Pick Up Styx!

Kara stood at the bottom of the endless staircase, her feet submerged to her ankles in cool, green water. Off in the distance, or whatever you wanted to call it in this strange place, she heard he continuous crash of water against water. She turned and looked out across the also endless pool.1

What am I doing here?2

Turtles floated lazily in the water's invisible current. Kara watched them. As she did, she saw their figures flicker and waver, as if they weren't really real. She knew they weren't. She knew that their purpose was watching her. Tiny, crystalline eyes blinked on the symmetrical squares etched into their mud-colored shells. She wondered what sort of lunatic had thought of this strange addition to this sick game.3

Kara turned back towards the impossible, wooden staircase. She knew she would have to start climbing sometime, although she was dreading the very thought of it. But, it's what she was been paid to do. She lifted a foot out of the gently swirling water, and she began to climb. Her flat-soled tennis shoes slapped against the creaking wood, step after step. She began to reminisce.4

Ella, Kara's mother, was sick. Weak and bed-stricken, she was in dire need of a surgery that was far beyond their financial means.
Kara knelt by her mother's bedside, grasping her cold hand in hers.
Ella moaned quietly, shifting slighltly. She never said a word, too much pain.5

As Kara hung her head low over her mother's chest, there came a cough and a hand lightly gripped her shoulder. Kara sniffed loudly and turned saying, "Doctor..." assuming that he had come to check on her, but instead she saw a tall man wearing an ill-fitting coat that hung low to the ground.6

"Kara Jennings?"7

Kara kissed her mother's hand, layed it carefully back across her stomach, and stood. "Yes sir, I am."8

The man craned his neck and glanced at her mother's prostrate figure on the unkempt hospital bed.9

"Your mother, is that correct?"10

"Yes sir," she repeated. "Who..who are you?"11

The man ignored her question, but asked, "She needs surgery, does she not?"12

Kara was becoming weary of this man's questions. She felt like hers had a right to be answered first.13

"Who are you? How do you know me? And how the..."14

The man held up a hand, as if to tell her to stop. He peeked over his shoulder at the opened door. Doctors, nurses, and various other people were randomly walking by, all unaware of what was happening in the room.15

"Come. We will talk."16

The man led her out of the door and down the hallway. When they came to a place that was more or less seserted, he stopped her with a strong hand.17

"I'm sorry," he began, "but I am not allowed to give my name, or the way that I acquired your name and story. But, I can tell you that...I can offer you some help."18

Kara shifted her weight onto one foot and planted a hand on her hip. "You're going to help me? Right...and how?"19

"I can offer you...a job of sorts. Once completed, you will be given necessary means to afford your mother's surgery."20

Kara blinked, hardly believing a word. A job? She didnt't know this man. How could she trust someone who couldn't even tell her his name?21

"Look," she started, "I'm not sure if I...I mean I...this job you mentioned..."22

The man smiled slightly, and stared at her strangly, and then said, "Oh don't worry, Kara. I feel that you might even find this job...enjoyable. Not many will get this experience."23

A single thought popped into Kara's head, and she was enraged. "Excuse me? Mister, I don't know who you think you are, but if you think that that is what kind of girl I am, you can just leave right now! Find some other girl for your sick...fantasies!" she spat.24

The mans face had contorted strangly during her rant, but then he laughed in utter relief. "No! Oh, no! That's not the job at all! Please forgive me! I must have announced this in an incorrect way."25

Kara felt herself blush at her mistake, but she didn't let her gaurd down. "Well then," she said, "what is the job you're talking about then?"26

"So, you are interested?"27

Biting her lip, Kara glanced back down the hallway. She saw her mother's pale face in her mind's eye. She would do almost anything to take away her pain. "Her surgery will be payed for? All of it?"28

The man nodded. "Every penny, as soon as the job is done."29

After that, she had been bustled away, with barely any time to say goodbye to her mother. She was then blindfolded, before being helped into the back of a car.30

"Don't worry," the man whose name she did not know reassured her. "Simply a safety precaution. We can't let our location be revealed."31

She found herself inside a small, scarcely furnished room, with a single oaken door. 32

"You will find the job you are to fufill beyond that door," the man said, nudging Kara towards it. "It won't be all that clear, so you may have to think. But I'm not worried. I know we were correct when we chose you."33

"Chose me?" Kara asked, but the man had already pulled the door open, revealing a pale green light.34

"Nevermind. Good luck, Kara," he said, pushing through the open doorway."35

"But..." Kara called, "how do I get back?"36

But the heavy door had swung shut behind her, and she stood there ankle deep in the strange glowing water, alone.37

Kara shook her head, returning to the present. Her legs ached as she realized that she had been climbing for an impossbily long time. She tentatively turned, but the bottom of the stairs had disappeared. The roar of the waterfalls could still be heard, very faintly now. Kara dared to peek over the side, but quickly retured her gaze to the ascending staircase ahead of her. Below her was nothing. Just black...nothing.38

Feeling suddenly light-headed, she slowly sat down and tucked her knees into her chest. She rested her chin on them, and her teeth chattered violently together, even though she was so hot that she longed for a solitary breeze. What in the world was this place? Never-ending staircases, turtles with 50 eyes apiece, green luminescent water. That's when she realized, maybe this wasn't in the world at all. 39

Rising shakily to her feet and wiping her mouth with the back of her sweaty hand, Kara thought hard.40

Her job. What was her job? If her job was to climb these stairs for the rest of eternity, she wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into. What if this wasn't her job? What if she wasn't even suppossed to climb these stupid stairs? Maybe her job was back at the pool? 41

Hopeless. That'a what this was called. Hopeless. Kara suddenly wished that the man's job had been what she had so horrifyingly assumed in the first place. At least she would have been finished by now. She would have her money now, and her mother may be going into surgery. Her mother.42

She had to keep climbing. She needed that money! Kara's heavy legs began to move again, and soon she was leaping up ther stairs, ignoring her burning chest and numb feet. Before long, she began to be able to see the end of the stairs, where a door was sitting. She flew into it, sagging against the cool wood.43

When she had caught her breath, her hand curled around the knob, and she entered through the doorway.44

The door clicked hollowly behind her, and she blinked her eyes against the new light. There wasn't any. The room was enveloped in complete darkness. Kara couldn't distinguish a floor, a ceiling, walls. The only thing she saw was a mirror. A single, glassy mirror with a golden frame that seemed to be slightly pulsing in its own light. Kara felt something pull on her, moving her towards it. Yet, something else, was pulling her away.45

She glided to the mirror and rested in front of its wide face. A screech gurgled from her throat when the reflection portryed on it was not her own.46

A thin, pale women stared back at her, vacantly. She swayed lightly on her feet. Her long, jet-black hair moved gently with her, curling around her gaunt, ghostly face. Kara stared, horrfied, at the deep, bloody gashes all over her pearly skin. They dripped with fresh, ruby-tinted bood. The women extended a slender hand and pressed against her side of the enchanted mirror.47

Again, Kara felt the urge to run far away, but something else held her in place. She stared at the young women's face, as if waiting for something to change. To happen. Then it did.48

"Kara," the image spoke, her voice silvery and weak, "why did you leave me there, Kara?"49

Kara's heart stopped. She knew who this women was. "Mother?"50

"Kara? Why did you leave me? I need you, Kara."51

"I...I," Kara stammered. "I only left to help you Mother. This man he...he offered me money..."52

"He was lying Kara," she whispered. "He was lying. That man has no intention of giving you anything."53

"But, he said. He said he would pay for your..." Kara argued. The women who was her mother let her chin fall to her bloody chest. "Mother...?"54

The women lifted her head to reveal black tears spilling from her eyes. Kara gasped and stumbled backwards. Her mother's suddering form began to move through the glass, as if through water. "I died, Kara. When you left on this...fool's errand, I died. And you weren't there."55

"No.." Kara said. "No, you didn't. You're alive! See? You're here! You're alive!"56

"No, Kara..."57

"Yes, yes you are! I understand now...this was my job. I...I was to find you and bring you back. I know it was!" Kara reached out to her mother, who was now standing on the same ground as her, the mirror behind her was cracked.58

But her mother recoiled form her daughter attempted contact. "Kara, please. Kara I'm dead."59

Hot tears spilled out of Kara's eyes, and she reached up to push them away. She couldn't believe a word she heard in this place. She wouldn't. 60

Kara stopped when she noticed the wetness on her hand was black like the tears on her mother's cheeks.61

"No!" she screamed, savagly ripping her hand against the pocket of her jeans, but she saw more black on her cheeks.