When I came to, a woman was looking down at me. A strange looking woman, I might add. Sure, she looked normal - very dark skin, female form, protruding eyes, long curly auburn-gold hair - but there were things not quite so Human. First, her eyes were violet. And not just violet, they were flecked with gold. Her ears were pointed and, when she smiled, I saw her canines were longer than normal. She looked an awful lot like how the Fae are described in those YA novels.

"You're not dead," the woman said cheerfully.

A sat up. My head exploded with pain. "Yeah," I groaned. "Quite sure death isn't supposed to involve pain." She placed a hand on my head, murmuring under her breath. The pain vanished. "Thanks," I said. She nodded.

No longer in pain, I looked around.

I was on some sort of black ground beside a rushing grey river. The sky was black. The distance was black. Wherever this place was, it was dark. I focused on the woman again. She was glowing.

"Where . . ."

She cocked her head, then jumped upright. "Oh! Right! You're not dead! You don't know how it works yet!" She whacked the side of her head with a sideways smile. "Short version: you're in the Underworld. That's the River of Night. Follow it north and you'll reach the Gates of Night and eventually get to the Lake of Fire, after getting past all the demons, which is where the Hall of Judgment is--"

"Did you say Hall of Judgment?"

"Yeah. You know," she said, "the place where your ib is weighed and if it isn't the same as Ma'at it gets eaten by the most adorable little demon."

I fell back to the ground, rubbed my hands over my face, and looked at the woman. "Are you telling me this is the ancient Egyptian Underworld?"

"Yes," she said in a far too cheerful tone.

"So, the Egyptian Underworld . . . is real?"

"Yes." She begun counting on her fingers. "So is the Greco-Roman one, the Norse one, the Arab one, the Persian one, the Islamic one, the Indian one, the Muslim one, the Jewish one, the Catholic one, the Japanese one, the Chinese one, the-"

"What?"

The woman knelt in front of me. "That's how it works." She lowered her voice, looking around as though afraid of others overhearing. "What you believe in is where your soul goes. If you believe in an afterlife, you go to an afterlife. If you believe in reincarnation, you'll be reincarnated. If you believe in nothing, well . . ." She shrugged.

I stared. "But I don't believe in any of that bullshit. Sure, I see ghosts but I've never really believed in an afterlife."

The woman jumped to her feet, spreading her arms. "You're here. You must believe in this one."

She held out a hand. I took it - jumping at the cold. She pulled me to my feet.

"If I'm alive, how can I be in the Underworld?"

The woman laughed, her voice echoing through the darkness. "You got pulled in with by a whole bunch of spirits. Like that other girl. The one with the long hair and skirts."

My eyes widened. "You saw Naomie?"

"Naomie." She nodded. "Yes, she came through the rift - that tear you came through - but was pulled into a different afterlife. Nice place. She'll like it there. Lot's of green grass and coloured flowers and blue rivers and sunshine." The woman sighed longingly.

"There's no way I can save her, is there?"

The woman smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. She's already been here too long to go back. You've only got a few minutes yourself."

I took a step back, a sudden chill overtaking my body. "But I'm . . . I'm not . . . I never . . ."

The woman took my hand, patting it gently. "You can go back. It's just up the path behind you."

The path behind twisted and turned, climbing steadily up a hill to where a faint light, the only light aside from that coming from the woman, glowed.

"You have enough time to get back and still have minutes to spare."

I whipped around, preparing to yell at this woman for giving me the biggest fright of my life. Death. Whatever.

She held up a hand. "But before you do, I have something for you."

The woman unclasped something from around her neck. A golden ankh pendant. She reached behind me to clasp the chain. The charm was warm against my shirt.

"You will need this some day soon," she said. "It will help you when the time comes."

"And when will the time come?" I found myself asking.

She grinned. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough. Best get moving now, Aurora Diaz. Not long until the rift closes."

"Wait, how do you know my name?"

She bowed low at the waist. "I will see you again someday."

The woman vanished into the darkness.

I stared after her for a moment. Then, I turned to the pathway and begun the climb home.