Ash Return of the Beast

CHAPTER 56



Ravenwood’s etheric body drifted weightlessly, descending further and further down into the dimensionless void. The feeling was at first pleasant, intoxicating. Am I dreaming…? Abruptly, the pleasantness turned to terror as another possibility crept in. Am I dead…?

Then she heard something, a familiar but muffled sound, coming from somewhere near by. She strained to identify the sound but it seemed to be gradually fading into the distance. Then, just before it was completely gone, she recognized it. The shaman’s rattle. At that moment she remembered what had happened, where she was and why she was there.

A sudden movement captured her attention. A shapeless, luminescence was appearing out of nowhere. She watched as it coalesced into a glowing white orb the size of a soccer ball. Then another and another, until nine of them were present. The floating globes of light moved in unison to within an arm’s reach and somehow she knew they were the Guides, the ayahuasca spirits, each a representative of the Bolontiku, the nine gods of the ancient Maya. In spite of her better judgment, but lured by her sense of fascination, she reached out to touch one but it instantly moved away, retreating into the darkness. Then, just as quickly, it returned. In the next instant, the orbs had her surrounded and the energy they transmitted was palpable.

Suddenly, she realized she and the orbs were moving, as a single unit, downward through the ocean of darkness toward the nine formidable realms of the Underworld.

***

Ravenwood’s consciousness spiraled like a whirlwind out of control. The Bolontiku were transporting her through the first eight of the nine levels of the Underworld at a furious pace. The speed of the descent was an act of mercy, bypassing the terrors that would otherwise have tormented and tested her each step of the way.

A seemingly endless barrage of images, fantastical and terrorizing, swirled past her in a dizzying array. Pulsating colors washed over her in waves and then spiraled away into the eternal blackness. Grotesque, unnamable creatures sailed by. Giant serpents hissed at her with darting tongues, their gaping mouths revealing treacherous, gleaming fangs. Tangled hordes of humans, naked and wailing, limbs flailing, reached out for her with pleading eyes before some invisible force violently pulled them back and whisked them away like leaves in a storm. Her senses were on fire, her mind barely able to withstand the surreal assault. Further and further into the nightmare she descended like an elevator in an uncontrolled freefall to Hell. Then, suddenly, a dead stop.

***

Tocho jumped as Ravenwood’s physical body jerked suddenly and lurched from the floor. Her back arched upward, then relaxed.

With panic in his eyes, he turned to Tlacatecolotl. “Jesus! What the hell was that? Is she all right?”

Tlacatecolotl gave a knowing nod. “She has reached the mid-point of the eighth level.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the spirit guides will go no further. At the bottom of the eighth level she will find the Gate to Mitnal, the ninth and final level, the realm of the dead, ruled by Hunhau, the Lord of the Demons.”

Tocho shook his head slowly. “I never should have brought her here.”

“You think you had a choice?”

***

The orbs now morphed together into a single unit as they telepathically communicated to Ravenwood.

Your higher self will guide you now. Trust it. When you return, we will come to guide you back to your world.

The orb pulsated brightly as she heard the final words of her mystical spirit guides: Ka xi’ik teech utsil. Then they were gone.

She assumed they had wished her ‘good luck’.