Persephone Incarnate [Wattpad Prize 2014] | ✔️

{13} Sophie

I was hearing laughter. I didn’t understand, couldn’t comprehend why. Why was there laughter? Who was laughing?

There was just light giggling, silence, then some more sound. There was definitely more than on person here.

“Persephone?”

A sweet, clear voice broke out among the laughter. Who was that?

I opened my eyes, blinked a few times, and found myself staring into the face of another girl, with blonde hair like me, but her eyes were dark blue. “Who are you?” I blurted out suddenly, and I shot straight up, confused.

I had been lying under a tree, last I remembered. Who was this girl? I looked around me, wincing at the stiffness in my neck. There were at least five more teenage girls, my age and older, sitting in a circle around me. Who were all these girls? Why were they with me? I thought I was the only one here.

My head whirled in confusion, and I tried to translate my emotions into words and questions. “Why am I here? Where am I?”

The girl in front of me just shook her head, and I heard the large group of girls sitting around me titter.

“Oh, Persephone, you were always, always so sweet and mislead.”

“What do you mean?”

Every time I said something, someone giggled and I started to get annoyed. What was so funny? Did I look weird? Was I doing something funny?   

“Look, will someone explain to me what’s going on?”

With elfish grace, the girl who had started talking to me first, just shook her head. “You’re not very good at jokes, Persephone. You should ask Hermes for tips the next time you see him.”

I looked at the several girls around me. All blondes or brunettes, each one pretty and delicate like a spring flower, just poking its green bud from a white blanket of snow. Their skirts spread out around them, adding splotches of white lace to the meadow. They looked like regular teenage girls, ready to go a more formal party or a wedding as the bridesmaids.

But I didn’t understand what they were talking about. Me? Persephone? I might’ve had blonde hair and her generic facial shape, but that was where the similarities ended. Put her and me side by side, and no one could’ve mistaken us for the one another.

“So, who are all of you?” I tried to turn to subject around, because I still couldn’t understand what was going on, but I didn’t want to look slow or dense in front of these girls. They looked pretty, outgoing, and judgmental.

The girl in front of me laughed like I was a cute little puppy that kept on bumbling around. “We’ll play along then, Persephone. We’re the Oceanids – specifically, the Naiades, representatives of spring – daughters of Oceanus and Tethys – don’t tell me you’ve forgotten who they are too!” her laughter came out as high-pitched and forced. I didn’t like the way she treated me, like I was below her. “We’ve been with you since birth – remember us now?”

I shook my head a little. I didn’t want to say something, unless it gave the girl something she could use against me.

“Alright, if you insist on continuing this charade. I’m Admete, one of your original attendants.” She continued to go clockwise around the circle until she arrived back at herself. Each girl nodded or waved at me when their name was called.

Cyane. Leuccipe. Ianthe. Kallirhoe. Rhodeia. The names made my head spin – they were all so foreign and new to me. But knowing their names was so much better than calling them by hair color or eye color (which would be difficult, because they all had blonde hair and either blue, brown, or green eyes). I took a deep breath, and addressed Admete directly. “Admete,” her name slipped from my tongue naturally, and I was surprised when I pronounced it correctly. “I’m really not playing or joking here. I don’t know where I am, and I still don’t know exactly who you all are.”