Mud was stuck between her toes, but she didn't mind. She loved the feeling of the soil underneath her feet. She could feel every living thing around her pulse with life as she walked through the forest. The sunlight streamed through the trees, lightly touching her skin. She continued to wander, enjoying the fresh air.
As she stepped out of the meadow and deeper into a part of the forest she did not recognize, the sun began to be blotted out. It got darker and darker as the trees around her grew taller and grouped closer together, trapping her from returning the way she had come. She could no longer feel the warm sun but now felt the bite of the cold wind. Still, she did not stop, still continuing deeper and deeper. She told herself that she had nothing to fear in the woods of her own creation. Yet still, she felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine. She had an uneasy feeling that she was not alone.
A warm light flashed behind her, scaring away the darkness of the forest. Thinking it might be the sun, she turned around suddenly, only to find out she was very wrong.
Fire. It was a raging fire.
She watched in horror as it consumed everything around it. Spreading throughout the forest until little was left untouched. Burning trees until they crashed to the ground, plucked the leaves from their branches, and turned a forest of green into something black and burnt.
She began to run frantically, trying to escape the disaster the flames were creating. Her feet beat rapidly upon the ground that had been stuck between her toes.
She could feel the pain of being burnt, even though the flames did not touch her, and she could hear the screaming coming from every plant as they were consumed by the flames. She fell onto her knees, feeling overwhelmed by the death that began to circle her.
A laugh began to echo through the burning forest. The woman's laughter was much louder than the roar of the fire, as if it was just for her. Ringing in her ears only. She did not have to see a face to know who it belonged to.
It was her mother.
Persephone awoke with a start. She sat up in their bed, throwing her covers off and backing up until she hit the backboard. Her breathing was still frantic as she realized it was only a nightmare. That it had not been real.
A yelp tore itself from her mouth when Hades touched her arm lightly. In her confusion, she had not realized he was still awake and had been the one who had woken her from her nightmare. He watched carefully, concern evident on his face. "Are you okay?" he asked her after her breathing had calmed. She simply nodded her head in response, but Hades needed words.
"I'm fine," she told him, unsure what else she could say. The dream was still fresh in her mind. She could still feel the burning of the flames and the echo of her mother's laughter. Still, he watched her as she took a steadying breath, trying to calm herself.
It was not common for gods to have nightmares and even less common for them to talk about them. A nightmare entailed that the gods themselves were capable of being scared, that there are forces that made fear run down their spines. That was not something any god ever felt comfortable talking about. Being a god meant being the essence all else was afraid of, not the other way around. But this was Hades, and she could tell him anything. He was not just any god, he was the one she could rely on for everything. But she did not know what to tell him this time. She didn't even understand the dream. So she was glad when he did not ask.
Instead, he pulled her into his bare chest and held her a fraction tighter than he usually did. She loved the feeling of being in his arms, and Hades knew just what she needed. She rested her head on his chest as she noticed the papers littering their bed. Hades must have been up working late while she slept. This had begun to be a common occurrence for them as they had begun to find a normal routine. She had persuaded him to start bringing work to bed instead of working late in the office, as he usually did. Persuaded wasn't quite the right word, so much as distracted him. After too many nights of falling asleep alone, she had begun to have enough of it and had shown up in his office, dressed only in their white bed sheets that hid nothing from any onlooker. She had demanded he not ignore her any longer, and in response, he hadn't let her sleep for the rest of the night.
YOU ARE READING
DIVINE - A Persephone And Hades Retelling
Historical Fiction"I've told you, Hades, I can not become your mistress." she sadly told him. She had always lived in her mother's shadow, and if she followed Hades, she would once again be living in another's shadow. Even though she loved him, she did not think she...
