Hades

Chapter ten - The End of The Pier

Hades took me back to my house then left as soon as possible. Ron, Jon and my father were all at the hospital with my mother. I decided to clean up the house a bit since no one else was going to. I finished cleaning at around 10:30 pm. I was exhausted from the day's activities so I took a shower and decided to go to sleep. Of course, there was a dream.

It wasn't the old ladies cutting up the blue string anymore. This time I was in Hades' palace. Hades was sitting on his throne looking very weary. The fury was there with him.

"She is the one," the fury said.

"Yes, but I need more time; she doesn't love me."

"Ten days is all you get."

"I know, I know."

"You should have started looking a long time ago," the fury said. "All you lords, such procrastinators."

"I was waiting for the right one," Hades told her.

"And now that she has come, you will never have enough time," the fury said. "Such a pity. Always getting punished by your own brother."

"He does not punish me," Hades said. "These are the rules. It has been a hundred years since..."

"You are weary," the fury stated. "Rest, Lord Hades, for you are running out of time."

I woke up to find the sunlight filtering through my window blinds. It had been a hundred years since Persephone had died. They needed to find a replacement for her otherwise Hades was to be punished. They were talking about me. I was to be the replacement.

***

I caught the train to school as per usual. School was ending on the same day as my mother's death ironically. The train reached my stop and I closed 'The Great Gatsby' which was the book I was reading. I hopped off and began walking towards the school. Before I got there, a voice from one of the bushes said, "Clarice."

The source of the voice was Hades. Rage filled my thoughts. A thousand thoughts ran through my head all at the same time but then I remembered I could touch him. I gathered all my strength and pushed him on the chest with all my might. He stumbled backwards looking a little puzzled.

"You selfish good for nothing twat!" I cursed as I pounded my fists onto his chest. "You twisted, lying, yet mildly attractive, lord of the dead! Why won't you just leave me alone!?"

I stopped hitting him after a while and stepped back. I was breathing heavily. After a while Hades asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

I glared at him. "You owe me a very big explanation. After that, you owe me an apology."

***

I didn't go to school that day. It was the first time I had ever played truent. Instead, Hades teleported me to the seaside where we walked along the pier and he began to explain to me everything. Mostly, everything.

"I met Persephone a long time ago," He said with a hint of melencholy in his voice. "She grew up on a farm and one day when I was out collecting souls that were ready to be taken, I came across her. She was holding her father's hand as I took his life. She could see me, just like you can."

I had calmed down from before, but I was still a little mad at him.

"She asked me why I had to take her father. I told her it was because that was how life goes. So she hit me. No mortal had ever touched me before. It was a feeling I cannot explain. I needed more," He paused. "So I continued to visit her. I tried to help her and her mother Demeter with the heavy work on the farm. Of course I couldn't help with crops or livestock, because they died at my very touch."

The crashing sound of waves and the sqwuaking of seagulls seemed to grow quiet just for his story.

"One day Persephone asked if I would ever ask to marry her. I was stunned by that, and stopped visiting her for a while," He confessed. "But eventually I did ask her to marry me. I took her to the underworld and made her a small cottage like the one you saw in the memory. Her mother lived with her there for a while until it was her time to pass. I allowed Persephone to go wherever she wanted to apart from the abyss Tartarus. Except the evil place taunted her. It pleaded with her until finally, one day, she went to it. It poisoned her mind. There was no cure, only madness then death. Little did I know, my brother Zeus had set up a rule for us Lords. Once we had married once, we had to find a second wife within 100 years. That was when Athena and Artemis swore to be virgins forever."

"If you wanted me to be your 'wife'," I began sounding slightly bitter. "Why did you lie to me? Pretend that you were a poor stuttering boy?"

"I didn't mean to, it was just that I had been looking for the right girl for so long, I didn't expect you to see me," he stopped walking and looked at me. "I didn't expect you to even exist."

"Gee, thanks," I replied as I continued to keep walking.

He caught up to me looking slightly confused. Finally he realised where he went wrong. "I didn't mean it like that. I only meant that mortals can rarely ever see me. But after nearly a hundred years of searching, I find you."

"Real sweet," I muttered as I continued walking. Little did I know that the pier had ended, so I stepped straight into the sea.

"Help!" I screamed as salt water began to fill my mouth. The water was freezing and my coat was weighing me down. "Help! I can't swim!"

My head went under but I resurfaced again. These series of events repeated itself three more times then, just as I thought that my life was about to end, two strong arms wrapped around my waist. Then the world went blank.

***

The light returned and I found myself on the ground of a cabin, trying to cough up the water I swallowed. Hades stood over me, salt water dripping off his clothes and hair. I sat up.

"Are you alright?"

"Cold," I replied shivering.

He grabbed a blanket off one of the beds and handed it to me. "Put this around you."

Hades wrapped a blanket around himself and I did the same.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Somewhere in Canada," Hades replied.

"Canada?" I asked shocked. I had always wanted to come here ever since I was a child.

I decided I would enjoy my stay here. Even if it was with the Lord of the Dead, in the middle of who knows where.