Cynus

Indeed. Yeah... I know. PM coming your way. My apologies.

If you've read the other comment reply, you'll be happy to know I'm back to posting every other day. You'll see chapter 8 before you know it. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one less traveled by. Does the same rule apply in caves when facing Dead?

“Why?” Caleb managed to ask as the gruesome image of Ethan bore into his soul. "Why do you do this?" “You can’t escape me now," the figure replied, digging its bony fingers into Caleb's cheeks. "I am truth. I am death.” Caleb felt something, a trickle at first, and then a torrent of energy filling him. He knew it came from outside, from the realm of the living, because the energy had a distinct signature. It was love, pure and simple, and love was not a common force in The Underwor

This next scene is going to set us rolling toward the ending. Hopefully you'll all be satisfied with the outcome. Starting tonight I'll be back to posting every other day. That means we'll finish by Monday. My last response was supposed to be beneath this one. I'm not paying the best attention, I suppose, hah! Ethan is definitely relying upon a certain amount of chance, but like the best poker players, he also knows how to play a bad hand. It's all about force of Will here. Which river flows through the heart of Orpheus? Could he even answer that question himself? If we think of the rivers as representative of certain emotions, and since the heart is representative of being the "emotion" center, what river flows through his heart? Is it more than one? It's a question worth considering, I think. Magelings to the rescue! Gotta keep fighting until you win, or try another strategy. "To the death!" "No, to the pain." "I'm afraid I'm not quite familiar with that phrase." -The Princess Bride A duel to the life between Death and his guest. It shall be an interesting duel indeed.

Yet modern society seems obsessed with the concept... We see Death as something to be overcome, something to fight against, like it isn't the inevitable thing it is. I don't know what the right answer is, I'm just musing here.

I don't know why I used the word 'rule'. I think I was trying to combine two thoughts? One was "taking advantage of the cliffhanger strategy" and the other was "going against the cliffhanger rule"... which to me is, "don't use too many cliffhangers or your audience will want to burn you at the stake for crimes against humanity".

I do like that change, although I also enjoyed being quoted so often. Sorry for all the cliffhangers. I feel the need to reiterate that this story was never supposed to be released online when I initially wrote it. These chapter lengths work totally fine when it's all together in one book and you can just flip to the next page, but like this...? *sigh* I feel like I'm both letting you down and taking advantage of the cliffhanger rule, but really I'm just trying to be fair to the other websites hosting the story and keeping it all concurrent.

Woot! I'm going to assume your favorite is "Rivers of the Dead", though I can't be certain. I'm going to mark this as one of the greatest compliments of all time. Just knowing that you spent all day reading it. Silas is another side of me. He's the yin to Clint's yang as far as people living inside of my head.

And more is coming. At least, five more chapters of it. I'm glad you're still enjoying it! I've got to keep playing with the illusions up until the end, don't I? But what is the illusion? Which is the truth? Or perhaps they all are, somehow... There's almost nothing worse than getting in a philosophical debate with a nihilist (we annoy everyone). Imagine doing it in a place where your thoughts are made manifest in your surroundings. Dangerous game indeed! Those are great questions, and I love all of them. Will knowledge alone be enough for Caleb to win? It is one of the three rules of magic, after all... Hmm... certainly a philosophical question worth considering in the eleventh hour. Home field advantage is certainly a great way of looking at it! There is certainly more than meets the eye going on here. Hidden wonders may be what it takes, or perhaps the answer was with us all along? Caleb knows a great deal about the way things work down there, after all. Thank you to everyone for reading and commenting!

For your entertainment, this is one of my Orpheus theme songs.

On the third to last day in April, Ethan knew. He could sense Caleb needed him, and soon. He told Liz that morning, telling her it could wait no longer, and she understood. She told Jake to call in sick and called an emergency meeting. She hobbled around the kitchen table to hand Ethan a small package, wrapped in plain brown paper and simple string. Ethan unwrapped it to find a beautiful, large quartz crystal attached to a black cord. He slipped it around his neck and noted that it felt

I wanted to leave it up to imagination, but I always like to think he ended up with Puck. "Puck said, glancing at Zach and winking"

I think "Rivers of the Dead" is more depressing than this story... I don't find it particularly depressing at all. There's more anger in this story than sadness, I think.

I trust you'll let me know how you liked Ashes?

Yay! I'm glad you enjoyed it that much. And no worries on language here. If you heard me speak . . . There's only three ingredients for magic in this world. The only thing Ethan was missing was Will, and maybe pure emotion. All he needed was a moment of clarity to give him the will back. He might be making a bit of a leap toward Caleb being able to do that, but I like to think it's just because he has faith in his friend's ability in general and it's his next hopeful thing to hold onto. Thanks for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Orpheus' motives are in question, and I love that! Thank you for keeping up with the theories. I can't wait to see how you deal with the approaching revelation. This is amazing. I could see your description as something a TV announcer might read at the end of an episode to get people excited for the next one. Thank you! The insistent gang has taken so many risks at this point, what's one more? Woohoo! I love the questions! But we do have some ingenuity and hope working on the side of our heroes. But can they defeat such an inevitable force as death? That is definitely the big question here. Ditto on my answer. Yay! Thank you for reading, everyone!

Caleb’s eyes fluttered open. That was no dream, he knew that for certain. He’d heard Liz’s voice — and Ethan’s — and he could sense their presence. He even sensed the presence of another, less familiar person. As he gathered his sense, his mind dwelled on the identity of the last one who’d been there, remembering Liz’s words at the beginning. Jake. Jake Sanders? Why would Jake be there? But overshadowing all of that was one thing; Ethan already lived on the other side of the veil. He’d al

I'll keep that in mind.

That was my favorite part to write! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!

Thank you! It was fun to write, as well.

Thank you!

That was my goal. I'm glad it came across.

I wrote this back in early October, but I sat on it so I could release it closer to Halloween. At the time there was still an awful lot in the news about Charlottesville and other racially-charged issues going on in the US. I wanted to write something to address prejudice, and for some reason this came about as the end result. The initial idea came about when I was walking home from the grocery store and saw a drunk man trying to order from a drive thru by walking up to the window. It gave me the zombie scene. I combined that with the above sentiment and the story was born. I do enjoy writing these sort of stories, though. Most of them are not comedic, but I recommend checking out "The Drawbacks of Being a Monster", "Oak Shadows", and the series "Ashes of Fate" if you want things in the monstrous vein. If you want more Halloween tales, I recommend "Mask of the Hunter" or "Blue Fire, Devil's Ire".

For monsters, Halloween is like Christmas, and nothing ruins the holidays more than having to work fast food.

"Hello, thank you for choosing Eye-In-Stein's Drive and Dine tonight! Can I take your order?" It felt like the eight-hundredth time I'd said it, but I forced my tone to be polite anyway. That was the job. Fast food bites. "Unnghh . . . hunhgn eghhe haghrrrrr ohn egh ouighh ugh hihhhkmmpah." I gritted my teeth. That was a zombie, certainly. Most didn't maintain control over their tongues when they died, unlike their ghoul cousins. But a job was a job, and I was paid to help the cust

I think she's the one calling the shots in the family, to be honest. Mr. Pallet is just watching it unfold and doing nothing.