A Bloom So Deadly: Hades and Persephone Retold

The Beast

They landed in a realm of darkness, surrounded by shadowed trees.

And when they did, Persephone tore herself away from the Dread King and sank to her knees, arms wrapping around herself.

"You're unstable," he said, surprising even himself with a tone that was not unkind. "You're becoming dangerous."

He had hated her - loathed her - this pathetic thing in front of him, the cause of all his dallying with Minthe over the decades, but now that she was folded upon herself before him, he couldn't help but pity her.

Persephone's grip around herself tightened. She looked up at him with pain written across her face and stained into her dark eyes. Then the pain and fear gave way to fury. "I am not dangerous," she seethed, but each word came out like a burst of energy and the tree nearest her began to crack and tremble.

"Persephone," he said, reaching one hand out toward her, but she reeled back and a new limb shot forth from the tree with a deafening crack. The end of the limb was split and jagged like claws.

"Do not touch me," she hissed, then gave another cry of anguish. There was a second ripping sound from the tree and one more limb burst free. The two branches bent forward, as if alive, and dug their sharp fingers into the earth around her. Like...like arms.

"Your powers are out of control, you need to stabilize," he said, not daring to reach toward her again despite that being his first instinct. The darkness rolling off her was thick and chaotic, bouncing around the trees in the grove where they landed. Hades kept a wary eye on the tree that seemed to be taking the brunt of her power.

"I would be fine if no one had ever found me," she said, a third branch bursting from the tree with a crack, as if to make a back leg. Hades watched the small girl, watched how her entire body tensed up and he felt the darkness sucking into her from around them. Before there was time to react, she screamed into her knees. The cracks came quickly, one right after another, each bringing forth a new limb from the tree, curling, creating a - a ribcage. She was creating a monster.

"Stop!" he ordered, throwing caution to the wind and stepping toward her. There should have never been a Tartarus - that was his own mistake. And he could not let her create something out of her own darkness.

The girl looked up at him, eyes angry and anguished, and gave a feral, pained scream. All at once the tree seemed to explode from the ground, branches twisting and curling in the chaos. Hades saw a head emerge on the beast. And then a second. And then...and then a third.

The energy seemed to go out of her. Hades watched her limbs loosen, hands falling to the ground on her sides as her head swayed and she started to go sideways with closed eyes. He acted upon impulse, closing the gap and kneeling down to catch her and keep her sitting upright.

The...beast, for lack of another word, gave a hideous growl and tensed, but did not strike. It kept a watchful eye on Hades as he righted Persephone, one arm wrapped around her shoulders to keep her steady.

"What have you done to her?" came a cool female voice. "This is not like you."

Hades, keeping the girl tucked against him, turned his face up to Hecate. She stood tall for a woman, though not as tall as he when standing at his full height. Her hair was straight as a pin and black as night. She turned her light - nearly white - eyes on him, brow furrowed in accusation.

"I have done nothing but brought her here," he said, straightening his shoulders. "She's unstable."

"Then why does she bleed?" Hecate said, sharp eyes cutting back down to the girl.