I remember his face well. He's trying to hide it like any other English gentleman, but he wasn't doing it well. I suppose when you're with someone for a long time, they would be unable to control it. As my mother quoted, "To lose a second time is just a plain kick to the stomach as the first time". I turned away, knowing it was the last time I could ever see his face. His face... the only face that comforted me so. I had to utter those words, painful as it seems, but it was better from me than the other.

"I suppose this is it, Hershel," I began as I tried not to cry, "I have to go back to my time... back to the day we parted," I bit my lips as I went towards him, his arms comforting me as I looked into his eyes. I could have drowned in them if I wanted to. Then, I kissed him. I felt his body shaking, he was almost falling a part, just like that time machine on that day. If it weren't for the time machine... well, it was too late now. Dimitri had made sure that the research on the time machine was destroyed. I'm glad that he came to his senses now. There was a pause of awkward silence before I turned away, mainly because I didn't want to see his tears. It would be the last thing I wanted from him.

"I'm sorry, I can't stay," I said, taking a few steps away from him, knowing my time was almost up. Then, my heart began to ache as he called back to me. He wasn't the type of man to give up. Well, he is a gentleman, after all. A gentleman never gives up on a problem until it is resolved. Unfortunately, this was one of them that he couldn't resolve under any circumstances.

"Claire, wait!" his voice was raw, emotional. Not like a gentleman. I stopped, closing my eyes as I heard his voice again, pleading for me to stay. I turned around, and saw my body glowing. It was disappearing, like angels taking me up to heaven. Heaven. A place to be.

"We had so many plans for the future. Do you remember, Hershel?" I asked, my tears threatened to fall down from my eyes as I tried to smile, for his sake, "I'll miss you... and our unwound future," I felt the stream of tears coming down my face as he pleaded again, a lot louder, to make me change my mind. He had thrown his gentlemanly facade away and into the cold, winter wind. I'm surprised that he managed to keep his hat on that I brought for him on the day that I died. Just like I kept that pocketwatch that he gave to me once over dinner, it was beating near my heart as placed my hand on it. The only reminder I have of the famous, puzzle-solving Professor Hershel Layton.

"You can't go!" he cried out as I saw him breaking down, in pain, "I don't want to say goodbye again! I can't! I won't!" I knew he tried his best, but I couldn't risk the trouble of tampering everyone's fate. If I was supposed to die, so be it. I felt as though it was time. Ironic that Fate was cruel to tear us a part. I hated Fate and this is what Fate does when you anger it, I suppose. From what I could see now, I could see he was in pain, so much pain that I couldn't help but wish that I could take it all back to make him smile again. What if I took a day off? Would it have been different between the two of us? What if he took my place and died instead? The possibilities were many. I had to end it; I didn't want him to break down when I disappear completely. It'd be the last thing I want for him.

"I know you and I know you'll stay strong. After all, that's what a gentleman does. I must go now. Thank you for everything... goodbye," I bided him farewell as I walked away from him, my tears falling down in streams as I disappeared completely. The last thing I could remember was his face. His face. My heart, my life.

"She's gone!"

Luke had yelled out to him, which left the Professor numb. He turned away and began to cry, unable to take it anymore. As he took off his hat, snowflakes began to drift down to the ground of London. The only person he loved... was gone. His memories of Claire and him... were gone. For good. Or was it?

The Mysterious Cases of Eliza and Saint Claire: The Resurrection of Saint Claire

Prologue: The Legend of the Underworld! The Fateful meeting between two women that sparks a new beginning!

I was in tears as I kept on walking these cold London streets, unable to hear him cry. It's true that I wanted him to remain strong, that's how I remembered him as. As I continued to walk with the tears streaming down my face, I bumped into a girl, around fifteen or seventeen, I can't tell by her appearance. I fell down with a soft bump on my behind and looked up. She was indeed pretty, but I took a little more time to pay attention to the detail that she was wearing.

She had long, black hair and a dark purple dress of some sort, she's slightly shorter than me, I guess. One could say that it came from Victorian England. Her boots were brown, laced up. She had a dark purple cloak tied together with a dark grey silk ribbon. She had purple ribbons in her hair, two of them, and had pale skin, white as snow. The only thing that made me comfortable was her eyes. They were either black or dark blue, but I can't tell. The two of us remained in silence until she began to speak. She had this voice that was soft and beautiful, it was something that Death would have personified, right? I don't know. I claim not to be the expert in mythology, but there was something about her that made me feel at ease with her. She was carrying a staff of wood, almost resembling a boat pole that you'd see in Venice. Except for the fact that it was in purple and grey ribbons wrapped around it with pretty bows on it.

"Miss Claire Foley?" she began as I gasped. How did she know my name? I was about to inquire that when she chuckled softly, tapping me on my shoulder as she explained. She had this cheerfulness about her as she pointed out the obvious. I don't know, but I felt as though I was talking to a friend, not as a stranger.

"Oh, it's a habit. The name's Eliza. Puzzle-Solver Extraordinaire, Ace Detective, Famous Guardian Warrior and..." she trailed off the last bit as though she wasn't excited, "... the Ferryman's Apprentice." I heard her grumble at the very end, but I managed to suppress my giggles as I nodded. She was an intriguing character, I have to admit, but she has piped my interests now. I wiped the tears away from my eyes as I tried to calm down from the events that occurred before. I doubt she knew what happened between me and Hershel, but I decided to keep quiet about it. She didn't know me well to know all about him.

"The Ferryman's Apprentice? How do you mean? I am relatively new to this death thing," I asked politely as Eliza explained what is going on. She seemed a little irritated that I sounded so naive to her, but she took the time to respond to my question. She crossed her arms as she made herself comfortable, puts her purple hood on and began her narration. It was going to be long, but I didn't have anywhere else to go, so... I decided to listen to her.

"I suppose you know the legend of the Underworld, right? It's been there since Ancient Greece. You see, my forefathers before me had the honorable job of taking human souls down to the Underworld to be judged by Queen Persephone and Hades. You know about them, right? The famous Royal couple in the whole of the Underworld, you may have heard it in mythological legends and whatnot," she began as I nodded. I heard the tale of Persephone and Hades, a beautiful and tragic tale, I might add. The final nail in the coffin was that she ate the Pomegranate seeds out of her will. Oh, well. At least she gets to be with her mother for only six months. She nodded as she continued.

"Good. Now, the man who brings them to Judgment is the Ferryman. Every soul who departed from the human world has a few coins, they're in your pocket, I believe," she said as she pointed to them. I reached for my pockets and found these gold coins; one side had a skull whilst the other had a feather, a tail. Eliza nodded as she explained further.

"Yep, that's the one! Now, these are the coins that I have to collect from you to gain safe passage to the castle of the Underworld. It's rather nice once you get inside. But there are some morons who want to try and sneak in without paying or remain in the human world so they become demons that kill and possess humans. Upsets the human nature balance thing. Stupid, I know," she continued as she sighed heavily, "but part of our job is to get these idiotic demons back to the Underworld, make them pay and see to it they get Judged by the King and Queen of the Underworld. Sounds simple, right?" she said at the end as I shook my head. I'd figured that there was more to it than meets the eye. I was right. She continued as she grumbled, kicking the small tufts of snow as she ranted and raved about that position.

"No! Of course you're right, Miss Foley! Che, it's enough to make my blood boil!" she grumbled out loud as I didn't dare interrupt her, "Not only you have to figure out where those blighters are, but they also possess innocent human people and make them their slaves, which isn't easy to rescue when they have them as their hostages! Oh, no... as if the Ferryman has enough on his plate! He has to do so-and-so and this-and-this and really! I feel like I don't learn anything from him! All I am doing is taking on his role instead without teaching me and guiding me! I don't think he really cared about me and..." On and on she hollered out loud, getting the burden off her chest until she finally ran out of steam. In a metaphorical sense. She took a couple of deep breaths as I nodded, didn't know whether to sympathize with her or not. I tapped her on the shoulder as I tried my best to talk to her.

"I see. But, if you're taking on more responsibilities, doesn't it mean that he trusts you with the job of being the Ferryman?" I pointed out as Eliza shook her head.

"Hardly besides the point. If I do a simple, small, inny-weeny, bitty mistake, the King and Queen will chomp my head and take my guts out and my head going over that way, and my legs going over the other way," Eliza shivered at the thought as I silently understood her. The more responsibilities, the more consequences she'll have to take. I was in silent thought before a mouse squeaked from her small, brown pouch. A mouse of brown poked itself out of the bag and ran upwards to Eliza's shoulder as it began to speak. I had to silently cringe at that thought. A talking... mouse? It was something new.

"Chi, chi, chi! Mistress, I have bad news," the mouse began as Eliza rolled her eyes at the mouse.

"What is it this time, Penny? Don't give me one of your jokes, or I'll..." Eliza began as Penny the mouse looked at her, worried.

"But... your mentor, the Ferryman, died. The King and Queen of the Underworld requests your presence," Penny said in a small voice as Eliza stared at the mouse in shock. I was rather surprised that Penny would say that. Then... Eliza blew up. She was angry than sad. But then again, I suppose when one is abandoned by their mentor, it's no surprise that she would react very angrily like that.

"What? The bastard died on me? How dare he? How dare he? He'd better not play a trick on me because if he does, I am so going to kill him until there's no tomorrow!" Eliza screeched out loud for the whole world to hear. As for me, I asked the mouse what the Ferryman died of and how. However, the mouse had no clue, but I got the gist of it, anyway.

"Well, I suppose I could tell you, but I don't know what it means, though. He died under odd circumstances. Here's what happened.*

The Ferryman (well, Ex-Ferryman) was trying to cross to the other side of the River Stynx. Before him, there were six logs that lay scattered across the river in various places. However, the logs were re-arranged like this in the following order:

The third log is sawed in half, but stable.

The fifth log is whole, but fragile.

The fifth log is the most important to cross the River Stynx.

The first log is the strongest, but it's near the beginning

The second log is nothing more but a piece of wooden plank, well, the Ferryman calls any floating wood as logs, so do forgive me in saying so.

The sixth log is strong and short out of the six, but can float well enough for a person to stand on it. It's the closet to the other side of the shore.

The fourth log has five wooden planks tied together with a strong piece of rope. One could consider it as a raft.

The Ferryman has figured a way to get to the other side without drowning. How did he manage to cross the River Stynx once without his usual boat, I have no clue, and I have no idea why he decided to cross over the first place," Penny sighed as I saw through what really happened. Poor Ferryman. For such a solution to come up, it's just... horrible. I don't know what to say to her, but I think insider her heart of hearts, I think she's upset and sad that her mentor died for such a simple mistake like that. Why he didn't use his boat, I have no clue. He should have done it, but I can't blame him for not doing that. As for Eliza, she was screaming her little heart out. I guess, in spite of her un-ladylike cursing, she cared deeply for the Ferryman and his death must have been a blow to him. I hesitated as Penny, the mouse, instructed me what to do next.

"The reason why you came to us is because we come to collect your soul, your spirit. We went back ten years in time and we couldn't find your soul and had a long time in searching for it. My mistress almost took the life of Bill Hawkes because of what he had done, but that's another story. We tried to search for you until that Dimitri friend of yours came to you. That's when we had to leave," Penny explained rather sheepishly as I nodded.

"What if I decided to remain in this world? I'm sure it's all right to be here instead of going to the Underworld for Judgment. And I promised someone special that I would watch over him always, no matter what happens," I pointed out as Penny shook its small head and explained further to me about the consequences of me staying here a lot longer than not to give me the coins in my hands.

"If you remain in the human world, you'll become a demon. So, you have to come to the Underground to be judged by the King and Queen of the Underworld. In order to do that, you have to give up the Dead Man's coins in your hand. However, there is a catch. If you give the coins to us, you will never see the outside world ever, ever again. You'll have to stay in the Underground world forever and ever. And that includes your loved ones, no exceptions," Penny explained as I began to hesitate. I haven't said goodbye to Hershel properly! If I gave the coins to her now, I won't see him again, ever! But then again, if I remained in London as a wandering spirit, I could become a demon and I might hurt Hershel in the process. No, I can't do that! Oh, what should I do? I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Eliza was almost emotional; she reached out her palm to me as though she wanted the coins right now without a further explanation. However, there is a question that remained in my head:

Should I give the coins to her or not?

*Okay, for 10 Dead Man's coins (or Picarats, if you prefer), try to solve this. The facts are there:

- Six logs in the River Stynx. (Well, six pieces of wood)

- Logs Two and Four are wooden planks

- Log Three is sawed in half

- Log Five is the weakest log because it's so hollow

- Long One is the strongest, but it's near the beginning where the Ferryman is.

So, assuming the Ferryman didn't use his magic, how did the Ferryman manage to cross the bridge over to the other side once? Answer's in the next chapter! And yes, do PM me with your answers, it'd be interesting to see how you guys went! XD