Hellscape

Chapter 3: The Threaded Chute

    Hades had always been an impossible enigma. There was not a soul in the Underworld that truly knew him. The underlings had all heard the stories, of course, straight from the Prince of Darkness himself — that Hades is the beloved son of Titans and the favorite brother amongst the Gods, who was sent to rule over the Underworld. He is a strong and powerful being with extraordinary gifts, but no one could claim that the beings he spoke of possessed the same array of emotions that the humans did.

    But Hades is unique. He is revered as a deity amongst the underlings, but above all else he is a man. A man that fell in love with a woman, a man that shed a tear upon hearing his daughter's first cry, a man that would raze anything and anyone that dared to harm his girls — which made the order to capture and poison his only child to be so shocking. But as Melinoe laid in her room, ankles tethered to the floor with rusted chains and Hydra venom slowly leaving her system, it is hard to believe that he could be capable of such things.

    Groggy and parched, Mel awakens, sitting up and choking on her own dried tongue.

    "Ah, Darling," a deep and rugged voice booms from the corner of her bedroom. Her eyebrows stitch together as a sharp ache circles inside her head. She blinks her heavy lids, trying to find him but her father's familiar robust tone echoes around her, making it difficult to pinpoint his exact whereabouts in her room. "You're finally awake. I had begun to worry that they may have used too much, that you weren't strong enough to fight the venom."

    Through cracked lips she scoffs, "you drugged me."

    In the furthest darkest recess of her room, the faint silhouette of an angelic looking man emerges from the shadows. With his short hair, slightly crooked nose, and smooth light skin, no resemblance could be made between them. But if you looked hard enough and studied each of their faces closely, you would see his freckles speckled across her cheekbones, the warmth of her deep brown eyes in his, and the paralleled peak of their full lips.

    He sits cautiously at the foot of her bed, his hand warily placed near her bare feet. He licks his full lips and shakes his head, "no, no, no, my Dear. I did no such thing."

    Mel curls her knees up to her chest, recoiling from his touch. The chains clang and rattle on the wooden floor and against the metal bed frame, as her ankles pull in close to her body. She scowls at him, mostly in disbelief but also in betrayal. She coughs, her voice raspy as she snarls, "no, you sent your lackeys to do it, which is exactly the same thing."

    Violent coughs explode from her chest, racking her body. Mel clutches her throat that begs and burns for hydration, but as his daughter suffers in front of him, Hades sits back solemnly on the bed, folding his hands in his lap and drawing his brows together. The door on the far wall opens and through it emerges a beautiful woman, her warm glowing brown skin and dark curly hair matching Melinoe's exactly.

    "My sweet, precious flower, you're awake!" She coos, dancing barefoot around the room. Her flowing dress swings graciously around her ankles, twirling across the wooden floor at Melinoe's bedside as she places a glass of soft pink liquid in her daughter's hand. Her green eyes light with concern as Mel coughs again and she carefully pats her on the back. "Drink, drink, my delicate daisy."

    Without hesitation, Mel brings the glass to her lips, letting the pink drink soothe her vocal chords. Her eyes flutter shut and she licks her lips as she finishes the contents and holds the cool glass against her bottom lip with a satisfied sigh.

    "Seph," Hades whines, seeking pity from his wife. "She's mad at me."

    Persephone drops her hand from Mel's back as she turns sharply to face her husband. She shoots daggers at him as her innocent and loving nature diminishes and is quickly replaced with a protective and volatile one. She snarls, "of course she is! How could she not be?"