Hades' Halls

Love conquers all

It was as if Hades and Georgie were the only two in the room. He was baiting her, wanting her to react so he could lash out. Hades hated this girl, from her ready smile and unusual sense of humour right down to her heeled Doc Martin's which she thought helped disguise her hight. If he could get her to turn, anything was possible.

"Is that how you got your job?", Geogie asked, "murdering your way to the top."

For a brief spell, Hades' rage faded at this most unlikely of questions. That was not how things worked out in the wider cosmos. "Well, it wasn't exactly an application and interview affair", he offered. But you have taken us off topic."

"No, you took us off topic with your talk of corruption. We were discussing cults, not my fiery rise to power, neither of which are conversations I wish for but for now the former will do. So get on with it or we walk."

"Georgie, no", said Seb hopelessly. They were the first words he had uttered in Hades' presence since the reveal. "He will kill you". It was now Seb who gripped George's hand as though he could keep her in the world through desperation alone.

"Don't worry", said Georgie with a mocking look at Hades. "He doesn't have it in him".

Strangling sounds omitted from Hades. Hate was too weak a term, wish for her eternal suffering and extinction would be a better way to phrase it.

'Why do I do this to myself?' thought Georgie, glumly. She was convinced Hades would not kill her, but that did not mean the next five minutes were going to be pretty.

"What's the big deal about us joining a cult anyway", said Eloise, practically yelling. Georgie may have felt secure in her survival but that is not the way it looked from ever other angle.

Fixing his attention of the medicine student, Hades cocked a brow.

"Now I am disappointed Eloise", Hades said. "I expected less from you".

Eloise remained solid, staring down Hades like he was one of the low lives in her lectures who dared sit too close. She was beginning to see where Georgie got her bravery from, it was all down to honest stupidity and good intentions.

"Yeah, go on", piped up Lydia, refusing to leave Eloise alone in this battle against. "What's so bad about cults?"

"Cults", Hades spat the word. "Do you have no pride?"

Georgie wiped a spot of spittle from her new Aran sweater vest onto the table with a grimace.

"There is no honour in blindly following a few extremists with no imagination. All you get out of it are petty restraining orders, headaches, and strange outfits".

Advik shifted his bad containing his robes further under the table. Hades did not notice. He was too far gone by this point.

"Do not mistake me", said Hades with venom, "much wrongdoing is committed by groups under the pretence of a higher purpose, but there is so much more to villainy than that. You lot, you are all young and intelligent and, in some lights, some of you could be called vaguely attractive, the world is your oyster. What is more, you have me watching over you, ensuring no harm comes to you. The six of you could be great, but instead you ignore your talents and chose the easy path; the one swept every morning of leaves and foliage by an army of gardeners. This is not the path I wish you to take. Instead, you could have taken the darker route, the one filled with potholes and plagued by rodents and unexpected twists but ultimate leads to glory. Instead, you go and join a cult."

Hades finished breathlessly; his rant complete but his anger far from spent.

"So, cults are bad then?", said Georgie.