Daughter of Flames and Darkness

A Nightmare?

Hades was unexpectedly greeted by a bright light that nearly blinded him as he begrudgingly woke up; he groaned and put a hand to his head as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. His vision was still rather blurry, but he thought he could make out various colorful figures surrounding him and a pink glow of some kind radiating from an unknown source to his left.

"Ugh, what happened?" Hades asked no one in particular; he yawned as his field of vision started to clear up.

"My King. My King? Wake up, husband." A sickly sweet voice said.

Hades shot up as his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in shock; he knew this voice. Dreading to see what he knew would be beside him, he reluctantly turned his head left to see Persephone sitting in a cloud throne next to him. She wore a black dress and a matching diamond-studded crown on her head; she was giving him a seductive smile and batted her eyes at him. He flinched away from her on instinct. Then he finally got a good look at his surroundings; Hades was on Mount Olympus... and it was completely dark and lit only by torches, very much like the Underworld. He then noticed he was encircled by a collection of deities he couldn't recognize. There were about ten to twenty Gods and Goddesses in varying ages and he didn't know any of them.

"What the...?" He asked.

"Good morning, father." They all said in unison.

"Long Live the King! Long Live King Hades!" A cluster of unknown voices chanted.

"KING?! FATHER?! What the heck is going on here?!" Hades shouted, slamming his fist on the throne's armrest.

"Not much." Persephone replied dismissively.

"Not much? Are you kidding?! No! No, no, no! You are NOT my wife! I demand an explanation!" He screamed as he stood up from the throne. "Where is Maleficent?! What have you done with her?!" He grabbed the blonde Goddess by her arms, lifted her off of her own throne, and shook her a bit, but she remained perfectly calm.

"Mommy, what's wrong with Daddy?" One of the younger Gods asked.

"Is he having another mental breakdown?" A teenage Goddess asked.

"I'm afraid so, kids. But don't worry, he'll be over it." Persephone replied as she coolly pried herself from his grasp. She sat back down, brought the young boy closer to her, and whispered, "He doesn't know he's dreaming."

'Dreaming?' Hades thought before he noticed the area begin to transform all around him.

The gray clouds and torches vanished, Persephone and her supposed children started to fade into oblivion, and the sky became very murky and dark. And before he knew it, Hades was engulfed in darkness. The air was thick with a smog darker than the color black that concealed a sky that was somehow darker than thought possible. The only source of light Hades had was his own fiery blue hair, but even that wasn't enough to illuminate the somber atmosphere. There was a ground, it was uneven and rough like gravel or a dirt road and yet his feet still echoed with each step he took.

"Hello?"

Hades called into nothing and received nothing in return. He could hear his own heartbeat like an echo in a pitch-black cavern, but with no visible walls to carry the sound. He breathed heavily.

"Where am I?" He said before he heard what sounded like a roar from far away.

He ran towards the sound, hoping to find someone who could tell him what was happening; he hoped to find Maleficent and see if she was alright. But the scene abruptly changed once again; he was now in the middle of a burning forest and the flames were growing bigger and bigger by the second. Not knowing what else to do, Hades ran and tried to control the inferno himself, but it was no use. These flames were completely out of his control.