Haunted || Leo Valdez

84 - My Dad Gives Me Spoilers For the Future... Thanks, Dad :/

"Rebecca."

Gone. Henry and Anne were gone and it was all her fault.

"Rebecca."

Henry had been possessed and she hadn't noticed.

"Rebecca."

Anne had been stabbed and Rebecca hadn't seen possessed-Henry coming up behind her.

"Rebecca, I know you can hear me. Stop ignoring me."

Rebecca looked up to see her father standing before her, wearing a dark suit. To his right stood Thanatos, who was also dressed in a dark suit; his black wings were folded.

Hades sighed and knelt before her, gently wiping away the stream of tears coursing down her face. Rebecca was surprised by this sympathy. Hades had always been cold and short with her; why was he comforting her now?

"I know that this much loss has been hard on you," he said softly. "And I'm sorry to say that it won't be the last of it."

Rebecca hung her head and squeezed her eyes shut. Why couldn't she be dead? It would be so much better if she was dead. If she were dead, this terrible guilt, this heavy weight of grief wouldn't be on her shoulders now. She could be smiling and dancing with Henry and Anne in the Fields of Elysium right now if she were dead.

"I know, as a child of mine, Death is familiar, even expected," Hades said, watching as Thanatos knelt before Henry's mutilated body and scooped up his soul. Henry -- the real Henry, her friend -- smiled sadly at Rebecca before Thanatos crossed the room to where Anne's body lay and took her soul, too. Whereas Henry's soul looked like himself -- a teenage boy -- Anne's looked much older. She looked ancient. Rebecca supposed that's how old her soul was.

Thanatos nodded to Rebecca's father, spread his wings, and melted into the shadows.

"They will go to Elysium," Hades told Rebecca. "I judged them myself, and they are both worthy of it."

"You think that's any comfort?" Rebecca hissed.

Hades arched an eyebrow. "Would you rather have them thrown into the Fields of Punishment."

"They died and it's my fault!" Rebecca shouted, finally finding her voice. "I couldn't save them!"

"There are some deaths you cannot prevent, Rebecca," Hades said. "You of all people should know this. Your friends -- their time came, and there was nothing you could do about it. But that does not mean it was your fault."

"I killed Henry. That's my fault."

"I suppose there's truth to that. But you did not know he was possessed by the old king's spirit. You thought killing him was a good thing."

"That doesn't mean it actually was!" Rebecca roared. "But how would you know about morals when you're just--!"

"I'm getting tired of this, Rebecca!" Hades bellowed back. "If you carry on like this every time you experience a friend's death, their spirits won't cross into the Underworld! It took years for your sister's soul to find its way to the Underworld because you held onto her for so long! Your other friends who died in the Titan War had just as much trouble! Do you really want Anne Boleyn and Henry Tudor to be trapped in this world, unable to find their way to Elysium, just because you can't find it in yourself to let go?" Hades threw his hands up, sighing loudly, and lowered his voice. "I don't mean to be harsh, Daughter. But you only cause trouble by trying to keep things that are already long gone."

He waved his hands, removing Henry and Anne's bodies. Then he turned back to Rebecca.

"I never wanted your life to be filled with such loss, My Emerald," He whispered. "I am sorry it has gone on like this."