Hades bent down to brush a stray ringlet of hair from her worried face. She flinched, bringing her gaze from the floor to his eyes. His hands were surprisingly gentle contrasting against the mocking grin of his face.
"I will willingly finish off my servitude that I foolishly had chosen to leave behind," she said robotically.
Exasperated at her own lack of vigor, she returned her gaze to the floor. Her fingers worked out the soreness of her reddened neck.
"Meg, Meg, Meg," he abruptly rose and appeared in his throne. With a flick of his wrist and wave of his hand, grapes appeared from summoned smoke in his grasp.
"You see," he started, popping a grape in his mouth, "Things aren't really fitting in together, babe. Your little plea isn't making much sense."
He looked at Meg unenthusiastically, almost disgusted by her humanness in his Godly presence. She recoiled.
Continuing, his temper began overtaking him, "Maybe it's the whole failure to overtake Olympus and defeat Hercules thing, but I'm not in the mood for this SHIT!" His flames had converted from calm blue to wild and fiery, and from screaming the last half of his speech, his breath was short and quick. The grapes combusted into flame and ash.
"Look, Hades, I can't undo what has been done, but I would be more sane if something -even the whole soul-life debt thing- would remain as a fixed part of my life. Hercules didn't keep his part of the deal, anyhow. I'm yours." She trailed off in a whisper at the mention of the name.
"He probably already forgot about me up there in the perfect cloud palaces," she thought to herself, "I belong here."
She pushed herself up weakly, slowly rising from the ash and dust that now was coating her dress. Her nimble, shaking fingers brushed away the debris, smoothing the worn fabric against her tired body as she cleaned. Hades sharply studied her, and at this moment regained his composure.
"So, you are trying to tell me," he smiled and began to laugh, "that you, my little temptress of an angel, Miss Oh-Hercules-take-my-life-for-yours, has decided to chuck Goldilocks up there, to stay down here," he pause for effect, "in the UNDERWORLD, because she wants the stability of being somewhere."
Hearing her intentions put in this manner was slightly painful. The bandage of the situation was ripped off; she sounded crazy. She was…well…
"Truly fucked up." Hades said aloud to himself. The situation was supremely strange. No one had ever willingly offered his or her life to an eternity of servitude under Hades.
"You know where to go. Same room. I'll leave you a gown…that one has taken quite the beating, sugarplum." He seemed amused by the whole situation and disappeared with a snap of his fingers.
Meg looked down at her dress, ripped and torn in various places. During her inspection, Hades returned again with another snap, causing her to jump in surprise, adding, "Also, if you have any shit going on, my little minion, please don't cross me tonight, tomorrow, or for that matter, at all. Not a good idea."
Vanishing again, Meg found herself alone with an empty throne and a cold draft, in a dark room.
***Hey people! :) So, I'm kind of iffy on how this is going. Any feedback would be lovely and appreciated! I am hoping to post new chapters every other day (ish). They're super short, but I'm super impatient, so I hope you enjoy these tidbits anyhow.***