Bows and Eros

Prologue (Edited)

There are two ways for a reaper to harvest a soul: the natural way of letting a soul pass and putting it on the direct path to its destination, or by reaping it prematurely and ripping the soul from the body. During the time of the plague, reapers would rip the souls daily, trying to spare the pathetic vessels of the painful struggle to survive. With the advent of modern medicine, souls were to be left untouched by the heads of the undead, only to follow their natural course as planned by the Moirai, the fates. Helena, the head reaper of the underworld, had only harvested souls by the natural order. She always followed orders and obeyed Hades with a zealous adoration and zeal; however, things were different now. She finally had something she could take from the man who'd shattered her soul and rejected her. Just as the oracle said, he'd fallen in love with a human, the soul he was commanded to protect.

And what a pathetic soul Gabriel had chosen to love. Some child, an American girl, sixteen years old. She was a gaunt little creature, lying in a hospital bed, hairless and decrepit from the disease filling her body. Even after Helena had used her supernatural abilities to cause a wrongful blood transfusion to go into the child's body, still she fought to live. Just die, you pathetic little girl. Helena tapped her foot impatiently as the girl's mother stroked her hair and whispered words of love. Helena couldn't wait any longer, she pulled out her scythe, which she hadn't used in centuries. Helena raised the weapon into the air and plunged it deep into the caverns of the girl's heart, tearing the soul from the body with a violent force. The monitors erupted into a frenzy, warning the doctors that something had happened. Despite the cluster of nurses and care, it was over. The girl was dead forever, and she'd be stuck between the underworld and the great beyond. The soul appeared before Helena, looking fresh faced, youthful; long tresses of raven hair adorned the girl's face. Death suited the tiny mortal.

"Who are you?" The soul asked.

"I'm a reaper, you're dead Macy," Helena said.

"But that's not possible, I had my surgery..."

"Not my concern," Helena replied, snapping her fingers.

The soul vanished, sucked into purgatory for all eternity. Helena didn't have a minute to rejoice before she felt it, a hand on her arm dragging her back to the underworld. Her head spun as she switched dimension in a mere instant, finding herself before Hades, God of the underworld.

"Helena, what have you done?" He cried. "You ripped that soul away before it's time. We do not do that. Reapers are honorable and just."

"It's one pathetic human," Helena huffed. "Besides, you know I've always sought vengeance against Gabriel."

"It's been centuries, Helena. Besides, what good will vengeance bring you? I've spared you from torture, I've given you power, I've even shared my heart with you. The entire underworld is at your fingertips, Helena. What more could you want?"

"I want to watch him burn, to have him feel the pain I live with for all eternity."

"I will not be able to protect you," Hades said. "Go, leave me. Before I am forced to punish you for your crimes. You've murdered an innocent soul, and for what reason?"

"Because he loved her," Helena replied. "And now he'll spend eternity knowing he failed her."

"And I will spend eternity knowing you've failed me," Hades said. "Leave before I show you what true vengeance looks like."

Helena didn't look back, didn't blink before she disappeared, leaving the underworld for good.