Hellfire | Isle of the Lost

THREE: The Growing Years

[TWO YEARS LATER]

Two years had passed since Evie's sixth birthday party and Helena was now eight-years-old. She had not fully adjusted to her life on the island, still learning and attempting to blend in with the rest of the Isle people. Living on the Isle was incredibly hard for the daughter of Hades. She was a young girl on an island full of villains, trying her best to fit in but never really getting a chance to. 

Helena knew that things would be better for her if she was with her parents. There wasn't a day that went by when she wasn't counting down the days until she saw them again. Helena didn't understand why she had to be separated from them but Persephone explained to her that the gods wanted her to live a stable life in the mortal world, so their time together was limited. Helena had to be at least somewhat grateful to the gods for allowing her to spend some time with her parents instead of no time at all. But only being with Hades and Persephone for three months out of the entire year was hard. She needed her parents' guidance and support, especially when trying to navigate through life and its hardships in a place like the Isle of the Lost. 

To be quite honest, Helena hated her living on the island. Being away from her parents and homeworld wasn't the only reason why she grew to detest the Isle. She hated how she had to survive on rotten food because getting something in your system was better than nothing. She hated the broken items that the Isle people used and called it treasure. She hated how people lie, steal and cheat. She hated that the villains wanted to make a new batch of  villains out of the children. 

It was strange to the little Underworld princess. She was being taught to lie, steal, cheat, manipulate and all the things that the villains did in their prime with the expectation of doing the same. Life on the island revolved around being the most evil, nasty, and villainous person you could be to get revenge on the kingdom of Auradon. And Helena often found herself questioning whether or not this was the thing right to do. 

She knew about the history of villains. She may not know how some of their stories started, but she sure knew how most of them ended. And she had enough sense to know that their actions definitely wouldn't have gotten them into Elysium. So was Helena right to follow these villains? Was being evil the right thing to do? Would she become a villain? Would she be a good person?

Helena sighed deeply, knowing that the seemingly simple question would be a difficult one to answer. The little girl kicked her feet, looking around as she too caught up in her own thoughts to pay attention to the people around her. The Underworld princess was currently walking through the Isle, attempting to familiarize herself with the island. She kept a slow pace as she walked, eventually reaching an area of the island named Pirate's Bay.

Helena stopped walking once she reached the docks to stare at the large ship that Charon would park next to whenever he came to the Isle. The Jolly Roger, that's what it was called. Oh yes, this was the great ship of the infamous Captain James Hook. Once upon a time, Captain Hook and his crew sailed through the open waters to get to Neverland. But now, the crew had to settle for an unadventurous life on the Isle of the Lost. The crew still maintained the ship, often rehashing stories of their old days at sea and vowing to get revenge on Peter Pan. 

As Helena stared at the ship, she wondered what it would've been like to set sail at sea. She's only ever been to the Underworld and the Isle of the Lost, and was never allowed to go anywhere else. She would try to convince Charon to take a detour and go to Auradon, but the reaper of souls always refused. Helena always wanted to see Auradon, the kingdom like another world that was just waiting to be explored. There was nothing the daughter of Hades wanted more than to see the greenery of nature, feel the sun on her skin, visit the various kingdoms, and to be as far away from the Isle as she could be.