"Come to us." It spoke to me. The voice that no one knows from the depths that no one sees. It wasn't the first time I head it's chilling voice. I had been hearing it since I was eleven on the day when I nearly brutalized my schoolmate. I had ignored it ever since. And now it whispers to me once again.

The shadows began to dance along the walls around my room, twisting into dreaded amalgamations of hands, horns, tails, and fangs.

"Come to us." It repeated. "Come down to us."

I got up from bed and dressed myself for public. I didn't make myself breakfast. I already knew there was no food in my kitchen. I opened up a drawer to my dresser on the way out. Only 6 silver left. Enough to pay for what I wanted on my final day of life.

***

I took my silver coins and left for the quarry. I stripped quickly and leaped into the pool as soon as I got there. Cold waters accepted me with open arms. I felt my mind ease as I sunk into them. I let my head along with the rest of my body fully submerge into it, as if to purify me of all the bad thoughts.

I opened my eyes to a sea of evanescent skulls. They swarmed me in an instant. I was too petrified by the sight to even move. I glanced down to see two glowing skeleton arms wrapped around my legs.

I immediately brought my gaze up to the sunlight piercing through the water and began to push my arms into motion. Not so much swimming, but moreso grasping to pull the surface towards me.

I gasped for air as soon as I broke out of the water. Relieved simply to be breathing. When I looked back down into the surface I saw nothing. No skeletons, no bones...nothing.

No rest for the weak, I concluded. It seems the bad thoughts would be my company for today. I climbed out of the water, dressed myself and made my way over to the tavern.

***

I was the first one to arrive at the tavern, when it was just opening. Upon entering, I sat down at a random table. A woman emerged immediately to take my order.

"Hello, my name is Ralla." The serving girl greeted then looked me up and down. "Would you like some food?"

"No?" I asked. "Why would I need that?"

"You look like you haven't eaten in weeks." She said.

I shrugged and replied. "It won't matter soon anyway."

Ralla nodded in agreement. "What would you like to drink?"

"Lager, please." I answered.

"How much?"

I reached into my pockets and dropped the six coins onto the table. "However much this gets me."

Ralla looked down at the coins. "You look like someone who needs more than just lager." She said, taking a single coin from the table and leaving.

She returned shortly with a tiny glass of ink-black liquid.

"What's this?"

"Drink it." She said. "If you don't like it I'll bring you some lager."

I shrugged. "I'm not opposed to trying something new."

I choked as soon as I took a sip, the taste was so intense. I coughed hard the moment it went down. I had never tasted anything that bitter in my entire life.

"Oh, I'm really sorry." The server immediately apologized. "I should have just warned you about how strong it was-"

"No, no, it's fine." I said, coughing again. "Do you have any more?"

"Umm," Ralla said, almost puzzled. "Yeah, we do. We actually have a lot of that in the back. No one really likes to drink so I wouldn't mind just giving it to you for cheap."

"Thank you." I appreciated, sliding another coin her way. "Could I have a lager to go with it as well?"

"Sure." Ralla said, accepting the coin. "I'll get that for you right away."

She disappeared to the back again. I took another drink, finishing the glass of...whatever it was that she gave me. I didn't even know what it was. It didn't taste like any beverage I had consumed before. I could have been drinking poison for all I knew, but I didn't care. I knew it would get me drunk beyond the stars. I was already feeling it by the time she returned with two more glasses.

"Here you are." She said, setting the glasses down.

"What is this called anyway."

"It's made from a plant called Drifting Lily." Ralla answered. "But here in the tavern we just call it a Buster."

"Hm." I said, downing the next glass. I could already feel my balance starting to shift. If I wasn't in this chair I'd probably be on the floor.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ralla scoffed. "I'm surprised you like it that much."

"Yeah." I said, washing my mouth with the lager she brought me.

The doors opened as another man entered the tavern. A man of moderate stature with a long coat and the scabbard of a sword strapped to his side. Overall he wasn't incredibly intimidating but he still commanded some degree of presence, certainly more than I would.

When he took a seat at one of the empty tables, the serving girl turned back to me. "I'll be back to you in a bit after I've finished with this gentleman."

I nodded in response as she left my table to attend to the new patron. I took another sip of my drink.

"Come down to us." The voices from beneath the floors whispered to me again. "Come back down to us."

Damn it. And just when thought that I had finally managed some peace and quiet. I kept my head down and took another long drink from my lager, nearly downing the entire thing. Fuck this life. Fuck this mind and body. I came to this tavern to do one thing and that's what I'll do.

"Come to us. Come to us. Come to us." A familiar voice reiterated.

"Shut up." I uttered out loud.

The floor screeched as the man slowly turned his chair to face me. "Something you want to say to me?"

I looked away, finishing my beverage without sayin anything.

"If you've got a problem with me then say it." He beckoned.

"I have no quarrel with you." I said, my fingers blushing around the empty glass of lager.

The man stood up and took a few steps towards me. "Out with it then."

"Sit down, coward." I warned. "Don't start things you can't finish." I felt the rage bubbling from the depths of my stomach. It took everything I had to push it down. I'm out of drink...

"Don't think you can just insult me..."

He placed a hand on my shoulder. Too late. I felt everything rise up in a second like a volcano erupting from a bottle. The glass shattered in my hands. I shoved his hand aside and immediately pierced him in the side of the neck with the broken glass. He winced in a second before toppling to the ground. I stood up from the chair, my shadow looming over his body.

The glass shard turned to ruby as I clenched it in my hand.

"Do it." The voice said. "Cross that line."

The shard fell out of my hand, landing on the floor with a thud. My emotions cooled as my gaze met his innocent eyes. The volcano of rage in my gut had transformed into an ocean of shame that was soon to pour out in rivers from eyes if I didn't leave now.

"Are you...okay?" Ralla asked. I felt her gaze lowering to my hand.

"Keep the change." I said, walking out of the tavern.

A single teardrop left from my eye. I wiped it away in an instant as I closed the door to the tavern.

"What do I need to do?" I asked.

"Go back." The voice instructed. "Return back to where it all started. We'll be waiting."

I let out a repressed sigh and began to walk.

***

I took the trail from the forest back to my home. I went into my house and removed one of the wooden planks from the floor and then reached to pull out the tiny box underneath.

The box contained my mother's heirloom. I had kept it with me long after she passed from this world. The day she had given the heirloom to me I started hearing the voices, the same day I had nearly killed my classmate for making fun of my teeth for being crooked at school. Ever since I've wanted to bury it for a long time and forget about it, but no matter how much I wanted to I could never bring myself to get rid of it. I had a feeling that I was about to find out why.

I returned to the quarry after retrieving the box. It wasn't long before the end and if I was to die it would be in the waters. I stripped down to my naked body again once I arrived, then opened the box and removed the heirloom from it. A silver pendant engraved with an intricate and swirlling design. I stared at it, mesmerized for several moments and then placed it over my neck before diving into the river.

The scenery changed and I was enveloped into darkness from the moment I passed through the waters. The glare of piercing sunlight from above the surface slowly faded to black, shrinking smaller and smaller into darkness. I sank like a stone into the oblivion. After enough time passed I didn't feel the waters around me any longer. I didn't feel anything really. Almost like the opposite experience of what the Buster drink had done to me. When I drank that it felt like everything rushing in all at once. Instead this time I simply felt numb to the point of mindlessness.

I emerged from the dark into a dim lit room with a throne at the other end of it. On the throne sat a mere sillouette of a woman. A shadow shaped in the form of a crown sat next to her.

"We're glad you can join us."

"Where am I?" I asked the lady on the throne.

"Where you belong." The shadow answered.

I threw my hands in defeat. "Well, I'm here now. Isn't that what you wanted all these years?"

"Not what we wanted." She said. "What you wanted."

"What do you mean me?"

The sillouette waved a finger at me. "Don't play coy. We all were there with you at the tavern. You enjoyed it."

"No." I responded as my mind recollected the image of the man on the ground. "I feel nothing but shame for what I did."

"If you were with us, you wouldn't have to feel shame. For anything." The shadow on the throne said. "Nobody expects virtue from a devil."

I fell silent for a long moment. The figure on the throne grabbed the crown and approached me. I looked up to her, the empty sillouette had transformed into a fully corporeal woman. She extended the crown to me. I turned away from it.

"You can free us from shame too. Long have we waited for our ruler." She said, then leaned in closer to whisper in my ear. "Long have I waited for my king."

I turned back to her, looking down at the crown and then towards the endless hordes of dark fiends before me, that stretched on forever.

"No shame." She said, placing the crown into my empty hand.

Taking in a deep breath I looked down at the crown in contemplation then placed it over my head. The moment it donned, the ocean of fiends bowed before me. I couldn't help the smile of satisfaction that was slowly stretching across my lips. The Queen's face mirrored it as I walked back to the other side of the room to take my seat at the throne.