King of flowers and death

Chapter 3

The human kept screaming even if he was on the ground.

"Can you stop screaming? You're scaring the souls."

The boy closed his mouth and looked at him.

"W-what happened? Where am i? Who are you?"

"Yeah, who is he?" suddenly asked Darab, appearing from the shadows: " I heard someone screaming and by now i can recognize all the souls by their screams, this was a new sound."

He rolled his eyes, Darab appeared at the wrong time.

"I will explain it to you later, now leave."

The soul looked at him.

"I said, now leave."

Finally Darab, after having stared at the human for a few seconds, turned his back and went back from where he came from, while shouting: " Anyway you're welcome, i watched your reign while you were up there probably busy fucking a human!"

"We didn't do it!" both said he and the human together.

For a moment they shared a gaze, before the human started to look around scared.

" I saved you, human."

"The...those birds, they were coming for me", he said shivering at the memory.

"Those weren't birds. They would have first drunk your blood, then, while you were still alive, so you could feel the pain, they would have eaten your flesh."

The human suddenly puked.

"My floor!"

"And then the ground opened and-"

"You fell into the Underworld."

"Wait, am i dead?"

"You almost died."

"But i'm the reign of deads."

"Well yes, but not for long, i guess we can say you'll be the first one to leave the reign of the deads, still alive."

"That is not true, a lot of heroes came down here and then went back to their lives."

"The human is right, and if that is your way to seduce the boy, you're lucky to already have fucked him!" he heard Darab saying from somewhere. Sometimes he thought that soul had eyes, and ears, everywhere.

"I didn't fuck him!" he shouted, annoyed: " Humans like stories, especially the ones where they are great heroes doing incredible things, but they're just stories", he added, looking at the boy.

"But stories can be true, you're true, my people talk about you a lot", he said, looking at him:" I didn't imagine you like this."

He couldn't help but laugh.

" Like this how, human?"

" My name is Percy and well, stories describe you as a cold, horrifying creature who kidnaps humans to eat their souls or to," he noisily swalled while looking at the floor:" Use their bodies."

He loudly laughed.

" Yes, I heard those stories too."

"You don't look like a horrifying creature, i mean, you look quite human."

"This is how i choose to show myself to you, human, otherwise your eyes would burn if you'd see my true form. Gods are not made to be seen by your kind."

"You're beautiful", he whispered.

Those words took him by surprise.

He was used, in very ancient times, to be worshipped by humans, they loved him, and they praised his beauty, but then he became nothing more than the god of the Underworld, and people just feared him.

It had been ages since someone called him beautiful.

"Why were you in the meadow at night? You shouldn't, it's dangerous", he said, to interrupt the awkward silence: " And why are you so calm?".

Ignoring his first question the human started to walk around, looking at everything, like a curious kid.

" I don't feel threatened by you, i don't know how to explain it. Also, you saved me, so if you wanted to kill me, you would have let those monsters have me, or you would have hurt me already."

"Hey, don't touch it!" he suddenly said, running toward the human, grabbing his wrist before he could touch a sword: " That was made by Hephaestus, it's not for humans, if you touch it, you could die."

He didn't let his wrist go. The human was taller, and bigger than him, but in that moment, he felt his mortality, his fragility, under his hand.

" You're right, i saved you, but what if i did it so i can have you? So i can do to you what your people say i'm known for?" he said, lowering his voice and pulling the human closer to him.

He didn't expect him to look at him in the eyes, without saying anything. What was that? What was he thinking?

"How should i call you? Great god? King? Master? What do you like?" he just asked.

" Hades", he answered, letting his wrist go.

" Hades, what will you do to me? I mean, you brought me here to save me from those creatures, but now?"

" We'll wait for the night to end, then when i'm sure you are going to be safe up there, you will leave here.I have to warn you, time in the Underworld is not like in your world, a night on earth is longer in my reign."

"Oh, ok."

Ok?

He was confused. Why wasn't that human scared?

"So, what do you do here to spend the time?"

" Nothing, Percy, this is the reign of the dead, all i do is being sure no soul leaves here and welcome the new deads into my reign."

"Believe me, it's still funnier than what i have to do up there", he said and he was sure to see sadness in his eyes: " What is this?" asked Percy, looking at a mirror.

"Something that you don't have to look at and touch!" he said, covering it with a cloth before the human could take other steps toward it:" It's a gift from another goddess and if a human looks at it-"

"Let me guess, i would die?"

"Listen human. This is not your home or village, you're in the Underworld, a place made for dead humans, you shouldn't be here."

"You brought me here."

He sighed, he was right, after all.

" If i didn't, you would have still found yourself here, but as a soul. Anyway, if you want to see your house, your family, again, i suggest you not to touch anything. Don't you have someone you care about waiting for you in your bed? Think about that person and be wise, if you want to have fun in that bed again."

" No one has been in my bed for a long time, and my family, well, it's just my mother, who i love but...."

But?

His words were interrupted by a growling stomach.

"Don't eat anything here, ok? Don't touch, don't eat, you know what? Just stay still."

" I don't want to get bored!"

" Better getting bored than being dead, am i right?"