s face. 

My brother’s eyes would be considered intimidating, if not terrifying, by anyone else’s standards. His slicked back black hair and sharp facial features didn’t do much to ease that demour. He towered over me at his inhuman height of just over seven feet, making this stare down not only uncomfortable on my now-stinging eyes, but also on my craned neck.

Be a statue, I told myself, tighten the stare, hold eye contact, don’t blink. Is that a freckle? How did he get a freckle? Ah, f**k, I blinked.

I hadn’t lost a staring contest for as long as I could remember, but I guess all good things must come to an end. A smug smile curled at the corner of his mouth, flashing his too-sharp, too white teeth. 

Dick.

The brief falter in my resolve was enough to remind him why he had come to me.

“Eve, you really need to listen to me on this one,” Lucian chastised, “you haven't participated in the Judgements in weeks and people are starting to notice. If Maeve finds out…” He trailed off mid sentence, but the implication was enough to cause us both to shudder. He took a deep breath and continued, “Just don’t be stupid, sis.”

I had honestly forgotten there was even a conversation that led to our staring contest. The Judgements were the last thing I wanted to talk about, so I decided to let him in on the obsession that had monopolized so much of my time.

“Lucian, I’ve been thinking,” he hates when I do that.

“I hate when you do that.” His ruby irisis flared slightly, hinting at their signature unnatural glow.

I rolled my eyes so hard I could feel the strain. “Brother, this is important.” I lowered my voice and took a few steps closer. I knew Lucian had spent a fair share of his own time contemplating what we could have possibly done- even before our births- to deserve a life of imprisonment in the Dark Place. While he generally chose not to linger on such thoughts, he’d definitely want to hear what I had to say. 

Recently, I’d begun to perseverate on this question, which ultimately led to some long walks through the hellscape that we were so unfortunate to have to call home. Just yesterday, I’d found myself so deeply engrossed in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed when I’d made my way to a far corner of this abysmal realm. It wasn’t until silence crept into my ears that I noticed my surroundings had become completely devoid of life. I had wandered beyond all of the vile creatures, the horrible screams, the neverending feeling of impending doom and found something… interesting. Stepping so far beyond my ‘comfort zone’ had been illuminating to say the least.  

The distraction had undeniably caused me to take a massive step back from my responsibilities- hence my brother’s annoyance. My unequivitable obsession would pay off for us both big time given my latest enlightening discovery, so he could kiss my Ghandi-esque ass. 

“There has to be so much more than this. We didn’t do anything to deserve this fate. I have to leave. Tonight. I won’t spend another day here.” He’s jaw twitched and I wasn’t sure if he was pissed that this was what I’d spent so long ‘thinking’ on, or if he was excited that I might actually know something. 

“There isn’t a way out and you know that. They stripped our powers, sealed us in-”

“Obviously I know all of that, but I also know that I am ready to get out and I’m going to do it. You can’t tell me that you are content spending your life being punished for something we didn’t even have a hand in. You really want to stay down here doing Maeve’s bidding forever? I know you hate the Judgements just as much as I do. We don’t have to live like this. What if I told you-”

Lucian loudly cleared his throat, cutting me off mid sentence. His eyes swept across the large balcony where we were standing. As he looked around I was suddenly reminded where our little staring contest/conversation (whichever it was) had taken place. 

Our estate, or castle as Maeve so generously called it, was built into the interior edge of the Dark Place and everything was covered in white, black, and hues of red granite. It was a very, very echo-y space. Not an ideal location for discussing my blasphemous visions of grandeur. 

I motioned with my eyes to let him know we needed to talk elsewhere, but right as we went to move the air shifted and our mother walked in. ‘Walked’ isn’t a good word to describe how my mother moves. ‘Saunter’ or even ‘strut’ are typically her style, but today ‘swaggered in’ is much more accurate to describe her entrance.

Fucked. I’m so totally f****d, I thought as I took in her knowing and very condescending smile. Her piercing emerald eyes were glowing as they looked me up and down. She had definitely heard. 

“My children,” she cooed, feigning some kind of motherly greeting.

“Mother.” Our unified, polite- albeit curt- response.

Her already nasty attempt at a smile turned truly sinister and she curled her wicked finger at us motioning to come closer.

“Eve, you wish to leave your mother?”

Shit s**t s**t s**t. Nope. Not good. I tried to mask the fear that was growing in the pit of my stomach with a weak attempt at fabricating confusion. “I’m not sure what you mean-”

“Quiet! Don’t play me for a fool, girl. You know that I know that you think you know something. What about our kingdom? Do you not care about your people?” Our kingdom was hardly a kingdom at all. It was a prison. No one was here by choice and it was only through the colorful company my mother had kept prior to imprisonment in the Dark Place that she was able to claim the pseudo title of ‘Queen’ for herself down here. Still, it was a lawless place full of vile creatures, each one more evil than the next. Not a kingdom.

“If you don’t care, you could have only said! I would have gladly found… other arrangements for you.” Those ‘other arrangements’ could range anywhere between locking me away in a tower (a little too cliche, even for her) all the way to a long life of endless, unique variations of torture by her goons. There are no bounds to my mother’s punishments; she’s always been very creative in that respect. She’s been favoring our dungeons much more lately, so my money would be on that option. I quickly contemplated if I had enough time to swallow a key to the cells before being locked away while she continued.

“My daughter, my only daughter, you might just get your wish today,” she meant it, and now my confusion was authentic. “If you hadn’t been hiding away for so long, thinking, maybe you would have caught wind of some very important news.” Before she could continue we heard an all too familiar voice call from outside.

“Maeve, where are you my queen?” Hades was mom’s boyfriend and even if they weren’t thoroughly despicable people, together they would still be disgusting. Hades strolled into the room and kissed my mother's hand while his depthless onyx eyes stared into hers. She giggled. The evil queen, ruler over the trapped souls of the Dark Place, giggled.

Gross. I glanced at my brother whose face told me he was feeling as embarrassed as I was by their display.

“I was just going to tell my children about Prince Charming’s arrival, but I overheard some very upsetting news,” she pouted her lips and Hades pitch black eyes sliced the air before landing on my brother and I, “It seems Eve does not like the life we have worked so hard to build here, she would like to-”

Her thought was abruptly stopped by the loud smack of Hades hand colliding with my face. He grabbed my throat and lifted my body a full two feet from the ground to bring me to his eye level, “You ungrateful little b***h! You have no idea the sacrifices we made, that WE ALL-” quick pause for dramatic gesture out to the whole ‘kingdom’- “have sacrificed so much to give you a life worth living!”

My mother looked at him adoringly. 

Gag me… oh wait, right, already happening.

My brother scoffed, folding his arms across his chest, but made no move to stop Hades. Lucian may have been a force to be reckoned with, but no one went against Hades. This realm held many powerful beings, but Hades was the only true God among us- not that he could use any of those godly powers now; his brothers made sure of that. In fact, Hades was the sole reason the king’s dream of the Dark Place ever came to fruition. No mortal man, magical or otherwise, is powerful enough to erect an entire third realm, but with the promise of entrapping Hades, the Gods decided to lend an all but unheard of hand in the construction of our… lovely home. 

Hades eyes were boring into my own as he did his best to summon powers that were long gone. I, however, was ready to redeem my reign as staring contest champion. I could see the reflection of my glowing amber eyes in his mirror-like ones. My cheek was still stinging and air was coming too slowly through his vice-grip, but I wasn’t about to back down.

“Wait, mother, did you say Prince Charming is here?” My brother suddenly remembered the only important piece of information this unfortunate turn of events had provided.

“Why yes, son, he is here and he has some very exciting news to share with everyone. We are all to be in the Atrium at six in the morning. Dress nice.” I knew she didn’t mean beautiful or fancy, she meant nice. As in, our clothes needed to send the message that we were good people. But we weren’t. No one in the Dark Place was.

I was still in the middle of my staring contest with Hades, neither of us willing to look away. It may have been immature but I was only 19 and he was, what? Like, at least a few billion years old? One of us could justify this behavior, the other not so much.

My mother reached for Hades hand and asked him to escort her to the Atrium to make preparations. He unceremoniously dropped me to the floor. I fought the urge to fill my lungs as quickly as possible; I refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing me gasp for air. As the pair disappeared towards the front door I silently decided I had won that staring contest.

Lucian scooped me from the floor and placed me on my feet. He turned my head to each side examining the damage but didn’t say anything. He was clearly a mile deep in his thoughts and our conversation from earlier was no where close to the forefront of his mind. 

“I’m fine.” My voice was gruff and strained. 

“You’re already bruising.” He rolled his eyes, but dropped his hand from my face.

“I’ve been in worse shape.”

“That you have. You shouldn’t provoke him.”

“Me!? I did nothing!”

Lucian scoffed and smirked at the offense I had taken. “Obviously, sis. I’m messing with you. Just trying to lighten the mood.” He sighed loudly, his small smile quickly disappearing from his face. I didn’t have a chance to respond before he turned and stalked off to his room, presumably lost in thought over the news Maeve had shared with us.

I walked back to the balcony with a whole new set of escape plans taking shape in my mind. As I looked out over the interior of the Dark Place I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. Memories of all the bad I had done down here flashed through my head like some sort of f****d up highlight reel. Killing would be one thing, but the torture I had taken part of during the Judgements, that certainly was going to be a problem. 

I suddenly felt insecure about whether I was being punished unjustly or not. If I was being honest with myself, there were plenty of Judgements I had participated in more than willingly. I had done it just for the fun of it, just to try and feel something. Not to mention the occasional hunger-fueled rampages I’d gone on. Those certainly weren’t nice. In fact, that kind of reactive and evil behavior was the exact thing the Dark Place was intended to imprison. 

But then again, I was born inside the Dark Place. I never had a chance at a different path than the only one my mother was capable of teaching. I tried to comfort myself by remembering that fundamental piece to my development. 

I may have done some horrible s**t, but how could I not? If I was complacent, I’d be seen as weak and end up swallowed alive (literally) by one of the many demons that call this hell home. How can anyone lock away innocent children? The realm of mortals, the realm of good, presumably laid just beyond the walls of the Dark Place, but how good were those people if they could condemn so many souls on the merits of their parents? I continued to think through my escape plans with new definitions of good and evil simultaneously building in the back of my brain.