For two decaying corpses, they were fast. It was clear that the laws of physics didn't necessarily apply down here. And yet no matter how far ahead they got, I never lost sight of them. They wanted me to follow them. They wanted me to see these monsters, whether I wanted to or not.

Please let Gretchen be right, I thought, praying that these monsters were just figments of their old, decaying imaginations.

After nearly fifteen minutes of running, they finally slowed on the top of a hill.

"Give him back," I gasped, holding out my hand and trying in vain to catch my breath.

"You have to see them. You have to learn why you shouldn't make a deal with her," Elizabeth said.

"Give him back," I repeated, reaching for the bear. Cornelius just held him more tightly. His fingers looked as if they were wrapped with bandages, but I gagged when I realized that it was just strips of wet flesh.

Cornelius shook his head, cradling James to his chest. "Not until—"

He was cut off by a loud screech, a sound that set my ears ringing and my senses on fire.

Cornelius grinned, a messy, fleshy smile, and tossed James back at me. "Now you'll see," he whispered.

And without warning, he and Elizabeth vanished into thin air.

There was a second screech now, this one even closer. My heart started pounding wildly in my chest.

"James," I said, squeezing the bear a bit too hard. "James are you here?"

"I am," he said, perking up with a wriggle of his nose. "Sorry. I was trying to stay quiet."

"There's something coming. We need to get out of here." I spun around, hoping that I could see the sky blue path, but Cornelius had led us farther out than I had realized. There were only hills as far as I could see... and a large shadow painting the distant hills black, moving ever closer.

I looked up at the sky, and saw the great creature casting the shadow, soaring ever closer. At first I thought it was a giant bat—the thing had wings and crinkled grey skin. But as it got closer, I was able to make out a humanoid face, with pit-like holes for eyes that were as empty as Elizabeth's sunken orbits. And although it lacked a jaw, there were teeth hanging down from its maxilla, crooked, jagged, and sharp.

"It's a harpy!" James said, propelling me back into action. "Run!"

And so I did. I chose a direction and started running as fast as I could.

The harpy moved clunkily, like a creature unused to its home in the sky. Its great wings made loud thuds as they flapped, as if the sound barrier of the Underworld was being broken every time it moved. And as it flew closer, it let out a soul-wrenching cry.

And yet it didn't dive down at me—at least not yet. It seemed to be watching me, flying in circles, like a cat playing with a mouse before the kill. As it circled, its long stringy hair flapped wildly in the breeze, almost obscuring its bone-colored horns.

"Jessa!" James cried suddenly within my arms. "I think I see the city!"

I looked up and saw that James was right. In the far distance, jabbing off the horizon and poking upwards, was a silvery city skyline.

"It's so far away," I said, gasping for air as I redirected my course. It would take hours to get there, and there was no way I could outrun the harpy that long.

"Just keep moving. I don't think that harpy is looking to attack."

However, James had spoken too soon. The creature seemed to have realized that I had changed my course, and with another anguished cry, it swooped downwards—this time, much lower than before. I felt a rush of air and a tickle of stringy hair brushing against the nape of my neck, and I realized that the harpy had been just inches above my head.

I let out a terrified shriek and looked over my shoulder—which was the worst thing I could have done. I locked eyes with the creature, and this time I watched as it flew straight towards me, talons extended, great wings raised like a terrifying eagle. I screamed, stumbled over my own two feet, and fell backwards. I flung my arm out to catch my fall, and felt the scrape of a rock tear at the skin. But my fall seemed to have saved me. The harpy missed me by inches once again, but let out a heart-wrenching screech.

I froze in fear. I could have sworn I had heard something it its cry, something that sounded almost like a warning. It wasn't in any language I had ever heard of before, but I could feel it in my bones, deep and unnerving. My body started shaking in response, an uncontrollable tremor, and I found it hard to breathe.

I covered my face with my hands, my heart pounding wildly in my chest, and I waited for the creature to dive down and deliver its deadly strike. But the blow never came. It took almost a full minute, but when I let my hands down, I saw that the creature was flying away. Every flap of its wings grew quieter, and I watched as its great dark form shrunk as it moved into the distance. It did let out one more cry before it faded away completely, but this time it was too quiet for me to hear the underlying warning. It made me wonder if I had actually heard anything at all.

"Jessa, are you okay?" James said, crawling off of my lap. He placed his small paw on my hand.

My mouth was dry with fear and I found I could barely muster up the energy to move. I nodded mutely for a moment—even though it was a lie—and then closed my eyes. It took a long time to will the tears away; I sat there for a while, forcing air in and out of my lungs, trying not to choke on the spasms in my throat as I held back a sob. When I was finally calm—or at least calm enough to not immediately burst into tears—I looked down at my arm, where the rock had scraped my skin. The wound was fairly superficial; for the most part, only the top layers of skin had peeled off. But there were a few, deeper cuts, and those were actively bleeding. The whole thing stung horribly, but I hadn't broken anything, and for that I was grateful.

"James," I asked, looking down at the bear. "How does my body look out in the real world? Can you see the cut on my arm?"

The bear was still for a moment—I could tell James was inspecting my body back on the picnic bench. After a moment, the teddy stirred. "Your arm looks okay."

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath. "So any injuries I get here aren't going to affect my body. That's good to know."

"Ummm..." James hesitated.

I stared at him. "What?"

"So even though your arm is okay out here, your breathing is... different now."

I blinked. "My breathing?"

He nodded. "Your breathing pattern is a bit irregular."

"What does that mean?"

The teddy bear wobbled in the grass, looking concerned. "I think it means you're slipping deeper into a coma... and I think it's because you got hurt down here."

I pressed my lips together, feeling the churning in my stomach intensifying. "So if I keep getting attacked or injure myself doing stupid..."

"Then it might be too much for your soul to handle," James said. "And you could be trapped in the Underworld, round-trip ticket or not."

It took another several deep breaths for me to calm the shaking that had started up with his words. "Well," I said after a minute of rubbing my hands on the grass, trying to will away the feeling of unease, "I just need to make sure I don't get hurt down here anymore."

"I'll keep an eye on your body more," James said. He clearly was trying to be helpful, but it didn't do much to make me feel less anxious. "And if I see you progress any deeper, I'll call an ambulance."

"Don't know how much good that will do," I said, pressing myself up to my feet with my good arm. "But I appreciate it, James." I scooped the bear up and held him to my chest, feeling the softness of the fur and wishing I was back home.

But I couldn't turn back now. There was too much at stake, and I had come too far.

I set my gaze on the silvery buildings in the distance. They reflected the light in waves of prisms, like a beautiful rainbow beckoning us closer. I took another breath and looked down at James. "Shall we start walking again?"

"Lead the way, Jessa."