POMEGRANATE, addams

𝖝𝖑𝖎. 𝖗𝖊𝖇𝖊𝖑 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊

Hades had ensured that Fester would be safely hidden for at least one more night before heading to Persephone's dorm. He hated being apart from her but, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Knocking on the door yielded little response. No movement could be detected in the room, making him furrow his eyebrows and knock again with more force.

"Sephy!" He called out her name, panic beginning to rise in his chest. "Seph, are you in there?" Once again, no response. His mind raced with endless theories on where she could be if she wasn't in her room. The lights were off so he wondered if Wednesday had dragged her off somewhere in an attempt to avoid her dreaded date. Settling his nerves, he came to the conclusion that he would wait for his sister to return and then hopefully find Persephone with her, safe and sound.

Sliding down the wall into a seated position, he twirled his beloved dagger around his fingers to keep himself occupied. It had become his most prized possession, the floral designs on the handle reminded him of her. He didn't care how long he had to wait to be reunited with her. He would happily wither away for eternity outside her door. Thankfully he didn't need to, as the familiar heavy thuds of his sister's footsteps echoed along the hall. He eagerly jumped to his feet as she came into view but to his dismay, she was alone. His optimistic expression dropped and his fear returned. Something wasn't right.

"What are you doing out here?" Wednesday asks her brother, failing to notice the concern eating away at him.

"Have you seen Persephone?" He retaliated, not bothering to answer Wednesday's question. He had more important things weighing on his mind.

"She's in the dorm with Thing." Wednesday replied, knowing that Persephone had agreed to guard the diary. But this answer does not ease Hades' distress.

"She didn't answer the door." He revealed, their faces mirrored each other as a foreboding feeling settled among them. Wednesday did not hesitate to stride forwards and open the door. Her steps paused in the doorway as she surveyed the mess of her room. Furniture had been toppled over, miscellaneous papers littering the floor and personal items dismissed without care. It was as if a tornado had blown through the dorm, leaving nothing but chaos and destruction in its wake.

"The diary..." Wednesday murmured, realising what someone had been searching for. Hades hovered behind his sister, eyes wide and mouth opened in a gasp.

His priorities were much different to Wednesday's. "Persephone." He whispered before he launched into action. He bounded up the stairs, heart breaking as he noticed that chains of daisies have been wrenched from the railing and now lay withered and mournful on the floorboards. He avoids stepping on the delicate flowers as he clambers up the stairs to be met with a horrific sight. Her loft area, a room which so beautifully represented the girl in all her glory, lay in ruins. The dartboard had been ripped from its place on the wall, her handmade signs to warn him of the low beams had practically been shredded and the numerous red blankets were torn seam to seam. His heart physically sinks inside his chest as he spots the plant book he loved to read aloud to her lying discarded on the floor amongst the rest of her books. So many happy memories now abandoned in scattered fragments on the floor. But Hades has to pull himself together. He has no time to dwell on the chaotic appearance of the room as it became clear that Persephone was not up here. She is his priority. Always.

Wednesday was searching for Thing when he raced back down the stairs and the pair froze as they heard a consistent drip thudding on her gramophone. To their horror, the liquid was blood. And this time, it definitely wasn't paint.

"Thing..." Wednesday breathed out in disbelief as she spotted the disembodied hand impaled by a knife. She rushed over to him and yanked the blade out to remove him from the wall. Her breaths had quickened as she cradled the hand that had done so much for her.

"Where's Persephone?" Hades asks distraughtly, running his hands through his hair as he became more stressed. Wednesday scans the room for any sign of the girl, still holding Thing in her shaking hands. Suddenly she spots fingers loosely wrapped around a knife peeking out from behind an overturned chair. She nodded in that direction and the pair rushed over. Hades, with strength he never knew he could possess, launched the armchair to the side to reveal a girl. His girl. Tears sting his eyes as he drops to his knees beside her. "No... Seph." A tear escapes his eye, and he lets it. He had seen many things in his life. Each of them gruesome, revolting and sickening. But this was the most difficult sight he'd ever had to see. His beautiful, radiant Persephone lying lifeless on the floor of her wrecked room.

He cups her cheek softly, only to pull away at her abnormally cold skin. Placing two fingers at her neck, he waits to feel the gentle beats of her heart speeding up at his touch. But he feels nothing. "She's not breathing." Hades panics as Wednesday gazes horrified at the deathly pale face of her friend... her best friend.

Hades observes the vibrant purple tinge staining her lips, making his eyebrows furrow. He runs his thumb lightly along her bottom lip, collecting the remnants of a lilac liquid that had gathered on her mouth. Scrutinising the fluid with narrowed eyes, he turned to look at Wednesday. "Nightshade." He told her darkly. But the duo knew this wasn't normal nightshade poisoning, they had become very familiar with that recently. This was something different. "We need to get help." He knew exactly who he needed to talk to.

Swallowing back his tears, he grabbed Persephone's phone from its discarded place on the floor and slipped it into his pocket. Finding one of his knives and a rose resting in her hands, his heart clenched with an unyielding pain. The image was not unsimilar to the day they met. A blood red rose and a stolen dagger. Her eyes had been fiery and passionate that day, her body so full of life. Now she looked drained of all her spark. He had to save her. No. He will save her. He needs to. There is no other option.

"You are not dying on me, Sephy." He declares, eyes still misty with tears. "Not today, not ever. You hear me? I can lose everything. Absolutely everything. But not you..." He inhaled a shuddering breath as the tears flood from his eyes. "Oh god, not you."

Filled with a newfound determination, he lifted the girl into his arms the same way he had carried her many months before. The knife slipped from her limp fingers and clattered to the floor, but Hades couldn't find it in himself to care. The rose was quick to follow, rolling off her chest and landing softly on top of the knife. Wednesday gave her brother a short nod before they both scurried across the school.

Hades had always been sure of himself but without her, he wasn't sure what he would do. She was the air in his lungs, the beating of his heart, the soul in his body. There was no life without her. He was praying to Gods he's never believed in, wishing on all the stars he never acknowledged until her. Anything to keep her with him.

He was ready to hunt down the person who had poisoned her and even the Devil himself would shudder at what Hades had in store for them. They had no idea of the monster they had just unleashed and how far he would go to make them pay. He would rip the world apart with his bare hands and not even bat an eye.

This mystery attacker had better start praying to The Gods. Because only divine intervention can help them now.