Chapter 10

Oh, no, it looks like a time for a swim in the deep and dark swamp, that can' be good, right? Right.

Charon sat behind Lucille on the small rowing boat, softly pushing them along the water deep into the swamp. The Hades clan had given him the boat, along with a little food, and pointed him out into the swamps, telling him to head east, and never changed. When asked how they would know when they find their grandfather, the children chuckle to themselves, and the men said they would know. It wasn’t something Charon enjoyed much, but asked nothing more before pushing the boat off the dock. He rowed out into the dark waters glancing back at the men circling his truck, planning to take, if they didn’t come back.

               He was sure most people on land didn’t think they were coming back, but they had no idea who Charon was or what kind of magic he had hidden deep in him. He wasn’t worried about such a fate as death. The reaper wouldn’t dare come for him yet. This wasn’t the place he was going to die; he had seen his end all those years ago, and here in the swamps was not it.

               He didn’t fear death, and as Lucille sat there singing one of Vilas songs, she didn’t seem to fear it either. He thought she was braver than any man he had known in his life, but there was something else about her. Something the Hades woman saw, which caused his skin to crawl. She almost gave up the whole act, the one Azrael told Charon not to speak about to anyone, and Charon was a man of his word.

               It was best for Lucille anyhow. It would be easy for her not to know the truth. The truth might make her free, but it would also be cruel, and Charon wasn’t about to be cruel to someone like Lucille.

               Some secrets were best kept under the table, and plus, Charon had fallen in love with the funny girl. She had great joy about her. She also seemed to have a lovely voice, which Charon would have to tell Vilas about when they got home.

               He rowed the boat along the waters, watching the fading light of the sun dash between the trees, pushing long shadows over the waters. The smell had started to give away, or maybe his nose had given up fighting it, and everything was starting to set in, but they hadn’t found the grandfather yet, even after hours of being out here.

               They hadn’t seen anything as of late. All they had seen was tree after tree, followed by things falling into the water and swimming away from them.

               From time to time, Stanely would stand up on the edge of the boat staring off into the woods or the water and then slowly fall back to Lucille. She would take him, holding him for a bit while he fell back to sleep on her lap.

               She sang a few songs. She sighed deeply and then asked, “I think they’re pulling our chain.”

               “They ain’t lying, Clown,” Charon said.

               “It’s been hours,” she said,” this is getting boring.”

               “Trust me,” he said, “enjoy it while you can.”

               “I knew you were going to say that,” she said, sighing deeply and dropping her shoulders. “This is awful.”

               “Be careful what you wish for, Clown,” Charon said softly as the hours had a long, dull stroll into the night, bringing out the stars, which was a sight to behold from the swamps, and then it was as if the stars started to fall to the world with lightening bugs rushing around them all. They were both in awe of the stars flying around them, which might have been why they didn’t see the other boats emerging from the trees.

               When Charon noticed what was going on, there were three row boats around them with a group of men pointing rifles at their hearts. Some of them were wearing alligator skins with long knives on their hips, and Charon knew these men were hunters, but he wasn’t sure what they were hunting in these waters, if not alligators.

               Lucille sat there, looking at the men petting Stanley, while Charon rolled his jaws at the men with all the guns, then an older man with a few missing teeth, with the others turned deep yellow, stepped forward. He was chewing on some tobacco, staring at Charon.

               “What’re you two doin’ here?” the nasty man asked.

               “We got lost,” Charon said, “got turned around in these waters is all.”

               “Ah, bullshit,” the nasty man said. “We saw y’all comin’ from the Hades houses. So, I’ll ask again,” these times the guns were moved forward, making Charon stare at the men hard, “what’s y’all doin’ here?”

               “You guys wouldn’t believe us,” Charon said, “but we don’t want to get in your way. We want to be on our way, and you all can go back to doing whatever you are doing.”

               The old man spat brown tobacco into the water, making Lucille gag a little,  rolling the words around in his mind. He narrowed his eyes at Charon and then moved that wicked gaze over to Lucille, who wasn’t afraid at all, and that seemed to bother the old man. There was something odd about a sixteen-year-old not fearing guns while a lovely cat sat on her lap, staring back at the old man.

               “You two might want to go back the other way,” the old man said, moving back to Charon. “There’s trouble in these waters.”

               “Always seemed to be that way,” Charon said, with some of the men starting to lower their guns. “May ask what kind of trouble?”

               “A monster,” one of the men in the dark said. “It eats people.”

               “Shut it, Chris,” the old man ordered, “but he’s right, there is a monster in these waters. You two should go back. Dangerous times here, bloody waters.”

               Charon had a feeling the monster they were hunting was the monster they were looking for, but he wasn’t sure how to explain this to a group of hunters with guns.

               “We could help,” Lucille said, making the hard men laugh.

               “Sweet of ya, child,” the nasty old man said, “but ya and your pa got no guns, that’s no good against monsters.”

               “Trust me, sir,” Lucille started to say, but she never got to finish her statement as everyone was tossed into the air with something powerful and deadly blasting up from the water. They went flying into the air as Charon saw Lucille holding onto Stanely before they all went crashing back into the dark and bloody waters.