Persephone Incarnate [Wattpad Prize 2014] | ✔️

{26} Sophie

Welcome back, Sophie. How was it?

I felt a rush of delight. I had missed Persephone – I hadn’t realized just how much, until just now. I’d been too caught up in getting back home, that I really hadn’t had time to feel her loss, as much as I had in the beginning, when I was separated from her.

“I missed you so much! I was so confused when you weren’t there!” I squealed.

But you came back, safe and sound, I see. Her voice sounded proud and warm. I smiled; glad to have her back in my mind. It was like drinking hot chocolate on a cold day or snuggling up with a blanket on a rainy day – it felt right, it felt good.

“Admete and Rhodeia were really helpful,” I admitted. “I was totally lost when I first got there. I would’ve wandered Sicily forever, if it hadn’t been for them.”

How was Cyane?

“Um, how is she usually?”

That girl never changes. Did she react badly towards you?

“Well, only because I told her about Alexander. Oh, and I met your mother!”

Who’s Alexander? She sounded curious.

My cheeks felt slightly warm. I blinked and shook my head, telling myself there was nothing to be ashamed about. “So, um, he’s…” I didn’t know how to explain who he was to Persephone. So I finally settled for digging for a mental picture of him in my mind and pulling that up to show her.

He’s cute. He reminds me of Adonis, she said admiringly.

I almost squealed, because he was cute, but he was just so much more. He was just so sweet and funny and awesome, with his spiky blond hair that just called to be messed with. He was also the perfect height – taller than me, so I could still look up to them and be enchanted by his blue eyes. Blue-as-ocean, blue-like-sky eyes. They were just so perfect.

I’m envious. I was almost alarmed, but a high peal of laughter echoed throughout my mind, putting me at ease.

Don’t worry. I’m not that kind of girl. But I wish I were young like you again, and experience, fresh youthful love. I was only 17, in god years, when Hades kidnapped me. My 18th birthday was in another fifty years, give or take. My mother sheltered me from most of my suitors – in fact, you’ve met her. You know how she is. She paused for a second, and laughed again, this time sounding bitter.

“Yea.” I paused, remembering, then tried mimicking Demeter. “Absolutely no boys!”

And let me guess – she told you about how vile and pig-like men are.

“Something like that. And then Cyane talked about Alexander…and we had to run away.” I giggled at how ridiculous that sounded.

She still hasn’t changed then, I guess.

“So, she’s always been like that? But…it makes sense. You were…well…17?” I knew that she had meant that she was equivalent to 17 in goddess years, but it still seemed insane to me. She had been three millennium old at that time, so...I tried to do the math in my head, but I just couldn’t do it. I was good at mental math, but not at dividing such large figures. But it was something around 100 to 200 goddess years was equivalent to a human age.

I meant Cyane. But it would apply to my mother too, I suppose. But back in that time, you were courted as soon as 15 or 16, and married off by 18. If you were older than 20, you would be lucky if you could even find a husband. It’s like marrying a fifty or sixty year old now.

“But you’re a goddess. And…you’re kind of stuck with all the same gods for years and years at a time. So, couldn’t you afford to wait?”

I sometimes forget how short your human lives are. To you, our life spans are so long, so infinite, stretching forever and forever toward the future that none of you will ever see. And they are. But we have phases like childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, like you humans have. It just takes us longer to progress toward being…elderly. But all the good things in life happen while we’re young. We get loved, we get left, and we cry, we laugh, we run, we leap, we have fun. The best things happen to us when we’re young. The older we get, the more time weights on us.

She sounded so very sad. I wanted to give her a hug or comfort her some way, some how, but there was no way to really physically touch a spirit. Even if all they needed sometimes was a hug. “But…you’re…not very old now. You’re only…in your twenties, right?”

I’m twenty-eight.

I was taken aback by the age immediately, though I tried to hide it from Persephone. I didn’t want her to feel bad about her age – it wasn’t a bad thing. She was still young, and she was sort of immortal, after all. I had just imagined her a little young. Maybe 21 or 22, since the image I had of her in my head placed her around there somewhere.

But the thing about being immortal was that your outer appearance probably didn’t change a lot over the years. Even if 2,000 years had gone by.

It’s okay. I know to you, that must be kind of strange. After all, you never expected to be friends with an almost 30-year-old.

“If you really think about it though, you’re more than 5,000 years old. And that’s in human years. So…to be truthful, I put that behind us a long time ago. I know you’re immortal. But I don’t think of you as old. I had thought, until now, that you were in your teens or at least in your early twenties.”

Maybe it’s not such a good thing to live forever though. You have to live with all your pain and sorrow for years and years on end, and it doesn’t ever end, because you don’t ever die. You don’t get to take your secrets to the grave, because gods don’t need graves. You have to live with your broken heart and your tears and your stupid, stupid mistakes…

She broke off, and I felt like she was sobbing. I didn’t know how I knew, since we didn’t have the physical-emotions link anymore, after I had sort of blocked her off. I wouldn’t cry when she cried now, but I could still know when she was crying, because we were still mentally connected.

I stared down at my thin, long fingers, wishing I could do something.

 “Are you okay, Persephone?”

I felt her sigh. I’m okay. Sorry. I’m just a bit tired.

“Is it because of me?”

Her answer was slow in coming, but she finally said, in a stilted fashion, No. It’s alright. I just…

“Tell me, I’m listening.”

No, it’s fine. Really.

Before I had time to probe any further, the door swung open. I tensed up and slowly stood up, craning my neck carefully, in an effort to try and see who was standing on the other side.

And when I saw the spiky shock of blonde hair, everything else escaped my mind. Even my talk with Persephone, even though it was so serious. Because there, on the other side, was a person I never thought I would see here, in the Underworld, of all places. I never thought I would even see him again, a few days – no, wait, just hours – a few hours ago.

I took a few tentative steps forward, not even because I was trying to be dramatic, or because I couldn’t stand, but because I was so surprised. My body just couldn’t keep up with the jubilation and excitement and adrenaline and all the thoughts – all the feelings! – running through me.

But then I was running toward him.