Hades' Mistake

Chapter 2: Lydia and Hades

"Classic bait and switch! Oldest trick in the book!" Lydia yells as she jumps through the door and into the netherworld. She stares into the abyss with the first true hope she's had in a long time slowly diminishing. The netherworld was empty and endless. How would she ever find her mother? She looked back to see that her father was cut off from entry as the shut with a deafening click. "Hello?" her voice echoed.

"Welcome" said a woman's voice with a thick argentinian accent. "Where's your handbook?"

"Um..."

"Did you even read the handbook? You're dead, what else do you have to do!"

"Actually..." Lydia was about to explain when she felt the floor give out. She wondered if this is what it felt like for Adam and Barbara as she began to fall. The logical part of her wanted to continue looking for her mother and brought tears to her eyes, the instinctual part of her wanted to escape the emptiness of the netherworld even at risk of some place worse. And then suddenly she was on solid ground again. There was a bright light that most definitely didn't come from the netherworld, and she was surrounded by old buildings and people in the kind of clothes she saw in history books. "Mom?" She called anyway though, as expected, there was no response. There was one man in the crowd that stood out as she lifted her eyes from the dirty ground and looked around, and not just because he stared at her, but because he wore sunglasses. She was pretty sure nobody would wear sunglasses in the middle of what looked like a form of historical comic-con.

"Hello" He said in a deep unsettling voice. He was quite suddenly beside her and giving her a once over from above his dark glasses. "You seem displaced, as am I." He continued.

"Who are you?" Lydia crossed her arms over her chest and gave him the best death glare she could which only made him laugh lightly.

"Hades. Lord of the netherworld." He gave a small bow and Lydia just rolled her eyes. Of course she had such horrible luck.

"Oh yay" The sarcasm was thick enough to chew on. "And you want?"

"To fix this mess" Hades shoved the sunglasses back up in haste. "You shouldn't be here."

"And here is?" Lydia wasn't impressed. She kicked a rock on the dirt road below her feet trying to seem disinterested.

"18th century London" He shook his head as if even he was uncomfortable with that being the answer.

"Well damn." Lydia looked up at the taller man "And this is your fault?" That just earned her a glare that even more unsettling than the one Beetlejuice had given her after Barbara's exorcism began. "Either way you want to get out of this? Yes? what do you want me to do then? I'm pretty sure there's not much I can do."

"I need you to stay out of the way."

"Not very likely" Lydia coughed with a small smile. Hades crossed his arms and Lydia just looked at him with the purest look of innocence she could give. It wasn't particularly convincing with the way the edge of her lip wanted to curl into a smirk. Hades just snapped his fingers and her body began to follow him as he walked past the confused residents of 18th century London. "Of course he can do that" she grumbled and submitted to being dragged along with a pissed look on her face. This was not going to be an experience she enjoyed, but at least she didn't have to marry a creepy old guy.

-Written by Juniper-