Eyes closed,
I was asleep.
And in my sleep i heard the door fly open.
Bang!
My eyes flashed wide awake
“Who is it?” I stuttered in fear
Half audible, half silent
I was shivering
With anticipation of darkness and death.
“Let’s go, kid. I have come to take you.”
I heard a sad man say.
Bent and bowed under the weight of lethargy
His eyes were dark and droopy
I could not tell if he was bored, depressed or both.
“Who are you? Where are you taking me?”
I asked, my fist clenching the blanket too tight.
“To the Underworld. I am the Lord of Dead.”
He said, bored
Like an employee upset about his day job.
“Move now”
He yawned and started away from the door.
I felt my feet freeze
To the underworld, I didn’t move.
“But, I am not dead.”
I whispered.
Stern, not so much
But, I said again, louder.
“Yes, you are…look behind you.”
There I saw astonished
Lay my body, lifeless.
How?
“Stroke, kid. Stroke. Let’s go now.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks
My heart sank
You failed me. You deserve to sink and die.
I lashed my heart.
Following the grumpy man
I cried, hopelessly
I wanted to die
No, I wanted to live.
My family!
“Can’t I say goodbyes to my family?”
“We have got no time on our hands.”
They will miss me. I will miss them too.
We kept walking
It was less of walking and more like falling
Falling down a steep hill
Scary! Scary! Mamma!
I shut my eyes tight.
Tears never stopped
But, we did.
It was dark and I could smell
Rotting, burning, dying, and decaying
“What is it? What smells so bad?”
“Dreams, expectations, words unsaid, feelings unexpressed…” he sighed
“I am home and so are you.”
This can never be my home.
“This is, kid. Settle down.”
“Did I do something wrong or hurt someone?”
“No.”
“Have I been a bad person in someway.”
“How would I know?.”
“Then why here? Why not heaven? Why hell?”
“You…”
He took a scroll out and searched for an answer
“ummmmm…I can’t find it. Look your name was on the list.”
“Why? WHY?” I screamed
But, quickly stepped back, when his golden eyes glared.
“Don’t you dare!”
He seemed to have caught fire
Before going back to his bored, lumped self.
He sluggishly turned around
And started to leave.
He is going! He is going!
Panic was everywhere.
I ran after him.
“Is there a heaven?”
“There is,
But no one goes there anymore.”
“Why?”
“Cause they feed Styx.”
The odor! Bad..bad..bad.
“Why does it smell so bad here?”
“It’s the land of death.”
“But, bodies decay, spirits don’t.”
“It’s not the smell of the bodies.”
“What is it, then?”
“It’s Styx.”
His finger pointed to the left
A river flowed there
It’s water was black and grey like molten charcoal
It carried things…strange to be identified.
I saw a plane trying to fly
But, it kept crashing.
“We feed this river?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Saw that plane?
A kid wanted to become a pilot.”
The Lord said.
“Those two rings entwined?
The woman wanted to break free of her marriage.”
“The broken guitar is the dream of a girl
She wanted to be the Punk Queen.”
“And so on…” he yawned again.
Dead dreams! Forsaken and dumped.
“Where will the river take them?”
“To feed the shark”
He pointed northwards.
Skeleton of a shark
Wild and hungry
For neither flesh nor blood
But, dreams, faith, expectations, and hope.
The shark plunged at the plane
Tore it in pieces
And satisfied plunged at another.
Horrible!
“Fear.”
“What?”
“Her name is Fear.”
“She tears, she frightens.
The only one who does her job
Love doesn’t bloom here
Dreams are never realized.
Power does not dare
Persistence does not strive.
Hope does not live
But, Fear does not die.”
Lord of dead criticizing death
What bored eyes instead of outrageous
What sluggish body instead of swift and unhesitating
The loose clog of a Hobbit instead of a cape
Not a single ray of light in this house of doom
But, no pain, no screams, no baleful laugh echo
Only dullness and prolonged ennui.
We walked a little farther
Spirits of men, animals, and birds
Roamed the place.
No tails wagged or barks blew
No man cared, no birds flew
Is this hell?
“Yes! Your worst fear realized.
An eternity of dissatisfaction,
Forever wasted, beyond life.”
and i had never heard a line
more cruel and cold than that
to have nothing to enjoy or cry over
and live a death like this.
a thousand years unchanged
ions of silence and gloom
oh what a doom!
oh what a doom!