Hades' warrior

23. Dead people take IOUs very seriously

Seventeen seconds.

That's how long the silence lasted before Apollo walked out of the kitchen. Ansel drowned his beer, patted Ares on the back and followed Apollo.

"So, how are you?" Ares asked once Ansel left the room.

I stared in disbelief at him and then realised that I couldn't change people when I was alive and I wasn't going to waste my afterlife (surprisingly that actually works for me) on trying to change people.

"Great," I replied as I swung off the counter and opened the fridge. We were out of beer.

"Apollo!" I yelled from the kitchen still looking away from Ares. "We are out of beer!"

"Right!" He yelled back. "I'll take Ansel with me!"

I pushed past Ares while yelling out, "that's not what I mean-" but the front door slammed shut before I could finish the sentence, "-t, you little piece of -"

"I can leave if you have a problem." Ares cut me short.

Apollo dragged Ansel out assuming that I wanted to talk to Ares alone. Ironically, I said there was no beer so I could leave the house.

I sighed as I turned to Ares. "Yeah. Please leave."

Ares raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised but he didn't argue. He walked to the front door and paused. He turned around and raised his arms slightly to show his hands were full.

"Right." I walked forward and opened the door for him.

He stopped again outside the door and turned to me. "I loved your mom - "

"For a night?" I cut him short. Ares pressed his lips together.

I knew I was being mean to him.

That's it. No buts.

"What I'm trying to get to is," he said, "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I should have been. You shouldn't have died."

I stifled a laugh. "It's cool, dad. I'm kinda glad I died. I got to meet you, I get to eat whenever I want, I don't have to take every step afraid of being hit - I mean a cyclops just walked into my apartment but you know other than that."

Ares' frowned but I continued before he could ask any questions. "And Apollo is, really, the sweetest guy. I'm fine. So, you don't have to worry about me."

"Okay." Ares nodded. "Well, it was nice meeting you."

"Yeah."

Ares chuckled as he took a few steps away from the door. "You're one of those, huh? The ones who reply to "I love you" with a "me too" ?"

I chuckled. "Don't tell Apollo."

"Do me a favour, will you?" Ares asked turning around.

"Depends."

"I want you to come to the dinner." He replied.

I pressed my lips together. "Sure." I lied.

Ares smiled. "Okay. I'll see you there. Bye!"

"Bye!" I replied and shut the door. I leaned against the door and wondered. What am I doing with my life?

I walked towards my room. I stopped at my door and walked backwards and peeked into Apollo's.

The cyclops was gone. I glanced at my hand and tried to will a spear to appear.
Surprise, it didn't.

I sighed as I began working on an excuse to avoid attending the dinner. I couldn't use my first excuse cause I just met my sperm donor and the only other excuse was the lord of the underworld.

Why don't people who socialize just understand that some of us just hate humans?

Humans and other things that talk.

I opened the drawer on my bedside table and took out my dagger. I removed the sheath and stared at the steel edge. I didn't recognise the dagger when Ansel had first shown it to me but as the days went by I figured it out.

Back at my step father's house, I had a brother. He was about five years older than me and was like the father I needed. The dagger was his.

Was. He died when I was ten years old.

I clutched the hilt of the dagger tightly as I laid on my bed, my eyes slowly closing as sleep took me.

×××

"Wake up!"

I swung my dagger out in front of me as my eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

"Geez. Put the knife down!" Ansel exclaimed. "You're going to decapitate someone."

"What?" I snapped as I stifled a yawn.

"Well, do you remember how you were a complete bitch in the underworld and you refused to talk to me because I got you the dagger, that you sleep with now, and then you left without a word? I'm pretty sure I recall you were very sorry and that you said that you owed me one - "

"I don't remember that," I muttered.

" - well, I'm using the IOU," Ansel replied as he said down on the bed beside me, eyeing the dagger warily.

"Don't say - " I began.

"The dinner!" He finished happily as I groaned and fell back on the bed.

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