Hades

Chapter 1: The Great Chase

Hades was lost. He was utterly and purely mystified. Spending ungodly long hours in the underworld really takes its toll.

And so one day, he cracked.

Hades stubbornly slammed the papers he was filling out on his mahogany desk and sighed, rubbing his forehead. Around this time of the year, the death rates double by the day and Hades felt sick with disgust just thinking about it.

Those petty humans, he thought.
They celebrate the same things every damn year.

With a snap of his fingers, he was gone.

***

"Actually, I don't want to wear this anymore, Dean."

"Again?! For gods sake Aurora, make up your mind woman." Dean groaned, and she brightly grinned in amusement.

Aurora hung the vampire costume back on the rack and Dean pouted. She was always so indecisive, especially on what to wear.

"It was perfectly fine, I was even going to match you!"

"Yeah but it's so overused. I want something more.....powerful." She scrunched her nose and poked around the costume isle.

Dean followed her like a small child follows their mother. Blindly and unwillingly. But Dean was more than willing to do anything for her in the future.

"How about a goddess? I can be a goddess, and you can be a god? Dean this could be so epic!"

The boy snorted at her excited suggestion, although he really wanted to be a badass vampire.

***

Hades aimlessly strolled around above the underworld, watching people and observing their behaviors. They've changed ever since the last time he's been up here, and he didn't quite know what to think of it.

A business man in a suit stomped by, arguing loudly on his cellphone.
A woman was screaming at her children to get down from the cement statue that was placed on the other side of the road.
Two teenage boys repeatedly failed to preform stunts on their skateboards.

Hades rolled his eyes. A small store caught his attention up ahead, and he squinted his eyes to read the sign.
Halloween-town? Must I stab myself in the eyes? He thought to himself.

Hades debated on going into the store, or being a creeper and staring at it from the outside. He wasn't one for human interaction, since he got so little of it anyways.

Nevertheless, Hades strolled into the small store, and was immediately hit with weird music and steam emitting from a black contraption.

The little bells on the door rang, and out came a worker to greet any incoming customer.

"Aha! Welcome to Halloween-town! Nice costume bruh!" The chubby associate cheerfully greeted.

Hades snorted and kept walking forwards, and the worker's smile melted into confusion.

Costume?

Hades looked down at his attire. Black jeans, black shirt, black boots, black cloak. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for him.

So he sauntered on, examining the foolish excuses of masks plastered on the walls.

The gremlins down in the underworld look better than these.

Hades felt bored of himself, and couldn't quite figure out why anyone would want to purchase any of these things. He contemplated going back into the underworld, but the mere thought of the stack of papers he had yet to complete said otherwise.

Hades scowled at a couple who he noticed staring at him with wide eyes. How absolutely rude, he thought, even though he'd never admit he liked the attention he was receiving.

Hades straightened up his posture even more, if that was possible, and pretended to look for something on the shelves. He even scratched the stubble on his chin to give it effect.

They ogled at him, finding the tall man's cape quite fitting for their costume theme. The brunette girl was intrigued.

What the hell is he wearing?? Is that from here???

The boy stared at Hades with a blank and unfamiliar expression plastered on his face. He squinted his eyes ever so slightly, then snorted, turning around and walking the opposite direction.

Hades saw this out of the corner of his eye, not knowing what to think of this. He was careful not to react.

"Dean, hey wait up!" She said. Her words didn't even seem to phase him as he continued walking away from the aisle the three of them stood in.

He better not have dropped the costume I picked out for him, Aurora thought.

The God pretended not to be phased, but something about the whole situation made him feel uneasy.

Why wasn't she scared? Have humans become dull enough not to notice a higher kind in their presence?
Whats that piss off's problem???

He felt stripped of his power up here, and he disliked every second of it.

Hades heard footsteps approaching him, so he decided to save himself the time (and effort of talking to the girl) and walk the other direction. Quite quickly, too.

The brunette huffed in annoyance, and picked up her speed, leaving Dean to wander the next isle. She assumed he was acting jealous, for every second she isn't paying attention to him he's wearing the scowl of a horse.

Aurora didn't know why though.

"Wait!" Aurora squeaked and Hades almost laughed.

Their height difference gave him a great advantage in this mini chase, all he had to do was speed up his walk a little bit and take longer strides.

Hades strategically zig-zagged between clothing racks, turned random corners and at times stood still behind shelves.

He could hear the girl huff and puff in annoyance every time she lost track of the tall man.

Hades was amused.

The now gloomy worker watched Aurora chase Hades around the small festive store with great confusion.

***