Damsel Of The Damned

Chapter 8

I stayed still as he slowly patched up my foot, hissing slightly as he pulled the shards of glass out. Once he was finished and had wrapped my foot in gauze he helped me down from the counter by lifting me up and sliding my body down the front of his until my feet were securely on the floor. Then stepped back quickly to return to me my personal space.

I'm almost positive he did it on purpose though to frustrate me. A blush had slowly risen up my neck and settled into my cheeks and I looked down staring at the floor to avoid his gaze.

"Ava" he said quietly giving me a nickname of his own and catching my attention.

I slowly lifted my eyes to rest them upon his and tilted my head in a questioning manner with a hum in response.

"Would you like me to leave?"

"No!" I just about yelled then corrected myself hastily in attempts to cover my slip up. "I thought maybe we could talk for awhile. I have a lot of questions but hardly any answers. But if you want to leave it's fine I'll just ask you later. If I see you later." At this point I realized I was starting to ramble and I stopped talking.

"I'll stay and answer any questions you have"

"All of them?" I asked

"All of them"

With that we set off to the living room and I was limping like a ninety year old woman who had forgotten her cane at home much to my embarrassment. We sat on the couch with barely any space between us

Then I got lost in thought.
I didn't know much about this hunk of a man other than his name and what he really was. I shouldn't trust him the way I do. For all I knew he could be after my soul, I mean he is the god of the underworld. But what he said about me being his anima confused me. What exactly is an anima?

I quickly lost my train of thought when he coughed awkwardly and I slowly came to the realization that I had been staring at him for the better part of five minutes while I was pondering things. "Great way to start a conversation Avangeline" I thought to myself.

"Sooo..." I trailed off. I had no idea where to start whatsoever. The beginning is usually a good place though.

"Tell me about yourself." "How'd you come to be? Are you the only god?"

"How about I just show you it'll be easier" he said as the room filled with dark grey smoke and suddenly I was no longer in my living room but suspended in space staring at the Earth below me, Hades standing at my side with the smoke curling around us. The earth came into focus slowly zooming inwards until we stood at the base of a mountain.

"This is Mt. Olympus the home of the gods" Hades said narrating as we moved on.

We rose to the top of the mountain and spiraled out before us was a village. But maybe village was too inadequate a word for it. It was more of a kingdom. Here palaces rose , huge gardens grew, and forests erupted as pathways unfurled. But what really caught my attention was the building in the center of it all. It was the largest and looked more expensive than everything on earth combined. It was made out of pure gold and enormous columns supported the structure. It was so tall I wouldn't have been able to see the top of it if I was six miles away.

Hades noticed where my attention resided and explained the building.

"That is the throne room. Every god or goddess has their throne there. There are many of us, thus the size of the building.

"Is yours there?"

"It is. Do you want to see it?"

"Definitely"

We drifted into the building and down a long hallway filled with doors. Apparently each opened up to the main room. Hades opened up the third to last door and revealed the room to me. Rows and rows of thrones filled the area all in neat lines. Each was different and I assumed they were based off of the entity that owned them.

I saw a light grey one made of stone covered in wheat and grains with the foot stone reading: Demeter. Near that one was a silver one engraved with hunting scenes, a bow and quiver of arrows resting beside it. This one read Diana.

I pointed it out and asked "Is this the Diana you sent to protect me?"

"Yes. She's the goddess of the hunt and protector of maidens."

"Oh. Which one is yours then?"

He lead me to a throne close to the front of the room. It was black in color with a bright red cushion on the seat. The top was embedded will rubies of all sizes. Some the size of my fist and some as small as a speck of glitter. Its design looked almost like a mini galaxy.

"It's beautiful" I whispered in awe.

"Thank you. I designed it myself. Of course I have another at home as that is my true domain. It's grander than this one but looks pretty similar."

"Would you like to wander the rest of the room?"

"Yes!" I said getting excited.

"Then I will wait for you here. But do not under any circumstance touch one. Even though you aren't physically here touching one will summon whomever owns that throne."

"Okay I won't" I yelled to him as I ran off to explore the room.

Every chair in the room was unique and they were all stunning. Just looking at them I could tell what each deity controlled or resided over. The sea green one with netting and fishing gear for the god of the sea, one that was as bright as the sun for the sun god. A dark blue one with a storm swirling inside it complete with lightening for the god of the skies.

I kept waking discovering more and more as I went. Suddenly I tripped. With arms flailing I fell hard to the ground. When I raised my head from the floor I saw that my hand was resting upon a blood red throne. It was complete with weapons of all sorts and depictions of gruesome battles. This was not good. I knew that I was in serious trouble as the air around me started shimmering with a deep red glow.

"Crap" I muttered.