of the dizzy, unsettling feeling that had rattled my brain as I'd been forced to travel through the portal. I didn’t know how I knew, but the gateway we had just travelled through, was something much more powerful than we expected to find. Because one thing was abundantly clear…
We were no longer in Hell.
Which begged the question… where the Hell were we!?
I expected to hear the groans, grunts and curses of three Scotsman, however all I heard was the wind rustling the strange looking trees up ahead. I looked to be in some kind of meadow as there was a strange arch of wilderness in the distance cutting off the view from up ahead. The trees were a strange amber tone that started off the same colour as the grass and then turned white as if the tree bark had been bleached. Then came a canopy of orange leaves that created a warm glow as though the sun was setting lower than the horizon. As for the sky above, it was the only usual sight I could take from my surroundings, being that it was a bright blue and cloudless day. I knew then I most definitely wasn't in Hell anymore for I hadn't seen a sky like that since entering the realm.
I turned around and looked in the opposite direction from the forest to find an endless sight of mountains in the distance. They were beautiful, even if they were nothing like the rolling green hills of my own mortal countryside, but instead were blanketed in different shades of oranges, yellows, and reds. In fact, it looked like a sunset had fallen from the sky and landed on the Earth like some Persian comforter. But then, there in the very distance, I could just see what looked like turrets rising out on the top of a hill, but it was too far away to make out many more details other than that.
“Where am I?” I questioned aloud, knowing that it was unlikely that I would get an answer. Gryph, Vern and Trice were nowhere to be found, and I couldn't help that sinking feeling in my chest from rising. It was the same feeling I had on realising my mistake when first stepping into Hell back when Lucius had tried to stop me. At the very least, I liked to think that I hadn’t made too many bad decisions since then. Although, despite that, it obviously hadn't exactly got me far. No, in fact, all it had gotten me was kidnapped and finding myself face to face with the harpy Queen… oh and not forgetting a brother Lucius didn't know he had. And speaking of brothers,
“Gods alive! What's going to happen to me now?” I muttered looking around at the ethereal looking landscape, one that the witch had only ever intended to send the three brothers to. Because it was obvious she had other plans for me, thankfully Trice had intervened. But this was when it really hit me…
“Fuck no! Shit, shit, shit!” I shouted at myself after spinning on a foot and finding it was true…
The witch had the Eye, meaning that I had failed.
I had failed Lucius.
And now I was here, and my failings were mounting by the minute because unless some miracle happened, then the chance of getting back before Lucius executed his brother was looking less and less likely. Which also meant that the sight of me sat on some therapist’s sofa telling them how I couldn’t ever forgive myself and writing my feelings down in a book just wasn’t cutting it, is one that was becoming clearer by the second.
So, here I was, the witch had managed to get the Eye and I couldn't help but feel like the biggest failure ever! I don't know why it had chosen me to be its keeper or Guardian or whatever the hell it wanted to call me. But for some reason it had and now that it was no longer in my grasp, I felt its connexion with me stronger than ever before. I had to question whether this was so that I could find it again, and I could sense when it was near. Either way it was in the hands of the witch and her Master, whoever he may actually turn out to be.
My only consolation with this shitty turn of events was the knowledge that the witch’s master didn't have the power to touch it like he obviously thought he had. But then,