Sacrifices

Heat

Persephone took a deep breath to calm her silent rage, trying to calm her nerves and settle her uneasy stomach. She curled her manicured fingers into a fist before letting it hover next to her head, just about to knock on the wooden door that belonged to her husband’s study. 

    Another deep intake of air delayed her planned attack by a few seconds, but soon afterwards she found herself knocking on the door anyways, trying to ignore the buzz in her bones, and the warning thoughts that tried to push her away from what she planned to do.

    “Come in.” A voice called out, not doing anything to steel her nerves as she walked in, the door creaking as she pushed it open. 

    “Hades,” Persephone started, but was cut off by the said man.

    “Ah, Persephone. Do give me a moment, will you?” Hades asked, continuing to look down at the paperwork that sat delicately on his desk, neatly covering the stained birch in its own way. 

    Persephone nodded silently and waited for a few minutes, watching her husband intently as he scanned over some papers he held in his hand, looking at them with a concentrated frown. He wrote something down with one of his fountain pens, before setting everything down gently and clasping his hands together, letting his elbows rest on his desk.

    “What can I do for you?” He asked innocently, his black eyes watching her every movement. 

    “I need you to stop working so hard.” Persephone explained simply, crossing her arms over her chest and popping out a hip so he would understand that she will not go down without a fight. 

    “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” He replied, waiting for her to answer. 

    “Not even for your own kid?” Persephone seethed through her pearly white teeth, causing Hades to give her a small growl of rage. 

    “Nico is not a little kid anymore. He can take care of himself.” 

    “You don’t even know him anymore!” Persephone cried out, throwing her arms up in the air in disbelief as she rolled her eyes. 

    Hades heaved a heavy sigh as he rubbed his temple with one hand. “He doesn’t need his father breathing down his neck anymore, Persephone.”

    “That is no excuse, and you know it. For five years I have had to take care of your child. Five years, Hades! I gave you the first one to grieve the deaths of your wife and daughter, but the extra four years had just been both of us waiting for you to step down from work, from your grieving, and become a goddamn father!” Persephone was angry, a boiling pot gurgling inside of the depths of her stomach, feeding her rage more fury as time went on.

    “Persephone-” Hades warned, the purple glint to his eyes returning. But she didn’t dare back down. Not now. Not after she finally gained the courage to yell at him and accuse him of being an absentee parent, leaving her to do all the work. 

    “No! You will listen to what I have to say. I’ve had to help that boy through school, had to pick him up from the principal’s office several times because he got into fights, had to learn all of his own schoolwork so I could help him through it, had to take him anywhere he wanted, and had to raise him right. And why did I bother? I don’t know, but I care for that kid, and you should too. You may have lost a wife and a child, but he lost his mother, his only sister, and his father. He’s gone through so much, and did you even stop to think that he’s going through something worse than you?”

    Hades stared at her in shock, the silence responding to her. Because of course he didn’t. He had spent all this time grieving, thinking he was in the right to shut everyone out, including his son and his second wife, just because he lost his loved ones.