Hades

Chapter 13

Ethel remained true to her promise. I must've slept in - which made sense considering I had another night filled with screaming and shouting from the other side of the wall- and when I ventured out of my bedroom I found fresh fruit and vegetables in the fridge. Once again, the old house was completely soundless and I felt comfortable enough today to explore. Besides, I had spent a few hours cleaning the room with whatever I could find in the closet and I couldn't spend all day in the same space with nothing to do.

I moved around the house while straining my ears and after twenty minutes of silence I decided that Hades had left to do whatever Hades did all day.

As I chewed on dried mango I meandered through the mansion. I suppose, in broad daylight, without the haunting presence of a murderer, the house was quite beautiful. It had high ceilings in most of the rooms and large windows which made the old space feel quite airy. In it's time I'm sure that it had been the epitome of modern and now it needed only a little bit of love to restore it to its former brilliance. And the house was full of surprises. 

I went into my bathroom first, the one across the hall from my bedroom. Ethel had stocked it with everything I had asked for, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, a hair brush, and a tooth brush. I smelt my shampoo and was delighted to find that everything had a matching coconut scent.

I thoughtlessly left the space and went into another, only realizing what I had done after I had walked into the new room. This was Hades's room, right next to mine and obviously the master with it's own bathroom and walk in closet. But it wasn't what I expected. I guess I had pictured black bedding and dark wall colours, not creams and browns with tasteful furniture and decor. And I certainly hadn't anticipated pictures. After all, he seemed more likely to have a torture chamber than a real bedroom.

I dawdled over to a wall covered in picture frames, something drawing me towards them as if they would offer secrets about the man I was mated to. The first thing that caught my attention was a master's degree in electrical engineering. It made my associate degree in accounting look rather pathetic and, despite the fact that I hated him, I was ashamed of my limited education. Then I noticed his graduation picture in a cap and gown with one arm around a man and a woman. Strange, I had never thought of him as having parents. It seemed odd that someone so evil could be bred, especially by two people who looked to be in love. 

Finally, my gaze landed on a college hockey team picture. And I couldn't find him. It was odd  that he would have a photo of a team he wasn't even in, but his striking red eyes didn't leap out at me. I stepped closer and studied the picture a little more intensely, certain that I was missing something crucial. 

And there he was, with his angular, handsome features. He was wearing hockey gear which made him seem even larger than he was, towering over his colleagues on the ice. But his eyes weren't red and even more strange, he was smiling. He looked like a typical Canadian university student wearing his skates and green and gold jersey.

It didn't seem like it could be the same man. I read through the small printed names at the bottom of the photograph, searching for Hades. But the name associated with the space in the photo was Sebastian Oakley. 

I didn't understand, but when I referenced the degree for his name I came up with the same result. Sebastian Oakley, a detail I had ignored before. Then, I realized his eyes were not red in his graduation photo either. 

It seemed that Hades had not always been Hades. Something had happened. And it had happened in the last few years.

And, on that unnerving note, I fled from his room, telling myself there was a lot of house left to see. 

I poked into two more guests bedrooms in an effort to calm down and then found myself walking down a long corridor that only held two doors. I eased opened one of them. Two walls were lined with filled bookshelves. In the middle were two club chairs and a low coffee table. The whole space smelt like old paper. A library seemed to suit him somehow, especially knowing that he had a master's degree and lived in a house like this.