I first want to apologize for how long it took me to finally upload this chapter. I find that I can't always obtain the right inspiration to make this story good. It's surprisingly difficult and I know they're very short chapters, but my brain can't process that many words so... yeah

Anyways, onto the chapter ;)

P.S. this chapter is a lot longer than I'd anticipated it to be.

The Underworld.

There's no way. No. Absolutely nonsense. How could this be? What had she done to deserve being taken down here? And that voice she heard who reached their hand out to her. What was that?

The floor was freezing and goosebumps arose on Persephone's arms. The ground was bitingly cold all of a sudden so Persephone wrapped her arms around her chest to warm up. The walls were decked in cobwebs and dust.

"How did I get here?" Persephone's forehead wrinkled, switching her gaze to the man sitting beside her.

"Well, I wouldn't know. I was sleeping while you were thrown in here, apparently."

That wasn't much of a help.

Persephone heard footsteps from a distance as several armed men were approaching them.

"Do you know who they are," she whispered, not even glancing at him. She didn't want the men to suspect she was speaking about them.

He looked the opposite direction.

"They're the Underworld's guards. They're simply just a group of bastards."

"Well, that's comforting," she said sarcastically.

One guard came up to the padlock of the gate and jammed a scarred key into the keyhole. His face had several deep marks from scars and his eyes were a piercing, yet terrifying amber.

He unlocked the gate, swinging the door open harshly. He grabbed the collar of her dress and pulled her out of the cell, not even allowing her to stand up properly.

The guard's grip on my wrist tightened. I attempted to twist my wrists free with an unsustainable jerk of my body, but he would not budge.

His gloves were made of an awfully rough material, which burned my skin as I relentlessly attempted to escape his grip.

The man clutching my wrists together scolded at me. His face wrinkling even more due to the innumerable amount of scars across his face.

He dug his fingers into my scalp, took a chunk of my hair and threw my head back with one swift flick of his wrist, nearly snapping my neck.

I winced at the pain and gritted my teeth, daring to look up into his gaze. His face was scrunched into tight lines and his beady eyes were filled with nothing but hatred. No sign of light shone in his eyes.

His lips tightened as he spoke with bitter exasperation, spitting onto my brow. "Quit moving or I'll leave several bloody gouges in your back."

I scowled at his coarse remark, baring my teeth to him.

He yanked my hair back farther, forcing me to fall to the ground on my back. My lower legs curved inwards, causing my feet to be behind my back as I fell. My knees felt as if they had snapped once I hit the frigid obsidian floor.

I thought at that moment that someone had hit my lungs with a club, causing me to lose all of the oxygen for which I had contained because of how much of my breath I had lost.

My back was in tremendous anguish as I pushed myself back up with quaking hands. The man stomped his heavy boot on my chest and I collapsed to the ground.

"Get up!" He bellowed to my face. "Get up before I tear you limb from limb!"

I ignored his words and spat on his eye.

He furiously brought the hilt of his sword down on my left leg, causing the tendon in my knee to completely snap.

A horrible shriek erupted from me as the burning pain shot up my leg. I tried pushing his foot off my chest, but he would not allow of it. I could not escape from this unabating agony as he would not show any remorse towards me.

I bit his ankle, driving my teeth through the thick leather with my sharp canines, hoping it would peirce his skin. He cringed once I finally punctured his skin hard enough to make blood appear.

I felt a sharp jerk as he wrenched me up by my arm. He clutched my jaw, forcing me to look into his horrific gaze.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO MOVE, BITCH!"

The pain in my knee was excruciating. Although the voice in my head was telling me not to reveal my weaknesses, I silently wept.

"You sick bastard," I said through gritted teeth.

"That's your last warning," he mumbled to me in a cold tone.

The next thing I knew, he was dragging me by my hair into a courtroom packed with mortals, gods, goddesses, demons, and even titans.

What the hell is going on? What are all these creatures doing here?

The courtroom was massive. I had never seen anything like it.

Large dark gray pillars arose high from the ground up. The entire courtroom was shaped like a funnel so that everyone would focus only on the people being interrogated. It was also likely to make the suspect or victim feel inferior to the audience. There were a few open windows that led to black emptiness.

There were statues of people tearing at their eyes, at their hair, and skin that were sprinkled around the exterior of the room. The statues' faces wore nothing but dread and apprehension.

And I couldn't relate more in this situation.

Persephone recoiled at the sight of the statues and nearly lost her footing as the man continued to drag her by her hair. Everyone stared at her with peculiar expressions as they watched the weeping girl be lugged by her scalp in front of hundreds of people. How pathetic.

They probably thought she was some hopeless creature that became insane after a trauma of some sort.

The man had propelled her with a swift movement, causing her to stumble forward. Her strength in her left knee weakened as she tried to stand.

I felt so distraught, like all the life had been sucked out of me, graying my skin and decaying me into nothing but a pile of bones.

The tendon in my knee was torn. Chunks of my hair had been pulled out in the process of him dragging me here. Bruises from being beaten and thrown like a savage onto the ground were scattered across my body. I looked like the prey of a hunter which had still persevered, although looking half-dead.

I shut my eyes as I lay on the cold floor. Thoughts of how I may not survive seemed inevaitable to me. This was hell. Literally hell.

I was a captive held in the Underworld, ready to be interrogated and questioned by some powerful creature for whom I had not seen yet.

All I had wanted was to be at the meadows with the naiads who had basically raised me since birth. They were always incredibly kind to me. Almost too kind at times. I am very grateful to this day of how caring they had been towards me. My memories of the naiads and I washed over me in a wave as I reminisced on the past.

"Stand up."

I heard a voice echo several times throughout the vast courtroom.

I didn't move an inch even as someone told me to stand.

"Dear?"

That word.

The naiads had always addressed me that way.

"My dear, won't you please stand up?"

The voice was soothingly calm, yet serious.

"This meeting won't take long. Just stand up so that we may discuss the issues of this matter."

With each sentence he spoke, his words seemed to become clearer each time.

My body lay lifeless and limp on the ground.

I could not move. I would not move. I was death itself in this moment.

"Please..."

Once again, that deep voice became louder each time it spoke.

"My dear"

My eyelids fluttered open to find a man inches away from me. Are faces were less than a foot away as he kneeled on the ground.

His face was beautifully chiseled. His short red hair, neatly combed with a few strands falling in front.

And his eyes.

Oh, those eyes.

They were like well-polished diamonds. With each angle the light hit his eyes, several more colors appeared.

Altogether, he was an incredibly alluring man.

I pushed myself off the ground, avoiding any awkward contact.

"I'm not sure if I'm able to stand on my own. My left knee is injured."

He eyed all the cuts and bruises along my body and my swollen knee, especially.

"I see. Would you mind if I help you up?"

"Not at all," I replied with a sincere smile.

He lifted me up off the ground, carefully not to make my injuries worse.

Thankfully, there was a small wooden stool which he had set me down on. Thank god he hadn't made me stand.

"Thank you," I looked up to him admirably.

"Of course. What's your name, my dear?"

"Persephone"

"And who might you be," I questioned him.

"Who am I?" He cocked an eyebrow.

I wasn't sure exactly why he made that statement so dramatic.

"I'm Lord Hades, King of the Underworld."

Shit.

A/N: I didn't feel like proofreading this, so if there are usage errors, forgive me.