The shores of this river were littered with brittle bones and leafless trees that stood like silent sentinels. Their gnarled branches appeared to claw at the sky, bare of any form of leaves or life. Occasional flickers of ghostly firelight danced around their roots, illuminating strange carvings etched into the bark—cryptic symbols of despair and warnings from ages past human understanding.
"Not creepy at all," Faris commented, casting an eerie glance at one of the trees.
All six of them stood at the shore and stared into the river that endlessly stretched before them — the infamous River of Pain. Souls needed to cross it to reach the other side and find peace or they would forever be lost in the abyss of these waters. It was a vast, still body of water with an inky black surface that seemed to absorb all light.
A faint, acrid mist, covered the murky water surface coiling upward like ghostly tendrils.
Skeletal remains of long-lost souls were half-submerged in the river’s deep waters, their empty eye sockets staring upward as if pleading for release. The river emitted a low, otherworldly hum, a sound that seemed to pull the living closer, enticing them to their doom. It sent waves of shivers running down their spines.
"This place is giving me the chills," Aiko whispered to Faris and he took her hand in his and squeezed.
"Don’t worry, I am here with you."
"We need to offer something precious to the river and the ferryman will appear. Then we will have to entice him with a jewel to take us along on the other side. If he liked what we offered he will offer us a ride, otherwise, we will be stuck," Cassandra revealed, making others sigh in frustration.
Siroos took out one of the gold coins Gildaryn had given him and tossed it into the inky water, disturbing the river’s smooth surface. Now they impatiently waited.
The surface of the water was disturbed by the bubbles as the ferryman’s boat, a skeletal vessel, crafted from the bones of the damned and lashed together with ropes and shadow, emerged from the bottom of the river. Its structure appeared fragile, and tattered, yet seeming to last forever, defying natural logic. The hull was ribbed with ancient remains of bone and wood. The sides had faint carvings that pulsed with a light of their own, telling stories of despair and gloom.
Sighs of astonishment escaped the CAFLRS, as men pulled their ladies closer.
The boat glided silently across the River of Pain, its surface leaving no ripple, as though rejecting the very existence of motion. Chains dangled from the sides, their ends lost in the depths of the dark, churning waters, anchoring the vessel to the torments below. Occasionally, ghostly hands reached out from the water, grasping at the boat with skeletal fingers before sinking back into the abyss.
And then their eyes fell on the ferryman and girls shrieked with their hands on their mouths.
The ferryman’s skeletal frame was cloaked in a tattered, hooded robe that seemed woven from the darkness itself. The fabric swayed as if alive, whispering words they couldn’t decipher. Beneath the hood, his face was obscured, but faint glimpses of hollow eye sockets glowing with a dim, spectral light could be seen. His bony hands twisted and gripped a long, weathered pole carved with runes of binding and passage.
They held their breaths as the boat neared the shore and he diverted his hollow eyes which held nothing but darkness toward them.
"Who summoned me?" His voice was deep and rasping, like a coffin’s hinge creak. He uttered no unnecessary words. His demeanour was detached, as though he had long ceased to care for the fates of the souls he ferried.
"I did," Siroos boldly answered stepping forward.
"What will you offer as a token for the voyage?" He cryptically grunted. His skeletal neck turned and sent chills into everyone’s body.
Siroos extended the emerald towards the ferryman, his gaunt hand shoutout of his robe and he grabbed the jewel from Siroos’s palm, inspecting it—keeping others on tenterhooks.
Satisfied with what had been offered, he let the emerald drop into the boat’s rudder. It clinked against the bone and wood and magically embedded itself into the side, allowing its aura to cover the vessel.
"Get in." His emotionless voice had a sense of excitement running through the crew. They had successfully won his favour and understood why the token was needed. The boat will steer on its power.
Siroos picked Cassandra up in his arms and jumped, landing safely in the boat. It rocked slightly under the sudden movement. Faris and Razial repeated Siroos’s actions and soon they were all onboard, ready for another haunting adventure on the waters of this river which appeared like a night sky.
"Thank you!" Cassandra offered graciously.
"Don’t touch anything or I will throw all of you into the river," he merely answered turning his head away and letting the boat move away from the shore.
"Not ominous at all. What a friendly ferryman," Lotus blurted out but he ignored them and focused on propelling his vessel forward.
The voyage after that began in oppressive silence as the six companions stood in the ferryman’s eerie craft. He stood at the prow, hooded and without emotions, his long pole already planted in the dense black water of the River of Pain. Without a word, he kept steering it.
The companions remained uneasy, their eyes flickered to the grotesque details of the boat. The ribs of the vessel seemed to breathe faintly, as though alive, and the faint wailing of tormented souls seeped up from its bone-white planks. Chains dangled over the edge, their ends lost in the river’s churning depths, where ghostly forms writhed in eternal anguish as if looking for any solace. Lost souls of this River of Pain.
Aiko shivered when a faint cry echoed from below and Faris embraced her in his strong arms, letting her head rest on his chest.
"Don’t worry, it will be over soon." His reassuring whisper calmed her down slightly.