A Deal with the Devil

PROLOGUE

THE ESCAPE

this fucking world better

prepare to get laced

because they're gonna taste my

venom

ADORA

Sirens blare I as I sprint through the familiar halls. Only this time, I pray for this to be the last time.

"Hello Little One. I know you can hear me." Hades' voice splits through the air, blaring over the loudspeakers. "I'll forgive you if you say you're sorry and come back to me. You know you can't escape."

I continue to run, tears streaming down my face as I slowly flood with fear. Fear that I won't make it out. Fear that he'll somehow find me. That once he does he won't hesitate to make my life a living hell. They say fear can make you do unthinkable things.

This is what I'd do to get rid of the fear that claws and tears me apart.

"HELA. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING. I SWEAR TO GOD THAT IF YOU DO NOT STOP, MERCY IS NOT AN OPTION." His enraged voice pops my eardrums and goes in through one ear and out the other, my heartbeat drawing out all other noise.

My legs begin to ache as I work them past their limit after my brutal fighting. My breath is fast and hitched as I push myself to keep going. I had gotten through the guards, I had gotten through my peers, and now I needed to get past those doors. Where I could never be hurt again.

The halls are filled with posters deemed to be the greatest fight of all time. Everything I trained and lived for all came down to this moment. The bright propaganda contrasts with the dark and gray walls, silver accents lining the walls.

Flashes of a life beyond this hell begin to showcase in my mind, encouraging me that this is worth it. A life of love. A life of healing. A life of peace.

As I round the last corner, the engraved memory of every crevice of this place, my home, coming to good use, I come to the home stretch. My footsteps are silent as I make my way to the open doors, calling out to me to walk through them into freedom.

"You really thought I'd let you leave me Adora?"

I stop in my tracks as I see Hades come out of the dark, right in front of the only exit to life beyond Hades Lair. My heart stops as I stand in front of the man that took me in after finding me alone and poor. The man that brought me up as his protégé and created the heartless fighter known as Hela.

"I'm sorry Hades but I can't stay here." I admit to him, trying to get him to see how terrible this place truly is. I watch as he releases a dark laugh, void of humor. I release a shaky breath as he finally looks at me. His hair is disheveled and his clothes cling to his body, sweat forming on his brow.

"I made you Adora. Without me you'd still be out on the street, with no one but your lousy friend that was too weak to join you here. She was afraid of your power. I nourished it. I am why you are called Hela. I am why you are a feared name across the underworld. And you want to leave me?"

I try to ignore Hades' words as they form welts in my heart and pass them off as another one of his manipulation tactics. While doing so I find myself caught in his intense stare. Anger, disappointment, and.. humor. This was all some sick joke to him, of course it was.