The Flames of Hope Ch 9

Chapter 9~The Ghostly Advice Specialty Office
We drove around for awhile until we came upon an empty dirt lot where the entrance was suppose to be. It looked out of place as the lot was surrounded by large buildings and people walking down the street didn’t even seem to notice the large van parked on the grounds.

“The Mist seems to have shielded this spot from their eyes,” said Sammy. Will then ran up to the properly line and started jumping and waving his arms, but no one even turned their head slightly in out direction. “Yup, they can't see us.”

“That’s good,” I replied. “I wouldn’t want the normal people to accidentally see what the afterlife is like.”

“I don’t want to know what the afterlife is like,” said Megan and I didn’t blame her.

“So who’s going to go down?” Rose asked. I could tell she didn’t want to go down as the land of the dead was no place for a child of Demeter.

“Any volunteers?” I asked everyone. “I’ll go by myself if I have to, but if anyone wants to come along I wouldn’t mind. Maybe two other people, as three seems to be a lucky number.”

“I’ll go I guess,” said Will who got to his feet and put a hand on his sword.

“I’ll go to, someone has to watch out for you,” joked Megan as she walked up and put a hand on my shoulder. I thought she was being nice until she turned me around and started pushing me toward a brick wall.

“Oh, don’t forget this,” Gear said and he tossed a Happy Meal at us. “From what I hear, in order to call the dead you need blood, but I’ve heard a Happy Meal works just as well. Maybe it is the prize inside.”

“So where is the door?” I asked looking at the brick wall in front of me. Megan stopped and pulled a stick of chalk from her pocket. She then started to draw a large rectangle on the brick and added a circle to one side. It looked like a regular chalk drawing of a door and then she knocked three times.

“What was that suppose to do?” Gear joked as he started laughing. However, the ground started to shake and the bricks around the box began to move and push out of the wall as if the wall really had a door. A green light could be seen emanating from behind the door and then it swung all the way open.

“It was supposed to open a portal to the Underworld. How did I do?” Megan snapped back and Gear simply shut his mouth and walked back to the van. Will, Megan, and I entered the door way and started walking down a hallway. I could hear the brick shifting back into place behind us and wondered if we would be able to get out the way we had come. I then saw a door with a tag on the door saying “Ghostly Advice Specialty Office.”

“I’ve never heard of this place before, what part of the Underworld is this?” I asked looking at Megan for an answer but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“It is the place ghosts go when they need help haunting people,” Will said as if it was obvious. “Not every soul goes directly to the Underworld and others aren’t allowed to enter because they lack payment for Charon. Some of them wait at the check in station forever, but some get loose and try to scare people. We call them ghosts, but not all of them know how to be scary and fear is the best way to contact the living. Have you ever heard of a friendly ghost?”

“Casper was friendly,” I said.

“He was a cartoon character, that doesn’t count,” he replied back and rolled his eyes before opening the door. The room was filled with people that looked normal, except it was easy to tell how they died. One guy had a large swordfish in his chest with the point coming out his back. He was walking around the room and leaned against the wall, only for the point to get stuck and it took him a few pushes off the mall to get himself free. There was another person, a girl, sitting on the couch, but her top half was on the other side of the couch reading a magazine as her legs tapped impatiently as if waiting for something. There were a few other people in the room, one with tire marks across his shirt and another that had water pour out of his mouth when he opened it.

A glass door opened and a woman that looked like a secretary called out for number eleven, saying that Phineas would see her now. A girl across the room rose to her feet and walked into the back to meet her advisor, and another lost soul appeared in her seat.

“ You three, take a number and wait your turn,” she said before slamming the glass window shut. Megan walked over and pulled a slip from the number dispenser.

“Hey guys, what number did they just call?” she asked us while looking at the slip in her hand.

“I think it was number eleven, why? Are we going to have to wait awhile?” I asked her. She unfolded the slip and it stretched out to at least a foot long. I pulled it from her hand and saw the number 1,872,932,011 printed on the paper.

“We’ll be dead by the time they call us!” Will said as he took a quick glance at our number. I walked over to the window and knocked on the glass a few times. The window slid open and I saw the woman there.

“What do you want?!” she said with an irritated tone in her voice.

“Excuse me, is there any way we can talk to Teiresias? We are on an important quest and we really need to ask him something,” I said as calmly as I could.

“Look, you living people aren’t the only ones that are busy. A new season of Ghost Hunters is about to air and a lot of souls are trying to be on it. Prophets can see the future and know where they are going to shoot next year so we are busy too,” she said while clicking her pen and filling out forms, barely looking up at me. Will walked over and tried to push the issue.

“Oh come on there must be something we can do. We’ll be ten minutes, fifteen at the most,” he said.

“Look!” she yelled and turned her head toward us. She stopped for a moment to look at will and squinted her eyes at Will, as if trying to figure out where she had seen him before. Her eyes then became very wide and she started shoving papers into files.

“I’m terribly sorry,” she said as she started shifting things around on her desk. “I wasn’t aware that royalty would be here today, otherwise I would have scheduled an appointment for you. Take a seat, I’ll call you in a few minutes. It looks like someone just canceled,” she said as she very nonchalantly dropped a piece of paper into her trashcan. A blast of fire shot up and I wondered if that was an Underworld paper shredder.

“What did she mean by royalty?” I asked him as we walked back to a seat.

“I’m not sure. I don’t think I’m related to anyone famous. I mean my dad is a gravedigger and I think that is the farthest thing from royalty,” he said. “Maybe she is confusing me for someone else.”

“Maybe not,” Megan replied. “I mean your mother is the queen of the Underworld after all. If Persephone met your dad during the winter, you would be considered a child of the Underworld queen instead of the god of spring.”

“That makes sense,” I said and Will seemed to follow as well. The glass window slid open and we were called in. The man with the swordfish in his chest started complaining and the secretary said she couldn’t find his paper work and would need to take another number. We walked down the hall and found a door that said Teiresias and I went to knock on the door.

“It’s unlocked,” a voice said from behind the door and my fist stopped before it could even touch the door. I opened the door and a man sitting behind a desk motioned for us to come in. “Please take a seat.”

“But there are only two chairs,” Megan said. A second later a man pushed the door open and dropped a third chair on the floor in front of the desk.

“Here is that chair you asked for,” the main said and walked out of the room.

“He’s good,” I said out loud without really thinking about it. I wonder what it would be like to see the future, but pushed the thought out of my head.

“Indeed I am. Now, what can I help you with?” he asked as he folded his hands on his desk.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive