Charon

Caught up on some writing this weekend, which felt really great. I fished out a scene and I think it turned out well. Tell me what you think. This is The Great Funnel and it starts at the beginning of chapter 3:

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I landed. Head first.

Thank god it wasn’t into a rock, just a river.

“Hey, watch it!” Someone yelled.

I fully resurfaced and managed to look around me. When I did I saw a man leaning toward me out of a boat. He was older in years and wore a dark beard. A dull metal helmet rested on his head and allowed his dark hair to sneak out at the back.

“The gods must have a sense of humor now,” he said.

“Wha -,” I swallowed some water. “What do you mean?”

“Usually a visitor must enter the gates in order to be admitted into Hell and then they come to me for admittance, but you came to me first.”

There was no tide in the river, but I still had to kick my arms and legs to stay afloat. I was struggling to do so because I couldn’t touch the bottom. Then something swam past my legs. The boatman’s gaze left mine and he stared into the water below me. His face lit up in concern and his eyes grew wide.

“You ought to get in the boat, son, and quickly,” he said.

He extended his arms and pulled me into the wooden fishing boat. I lay on my stomach with my feet hanging out over the water as I coughed up a small amount of water.

“Sit proper, son. It is not wise to taunt the creatures of the deep.”

I looked back at my feet dangling over the boat as it began to rock back and forth. I sat up quickly and dared to look over the edge and into the water.

“What’s down there?” I asked.

“Nothing to concern yourself about now that you’re safe in my boat,” he said.

I tore my gaze away from the water and looked at the mysterious man I had fallen upon. I sat back, suddenly aware that I wasn’t in my room anymore and that Hannah, Ellie, and Bill weren’t with me.

“Where am I?” I asked, leaning into one end of the boat.

He stared at me with a hard look. “Hell.”

I looked around us and saw the river for what it truly was. The waters were almost black, but not because they were dirty. There was hardly any light and I wondered how I was able to see so well in the dark. The river stretched on as far as I could see and at the moment we were quite close to the shore, but the other side was nowhere to be seen.

“The River Acheron,” the man said, “and I am Charon, the ferryman who takes deserving souls into Hell.”

“You mean this is Hell? Like you die and end up here kind of thing?” I waited but there was no answer. “Am I dead?”

Charon chuckled darkly, “No … unfortunately.”

“Then why –“

“Matthew!”

My head jerked around to the voice on the shore behind me.

“Hannah!” I yelled back, waving my arms.

“Can we go back to the shore?” I asked Charon.

There was a very clear smile on my face. I was glad to see Hannah. I didn’t know how I was going to survive Hell without her.

Charon didn’t acknowledge my question, but simply took up his oar and Hannah grew closer as the boat moved slowly across the water. Before I knew it, the boat ran up onto the shore and I jumped out in haste.

Throwing my arms around Hannah, she caught me and hugged me back.

“How did you find me?” I asked her.

“I just followed you. I can feel your presence now, like I’m attached,” she said.

“That’s cool…” My voice trailed off as I felt a tug towards the invisible, opposite shore.

“What is it?” Hannah asked.

“I’m supposed to cross.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but I have to. It’s why I’m here.”

“Okay, well I’m definitely going with you, you know that right? This is Hell and you could die here. I can’t die again, so I’m going as your body guard.”

I looked at her and smiled euphorically. I couldn’t help but allow the feeling of pleasure rise in my throat at her very words. The dead girl that showed up in my room, named Hannah, who had seen me naked and I had kissed, was going to be my body guard in Hell, the place I had been summoned for a reason unknown to me. This was all really weird, yet really exciting simply because she was here with me. Was I falling for a dead girl?

Taking her hand, I walked us back to Charon and his boat.

“Stop!” Charon raised his hand in protest.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“You cannot cross,” he said blandly.

“What do you mean? I was just in the boat.”

“You are not permitted.”

“Oh not this again,” Hannah sighed as her hip cocked to the side in frustration. “Just let us cross!”

I looked at Hannah and then back to the ferryman. “Why can’t we cross?”

“You must pay the toll and you cannot,” Charon answered.

“How do you know I can’t? Wait, give me a minute.” I dug into my jean pockets and felt around for some money. Eventually, I felt something down at the very bottom of my left pocket and drew it out. “Here,” I said, holding out the odd gold coin. I didn’t know what it was though; I had never seen anything like it before.

“You dare present me with an obolos?” Charon questioned.

“You said you wanted payment. What’s wrong with this? I mean, I don’t know what it is but it’s got to be good for something, right?” I said questioningly. Apparently, Charon knew more about this mysterious coin than I did, even though it had been in my pocket.

“This is payment for the dead to cross into Hell. If you give me this, she cannot return with you,” he explained.

I was frustrated. First, this ferryman wanted payment to take us across, something that I had to do. I didn’t know why I had to do it, but I had to. No question about it. But then when I offered payment he said that it would pay for Hannah’s passage, but that she couldn’t return from the other side after he took the coin. I didn’t understand. I didn’t want to be here, but I had to be here. I just needed to fucking cross.

Fury leapt in my throat and a deep growl protruded from my chest. I advanced on the ferryman and my eyes burned. “Charon, you will allow us passage. She will be able to return.”

Charon reclaimed his seat and took up his oar as fear crossed his face and consumed his voice. When he finally spoke, a weak sound was all that protruded. “Yes … yes, Keeper.”

I inhaled deeply and relaxed, remembering Hannah beside me. I took her hand in mine again and began to climb into the boat, but she didn’t move. Looking back at her, the fury grew in me once more and my eyes burned.

Fear crossed her face just as it had Charon’s. I looked at her intensely and pulled once more on her hand. She reluctantly stepped forward and climbed into the boat. I shoved it off the shore and jumped in as Charon guided it through the water and to the opposite shore that I could now see easily.

TGF Excerpt & Update

The goal at the end of the Spring semester was to regularly update my blog (this lovely page) every single day and do some hardcore writing on TGF ... well, we all know how that worked out. Do we not?

I leave tomorrow morning to drive three hours to a lake house where I will be staying until Saturday evening. I am going there with the people I work with to accomplish some serious training. It should be quite interesting and difficult. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm actually dreading it. I'm trying to be nice to the new girl, I really am. Wow, is it difficult. I've gotten to where I just put on a smile and raise my voice an octave so that I sound utterly nice even if my eyes are screaming how annoyed I am.

Someone help me.

So I'll be back Saturday evening and hopefully I can get some writing accomplished then. If I'm not too tired.

I let a patient at my work read the first few chapters of TGF. She was really excited about reading it so let's wait and see what she thinks!

I've really been wanting to go to this writer's group in my area for a while now, but they only meet on Wednesday nights and by the time I get off work it's already started. Really sucks.

Hope you guys are well.

BTW, I'm on Twitter now. I know, I know ... I gave in. Follow me :)

@korirockwell

Here is a new snippet from TGF. You may have already read the beginning of it, but the end is new. Enjoy.

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I heard the television turn on downstairs and automatically looked at Hannah.

“Your mom’s home,” she said.

I let out a sigh and decided to go downstairs to see her so that she wouldn’t come up to my room. As I walked down the stairs, the television grew louder with a breaking news report and I stopped halfway down to listen.

“Only a few hours ago, a young boy and his nanny were gunned down across the street from Promise Academy,” the reporter said. “There were several witnesses, but no one was able to catch the gunman. Let’s go to Kristy Geller for an on-scene report.”

The television scene switched from the news studio to a woman with brown hair standing on the sidewalk.

“Thanks Troy,” Kristy Geller said. “I’m here in front of Promise Academy where only hours ago a young boy and his nanny were shot and killed. Now, you can see the police behind me working on the crime scene. They have been out here since several 911 calls were made during the shooting. As far as we know, there have been no leads on catching the gunman, but witnesses have managed to piece together a sketch of the gunman.”

Kristy Geller disappeared from the screen as a black and white police sketch appeared. The sketch was of a man with a goatee and a skinny face. His eyes were round and his left eyebrow was pierced.

The sketch remained on the screen as Kristy Geller described the man. “The gunman was said to have black hair, a black goatee, and numerous tattoos on the back of his neck and arms, along with the facial piercing shown on the screen.” The sketch went away and Kristy Geller reappeared. “The police are asking anyone who can identify this man to call the local tip hotline. Any information will be useful at this point.” A phone number appeared at the bottom of the screen.

At that point in the broadcast, my mom turned around and saw me standing on the stairs.

“Oh, Matthew, did you hear about that awful shooting? It was right across the street from your school.” She seemed troubled and scared for me.

“Yeah, I heard about it,” I said.

Her breath caught in her throat and her hand flew to cover her mouth. “Were you there? Did you see it happen?” She stood and stared at me as I decided how to answer her.

“I just saw a bunch of people running around.” I thought lying was best at this point, seeing as how my mom was really scared for me and nothing actually happened to me. No, nothing happened to me, but the actual victims were in my room.

“Oh goodness,” my mom rushed toward me as I went down the rest of the stairs. She swept me up in a hug and said, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re all right. I bet you were so scared.”

I tried to extract myself from her monstrous grip. “Mom, really, I’m fine.” She released me and I stumbled slightly. “Uh, I just came down to get some water. I have a lot of homework to do so I’ll be in my room all night.”

“Okay.” Tears were welling up in her eyes.

I left her before the flood came and went into the kitchen to get some water and then hurried back upstairs. I felt her gaze on me the whole time.

When I stepped back into my room, Hannah was sitting on my bed and the woman and child were still where I had left them.

“Are you thirsty?” I asked the woman.

She shook her head no.

The boy looked up at me and stopped crying. He nodded his head.

I walked a few steps towards them and set the glass down on the floor. He shuffled forward on his knees and drank slowly from the glass. Then he tilted the glass up to take a big gulp. Water poured out of the glass and onto the floor. The boy started crying again.

“You can’t do that anymore. Everything goes right through you,” Hannah said absentmindedly.

“Why didn’t you say that before?” The woman asked darkly.

“Because he needs to learn for himself. He’s dead now, grow up.”

“He’s still a little boy! You have no right to talk to us this way,” the woman yelled.

“Okay, okay! Can we just move on?” I turned to the woman and boy. “What are your names?”

The woman gave one last long look in Hannah’s direction and then turned to face me. “I’m Ellie and this is Bill.”

Hannah laughed.

“Ellie, I’m Matthew and this is Hannah,” I said. “How did you guys find me?”

“We were drawn here. I don’t know why. Just were,” Ellie answered, stroking Bill’s hair.

“The same as me,” Hannah commented.

I looked around the room, looking for something I knew wasn’t there. I felt like I was melting. Like someone was stirring me in a glass, trying to blend me with other liquids. It was weird, but I had felt that way before.

“Hannah,” I said nervously.

“Oh my god. Matthew, what’s going on?” She said nervously as she stood slowly to her feet.

“I … I don’t know. I feel weird.”

“Matthew, you’re … you’re disappearing!”

“What!”

And then I fell through the floor. 

I Yearn For You, Creature From Hell

I hate neglecting my blog. It's quite terrible. I'm working a lot at work this week. At least, it feels as if I'm working a lot. The Maximized Living Makeover is this Saturday and I'm getting ready for that. We also hired a new girl to work the front desk with me so she is in the process of training. It's hard though. Mike (the office manager) and I were in such a great routine with each other that now the world is turned upside down again. I feel more right as to my position than I did when the last girl was working the front desk with me, but now I feel as if I have to babysit everything. I know Mike and I are dedicated to this job, but I wish everyone was. I'm starting to think that most people won't be, especially if it's inconvenient for them.

I'm so tired. Is that complaining? No, it's just a fact. I'm exhausted. I have a yearning to write some of The Great Funnel tonight and I think I will. Let me clean up my laundry from, oh, last week, and maybe I'll be able to hash out some chapters tonight and post an excerpt tomorrow. Cross your fingers. I'm so behind on house work.

Hey guys! Here is the link to my boss's blog.

Http://drrobvasquez.blogspot.com/

I am the one keeping it up and posting the entries. My boss writes them. So check it out, follow it, and show your support. We are on a mission to save lives.

O Blogger, Blogger, Wherefore art thou Blogger?

I feel so lost without you, O Blogger.

I have one project left and one final next week and then the semester is out!!! I am SO ready for the two week break! Woohoo! Not to mention, my boss has allowed me to start construction on his blog/Google account. When I get it all set up I will post the links here so that you guys can see what I do and where I work! It's going to be fantastic. I am so excited.

I have to get back to my final project right now. I will return soon!

Love you guys.