The last goodbye had come, and my sight blurred, hot tears stinging in the corners of my eyes. I just could not believe it. There she was, to take me back to pick up my old life again, just as out-of-the-blue as I had left it. It seemed ages that I had last seen the sun. But Eurydice was here, and if I went with her, I would soon see it again...
On the other hand, I would not go unchanged by the last... was it days? Was it months? Or even only mere hours? I was not the same man that had come here. I knew the sweet Eurydice had a crush on me. That was probably why she had come here in the first place. Not because she felt responsible. Not because of her dear brother. She knew that he would send her to get me, as she knew her way around men like Charon and Cerberus. Not around me, though. She knew I was off-limits to her as long as I shared her brother's bed.
I watched my feet, setting one in front of the other, automatically, on the cool obsidian floor, walking behind her. Little Eurydice led me all the way back to the surface, back to the sun, back to her brother. The quiet soudn of feet in front of and behind me echoed in my ears.
When I first came down here, I wanted to go back to my one and all – wanted to go back to the surface. But I could not. A firm grip on my shoulder held me back. He did not say anything, but when I turned around this first time to look at him, the stoic authority on his features told me that I had to stay. His name was Hades, I was told later. The grave silence he radiated gave the Underworld a very ceremonial, sacred aura, somehow. The darkness that sometimes felt so heavy, so devoid of emotions, would seem soft and warm, in a way. In a world of death and misery, a tiny spark of life could seem like a flame.
And I became this spark's worshipper, high priest, and slave. When I thought back now, I had been nothing more than a young boy. I had thought I knew about life, I had thought I knew about the world. The force that drew me, like a moth towards a candle, was utalitarian, at first. Back in my old life, it was poetry, passion, and the pursuit of enjoyment. I found it all in this one nymph; the brother of the woman that was walking in front of me now. Or so I thought.
When I met Hades, I was still devastated, still mourning about my lost life and love on the surface. Like now, I had to blink back the salty tears threatening to overwhelm me. But I stubbornly bit back on all the hopelessness, all the loss I felt, and looked the silent man in the eyes. My shoulders hunched, I did not feel like feel like calming down. Still, I tried to muster a strong posture, a proud decisiveness – and ended up with such a grimace on my face that it made the man opposite me pull up one corner of his mouth in a diminuitively small, wry smile. He turned away and left again. I had made a complete fool of myself.
But I would not give up. I soon realized that the only way out, back to the surface, back to the sun, was through Hades. I had to convince him to let me go – by any means necessary! I washed, I waited on him, I cleaned the place, ever getting myself deeper into his realm without noticing. Until not too long ago, when my libido won the better of me. So it must have been quite a while that I was down here...
I thought that I must have ruined everything I had been working for in that one single instant! I could have killed myself if I had not been dead already then! I would have to stay in the Underworld forever,... alone and in eternal silence.
Why was he following me now, then? Or was I just following his will all along? I would go back to the surface, repenting for my mistakes. I could not turn around. Not ever again! As much as I wanted to, I was far too proud – towards Eurydice as well as myself.
The dark silence around me still echoed with the hollow steps around me – with the sweet light of the sun not too far ahead – with the wet clouds of mist in front of my eyes.
A faint whisper penetrated my ears. „... only gods and those they want and choose to can experience life in their dead bodies..."Had I been led out of the Underworld just tu reach Morpheus's arms? I stopped dead in my tracks.
Eurydice turned and gave me a long, sad look. She knew something I did not; of this I was sure. Then I could see her eyes shifting to look at the man behind me. Hades. My tormentor, my master, my lord, my flame... So the big goodbye would be longer than I had expected. Slowly, I turned to face him. So the voice I had just heard was his... I felt Eurydice's curious eyes on me, when, finally, the meaning of the words spoken sank in...