UNDERWORLD

CHAPTER 7 

The light blinded me as we approached the portal. In the nick of time, we managed to squeeze in before the portal was closed. Samuel gently put me down. I swayed, my knees getting weak. He tightly held me before I stumbled. With great effort, I pushed him away. Shock and realization of who he has still filled me with awe, wonder, and then boiling anger. Her confused emotion was, seething just below the surface but the stress and revelation of secrets these past days had taken a toll. After all, it's not every day you will learn that fallen angels hunt you, then lose a brother who turns out to be an angel—going on a trip of a lifetime, sightseeing the place of the dammed. Heck...no one can top this adventure. I hysterically laughed, thinking about how I thought my life was ordinary and mundane. And now, I got what I wished for, an experience like no other with a spice of death just nipping at my heels. I'm about to lose my mind just thinking about it.

Samuel covers my mouth. His eyes warned me. I yanked down his hand from my mouth, but I stopped when I took stock of the surrounding. The place looks like a boring office where workers in a black suit, working busily and clocking at five. The place looks like a lawyer's firm or government office. Mountain of papers on the table, floor, and even walls piled up to the ceiling. Paralegals and secretaries are typing away in an old typewriter. There was no laptop; even the telephone was so old like it just came out from a 1940 movie set. The walls were dark mahogany wood, and the chairs upholstered with black leather.

The receptionist looked up when she heard my hysterical laughter. Annoyingly, she asked. "Yes...what can I do for you?"

Samuel's wings disappeared somewhere in his body. God knows where he tucked it in. Defiantly, I pushed him away, but he was rock solid, and my attempt seemed not to affect him at all. He confidently approached the receptionist with a smile, "I'm looking for Ms. Greta Stihl."

"Ms. Stihl, don't talk to anyone without an appointment. Let me check her schedule..." She thumbs a very thick black aged appointment book. She looked at them and said, "She is free a decade from now, at 3 pm."

A decade? I gawked at the receptionist when I heard what she said. Yet Samuel seemed unperturbed. Instead, he looked at the receptionist seriously. "If you want to keep your job, you better tell her that Samantha Grey is here."

The whole room becomes silent. The clacking of the typewriters and the employees are completely standstill. Everyone froze and stared at me. The secretary dropped her pen, and it rolled towards me. Picking it up and gave it to her. Her hand trembled when she reached for it. She almost bowed to me as if the pen was so precious that she held in both hands and carefully lay it down on her table like it was a special gift.

"I'm sorry...please follow me." Nervously, she apologized while her head bent so low that I feared she might hit the table. The receptionist guides them to a hallway with different rooms. Each one has a sign. All doors have the deadly sins written on each one with the names of the lawyers who were tackling it. I noticed that the doors started to open, and people peered at them as they passed. "Everyone was excited to see you, Ms. Grey." The receptionist reverently told her.

"Why?" I was more confused about their reaction. How could they know about me?

The receptionist looked at her in surprise. "Your special... that's why."

The last double door was the most elegant of all entries. It was still conservative, but the handles were made of gold with an intricate design of thorns. I could have sworn it moved too. When the receptionist touches it, her blood dripped on the handle, and the door opens like magic. The room was painted with glossy black, and the moldings were made of pure gold. A huge fireplace was placed at the center wall. There was a substantial black office table with two devil wings holding it up. A beautiful woman with red hair like her painted lips and lacquered long nails were seated in a black high back throne chair.

She stood up gracefully and watched us approach with a beautiful smile.

"Samuel...my darling. It's been a very long time. You visited me at last." She extended her hand toward Samuel. He dutifully kissed her long creamy white manicured hands. She looked at me curiously and smiled, "No wonder you forgot to visit me...the child is beautiful."

Samuel ignored her teasing. Instead, he asked directly, "We came here to see the Seer."

"The Seer was happily locked up in her world. Why bother her? Besides, this girl is more powerful than what we have here in our domain."

"I don't want this gift. I need to talk to the underworld seer. I want it out of me." I cut in desperately.

Greta Stihl looked at me interestingly, "You don't want to become the Seer? How strange?" She gracefully stood up, displaying her very long beautiful legs in the process. She was mesmerizing that I could not take off my eyes of her. I felt like I was standing near a stunning goddess. "There is a lot of creatures willing to have what you have. But you--- don't want it. Strange but fascinating."

She moves towards me. Her dark eyes roamed my body from head to toe. She gently parted my dark hair and looked at my tawny eyes with interest. "I see...your different." Then, she touches my chest. I gasped when I felt my heart thumping so hard. She pulled out her hand away from my chest and looked at me in amazement. "You're his bride?"

"What? What do you mean?" Greta Stihl walked towards the wine cabinet, poured herself a stiff drink, and drank it in one gulp. Pouring another one, she drank it again before sitting down the glass with a banged.

Samuel protectively holds me. He was shielding me from her. "Please help us, Greta. "

"What's your role in this, Samuel?" Greta asked coldly.

"Keeping her away from them. She had a vision a week ago. We need to find out if we can avert it before it happens."

Greta hatefully looked at me for a long time, then turned to Samuel, "Promise me you keep her away from him. If you can do that, I will let you see the Seer."

"That's what I have been doing since she was a baby. I've been keeping her away from him." Since I was a baby? I looked at my brother or this stranger who I've known all my life with disbelief. How old is he then?

"Okay...here is the key." Greta pulled out one of the keys she wore around her neck. "Make haste. Step inside the furnished. I will wait for you here."

"Come, Sam." Samuel grabs my hand towards the fireplace with a burning fire glowing as big as a man.

I froze in fear and shook my head, "I'm not getting in there."

"Sam, do you want to help your friends or not? This furnished  is the only way..." Samuel pleaded, his hand opens waiting for me to reach it. I closed my eyes and jumped with him to the furnace. The fire took hold of my body, but there was no pain at all. When I open my eyes, an old door magically appears before us. Samuel inserted the key, and it opened slowly with a creaking sound. Inside was an older woman knitting a baby shirt while she rocked on her chair. The older woman looked up suddenly, and her eyes connected with me.