Daughters of Hades

Chapter 3

Alyssa

This is bad, really bad. Am I in hell? Oh yeah, I am, I decided as I heard screams around me. I was standing in hell itself. When did I get here? I didn’t recall making a trip to here.

I looked at my surrounding and was stunned by it. The palace stood in front of me was decorated with black marble floors, black door frames, and black windows and get this, everything was black.

A man in his late thirties came walking in my direction. He was wearing a black robe. “My child, I have been waiting for you.”

I nervously studied around to make sure that he was talking to me since there was no one present nearby except from some ghostly figures. “Excuse me, sir, are you talking to me?” I asked like an idiot.

“I’m Hades, god of the Underworld," he declared and added, "and your father."

I made an ‘oh’ shape with my mouth and sighed out, oblivious of what the weird man just said. “Wait, what?”

“I do not intend to repeat what I uttered and believe that you heard me right,” his voice cold and husky.

“Wait, just making sure, am I in hell?” I inquired.

“Obviously,” he responded like it was nothing and shrugged.

“Obviously?” I repeated his answer with rage slipping in my voice. “Excuse me if you haven’t thought of this, but I’m in hell! Literally!”

“Now now, it’s not something to get mad at. You will get used to this place since it’s going to be your home for_”

“Home?! Home for me in hell? What the heck are you talking about?”

“Listen, Alyssa, I don’t have much time. I want you to listen carefully.” Oh, buddy, I don’t know. How can I listen to you ‘carefully’ when I am trapped within the world of screaming souls? “Danger is coming soon. It’s outrageous for the seven to go again on the mission to save the world, again, but this is important.”

Yeah, I figured out this guy had just escaped from Asylum. “What seven?” I asked even though I thought the guy was creepily crazy but I got a feeling it was also the truth.

“You will know but what I am about to say is much more important,” he made a serious face. Not that he wasn’t serious before, but the face he made afterwards was super-serious and it pretty much made me start to fidget.

“Carry on,” I gestured him to talk. He glared at me. Maybe that was not really of a nice gesture to do to a guy who claimed he was god of the Underworld and my father.

“The seven had gone on a mission once and defeated the Earth Mother. Well, that’s what they and everyone else thought. But unfortunately, she wasn’t defeated completely. The Oracle will tell you another prophecy and that will be dangerous to carry out for you even if you have help of the seven,” he stared at me and added, “And your brother.”

Almost everything he said didn’t make any sense but I tried to memorize it in my mind. I was too confused of what was going on.

“My child, I can’t have another visit in your dreams anytime soon,” he walked up to me, pretty much close that I could smell death around him. Don’t ask me how. I just knew that smell was death.

“You smell death,” the words came out of my mouth not noticed. “Oh, did I say that loud?”

“Yes you did,” his eyes mused studying me. “You are different from others, Alyssa. Just don’t make your own choices regretful.”

What’s that supposed to mean? “Uh, okay,” I made out from moment of confusion.

“And you will encounter with a goddess as you wake up. She will take off the disguise from you.”