For Persephone - Chapter 50 – This Is My Fate

Hades’ hand riddled with blue veins gripped a pomegranate, then split it. The crushed peel cracked, and red grains were revealed. Juice from the crushed pomegranate flowed down his forearm. Persephone studied Hades’ cold, frozen face.

“Eat this.”

“You’re not going to listen to my story…? My mother, she will have a fit when she finds out that you kidnapped me.”

“She’s my sister,” Hades whispered, touching Persephone’s face.

‘Persephone, my sister’s daughter, goddess of the island’

“No matter how much I say I love you, I can’t let my mother down. I can’t choose yo—”

“She would never give up on you. That woman, she’s as stubborn as a horse.”

Crimson-red pomegranate juice leaked from his balled-up fist. “Eat this.”

“I don’t want it.”

“Eat.”

“If I eat on my own, I betray my mother. I don’t want to end up in Tartaros. I already swore on the river to my mothe—”

Hades scooped up some of the pomegranate grains and force Persephone’s mouth open. Before she could even feel the pain of his grip, the sweet fruit taste hit her tongue.

Persephone grabbed Hades’ robe with her fingertips. And saliva-soaked juice dripped down her chin. The grainy fruit pushed between her lips was like her mother’s seed.

The fruit slice burst in her mouth, an irreversible moment.

“But still, if you were scared of her from the beginning, you shouldn’t have said you love me.”

Persephone, who was touching her red-stained lips, flashed a faint smile.

‘I can’t help it then. Mother… Death wants me so much.’

*

Flashback

It was the third dawn that led her to think about ‘him,’ the ruler of the underworld.

Until then, Persephone had only been interested in the unknown world, in the small things beyond the river based on her very microscopic view.

The Acheron River, which was said to be the outermost part of the underworld, was so vast that there was no end in sight; and it made her wonder how vast the underworld that everyone went back to was. On top of that, down there was a vast palace that nothing above ground could top.

The king of the underworld was the ruler of death, a god served and followed by all the wealthy. The myth that his palace was greater than the Olympians’ temple may have been true.

Of course, Persephone was curious about the gold and silver treasures piled up in a hill, the coins which filled up the fields, and the jewels and accessories that flowed like a river, but she was mainly interested in smaller things. The ‘cap of invisibility’ that could erase you from the world once you put it on.

A precious treasure of the underworld that not even Argos, who had hundreds of eyes, could stand a chance against.

And she met him.

“Has he come? The king?” Persephone had asked the Kharon, who refused to acknowledge her presence,

They called him ‘king’. Lord of the underworld, a great being worshipped by the death of everything. And he was related to Persephone’s mother and father.

“That ragdoll needs to stop being silly and do something special for once.” The river was filled with souls waiting to ride the Kharon’s boat. Persephone could hear them whispering about her.

“Ragdoll?”

“That girl over there with yellow eyes like rice straw. Get rid of her!” They hated her. She had no place in the underworld, she was breathing. Not in any way lifeless.

“How did she get all the way here without a servant shadow? Oh wow, did she lose her way?”

It was on that day when everything changed at that moment. When a man stared at her, and she stared back at him.

‘She’, who lived in Persephone’s head, whispered, ‘Him, he’s the king.’

Persephone was obsessed with ‘her whispers.’ The voice had always been her companion, whispering to her like a dear friend.

Persephone set her gaze on Hades. To her, he was wonderful, handsome, relaxed, and soft. There in front of her was a man who ruled the lowest place where she didn’t need to look up at the sky or down at the ground.

Her future was already destined for a dead end to live as an invisible goddess on an island that no one knew about and go crazy without being remembered by anyone. But, with him, this dreaded future of her might took a turn…

‘You swore on Styx, but he’s the master who Styx serves.’

Persephone’s gaze faltered. Extreme dignity and noble darkness lurked deep in those gray eyes like the moon. At the beginning of time, Protogenoi’s night had given birth to fascination, discord, sleep, destruction, law, ruin, dreams, old age… Deception had also been born.

Persephone was a prisoner who could betray the prison guard. In order to not lose the love of her one and only mother, she had given up her freedom and swore. It was the most pathetic begging of affection and an irreversible regret. There was no match for swallowing a prison cell key.

The moment she laid eyes on Hades once again, got lost in his dark orbs, she had given up her love for her mother to Styx…

The voice whispered again, ‘You know? It’s that person right there.’

An endless whisper.

‘Right over there.’

‘He is the only one that can get you out of here. He will take you to a whole new world.’

It was like falling in love. At the beginning of time, Protogenoi’s night also gave birth to ‘fate’. Persephone then understood what her fate was.

‘He might save my mother before I kill her out of hate.’ She smiled, ‘This is my fate.’

***