They stood and stood and stood, the line had not moved again.
This is worse than any amusement park line I've ever been in. Tony thought to himself. He was getting tired. Tired of standing, tired of trying to keep alert, tired of being quiet ... just tired. He ran his hands through his hair, shift his weight from foot to foot, dug through his pockets - making sure to ignore the one with his coin in it - even rummaged through his back pack ... anything to occupy his mind.
By some unspoken rule, they all knew not to sit or even crouch down. They kept as alert as they could, each imaging themselves on a covert mission. However, after what felt like days, even Gibbs stoicism was starting to waiver.
He opened his mouth to question Ari, when the line started moving. When it stopped again, he noticed that Tim was going to be the first one on the dock when the line moved again.
A commotion arose at the front part of the dock. Apparently, a soul who looked like he belong in the mountains of Peru, was trying to pass a fake coin. He cried out in a pleading tone in a language none of them had heard before. His cries came to a sudden stop after a loud splash was heard.
As the other souls on the dock moved ahead, Ari looked panicked. He grabbed someone out of the crowd, it just so happened to be the ancient Egyptian man that had lost his coin earlier. Ari shoved a coin in his hand and pushed him ahead of Tim.
The man looked frightened, then confused, then joyful. He nodded his thanks and quickly followed the line.
Ari turned to explain before the team could question him. "As I said, the ferryman will take ten souls across, no more and no less."
"Yeah, but now you are short your coin." Gibbs stated.
A diabolical smile spread across Ari's face. "Oh, don't worry about me Gibbs."
Something in his eyes made Gibbs' skin crawl. That was the Ari he had known and now all of his doubts about following this man came back with a vengeance. However, he shook his head to get rid of the them, it was way too late to change his mind now.
So, once again, they stood in silence for seemingly days on end, and they all retreated into their own thoughts.
The sound of wood hitting wood pulled everyone out of their reverie. They all looked up as a cloaked figure came to the edge of the dock. It looked like your stereotypical Grimm Reaper, face hidden by the hood, skeletal hands barley visible, and a long handled scythe.
The hand not holding the scythe stretched out, as it pointed to the next ten souls in line, one at a time.
Tim gulped then squared his shoulders. He walked forward on shaky legs, the first one in line. He climbed the three steps up to the dock and paused at the Reaper.
It held out its hand and Tim took out his coin, nearly dropping it because he was shaking so badly. However, he managed to hold on to it enough to get it into the Reaper's hand.
It brought the coin up to it's still hidden face to study it. Once satisfied it was real, he put it somewhere in his robes and gestured for the boy to move ahead.
As Tim disappeared from sight, Ari was the next to be summoned. He climbed the steps then stopped right in front of the Reaper. It seemed as if they were nose to nose, carrying on a silent conversation. However, with the Reaper's face still hidden by its cloak, it was impossible to tell. They stayed that way for several minutes. It went on so long that, behind him, Team Gibbs was getting nervous. Eventually the Reaper stood aside and let Ari pass.
Ziva was next, the Reaper took her coin studied it as it had with Tim's coin, then let her pass. It did the same for Gibbs, DiNozzo and the other five souls.
Once they were all on the dock, the Reaper strode forward to the front of the line, where Tim was. The ferry was anchored in front of him, but he knew not to get on until the Reaper said it was okay.
The Reaper stood in front of Tim for a moment, once again looking over everyone. It deposited the coins into a wooden bucket, then stepped aside to allow the passengers to board.
Tim being the first one in line, went all the way to the end of the ferry. Ari stood beside him, but not touching. Ziva was directly behind him and Gibbs behind her. Tony stood behind Ari and the rest of the souls filled in from there.
Once everyone was aboard, the Reaper took its place at the helm and used the handle of the scythe to push off from the dock.
The river was appropriately named, because it was not water they were floating over, it was blood. Deep, dark, rich red blood. It wasn't just the look of blood, the smell was there to go along with it. It was making the whole team nauseous and they were worried about Tim.
Tim was shaking even more now and had wrapped his arms around his middle and fisted his hands in his shirt. His focus was off in the distance somewhere and his eyes kept glossing over, as if he was reliving his horrible memory. His eyes would clear as he fought the memory then gloss again as it came back.
Ari was watching the boy intently. His own arms shaking with the effort it was taking him not to reach out and comfort the child. He eventually balled his fists and shoved them into his pockets, not trusting his own self control any more.
Ziva was having a similar fight with herself. She crossed her arms and shoved her hands up under her armpits as her way of avoiding reaching out to Tim.
Gibbs and Tony stopped looking at Tim and exchanged a looked of their own. It was hard to see their friend hurting so much and knowing they couldn't even try to do anything to help. This was one time they didn't want to carry one of their silent conversations, worried it would draw the ire of the Reaper. Instead, Tony studied his shoes and Gibbs turned away watching the far shore.
Every once in awhile, the Reaper would put its scythe handle into the blood and give a push that kept the ferry going. They kept to the middle of the river for most of the ride, then suddenly the Reaper caused the ferry to turn, making it pitch.
Tim looked like he was going to lose his battle with fighting off his memories. He tighten his gripped on his shirt and forced himself to stand taller, but he couldn't quite get the shaking under control.
The Reaper finally steered the ferry to the shore line and it bumped into that dock the same as it had on the other side.
They now exited the opposite of how they came on, the last one on was the first one off. Which meant that Tim had to stay on the ferry the longest as the other souls disembarked. Once he was the last soul left, he let his arms fall to his sides and took a deep breath. He turned slowly and very cautiously put one foot in front of the other. He didn't exhale until he was once again on solid ground.
They were all smiling at him proudly. He smiled back and started to run up to Ari, but stopped.
The four of them watched as Tim started to move towards them but then he turned back to the Reaper as if it had called out to him. As he looked up to it, it reach out a skeletal hand and patted the top of his head. Tim beamed with pride.
The Reaper bowed to the boy then went back to its ferry.
In two steps Ari was next to Tim. He picked up the boy. "See, I knew you could do it!" In one fluid motion Tim was off the ground in Ari's outstretched arms, lifted above his head and lightly tossed just an inch or two into the air.
Gibbs watched on very jealously as he remembering playing and tossing Kelly around like that. Then something odd happened. While Tim was airborne, a huge smile on his face, his body seemed to have a glowing outline around it, and it was growing.
As soon as Ari caught Tim again, he pulled him close, whispering in his ear. The boy nodded his head against Ari's neck and tightly wrapped his arms around the older man's neck and legs around his waist.
When he was sure the boy had a firm hold, he let go completely and starting walking, a horrible aura emanating from him.
During their whole interchange Gibbs noticed that, not only the other souls who had ridden with them, but also souls that were already in the area started crowding close to Ari and Tim. That was until the dark aura started rolling off the Israeli man.
He had so many questions, but Ari just stormed right past him and the rest of the team. They all looked at each other before scrambling to catch up.
Ari didn't stop walking until he came to the precipice of a drop off.
All the questions the team had flew out the window as they took in what they saw. The sky was no longer the sicken blood red, nor was it grey. It was now black with streaks of yellow and orange through out. There were sets of stairs working their way down through several levels. However, you couldn't just stay on the stairs to go all the way down because they were on alternating sides - if first set of stairs were on the north and south sides, the second set were on east and west.
There appeared to be barren wastelands, marsh lands, and volcanoes. Also, there was some sort of bird or flying creature that circled the lands below. Way, far down in the center was a golden glow.
Tony was the first to speak. "Why do I suddenly feel like a hobbit?"
Gibbs and Ziva turned to stare at him, while Ari kept scanning the area. He felt Tim smile against his neck and knew he had heard DiNozzo's remark. Well, that's two down, only one to go. Ari exhaled deeply as he rubbed Tim's back. Then he turned to the team. "Our next challenge is the land for apathy and sloth."
Ziva addressed her brother. "Is there a level for each of the deadly sins?"
Ari shook his head. "Not exactly." Tim allowed himself to be put down, but still held on to Ari's hand. "Dante was right that there are seven levels if you will, around here we call them lands. We just came through the first one, the Land for Lost Souls." He paused to make sure they were all understanding him, so far they were following along.
"Second comes the land for those who never took the time to interact with those around them."
"I think almost everyone is guilty of that from time to time. Why would that be considered something so horrible." Tony questioned.
"We're not talking about the occasional laziness or withdrawal from friends. It's a deadly sin for a reason. These are people who took no notice in what was happening around them. Good or bad, they refused to participate just because it was too much work."
When he still got blank stares, he went for an example. "This is the guy who never gets above an entry level job, even though he might be with the same company for years. He doesn't participate in office parties, nor does he stop any on the job theft or abuse."
Gibbs frowned. "So the clinically depressed?"
Ari shook his head again. "No, deeper than that. The depressed usually want to make the effort, but can't find a reason to care. Apathy is the other way around. This guy might care, but to interact would require effort ... effort he doesn't want to take."
Gibbs thought he understood. "So what do we have to watch out for?"
"We will need to tread carefully and must ignore anyone that tries to get our attention. Since in life they couldn't be bothered with anyone around them, now they have no choice. They get clumped together, unable to ignore each other. If they can latch onto another soul then they can separate from the clump, they can go back to pretending that others don't exist."
"Okay, that doesn't sound so bad." Tony stated, but it was more of a question.
"It's only a temporary fix. The apathetic soul becomes a parasite to the new soul. Eventually completely draining it of its willpower turning it into an apathetic soul too. Now a new clump is started and the original two souls are stuck together for eternity, no matter what ... even if they get another new soul to latch onto. It just starts all over again."
Tony shivered. "Ugh."
"You will come across some pretty vile clumps." Ari nodded in agreement to Tony's sentiment. "If we tread carefully, we should be able to get through without them noticing us at all. Now follow me ... carefully."
The team nodded their agreement and started down the stairs.