“That,” Arachne said as she dipped a leg over the edge of the boat, “is not part of the waters of Hell.” Her voice dipped into a low growl. “I already said that this was a landing area. Somewhere in the middle of the domain, I’d say.”
“Great. Just great. So where do we go? There’s nothing around but more demon-honey.”
Eva picked up the oar. She almost pushed it through the liquid, but thought better of it and handed it off to Arachne. Best not to agitate her back at the moment. Not until it had healed more.
Arachne looked at the oar like she had never seen such a device. She looked up with the best questioning look Eva had ever seen her wear.
“No sense sitting around,” Eva said, gesturing towards the boat. “Pick a direction and get us moving.”
“I believe I have called you a slave driver in the past.”
“And I’m sure I will keep hearing that for as long as we know each other.” Eva brought a hand to her ear before swinging it straight out over the bow of their little rowboat. “Onwards!”
With a sigh, Arachne dipped the oar into the liquid.
Eva promptly punched a hole through the wooden planks of the seat in her haste to hold onto something–anything. Her other hand gripped something significantly fleshier than the boat. From the loud yelp that came from Genoa, Eva was fairly certain it wasn’t Arachne.
Her long hair was pulled almost perfectly horizontal behind her from the sheer speed of the boat as it twisted and zigzagged across the surface.
Arachne was, of course, laughing. Most of her mad cackles ended up carried off by the rushing wind.
It all came to a stop on the precipice of a hole in the liquid. Eva had just enough time to refill her lungs with fresh, unscreamed-out air before the boat plummeted over the edge.
Not a speck of light was showing inside the liquid tunnel. Had she possessed the ability to stand, her head would have been dragged through the liquid on the other side. It wasn’t that big of a tunnel. How she was managing to avoid falling out could only be explained by magic. Or demon domain cheating–basically the same thing.
Despite what it felt like, the ride didn’t last. Their boat emerged from the end of the tunnel and flattened out, moving much slower. If Eva had her sense of direction working properly, then they should be upside down relative to where they first entered the domain.
For several minutes, no one so much as twitched. Eva carefully pulled her fingers out of Genoa’s shoulder. The older woman didn’t even move a muscle.
The only sound was Arachne’s dying laughs. “Maybe I should replace my webs. That was an interesting ride.”
Ignoring the spider-woman, Eva took a few deep breaths as she glanced around, looking for anything that might ambush them while they were still dizzy.
Apart from a single dilapidated theater, there was nothing on the island. A few bright lights blinked on and off around a ‘NOW PLAYING’ marquee listing a single title.
REUNION
“What,” Genoa said as the boat pulled up next to a little wooden dock, “was that?”
Arachne let out a short laugh. “Something to disorient us. I’ve revised my opinion. The way out of the domain was probably very close to where we started. Now we’re lost and possibly trapped.”
“On the plus side,” Eva said as she raised one of her fingers to point into the distance. “That looks like a theater to me. We’re probably in the right place.”
“Reunion?” Genoa asked, earning a shrug from both Eva and Arachne. “Whatever. If this is the right place, that’s great.” Genoa smiled as she climbed out of the boat.
Arachne and Eva both climbed out after her.
“Let’s find Juliana and,” Genoa paused.
It didn’t take long to figure out why. As soon as Eva’s foot had left the boat, it started drifting off back towards the hole in the liquid.
“How do we get back?”
“Round the world and home again! That’s the sailor’s way!”
As one, Arachne, Genoa, and Eva all turned to face the new voice. All three of them dropped into combat stances.
Eva forced herself to suppress a wince. She had to shift her weight to the opposite foot.
Before them stood a man. He wore a long-tailed tuxedo and one of those theater happy-masks. Most of it was predominantly green. A sort of dark forest green. Both of his arms were spread wide and, as soon as their group was turned fully, he bowed.
A very strange bow. Everything above his hips simply went limp until his body was parallel to the ground. His arms went limp as well. They swung forward to hug some unseen ball in front of his chest. Both dropped to his side as he pulled himself back upright.
“Welcome. I am Willie, host of this domain.”
His voice was light and jovial. It had a cadence to it that almost turned it to song.
Eva didn’t like him. The way he moved and spoke was dipping into the uncanny. Based on her low and constant growl, Arachne wasn’t very fond of him either.
“Miladies dallied far too much. The show will be starting soon. You in particular,” he gestured straight at Genoa, “won’t want to miss it.”
“Reunion,” Genoa whispered. “Juliana?”
There was an almost imperceptible nod from Willie. As slight as it was, he hadn’t even finished it before Genoa took off in a half-run half-blink mad dash towards the theater.
Eva hesitated for just a moment. “You haven’t hurt Juliana, have you?”
“Milady,” one of his hands swung up to grasp his chest. “You wound me. I am a gentledemon. I would never harm my fair guests.”
“Good. Then we won’t have a problem.” Without any further delay, Eva stepped after Genoa, chasing her up the short path to the theater.
Given her head start and general haste, Genoa beat her there by a good deal.
Eva pushed open the theater doors and walked inside with Arachne hot on her heels. Inside the seating hall was nothing but empty seats. So, essentially nothing.
Only one seat contained an occupant. The theater-demon, Willie, sat up at the front. Upon Eva entering, he turned in his seat and pressed a finger across the wide smile on his mask.
Blinking, Eva glanced up towards the stage.
Juliana stood off-set to one side with her back towards the entrance. She wore a relatively simple period dress in a shade of green that matched Willie’s tuxedo.
Genoa stood off-set to the opposite side. Slowly, she stepped forwards and reached out with a hesitant hand. After a moment’s pause, her hand lowered to Juliana’s shoulder.
The younger blond spun around. “Mother,” she said.
“Juli.”
They stared at one another. Both of their eyes watered up.
As their arms wrapped around each other, both equally pulling the other into a tight hug, the theater demon started up a soft applause.
It went completely ignored by the to Rivas women.
“I missed you.”
“I am so happy you are alright.”
Mother and daughter kept pressed against one another. Both of their words started to get somewhat drowned out by the tears.
“…lost and alone…”
“…drove myself insane worrying…”
“Boring.”
Eva glanced over at Arachne who was in the midst of an extremely exaggerated yawn.
“Hush, this is a touching moment for them.”
And it was. Though, Eva had to admit to herself as their tearful discussion droned on, it would be nice if they wrapped it up sometime before Christmas.
“But,” Juliana said loudly. She turned around and moved just out of reach of Genoa’s arms. With her back facing Genoa, Juliana shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come for me.”
“Why not? Of course I am going to come for you.”
“Shalise and I… we,” Juliana paused and brought both hands to her chest. She turned back to face her mother. “There is something I need to tell you, mother.”
“Anything, Juli.”
“I’m pregnant.”
A heavy silence dammed any further discussion. It stuck around until Genoa broke the dam.