All The Precious Souls

Well, I fucked up

  Phoebe

     They say "Let it hurt until it can't hurt anymore." I tried to but instead it turned into a simmering rage I barely kept control of on a good day. I made a shitty deal with Hades, who tricked me left and right, just to be able to breathe again. I should've died the night of my wedding three years ago and my asshole of a husband would be to blame. Back then, I'd been a timid little southern belle. Made in "God's" image. Sorry to inform you but Zeus is a massive cocksucker. He thought it funny to send Hermes down to parade around as Jesus Christ. Getting nailed to the cross and "resuracting" three days later? Still a big laugh on Olympus.
  Should've died, the religion your life is based around is a massive joke among Gods who think you a play thing, and a simmering rage ready to be uncaged, are the makings of a aesthetic change. Retired was the blonde bob and the white purity clothes, just to be replaced with a long cherry red mane of hair, a body covered in tattoos and piercings, and a wardorbe that consistantly makes me look like I'm in mourning. Penny Quin didn't exist anymore. She'd died as she was supposed to. Phoebe King had rose with a wrath filled roar instead.
    The scythe in my hand cut through the souls I'd been chasing from Toledo, Ohio, just shy of the Michigan border. Swinging my leg over my shiny, black and stolen YZF-R3, I decided Detroit could use a visit from the Bounty Hunter of Souls herself. I'd been granted some employees to handle the region I refused to go any where near. Charlottesville, North Carolina would never again be graced with my presence. Besides everyone thinks I'm dead, a headstone sits a top an empty grave of ashes where everyone currently belives my body resides. I rolled my tongue ring around behind my teeth, dragging my thoughts back to reality, however shitty it maybe. Just saying, marriage sucks, marriage at nineteen was like deep throating a cock of razors for me and it only lasted six hours. Gunning down the highway, I let my mind drift back to the day Hades told me of my new job.

"A Soul for a Soul?" I questioned. What had I done and why did the devil look this way? It had been preached to me from Mama for years that the Devil had horns, a tail ending in a tiny point, leathery bat wings and blood colored skin. The man in front of me had none of those. Hades, he'd said his name was Hades, I correct myself inside my head even as its reeling.
"Look, Kid, the cross on your neck is nothing more than a joke and trust me you'll learn most of your faith is. I'm assuming because you're as pale white as an Icelandic poppy, you have zero clue as to who I actually am. so I'll start over." With a sigh, the dark haired man in front of me unclenched majority of his body, trying to visibly relax. I had noticed in the mirror behind him, I'd started to cower in the chair he'd told me to sit in. "I'm not going to hurt you, Penny. I'm not him." I almost sob at the words and the phantom feeling of fists unleashing on my tiny body.
"I just want to go home." I squeak out, but even my voice sounds wrong in my ears. Another sigh comes from the giant man on the other side of the desk.
"I know you do, but as I was saying before you can't. Payment is owed. It's simple really. Since you're now technically an immortal being, You're soul doesn't quite matter, but you're freedom does." Tears run down my face as I realize I've become little more than a slave.
"You are not a slave!" A female voice booms around the room causing the man in front of me to jump as well. I turn to see the onyx double doors swing open to reveal a gorgeous woman striding toward us. "Hades you are terrifying the girl!" she scolds, as the man visibly flinches. Golden colored eyes turn toward me, the swirling wrath fading away. "My dear sweet child, I'm the Goddess Persephone, and my idoit of a husband would be Hades, Ruler of the Underworld. While he made a bad clause in his deal, he is right about payment of debts. You have free will to do with what you will, look at this as a job. You will never need for money and in due time you will be released if you so wish." I find myself feeling more comforted in her presence than her husbands. I meet her now deep blue eyes. Wait, hadn't they just been gold? Panic burns in the back of my throat as I ask her how long it's been since my wedding night. The swirling golden wrath returns to her eyes.
"It's been a little over a week, and the pathetic worm who inflicted such pain on you has died. His soul is currently awaiting for punishment to be given. I convinced Hades that you should be the one to choose. We'll come back to that." Brillantly red lips scowled up on her perfect face. " What's more important is how did you come to meet the bastard?"
Hades cut a look to his seething wife and then turned slowly toward me. " Penny, if you're not comfortable enough to talk about it, you don't have to." I felt a rush of calm sooth over my emotions, and wondered which one was causing the wave in emotions. "We both heard the screams. We had wanted a child and were never blessed to have any. You were in so much pain and we couldn't stop it in time. We agreed to approach this like a business deal, one which I would handle, but when you thought you were going to be a slave." The rest of his words are choked off by a strangled cry from his wife. Another sigh. " We did some digging. Penny, did you know how much debt your parents had accumulated?" I shook my head. Mama and Papa were always well off. A ring covered hand covered hides datk brown eyes. "Penny the debt was so large the only way out was for them to sell you off to a man you'd barely knew. The man you quickly married after a few months under the guise of young love? Had been married before. She also died from abuse." My eyes water up for a woman I'd never knew existed. An emotion I'd never felt before came crashing in like a hurricane. I found eyes in a mirror that weren't mine. Glowing green and swirling with a seething rage.
"Penny, we wanted to offer you a job and a home here. A place you could be safe." I nodded along as Persephone spoke. I hated them all, my parents, the people who'd sold me like I was an object to own, and the pathetic exuse of a man who killed two innocent women. My eyes met Hades and Persephone in turn.
"Thank you." I stand from the chair, trying to place a brave face on instead of the raging bull that is me right now. "And my name is Phoebe King. Penny Quin died a week ago."

In three years, the Goddess of spring had been a better mother than the one I'd been born to, and while Hades kept his distance, I took notice that meals were always together when I came home. Presents found their way to the foot of my bed when I came home. As promised, I got to pick asshole's permant punishment for eternity. I decided he should have a taste of his own vile medicine, so he currently gets beat on from sun up to sundown, to the brink of death, to deal with the agony of his injuries from dusk til dawn and to repeat the same cycle over and over. I over heard a rumor that Hades himself had given him his first day of punishment, something not normally done. Three years as Phoebe King has been more liberating than nineteen as Penny Quin. So what if I chase runaway souls across the damn globe? The Grim reaper is a female bursting with a carefully hidden rage.