Hades

Chapter Twenty Seven - The Light of Dawn

Chapter Twenty Seven: The Light of Dawn

Her hands numb, her hairand clothes soaked to her body and her ankle throbbing, Harusamecontinued to pull herself upwards. By now the sun had set, making theworld dark and cold, but she didn't care about the pain, nor thatshe could barely see where she was going. She wanted to get as highas possible. The creaking metal stairs ended, giving way to latticestructures hundreds of feet from the ground that only the hands ofconstruction officials wearing plenty of safety gear are ever meantto touch. Harusame pressed her hands against a long ledge of steel,then threw her arms over it and pulled herself up with difficulty.

When she was little, her mother had taken her to a grand children'sfun park for the day. She'd had a ride in the twirling teacups,gone down the slide, and dived into the ball pool. But what caughther attention most was a big climbing frame; her Everest. She'dtried to pull herself up, but could barely hang on to the first bar.Four year olds aren't known for their upper body strength. 

'You can't come up here,' said a boy, jumping clear from theframe. 'This is for big kids.' 

The small girl had sat atthe bottom in the woodchips, her eyes pooling with tears, her handsred raw, and had suddenly felt herself being miraculously lifted up,almost to the very top. Nanoe let go of her daughter, and with newdetermination Harusame climbed the rest of the way. She sat lookingat the sunset, the golden jewels of reward for her accomplishment,and waved down at her mother.

'You're the queen of thecastle – there's nothing you can't do,' said Nanoe, andHarusame had truly believed her. 

Shattered dreams hurt morethan a shattered ankle.

*

'Harusame!'

Hades' shouting reached her ears, and shestood up, wobbling from side to side in the strong air currents. 

'Stay away from me Hades,' she called, and was surprised at thestrength of her own voice.

His familiar purple head, hairmessier than usual, appeared. 'Harusame! Wait there; I'll comeget you.'
'Don't come any closer to me!'

Shepushed away from the vertical beam and began to walk out to thecentre of the ledge – a sheer drop on both sides. Hades paledconsiderably.

'Stop! You could fall!'

'That's theidea.' As she set her right foot down a spasm of pain shot throughher leg, making her rock violently.

'HARUSAME!'

Shefell to her knees on the beam, gasping for breath, but still shuffledforward. Feeling as though several million years had just been shavedfrom his life expectancy, Hades scrambled after her.

'Stopit!' he yelled huskily. 'Come back here right now!'

'Idon't want to see you.' Harusame stopped crawling across thebeam, and to Hades' horror, began to stand up again. 

'Please! Can we talk about this? Just come over here where it'ssafe...and we'll talk, okay?' 

She turned to him for thefirst time, her green eyes bleak and sorrowful, and Hades felt atidal wave of déjà vu crash over him. 

'Just like thewoman from my dream,' he thought. 'I don't know how thatdream ends, but something tells me it's not a happy ending. I won'tlet her go the same way as that woman...'

'Don'tpretend to care,' Harusame said, and her voice was as chilly as theevening winds. 'Aren't you only with me because my mother askedyou to be? Well as of now I'm freeing you of your obligation.'