Vampire Greek: The Burning King

After ten minutes of terror, Roman and Cliff finally reached a wide beam of light that soared higher than Roman could comprehend. There were thick pillars on each side, carved with the faces of people in horror or anguish. Thousands of miniscule figures stood at the gate with one dark figure blocking them from exiting. Cliff trampled hundreds of them before stopping right in front of the dark figure, who held his hand up for them to stop. Roman looked back and saw that Cerberus had stopped too, and realized the figure wasn’t stopping them, it was stopping him. Cliff shrank to normal size and Roman stepped up toward the dark figure with Cliff growling at his side.

“Thanatos.” Roman guessed.

Thanatos nodded. “You’ve been an interesting mortal. From the time Charon cast you into Tartarus to now. Gaining the interest of Typhon himself… if you fail, you’ll suffer harsher consequences than being Cerberus’ chew toy.”

Cerberus barked in response, his tail wagging happily.

“But if I succeed?”

“Then you’ll have to worry about Zeus’ wrath until the end of time.”

Roman stood there in silence until Cliff nuzzled his hand.

“I’ll find a way to protect myself, I’ll be hidden before he comes back.”

“Good luck with that.” Thanatos snapped his fingers and Cerberus burst into action, picking up the wayward souls with his mouths and flinging them away from the gate. Roman closed his eyes to brace himself for the portal but there was nothing to feel. Nothing to see. The sudden transportation from the underworld to earth was too incomprehensible for his mind, he blacked out the moment he stepped through. He woke up a considerable time later laying on top of Cliff with a big headache. He opened his eyes and nearly went blind, it was the first time he had seen sunlight since he visited Sisyphus, and his skin was broiling in the heat. Squinting to get a look of his surroundings, he was lying on the grass near a sidewalk in front of a fast-food restaurant. He walked inside and Cliff followed happily, drawing many looks from the customers inside. Sitting in a booth, he put his head down to rest for a second when Cliff hopped into the booth too.

“No. Get down. They probably won’t like that.” Roman scolded him. Cliff growled but complied, opting to lie on the floor at his side. Roman put his head back down and tried to rest but a customer was arguing with the employees.

“Shut up. shut up shut up.” Roman whispered. He heard and employee scream and looked up to see a fat guy throwing his drink on them.

“This place is fucking trash!” the man shouted. “I’ve been waiting forever in that long ass drive thru, I get home, and my order is wrong!”

The manager stepped in to stop the woman at the cashier from swinging. She pulled her to the side and told her to go get clean then addressed the customer.

“I’m sorry sir, if you could just show us the food or the receipt-”

“I want my money back! NOW!” the guy shouted.

“How can we give you your money back if we don’t know what you-” CHRISTIE, NO!”

Christie, the girl he threw the drink on, came back with a vengeance, she chucked a cup of hot coffee at the man’s head, covering him in the scalding hot liquid.”

“Fuck this job, fuck him and fuck you!” Christie took off her hat and through it at the customer before storming out. The guy ran to the bathroom and Roman followed him.

“Stay here Cliff. I’ll be back.” Roman looked to see if anyone else was going to the bathroom before picking up a wet floor sign and putting it by the door. He entered it and saw the man was trying to rinse out the coffee in his eyes. He could see his phone in his pocket. It was one of those old style flip phones, which fortunately meant Roman didn’t have to knock the dude out to use his fingerprint to open it. As sly as he could he bumped into the man like he was slipping muttering apologies as he quickly slid the phone out the man’s pocket.

“Sorry the floor’s wet, there’s coffee everywhere.” he said as hid the phone in his tunic.

“I know! Cause of that stupid chick!” said the man holding paper towels to his face.

“I will sue for millions, best believe that!”

“Sure.” Roman muttered as he promptly made his way out. He whistled for Cliff to follow him out of the restaurant as he walked by a couple kids trying to pet him. Once he was back on the street, he looked at the street signs to figure out exactly where he was before calling Claire.

“Oh my god, Roman! Thank god, I thought you were-”

“I was.” he interrupted her. “But I’m better now. Meet me back at my place, I can’t hang around here for long.”

“Oh… okay. Um, sure thing.” said Claire, sounding a little less enthusiastic.

Roman would’ve asked her what was wrong, but the police had shown up, and sooner or later that dude would realize his phone was missing. He began to sweat and could feel his heart beating in his chest as he took off at a slight jog with Cliff at his side.