Revelations [malexmale]

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"Wait a minute. Something's not right here."

Theo's vocalization of my own thoughts couldn't be truer. All I could do instead was stand in a dark empty parking lot that sat across from one of the most dismal places I'd ever seen. One second, we'd all been gathered in Hades with Rowan and the next, Rowan had taken us to where he claimed Hades had gone to find my Father.

Except this didn't make sense.

My Father was a peaceful, loving, benevolent god. Most of the time. He was attracted to warm and comforting places, places rich with history and culture, of humanity's greatest gifts. He was humble and gentle.

So why were was standing outside a prison?

The place looked like it belonged in a Stephen King novel with its flat gray brick walls and buildings, guard towers and chain link fences lined in barbed wire. There was a thick humid pall in the air, making it difficult to breath and immediately discomfort settled in as my clothing clung to my skin. The night sky was shrouded in clouds that streaked across a full moon and limited stars, as if even they couldn't stand the depression surrounding this place.

"I'm sorry, are we here for Hades or God?" Cain asked dryly, folding his arms over his chest.

"Cuz, this place makes sense for Hades," Malachi added, "But Yhwhwa?"

"Things aren't always what we think they are," Rowan replied simply, making my children share wary looks of distrust, "Just stay close and quiet." More looks of wariness, but thankfully, everyone obeyed, including Theo-- not that he had much choice because Cerberus picked him up and covered his mouth, making the redhead squirm and punch his brother in the gut to force his release. Thankfully, they settled down as we approached the building.

I immediately expected guards or officers of the law to come storming out, considering we were a particularly large group converging on the prison in the middle of the night. However, there wasn't a single life form in sight. In fact, the lights in the guard towers weren't even moving. It was as if the place had been completely abandoned.

I glanced at Rowan, who frowned slowly as he approached the front doors ahead of us. The glass in the steel frames had been shattered and sparkled in the dim lights across the asphalt. Inside, a red light was flashing, but there was no alarm. The red light cast eerie shadows across the walls as we entered behind Rowan.

"Shit," Cerberus breathed first ahead of the looks of dismay on the faces of his siblings and my children.

Laying across the front desk behind shattered glass was a female with her hair singed and her face partially melted off, blood spilling out onto the papers and phone that was dangling off its curled cord to the floor where a dial tone could be heard. In a couple of the chairs in the waiting room, a mother and her child were sprawled facedown in a pool of blood. The body of an elderly man was draped over a chair, a large piece of glass pinning him down.

"What the fuck happened?" Theo demanded, walking over to the front desk to examine the mess.

All the glass appeared to be missing in the photos on the walls, in the protect glass around the front desk, even in the door that led to a hallway. Signs pointed this way and that, warning prisoners and visitors, indicating where to go and what to do. I followed a sign that pointed toward a visitation center, walking through metal detectors that didn't work and only blinked red lights slowly. I glanced into the visitation center and stiffened. It appeared to be some kind of cafeteria set up with round tables and attached stools, but everyone inside was dead. Bodies slumped at tables, a couple had even managed to hold hands as they lay dead. The orange prison jumpsuits indicated four were dead inside along with their families or friends.