II. Gods and Monsters

Nightmare Scenario

Charlotte had just got a text from Oli wishing her goodnight and reminding her he loved her. Any other night she would have smiled, but tonight she couldn't shake her feeling of worry. When she got this feeling in her gut, it was never wrong, something bad was going to happen and all she knew was that it was in some way connected to him. She and her dad had driven in silence so far, aiming to stay with family in a nearby state.

"Dad, why were you and Oli arguing earlier?" Charlotte finally asked him. She was sick of watching him give the road in front a steely glare. 

"Now is not the time to talk about it," he told her bluntly.

"Dad now is the perfect time. Oli isn't here and there's no chance of you upsetting him."

"Look, it's very complicated and it's not him I'm worried about, now please drop it."

He was on edge. Even more than she was. Charlotte was becoming more suspicious by the second.

"Ok, what are we running from?" she asked instead. She was going to get an answer eventually.

"Again, it's complicated. Let's just hope that you never find out."

Images flashed in the back of Charlotte's eyes. Two spheres of orange flame encased in darkness. The officer disintegrating. Her dad flying across the corridor. That skull staring right at her.

"It's what attacked the precinct, isn't it?" she asked, her voice betraying how much the incident still terrified her.

"No, that thing won't be harming us ever again, I promise," her dad assured her, and something about the way he said it made her actually believe him.

Her dad had never been afraid to tell her that monsters existed in real life, even if they weren't like the ones you saw in the movies, but he'd always promised her he'd protect her from them. Even when she was older and was perfectly capable of handling herself he still insisted on protecting her. She'd found it annoying in recent years, but having him now was actually reassuring in an odd way.

Charlotte looked out of the windshield into the distance and saw a faint glimmer to the right. She ignored it at first, but as they drew closer, the glimmer seemed to spread across a silvery surface.

"Dad..."

"I see it," Andrew cut her off. His left hand went to the gun he kept underneath the dashboard. Charlotte's eyes widened at this sudden display of hostility and looked up in time to see a man step into the road in front of them.

"No... Not you..." was all her dad said before planting his foot firmly to the floor.

"Dad, what are you doing?!" Charlotte yelled as the car accelerated at the man.

The man on the road was wearing some strange armour Charlotte had never seen before. It consisted of boots, leg guards, a chest piece and a pair of large clawed gauntlets. A worn, deep red cape billowed behind him. As the headlights illuminated him properly, Charlotte saw his face twist into a wicked grin. He turned sideways on to them and leant slightly towards them. She screamed as her dad realised his mistake a moment too soon and the car bonnet folded around the man.

Charlotte was the first to awake, her dad still unconscious beside her. Her vision was still a little fuzzy after the crash caused her to smack her head off the dashboard. She leant over to her dad and tried to shake him awake by the shoulder.

"Dad, come on, wake up!" she pleaded.

She noticed the car was bathed in some form of blue light.

"Hey!" she yelled, "Over here! Please! Come on dad, wake up, the police are here to get us out of here."

She heard a noise from somewhere near the back of the car, metal sliding along metal. Her hearing must have been fuzzy as it did not sound like the jaws of life she'd heard before. Then a large blade sliced through the roof in between her and her dad, causing Charlotte to let out an involuntary scream. The blade was dragged all the way down the vehicle then retracted from the roof once again. The sound of screeching metal and his daughter's cries of fear awoke Andrew in an instant. Two clawed hands smashed through the gap in the roof and tore it clean in two. The pair looked up to see a towering figure stood over them. Hades was engulfed in his blue flames and wearing his usual battle armour, except the helmet, and was bearing down on them. Andrew reacted instantly, retrieving the pistol he had dropped on the floor of the car and firing it straight at the monster. Bullets pinged off the armour and Hades didn't even react to the bullets glancing off the bone.

"You're an annoying little insect," Hades growled.

The demon reached over Charlotte's paralysed form and hauled Andrew from the car. The force with which Hades pulled Andrew snapped his seatbelt, allowing Hades to bring the man to his eye level.

"Well well well, don't you look familiar? You're a lot braver than the last time we met. In fact, you were perfectly happy to watch me beat my victim last time."

Even without the creature's mocking tone of voice, Andrew knew it was smiling at him.

"The hell do you want from me? Whatever it is, my daughter is innocent, leave her out of it!"

Hades let out a great, booming laugh that shook both Andrew and Charlotte to their bones. Charlotte was completely immobilised with fear. This was her worst nightmare amplified to the most extreme proportions. The monster that had attacked the precinct was terrifying enough, but this one was easily over seven feet tall and wore a full battle armour, complete with blood red cape.

"You?! What would I want with you?" Hades asked, savouring the moment, "No, I'm not here for you. You will just be my practice. I'm going to kill you," he stated, sparking the claws of his left hand off each other to emphasise the point, "Slowly... painfully, of course... but it will serve as the preparation I need for when my real victim arrives. As for your daughter... she is the reason I came all this way."

"You leave my daughter alone!" Andrew yelled as Charlotte started to tremble even more.

"Silence! Your pathetic posturing is boring me," Hades growled, tossing Andrew absent-mindedly into the car body. He landed head first, the impact causing him to fall unconscious once more.

Hades then leant in and plucked Charlotte from her seat.

"P-p-p-please... Don't hurt me..." she whimpered.

"Hurt you? Why would I want to do that, my child? I need you alive and well. You're the reason he will come, and there is no use in a dead hostage."

"What... what are you... talking about?"

"You have his heart... I intend to break it, along with the rest of him... When he finds I have you, he will come looking for the both of us. And then I shall make myself free of him and the rest of his kind for good."

"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." Charlotte stammered.

"If you have not been told, you will discover soon enough... Now sleep," Hades commanded.

The God of Vengeance placed his clawed index finger at the centre of her forehead and sent a magical pulse straight into her brain. Perfectly harmless, but it incapacitated her immediately.

Hades leant over and picked up the father as a ring of fire appeared next to him.

"Come find me Rider, I'll be waiting," he whispered into the night as he took his two captives through the flames.