“How about you give me five days? And if after those five days you feel nothing for me at all I will release you and you will be free to go back.”
“And this isn’t some sort of trick?”
“No it isn’t. I promise.”
“Five days, starting when? Today?”
He doesn’t verbalize his answer he only nods.
“But that’s not fair! I’ve already spent two whole days here!”
He shrugs. “That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”
I stare at the floor. Black marble blurs in my eyes and tiny specs of glitter sparkle and the floor reminds me of the sky at night. At this point, his offer sounds tempting. Then I won’t have to navigate through this world alone in search of a way out. He’s handing me my freedom on a silver platter because I know there’s no way I could possible feel anything for him in five days. But could I go that long without eating? Starvation will not kill me so I’ll have to try. I lift my head and stare into his eyes. “I accept your offer,” I tell him. “I will remain here for five more days with you.”
“Good,” he says as he gets up and starts for the door.
“Wait!” I call. “Where are you going?”
He doesn’t give me a straight answer. “Wash up and change your clothes.”
He turns right outside my door and I follow him. “What?”
“I have something special planned for us,” he says. “Just do what I told you to.”
He is not my parent and I don’t like being told what to do. I’ve been told what to do for five thousand years and look where that got me, trapped in hell with him. So far, Hades has been pretty tolerant of my radical spontaneous behavior and I am at the point where I want to see just how far I can push him. “Why?”
“Just do it.”
“But why?”
I rush around in front of him, planting my face directly in front of his. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?”
He clenches his jaw and grits his teeth. “Persephone! Stop this nonsense now!”
One more time. “Why?” I pretty much always like to have the last word anyway.
He takes me by surprise when he whips around, clutches my arm and backs me up into the wall, his cheeks flushed and red, full of rage. “Are you a child?” he growls.
For the first time since I’ve arrived here I fear him. A startled gasp gets stuck in my throat. His eyes pierce mine and slowly that fear melts away like ice when the seasons change from winter to spring. His clenched jaw relaxes and he’s breathing heavy, cheeks still flushed and the color in them slowly fades from red to pink. Then I notice something else for the first time since my arrival. He’s beautiful, terrifyingly beautiful. He reminds me of a lion. A fierce and brutal predator, yet at the same time there’s a certain gracefulness and beauty in the way they pounce on their prey. And his outburst a second earlier made him even more beautiful to me.
He’s not soft, but isn’t that how a man or God is supposed to be? Fierce and warrior-like. Fearless. Hades isn’t used to company or having someone quest
ion him. He’s spent an eternity alone. Answering to nothing and nobody. I’ve been brought here and I assume it’s going to be an adjustment for him to get used to having another person around. Even if it is for a short time.
I’m captivated. Lost. Staring at a spark of emotion in his radiant eyes. I can’t even speak as he stares down at me. There’s a magnetism in his eyes like he’d rather spend all day gazing into my jade-green eyes than perform all of his tasks for the day. Then I see it. Him taking me wasn’t just about loneliness or there being a thrill in chasing me for all this time. He feels something for me and I can tell he senses me catching on.
He lowers his gaze and backs away from me. His cold front back up. “I apologize for being forceful,” he says sincerely. “Just meet me in the dining hall in two hours.” And a second later he’s gone.
Me, I’m staring at the spot he’d just vanished from. I can’t bear to tear my gaze away from it. Almost like he’s still there and all I want to do is watch him. An illusion of him is better than facing the reality of him not being here. I close my eyes and see his eyes, glowing turquoise orbs in the middle of a dark room. So beautiful and so enchanting they can light up even the darkest of worlds. Opening my eyes, I look at the floor, blink several times, and snap out of the trance I was in. What’s wrong with me? Has Hades cast some spell over me? Shaking my head I swallow my feelings and walk into my room.
A long flowing dress the shade of crimson is already laid out on my bed. Who put that there? Lifting it up, I caress the tulle material between my fingertips and hold them the dress up to my body. My eyes dart around the room and zoom in on the floor length mirror in the left corner of the room. I waltz toward it and examine the red dress against my skin. The bodice is fitted at the top with a sweetheart neckline and the bottom flows out at the waist.
I spin around and laugh. I haven’t had the opportunity to dress up like this in ages. Mom never let me go to any balls, parties, or school dances. I’d always liked to dress up and I always hated watching all the other girls my age that got to attend homecoming and prom. Their dresses all vibrant shades of pink, purple, and blue standing out in their yards having their pictures taken with their dates while we drove past them.
Lying the dress back down on my bed, I walk into my bathroom, desperate to Cerberuses slobber stains off of my cheeks. Turning on the water, I dip my hands underneath the cool stream and splash the icy water onto my face as my roaming thoughts take over. Slowly I can feel my dislike and disgust for the dictator of the dead subsiding. Drying my face off with a soft violet hand towel I can feel a kinship growing inside of me. It begins as a small tingle in my heart and spreads like a drug addict who has just shot the substance into their veins. Soon, I’m tingling all over.
Mom was wrong about him. Wrong about Hades. I get the sense that there is more to him than he lets on. And there is more to him than mom gave him credit for. He’s not all debauchery and manipulation. He’s just a God who has been misunderstood for thousands of years. But I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to like him in an emotional, longing kind of way. I mean I know I feel something, but whether that something is like or pity is what I’m not sure of. Yet.