Persephone's Curse

Summon me a god

Thea

"Come on, girls, let's get down to business, we're not gonna be here all night!" clapped one of the older sorority members I had had no chance of retaining the name of earlier when they had all introduced themselves. 

I could swear I heard somebody beside me sing "To defeat the huns" as she spoke.

"Where did she find that book, anyways?" asked another one of the older girls as we climbed down the stairs to the cellar of the dorm house. Seemed like they were doing everything they could to look spooky - bright and early for Halloween, I guessed. Even though it wasn't for another month or so.

"I have no actual idea, she just went to the library to take out some books and came back only with that one. Talk about having an obsession."

I listened on to them talk about Kara, the girl who had come up with the idea of the sorority initiation ritual for this year, and what she planned on having us do. It was pretty simple, the five of us who were new had to stand in the middle of a circle as the other girls recited some creepy latin words to summon Lucifer or something like that at candle light. And then we had to say some creepy latin words ourselves.  And although I had seen enough horror movies to figure out this was probably a bad idea for more than ten thousand reasons, I was also kinda giddy at the thought - however ridiculous standing in a circle trying to summon the devil sounded. I also may have had a drink or two, as everybody here had. I don't think anyone would soberly agree to this.

We lit candles , one for each of us - twenty five in total, and then Kara started to place everyone in the spot that she thought perfect. She must have moved a blonde girl at least five times before she was pleased with her location. Then, it was our turn to be handled around as Kara tried to find the perfect setting. For some reason, being the shortest got me in the middle of the five of us. And apparently, we too had to hold hands. And stand four steps away from the girls behind. I was just relieved I wasn't the only one who could not stop laughing when Kara was coming up with another ridiculous rule.

When Kara was finally done, all the candles were lit again because we had put them off with our moving, and me and the other five girls were exactly four and ten steps away from the girls behind and in front of us, our leader for the night lifted the really old looking book from the table she had placed it on, "Okay, this is pretty simple, I'm gonna say it first, and then you all follow." Then, she looked at us, "But not you, newbies, you will say this." She came to us with her stuffy and dusty book and one of the girls took a picture of our part with her phone.

Kara went back to her place between two other girls, and placing the book on the table and linking hands with them, she started reciting. 

As soon as I heard her words, I almost started laughing again, for no actual reason besides the fact that I had taken latin classes in high school, and I was pretty sure what she was saying there wasn't latin. 

More like ancient greek, tried a voice in my head, which was even funnier, because there was no way I  knew greek, be it ancient or not. Okay, I must have been a little bit more than tipsy.

By the time we finished reciting our part, also holding hands and looking into the girl's phone, I was pretty sure there had been something more than tequila in my drink, because actual fog, dark fog, excuse me, was starting to form out of nowhere in the cellar and I could swear I heard a dog howling. Okay, the dog might have been from the outside. Still hella creepy.

And if by the time a man started taking shape in front of us, bringing with him the chill of a winter night, I wasn't entirely sure I'd been slipped something in my drink, I was pretty much convince when he started talking. Standing in the space between the five of us and the girls in front of us - ten steps, I remembered rather numbly - his voice sounded like he was whispering in my ear. I was sure the others were experiencing the same thing, for it looked like they had all stopped breaking. Even blinking.

"What am I being summoned for, mortals?" He looked at each and every one of the girls forming the circle, his gaze leaving theirs being like a reminder for them to breathe.

"What could some tiny mortal women want from the Lord of the Underworld?" his silky voice was sliding around my ears, along with the shadows - the dark fog - that had accompanied him. 

Holly Jesus, we had actually summoned something. The Underworld, from my vast knowledge of greek mythology that was mainly having read all of Rick Riordan's books at least twice, was like hell and heaven all mashed together. The souls of the dead were believed to go there, first having to pass the river Styx. And if the person was worthy, they'd reach Elysium. If if was not, it would wander forever in some fucked up forest of the lost or some shit like that. And if this man - this incredibly godly looking man, was the Lord of the Underworld, it meant this was Hades. And we were, mythologically, so fucked. Okay, maybe less fucked than if Ares or Zeus had shown up, if the legends about Hades being the tamest of his siblings were to believed, which I was highly doubting at the present moment, but a girl can hope to live another day. 

His gaze finally slid to the five of us, and I was suddenly so regretting that Kara had placed me in the middle, because he fixed his gaze right on me. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. If I could have moved - I hadn't realized before, but I could not even lift a finger - I would've ran so far I would've probably fallen off the face of the earth. Which did not seem like such a bad predicament as his eyes trailed up and down me, something close to not disinterest in them. Fuuuck. If I was dreaming, this was about the right time for my alarm to sound. I'll even hapily go to class. 

Hades smirked as he spoke again, "You know, back in the day, when people still held some respect for my kind, summonings were only held to please the gods. The humans used to give us offerings - all kinds of them." 

He stepped closer to me and took my chin in his hand. "I think I like this one best." 

His other hand moved to my shoulder, resting on the spot where it met my neck, and pain seared through me. Again, I was having fantasies about falling off the face of the earth to my death. Every fate was better than the pure terror I was experiencing. Terror and - something else, something I could not quite grasp, coiling in my stomach and making me meet his eyes as he said, "Yes, you will do." 

There was a loud hush and I saw the flame of the candle I had lit rise up, almost as high as the table Kara's book was on, and then go out completely, leaving behind the intoxicating smell of smoke that would have come from a forest fire.
With the corner of my eyes, I could see Hades' gaze was still stuck on me.