Hell Is An Empty Heart (Book One of The Triple Moon's Chronicles)

40 | A Light Cloud Of Red

Winter would be cruel this year,
As hell inseminated itself into the mortal world.
A winter that was the perfect symbol for weddings,
Like the one that was about to take place in the underworld.

Those were the words of Charon to the dead souls coming out of his boat when they saw what was ahead of them. Their journey would be awfully long.

The Gates of Horn and Ivory were both wide open for them to walk through as they pleased. They moved, breathed, and trembled as the deadly embrace of the fields of Asphodel encircled them. There was the suffocating, starless night. There was the unknown from the abyss. The fear that kept them blind was the additional charge of the three judges and they contained them there as long as the palace of Hades remained closed to visitors.

What was hiding behind the twelve pillars of the Underworld lighthouse?
Where were the incredible plumes of red in the Netherworld's sky?
What could lie beneath the faint moonlight?

Outside Persephone's new room, the waxing crescent moon was softly glowing at the window. The light from the orb of the night frolicked with a blue hue over an uneven ceiling. The reflection of the turquoise water from the centre of a void—a cave formed by the weathering of the rocks. Nature shaped everything there, apart from this bathtub in the middle. This enormous marble amphora had the scales of a fish carved on it. Life and verve animated this alabaster figure, but it was only a recipient—a bowl to contain water, just as it embraced the whole body of Persephone.

The Furies continued to fly back and forth while carrying large vases filled with water taken from the pool of souls. They received instructions to keep their future mother's bathwater as clear as possible. The bride's prenuptial bath was an ancestral symbol of purification. One that would be worthless if there wasn't for a coal fire below it to keep the water heated.

However, when Cerberus interrupted her peace, "Let me get that straight. You spent three days with him, then at your own request, he brought you back to the gates. How did you end up asking him to marry you already?" Persephone opened her eyes and jolted out from the depth of the water.

Breathing heavily with her hands wiping over her face, Persephone's head darted in his direction. Cerberus was there, tucked into the corner of the room with only his back showing towards her.

His irate tone caused her shoulders to shrug, soothing its flare even further with light laughters. "Well, I just did it."

"I don't bite at any of this. Don't you want to see your mother again?"

"Aren't you happy that I'm staying here forever?" she answered, hoping that he would set aside his reservations and accept it, but this question made Cerberus jolted instead and he turned around to face her regardless she was naked.

His three snouts pointed at her as he snarled. "Young lady, do not change the subject! Marriage is a sacred vow, and I do not want you to hurt the feelings of my master. For whatever reasons you want to stay in this realm, it has to be love and nothing else!"

She mumbled, "Maybe it is," and then sank back into the water of her bath, leaving only bubbles to carry on the discussion with Cerberus.

Sadly, her behaviour worsened the situation.

"You asked him to marry you after an argument. By the name of Chaos, who does that?" All his nostrils flared at her, but once again, she brushed his bad temper off when her head suddenly popped out from the water near him. With all six of his eyes fixed on her head, his diatribe carried on. "Just promise me you won't hurt my master."

An awkward silence met his question as she whistled mockingly, grimacing. None, however, could make Cerberus's troubled look go until she rested her wet hand on his paw.