Untouched
All Rights Reserved
© 2015 Luna Black
~*~
Chaos.
Chaos broke out everywhere in the castle. Aphrodite and Hera’s helpers ran around, trying to add the final touches as gods began to enter the garden. The after party would be held inside the castle, in the grand dining room that Ariel didn’t even know exist.
All through this chaotic time, she was sitting in front of a vanity mirror, watching as Aphrodite twisted her hair in braids and around her head.
When the Goddess first began the hairstyle, Ariel wasn’t very enthusiastic; she thought it was strange, but the final look was breath-taking. She looked beautiful, like one of their own; a goddess.
Aphrodite added an olive-leaves crown on her head and stepped back to admire her work. She grinned at Ariel through the mirror and said, “So? Do you like it?”
“Yes!” She gushed, tilting her head to look at the intricate braids circling her head. “It’s so pretty! At first I didn’t really like it, but the final result is definitely gorgeous.”
“Girl,” she narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on Ariel’s shoulders, “this was like a girl going through puberty. At first she’s ugly and everyone makes fun of her, but then I come in and voila! I make her so drop dead gorgeous that they’re all grovelling at her feet. Of course, there’s a lot of those, so for some it takes longer than others.”
Ariel laughed, standing up when Athena entered the room with a large white bag. She placed it on the bed, grinning at them as she locked the door behind her.
“It took me all night to figure out what colour I wanted your gown to be…and I realised that gold looks beautiful on you. I know, I know,” she waved her hand in the air, “the traditional colour is white; but you’re not a virgin and we all know that.”
Aphrodite snorted, shaking her head and Ariel blushed, flashing her a nervous grin. “Hey, sex is good! But you wouldn’t know…being a virgin and all.”
“I like being a virgin, thank you very much!” Athena snapped her fingers in a sassy manner, making Ariel laugh and she sighed. “But whatever. So! I know it’s a bit cheesy and cliché and what not, but I figured; ever since you came into Hades’ life you’ve brought him light. You’re literally the light to his darkness, so why not show you off today that way?”
She held the dress up in her arms, slowly unzipping it and Ariel and Aphrodite gasped in utter awe as the dress slowly cascaded out of the bag. It seemed like gold was pouring from the bag, glittering and glowing.
“This is beautiful, Athena!”
She blushed, handing her the dress and said, “Here! Try it on. Hera thought it was gorgeous and that you would look beautiful in it. She was a little mad that she couldn’t come and help you get ready, but she can’t leave the servants alone because she’s gone a little crazy.”
“Of course, Hera would turn into a bridezilla,” Aphrodite muttered as she unzipped the dress and waited for Ariel to unwrap her robe.
Ariel grabbed the dress gently; as if she were afraid it would break and with the help of Athena stepped in the dress. It slid up her body softly, tickling her smooth skin like smooth silk. Athena zipped the dress in the back, waiting for Ariel to adjust her breasts and they looked at her through the mirror.
The dress hugged her curves naturally, adding a sensual look to her elegance and the breast padding made her breasts seem full and sturdy. Aphrodite handed her a pearl necklace along with pearl studs and she let out a giggle as she put them on.
The excitement coursing through her body was tremendous; she was ready to run down the aisle and kiss Hades before anyone could tell them.
“You look fantastic, Ariel!” Aphrodite gushed, “I don’t know how Hades is going to keep his hands off you for today!”
Ariel giggled, smacking her lips together after she added ruby red coloured lip stick and the goddess of beauty motioned for her to sit down again. She closed her eyes as Aphrodite added the final touches to her make-up and waited nervously for Hermes to pick her up.
Since he was one of the gods that had gotten really close to her, he was the one walking her down to Hades.
The doors flew open and Hermes walked in. He seemed nervous and like he was ready to drop bad news.
“Hermes,” Athena frowned, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Hades,” Hermes gulped, avoiding her confused stare.
“What’s wrong with him?” she frowned.
“He’s not at the altar.”
Ariel raised her eyebrows, feeling her heart beating quickly inside her chest and she bit her bottom lip. “Do you know where he is?”
Hermes nodded, nodding his head towards the door and said, “He’s in his room, I tried getting him to leave, but he’s not having it.”
Ariel sighed, picking her dress skirts up and started walking towards his room. “I’ll talk to him.” Hermes opened his mouth to say something else, but thought better of it and continued watching out the door.
He didn’t expect so many gods would show up to the ceremony, but Hades was getting married. After Persephone left him it didn’t seem like he would be looking at another goddess let alone a mortal woman.
Hermes was happy for him; he finally seemed happy with someone and was more relaxed after Ariel warmed up to him. Now he was just worried that Hades would find a way to fuck it all up.
“Hades?” Ariel knocked lightly on the door, feeling her emotions go frenetic and bit her bottom lip nervously. “Are you alright?”
“Go away,” he responded in a slur, his voice bitter and unhappy.
She frowned, jiggling the door handle and a little louder said, “Hades? Come on, honey, open up. Tell me what’s wrong.”
After a couple of minutes, she thought he was ignoring her; he was angry and refused to speak, but the door slowly opened and she gasped. Hades was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the foot of the bed and he was drinking from a bottle of alcohol.
Ariel frowned, slowly entering the room and stood before him. “Hades?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, fear crawling up her spine as she took in his drunken state. “Hades, honey, what’s wrong?”
“Everything,” he chuckled bitterly, “everything is wrong.”
She knelt before him, slowly taking the bottle from his iron-grip and caressed his face softly. She tucked his soft hair behind his ears, making him close his eyes at her feather-like touch. She was treating him like he was delicate and would crumble beneath her touch and he didn’t like it.
He didn’t deserve it.
“Stop,” he croaked, holding her hands away from him.
Ariel nodded, placing her hands on her lap and whispered, “What’s wrong, Aidon?”
“Don’t call me that,” he bit out, his bloodshot eyes glaring at her forcefully.
She gulped back the urge to fight him, but that wouldn’t exactly be the best way to begin their married life. Neither was a drunk husband, but there must’ve been a reason. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“I already did,” he snapped, sliding his hand down his face and hissed, “everything is wrong; we are wrong.”
She blinked slowly, feeling taken aback and stood up. “What the hell does ‘everything’ mean then?!”
Hades stood up, standing before her and looked down at her as he towered over her. His eyes were red, as if he had spent the night crying, but it could not be, because he was too busy making love to her to even think about crying.
He walked over to the window, pulling the curtain back to glance down at the hundreds of gods filling his garden. He clenched his jaw, growing irate and turned back to Ariel. “Let me ask you something, Ariel.”
She nodded, watching him carefully as he walked over to stand in front of her again.
“Can you still kill anything you touch?”
Ariel frowned, glancing down at her hands, which were covered in the golden gloves and said, “Y-yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with everything!” He snapped, running his fingers through his unruly hair, “Do you remember how it breaks? How the curse breaks?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, “true love.”
“Then why,” he hissed, “are you still able to kill things with your hands?”
“I-I don’t,” she shook her head, feeling dizzy with confusion, “I don’t understand what you mean.”
Hades threw his hand in the air for emphasis and said, “What we have isn’t true love, Ariel! If it had been true love, you wouldn’t be cursed still! What we have isn’t real; there must’ve been a mistake. The Fates are probably fucking with us and getting a kick out of this whole ordeal.”
“Hades,” she whispered, trying not to let his words get to her, “of course it’s real! I can’t fake what I feel for you and I certainly hope that neither can you!”
“No, I can’t,” he chuckled humourlessly, “but this can all be an illusion. The feelings that we thought we had for each other can be fake. This is probably just a game to all the gods. They’re probably all laughing down there at my idiocy.”
“Hades,” her eyes watered as she struggled to keep herself together when his words were hitting all the wrong places, “listen to me; I love you. My love for you isn’t fake or an illusion. If you don’t want to get married now, we don’t have to! I just thought that’s what you wanted because-”
“That’s not the issue!” He cried out, his eyes flashing an ethereal bright blue, “Why hasn’t your fucking curse ended if what I feel for you is real?! Hecate clearly said that your curse could only be broken by true love! If I can’t break the fucking curse then what does that make my feelings for you?!”
Her bottom lip trembled and soon, her vision was blurred by tears. She had never felt so vulnerable in her entire life. What Hades said sounded reasonable, but maybe it could’ve been broken a different way.
What she felt for him wasn’t a game or fake, as he was desperately trying to get her to see. She loved him, she really did. She had never felt such an emotion for someone, not even for Derick and she had willingly snuck out of her house to be with him.
“Hades,” she whispered, her voice breaking with emotion as she stepped forward to touch him, “please tell me this is an illusion. Those spirit things are roaming the castle again and I’m imagining all of this.”
“It’s not,” he snapped, recoiling from her touch, “it’s the real thing, Ariel. Why would you want to get married to me when we’re not going to love each other? You’re probably going to get bored of us like Persephone did and find pleasure amongst the other gods. Like you did with Ares.”
She slapped him, loud and forceful, leaving behind her handprint, bright and red. Hades growled, obviously not pleased with her disrespect, but she no longer care. He didn’t need to right out say what he meant; he was calling her a whore.
“You clearly don’t know me very well, Hades. Yeah, I kissed Ares and it was a mistake. I’m sorry for that, but you weren’t paying attention to me. It was stupid of my part to do so, but that doesn’t make me a whore.”
He snorted, gritting his teeth. “You sound just like Persephone before she left me. Always blaming it on me because you’re not woman enough to admit it was your fault.”
“I admitted it was my fault!” She cried out, no longer feeling broken by his words; now she felt irate. “And I am nothing like Persephone; I didn’t sleep with Ares or any of the other gods and I truly did love you.”
Ariel angrily wiped away a single teardrop that slid down her cheek and yanked her gloves off. She took the ring off her finger, tracing the ridges delicately and then looked at him with blurred eyes. “I guess I do have something in common with her.” She placed the ring on the bed, bowing her head as she stood before him.
“We both left you. Good bye, Hades.” She opened the door, slamming it behind and walked towards the throne room.
As soon as Aphrodite saw her broken expression, she widened her eyes and stomped over to her. “What the hell did he do?! What did he do?!”
Ariel forced a smile out, walking towards the grand obsidian doors and whispered, “It just wasn’t meant to be.”
Hermes widened his eyes, staring at Athena and Aphrodite with a confused look as she pushed the doors opened and all the gods turned to look at her simultaneously.
“Hello,” Ariel spoke loudly and confidently, putting up a strong front, “welcome to the Underworld. I thank you all so much for coming today to join King Hades’ and I for this…day, but I bring forth unhappy news.”
A quiet wave of mutters broke through and she inhaled exasperatedly, “Hades and I finished our engagement today. There will not be a wedding today or any day for that matter between the God and I. I am truly sorry for having to interrupt your daily doings for this, but we have both decided that it is for the best. A couple cannot be united in marriage if there is no love—and Hades made it clear that what we have isn’t love.”
“That is a bunch of bullshit!” Eros stood up, stalking over to her. “If what you two have isn’t love then I will gladly resign from my fucking position! What the hell got into him?!”
Ariel shrugged, playing with her fingers nervously. “As you all know, I am cursed. Whatever I touch dies. However, the curse can be broken by true love. Hades feels that because my curse isn’t broken, we do not love each other.”
“I’ll show him what the fuck love is,” Eros growled out, walking past her and slammed the grand doors behind him.
She sighed, not having the strength to fight against it and turned back to the gods. “Again, I am so sorry for bringing you out here for nothing. I…don’t have anything else to say, so good bye and thank you for your patience. Also,” she looked at Zeus, who was holding Hera back from running up to beat some sense into Hades, “you do not have to worry about me.”
“My curse will not be used against any of you, no matter what I have to do; no harm will come to you. So please, respect my decision,” she looked them all in the eye, “I will be returning back to my home in New York and we will never have to see each other again.”
They all watched as Ariel picked her golden skirts up and walked over to the castle, holding her head up high like a true Queen would. Hades truly was blind; he more than loved Ariel and the feelings were reciprocated.
“Ariel,” Athena whispered as if she were afraid that the girl would collapse, “I am so sorry. I know you were-”
“It’s not your fault,” she interjected, “so don’t apologise. Now,” she turned to Hermes, “I would really appreciate it if you could take me home. I’ll just change out of this and meet you here?”
“Ariel,” he sighed, “don’t leave. Hades is probably feeling nervous, he doesn’t-”
“Please stop,” she whispered, not having the strength left in her to cry. She could not cry even if she wanted to, it was as if her body couldn’t produce tears for her to release the excruciating pain her heart was enduring.
It was like a pressure was growing in her chest, pushing her heart to the extent of shattering it. She wouldn’t be surprised if thin lines were the only thing holding it together. Her brain had stopped every other emotion and simply placed tired in her mind. She just wanted to sleep and not wake up for the next millennia.
“It’s for the best,” she cleared her throat, “I don’t think I can be here any longer after today. I just want to go back home and forget all of this was about to happen. You guys have a god for that, don’t you? A god to erase memories? That could be my goodbye present…?”
“Absolutely not,” Aphrodite spat, “you are not forgetting me! And you’re not going anywhere; we’re going to make Hades’ life a living hell.”
Ariel cracked a smile, looking at the three gods before her and held herself back from hugging them. “Please stop, guys. I want this and if you guys don’t take me, I’ll find a way to get myself there.”
Athena sighed, shaking her head and said, “This is absolutely crazy. I can’t believe that one minute we were all excited about this damn wedding and now we’re saying goodbye to you.”
“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be,” she shrugged, turning back to Hermes and said, “I’m going to change. Wait for me here.” He nodded, feeling sorry that she had to endure the pain she was feeling.
Ariel quickly walked to the room where she slept, not wanting to call it hers for it never was. Even Hades’ heart wasn’t hers. She stepped out of the gorgeous dress, carefully placing it on the bed as well as the sandals.
She walked over to the drawers, where she kept the black dress she wore the night Hermes brought her to the Underworld and pulled it on. She wanted nothing of Hades, not even the necklaces or clothes he gifted her.
Since she had left her flats back in her apartment, she left barefoot. Ariel looked at herself in the mirror, feeling in awe at how beautiful Aphrodite managed to make her look like. She would have truly made a beautiful bride.
The black necklace Hades had given her when they first went to party with the gods sat in the jewellery box and she lightly traced the red ruby pendant. He had said that it would glow when she was near danger and it would take her back to her room in the Underworld.
It had lied.
It didn’t glow when she was near him.
Ariel breathed in deeply, turning around to look at the room once more and gently closed the door. Leaving would’ve been all the harder if Adrianne had still been alive. She knew that if her friend were still there, she would be stronger and face Hades to make his life miserable.
But she was alone and she didn’t have the strength left in her to see him anymore.
“Are you ready?” Hermes asked, watching her curiously as she slid on her leather gloves.
“Yes,” Ariel nodded, smiling at them. Aphrodite pouted her lips, pulling her in for a tight hug and whispered,
“If you ever need me, just call me. I’ll be literally a second away.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, closing her eyes to try and keep the good memories of the goddess.
Athena smiled at her, kissing her cheek lightly and said, “I am in awe at how wise you are sometimes, Ariel. At this moment, I’m not thinking you’re very wise, but it may be because I want you with my uncle.”
She shrugged, forcing out a smile and said, “The Fates work in mysterious ways, right?”
“Now you sound like my father,” she rolled her eyes, pulling her in for a warm hug. “Goodbye, darling and I hope you change your mind and come back to us.”
“The chances of that happening are negative,” Ariel chuckled, “I’m a big girl, Athena. I can take care of myself and all of you can rest assured that I am of no threat. That group that was trying to kill you will have to find another girl because I’d rather kill them than attempt anything against you guys.”
Athena nodded, sighing as she walked over to Hermes and he took her arm in his. “Close your eyes,” he whispered and in a flash, they were in her apartment.
Ariel looked around, widening her eyes as she realised that everything was the same as she had left it. Even the wilted peony was sitting in the middle of the table. She walked around and turned the TV on.
Hermes had taken her to the Underworld around late August and it was December 31st; New Year’s Eve and she would spend it sleeping.
“Ariel?” Hermes whispered, not wanting to leave her alone afraid that someone might try to harm her again. “If you ever need my help just call me, okay? If anyone tries to harm you, say my name and I will bring Ares to smite them.”
She giggled at the word and nodded, standing up to walk towards him. Ariel hugged him, closing her eyes as he enveloped his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. He felt like an older brother—a very old brother. “Thank you for bringing me here, Hermes. And I hope you find Adrianne. Come visit me when you do, okay?”
He nodded, blinking his tears away and whispered, “I’ll make sure to bring her once I find her.”
“And take care of her, okay? Don’t you ever make her cry because I will find you and torture you.”
He chuckled, nodding and lightly kissed her forehead. “Sleep, Ariel.”
It wasn’t a request, it was a command. She fell in his arms, exhaustion taking over and he swung her in his arms to tuck her in her bed. She wished for someone to take her memories, but Hermes couldn’t bring himself to do so.
It would hurt her, but it would also strengthen her in the long run.
~*~
I am the world’s worst author ): I’m sorry! But this had to be done. And yes Hades was the real Hades. It wasn’t an illusion or magic or someone playing to be him, it really was Hades, so don’t start saying it wasn’t him. There are like 4-5 chapters left and ahh I’m going to freak out. I think that in the next chapter we finally figure out who the group [the people trying to kill the gods] is, but I’m not sure…
On the side is that amazing song that made me cry whilst I wrote this; Already Gone by Kelly Clarkson.
I had no school today woo so that’s why I updated. I think I’m going to go write for The Babysitter now, but no promises. Hope y’all enjoyed this heart-breaking chappie ♥ Luna.