Hades

Chapter Sixteen - Dark Lights

Hades POV

Clarice hated me. My own brother most likely hated me. As for everyone else who actually did like me, they were either subjected under me, or dead. 

I sighed. Wallowing in self pity wasn't going to get me anywhere, but here I was, sitting with a glass of wine from a bottle I had stolen from the living world in 1920. I had an iPod I had also recently purchased in a dock softly playing a sad classical melody. Shameful, I know.

Cerebrus nudged my arm with one of his heads, and so I stroked it lightly. A massive thud! Erupted from the door as it whooshed open. Thunder crackled and the air smelt like burnt hair. My brother stood at the door, electricity crackling off his body. He was in war mode, but I wasn't sure why. Sitting up straight, I faced him. "Zeus."

"Hades," was the reply. An arc of electricity shot at me giving me only just enough time to leap out of my throne as it exploded behind me. I stumbled to stand upright, there was a ringing in my ears. I watched as Zeus walked towards me slowly. I crashed to the ground holding my ears, Zeus bending down so he was at eye level with me. I saw two of him, three of him and then back to one. 

"You failed," He mouthed. The ringing was beginning to subside. 

"I haven't not yet..." The words slurred out of my mouth. 

"You will," Zeus assured me. "Do you know why the law was put there in the first place?"

I squeezed my eyes shut and held on to my ears for a little while. When I opened my eyes, the ringing had subsided. 

"Because when a Lord has no one beside them after having someone with them for a long period of time, they become vulnerable. Almost mortal. No one is fit to rule anything while being vulnerable now, are they? Tell me Hades, I'm sure you must have felt vulnerable within those hundred years."

I shook my head as I pushed myself up the wall to stand. 

"Did you know, when people are vulnerable, instead of fighting back...they dodge?"

I had only just managed to stand on my own two feet before another bolt shot towards me. I leapt towards the door, the electricity burning the back of my clothes. 

"What are we in this world for, Hades? Is it to run away? Only the weak run. Stand up brother and fight me!"

Another bolt raced towards me but I had no energy to dodge. It hit me square in the chest, slamming me against the wall. I slid to the ground, a large hole in my chest. I could feel it slowly healing, but it still hurt. 

He squatted directly in front of me, boring his electric blue eyes into mine. "If you run, you are not fit to be a god." Thunder rolled as he turned around, slowly beginning to leave my throne room. I gritted my teeth. All I could feel was pain. Not physical pain though, it was emotional. My brother had entered my realm and picked a fight with me in the underworld. He called me vulnerable, weak and insinuated that I was unfit as a god, nothing better than a mere mortal. The light dimmed in the room, the fireplace blew out as I felt anger take me over. The oxygen left the room, any mortal that was there would have been clawing at the air begging for mercy. An incessant whispering began, each of them trying to tell their own forgotten story. Cerberus cowered and whimpered as he sunk to the ground. My brother turned to face me. "Now that's more like it."

A dark mist covered my body and when it left I was wearing a dark cape over obsidian armour. The voices in the room grew louder. "My wife! The estate! So much potential! Don't forget me!"

Zeus' face contorted into a grimace. "I forgot how filthy you and this place was. This is the other world. The place where the dead go. This is the place for people who don't belong."