Persephone had an interesting childhood, to say the least.
Her mother took classical studies at uni and was determined to name her child after some ancient Greek nonsense, and because of her love of flowers when she found out she was expecting a daughter she settled with the name Persephone.
The girl was born at the beginning of autumn, the time of the year when the "real" Persephone would be returning to her dark and icy palace in the depths of the earth, leaving a weeping mother behind and causing all crops to wither and die. You'd think this would be enough to make little Persephone's mother rethink the whole "naming my daughter after the Greek goddess of spring and flowers", but no, she stuck with it.
Persephone grew up with a hatred for flowers, sunny days, and pretty much everything else her mother loved, apart from her name: she adored the idea of being named after a goddess who spent half of her year in the Underworld surrounded by the souls of dead people and serenaded by the screams of the tortured; she wasn't too fussed about the other half of her year, in fact, she thought the myth would have been way more fascinating if the goddess just lived in the Underworld forever, never seeing the light of day again; the effect it would have on an individual obsessed with sunshine and nature would be an interesting thing to observe.
Alas, her mother, ever since she caught her at the age of 2 and a half crawling in the beautiful garden behind her house with a pair of craft scissors chopping away at all the daffodils and tulips, was determined to raise her to be a jolly, summery girl: she would dress her in the most colourful clothes, paint her nails with flower designs, take her for long walks in the mountains singing her happy songs about meadows and sunshine, and even went to the length of dying her hair a bright blue, like clear spring skies.
Young Persephone was smart: she knew her mother hoped to turn her into someone she wasn't by forcing her into liking certain things and thinking a certain way, so she played along, hiding her love for thunderstorms, horror stories, and scary mythical creatures under a bubbly, extroverted personality and a faked love for wholly dolls. She did grow to like the blue hair and outfits, her favourite being a pair of orange dungarees worn with a long-sleeved bright pink-and-white striped top and a pair of white fingerless gloves that she always got dirty.
No matter how smart she was, Persephone couldn't have ever predicted the effect this twisted act would have had on her brain and personality in the years to come.
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Elysium
Teen FictionA young girl is raised to be bubbly, extroverted, and nature-loving, but what effects will this twisted act have on her mental health as she grows older?
