The attack came without warning.
The beast's roar shattered the perpetual silence of the underworld, a sound that seemed to tear at the very fabric of reality.
The creature landed on the ship's deck with a shockwave that sent passengers flying in all directions.
Wood splintered and groaned under the immense weight, but the vessel held. Chaos erupted as souls scrambled over each other, desperate to escape the predator in their midst.
Daemon found himself pressed against the ship's rail, his heart hammering despite the fact that he was already dead.
The creature's presence filled his vision, its three heads weaving back and forth as they scanned the terrified crowd. Then, all of a sudden, one of the heads struck.
It was fast.
A man three feet behind Daemon, middle-aged,was snatched up in jaws that could have swallowed a horse.
His scream cut through the air for exactly two seconds before it was silenced forever. The creature's throat worked once, twice, and the man was gone.
The remaining passengers pressed back in horror, creating a circle of empty space around the beast. Daemon felt his breath catch in his throat as one of it's heads turned toward him.
For a moment that stretched into eternity, he stared into eyes that held no reflection, no light, only an endless void that seemed to pull at his very essence.
In that gaze, Daemon saw his own mortality made manifest.
Not death as he had known it in the world above, but something far worse.
Complete and utter annihilation.
Then the moment passed. It's head swiveled away, but its attention remained fixed on the crowd, nostrils flaring as it sampled their fear.
"Enough,Trio" Charon said, his voice cutting through the panic like a blade.
The ferryman hadn't moved from his position at the bow, hadn't even turned to look at the carnage behind him. "The judgment is complete."
One of Trio's heads fixed on the ferryman, a low growl rumbling from its throat.
Charon finally turned, meeting the creature's gaze without flinching. He then turned away.
"He kept something from the world above. A locket, if I had to guess. Or perhaps a wedding ring." He shrugged, as if discussing the weather. "The crossing requires absolute surrender. He wasn't ready."
"You didn't tell us!" The woman in the bloodstained dress stepped forward, her fear transformed into rage. "You never said we'd be devoured if we…."
"If you what?" Charon interrupted, his black eyes fixing on her. "If you lied? If you tried to cheat death itself?" He gestured toward where the man had been consumed. "The choice to let go must be voluntary. It cannot be forced through fear or threat. Otherwise, it means nothing."
"Is he dead?" another voice called out. "Gone forever?"
"First of all, he was already dead!" Charon laughed despite the tension. "He's been imprisoned in the realm of the endless."
"The what now?" Damon asked.
"It's where those who can't separate from their previous life are confined. Madness and torn between two worlds. Trust me, it ain't a fun house." Charon answered, waving his hand dismissively.
Damon swallowed at the thought.
Trio snarled, its attention shifting through the crowd like a predator selecting its next meal.
Several passengers instinctively stepped back, but Daemon remained frozen in place. The creature's middle head had turned toward him again, and he could feel its intelligence probing at the edges of his mind.
The paper in his pocket seemed to burn against his fingers. His last connection to the world above, a hastily scrawled note from someone he'd loved, someone he'd left behind.
The creature could sense it, he realized. Could smell the attachment that still bound him to his former life.
But instead of cowering, Daemon found himself returning the beast's stare. His lips pulled back in what might have been a grin, might have been a snarl.
If this thing wanted to judge him, let it try. He'd faced death once already, what was one more encounter with oblivion?
The standoff lasted only seconds, but it felt like hours. Then Trio's head pulled back, a sound that might have been approval rumbling from its throat. The creature gathered itself and leaped back into shore, disappearing into the dark forests surrounding the city.
The ship continued its approach to the shore, now moving faster as if eager to discharge its cargo.
White sand crunched against the hull as they came to rest on the beach.
Beyond the sand, thousands of figures waited, other souls who had made this journey before, now standing in silent rows that stretched toward the massive gate.
The gate itself began to open with a sound like grinding bones.
From within the opening, a figure emerged, tall, elegant, wearing a red three-piece suit that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.
White gloves covered her hands, and wire-rimmed glasses perched on a face that could have been beautiful if not for the complete absence of warmth in her features.
"Lilith," Charon called out, his tone carrying the familiarity of long acquaintance.
"Still working the Eclipse's peak, I see. Don't you ever take a vacation?"
The woman, Lilith turned her gaze on the ferryman, and the temperature around the ship seemed to drop several degrees. When she spoke, her voice carried the authority of absolute power.
"Begone."
The word hit Charon like a physical blow. An invisible force picked him up and hurled him backward, sending him crashing into the ship's mast with enough force to split the ancient wood clean in half.
The vessel shuddered, groaned, and began to come apart at the seams.
But even as the ship disintegrated around him. The pieces began to reassemble themselves, drawn together by strange energy forces.
Within moments, the vessel was whole again, Charon standing at its bow as if nothing had happened.
The ferryman touched two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute. "Always a pleasure, my dear. Until next time."
He pushed off from the shore with his oar, the ship already beginning to fade back into the mist. "Try not to miss me too much, passengers. And pray we don't meet again, that would mean you've done something very, very wrong."
As the ship disappeared into the darkness, Lilith turned her attention to the assembled souls. And then, to Daemon's surprise, she began to laugh.
It wasn't a sound of joy or humor, but something far darker, the laughter of someone who had seen the joke that existence played on the living and the dead alike.
Daemon noticed her hands first. Despite the white gloves, he could see them twitching, fingers moving in small, involuntary spasms.
"Welcome," Lilith said, her laughter dying away as suddenly as it had begun. "I can see from your faces that you think you're going somewhere pleasant. Heaven, perhaps? A reward for lives well-lived?" Her smile was razor-sharp.
"How wonderfully naive."
"Your hell," Lilith continued, "began the moment you stepped aboard that ship."