Hades' Halls

Death

Hades went on like this, not panicking per se but definitely not at ease. When the group had told him they had a plan for evil mischief, Hades had been over the moon. He knew it would not be very good, but they were only young and just starting out and he did not mind. Progress was progress. When Georgie asked if he wanted to know what it was, Hades had hurriedly waved at them.

"No, no. Surprise me when you feel ready."

They had looked mildly confused for a moment then shrugged it off.

Hades had not worried about them deceiving him. He was Hades, for pity sake. No one would be idiotic enough to try and deceive him. But now he wished they had told him, just so he knew where they went every Saturday night when it seemed the rest of the world between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one were clubbing.

Not wishing to seem too anxious, Hades forced himself to stay in the living room until he heard a key in the lock.

"You're back early", Hades said, the moment the door opened.

"And good evening to you Hades", Georgie said, strolling past him.

"No, you don't". Hades grabbed Georgie by the scruff and hauled her back with the others, using his body to block their path upstairs.

"Steady on", said Georgie, tripping backwards.

Seb steadied her with a hand round her arm. He stared daggers at Hades. "Are you alright?", he asked Georgie quietly.

"Yes all good", Georgie replied as she straightening her jumper. "Although, if you could let the circulation to my arm start again that would be grand."

Seb hurriedly let go of Georgie's arm. Not moving from her side, he clenched his fists and eyed up Hades like the world's most loyal guard dog.

Out of all of them, Seb was the one most uneased by Hades. Since that fateful day when Hades had revealed himself by nearly blowing them all to bits, Seb had not spoken to Hades. He did not stand up for the other students as once he had, the only interaction shared between him and the devil consisting of hopeful smiles on the part of Hades and death stares from Seb. When his friends asked him about it, Seb would brushed it aside with a sharp word or a grunt and they soon learnt not to bother.

Instead, they had developed a two-part plan in case Seb ever went for Hades' throat. Step 1, knock Seb to the ground. Set 2, get the hell out of there. Standing in the hallway, Georgie got ready to give the signal to begin Step 1.

"Touching, touching", said Hades smoothly. "Now why are you early. And where on Earth is Mats?" Hades eyes darted between the students.

Georgie thought she caught a touch of concern in Hades' voice as he asked for the whereabouts of the Norwegian lad. But that would be like saying a colony of fogs had decided to up sticks and take to the skies in flight. Completely against nature.

"He's ill", said Eloise. "Headache."

"Oh", said Hades. "Had he taken any medication?"

Eloise actually took a step back. "How the hell should I know?"

Hades smiled. "Ah, Eloise. You shall go far."

Eloise grimaced.

"Now then", said Hades, losing his benevolent smile. "Do I have to ask again? I suppose I must for you are only humans and your brains are easily addled. Why are you early?"

Georgie raised a finger, mouth open to retort. Then realised it was not worth the effort. Looking at the others to gain their permission, she nodded at them in a way only comrades in suffering do as if to say 'Here we go chaps, may as well pour the alcohol onto the wound now before waiting until it festers'.

"We have decided to quit," she began.

As though someone had pressed the pause button, Hades ceased to move. Not even his chest moved with the rise and fall of breath. The sour stench of burnt toast drowned the hallway, making it difficult to breathe.

Hastily, Georgie waved a hand. "No, nothing like that. We are still intent in transforming ourselves into your little minions of fiendishness, albeit grudgingly. So, take some deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth and stop trying to intimidate us, it will only leave you with another decorating bill."

Hades took a breath like a child being forced to eat broccoli. He could not help it though. It was all that yoga he had been doing, blast it. If someone says breath in a tranquil voice than his body was going to do it dammit.

Visibly calm, or at least visibly not about to blow the house up, Hades gestured to Georgie to proceed.

"Right, now don't go getting your velvet underwear in a twist, but we have decided that what we were doing just wasn't working. It was not fulfilling and meant that we always lost our Saturday evenings, aka Strictly Come Dancing (Footnote 1). So we decided unanimously to call it a night and change to another devilish project. We have not come to one yet but never fear, we have already had some ideas and all we need is a couple of nights to think on it. After that, we shall begin again and prove to be even more depraved than you believed us capable. So will you please let us pass. Some of us have mathematic problems to solve."

The four others agreed with Georgie wholeheartedly. Not about the maths, most of them would rather gouge out their own eyeball with a teaspoon than do calculations or formulars or whatever the hell engineers did (Footnote 2), but with what she said about getting a new plan with all haste.

Hades gnashed his teeth together quietly. Georgie waited on tender hooks, hoping her words had been enough to convince Beelzebub. If they had not, they were going to be in a lot of trouble very quickly. Georgie was suddenly glad Mats was not there. There would be someone left to tell the story.

After what felt like an age, Hades flicked his eyes to stare into theirs one by one, as though trying to read what was imprinted on their hearts. Trying to discern if they spoke truth or lies.

Apparently finding nothing, he nodded curtly. "My underwear is not made of velvet. Its silk."

Advik had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

"Fine", Hades continued. "That is fair enough. I want you to go to hell, but there's no reason why you should suffer for it. There is nothing worse than a job you hate. You may go." Hades stepped out of their way

Collectively, the group sighed in relief. They had got away with it.

"Just out of curiosity", Hades said as they began to file up the stairs, Georgie leading the way. "What were you doing every Saturday night?"

"We were part of a cult", said Advik.

Darkness descended on the hallway. It was as though a member of the universes' lighting crew had accidently knocked a button while reaching for their coffee and was now in an absolute state as they searched for the one to bring the lights back on so the performers did not fall off the stage onto the orchestra. The one spotlight remaining was the fiery glow of Hades, eyes burning as coals while his body pulsated a barley contained inferno.

'Oh dear', thought Georgie. 'Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. We are in deep, deep trouble. How am I going to get us out of this one? Think girl, think.'

"Dining Room. Now." Hades' voice thrummed like a bass drum, brokering no argument.

Georgie was still trying to figer a way to save them all from impending death as she followed Seb down the stairs and into the dinning room.

'At least we won't go to Hell if we die now', she thought, trying to look on the bright side. This all changed when she noticed Seb trembling. Taking his hand firmly so he knew she was there, Georgie led them around the table, placing herself on the seat closest to Hades. 'Sod that', she said to herself. 'No one is dying today.'

1. Georgie was not bitter about this fact.

2. Seriously, who knows?