Hades and Persephone

Chapter 16: Not Again

Yay! I achieved something! So that song is what I was listening too the entire time I was writing this. I would also like to blame the tone of this chapter on this song because it was not planned to be like this but, eh. Remember to comment, I like feedback.

Atropos watched as her sibling stepped down from the stool she was using to reach a higher shelf. In her arms, cradling it as if it was the thinnest glass, Lachesis held a spool of golden thread.

"Is it time for that conversation already?" Atropos asked, reaching beside her chair for some object.

"If you've seen something please tell me. Hades is-"

"Grieving?"

"If that's what you call grieving then I'm worried what he's like angry."

"Oh, hush. He won't do nothing." The ancient woman creaked back and forth in her chair, lightly smacking her hand with the beater they used to clean the tapestry. Clotho was out fetching ingredients for supper while the other two took a well-deserved break.

"You swinging around a wooden paddle like Ares would test a sword does not help to calm me."

Hades could not bring himself to care as cobble cracked under the force of his anger. Decorative spires of cypress and plots of grass quivered and wilted.

He didn't care.

He couldn't.

His sister was dead and all he got in her place was that thing tearing apart the surface and that- that- He didn't even know what to call her anymore. It. It, dammit!

Caring would ruin everything. His kingdom, his rule, his throne. His home, his life, his anger.

His heart.

Caring would ruin him. So instead he ruined the streets of Des.

The Fates' home, misshapen from the outside already, became condemned as Hades stormed through it. As his foot left each step it cracked under an invisible force. His lack of care even reaching the tapestry. Footprints burned holes, sections lost. He didn't even notice as some plague ate away at the rest of it. Flakes of red and gold disintegrating into a trail of ash behind him.

It clung to everything.

Lachesis heard the angry god before she saw him. Styx, she felt him before that.

Her home shook and crumbled above her. The world collapsing around her and her sister. And Atropos acted as if nothing was different.

She was not even half way back to her spinning wheel when long fingers curled around her throat. Her front was pushed into the stone wall with enough force to dent it. Lachesis was not sure if the sickening crack was the stone, or her ribs. Truth be told, she was just happy she did not have to look at his face.

"Explain," Hades demanded. His voice could only be described as hellish. It was either fire, or raw power searing into her skin. Her response caught in her throat with the ash she breathed.

"I said" -he slammed her face into the wall- "explain!"

His anger came off him in waves. Wooden beams rotted under his power, stone crumbled. The fire in the corner flared before dying out, leaving the room horribly cold.

Atropos cared not for the angry god. She cared not for his hellish words, or the bare true form that would burn away any mortal. Instead she cared that he hurt Lachesis for no reason. There was no hesitation as she hit him across the back with the beater. A satisfying smack rang out across the entire house.