He knew it was inevitable. He'll cease to exist on the eve of Oscar's wedding. He looked at the brilliant stars sprayed across the evening sky. If only his future with Oscar could be as bright as the heavens. He wanted to savour the beauty of the night; the chilly winds blowing his long black hair, the pine fragrance in the air, and the lush forest surrounding the Jarjeyes Mansion. In a few days, he shall no longer see them.
But it didn't matter, not as much as it mattered to him that he shall no longer see Oscar's beautiful smile, no longer can stay every moment at her side to ensure that she is fine and safe, to share in her every triumph and joy, every sorrow and every challenge she encounters everyday of her life.
He leisurely sipped the champagne he had on a goblet as the minuet played on the background. There was a big celebration for Oscar's return at the mansion and almost everybody who is somebody came to the festivity.
"You look so lost in thought, my friend", said Alain as he stepped into the balcony to join Andre who was staring far out into the night.
Andre stared at his friend Alain earnestly. "I'll be gone in a few days...I don't know when I'll return or if I can return. In my absence, please promise me you'll watch out for Oscar. Protect her, guide her, as you know I would..."
"Hey...I know you're upset about her marrying Girodere but that's not a reason for you to run away..."
Andre grabbed Alain's shirt. "Promise me...Say you promise!" he interrupted him rather forcefully.
Alain furrowed as he gently removed Andre's clenched fist from his collar. "What is wrong, Andre? I have never seen you like this. Of course I'll watch out for your Oscar for our friendship, and you know she's a commander I highly respect but I know you well enough that even if she gets married I'm sure you'd take it upon yourself to protect her-husband or no husband. Why are you talking like you're going to be gone for good?"
Andre banged his fist on the balcony railings in frustration before burying his face in his hands. For a moment he was silent, unsure about to say, but as he uncovered his face from his hands Alain saw a deep sense of dread and consternation in his forest green eyes that were now clouded with apparent disconcertion.
In a defeated low voice, Andre shared the about the night he rescued Oscar. He looked away from Alain, lost in thought as he started, "All was quiet as I was wading through a shallow river until I came to what seem like a dead end then I felt myself dragged in a swirling water I fought against it...but I must have lost my memory from then, for I haven't the faintest recollection what transpired after, the next thing I remember was seeing Oscar sleeping peacefully like a princess in cluster of soft black clouds in the chamber of Hypnos himself...I don't know what happened before that or how I got there or how much time I spent in the Underworld before finding Oscar."
Alain listened intently at his friend's tale. Perhaps his tale can help him understand the shadows that haunt his friend Andre ever since he and Oscar emerged from the Netherworld. What horrors had he witnessed during his quest? What disturbing nightmares plague him?
He wanted to unburden his friend's load. He wanted to see him smile again. Andre was never cynical, it was he who was cynical in the way he viewed life but Andre always took things in stride, he was carefree and easygoing. Just keeping Oscar company, and seeing her have the best of life was enough source of light and happiness in Andre's life but ever since that fretful day they returned and Oscar accepted Girodere's proposal, Andre became a sullen old man.
"Before I started my journey I inserted a piece of paper in my cuffs, written there was an instruction that I must drink the vial of liquid inside my pocket. It was the water to help me remember my earthly life. It was given to me by an old man who helped me when I lost consciousness."
Andre turned to Alain. "Well you must think there's no problem because I got to drink the water from the River of Mnemosyn and managed to get out of the Underworld with Oscar...but it wasn't that easy..."
As the warm liquid from the vial trickled down Andre's throat all his memories came flooding back in a second. He flinched and then looked around to absorb his current situation. Oscar lay beside a black-winged middle age man with beard, they were both sleeping soundly side by side on a bunch of fluffy black clouds, and he was but a couple of yards away from them.
He was contemplating whether he should pick Oscar up in his arms and scram or wait and observe. While he was deep in thought, he noticed a sloth, lying on the floor a few feet away from the bed, trying to reach an apple on ac counter through its tongue but he was too far to reach the apple.
Andre walked to the sloth and took the apple from its nestling place at the counter and dangled it in front of the sloth. "Hey...that is mine. Hand it over," said the sloth.
Andre pretended to take a bite off the apple. "Noooo!" screamed the sloth but made no move to take the Apple from Andre.
Andre taunted him. "If you want it, then why don't you stand up and get it?"
"Because I'm too lazy. I'm the attendant of Hypnos but I'm so tired and lazy to attend to him and this lady here who has never woken up since she placed here by Athena," said the sloth.
"I can take her off your hands. Just tell me how to get her without waking up Hypnos," offered Andre.
"Thank heavens. I can rest all day long without having to watch over that woman. Don't worry, you can take her. Hypnos only wakes up twice in a day and stays awake only for an hour. I'm just too lazy to check when he is waking again but so long as it is not time, he never wakes up."
Andre dropped the apple into the sloth's stomach, scooped Oscar from the bed and ran out into the swampy dark recesses of the cave. He had no idea where the way out of the Underworld lay, all he knew was that he must take Oscar as far away as possible.
He knew running out directionless was useless but it was better than having no plan at all. After sometime he felt like he was running in the abysmal darkness forever without any way out. Suddenly he found himself carrying a three-headed vicious serpent in his arms instead of Oscar's sleeping form. Out of impulse he wanted to throw what he was carrying into the deep ravine running along on one side but before he could throw the serpent, he tripped on a small rock and fell on his knees to the ground. He recognized that on his feet lay a field of poppies.
Suddenly he was surrounded by monsters that frighten him as a little boy, monsters that he used to believe that would come out from under his bed or out of his closet at night. He shook his head to clear the visions. He took a knife from his belt and slashed his upper left arm that still held the vicious serpent. He clenched his teeth to keep from crying out in pain.
The pain snapped him out of the hallucinations caused by the poppies on the ground. All the monsters surrounding him began to fade gradually one by one, and as he stared at the serpent in his arms, it faded into the beautiful face of Oscar. I must get out of this field of poppies. This is going to make e crazy.
He cried in relief and in guilt for what he almost did to Oscar's defenceless form. He crushed her into a warm embrace and carried her once again. He soon reached a door of fire. Is this the way to the world of the living? He wondered. He would have crossed if he wasn't carrying Oscar but he didn't want to risk her safety. What if it was the door to the eternal fires of hell? He didn't know what lay behind it or how to cross it without harming Oscar.
Behind him was the poppies that led back to the cave of Hypnos, on his left was the deep ravine, in front of him was the door of blazing fire, and on his right was a sea of boiling mud but there were rough stones and boulders spattered across the boiling mud he could jump on in order to cross to another side. He sheathed his knife, his sword dangling beside him, his soldier's bag on his back, he moved Oscar from his arms carried like a bride, to his shoulders so he could move more sturdily.
He was but on his third boulder when pterodactyls began attacking him and Oscar, causing him to waver on his balance. He unsheathed his sword to protect them from the attacks as he jump from one boulder to the next. It was getting to be a rather difficult feat as Andre noticed that the pterodactyls were increasing and they were nowhere getting nearer the other end. He found a wider boulder he can lay Oscar for a moment while he kills off the pterodactyls but as he watched their increasing number he wondered if he can slay them all.
As he was slaying the pterodactyls, the vigilant warrior felt a slight tremor from the ground and he knew something was coming out of the boiling mud beneath him. He moved towards the boulder where Oscar lay and just as he fell back beside her to protect her with his sword, a serpent with a woman's head slithered out of the mud directly beside him. He cut its head but not before it sprayed some poisonous gas into him.
He wailed in pain but covered Oscar with his body in the event that another serpent should arise and spurt another poisonous gas. As the pain ebbed, his sight gradually did too. He became blind but he did not let this deter his willpower to get them out alive. He knew he just had to be more cautious and alert. He carried Oscar back to his shoulder as he groped with his sword for the next boulder within reach he could leap on. He listened attentively for the wail of any pterodactyl that would come sweeping over them so he could slay them before they can harm them.
"Hello Andre. Welcome. Our god Hades will be most happy to have the soul of such a great warrior-such tenacity, such determination," said a creepy old voice.
"Let me take you to him..."
It was Thanatos, the personification of Death. Souls are terrified of him, spirits avoid him for he takes the souls to Hades.
"No! We are not dead. We don't belong here," replied Andre in a protest.
Andre stood in stance as though ready to fight Death should he persist to take him and Oscar to the King of the Underworld.
Persephone heard Andre's plea and appeared before Thanataos.
"Thanatos!" she scolded.
"Yes, my queen? King Hades will be delighted when I bring him these two lost souls."
The queen of the underworld took pity on the couple. She knew what they were going through being so in love with her husband that she went with him to his underground world, leaving her mother and friends above the ground where the light and the abundance of beautiful nature dwell. She understood what love could do.
"Escort them out of the kingdom," commanded the queen.
"But your majesty, it is my duty to bring them to the king. The king will be furious should he find out I've helped them out of the underworld. I don't want to incite his wrath. You do know how he is when he is enraged."
The queen was aware Thanatos can be manipulated into things if you knew which button to push. She thought hard, she wanted the couple to be set free.
"Take them together to Hades. It goes to show that Love can conquer Death," said Persephone.
"What do you mean, your majesty? I can stop their heart in a snap so they can stay here forever," boasted Thanatos.
"You can indeed but you cannot stop them from loving each other...They are together even unto Death."
Andre loved her soft beautiful voice. Although he couldn't see her, he could imagine how beautiful she is. He couldn't fathom though how such a gentle creature could be the queen of the underworld.
"Ridiculous! Alright...I shall set one of them free but keep the other in here. I shall have the girl," said Thanatos.
Andre didn't want to stay but if he had too, he will, just so Oscar can be free and happy back in France.
"No! Take my life instead of hers," said Andre.
Thanatos was amused. He expected the man to leave the woman in exchange for his life and freedom. He wanted to show the queen just how wrong she was. Death is stronger than Love, and he, their lowly servant, shall show her that indeed!
"I will escort you both back to the world of the living as the queen said, because your love is more powerful than Death but...should I prove otherwise, you shall be mine. When the woman marries another man, you will be my slave from the eve of their wedding till eternity-you will be mine to do as I please.
Persephone poured some water over the eyes of Andre and touched them with her gentle fingers. "Go and prove that Love will always be stronger than Death."
Andre gradually began to see but as his sight restored, Thanatos and Queen Persephone had vanished. He was left alone with Oscar on a riverbank. A cloaked figure standing on a wooden boat was waiting for them.
"I shall ferry you out of the Netherworld," said the boatman.
Andre sat on the boat with Oscar in his arms. After what seemed like an endless quiet journey, the boatman spoke.
"This is as far as I go. Follow the light and you shall find your world."
Andre carefully stepped out of the boat but as he turned to thank the boatman, he was gone. He trekked the damp cave, following the little light that he could see. As the light grew brighter and bigger, the water grew higher until it was up to his stomach. Soon he could see faint images of trees, clouds, and sky amidst the big bright light that seem to beckon.
A little more further Oscar, he whispered. He had to swim. He was careful to keep Oscar's head above the water as he swam outside the cave. To his delight, he soon found themselves at Lake Avernus. The water began to be shallow as Andre made his way towards the riverbank.
I love you, Oscar, he whispered as he cradled her on the solid ground, his face still dripping wet. He looked at her beautiful face intently. He was still amazed and quite in disbelief that they managed back safely. He brushed her lips with his tenderly. Love's first kiss.
Oscar's eyes began to flutter. For a moment, it opened and stared intently back at his unusual Emerald green eyes before it closed again.
"Andre! Oscar!" yelled Alain.
Andre looked up and found his friend with the other army a few yards from where he and Oscar sat. He was delighted and relieved to see familiar faces.
"Alain! Over here," he yelled back.
The army tended on Andre's wounds and gave him water as they took Oscar from him. He refused to move far from Oscar.
"She is fine. Just lost consciousness because of the long trip," he reassured.
Soon Girodere and General Jarjeyes were in the scene. General Jarjeyes thanked Andre profusely. He hugged him and called him son. He said he would be happy to have him as his-son-law should Oscar consent to marry him. He did promise to give Oscar's hand to the man who can bring her back.
But to the astonishment and disappointment of both men, Oscar gave her consent to marry Girodere. To make up to Andre, Gen Jarjeyes offered to give him part of his assets but Andre refused. He said he was happy to save Oscar and to be just a part of the Jarjeyes family.
