Ragnarok Chapter 3 pt 2

Dragged in the light
like nothing was wrong
pulled towards where I don´t belong
I hear the fallen angels
sing my requiem

The tears wouldn´t stop streaming down her face.
Leaving hot trails on her dirty cheeks, they ran from her eyes, blurring her sight and burning on her skin from the heat that surrounded her.
Annabel swallowed every cry that would flee her lips, not allowing herself to make any more sound than necessary, while she ran through the fires of hell that were around her, the flames that reached out for her skin and clothes, that made her skin burn and her clothes melt on her body when the flames came too close.
 How much more do I have to feel, she asked herself while she moved on, stumbling over the burning ground with bleeding feet. How much more can hell hurt me after all this. She had woken up in a nightmare, she had seen her friends being slaughtered by monsters, she had seen the world through the veil of insanity, she had used blood magic and tried to find the Tesseract, while again her friends were either dying or fighting for their lives, and her beloved Loki was too far away and by now, she wasn´t even sure if she could ever see him again. And by now, she was alone, running from the fire, running for her life, after she had seen how Tuomas fell into his fiery grave.
 Sobbing, she broke down, the pebbles on the floor screwing into her skin, she got up again and ran further while the air set her lungs and throat on fire.
When she had gotten out of the pit through the door Tuomas had found, she fell directly onto an open, large staircase that was surrounded by flames, probably the same flames that had given her friend a horrible doom. She rushed down the steps, tripping and falling, getting up, running further, falling again. Her feet and knees were a bloody mess, her hands and legs scratched deeply, and her skin burnt from the fire and dust and sparks. She could barely breathe, and yet, all she could do was run.
 There was nothing behind her that could make her stay. Flames and death, heat, burning heat, and the knowing that she was left alone. Nobody could help her in this, and maybe she was the only one left. Who could say her friends were still alive, maybe the fire already…
Angrily, she wiped over her cheeks, finding her nose bleeding. She stopped for a moment to take a breath before she moved onward.
The fires were raging on behind her as she reached the end of the giant staircase a while later. Her knees were shaking so much she could barely walk, and even coming off from the descent, the young girl knew she was far from her finish line. A long, high bridge spread over a nearly black river right in front of her, yet she wasn´t sure if the river was of water or a lifeless black substance she didn´t want to find out more about. To her sides, walls were made of gold and crystals that easily could´ve been diamonds, each in the size of a grown man´s head. If they hadn´t been covered in dust and dirt, they would´ve been worth billions. Beside the wide path in the middle of the hall, giant basins of marble stood, set ablaze with liquid fire that ran down their sides. A gate enclosed by two giant statues led out onto the bridge over the black river.
 For a moment, Annabel stopped to take in the astonishing beauty of the hall. This must´ve been the royal crematory once, Loki had told her about it a while ago. Those rare times an Aesir died, the burial ceremony would´ve been even more overwhelming than a wedding ceremony. By now, Annabel understood why. The hall was more beautiful than any other room or building she´d ever laid eyes upon, and she wondered how many Aesirs had been laid to rest here over the ages.
 But as stunning as the hall was, she couldn´t enjoy it for long though. The sound of cracking walls and another cloud of smoke rushed through the gold, bringing her back to the moment. She couldn´t stay any longer.
 Bringing her tired feet to move, she went onward, slower though than she had walked before. Exhaustion was taking over her and yet she couldn´t stop, neither did she want to. Slowly walking further, she neared the bridge, and the closer she got, the more she saw of the river beneath it. Though, judging by how it looked, it was far more than a river. It seemed to broaden out with every step she took towards it, until it was wide as a lake, and black as the night. The bridge itself seemed to be made of black stone, shining and lucid at the edges.
By now, Annabel had reached the gate leading out of the hall, and just as she left the giant statues behind her, the air around her seemed to freeze. Her breath got visible, white and soft as smoke in the dark, and as she looked back to where the golden hall should´ve been, the only thing she saw was a giant black gate surrounded by the statues that seemed to hold it in place. An icy chill ran down her spine when she gazed upon the black doors. They were massive, and for sure not easy to break through. Even the statues that had been golden before as well, were pitch black and stared back at her from cold, dead eyes.
  She shivered and drew her arms around her body. There was no way back, and the only way she could go was right above the bridge in front of her.
Time was standing still when she set a foot onto the black stone. She could feel her heartbeat pounding in her ears and the cold gnawing on her skin, and the chills never wanted to leave. Annabel bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and went forward, the black stones moving under her feet slightly. What was this bridge that it was so fragile, and what this river, sea, whatever it led across? Placing one foot in front of the other, she slowly walked further, and hoped the end of it wasn´t too far away.
It wasn´t until she had reached what she thought to be the middle of the bridge, when she heard the faint music playing. Soft and far away, but it was there, constantly playing somewhere she couldn´t imagine to find. It was a piano, or so to say, sounding like it, and yet it wasn´t. It was eerie, but also so familiar and beautiful to her as if she had known it a lifetime.
 Annabel raised her head to catch more of the music, and as she walked further, the sounds got clearer. It was almost as if the soft sounds were drawing her closer slowly, and she couldn´t help herself but follow them.
Letting herself being enchanted by the sounds, she moved towards the source of where the sounds came, but her steps were interrupted by the edge of the bridge. Right in front of her, just fifty feet below, the river flew, and as she jumped back in shock from her fall, her gaze drifted down into the black waves.
A scream fled the young girl´s lips when she saw their faces.
 A thousands of faces, young, old, peaceful or screaming, flew down the river, slowly passing her as they moved along the bridge. Their faces were motionless, frozen just as the air, and yet she was sure she could hear faint voices calling. Carefully, Annabel leaned down over the edge, trying to take in more of their looks, when she saw an all too familiar face floating by.
The long black hair moved around her frozen face like a veil, and her green eyes seemed nearly white, but the girl could clearly see Tarja amongst the other people. She was outstandingly pale, the other bodies were darker and seemed like they were melted together with the river, but Tarja´s body gleamed with an otherworldly shimmer. But her eyes were dead, cold, and lifeless as a statue´s could never get.
 Annabel sat up again, gazing after the woman´s form as it floated further, and suddenly, she realized she was crossing the bridge to the underworld. This was what some people had called the ghost river, a stream made of souls. The younger souls were still shiningly bright, whilst the elder were disappearing slowly, melting together with the stream that continued endlessly, never stopping, never shrinking.
 A big, greyish white bird sailed across the bridge when Annabel walked further, whirling the air around her hair and giving a small light in the cold dark. The girl bit her lip looking after the swan that flew along with the stream in its endless circle. If she was crossing Hel now, it´d be wondrous if she had any chance to make it out alive.
 She didn´t know exactly how long she had been walking on the bridge. Turning from slow shuffling to walking, then to running, then walking again, it never seemed to end. Annabel started to realize that this river and bridge were much darker magic than they had seemed in the beginning, and the fact that she was basically walking over souls didn´t ease it at all. On contrary. From time to time, she caught herself staring into the water, watching it and scanning it for any familiar face, just to find herself relieved she didn´t know anybody who was floating below her. That meant all of her friends were still alive, obviously. But still, if that was the case, how could Tuomas be still alive? And if he was dead, why hadn´t she seen his face in the dark stream yet?
Questions huddled in her head as she kept walking over the seemingly endless bridge. Yet to none, she knew an answer, and the longer she walked, the more her heart bumped against her ribs and the more her fear grew and grew. Maybe she was on the completely wrong way, and if so, how could she go back? The dark behind her nearly swallowed everything visible, leaving her almost blind in the huge cave. The only light came from the faces flowing in the river that emitted an eerie shimmer, and the white swan circling her head from time to time. The distant music was still playing, but now she didn´t pay attention to it anymore. It wasn´t like she could focus on sounds by now, while the bridge was still moving and cracking under her feet with every third step.
She had lost count over the time a while ago already, and with each step, the dark in front of her seemed to expand more and more. Never before she had felt so alone and helpless, and never before she had been so alone. Apart from her, the swan was the only being alive, and below them, the endless stream of souls circled, drawing out her energy.
 And then, for a long time, she closed her eyes and just let her feet carry her, as for her eyes were too tired to actually stay open.