Forbidden To Love (The Erosians) (22 page)

“I get the feeling I'm going to lose you and I will do everything not to let that happen,” Josh promises me his forehead resting against mine as he holds my head in his hands. I hear a door slam in the distance.

“
Then we need to go now!” I scream.

Josh grabs my wrist breaking the strap on the corsage; the petals fall to the ground as we run to the other side of the hall. Pushing open the fire exit which leads to the back of the car park, we run through the parked cars until we reach Josh
’s. He clicks the car open and we jump inside.

“
Lock the doors,” I shout, not sure how much effect a locked door will have on someone from the Underworld but I’ll take every defence I can get.

Josh speeds out of his space, spinning the car so fast it throws me against my seat. The car roars and takes off onto the dark road.

“Where are you going?” I pointlessly ask. Where exactly can we hide from the Underworld?

“
The farm,” he replies confidently and keeps his eyes on the road. The farm? Which farm? Whose farm? I'm about to ask but Josh has got questions of his own.

“Who the hell are those guys and what you’ve done to make them chase after you.” He tears his eyes from the road to look at me. “Is it one of them that did that?” he looks at my neck, expecting to see the bruises which have already disappeared.

“
The bruises, they’re gone.” I don’t know what to tell him. I could tell him everything. What have I got to lose but I know I shouldn’t.

“
I don’t know who they are” I answer honestly because I don’t actually know who they are. I'm just presuming. Josh doesn’t look impressed with my answer and turns back to the road.

“
I’m sorry for getting you involved in all of this. If I’d have known what would happen, I never would’ve started things with you. I’d have just left you alone, avoided you, and spared you from this whole messed up situation.” I lean back against my seat, frustrated but feeling slightly more relieved the further we get from the school.

“
Leaving me alone wouldn’t have made a difference,” Josh says quietly and begins to slow down to match the bends in the road. I roll my head to look at him.

“
I’d have just worked harder if you’d avoided me.” He smiles at me but his eyes don’t sparkle as they usually would. He’s worried and there’s nothing I can do to put his mind at rest. If those two are on a mission to kidnap me they’re not going to stop at a high school dance. They’ll find me one way or another.

We
’ve been on the road for only a few minutes when I hear the angry snarls of a car behind us. Seconds later I can see the lights flashing through the rear windscreen. I look at Josh terrified, but he doesn’t falter. He pushes his foot on the accelerator pressing it straight to the floor and we speed off.

The car behind stays right on us, Josh swerves quickly from one lane to another trying to shake them off. I grip my nails into his leather seats and shut my eyes tight, willing it to be over. I get thrown against the door of the car and open my eyes to see we
’re driving in a ditch at the side of the road. Josh jerks the car to the left, narrowly missing a fence coming up in front of us.

`I look around the car, trembling.
“You ok?” Josh shouts. I don’t respond. He reaches across with his arm, pushing me back into the seat.

“
Just stay back. I’ll get us out of this”. I nod, frozen in fear, as he spins the car one-eighty and shoots off in the opposite direction. I hear the screech of the other car's brakes as they stop and turn to follow us. Josh glances in the rear view mirror to check where they are but he never takes his foot from the gas or his hands from the wheel.

The other car shunts us from behind, throwing me forward to the dashboard. Josh
’s arm cushions the blow just before my head hits it. I smile at him gratefully as he swerves again but the car hits us once more, deafening me with the sound of crunching metal.

The car speeds up and comes to the side of us. I take in its low roof, charcoal paint job and ebony windows, all casing a growling engine. The window begins to slide down and they motion for us to do the same.

“Not a chance,” Josh laughs and tries to get in front of them but they keep speed with us. The guy in the passenger seat of their car is the same one who danced with me, the leaner one not the big burly one. He laughs at our defiance and reaches out effortlessly to smash the thin barrier we had between them and us. Glass sprays into the car, covering Josh and me.

“
You really should do as you’re told,” he calls casually as though he was playfully telling a three year old they should listen to him. Josh doesn’t even acknowledge him but I can’t help it. I fix my eyes with his as his lips twist into a devilish grin.

“Acacia princess how nice to see you again; how about you pull over and get in the car with us?” My breathing becomes shallow. His tone sets me on edge. He isn’t angry or evil - he’s worse, he’s calm. There is not a doubt in his mind that he’s going to get me one way or another. Maybe I should tell Josh to pull over and just go with him before I get him killed.

Josh turns to look at him.
“Don’t even look at her. She’s going nowhere,” and he angrily shoves our car into theirs, forcing them off the road. Josh brings his eyes back to the front and tries again to speed off.

The other guy shakes his head and his window goes back up. I look at Josh, unsure what
’s going to happen next, but judging by the focused look on his face I know he’s not going to give up without a fight. He’s holding the steering wheel with such force I'm sure if he took his hands away there’d be imprints. Suddenly there’s a loud bang on our roof. I duck for no reason and cautiously look up, half expecting to see a hole in the headlining. I look across at the other car and the passenger window is open again but the passenger is missing. He’s on the roof!

Fear doesn't get a chance to grip me as my door is ripped from its hinges and thrown. I see it bounce and crash across the highway repeatedly like a giant's pebble in a tarmac river. I'm too preoccupied watching the sparks fly into the air each time the metal makes contact to move from the two arms reaching into the car to grab me.

I begin beating them off, screaming. Josh reaches across me and opens the glove box, fumbling for something. I grab and scratch at the arms but it’s no use, my fingers hardly leave a mark. Josh pulls out a knife from the glove box and aims at the hands which are now holding onto my arms. The blade doesn’t cut, it almost bends, and I'm dragged from the car up onto the roof. “No,” I scream but it’s no use. I feel Josh’s hands grasping for my legs but I'm already out of reach.

The passenger from the car is laid on the roof and he has me held on top of him inches above his body.
“Why do you pick the hard way, always the hard way,” he complains. He springs to his feet, holding me around the waist with one arm and jumps back to his car, landing perfectly on the passenger door frame. He throws me between the seats into the back and sits down on the passenger seat. He salutes Josh as their car accelerates away.

I scramble to the window at the back, screaming for Josh. He
’s chasing after this car which is now gaining more distance. “Get rid of him,” the guy in the front instructs the driver. “NO!” I scream even louder than before and reach my arms around his neck, trying to strangle him, hit him, anything to make him stop.

Nothing works. Instead he just climbs into the back and pins my arms to my side.
“You need to stop,” he instructs me and I'm staring into those eyes again. I can see now he’s not much older physically than I am. “Please don’t hurt him,” I beg, sobbing.

The car spins around so it
’s head on with Josh’s car. There is no time for him to react as our car stops directly in his path. I stare open-mouthed at Josh’s car coming straight for us. I know there’s going to be a collision and I know only one car is going to come off damaged.

“
Please don’t do this. I’ll go with you, just don’t hurt him.”

My kidnapper shakes his head.
“Too late.”

Josh
’s car hits us head on. It flips up onto its hood and rolls past us. I see it fly past the back window and burst into flames. I cry as a searing pain flies through my entire body. I try to break free from this deadlock I'm being held in. I need to help Josh, I need to save him.

“
Go,” the guy holding me instructs.

“
No. Please let me save him, please. This isn’t his fault, please, please.” Neither is listening to me. I fall back against the seat, still fighting to be free of his grip.

“
Please no, just stop!” my cries become muffled as the sobs pour freely from my body. I contort with pain as the strength of my despair suffocates me.

Josh is gone. He has been killed because of me.

I cry out and attempt to lash out at this demon once more but he is holding me in place until there is nothing more to look at.

Bleeding

~18
~

I must have passed out. When I open my eyes again, it’s pitch black, darker than when Josh and I ran from school, darker than when we were in the car chase, and darker than when he died.                                                                                                   Next to me, the guy is sat staring out of the window while the other bigger one is in the front driving. My body feels hollow like its essence has been removed. Josh was everything to me, and now he’s gone. Tears fall quickly down my cheeks, but I don’t make a sound. The searing pain I felt before has become a burning lump in the centre of my chest. An ever present reminder of the love I’ve lost.                                           “Welcome back,” the guy next to me says without looking at me. How dare he speak to me after what he’s just done!                                                                                                                 “What the hell are you?” I spit at him. I need to know what sort of twisted evil creature hijacks a high school dance, kidnaps someone and murders an innocent man.                             “I think what you mean to say is who the hell am I?” He diverts his gaze to me, grinning. His eyes glisten in the moonlight. I'm not replying to him. I don’t want to even speak to him if he’s going to try and play word games with me after he’s just killed my soul mate. I glance around the car but everywhere I look I just see the image of Josh’s car in flames. I try to close my eyes, but the scene has been etched to the inside of my eyelids.                                                         “Silent treatment, original,” he sarcastically comments. The one in the front laughs. “I'm Luca and him,” he nods to the driver, “that’s Devan, my older, much less handsome brother.” I don’t acknowledge either of them. Instead, I look out of the window and fold my arms around myself, trying to comfort my bare shoulders.                                           I unwillingly shiver, how can I be cold? A piece of dark cloth lands in my lap. “Put it on, it doesn’t get any warmer where you’re going,” Luca tells me. I no longer care where I'm going. My world effectively ended however many minutes or hours ago it was when Josh left the earth.                             I pick up the cloth and hold it out in front of me. It’s his jacket. As much as I don’t want to wear it, I'm freezing, which feels ten times worse as I’ve never felt it before. “Why am I cold?” I ask him, bewildered.                                           “Emexion,” he answers as if I should know what that is. “It’s a drug. It was made for you to knock you out if you didn’t cooperate. I slipped it you during one of your hysterical fits.” He smiles at the memory of it. “Don’t worry, it’ll wear off in a couple of hours. Feeling cold is just a side effect.”                                                                                                                 We drive in silence for a few miles, then Luca starts trying to see out of the front screen. “Are you gonna make it, or what, Devan?” he shouts at his brother, hammering his fist on the back of his seat.                                                                                     “Plenty of time yet, bro. Just relax, enjoy the ride. The freedom of being out of darkness for the briefest amount of time”              

I have no idea what they
’re talking about. We are driving in the darkness and what is it they need to make?              “Where are we going?” I ask, quietly knowing full well the answer will be the Underworld.                                           “Where’d you like to go, princess?” Luca looks at me, no longer wearing the cruel smile he had before. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say his eyes almost held remorse about kidnapping me, murdering my only love and now taking me to a fate worse than death, but then I remember where he’s from. I don’t want to speak to either of them anymore, and I no longer possess the energy to fight or argue. What’s done is done. I just want my fate decided, and I wish that they have invented some way to kill Gods for I need my mind to stop replaying me the images of Josh burning to death.                             Why did this have to happen to me? Had I honestly done something so horrible that I deserved to see Josh die? What had Josh done to end up like this? He only loved me. How can loving me be punishable by death?                                           How can Zeus justify one of his mortals dying all because of a jealous monster who will still be as miserable now Josh is dead as he was when he was alive?                                           I can feel the anger which I thought had faded blazing inside of me. I can’t just allow Hades to sentence me to whatever fate he feels fit. I can’t allow Eros to continue living his life without paying for what he’s done. I can’t let Josh’s death be in vain.
“Are they all monsters like you down there?” I snarl at Luca.              “Whoa, little Barbie got her bite back,” Luca mocks me, which causes flares of revulsion from the pit of my stomach. “Difference is princess, I was made in hell, and you’re the one being sent there.”                                           “What’s that supposed to mean?” Luca takes a deep breath and shakes his head, like talking to me is wasting his valuable time and taking more effort than he is prepared to expel.                                                                                                   “Think about it. You’ve clearly done something so unthinkable that you’ve been banished to the Underworld for it. I, on the other hand, was made in hell. I never did anything wrong. There’s only one monster in this car sweetheart.” He nods at me.                                                                       If what he’s saying is true then he’s right, I am the monster. I'm the one being banished to hell for being so selfish to carry on with Josh, and now he’s dead, I’ve killed him.                                                                                                   “Why are you saying that? Don’t you think I know the trouble I'm in?”                                                                                     Luca laughs at me, “No, I really don’t think you understand what is waiting for you, but I hope he was worth it.”                                                                                                   “Don’t you talk about him, don’t you even think about him!” I sit myself up and angle myself towards him, ready to attack even though I wouldn’t be able to do any damage.                                                                                                   “Why? What’s the worst thing I could say?” He leans himself back and spreads his arms across the top of the seat “that things are better off this way?”                                                         I lunge for him, but he catches my wrists easily, obviously expecting my outburst. He stares at me until I give in and allow him to push me back to the other end of the seats.                                                                                                   “What are you waiting for him to make?” I snap. I don’t know why I want to know, but anything to take my mind off what’s happening and my powerlessness to do anything about it.                                                                                     “The entrance to the Underworld” He kicks Devan’s chair to remind him he needs to get on with it.                                           “Right, right, jeez why you in such a rush? I bet missy back there isn’t in any great hurry to meet her end.” Devan presses a few buttons on the dash and the ground parts before us. The car zooms down the newly created road. I look out the back screen, saying goodbye to the sky, the stars and the moon as the ground closes up behind us.                             “You think anyone will come looking for you?” Luca asks, probably so he can tell Hades if they should be on the lookout for any rescue party.                                                                       I shake my head. Josh is dead, and I don’t think Allana could do anything to get me out of here. The pain in my chest explodes shooting shards of searing heat to every nerve in my body when I think of how Allana must be feeling now. I’ve been so caught up mourn
ing my Josh that I’ve not even thought what all this must be doing to Allana.                             I wince from the throbbing that has enveloped me unconditionally. Luca keeps glancing at me, his brow furrowed as if he can’t figure something out.
“Are you ok?” he barks but I don’t answer him.                             “What do you care if she’s alright?” His brother questions him.                                                                                                   “The boss wants her alive, moron. She’s no good to us if she turns up dead, is she?”                                                                       His brother shakes his head. “She wasn’t injured. She’ll just be faking it. Ignore her. Get back in the front.”               Luca ignores him and moves closer to me, his hands hovering above me as if he’s no longer sure he should touch. He wasn’t this concerned when he was wrenching me from the car.                                                                                                   “She might be having a reaction from the Emexion,” I hear Devan sigh as I stare up into Luca’s face now full of concern. “Better put my foot down, then.”                                           The car navigates expertly along a series of thin roads, hugging close to the jagged edges of the walls. A murky river runs alongside the road we’re careening on. I have visions of us falling into it, plunging to its depths. In the eerie-looking water, there are slivers of silver all rushing in the same direction. As I watch them, one comes to the surface. As it breaks the water, a face turns to look at me, its eye sockets are vast, and its mouth is stretched unnaturally wide. I gasp and fall back against the seat.                             “They’re only souls, they can’t hurt you.” I look up at Luca, trying to figure whether he’s telling me the truth or not but what choice do I have on believing him? There is a soft edge to his voice, which reminds me, of Josh when he promised to never let anything hurt me. A sharp stabbing begins in my heart as I remember the words he whispered in my ears.                                                                                                   We take a sharp corner which throws me back against the side window. I now get the point of seatbelts. We drive into a wide-open space and the car stops. Devan opens his door and gets out, then he reaches around and opens mine.                                                                                                                 “Out” he instructs me. I look to Luca, but he’s already out the car and waiting next to Devan for me to get out.               I climb out nervously into a musty air I’ve never experienced before. The air is humid and full of something that makes me want to gag. The sky is a light violet colour with a layer of thick cloud off to one side. Behind me is a large moon casting a ghostlike glow on me and everything I can see. There are large plants surrounding us. They’re all at least ten feet tall.                                                                                     Their dark green stems are crowned with velvety white petals with blood red lines running through them.              “Where are we?” I look between the brothers anxiously. Devan roughly grabs my shoulder and pushes me forward.                                                                                     “Enough with the questions, go, let’s get this done.” I stumble forward. Luca grabs my arm before I fall to the floor.              “Why don’t you go see if the Furies need a hand?” he tells his brother while holding onto my arm. “I’ll take her. She hardly needs both of us to handle her, now, does she?”              Devan looks between Luca and me. “I'm done with this fetchin’ business. Anyhow I don’t see why he couldn’t have just got her himself if he wanted her that badly.” Devan stomps off, still muttering under his breath.                                           Luca leads me forward towards one of the many paths that are carved into this field. “You ok?” he asks, not looking at me.                                    
                                                               “Like you care” I allow him to drag me forward. There's not much point in fighting it.                                                         “You might drop the attitude. It’s not going to impress Hades, and it really doesn’t impress me.”                             Like I care about any of that impressing anyone down here is the last thing on my mind! I wish I wasn’t immortal, I wish I could go to Hades now, and he’d get Thanatos to end my miserable life. At least then this dull ache that has replaced my heart wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t feel as if I’ve just been torn open from the inside, creating a welcome passage for every type of pain to climb into my body and start attacking me every way possible.                                                         The image of Josh’s car spinning out of control and setting ablaze sealing him in his fiery tomb wouldn’t be scorched into my mind either.                                                                       Luca marches us on. I stumble as I try to keep up with him, but he never lets me fall. He probably doesn't want to mark his masters’ prize.                                                                       The floor doesn't help me keep my balance. It’s a dusty track littered with rocks that are catching on my skirt. The field gets taller the deeper we get, and I hear rustling all around us. Nervously I try to keep step with Luca, worried about what hideous surprises are waiting in this vile pasture for me. I hope Luca really is following orders to keep me alive as we are perfectly hidden in here and I have a suspicion there are things watching us and waiting to strike. I don’t have to wait long as a body springs out from the right of us.              Luca pushes me behind him seconds before the creature lands right where I was walking. The beast is essentially a human but an emaciated one, wearing scraps of cloth. He has no hair and no shoes. The only thing he has with him is a bow and arrow which he clutches in his claw-like hands. His nails are yellowing towards their tips, which have grown inches away from the ends of his fingers, and there is drool dripping from his mouth. There are only a few pointed teeth in his gums and the stench pouring out of him makes me want to faint.                                                                       I cling onto Luca’s shoulders as he extends his arms behind him, creating a protective barrier between me and anything which might come at us from any other part of the field.                                                                                                                 The creature eyes me curiously, until Luca emits a low growl. Then he flees as quickly as he appeared. Luca pulls me back to the side of him. I don’t realize I’ve been shaking until he uses his other hand to steady me.                             “What was that?” I shudder at the memory of it.               “He was human.” Luca looks behind us where the creature ran off.                                                                                     “This field is full of them. This is where most mortals end up when they die if they’ve been neither particularly good nor particularly bad. They’re either rewarded here for their small triumphs or punished for their indiscriminate misdemeanours.” He searches my eyes to see if I understand him, but I just look around open-mouthed. He sounds as if he’s reciting a mandate of the Underworld. Maybe he is, maybe that’s one of the things the dead get told when they are brought down here.                                                         “That animal,” Luca gestures back to where the skeletal being took off, “is being punished for what I guess was greed, that’s why he’s so thin. He can’t eat when he’s here, and he has that bow so he will eternally chase animals that he’ll never catch.” I bite my lip and pull Luca’s jacket around me tighter than before. His jacket smells faintly of charred wood and is a heavier material than I expected. Even though, it is the cloth of a killer, I'm welcoming it's comforting embrace right now.                                                                       “They can’t hurt you, Acacia, not whilst you’re with me.”                  
                                                                                               That snaps my attention back to him. He’s protecting me. First he’s kidnapping me and killing my only love, and now he’s protecting me. Perfect. Horrified at how much I need him, I stare at him, wanting to say something, so he knows if this was any other situation I wouldn’t be allowing him anywhere near me. He mistakes my silence for something else and places his hands on the tops of my shoulders. I look at them, shocked that my body hasn't flinched from his touch. He clears his throat and takes hold of my wrist, dragging me again behind him.                                           We carry on walking along the path Luca has chosen for us. I glance around nervously, waiting for the next encounter, but we see no more of the dead. We’re getting closer to the thick layer of cloud above us and I feel a light rain wash over me, showering me with instant calm, but then we take a turn away from it. My instincts tell me to go towards the cloud but instead we’re approaching what looks like a bridge.                                                                                                   The ground becomes rockier as we approach the narrow pathway and the plants become sparse at the mouth of the bridge as if they are too terrified to grow near it.                             I begin to drag my feet as I see the bridge is made of ill-shaped stones that just seem to sit next to each other. There’s no barrier at the sides and nothing holding them to each other. For all I know, Luca might be about to push me off of it or wait for me to step on the wrong one, so I fall to my doom. I stop and try to pull my arm from his grasp.                             “Do we really need to go through this again?” he eyes me sardonically.                                                                                     “You know we’re going across the bridge. You can either walk across or I’ll drag you across.” He smirks as he looks at the other end of the bridge. “Maybe I’ll throw you across.” He laughs at his own joke - at least I hope it was a joke.                                                                                                                 I start to walk, not wanting his hands on me unnecessarily. “Finally some compliance,” he cheers. I take one step onto the bridge and watch three stones towards the end fall below. I follow their descent down a stone valley surrounded by pits of fire. In the middle of the valley, there’s a small stream trickling across the length of it. At the end of the stream, it turns into a small lagoon which has a tree growing through its back. The tree has bright fruit that looks perfectly ripe hanging from each branch.