Hades

Chapter 16: The Princes's Arrival

~Third Point of View~

Zeus sat on the floor with his legs criss-crossed neatly, a thick textbook laying in his lap. With his glasses delicately perched on his nose and his head laying in the palm of his hand, he flipped through the pages quietly, trying to understand the words strewn across it.

He was trying to ignore his uninvited brother, too, who was leaning against the book shelf opposite of him with his arms crossed.

"Are you done yet?" Hades seethed in a hushed tone, his lips curled in annoyance. He forced himself to be quieter this time speaking, since Zeus's scolding earlier made him want to bash his head against the wall. Or set the whole library aflame, like a god damned arsonist.

Or even better, bash his head against the wall as the library engulfed in flames around him.

The image of glowing embers flickering with excitement around the bookshelves flooded his mind.

Then, the image quickly twisted itself into something too familiar. Darkness, followed by muffled screams of despair and agony. The maddening sound of demons quickly scuttering alongside the halls trying not to drop paperwork. The suffocating thick atmosphere that reeked of anguish. It was the cold reality that he resided in; the cold reality that he had momentarily escaped, that he would have to soon return to before chaos erupted once more.

He could only leave his work unattended for so long, unless he assigned portions of the workload to Amelia, which he hadn't.....

Zeus sighed in response, sliding his glasses upwards to perch above the nest of his newly dyed platinum locks.

"I'm not done, Hades. I need to study. And you didn't have to come along, anyways." He mumbled the last part, but Hades's ears didn't miss the words laced with irritancy.

Of course Hades had to come; he had hoped, with every fiber of his beating heart, that he would run into her in the five floored campus library Zeus had mentioned he was coming to. After being scolded by him about his creepy tendency to follow her in silence, he had no choice but to rely on sheer luck.

If there even was still a chance for him, anyways.

Hades and Zeus's glaring match was momentarily interrupted by the sound of feminine voices whispering on the other side of the shelf Zeus had his back against. They could make out the sound of two girls shrieking at each other somewhat quietly among themselves.

"I bet you twenty bucks you won't!" One of the voices said confidently, and the sound of footsteps receding was evident, before two heads poked themselves at the end of the shelves.

"H-hi." One of them squeaked, and Zeus characterized her as the one who was bet on. She was shorter than the remaining girl who stood calmly behind her, and was clutching a stack of papers tightly in her hands. When neither of them moved, including Hades, who unintentionally focused his glare on the shy girls, Zeus moved his book to the floor, standing up. The girls both seemed to flush a crimson red as he neared them, and he made sure not to get too close. He didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable.

He smiled at them both warmly, as if urging the small girl to speak. And she did.

"I'm passing out these flyers.... andwaswonderingifyouwantedtocome?" She said in one breath, tightly clutching the entire stack of papers out in front of her and looking away to the side. Cute, Zeus thought.

"Sure, I was planning on coming anyways." He chuckled, taking one of the now crinkled papers that had a description of the Halloween Bash that was happening later that day. "Oh, s-sorry." She flushed an even deeper shade of red, if that was even possible.