Girl Who Didn't Exist

Chapter 01

 Hades Palace, Underworld

 A long, long time ago..

She didn't deserve to die so young in a place that was so unworthy of her presence. His hands shook uncontrollably as he held her lifeless body close to him. The knot in his throat made it almost impossible to take another breath. His knees wanted to buckle with every step he took and his eyes burned from all the tears he’d cried. He felt as if his heart was being pulled apart—the pain was unbearable and he finally understood the heart-wrenching wails of the souls that passed thru his Underworld.

Hades threw his head back and screamed in hopeless desperation, “Demeter! Demeter!”

The proud goddess appeared in a whirlwind of light which quickly died when she saw her daughter in Hades arms. “What have you done?” Her voice was quiet but quickly escalated as she moved towards him. “What have you done to my daughter?”

With a grip as cold as winter she took Persephone from a reluctant Hades. She laid her on the cold stone floor and began to mutter in an ancient tongue.

“You have to save her…” his voice was hoarse and weak. “I never—I never meant for it to happen…”

Demeter grew silent and slowly turned to look at Hades. Her green eyes were filled with anger as she told him in a harsh voice, “There is nothing I can do. She is dead and lost to me,”

“No…no…no,” Hades muttered frantically, shaking his head. “She can’t….I promised…”

I will never let you be taken from me again. The words he’d told her that morning echoed ruthlessly in his head. Not even he had control over who died and who did not. It seemed a cruel trick for the Fates to play on him—Persephone had found a way to make his un-beating heart beat, and he had begun to love her more than his duties. Perhaps that was why she was dead.

“It is my fault…” he whispered, realizing.

Demeter glared at him as she stood, holding her daughter in her arms. “Of course it is.”

Hades felt himself crumbling as he looked down into the face of the angel who’d left him so broken. She looked to be sleeping—so peaceful and beautiful. But the rosy cheeks had disappeared and he knew this was not a sleep she would wake from. He would never again hold her, safe and secure, in his arms or here her laugh fill the halls of his forsaken home.

His gaze ran across her face, memorizing every aspect of her and locking it away carefully in the far corners of his mind. The way her dark hair framed her delicate face; the ivory skin and the perfect color of her small lips…Hades felt his breath catch in his throat. Ever so slowly he lowered his head downward, kissing her softly and tenderly on the forehead for the last time.

Demeter stepped back, pulling her away from him. “I am taking Kore home. My daughter did not belong down here when she was alive and she certainly does not now either…Do not fight me on this.” She warned.

Hades looked down, “I am sorry.” He whispered, but Demeter cared not for his apologies.

With a gust of a wind and light, the goddess and her daughter were gone—leaving Hades in a room more silent than a graveyard and darker than a moonless night.  

He stood alone for what seemed like hours, his heart slowly growing cold like an unkept fire, until Charon’s empty voice broke the deathly silence. "Her soul has not passed."

Hades turned to the old man whose face was hidden beneath a ragged, dark cloak. “I doubt Demeter would let her daughter’s soul anywhere near the Acheron,” he muttered. “It matters not anyway,”