For Persephone

Chapter 22 – Thoroughly Debauched (2)

The exhausted Persephone hung over Hades’ body like a wet willow. The only thing left in the place where the joy of pain had been was full satisfaction. A good night’s sleep is all they needed now.

“This is an unexpected hobby.” Persephone muttered.

“Who said this was my hobby?” Hades tapped her red-hot butt lightly with his fingers and held in a laugh. Persephone closed her thighs, after soon finding out that he had teased her, and dug into his arms.

His voice hovered overhead.

“Are you going to stay here underground?”

Persephone looked up at him with huge round eyes and gently pulled his lips in. She wiped off the smudging smile on his face and rubbed her face against his chest. And her heart started beating rapidly.

“… I can’t do that. My mother will kill me.”

“You’re more afraid of your mother being angry than to walk in and out of the land of the dead with dangerous shadows?”

“My mother… She doesn’t know I’m here. But if I stay here forever, she’s bound to eventually found out.”

“A bird has to leave the nest at some point.”

“I want to, but I can’t.”

Hades looked down at her with curious eyes, as if her stern refusal had been unexpected. Persephone, who noticed the gaze, added impatiently, “You don’t know this, Hades, but I want to be loved.”

“….”

“My mother hopes that ‘Kore’ stays with her forever, and when she called me that, the other nymphs heard it and started saying my nickname was ‘Kore’. Can you imagine that?”

“I’m sure that your mother’s excessive possessiveness isn’t the only love.”

“… I don’t know about other mothers, but mine is different. I’m not the daughter that she wanted.”

Her increasingly lowering voice sounded like a whisper.

‘My father raped my mother; that’s how I was born.’ She said in her head.

Hades’ hand, which had habitually been sweeping down Persephone’s hair, stopped. Her situation didn’t particularly invoke any sadness or pity. Though it was uncommon. The fact that Sisyphos, who has emerged as the biggest headache in recent years, was out of Zeus’ sight also began with Zeus’ kidnapping and rape of another god’s daughter.

The suggestion didn’t mean any pressure in the first place, and Hades was just making conversation because it would be a shame to send her back, the warmth that he is holding on to now.

Hades asked suddenly, “Is your mother a nymph, or a god?”

Since the girl was a nymph, either one of her parents was a god, or both parents were nymphs. If she was birthed by nature, she wouldn’t have mentioned her mother.

“Ummm…”

“Ummm?”

“My mother… is a nymph.” She added after a dubious answer, “You wouldn’t know even if I told you her name.”

“And your father?”

Persephone’s lips closed slowly. While Hades’ interest in her was vaguely good, a deep-seated truth filled his throat.

‘It’s Zeus, your younger brother. The one who raped my mother and confined me to the island.’

Note: Greek mythology is filled of incestuous relationships, if perceived in the way moral reason dictates. But for one, they are NOT human, but are Gods. Instead of blood, Gods have a golden substance called ichor. Their genetic build is solely unique to them. Hence, while they are obviously relatives, they really don’t have the physical connections by their blood.

But there wasn’t a reason to reveal that. At least now. One or two lies will be okay.

“I don’t know much about him.”

“Didn’t you tell me a few days ago that you knew your father well?”

“Was that me? I didn’t know saying my father was ‘this way’ meant that I knew a lot about him.”

Persephone held Hades even tighter. For a moment doubts crossed Hades’ mind but soon cleared away. He didn’t have the heart to sympathize with each and every one of her circumstances that didn’t have anything to do with him. His gentleness to escape from the vexed situation compared small to his idleness.

He held back a laugh and asked, “What will you do if I don’t send you back?”

“You like me that much?”

“….”

“Are you going to give the underworld to me?”

Hades slid his fingers through her hair. “Do you want it?”

“Can you give it to me?”

“What are you going to do with it if I do?”

“So, I will be your queen?”

“Wouldn’t you be afraid of your mother if you become the queen?”

The unanswered question only overlapped like a joke, making it irrelevant what the nature of the question was. Persephone had a faint smile on her face. She had sworn to her mother that she wouldn’t betray her by leaving the island alone.

“If you want that, I already swore to Styx that I wouldn’t choose to do anything to upset my mother.”

Hades pulled up her limp body and hugged her. When he pulled her hair behind her ears, he could see her cheeks and earlobes.n“How long has it been?”

“Has what been?”

“You must have been raised with a lot of love.”

“I was.”

“Not just by your mother.”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have only met nymphs.”

“Do you live far away from your siblings like the virgin species of Artemis?”

Persephone tilted her head.

“What is exactly is your nymph identity? Which river territory is your island on?”

Persephone, who closed her lips with a long face, hugged him. “It’s a long, boring story. It’s much more interesting here. The dead, the hazy river, everything—”

“Special things.”

“So, you do like that I’m here.”

Hades appeared to be deeply thinking. Then, a smile, making his ethereal features softer, made way to his luscious lips, “of course”.