Between The Wicked

Chapter 36: Welcome to Hell

Hayden's POV

As I am making my way down one of many corridors in the Underworld I suddenly stop in my tracks upon hearing the sound of a dark and dangerous growl coming from just ahead of me. I smile letting out a small laugh, "I know you are there, you might as well come out." I holler down the corridor, and I see a large dark shadow start making its way around the corridor. Out of the darkness I see three sets of glowing red eyes on of them snarling, the second one is growling, and the final one is baying. "Oh, will you hush up, it is only me." I say walking up to the shadow showing no fear because I know that I am in no danger. I put my hand on the head in the middle and start petting it. "Is it nice to see you too Cerberus." I say smiling at the three-headed dog that I love more than anyone else ever will. Cerberus nudges my hand as he turns around starting to lead me out of the corridor, "Have you been keeping an eye on bandit?" I ask as one of the heads turns and look at me slightly nodding. "I guess you would have to since Bandit is your pup, and you look after your pup better than your master looks after his own kids." One of the heads lets out a snarl letting me know he is aware of just how bad Hades treated us, and how it was Cerberus that always tried to protect us from getting punished by Hades. I stop in my tracks making the three-headed dog stop in his and turn to me. "How is Hades?" I ask the dog who oddly enough just lets out a large sigh and shakes his head telling me that it might not have been such a good idea to come home. "You really are the only thing that makes this place bearably Cerberus." I rub my face into the fur of the dog letting him know just how much he means to me as we keep walking. Finally Cerberus leads me to the entrance of the of the Styx River before stopping dead in his tracks. "I know you can't go any further Cerberus, and thank you for making sure that I got here safely." I gently kiss each of his three heads before Cerberus slowly lurks back down the corridor that we just came from. I walk down the long black brick road above the Styx River making my way into the center of the room of the 5 rivers. "Not much has changed in this place, and that is unfortunate." I say as I take in the room around me. I suddenly remember the necklace around my neck, and I quickly unclasp it and put in my pocket because I don't want Hades to see it. I walk over to the Lethe river and look deep into the yellow water, "It is only a matter of time before the blood diamond is in my possession, and then I will be ever stronger than Hades himself." I say out loud to myself with a sadistic smile slowly forming on my lips. I kneel down in front of the river of forgetfulness slowly reaching my hand into the water, and right as my hand touches something I hear the sound of a door open. I quickly pull my hand out and stand back up onto my feet just in time to see a skinny teal creature slowly making his way out of whatever room he was just in. "Hello Panic." I say smiling at the now nervous creature. "Heidi?" Panic asks making his way over to me. "Thank the fates that you have finally returned home, your father has almost destroyed the whole Underworld waiting for you to come back." I just roll my eyes waving off the tiny teal thing. "Is this the part where I am supposed to quake in fear?" I say turning my full attention to the small annoying humanoid. "He will not hesitate to send you to Tartarus for just vanishing like you did, and that goes double for your brother." I gently kick him out of my way. "Where did you go anyways?" The creature asks me making it back to his feet, "I just needed some time away from this place, and now that I had that time I have come back home." Panic looks at me with questionable eyes. "There is more to it than that, and there is something different about you." I start to feel another headache coming on but before it can start to affect me I push it away for now. "Where is your brother? He seems to have gone missing as well." I just shrug my shoulders knocking over a small table as pieces of junk fall into the River of lost souls. "I am not his keeper, and besides maybe the pressure of ruling the Underworld was too much for him." Panic just sighs as he picks up the table and start putting the items that didn't fall back onto the table. "If that I the case that would make you the only person left to take over as ruler when your father eventually meets his end." I look at Panic with a burning question on my mind. "Panic, I have a question to ask you." Panic finishes cleaning up before turning to me. "What is it?" I look down at the river of lost souls. "My father is a god, doesn't that mean that he will live forever?" Panic sighs before taking my hand. "It is true that your father is immortal, but anything could happen, and if he did die someone would have to take his place." I smile but quickly cover it up. "Does that mean there is a way to kill an immortal?" Panic nods his tiny head. "That would also mean there is a way to become immortal." Once again Panic nods his head. "I am positive that I shouldn't be telling you this but if you want to know more I would suggest that you go to the library and look for the book on something called soul magic, it will explain things better than I could." Suddenly the doors to the throne room burst open with flames erupting everywhere, and through the fire I see Hades slowly making his way out with a look on his face that tells me he is not happy to see me.