Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“No. It won’t.” He crossed his arms in anger and acted like a child. I sighed and waited just a moment before I started to speak again.
“Alright, well if no one knows anything then-.”
‘I know a little.’ The other me spoke up for the first time in a while. She had been silent for such a long time that I had thought that she was gone for good. Well, too bad, I guess.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, Rudy.” I shook my head to alleviate his worry. “It’s just the voice inside my head.” I laughed at myself and the way that it must have sounded. “It’s my inner dark side. She came into being when I was in the Hall of Self Reflection. Now that she’s home inside my head, she is still talking to me. Though she assured me that would end when I left the underworld.”
“Oh.” He sounded like he didn’t get it at all.
“Just give me a moment. Let me talk to her for a bit.”
“Uh.. y..yeah, sure, OK.”
Yup, I was definitely looking like a crazy person to him. Most likely to Alexio as well. Why did I have to seem so crazy right now? What was the point of it? Why couldn’t the world, or these two demons, just see that it was nothing crazy and it was just normal? Well, whatever, I needed to talk to myself for now. I didn’t have time to think about all of that stuff at the moment.
“OK, you know about the Hall of Damnation. Then tell me. Tell me what it is all about.”
‘I do not know much. There are few that know about it after all. However, the magic that brought me to life was the magic of the underworld itself. The magic knew things so, therefore, I know things. This is a very big benefit for you, so you should consider yourself lucky.’ The other me’s attitude was still there. That had not changed at all. Then again, if her attitude was supposed to be a copy of mine, then I guess it wouldn’t ever go away. Was that supposed to be some sort of divine punishment for me? Oh well, I would deal with it.
“Yes, I consider myself so very lucky to have you with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. What would I ever do without you?” I let the exasperation literally drip from my voice and felt the other me laugh at the sound of it.
‘You are letting your dark side show, Riviana. I like it.’ Her voice giggled inside of my head before she continued. ‘Now, let us move on from that. I will tell you the little bit that I know about the Hall of Damnation. It is, as you said, one hallway. It will eventually go on for eternity as it will expand each time that more souls are added to Damnation. However, as you can see, there is no constant stream of souls coming to this place. Most of the people that receive punishments in the underworld only go to Purgatory. Even if they did bad things, their souls can be redeemed. The people that wind up here though, are the ones that are deemed to be beyond redemption. It takes a lot for anyone, human or not, to make it into this part of the underworld. However, when they are here, they are tortured most viciously than those in Purgatory. Some of them get a recovery period between their punishments, but it is not long, and they are definitely few and far between.’
“OK, so the only differences are that they are here forever, and they are treated more harshly. I understood that already.” I summed it all up in one sentence.
‘Just hush and listen.’ She snapped at me, and I could almost feel her roll her eyes again. ‘Now, the way the hall is made is unique as well. The newer the resident the closer to the front they will be. New cells for torture are added on as a needed basis. That means that those that have been here longer, will be further down the hallway.’
Oh, well, wasn’t that just great. I needed to find someone that had been here for thousands of years. I needed to find, quite possibly, the first person to ever be sent to the Hall of Damnation. How long was this going to take? And who would I see along the way? What sort of souls were here that deserved torture for all of eternity?
Those were questions that I didn’t know the answers to. Nor did I want to find out the answers to them. Right now, all I wanted to do was to start on this journey of mine and find the one soul that seemed to be trying to get out of here.
I was sure that others wanted out of here, but I doubted if they knew how, or even were trying to get out of this place.. Not like Hekate was doing.
****
Riviana
****
“Alright, you guys.” I said as I turned to look at Rudy and Alexio. “It seems that the other me said the Hall of Damnation is indeed one long hallway, like a tunnel. And of course, the person that we’re looking for will be almost at the very end. The reason for that is the fact that the newer souls are up here while the older ones are at the back. This is literally moving in the order from newest to oldest.” I did my best to explain it all to them as best as I could. They didn’t look lost, and they both nodded at me to tell me that they understood what was going on. That was good. I didn’t want to over explain things to them right now. That would just take way too much time. What I needed, more than anything at all, was for them to just follow along behind me and do as I told them to. I would take Rudy home with me when this was done, and I would send Alexio wherever he wanted me to. Until then, though, they were stuck with me, whether they liked it or not. And whether I liked it or not.
“I will follow you, Queen Riviana.” Rudy bowed his head with a smile. He was already quite loyal to me. That was interesting to see.
“I will never follow you like him. However, I will travel with you since I have no other choice at the moment.” Alexio didn’t bow his head, but at least he agreed to come along in what I assumed would be a peaceful, or almost peaceful, manner. As long as we didn’t have any problems in the future then we were good. I just didn’t want to have him fighting with me or Rudy on anything. Not that I expected Rudy to take the lead on anything. He was going to follow me like the lost little puppy that he was.
“Alright, come on you two, let us go. We have a lot of ground to cover right now.”
I grabbed the hands of two of the boys, Rudy took Zachary’s hand in his, and we were about to start off.
“You know, I can help you with the children.” Alexio said, stepping forward. “If something were to happen again, you are going to need your hands free, are you not? I saw you using magic before. For your sake, I acknowledge that magic is much more powerful than my physical strength. However, I will still be of use with guarding the children. If you would like, I will carry one of them, or even all three of them. I will watch them while we journey onward.”
I could not believe what I had just heard. He seriously just told me that he would help me watch my children. He was offering to help me. To protect my babies. Of course, that would be beneficial. However, should I trust it? Should I let him do as he said that he was willing to do for me?
Well, I had no reason not to trust him. In truth, I knew that Alexio was not a bad person. He was just stubborn to a fault. But he did have a point. He was strong and very fast. He would be able to help me with the boys if we were attacked again. That would give me peace of mind and that felt like something my mind desperately needed.
It wasn’t just up to me, though. I wasn’t about to force the boys to go to him without asking them. So, that was just what I was going to do. I was going to ask them for their opinions.
Kneeling in front of the three of them, I looked at each of them in turn before I started to ask them what their opinions were.
“Zachary, Zander and Zayden, what do you boys think? Do you want to walk with me and Uncle Rudy, or do you want to walk with Uncle Alexio?” I looked at the two men in question and dared them with my eyes to correct me in the way that I had said their names. Thankfully, neither of them did.
“Uhm.” Zachary was looking between me and Alexio as he thought.
“Hmm.” Zander was doing the same.
“Mommy, I think I know, but I don’t want to make you sad.” Zayden hung his head.
“It’s OK, Zayden, go ahead and tell me. I won’t be sad at all. I promise.
“I think that Uncle Alexio is right. If something happens, Mommy is the strongest person in forever. Mommy is the only one that can save us. So, I think we should walk with Uncle Alexio and Uncle Rudy. That way Mommy can keep all of us safe.”
I felt my heart melt at his words. He was a smart little boy, and he hadn’t even been born yet. And he was right too. About everything except for Mommy being the strongest ever. But I agreed with him that me taking the lead and them being protected by Rudy and Alexio was probably the best option that we had.
