Doctor of the Underworld

Eyes of hell fire, brighter than a coal aflame revealed to me their menacing beauty.

And bewitched, I stood bound by a reality no different from fantasy, for before me was the god spoken of in ancient hymns, the Ruler of the dead.

My grip on the curtain loosen and soon my hand falls limp to my side as I stood in a daze, long enough for a look of nonchalance and a weak smile to be unable to compensate for my rude stares.

This King was not atop any extravagant throne, nor a golden wreath crowned his lustrous hair like ink as he languidly leans back by his bed and under those amber eyes, even the most calmest of souls would falter, with its gaze never to be the first to avert its focus, but they were indifferent to the world, and far from welcoming.

"Can you cure me, mortal child?" A deep voice questions in annoyance.

Audibly I gulp, complaining in my heart, a sweet old man was so much better!

The journey that brought me to this very moment started of with an argument, an argument that I now I wish my mother had won.

And my mind starts to play an awful dramatic music in que for a flashback.

"So you want to spent your summer alone, and in the middle of nowhere." A woman in her early forties scoffs her grey eyes glaring behind large reading glasses as she flips through the pages of the file in her hands.

"I won't be by myself, I will have two maids to look after me." Maintaining a straight face, I say in my most persuasive tone.

She sets the file down on the table and looks at me, exasperated and I knew then that I was in for a rundown of all those times I messed up in my life.

"Do you remember the time you to stayed with Aunt Irene? You broke your cousin's nose! right after he FRACTURED your leg." She sighs looking away as if feeling sad for the poor boy and not her innocent daughter. "There is no way that I would let you stay in that old house even if you had an entire army guarding you."

"Because my love." Her tone softens as her lays down her glasses. "You're a ten year-old soul inhibiting a fifteen year-old body with the MINDSET of a five year-old who plays with a two year-olds toys!!"

Her graceful features contours in anger, and nearby my father who chose to remain in neutral territory hides behind his newpaper presumably smiling at his daughter's plight.

My lips part in a deep sigh stopping myself from rebuking her every word, not even pointing out that I, as a matter of fact fractured my leg when I fell into a ditch, or how my cousin deserved to get his nose broken for smaking down my ice-cream. And how I am actually SEVENTEEN, something she very well knew, but it seems to be a norm for mothers to either raise or lower their children's age according to the situation.

And seeing no other way to get through to this practical mother of mine, I give into emotions. "Ma, you know that...that I miss Nana. And we haven't gone back to that house ever since she passed away."

"Its been four years and now you are selling it...I understand that you don't want to leave it empty so you have to give it away. But please let me stay stay there for a month, that place has too many memories I have of her."

"Ma please."

Her grey eyes becomes gentle knowing how attached I was to my great grandmother and after a series of emotional backmails and desperated yelling she finally gave in with the ending words. "Fine, but you better not visit those ruins."

And a week later, I arrieved in Greece and with a backpack in hand I had hiked through the mountain trials to stand before the same ruins my mother talked of, as if it was only natural.

The degrading structure before me once used to a Greek temple, bringing peace to the land, but now only little remains with the people of the town nearby deadset on the rumours being true, of a curse casted to trap those trespassing into hysterics, unable to leave till their last breaths.

But Nana never seemed afraid unlike her fellow town folks and usually brought me along to this place she used to call Ouránios katastrofí, meaning the celestial wreck.

It wasn't the thirst for an adventure that brought me here, but its rich untented gardens with rare species of plants thriving untouched by the outside world.

My interest for plant life was stemmed from my gift, something most found strange, for from the time I was conscious I knew the medicinal properties of each plant there is, from roses, to moss, to palm trees, like a built-in catalogue with pictures and habitat in my mind, never overlapping or confusing.

On revelation of such an ability it was not uncommon for people to think of it as a joke and nicknames, ohh I had many. My most favourite being witch doctor though I never sported baggy hats or brooms though maybe I could have pulled it off with combat boots.

And being here today was with a specific purpose, for a plant that had long ago quipped my interest but was never let to pluck for Nana said it would bloom after seven years and now those years have passed but even after two hours searching, the odds weren't in favour.

I wipe my forehead relieving it off sweat that took only seconds to be replaced, my clothes uncomfortably clinging to skin. I wanted to find it, figure out what was so special about that one tiny green bud, but I was out of luck. It was nowhere to be found.

It was as I neared the temple itself that I heard the distinct sound of flowing water and curious of its source I enter the ruins I was always warned against by Nana fearing its collapse and whatnot.

The roof was almost nonexistent, the walls eroded inwards and numerous humanoid statues remained by the sides with only few retaining traces of its former artistic beauty. I stepped carefully over pieces of rubble on the mossy floor that clearned in patches to reveal paintings lost of their luster and colour in only blurred outlines.

I neared the end of the edifice, there was a hole in the floor, almost two meters in radius and something about it makes me cautious as I slowly inch as if fearing something would suddenly pop up.

My vivid imagination at times like this, did not help as I peered into murky waters that strangely wasn't stagnant and unable to see past its surface to know its depth. Quenching my curiosity I step away trying to keep a relatively safe distance.

But suddenly rumbling noises come from underneath my feet and with this brief warning, the floor crumbles and slides forward taking me along into the waters beneath.

I fall in with a shriek that was close to animalistic as I plunge into ice cold waters that momentarily leaves me dumb with a lack of response.

And when the shock fades instincts kick in and I force my limbs to work, but as my face surfaces a strange force more powerful than gravity pulls at my body submerging it and I fail to keep my mind and thundering heart calm.

The screams, I push down my throat, giving it my whole to break through to the surface and a single breath is all I gain as I am once again pulled down to its depths.

The breath I managed to hold, fails me as it escapes in bubbles and the light shining down from the entrance, my only hope grows dimmer till only darkness remain as company.