~~

Trinity

~~

Bad feeling or not. Regret or not. I needed to open this door and move forward. I needed to find Hekate and put a stop to her tyranny. I needed to protect myself, my unborn children, and the world itself. I needed to protect everyone, and this time I would do it in a way that would not be twisted around on me like the times in the hall of self-reflection.

Steeling my nerves, and pushing down the feelings of regret that were flooding through me, I reached out and took the handle of the door. The moment I touched the door, the feelings got so much worse. It felt like regret was all that I had inside of me at that moment.

I could even see the door affecting the triplets. Zachary, Zander, and Zayden were all cowering in fear as they huddled beside me. They weren't even born yet, what could the three of them have to regret? How could they even know what that emotion was?

"I hope this ends when we go through the door. You three better not let go of me.

" I started to open the door, but then I remembered what had happened to them, especially Zayden, when we went through the last door. I had ended up falling on top of him and made him cry. That was not something that I wanted to do again. And, thinking back on that with what I know now, did me falling on him cause him any problems in my womb? I hoped not.

I didn't want to risk hurting any of them again, so I decided to do something different this time.

"Come here.

" I told them as I bent to scoop them all up into my arms. They clung to me and each other as I held them. It was difficult, but I managed to hold them and to open the door at the same time.

It was a good thing that I held onto them too. The moment that the door was opened it was like there was a giant gust of wind that swirled around me and sucked me inside. The four of us would have been separated if I hadn't been holding onto them.

I wrapped my arms tight around them as I held on as tight as I could. I refused to let anything pull them away from me. When I started to approach the ground that was speeding toward me, I did my best to spin my body around and make it so that I would land on my back.

I slowed down, a little, before I hit the ground. I wasn't in pain or anything, but it knocked the breath out of me for a moment.

For a moment I was just laying there, on the ground, cradling the three boys in my arms.

"M..mommy O..O..OK!

" Zayden pulled back and cupped my cheek.

"M..m..mommy g..g..get h..hurt?

"

"No, Zander, I am not hurt.

" I shook my head.

"Mommy is OK.

"

"M..m..mommy f..fall d..down.

" Zachary looked at me with worry in his eyes.

"Well, I had to protect the three of you, didn't I?

"

"N..no.

" Zayden shook his head.

"W..we tect m..m..mommy.

" Zander was very insistent.

"W..w..we tect m..mommy. W..we h..here for y..you m..mommy.

" Zachary also looked insistent and sad.

"We will help each other. But it is a mommy's job to protect her babies. Even big strong babies like you.

"

"O..OK.

" Zayden smiled and the others followed suit with a nod.

"Now, come on. Let's see where we ended up.

The three of them climbed from their positions on my chest and stood next to me while I got to my feet. Once we were once again holding hands, protecting each other as they wanted to call it, we started to look around where we were.

This was a different place than I thought I would end up. I seemed to be sitting on top of some sort of luggage belt in an airport. There were other people being dropped in as well and they were spinning around the conveyor belt until they could get to the right spot to climb off.

Unlike me, the other people seemed to be coming in from the other side of the belt, like they were literally luggage that had been taken off of a plane. This was the oddest thing that I had seen in the underworld so far.

Why the hell are we in an underworld airport? And what is the point of this place?

Those were the thoughts that went through my head while I waited for the right place to step off the belt with the boys. At least the creators of this level of hell had been considerate enough to provide stairs for us that were exiting the belts.

Once we were off and walking down the only hallway that we could see, I heard thousands of people off in the distance. The sound was so annoying, so loud, that all I wanted to do was clap my hands over my ears and block it out, but I didn't have any hands free. I couldn't cover them at all. Neither could my little boys, they were stuck hearing the voices of so many people whining in the distance.

I saw a sign, conveniently, that was hanging at the end of the terminal. It had arrows that were directing me which way to go for different reasons.

← Bad Ending← Missed Love ← What Could Have Been ← Too Shy To Try ← Never The Right Time → Wasn't Brave Enough → Too Scared → There Was More Time → I Was Going To Do It Later ↑ What If I Get Fired ↑ They're Better Suited For It ↑ I Don't Want To Rock The Boat ↑ No Chance ↑ Ran Out Of Time ↓ Soul Carrousel ↓ No Regrets

Well, that was not very helpful. What the hell kind of sign was that? Where is this place? What was going on? And, why were there so many people moving around in this place? This had to be the most crowded airport in the history of forever. I swear, it looked like there were over a million people in this place, if not more.

While I thought about this place and what that sign meant, about fifty people dashed past me and ran in different directions as they went toward different parts of the airport. What were they in a hurry for? Where did they think they were going? And what the hell was I supposed to do now that I was here?

"Stay close to me and don't leave my side. I don't want you to get lost.

" I pulled the kids closer toward my side and took a step out into the busy main terminal. I had been in a lot of airports in my life, but none as big or as busy as this place seemed to be. There were so many people that I literally needed to squeeze my way into the mass of souls.. I felt like I was going to be swept away into the never-ending flow of lost souls and end up lost myself.