Test and Sacrifices

Underworld

They both got up and Julia went to go take a shower while Owen checked out more of the room. He looked at the fridge filled with fruit. There were oranges, apples, different berries and at the very back was a pomegranate, along with a small knife. The pomegranate had a message carved into its skin. The message read :” This is a clue to the next room.”

“A pomegranate as a clue is pretty weird” Owen thought. “Why a pomegranate and what does it even mean?” Owen was once again confused but he was sure he and Julia would figure it out.

Meanwhile Julia got out of the shower, dried off and got dressed again. She then walked over to Owen. “What’s that?” Julia asked while pointing at the pomegranate. “It’s called a pomegranate. Inside there are little red seeds and they tend to be slightly bitter.” Owen explained. “Sounds interesting.” Julia replied.

In his head Owen was thinking “ Oh no she’s never even heard of a pomegranate before, so she won’t be much help figuring out it was meant to tell them.”They both ate the fruit but they didn’t open the pomegranate in case they might need it later because of the message carved on it.

The apples were big and dark red in color, the oranges were sweetly sour and the berries were a mix of blackberries, Strawberries, raspberries and some blueberries.

They both got ready to head out of the room and continue their journey, but before they did they went back to the place in which they found Dahlia. They were going to see if there was a paper to explain what she is and sure enough on the wall was an explanation form. The form consisted of three pages.

The first page read:

Test subject : #3

Experiment type : Back from the dead

Name: Dahlia

Age at start of experiment : 3 years old

Found : In the wreckage of a terrible accident

Test method : classified

Purpose of test : To see if the dead can be brought back

Experiment lasted for : classified

Sold to : X

The second page read:

Test subject #4

Experiment type : chemical mutation and psychological torture

Name : Monster

Age at start of experiment : 8 months old

Found : daughter of one of our other creatures

Test method : Injections, flume exposure and white noise

Purpose of test : To see how much you can alter a person

Experiment last for : 20 years

Sold to :

The third page read:

Welcome to the Cave of illusion

Room : # 2

Creatures : spirit of illusion and monster of sacrifice

Trained to : deceive and hunt

Test of room : decipher

They returned to the rest place and then headed on with their Journey. Julia clutched the pomegranate close to her chest, to make sure she didn’t drop it. Her and Owen silently walked side by side as they made their way to the next room.

It was quite a walk down a long gray, metal hall till they reached another door. Along the way they wondered about the next room. The door was big and painted black. There was no sign or note to name or describe the room. This was odd because the door was also rather plain, making it different from the other rooms. It took both of them to open because it was quite heavy.

Once inside they began to look around. It was dimly lit with small lanterns. The lanterns gave off a soft blue glow. It was rather empty. The floor was made of concrete tiles and had a cold look to it. There was a dog bed in the corner that looked big enough to fit at least two Siberian tigers. The word “Cerberus” was stitched onto the bed.

In the center of the room there was a note. This wasn’t surprising since this place is filled with notes. They read “ Trapped within a strange place. Desire of the fruit with the red jewels. A place guarded by a beast who is three in one. The beast is both good and bad. It is capable of being deadly, he is just a working beast who does his job well and isn’t a demon. That being said he is the guard and will do his job as he is meant to. Find my name to solve the puzzle but beware for the beast is here.”

“Well that’s comforting.” Julia said with a tone of voice that was absolutely filled with sarcasm. “Yeah, this room is scary already and we haven’t even seen the beast.” Owen responded. Julia laughed at his comment. Her laughter was probably out of nerves caused by the ominous note. Despite that her laugh warmed Owen’s heart. He put his hand on her and softly said “ Come on let’s figure this out.” Followed by a warm smile. It was weird to smile in such a place but it felt right to Owen.

They were snapped out of their thoughts by a low growl. It was loud and full of vibration. They then realized that it was time to start thinking of how to escape this room. “We’re supposed to find a name.” Owen mentioned “ So let’s look for clues.” Julia notices a spot on the floor with missing tiles. The missing tiles were stacked up in a clear box next to the spot on the floor. “ Let’s look over there.” Julia said as she pointed to the spot she had seen. They both went over to it and started to remove the tiles from the box.

Each tile had a letter painted on it in pomegranate red type color. The letters were “ E, R, P, O, H, E,N,P,E,S”. When they removed the last tile from the box a timer started. The timer showed that they had 30 minutes to solve the puzzle. They quickly began to try to think of a name that could be spelled with those letters but both of them were clueless.

They once again looked around the room but there weren’t any more clues. Both of them began to panic as they realized that they were clueless. “It has to be something to do with a reference.” Julia pointed out. Owen responded with “ Yeah but what is it?” They two were beginning to become hopeless. How could they figure out a reference when they don’t know what the reference is to.

If only they studied Greek mythology, they would know the story of Persephone. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Persephone was the goddess of spring and was worshiped alongside her mother who was the goddess of agriculture. One day the God of the underworld known as Hades begins to desire Persephone.

He took her with him to the underworld. There was a pomegranate and Persephone ate some of the seeds. Some stories say she was willing, others say she was forced. According to some versions of her story the pomegranate tied her to Hades as his wife.

The news of her daughter’s disappearance, caused Demeter to grow angry. She mourned and neglected her duties as the goddess of agriculture. This caused the earth to die. As a compromise Persephone was allowed to come back up from the underworld for a couple of months but then had to go back to Hades.

The times where Persephone is with Demeter are spring and summer but when she's with Hades fall and winter come.

Cerberus acts as a guard dog to the underworld. So it lives with Hades in the underworld all of the time.

Julia and Owen were very unaware of Persephone’s story. Nothing of this riddle made sense to them because of this. They felt like they’d never escape this room. Such an easy task that just requires the right information. Owen began to desperately search his mind for an answer. He was not just afraid for himself. His fear was for his fate and the fate of the little girl he was beginning to love as if she was his little sister.