"YOU KNOW, YOU NEVER TOLD me who Idas and Lyceneus were,” Melissa remarked. They were back on the road. According to the hopefully accurate maps, they were only an hour away from Quebec. Finally, finally, they could close the damn door to Hades, and go back to their ordinary lives. Well, not quite. Castor frowned as he remembered. They still had to buy a new apartment.
“They're not so interesting, why do you want to know?” Castor said.
“Apparently they contributed to your death, so I'm interested,” Melissa replied.
“Well, they were our cousins. Technically just my cousin by blood though. It's confusing. Anyway, so they were engaged to these two women, but since Pollux and I also fancied them, we kind of, well, carried them off,”
There was a steely glint in Melissa's eyes. “I see,” she said.
“We wouldn't do it again,” Castor assured her. “It was just... we were young and stupid, and it was ancient Greece. But, anyway, they were mad at us. For good reason, too. So when the four of us carried out a cattle raid, they decided to get back at us. They took all the cattle by winning a stupid contest. But Pollux and I didn't like that very much, so when the four of us were at a party, the two of us left early and released all of their cattle.”
Melissa frowned. “What does that have to do with you dying?”
“I'm getting there! So they ended up leaving the party early, and from like, I don't know, a few miles away, Lyceneus could see me hiding up in a tree keeping watch because he has super-vision or something. So the two of them crept up on me, and... well...”
Castor trailed off.
“What?” Melissa asked.
Castor didn't respond. In truth, he didn't particularly enjoy replaying the last few moments of his other life in his head. He knew that Pollux and he had stolen their wives, but he never thought that his cousins would kill him over that and some stupid cattle. And honestly, the only thing he really remembered was the betrayal and pain he'd felt.
“Stabbed me,” Castor finally said. “Idas stabbed me,”
“Oh. That sucks,” Melissa said awkwardly, not coming up with anything else to say.
There was a pause. “So... how are you still, you know, alive?”
Castor cleared his throat. “Pollux over there gave me half his immortality.”
“Half?”
Castor nodded. “Yeah, so we spent one day in Olympus, one in Hades. Hades days really sucked. Hades is so boring and awful, and spending your time in the fields of…” Castor trailed off as something hit him. Or rather, something nagged at the back of his head. What was it? Something about Idas and Lyceneus, with the underworld, and monsters blacker than Nyx...
And suddenly the details of the dream he had last night all came rushing back. “Oh my god,” Castor whispered.
“Castor?” Pollux asked.
“Idas and Lyceneus... they're behind these monster attacks,”
“Don't be stupid,” Pollux said, although Castor could see that he was turning the idea over in his head. “Why would they be doing that?”
“They're still sore about the cattle. And their wives. Think about it, Pollux. If your cousins had just stolen both your wives and your cattle and had caused your death and you had one thousand years in which to do nothing, how would you feel?”
“I wouldn't know,” Pollux said, shrugging.
Melissa, however, was nodding. “That makes sense. So, you think they're sending monsters after you?”
“It must be,” Castor said. “I had a dream and they were in it, ordering the monsters around. And when I was attacked by a hellhound, he did mention something about being under orders to kill me,”
“He did?” Pollux said, finally paying attention. “You never mentioned this to me!”
“I tried, Pollux, believe me,”
“Could've tried a little bit harder,” Pollux said, huffing.
There was a pause in which Castor drove, Melissa stared out the window, and all of them tried really hard to ignore Pollux.
“”Were you close as children?” Melissa asked, breaking the silence.
Castor shrugged off-handedly, trying to seem nonchalant. In truth, the four of them had been rather close. He was pretty sure that if he and Pollux hadn't just made that one stupid mistake, then the four of them would still be pretty close. But of course, that wasn't the case. Now Idas and Lyceneus were using any means possible to kill the two of them, while Castor was stuck with a lazy lump called Pollux and a nymph called Melissa while trying to survive.
I wonder if this'll become one of the new myths, Castor thought. It sure seemed like one.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
“We're here!” Pollux cheered. “Fucking finally!”
Castor wasn't feeling so optimistic. To be honest, they were probably a little (a lot) late. He parked the car in the first parking space he found, and the three of them got out in a hurry.
Castor shivered as the cold September air hit him. In New York it had been at lowest, fifty degrees. Here it was at least forty. “Goddamn it, I left my coat at home,”
“You left all of your clothes, Castor,” Melissa said from behind him.
It was true. They'd packed about three shirts and pants, but after the car crash, all of their stuff had been burned up. He hadn't changed in about two days, and his clothes were, frankly, disgusting.
“I'll buy more clothes on the way home. Let's just concentrate on closing the stupid entrance, okay? Actually, how did you know it was here anyway?”
“Oh, I had a... present.” Melissa said. “It was from Persephone, you know, queen of the underworld. It shows a picture of the view from the entrance to Hades. And it was showing a picture of the Chateau Frontenac.”
“The what?” Pollux asked.
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Of course you'd have no idea. Look, it's that building.” she said, pointing to a massive large brick building with gleaming green roof sitting on top of a hill.
“But,” Castor said, taking it in. “You can see that from anywhere!”
“Well, yeah, that's the problem.” Melissa said. “I mean, it looked pretty far away, and it also showed a little shop. I forget the name. So it's definitely somewhere near Old Quebec,”
“How the hell did you expect us to find it then?” Castor asked.
“Well...” Melissa trailed off. “I didn't.”
“Great. Just fantastic,” Castor sighed. “Well, why don't we head down there?”
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
The rest of the afternoon was spent searching and searching and endless searching. The three of them poked their heads through every little shop in there was, having rather loud conversations about hellhounds all the while, hoping that if there was an entrance to the underworld around, someone from the other side would hear them and crawl out of something.
“Hey look, a christmas shop!” Pollux said.
Castor looked up only to see a gold endorned sign above his head that read, “La Boutique du Noel” with a gold reindeer above it. “Since when could you read french?” he asked.
“I don't,” Pollux said. “But the whole shop is full of christmas trees, it was a little obvious,”
“Should we check?” Melissa asked, shivering.
“It's a christmas shop, why would the entrance to hades be here?” Castor asked. But Pollux had already gone inside, Melissa close behind.
Castor rolled his eyes and followed them. The whole store was full of winking strings of christmas lights and way too much evergreen for his taste.
“So, seen any hellhounds lately?” Castor asked Melissa wearily, for about the thousandth time. Their plan was that if any demigod or godly being heard them, they’d be approached. Unfortunately, many mortals also heard them, and decided that they were justifiably insane, causing many strange looks to be sent their way.
“Yeah, actually. A hellhound attacked me the other day!” Melissa replied, sounding just as exhausted. They walked in a slow circle through the store. “It was pretty scary, and the hellhound almost ate me! Then its hellhound friends came, and...”
“Hey!” Pollux said, popping up in front of the two of them. “Look up,”
They did so, Castor frowning. And then he froze. Right above the two of them was a little bunch of mistletoe.
“Oh no,” he said, shaking his head. “No, no, nope.” he tried to step away, but Pollux blocked his way. Melissa tried to walk the other way, but there was a woman in her way.
“Tu dois embrasser lui,” she said, smiling wickedly, as if she knew exactly how much Castor didn’t want to do this. And then, with a heavy french accent, “You have to kiss him, before I let you out,”
“Are you kidding me?” Castor groaned. “Pollux, did you really just team up with her? How? I thought you didn't speak french!”
Pollux just smiled. “Kiss her, Castor,”
Castor finally lowered his gaze to Melissa herself. Her face was carefully blank, as though she didn't want to give away any of what she was thinking. Castor was suddenly struck by how adorable the freckles on her nose were, and although she was tired and as messy as he was, she wasn't any less pretty than the Melissa he'd met.
Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. A girl that looked like Melissa was sure to be a good kisser; after all, it wasn't like she'd have trouble finding guys to kiss.
He raised an eyebrow at her, as if to say, “Do you want to?”
Melissa shrugged, as if to say, “Why not?”
Castor took a deep breath, and decided just not to think about it too much. Then he leaned forward, and their lips met.
He'd try many times after that to try to describe it. He couldn't.
All he could say was that, looking at the christmas trees everywhere and Pollux's gleeful expression, and feeling Melissa's lips on his, he was the happiest he had been in a while.
They broke apart, flushing. Pollux whooped, and that was when Castor punched him.
Pollux stumbled backwards, straight into a shelf, knocking a gigantic glass angel off balance. Castor watched in horror as the angel rocked back and forth, before falling off the shelf and shattering on the floor.
Pollux's eyes widened. “Oh fuck,”
The woman slowly turned towards the two of them, her eyes full of anger. “C’est une handmade antique! Tu dois payer!”
Castor gulped. “How much?” he asked, not even wanting to consider.
“No, I'll just use the mist!” Pollux hissed.
“That's not fair to her!” Castor yelled. “Don't!”
But Pollux had already done it. And the old woman looked at Castor, confused. “Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought you broke something... je suis très désolé,”
“Pollux!” Castor whirled around, determined to punch him again. But before he could, he was being dragged roughly out of the store. Pollux waited until the three of them had disappeared into a nearby furniture store called “La galarie du meuble” before releasing the mist.
They saw the old woman burst out of her store in a rage, looking around frantically for the person that had broken her precious angel.
“She looks like a hellhound,” Pollux said, laughing.
Then she caught sight of their faces. Her expression changed from angry to furious, and she stormed towards them.
Castor stumbled backwards. “Oh no, you've done it now, Pollux,” he said. “Holy fuck, holy fuck...”
“Here, hurry!” a voice behind them suddenly said. Castor whirled around. It was the shopkeeper of the store they were in, gesturing at a little closet under the stairs. Castor scrambled into it without a second thought, closely followed by Melissa and Pollux. The shopkeeper slammed the door shut. “Stay in there!” he hissed.
Castor suddenly noticed that he was very close to Melissa, and avoided her gaze at all costs.
They heard the woman storm into the store. “Où sont eux?” she demaned. “J'ai vu eux vont dans ton magasin.”
“De qui est-ce que tu dis?” the man replied.
“Ne mentis pas! Je sais tu sais où eux est,”
“Non, je ne sais pas,”
Castor listened on, frowning. It was all french. He shot a glance over at Pollux, who seemed to be understanding. He'd have to have Pollux teach him french later, and also tell him how he learned in the first place, because last time Castor checked, Pollux couldn't speak anything other than very poor english and ancient greek.
Finally, the woman left, leaving the three of them in the closet. A few moments later, the man opened the door to the closet. “You guys can come out,” he said in a perfect american accent.
They clambered out. “Why'd you help us?” Melissa asked as soon as the three of them were standing in open space again. “I mean, not that I'm ungrateful or anything, but... why?”
“I heard you talking about hellhounds,” he answered, no quite meeting her eyes. “I thought I'd help a fellow demigod out,”
Castor noticed the slight flush on his cheeks and the way that he couldn't make himself look Melissa in the eye and knew that there was a bit more to it than that.
“I'm not a demigod,” Castor and Melissa said at the same time. Castor looked at her and looked away, blushing.
“Pollux is though,” he said, jerking his thumb towards Pollux standing behind him.
“Interesting,” the man said, with an expression that told Castor that he didn't care in the slightest. “Well, I'm Pierre. What're you guys doing here?”
“Looking for the entrance to the underworld,” Pollux blurted out.
Castor shot him a glare. Of course Pollux would take the first chance to spill their secrets.
“Oh, I'm afraid that it isn't here anymore,” Pierre responded.
“Damn it!” Melissa groaned. “We missed it!”
“Yeah, it moved yesterday,” Pierre said, staring at a space right above Melissa's head. “It only stayed here for about a week or so,”
“Here? Was it in your shop?” Castor asked.
Pierre nodded. “It comes around here about once every few thousand years.”
“Have monsters been coming out of it?” Castor asked, confused. “Because, a lot of monsters have been attacking us recently,”
Pierre looked bewildered. “Monsters! Coming out? Il n'est pas possible. The entrance was the very closet I just had you hide in. No monsters could've come out without me seeing.”
“What if they came out at night?” Melissa asked.
Pierre paused. “Oh. I suppose then there may have been a few.”
Castor raised an eyebrow. This guy couldn't even tell if there were monsters breaking out of his store or not? “Well, do you know where it is now?”
Pierre thought for a moment. “I think it's in Fairbanks, Alaska,”
“You think?” Castor groaned. Alaska. Of course it had to be in Alaska, as far away as it could get.
“Lemme check,” Pierre said. He walked over to the check-out desk and pulled out a three-inch black binder, flipping through it. He traced his finger down the page. “Yup, Fairbanks, Alaska.” he said, before trying to snap the binder closed smartly. Tried being the key word. It was much too thick, and he ended up crushing his fingers instead.
“Right... so do you think we could make it before it moves again?” Melissa asked, watching Pierre cursing in french while shaking his fingers back and forth, his face tomato red.
“Uhm... yeah probably.” Pierre mumbled, shoving the binder back into a drawer. “It'll be there for a week, you'll be fine,”
“Okay, cool,” Melissa said. “We'll leave now. Thanks for the help,”
“Y-you're welcome,” Pierre stuttered. He flashed a nervous smile. “Anything for you. You guys, that is.”
Melissa winked at him, making him go so red in the face that Castor could have mistaken him for a stop sign. The three of them walked back out into the cold September snow.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
A/N: YES IT'S AN UPDATE YOU'RE NOT DREAMING!!! (if anyone is even reading this lol prob not)
i decided that i liked the idea of this story enough to actually work on finishing it. the writing is really really rough now that i've gone and read it completely through a year later, but i can always go back and fix it later. i think i might try to finish this for this year's nano, if i'm not too busy in november.
i think i have one more chapter previously written in my folders somewhere so i'll probably post that sometime within the next week. until then, bye!
(if you comment i'll love you forever pls & thx)