Disillusioned Shadows!!…

*I am not insane, just a poor soul cursed by nightmares!!...*

**Proserpina**
There was a tunnel.
It was narrow and seemed like a cavity between the rocks. It was shadowed by grave darkness, half filled with water, with more pouring in through the cracks in the walls at unbelievable speed.
The darkness dreaded me, as it always takes me to the world of nightmares. My body convulsed, and every fibre of my cells screamed that danger was near. The smell of that damn claustrophobic space was no less than a rotting corpse. Who knows if people have died in that tunnel? What if I'll forever be stuck in that unknown darkness with no ventilation and would die by suffocation, with those snarky shadows ripping off my limbs for their dinner? The irrational part of my brain wanted to close my eyes tight and repeat, "I was better in that gilded cage. At least I was safe."
"Stop being so loud." Hades' gruff voice shocked me.
'Shit! Was I too loud?' I asked myself.
"It's a tunnel, most probably carved out to connect underground caverns to the river. So, we need to stick our hands in there and let's jump." Hades spoke, getting a wry look from me.
"Okay, I can do this!" I said, psyching myself up, rolling my shoulders like I was about to go on a suicide mission.
"Yeah, and while you're at it, can you do it quicker? We don't have the whole day...well, it's probably night now...the time for the shadows to creep out of their lairs and haunt the poor souls," Hades spoke, giving me a look as if making fun of my fear.
"You know you are an asshole," I pointed at him.
"Truly said...but trust me, Raven, I'm far more deadly than those slimy little shadows which always do their jobs in a shitty way," Hades spoke while stretching up his trousers and lowering in a crouching position to enter the tunnel.
"You seem to know a lot about them? Any useful information that can come in handy?" I asked, snorting a laugh.
"They are always drunk and constantly beg for absinthe. They are about as scary and dangerous as a bumblebee on a daisy unless you consider their farts a weapon." Hades finished by holding his nose as he could still smell it.
"They fart??!!" I asked again, making sure I had heard this right.
"They feed, so isn't that obvious? Do you want me to go through the list of what they eat?" He asked with a wink.
"Eww, no," I spoke, cringing my nose.
"Yep, eww is right. Well, I never understand why that dipshit put them in charge of a mission when they couldn't even wipe their own asses properly...useless pieces of shit!" Hades said with a face of disgust.
"That dipshit!?" I asked.
"Vlad's shadow Dracula." He replied casually as if they were his 'let's sit together and chill over a drink' kind of friends.
"Wait a minute, you know them...don't you?" I spoke, unsure if I was asking or confronting him, but I panicked after hearing their names.
"Oh yeah...well enough!" Hades spoke, making me wonder about his identity.
I'm sure he has some supernatural genes, but his closeness to Vlad and Dracula scares me. What if he's their lackey, trying to make a fool of me, and then hand me over to that cruel prince for a big fat reward? But then he doesn't even know of my identity? So, maybe he's just helping a poor damsel in distress? But wait, his friend Jericho is a vampire, and all the vampires belong to Vlad's kingdom. 'Fuck, there are so many red flags involving him. This man can be anything.' I reminded myself, but he being so hot was not helping me.
'Damn him! Get a grip girl, and use some brain cells instead of fantasizing about him and dripping from your girly parts.' I cursed myself.
"Are you scared again? I must say, people of the Northern kingdom didn't paint a pretty picture of Dracula." Hades spoke.
"Nope, he is feared. But I'm just curious how he looks," I asked, trying to get more information.
"Let's put it this way, think of a bigger, uglier and smellier version of these shadows, and you are about half a way there to imaging this guy."
"Are you joking?" I asked, realizing he was making my fun throughout this conversation.
"Well, I was trying to distract you."
"Whatever, I have to say that your talks didn't give me the confidence booster I had been looking for." I shrugged my shoulders.
"My bad... now say Hail Mary three times, kneel in a crouch position and drag your ass inside the tunnel."
I rolled my eyes at him, whispering, 'I'll be fine' to myself. Then I closed my eyes, lowered in a crouch position, and dragged my palms through the tunnel. The deeper we went, the sound of water echoed as if hordes of demons were roaring upon us. I was torn between panic and the need to rush. The complete darkness cornered me at one point, and I stood frozen in shock.
"Come on! Come...on!" Hades shouted with gritted teeth.
I heard the angry voices behind my back, but then I comforted myself, saying, "It's just the echoing effect of the tunnel." The urge to look behind was constantly nudging my mind, but then I stopped myself with a warning, 'If you look back, you'll turn into stone.'
"Fast, Kora!" Hades shouted through the darkness.
"As if I want to stay here for eternity." I retorted back.
"You'll if you don't hurry," he informed me irritably.
"Oww, that hurt!" I cried as my arm brushed against the rugged wall.
'It's just a bruise, Proserpina, not a severed head. We need to go fuck outta here.' I whispered to myself, taking further steps deep into the tunnel.
"Kora, where are you?" As soon as I heard Hades, I knew he was far away. Maybe, he has already reached the other end of the tunnel.
"I'm here!" I muttered and took my steps ahead, only my face above the water level. More water rushed, and it was hard to keep the grip, so I kept slipping. I struggled to keep my nose and eyes out of the water. But it was futile as water had already filled the passage, and now I was floating in the darkness. I couldn't pull myself up. Then I heard water crashing above me like a death drum banging in my ear.
My mind now started playing games creating the images of the shadows snarling down to consume me. I was thrashing, squirming and kicking hard to swim through the dark, but those shadows grabbed my feet, pushing me back into the abyss. I was desperately trying to hold onto one of the rocky edges. One of the shadows with the face of pure evil came over to my side and roared in a demonic voice, "Time to die now!" It has the same red soulless eyes and a row of teeth like steel daggers.
My fingers released their life-holding grip, and I fell back to my death in a slow, agonizing motion. My body floated slowly in the dark depths, turning and twisting around. I tried to move, but my muscles refused to cooperate. The last air left my floating body as I tried the last desperate attempt to free myself from their clutches. But I was no match for them as they dragged me through the darkness. I was just about to pass from the lack of oxygen, but a firm grip held my hand, and then I burst through the surface. I was pulled out of the water, coughing and spluttering the second I dragged air back into my burning lungs.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed!?" Hades' harsh voice snarled down at me as I fell backwards. But this time, he at least caught me. He was swimming us both out of the water. He grabbed me around my waist and tugged me towards the edge. Thankfully the current didn't seem too strong, or I am not sure he would have managed to get us both there. At least I knew his meaning about the river getting too high.
"Shadows were dragging me," I choked out the words. On hearing this, his perfect features turned rigid.
"Woman!? There was no one, just me trying to save you, and you just kept resisting and fighting me. Who do you think I'm...those fucking shadows...damn!" He frowned and shrugged his shoulders. Hearing this, I gave him my best 'I will kill you in your sleep' glare. Of course, he didn't take it seriously.
"Now come on, we must reach the height before Styx rises again." He looked up now, taking on our new surroundings.
We were standing in a deep valley surrounded by dark mountains. It was impossible to see their peaks due to the thick layer of the fog rolling like a dark wave of death. It was dense as solid as if we could practically walk through it. The pathway to the peak was narrow and steep with sharp curves, like a snake hissing through the rocks. It was broken in a few places, with huge rocks rolling down the way and getting crushed into the valley.
"Now, that's a task!" Hades muttered to himself.

*Physically, I'm here. Mentally I'm caged far, far away into the world of nightmares!!...*