It’s All Hallow’s Eve. I don’t do Halloween. Halloween is not for the wicked and the heroes.
I’m deep down in Hades, sailing across the Acheron. I’ve killed the ferryman and stolen his boat. He wasn’t too pleased.
Behind me I can hear his stranded passengers wailing, but I can’t help them. There are no refunds in Hell.
It’s so dark in here I can’t see where I’m going. Seventeen told me to come prepared but I forgot to bring a torch. And a coat. There are so many things I forget nowadays. My head hurts, even in the afterlife.
The boat thuds against a rock close to the left bank and refuses to budge. This must be the end of the ride. I jump out of the boat and find myself in a huge cave. A soft phosphorescent glow illuminates the sandy path ahead, leading deeper into the abyss. I look around me. It’s been a very long time since the last time I was here and everything has changed.
I look down at my legs. I am wearing a hauberk and soft red leather boots. I am no longer Theseus, in scale mail armour and sandals. I don’t know who I am now.
In my left hand I hold a mirror. I heard there is a lady down here with a crown of writhing snakes and a deadly gaze. I will not let her suprise me.
It’s so cold in here, and so quiet. And yet I think I’m not alone. When I look into the mirror, a ghost stares back at me. That makes two of us.
Twelve is just as confused as I am. but he is speechless. The dead can only beg with their hollow eyes.
I weigh the sabre in my left hand. I haven’t used it yet. Will it be enough to kill the Dragon? Time will tell.
Literally, because Kronos is the one I need to kill to release a restless soul. It’s as it should be, written down in the script centuries ago.
Seventeen showed me the lines, neatly penned down by his steady hand, in gold ink, in his huge bejweled ledger. There is no way around it.
But I do not really want to slay Eleven.
What shall I do now?
What shall I do….?
What shall I do…?
From J Bosch – Temptation of St Anthony
