Illiana Eliza James knew she was dead and but she didn't feel it. She was once known for her joyfulness, her happiness and the eternal smile on her face but that was all long gone when she sacrificed her life to save fifty people and ended up in the...
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"Okay," I paused. My mind ran quick. Thoughts popping up one second and disappearing the next before I could process it out. "What should I do then?"
Hades opened his mouth slightly and then shut it without saying anything. He stared into my eyes and squinted a bit as if he was reading my soul.
"What?" I snapped.
"What's your IQ? 120? 130?" He asked slowly.
"I don't know. I never got it checked. What does that have to do with this?" I asked.
"Illiana, you're smart." He stated.
"Okay... and?"
"Are you sure you're Ares' child?"
I grabbed a leftover fry and threw it at his head. He dodged it.
"Would you focus?" I asked.
"There's no point, darling." Hades mused. "Nothing you can do right now. Just chill a bit."
I noticed the sky was brighter than before. "What time is it? Shouldn't we leave before someone comes? What if someone sees me and recognizes me?" I asked.
Hades was licking his fingers.
"Ah don't worry about that. I'll get us out of here before anyone comes. And for someone recognizing you? It's impossible. We're in India right now." He replied as he motioned for me to get up.
"India? Of course." I muttered sarcastically. "Cause why not?"
Hades shrugged. "Yeah, basically that."
We walked outside. It was 5:47 according to the clock in the McDonald's. Hades nudged me and pointed towards the sun. Hades had picked a McDonald's near the beach. We could see the sunrise from the front. Hades sat down on the bench. I followed him. It's not like I could leave anywhere.
We didn't say a word as we watched the sunrise. My dress wouldn't let me spread my legs so I crossed them.
Stupid thing. I had a sudden urge to cut it along the side so I could move a little better.
Before I could act on it, Hades spoke.
"The only reason I attended today's event was for you." He said softly. He didn't look at me but continued to watch the sun. "If it wasn't for you, I would have just come to this place with Ansel."
The conversation I had with apollo replayed in my head.
"We need to leave. We are going to be late. I'll tell you once we come back."
"Not a chance to just ditch the whole plan and have a happy meal in McD?" I asked with, what I believe to be, puppy dog eyes.
Apollo shook his head, a smile tugging his lips. "I know you. This isn't nervousness of meeting my family. This is laziness."
Hades couldn't have known I said that.
Right?
"Right," I replied curtly.
Hades gave me a side glance. I checked myself. I wasn't being fair.
"I'm sorry." I corrected myself. "I'm glad you came too. I've only had three friends since I... I died. So I'm glad we could talk."
Hades nodded. "I'm sorry about the mess your afterlife has been. It should have gone a lot smoother."
"Not your fault," I muttered. I placed a hand on my leg when I noticed I had started tapping it. "Can you tell me about Persephone?"
Hades licked his lips and pushed his hair back with his hand.
"Not here." He said. I waited for more but he didn't say anything.
Both of our heads turned to the left when we heard a whimper. I got up and walked in the direction the sound as Hades watched me.
Behind a few cardboard boxes and leftover cases of empty soda bottles, was a puppy. I lifted him up slowly as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. My smile grew wider by the second as this pup slowly opened his eyes.
I turned to show the pup to Hades to see that he disappeared. With the pup in hand, I walked around trying to look for him.
"Hades?" I yelled out.
"Ah so what do we have here?" A voice behind me spoke.
I turned around the most beautiful face I have seen or ever will.
"Aphrodite," I muttered under my breath. "Cause why not?"
"Illiana, I got the pup a cardboard box you could keep hi-" hades stopped as he saw the newcomer. "Hey, Aphro."
"I've told you to stop calling me that." She replied.
Hades shrugged. "Take the curse off Illiana and I'll stop calling you that, deal?"
"Curse?" Aphrodite asked.
"You made me fall for Ansel," I said slowly.
"Darling," aphrodite chuckled. "That's not a curse."
I glanced at Hades. He still had his eyes glued to Aphrodite.
"I was doing you a favour. This one here -" she jerked her head towards Hades. "And Apollo? They won't make your life any easier. Pick one and the other will live the rest of your time in misery."
I felt Hades tense up beside me but he didn't say a word. I noticed Aphrodite say the rest of MY time. She was right about that obviously. The gods live on forever. I won't. I couldn't stay with Apollo forever and Hades couldn't possibly have an affair with one of his dead beings.
And Ansel, I figured it was best not to think about him as long I was under the spell.
"Thank you for your thoughtfulness, but I would prefer it if you didn't do anything," I said trying to sound as sincere as possible.
Aphrodite paused for a second before replying. "You're my lover's child so I will take your plea into consideration."
Then she disappeared.
"I'm going to say it," I said as Hades turned to me with the cardboard box in his hands. "I'm sick of Greek gods."
The pup barked agreeing with me.
✘✘✘
Sooo, the question I've asked a million times and I will ask a million more times...
Hades or Apollo?
To all of you reading right now, I want to say thank you. Thank you so much for going through this journey with me. I appreciate it so much. I love this book very much and seeing it get the read means a lot to me. When I left for college a few months ago, I stopped writing and at that time my book had about 10k reads. Now it has over 30 thousand reads. And readers who have been with me since the start of this book and stayed with me, thank you so much. You know who you guys are *winks*.
