Persephone and Hades

V

He had watched her for so many weeks, watched as she danced through the fields, through the trees, picked the flowers and filled her basket with fruits and leaves and twigs. He had watched her move like a feather on the breeze through the grass, through the brambles, through the branches — he had taken note of her copper curls, the colour her skin took on when she ran in the sun, the curve of her lips as she laughed, the way her dress fell around her waist and hung off of her hips, dusting the dirt paths that she walked so trustingly with bare feet without shoes. But, he had never noticed how her eyelashes brushed her cheeks, how she flushed when she caught someone watching her, or how her eyes held every promise of blossoms and life and beauty in their soft minty colour.

They stared at each other over the white petalled roses, hesitant but wanting so badly so desiring to allow their hands to meet. She raised hers first, awkwardly and with reservations — this was obvious to him as he watched her lifted her arm, slowly, looking at her hand as if to ask it what it was doing. He closed the gap, let his fingers rest against hers over the thorns and leaves and blossoms, watched as her eyes widened at the biting cold of his flesh.

He watched as something seemed to become clear apparent to her, watched as she let her lips part and her chest rose and fell with her deep breaths. What had she thought? What was she feeling as their fingers opened and laced together, as their grip tightened and he felt as though their hands would no longer be two separate things, but would become one the longer they remained touching.

'Hades.' It was a whisper, barely an exhalation of breath through her exquisitely formed lips. Hearing his name spoken in her hushed voice, two syllables that seemed to be sung as she stared at him, something within him broke. A wall crumbled into dust and her warmth and curiosity and acceptance bore into him like rain, pounded at his heart and at his mind as he moved around the bush, never letting go of her fingers gripped between his own.

They faced one another and he lifted his other hand to her chin as she tried to look away, perhaps embarrassed by their closeness. He lifted her chin and watched as she ran through thoughts and feelings. He turned her head to the side, revealing her ear hidden within the strands and folds and curls of her hair which streamed down the length of her neck, over her shoulders like a cascading waterfall. He dropped his mouth to whisper in her ear but caught the scent of her skin as he inhaled.

'Persephone.' His voice caressed her name in a breathy purr as he reeled at the fragrance of her. He felt her swoon, her legs almost dropped her to the ground had it not been for his arm snaking around her waist, holding her up and closer to his body.

He had been close to others, but none had found their way through the cracks and beams of his inner walls — definitely none that, with a single word, had made a home in his soul and his mind. He could not let her go, he could not refused to watch her leave — he could not live without the warmth of her skin against his, the sound of her breath catching in her throat as he wound his fingers in her hair and held her against him tightly.

The ground shook and the sky darkened. He watched as a crevice opened in the earth, and he knew that it was time he returned to the Underworld. He loosened his grip on her hand and stepped away, reconstructing a single wall to hide his pain. She dropped her arm to her side and wound her skirts in her hand, anxious.

'Don't leave.' She intoned, tears threatening to break the rims of her eyes. He reached out his hand and stroked her lips with his thumb.

'My love, hold me in your heart and your soul — for there, I will flourish more than I ever have anywhere else on this earth.' And he disappeared into the crevice. He found himself back in the throne room, and he screamed. The walls shook with his pain and his anger — he would kill his brothers for the lot he received, being forced to make his life amongst the dead.