Chapter Seventeen: Guilt
This was not some joyful romp through the forest. They were not heading towards some lovely open valley where
little butterflies and fairies dance around singing their little cheerful songs to have a lovely picnic. Cerberus was
flying at top speed, caring little if Zel could hold on or not. Cerberus had other more important things to do than to
cart around the little Zelgadis, who was screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Screaming at me is NOT going to help you!" The left head turned around and shouted at him, "I don't want to do
this either. I'd rather be doing something more productive but neither life nor death is fair!"
"#Where are we going?#" Zel whimpered.
"Didn't I already tell you?!"
"#I do not know!#"
"We're going to the River of Guilt which encircles the Temple of the Death Angels. You must cross it to get to the
Temple!"
"#Why do I have to go to the Temple in the first place?#"
"I don't know! But Ursula told me to bring you there and that's where you're going! Now shut up!"
"#Who is Ursula?#"
"I SAID 'SHUT UP'!"
The trees were just a gray blur. Not a green blur, like nice, happy trees where little birds fly but dark, gray blur
of trees that are forever chilled and drooping. The lower branches whipped at Zel's face and the dry, decaying leaves
scratched him.
Eventually, the trees parted and Cerberus stopped in front of a green-brown river. The area smelled like old
vomit and feces. Zel retched.
"#This is disgusting!#" Zel cried, covering his mouth to block the smell. It didn't help.
The middle head took a big breath, "Ah! I love that smell!"
The right head nodded, "Nothing better."
The grass around the river was brown and very, very dead. It crackled when Cerberus walked on it. The left head
noticed Zel's disgust and said, "It's the grass that makes most of the smell, if that makes you feel any better."
"#It does not!#"
Zel looked at the structure in the distance. It could only be vaguely seen, since it was shrouded in fog. The
structure seemed massive with many steps leading up to tall double doors, which appeared shut.
"#Is that the Temple?#"
"Yes, that is the Great Mead Temple of the Death Angels. You are the first human to stand at its borders for
over two hundred years."
"#That is a really long time.#"
"Yes, it is. It could have stayed isolated for longer, in my opinion, but no one ever listens to me."
"#I am sorry.#"
"It's not your fault. Anyway, I got other more important things to do so, I leave you here!" The left head
commanded while the middle head reached over and grabbed Zel by the collar. The middle head swung and threw him into the
murky water. Zel hit the water with a plop (since the water was so thick) and it went up to his neck. Cerberus, seeing
that its work was done, immediately turned back to the gray forest and fled.
Cerberus had been right about one thing: The water wasn't producing most of the smell. It didn't smell great
but it smelled a lot better. The problem was Cerberus left something out. There was a reason why the water was so
thick, murky and such a strange color.
Zel was surrounded by decaying bodies. They were not zombies. Zombies have no purpose, they just exist and are
mostly annoying. These undead figures had a purpose. To make whoever got in their path suffer. A lot.
"#Nice dead bodies. Niiiice dead bodies!#" Zel tried to swim out but the water was so thick with the undead
protectors, he didn't have an opening to shore. And as the song goes, the river is wide and it's too hard to cross.
Of course, the undead noticed his presence and turned towards him. They waded in the direction of the little boy
as bits of yellow decaying flesh flicked off and floated downstream. Their matted and stringy hair had bits are other
corpses in it. Their eyes were gone, in the sockets was glowing green fog. The nails on the bony hands had gone long
and sharp in the murky depths of the river.
The undead laughed eerily and moaned. Before his very eyes, the undead turned from the carcasses of strangers to
the decayed bodies of people he either knew in life or from his dark nightmares. Mama, Papa, Granpapa Rezo, Eris, Auntie
Veronica, Jer, Malcolm, Lady, Big Guy, Red, and even those two guys he just saved from being ghosts, everyone was
represented in the gruesome mob. One of the undead grabbed his hair and dunked him under. A murder flashed through his
mind. A murder he committed.
*** ***
Lina Inverse lay against the tree, coughing.
"You're supposed to," she coughed, "take it easy on girls."
Zel was outside himself, watching the chimera self answer, "Oh well!"
He then picked her up like a rag doll and she screamed as he bashed her skull against a nearby jagged
rock until her head was a bloody mass.
*** ***
Zel tried to beat his way to the surface and he managed to take a breath on the stagnant air but another undead
pushed him under and he saw another crime.
*** ***
"... for the cause of Justice!" Amelia was finishing another Justice speech in a nameless inn. The chimera Zel
slammed his hand against the wooden table. The little Zel watched himself in horror, wondering what was wrong.
"You know, I'm really sick of your happy, bubbly attitude! This is the LAST straw!" With that, Zel pulled out
his sword and chopped the unsuspecting Amelia's head off.
And he didn't stop there. He chopped the Princess' body in little pieces and sprinkled the bits on to his garden
salad like bacon bits. Then, he used the blood as a gruesome steak sauce. He took a bite, "Hm, it's good! Try some!"
*** ***
"#AAAAAA! Get me out of here!#" Zel screamed as he reached the surface but the undead attacked him with their
claws and beat him down.
*** ***
"So, you've NEVER done it?" Gourry asked in the bath house.
"No, never. Why, have you?" Zel asked, getting fed up with this conversation.
"Duh! Of course! I've had," Gourry counted on his fingers. He ran out of fingers, "Well, more than ten girls.
You must be a real freak if you haven't done AT ALL!" Gourry laughed.
Zel fumed, "How dare he question my manhood!" He "accidentally" dropped the soap.
"Hey, Gourry, could you pick the soap for me? It's closer to you."
Gourry tried to stop laughing to say, "Huh? Where is it?"
Zel pointed vaguely, "There. I think."
Gourry looked for the soap, "Are you sure it's near me?"
"Oh, very sure. You might've moved it while you were laughing."
Gourry bent towards the water, his nose brushing the water line.
As Gourry searched, Zel cupped his hand around Gourry's head. Gourry felt it, "Zel? Why are you touching my
head?"
"Look! It's right there!" Zel screamed as he pushed Gourry's head under the water.
*** ***
Zel managed to fly his way out of the water and he screamed, "#I killed all those people! I killed them!#" The
crowd bit at him and tried to drown him again. They clawed at his clothes and arms. One undead managed to drag him
under again.
*** ***
"You've served your purpose! Time to die!" Zel shot a red beam of energy at Eris. Blood exploded all over the
marble floor of Rezo's laboratory. She fell, limp and nearly lifeless. She fell to the ground with a soft thud.
She reached out her hand towards Zel, "But... why?" The blood poured out, undaunted, forming a deadly cape underneath
her.
"You're just a liability now!" Zel laughed as he realized his triumph and Eris' despair.
He readied the spell that would wipe every trace of her existence...
*** ***
Zel crawled his way up but the bodies fell upon him, suffocating him with their ungodly stench.
"Do not fear, Little One!" A woman's voice inside his head soothed him. Zel looked around but could not see the
source of the voice.
"#Who are you?!#"
"It matters little who I am," the voice answered, "I realize now that you need my help, and thus I'm giving to
you."
"#Okay! Whatever! Just help me!#"
"Do not struggle against the bodies. Push through them. Do not think of them pushing against you. They will drown
you if you do not try to get to the other shore! The images you see are false. You have killed no one! Run! Fly with all
your might!" The voice left him and he was alone again.
Zel used all his remaining strength to push his way out of the creatures' grasp. As he swam through the murky water,
the undead pulled at him, sometimes dragging him under where he would again see his unspeakable crimes. Again and again
he would push his way out of the depths and slowly swim towards shore.
The decayed creatures began to howl and moan and began to resort to violent measures. They clawed at him with no
mercy, letting his young blood flow into the water. They bit at him and left marks of their attack. But he continued to
push himself away but the undead followed, screaming. One jumped on top of him with full force. Zel ripped the decayed
man's arm off and the slime that served for its blood spewed all over him.
Finally, the shore was in sight and he touched the brittle grass but the creatures tore at his clothes and
ripped off chunks of his skin and he felt faint from the loss of blood. He tore at the shore but again and again, he
slipped because of the slime of the corpses.
The undead howled and screeched and toppled on top of him. He knew he was going to die, in this river and be
reborn as one of these decayed things for the rest of eternity. He managed to push the top of his head above water
and he could faintly hear Lady call his name.
He was not going to drown Lady, Red and Big Guy as well. He wouldn't be able to bear it. In a burst of new-
found energy, he threw the bodies off him and crawled his way up to shore. He was on dry land.
The grass smelled like regular dead grass which was comforting but he probably smelled like...
He examined himself. He was dry as well. He was also very clean when he should've been covered in slime. He had
suddenly regained all the flesh that had been ripped off his bones.
The three adults were retching at the smell of the grass on the other side, Zel called out to them, "#It is
just the grass! You have to cross the river! You just to run really fast or the undead things in there will get you and
drag you under and make you see terrible things!#"
Lady translated for the other two and all looked evasive. But all got up and readied themselves for a long,
hard run.
Big Guy jumped in first and the undead tripped him as he began to run and he fell under. He jumped up, screaming
as the undead tore at him. He was covered in slime and gore from his own body but he kept running while the decayed
forms hung on to him.
The girls screamed as they saw Gourry's state but jumped in as well and were also dragged under. Lady and Red
had a harder time getting up again and the undead did much more damage to them. The girls fell under many more times
that Big Guy and their blood ran like a fountain.
Big Guy fell under once again near the shore as the undead bit at him but his hand got a hold of the shore and
pulled his body up. The undead on him screeched as they were pulled along with him. They increased their clawing and
biting. It was futile because when Big Guy got his upper chest on land, they could do no more in that area and had to
work on his legs. That's when he swung his right leg on land and the undead had to abandon their victim. Big Guy crawled
on the shore and lay there, panting.
"I... never... want to... do that... ever... again!"
The girls were still struggling with their captors. Half of Lady's hair was gone from her scalp and Red's face
was a bloody mask from all the scratches. They were lucky, however, because when they fell, their arms were already on
land. Big Guy, with Zel's help, pulled the arms up. The blood and slime burned their hands painfully and the
screeching nearly made their ears bleed. The girls managed to get pulled on shore and they were as good as new. The
burns, as soon as they let go, were magically healed.
The girls lay there panting. Big Guy looked down on Red, "Are you okay?"
"Of course I'm not! I have just been mauled by a bunch dead people! They looked like my friends and family, whether
they were dead or not! I am NOT okay!"
"I was just asking, Lina," Big Guy muttered.
"Why are we all clean now? I KNOW I was covered in blood and slime just before," Lady asked, tilting her head.
"Probably an effect of the river itself," Red shrugged, "I personally don't care why I'm all nice and clean, just
that I am. Where's that temple?"
"Right there," Big Guy pointed. Not more than ten yards from where they sat loomed the Great Temple of the Death
Angels located on the secluded island of Mead.
Red did a double take, "What the...? It wasn't that close before! It should be miles away! How did it get so
close?!"
"Maybe the fog's purpose to make the Temple looked farther away to discourage travelers," Lady suggested.
"Isn't the River of Guilt enough?!" Big Guy asked.
"It doesn't matter now," Red interrupted, standing up suddenly, "Come on, you guys! Time to put Zelgadis back
together!"
The group of four headed towards the forbidden Temple of the Death Angels.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Sorry for the bloody bits. I have been reading a LOT of Greek Mythology (I have to for required
reading for English Honors 10. I really hate Edith Hamilton right now) and it's been affecting my brain. What is up with
the Greek obsession with cutting up children and serving them up to the gods or fathers? It beats me. Anyway, if
you're not completely disgusted with me, the story is soon drawing to a close and I'll have it written soon since I
know what I want to do and I don't think it's going to be as bloody. But in the meantime, I would really like C&C at
destinyplot@lycos.com, even flames are welcome but make sure you don't use ALL CAPS or spel thigs wrog, I mean, spell
things wrong, because you want to prove you're smarter than me, right? See you soon (I hope)!
This was not some joyful romp through the forest. They were not heading towards some lovely open valley where
little butterflies and fairies dance around singing their little cheerful songs to have a lovely picnic. Cerberus was
flying at top speed, caring little if Zel could hold on or not. Cerberus had other more important things to do than to
cart around the little Zelgadis, who was screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Screaming at me is NOT going to help you!" The left head turned around and shouted at him, "I don't want to do
this either. I'd rather be doing something more productive but neither life nor death is fair!"
"#Where are we going?#" Zel whimpered.
"Didn't I already tell you?!"
"#I do not know!#"
"We're going to the River of Guilt which encircles the Temple of the Death Angels. You must cross it to get to the
Temple!"
"#Why do I have to go to the Temple in the first place?#"
"I don't know! But Ursula told me to bring you there and that's where you're going! Now shut up!"
"#Who is Ursula?#"
"I SAID 'SHUT UP'!"
The trees were just a gray blur. Not a green blur, like nice, happy trees where little birds fly but dark, gray blur
of trees that are forever chilled and drooping. The lower branches whipped at Zel's face and the dry, decaying leaves
scratched him.
Eventually, the trees parted and Cerberus stopped in front of a green-brown river. The area smelled like old
vomit and feces. Zel retched.
"#This is disgusting!#" Zel cried, covering his mouth to block the smell. It didn't help.
The middle head took a big breath, "Ah! I love that smell!"
The right head nodded, "Nothing better."
The grass around the river was brown and very, very dead. It crackled when Cerberus walked on it. The left head
noticed Zel's disgust and said, "It's the grass that makes most of the smell, if that makes you feel any better."
"#It does not!#"
Zel looked at the structure in the distance. It could only be vaguely seen, since it was shrouded in fog. The
structure seemed massive with many steps leading up to tall double doors, which appeared shut.
"#Is that the Temple?#"
"Yes, that is the Great Mead Temple of the Death Angels. You are the first human to stand at its borders for
over two hundred years."
"#That is a really long time.#"
"Yes, it is. It could have stayed isolated for longer, in my opinion, but no one ever listens to me."
"#I am sorry.#"
"It's not your fault. Anyway, I got other more important things to do so, I leave you here!" The left head
commanded while the middle head reached over and grabbed Zel by the collar. The middle head swung and threw him into the
murky water. Zel hit the water with a plop (since the water was so thick) and it went up to his neck. Cerberus, seeing
that its work was done, immediately turned back to the gray forest and fled.
Cerberus had been right about one thing: The water wasn't producing most of the smell. It didn't smell great
but it smelled a lot better. The problem was Cerberus left something out. There was a reason why the water was so
thick, murky and such a strange color.
Zel was surrounded by decaying bodies. They were not zombies. Zombies have no purpose, they just exist and are
mostly annoying. These undead figures had a purpose. To make whoever got in their path suffer. A lot.
"#Nice dead bodies. Niiiice dead bodies!#" Zel tried to swim out but the water was so thick with the undead
protectors, he didn't have an opening to shore. And as the song goes, the river is wide and it's too hard to cross.
Of course, the undead noticed his presence and turned towards him. They waded in the direction of the little boy
as bits of yellow decaying flesh flicked off and floated downstream. Their matted and stringy hair had bits are other
corpses in it. Their eyes were gone, in the sockets was glowing green fog. The nails on the bony hands had gone long
and sharp in the murky depths of the river.
The undead laughed eerily and moaned. Before his very eyes, the undead turned from the carcasses of strangers to
the decayed bodies of people he either knew in life or from his dark nightmares. Mama, Papa, Granpapa Rezo, Eris, Auntie
Veronica, Jer, Malcolm, Lady, Big Guy, Red, and even those two guys he just saved from being ghosts, everyone was
represented in the gruesome mob. One of the undead grabbed his hair and dunked him under. A murder flashed through his
mind. A murder he committed.
*** ***
Lina Inverse lay against the tree, coughing.
"You're supposed to," she coughed, "take it easy on girls."
Zel was outside himself, watching the chimera self answer, "Oh well!"
He then picked her up like a rag doll and she screamed as he bashed her skull against a nearby jagged
rock until her head was a bloody mass.
*** ***
Zel tried to beat his way to the surface and he managed to take a breath on the stagnant air but another undead
pushed him under and he saw another crime.
*** ***
"... for the cause of Justice!" Amelia was finishing another Justice speech in a nameless inn. The chimera Zel
slammed his hand against the wooden table. The little Zel watched himself in horror, wondering what was wrong.
"You know, I'm really sick of your happy, bubbly attitude! This is the LAST straw!" With that, Zel pulled out
his sword and chopped the unsuspecting Amelia's head off.
And he didn't stop there. He chopped the Princess' body in little pieces and sprinkled the bits on to his garden
salad like bacon bits. Then, he used the blood as a gruesome steak sauce. He took a bite, "Hm, it's good! Try some!"
*** ***
"#AAAAAA! Get me out of here!#" Zel screamed as he reached the surface but the undead attacked him with their
claws and beat him down.
*** ***
"So, you've NEVER done it?" Gourry asked in the bath house.
"No, never. Why, have you?" Zel asked, getting fed up with this conversation.
"Duh! Of course! I've had," Gourry counted on his fingers. He ran out of fingers, "Well, more than ten girls.
You must be a real freak if you haven't done AT ALL!" Gourry laughed.
Zel fumed, "How dare he question my manhood!" He "accidentally" dropped the soap.
"Hey, Gourry, could you pick the soap for me? It's closer to you."
Gourry tried to stop laughing to say, "Huh? Where is it?"
Zel pointed vaguely, "There. I think."
Gourry looked for the soap, "Are you sure it's near me?"
"Oh, very sure. You might've moved it while you were laughing."
Gourry bent towards the water, his nose brushing the water line.
As Gourry searched, Zel cupped his hand around Gourry's head. Gourry felt it, "Zel? Why are you touching my
head?"
"Look! It's right there!" Zel screamed as he pushed Gourry's head under the water.
*** ***
Zel managed to fly his way out of the water and he screamed, "#I killed all those people! I killed them!#" The
crowd bit at him and tried to drown him again. They clawed at his clothes and arms. One undead managed to drag him
under again.
*** ***
"You've served your purpose! Time to die!" Zel shot a red beam of energy at Eris. Blood exploded all over the
marble floor of Rezo's laboratory. She fell, limp and nearly lifeless. She fell to the ground with a soft thud.
She reached out her hand towards Zel, "But... why?" The blood poured out, undaunted, forming a deadly cape underneath
her.
"You're just a liability now!" Zel laughed as he realized his triumph and Eris' despair.
He readied the spell that would wipe every trace of her existence...
*** ***
Zel crawled his way up but the bodies fell upon him, suffocating him with their ungodly stench.
"Do not fear, Little One!" A woman's voice inside his head soothed him. Zel looked around but could not see the
source of the voice.
"#Who are you?!#"
"It matters little who I am," the voice answered, "I realize now that you need my help, and thus I'm giving to
you."
"#Okay! Whatever! Just help me!#"
"Do not struggle against the bodies. Push through them. Do not think of them pushing against you. They will drown
you if you do not try to get to the other shore! The images you see are false. You have killed no one! Run! Fly with all
your might!" The voice left him and he was alone again.
Zel used all his remaining strength to push his way out of the creatures' grasp. As he swam through the murky water,
the undead pulled at him, sometimes dragging him under where he would again see his unspeakable crimes. Again and again
he would push his way out of the depths and slowly swim towards shore.
The decayed creatures began to howl and moan and began to resort to violent measures. They clawed at him with no
mercy, letting his young blood flow into the water. They bit at him and left marks of their attack. But he continued to
push himself away but the undead followed, screaming. One jumped on top of him with full force. Zel ripped the decayed
man's arm off and the slime that served for its blood spewed all over him.
Finally, the shore was in sight and he touched the brittle grass but the creatures tore at his clothes and
ripped off chunks of his skin and he felt faint from the loss of blood. He tore at the shore but again and again, he
slipped because of the slime of the corpses.
The undead howled and screeched and toppled on top of him. He knew he was going to die, in this river and be
reborn as one of these decayed things for the rest of eternity. He managed to push the top of his head above water
and he could faintly hear Lady call his name.
He was not going to drown Lady, Red and Big Guy as well. He wouldn't be able to bear it. In a burst of new-
found energy, he threw the bodies off him and crawled his way up to shore. He was on dry land.
The grass smelled like regular dead grass which was comforting but he probably smelled like...
He examined himself. He was dry as well. He was also very clean when he should've been covered in slime. He had
suddenly regained all the flesh that had been ripped off his bones.
The three adults were retching at the smell of the grass on the other side, Zel called out to them, "#It is
just the grass! You have to cross the river! You just to run really fast or the undead things in there will get you and
drag you under and make you see terrible things!#"
Lady translated for the other two and all looked evasive. But all got up and readied themselves for a long,
hard run.
Big Guy jumped in first and the undead tripped him as he began to run and he fell under. He jumped up, screaming
as the undead tore at him. He was covered in slime and gore from his own body but he kept running while the decayed
forms hung on to him.
The girls screamed as they saw Gourry's state but jumped in as well and were also dragged under. Lady and Red
had a harder time getting up again and the undead did much more damage to them. The girls fell under many more times
that Big Guy and their blood ran like a fountain.
Big Guy fell under once again near the shore as the undead bit at him but his hand got a hold of the shore and
pulled his body up. The undead on him screeched as they were pulled along with him. They increased their clawing and
biting. It was futile because when Big Guy got his upper chest on land, they could do no more in that area and had to
work on his legs. That's when he swung his right leg on land and the undead had to abandon their victim. Big Guy crawled
on the shore and lay there, panting.
"I... never... want to... do that... ever... again!"
The girls were still struggling with their captors. Half of Lady's hair was gone from her scalp and Red's face
was a bloody mask from all the scratches. They were lucky, however, because when they fell, their arms were already on
land. Big Guy, with Zel's help, pulled the arms up. The blood and slime burned their hands painfully and the
screeching nearly made their ears bleed. The girls managed to get pulled on shore and they were as good as new. The
burns, as soon as they let go, were magically healed.
The girls lay there panting. Big Guy looked down on Red, "Are you okay?"
"Of course I'm not! I have just been mauled by a bunch dead people! They looked like my friends and family, whether
they were dead or not! I am NOT okay!"
"I was just asking, Lina," Big Guy muttered.
"Why are we all clean now? I KNOW I was covered in blood and slime just before," Lady asked, tilting her head.
"Probably an effect of the river itself," Red shrugged, "I personally don't care why I'm all nice and clean, just
that I am. Where's that temple?"
"Right there," Big Guy pointed. Not more than ten yards from where they sat loomed the Great Temple of the Death
Angels located on the secluded island of Mead.
Red did a double take, "What the...? It wasn't that close before! It should be miles away! How did it get so
close?!"
"Maybe the fog's purpose to make the Temple looked farther away to discourage travelers," Lady suggested.
"Isn't the River of Guilt enough?!" Big Guy asked.
"It doesn't matter now," Red interrupted, standing up suddenly, "Come on, you guys! Time to put Zelgadis back
together!"
The group of four headed towards the forbidden Temple of the Death Angels.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Sorry for the bloody bits. I have been reading a LOT of Greek Mythology (I have to for required
reading for English Honors 10. I really hate Edith Hamilton right now) and it's been affecting my brain. What is up with
the Greek obsession with cutting up children and serving them up to the gods or fathers? It beats me. Anyway, if
you're not completely disgusted with me, the story is soon drawing to a close and I'll have it written soon since I
know what I want to do and I don't think it's going to be as bloody. But in the meantime, I would really like C&C at
destinyplot@lycos.com, even flames are welcome but make sure you don't use ALL CAPS or spel thigs wrog, I mean, spell
things wrong, because you want to prove you're smarter than me, right? See you soon (I hope)!