Borderland Crossing

I knew it was dangerous, and yes, I knew if I went I might never return. However... to become a goddess? Immortality, super powers, never needing to wear clothes again, a killer body if I wanted one, fulfillment of desires I never even knew I had? OF COURSE! However... saying goodbye to everyone and everything: my coworkers at the bar, completion of my Comparative Mythologies degree, my mom and sister, my friends, and the pleasures of this world, such as... Actually, I couldn't think of any pleasures I had now that I wouldn't have there. So, okay, yes... but... isn't the Underworld another word for Hell?

Obviously I'd have to think this over very carefully, which I did (haha) one night after working my way through a bottle of rum with my best friend, Sheila, who was also my sometime lover. We rolled around topless in our thong panties on the floor of her studio apartment, rubbing our ample breasts on each other and slipping our hands inside each other's underwear to finger our shaved vulvas. We got so drunk... I got so drunk... and that's probably what settled the issue. I'm guessing though, because, honestly, I can't remember much of that night. Just that I came to, still in just my panties, on a train that, according to the electronic screen above the sliding doors, was taking me to... the Borderland? And at an incredible speed. So fast, in fact, that all I could see from the windows was a grayish green blur that made me think the train was passing through some kind of orchard or forest.

I passed out again, and this time when I opened my eyes the train was slowing down. It was creaking and groaning, and what little light there was outside the windows was filling the long narrow space where I sat. I ran my hands through my hair and then rubbed my face. With a lurch, the train stopped. There was a pause and then a hiss as the doors slid open and I got to my feet.

The first thing I did after getting off the train was take off my soiled panties and toss them into the garbage receptacle on the train station's platform. Then, completely naked, I climbed the wide stairs leading from the platform to the street, or whatever was out there. I was relieved to see there were no other people around, but it was no surprise. This wasn't exactly Hawaii or Italy or any other destination anyone other than me was likely to visit. Still, I was excited, and more than a little nervous as I stepped out into the warm sunlight and gave my eyes a moment to adjust.

I took in my surroundings, though there wasn't much to see. I was standing in a wide valley or plain of mostly dirt. Strange trees, twisted and scrawny, stood out here and there like pretzels set on their sides. On top of each tree, a gigantic pink flower lay open to the sky in full bloom. What appeared to be flat mud huts with no roofs were scattered around in no apparent pattern as if they were seeds a giant had randomly scattered.

There was a smell in the air that was really turning me on; a mixture of a very deep and dark rose scent, musk, and a tinge of... ammonia? Without even realizing it, I was slowly running my palms up and down my inner thighs. I was very wet and my clit was a hard knob showing itself prominently as I began walking toward the closest hut. The smell got stronger as I walked and the more I walked, the more my arousal increased and, the more it increased, the closer I was to orgasming. Each step teased my ever-hardening clit until finally a dam broke and wave after wave of pleasure shook my body to the ground where I knelt in the dirt, quaking and spasming.

When I recovered, I looked down and saw I was kneeling near a stone with this inscription:

"Welcome to the Borderland. This is your last stop before the Underworld. Because you have come here, this place is exclusively for you. The people you meet here, and everything you experience is all based on what is deep inside of you. Others are here as well but you will never encounter each other because each of you experience your own Borderland and, if you go on, will experience your own Underworld, as well."

Stunned, and more than a little confused, I stood up and began to walk again. For the next few hours, I explored my new home and, eventually, I moved into one of the unoccupied huts which I soon shared with three other women. I also began meeting my neighbors. Everyone there was young and female, in their twenties or thirties, barefoot and dressed simply in plain black dresses, most of them faded and threadbare. I was the only one naked, but no one seemed to mind or care. It was never mentioned. Being the only one naked, though, and the distinctive smell that lingered everywhere, kept me in a constant state of arousal. The sight of my wetness and swollen labia and clit seemed to arouse my roommates and neighbors, as well, and all of them took every opportunity to finger me or lick me to orgasm, though only a couple of neighbors ever got naked too and allowed me to reciprocate.

I don't know how long I stayed in the Borderland, but it seemed like years. I never needed or craved food or sleep there, and I missed neither. Even water was unnecessary. I learned that the Borderland was the place to make the final decision about where to go. While there, you were immortal and unchanging in appearance. Anyone could leave at anytime, however, and either go back to the waking world, losing their immortality, or go on past the last hut and enter into the Underworld. If you chose the Underworld, you could never return to the Borderland or the waking world. How long you had to decide varied, but when your time was about to run out, you knew and, hopefully made your decision if you hadn't already.

The Borderland was spacious and sprawling, with probably thousands of huts, and walking across it would take about a week. No one from my region had ever done that, so all we knew were second hand accounts. There were conflicting reports of a river you had to cross, some said it was actually a lake or a sea, some said there was no water there at all, and some said you had to pass through fire. Also, I heard stories of ghosts and other spirits that awaited you, some benevolent, and others cruel.

I didn't think much about my final decision. I was too happy in the here and now to really care about leaving for either place. One day, however, I got word that if I wanted to commit to the Underworld, I would need to leave in the next couple of days to make the journey. Otherwise, I would need to return to my prior life. I could no longer imagine returning to that, so the next day I began my journey.

I had come there with nothing and I left with nothing. There were no paths anywhere, and none were needed. I just kept walking in the same direction across the vast expanse of dirt. As I walked, I sweated profusely, and my body glistened in the moist heat. After several days of walking day and night, I saw the last hut. Beyond that, there was nothing but more flat dirt and clouds of dust.

After passing the last hut, I noticed a change in the ground. It was becoming darker and softer, almost like sand at times. The air too was changing, becoming increasingly hazy. The sunlight was dimming, and after a few more days I was walking in a kind of twilight. Had I crossed over? I couldn't be sure, but I had the sense that, if I chose, I could still turn around and go back. Not that I would, though.

And then... a tightness as my clit hardened; a gushing of my juices down my thighs, turning the ground to mud; my toes curling; my legs and tummy quaking; my eyes rolling back... wave after wave after wave... no letting up. I was lost, slammed from one swell to the next, on and on and on, the intensity was almost too much... almost. My core was the epicenter and every cell in my body was spinning, twirling, colliding in this never-ending earthquake.

Behind my eyes, lines became circles, circles became hexagons, hexagons became stars, stars became dragons. Dragons expanded and contracted like breath. Fire from their mouths and eyes shot into me, burning me from within. And then a liquid image of myself, rippling and dancing down a path I never knew existed, pulled me along with invisible strings. I didn't know what I was seeing now, I saw nothing, everything all at once, as I slowly dissolved, a tingling all over, my body as it poured away like flour spilling from a bag in the wind. A door up ahead, getting closer, slowly opening, I screamed, laughed, cried, both alive and dead, becoming EVERYTHING animals, plants, stars, indistinct shapes shooting both horror and ecstasy through my trembling form as my eyes vibrated and I wanted to see more but I didn't want to see more, but I saw more, and then...

My eyes opened. All was calm. I was back in... what? reality? I wasn't really in it, or I should say I was but I was in many other places as well, all the places we call the Underworld. And it's all reality. Now a goddess, I would live forever. I was looking down at everything from above. I saw the train that long ago had taken me to the Borderland. I watched it winding its way between the trees like a caterpillar eating its way through leaves, soon to enter its cocoon and emerge as a butterfly. Then, I closed my eyes and simply hovered, enjoying the sun as it warmed every inch of my body. A steady breeze rocked me slightly from side to side as I spun myself slowly in a full circle. Then, I opened my eyes and, ever so gently, I descended.