Persephone Incarnate [Wattpad Prize 2014] | ✔️

{9} Anna

Elsewhere, a state away, Anna was thinking the same thing.

“Demeter, we’ve gone through at least four rooms in this hallway already, door hunting, and we haven’t found anything. This is just a wild goose chase. I can’t even imagine why Ava would think that some magical Greek object would be at our school,” She collapsed onto a nearby chair, wanting to quit searching.

Don’t be so impatient, Anna. Demeter’s voice, motherly and wise, resounded in her head. If Athena is right, this could be the very key to helping us now.

“Until an hour ago, it was Alexander,” she grumbled.

 

“I will do it – on a few conditions, though. I get some kind of promise on my life – I don’t know how safe or how dangerous it is down there. And second of all – this is a one-time thing. If I get Sophie out, she’s never going down there again. And finally – have you guys thought about whether she actually wants this? Whether she actually wants you to rescue her?”

Ava had responded rapidly and sharply, and so confident of herself that Anna had thought the deal was sealed. “We can have someone go in with you, but only as far as the palace. And as for Sophie,” she had paused, and looked thoughtful for a second, but then her face had quickly hardened, “I don’t think she wants to stay down there. She may hold some loyalties to Morgan, but she holds no such emotion to Hades. And it will be Hades who will be giving her trial. So it might be in her best interest to pass it.”

Alexander looked at Ava for a moment, but he then nodded. “Alright, then. But know that I will only rescue Sophie under those conditions you promised me. I’m only in this for her, and no one else.”

As soon as they had exited his house and stood, huddling outside, Ava had told them that they were going to have to go with Plan B. “Alexander has decided to help us, yes. But he’s too concerned about Sophie’s current happiness.”

“I don’t think she can be very happy there, but Alexander does have a point, Ava,” Abby had said to her sharply. “We only made this plan in case Sophie was unhappy in the Underworld. But you have to think about if she doesn’t feel sad down there. What if she wants to be down there?”

“But why?”

Anna shot a look at the two of them, and stepped in, not wanting tempers to flare. “Guys, let’s just get Plan B ready, because we might still need to use it. But we have no other way of communication with Sophie, so we don’t know whether she’s happy or not down there. So we have no choice but to go ahead with what we’ve planned.”

The two girls looked at each other, then Ava caved. “Alright, Abby. Let’s just do it this way.”

“I trust Ava a lot, possibly with my life, but we’re not really getting anywhere. Its five o’ clock now, and the trial, whatever it is, will start at six. And then we only have until six on Saturday to get Sophie out, or else she’s stuck there for half a year. Every year. Until she dies.” Anna said with a sigh.

Your friend isn’t the only one who we’re trying to rescue, the goddess said, her tone precariously close to dangerous.

Anna hastily changed the subject. The topic of Persephone was off-limits with Demeter – the goddess went off on a rage whenever the name was brought off, and she’d threatened to bring famine and crop failure to every farmer’s field across the United States when her daughter’s name was brought up in a conversation. Since this morning, Anna had also gotten the occasional urge to go kidnap every baby she saw. It was irrational and it didn’t make sense, and she would’ve gotten irritated at Demeter if she weren’t so scared of what the goddess could do.