TRAPPED
Just as soon as Zeus and Hera, with Hades trailing behind them, stepped out of the chamber doors, Demeter seized Kore's arm and demanded, "What are you doing?" she hissed.
Kore momentarily considered deflecting the question with some indirect joke but found no way out of it, "I requested for a time to speak with Hades."
"I know," Demeter replied with ill-contained irritation, "Why?"
Kore bit her lip. Truth is, she actually didn't know why she'd requested for it. She remembered her mind rummaging wildly about how dreadful the discussion was turning and getting increasingly annoyed at Hades' line of answering that she wasn't even aware she'd actually said aloud her thoughts about wanting to speak with Hades until all eyes were already directed at her. Except Hades.
"Mother," she let out a breath, and provided the easiest alibi she could think of, "The man was beaten up. I'd wish to speak to him."
"Why?" Demeter retorted, "To know why he was beaten up?"
"Basically," Kore contemplated, maintaining a calm voice, "Yes."
"Why?" her mother repeated unwaveringly, "Are you concerned for him?"
Kore shifted uneasily, "Yes."
"WHY?"
"Mother, there's awfully a lot of Why's!" Kore exclaimed in half a joke.
"Because I'd like to know WHY!" Demeter answered, "I'd want to understand why, Kore. Why?"
Kore straightened her shoulders. She had never much of a disagreement with her mother, and it was painful for them to start now.
Demeter began, "I can understand the reason behind you consenting on the marriage. Believe me, I do. You didn't have any choice in the matter. What I cannot understand is why you consented on the rest!" Demeter emphasized on the last word, and then narrowed her eyes speculatively at Kore, "Have you been seeing Hades before you were dragged into the Underworld? Have you?" she accused, "Because I do specifically remember Hermes saying he found you speaking with Hades the last time we were visiting in Olympus..."
"What?" Persephone reacted, "No! We weren't... I mean, he wasn't..." she could feel her face suddenly heating up, "Hades wasn't seeing me at all... We... He hardly even talks to me let alone court me."
"Then WHY?" Demeter expressed, "Why the sudden show of concern for the man?"
When Kore couldn't formulate an answer, Demeter continued, "Do you love him?"
"Mother," Kore sighed.
"Do you?" Demeter pressed on.
"I don't want you to be angry with me..." she fidgeted.
"DO YOU?" demanded Demeter.
Kore surprised her mother by suddenly locking Demeter in an embrace. She tightened her arms around her mother's tensed shoulders and whispered with a gentle, "I'm so sorry."
"Oh my god." Demeter breathed in shock.
Kore buried her face in her mother's hair, "I don't know how it happened. It just did. He doesn't even know. But I do. Painfully so," Kore ranted incoherently, her voice dropping down a notch lower as she confessed, "I was the one who turned Minthe into a plant, mother, because I got jealous."
"Oh my god," repeated Demeter in a barely audible voice.
Kore stepped back suddenly, leaving Demeter looking as if she was about to drop to the floor.
"You see, mother, I really need to speak to him," Kore continued, "And besides, any man who sits quietly, accepting his defeat because my mother asks him to, deserves a little bit more than my concern," she saw the surprise painted in her mother's face, "Isn't that what you asked him to? In your letter?"
Demeter, for the first time in her life, had a loss for reprimanding words for her eldest daughter. She stepped back and quietly started walking out of the room.
"Mother," Kore called, following her.
Demeter appeared to be in a daze, and in an act that caught Kore by surprise, consented, "Go talk to Hades," she said, "But come back to me once you're done."
"Oh, mother!" Kore exclaimed with ill-concealed glee and started to hug Demeter but the older goddess stepped out of the room even before Kore could reach her.
Marching out of the chamber, Demeter threw an angry glare at the god that was standing outside of the chamber waiting for them. Demeter stood only a few steps away from Hades, squarely meeting his gaze for a good minute, before she turned her head and retreated down to the hallway, without a word.
Kore was left by the door, watching her mother's retreating form until she disappeared into view. Only then did Kore allowed herself to look at the man she hadn't set eyes on for the last six months.
Kore followed his stance, she leaned her back into the wall, taking in the sight of him. He was everything that she had remembered him to be, his powerful presence, his strong jaw, a perpetual growth of stubborn stubble, and a pair of dark grey eyes that could consume her.
He wasn't going to speak to her. She knew. And it made her feel as if she'd done something wrong.
'HE was the one who'd done something wrong! Why was he making her feel as if she did?' Kore argued with herself.
Taking control of her temper, Kore took a deep breath and said, "Do you want to play?"
Hades looked visibly stunned, answering, "Excuse me?"
It obviously wasn't the words he was expecting, and Kore repeated just for clarification purposes, "Do you want to play?"
Hades regarded the stunning goddess seating across him with guarded speculation, as she calmly moved her pawn forward in the chess board, totally undisturbed and unmindful of his wary gaze.
He entwined his long fingers atop the table as he roamed his eyes on his chess pieces and then back at the woman before him, "What are you doing?" he blurted point blank.
Persephone gazed at him innocently, "Playing," she answered, "Chess."
"Yeah, I figured," Hades nodded on the chess board and changed the question, "Why are we playing chess?"
Persephone shrugged, "I want a rematch. Would you rather play another game?"
Hades dropped his hands into the table, drumming his long fingers, completely bothered that he cannot read her. "This wasn't what I expected," he admitted.
"What did you expect?" Persephone inquired, before gesturing her head back to the chess board, "Your move. We don't have all day."
Hades moved his knight and took out her rook, shaking his head, "I don't know," he admitted, answering her previous question, "I suppose I expected a little... shouting."
"Why should I shout at you?" Persephone tested.
Hades shrugged, "Because I've been acting such a jerk?" he offered.
"Good you know," Persephone nodded, moved her bishop and got his knight, "Do you want me to shout at you?"
Hades smirked, "No," he acknowledged, moving his queen across the chess piece in a defensive position, "Though you have every right to."
She sent another bishop running across the diagonal length of the board, and then regarded him, "Are you going to tell me where you got those bruises?" running her eyes across his face.
Hades studied her for a moment, estimating her possible reaction, before confessing, "I got into a fight... at a tavern."
"You've been drinking," Persephone noted.
Hades nodded his head.
"For how long?"
"Nine days."
The answer effectively widened her eyes in surprise, and it demanded him to provide her with an explanation, a good one.
"I told you I've been a jerk," he blurted out the most honest answer that ran out of his mind. Not that it was exactly a good explanation on his behaviour. "You can now shout at me."
"You ARE a jerk," she corrected, then gestured her eyes at the chess board and commanded, "Move."
Hades bristled at her tone, distractedly ran his eyes across his chess piece and then complained, "Why are we playing this? If you want to vent at me, vent away. I'm not stopping you."
"And what would that accomplish?" Persephone asked, catching his eyes.
Hades shrugged.
She leaned over the table, "I'm tired of playing your game, Hades, so we are going to play mine," she explained, "Now make a move."
Hades' brows furrowed with the comment, "I didn't realize I was playing a game..."
"The drinking, the fighting, the sudden silence..." Persephone enumerated kindly.
"I'm a man, Persephone," Hades reminded, as he moved his other knight into position, "That's what we do on our downtime."
Persephone wasn't having any snide jokes and continued, her dark blue eyes flashing, "Where do you stand in this marriage, Hades?"
Hades snapped his head up at her, slack-jawed. Completely taken aback by her abrupt change of questioning.
"I don't read minds," she rambled on, "You know where I stand in this marriage. And I can't continue assuming what you thought about things and then seeing you do the opposite. So I need to know where you stand in this."
Hades didn't know if he was just slapped in the face, because it certainly felt like it, "What do you mean where I stand in this marriage?" he demanded, his tone threatening, gripping the side of the table.
Persephone didn't seem now the least bit cowered by his show of temper and continued, "Do you want to stay in this marriage?" she supplied more clearly.
"DAMN IT, PERSEPHONE!" he cursed.
His wife remained as calm as a midsummer night's air, "Do you or do you not?" she dared.
"I DO!"
"Then start acting like you want to!" Persephone exclaimed, her eyes flashing daggers at him.
Hades leaned back in his chair, and Persephone toyed with her remaining chess pieces, unwilling to meet his gaze.
She softly shook her head and began, "There are two of us in this marriage, Hades," she stated, moved her bishop to take over his knight and met his eyes, "The next time you make decisions regarding this marriage, make sure that you include me."
Hades regarded her for a few minutes before he pushed his queen into action, and ran a hand on his stubble, "What do you want me to do, Persephone?"
He could swear he saw a hint of a smile forming at the side of her lips, ran her eyes back into the pieces on the board, took out his queen with her rook and then he saw his own hand gripping her wrist in midair as she made her move across the chessboard.
Persephone met his eyes and he knew. He knew what she wanted him to do, and she knew it.
Her gaze dropped back to his hand and she noticed, "You're still wearing your ring," she commented.
He nodded, "So are you."
Persephone rewarded him with a pretty smile, placing her rook back into position in the chessboard, saying, "Checkmate."
"I can't believe this is happening," Demeter repeated as she paced endlessly in her mother's magnificent chambers in Olympus. "I can't believe this!"
Rhea calmly stretched out in her chaise lounge, watching Demeter exhaust herself, as Hestia calmly helped herself with another glass of wine by the table overseeing the glorious view of the Olympian mountain. Both haven't said a word for the last half hour.
"And I can't believe you, mother!" Demeter faced Rhea, "How can you sit back there, silent, with not a single word, when you have allowed all this to happen? To me! To MY daughter!"
Rhea gave her an all-too-innocent look, "I didn't allow any of this to happen, sweetheart," she replied, "They were already married when I came into the picture. You don't suppose I have the power to undo that," she made an exaggerated shrug glancing at Hestia for support, "I wasn't even invited to the wedding, can you believe that?"
Hestia sipped into her goblet, not wishing to be caught in the middle of the crossfire between Demeter and their mother, before reluctantly suggesting, "Perhaps Hades was concerned you'll overshadow Pers – Kore on their wedding day."
"Me? Overshadow Kore," Rhea answered, with embellishments, "Have you seen the woman?"
"On second thought, you can't overshadow Kore, she's too tall for you," Hestia reassessed.
Rhea frowned at her eldest daughter, "What exactly are you saying?"
"WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Demeter snapped, "IS MY LIFE A JOKE TO YOU?"
"Calm down, Demeter," Rhea advised seriously.
"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN YOU TWO ARE EXCHANGING BARBS OVER THE EXACT ISSUE THAT HAS TURNED MY LIFE - AND MY DAUGHTER'S LIFE - UPSIDE DOWN?"
"Is it really?" Rhea asked.
"Excuse me?" Demeter stopped her pacing, both hands planted on her hips.
"Has it really turned your daughter's life upside down?"
"What do you mean?" Demeter demanded.
Rhea shrugged, "You've seen her. She's been back with you for the last six months. Tell me, Demeter, was she the same person she was before? Did she remain who she was... before all this happened?"
Demeter shook her head, "I don't know what you mean."
"She changed, didn't she?"
"Not exactly..."
"Had she ever said any untoward against Hades?" Rhea asked.
"No," Demeter answered abruptly.
"Had she ever complained about her stay in the underworld?"
"I don't know where you're getting into with this..."
"She kept her ring, she never said anything against Hades, she'd never even brought him out for discussion with you because she knew exactly how'd you react to it," Rhea completed, "What does these things say to you, Demeter?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Demeter exclaimed in blunt denial.
"She no longer was the little girl you always thought her to be," Rhea supplied, "She changed."
"She IS my little girl," Demeter insisted.
Rhea surprised her with a tender smile, "That's normal, sweetheart. To every parent's mind, every child remains their little girl and little boy," she stated, "But let's face it, Demeter, Kore hasn't been that little girl for a long while now. It's about time you stop treating her as such."
'She wasn't,' Demeter finally acknowledged to herself, 'Kore was no longer her little girl for a long time before she had met Hades.' The good number of gifts and presents she had stored away from Kore's knowledge was a testament to that fact. She just... she just wasn't sure if she's ready to let her daughter go.
Demeter sat on the chair opposite Hestia's, remembering Kore's admission back at the Assembly Chamber, and blurted out of the blue, "Kore transformed Minthe."
"The nymph?" Hestia exclaimed.
"The very one," confirmed Demeter.
"But we all thought Hades did it..." Hestia replied, "Something about some jealous spat..."
"Kore HAD that jealous spat."
"Oh!" replied Hestia.
"...and Hades just let us all thought he did it?" Rhea aired out in puzzlement.
"You didn't know?" Demeter questioned.
"No!" answered Rhea defensively, "He was too tight-lipped about it. I couldn't even force out an answer from him. He always is too tight-lipped about matters. He didn't even tell me he already had a daughter until Persep - Kore told me about it."
Demeter and Hestia snapped their heads at Rhea at the same time.
"Hades has a daughter?" Hestia uttered in surprise, "With whom?"
"With Leuce," Rhea provided.
"What? But we... wasn't he supposed to be..." Demeter followed incoherently, "Does this mean MY daughter is now supposed to be a stepmother?" her eyes growing wider by the second just as her voice is rising to the highest pitch, "This is getting harder to digest!"
"Oh, Macaria is the sweetest child you'll ever meet," Rhea answered nonchalantly, "Kore quite liked her. The child already calls her mother and treats her as such, you know. The poor thing couldn't understand why Kore was taken away."
"What?" whispered Demeter, looking lost into space.
Hestia handed her a goblet full of wine, "Drink this. You look like you need one."
Demeter took it without a word and emptied it out with one gulp. Kore embracing her tightly back in the Assembly Chamber to confess her feelings for Hades flashed back painfully into her mind.
'Dear Titans,' Demeter thought to herself, 'Kore must've REALLY liked Hades.'
Demeter shook her head, "I think..." she began quite unsurely, "I mean... how did this happen?"
"What do you mean how did this happen?" repeated Rhea.
Demeter gestured her hands out in the air, "Kore... and Hades. How did this happen?" she reiterated, "She told me... she told me earlier there never was any sort of communication between them before all this happened. So HOW did it?"
"It just happened," Rhea supplied, as if it explained everything, "Your daughter didn't even know how it all came to be. She was such a mess trying to figure things out. Trying to fit him into your world. And then frightened at how you'll react to everything. She was at a loss on how to resolve things. 'Coz it just... happened. It just did."
Demeter cover her face with her hand, and then shook her head at Rhea and Hestia, asking out aloud, "But why him?" she demanded, "Of all people, why Hades?"
Rhea shrugged and answered calmly, "Why NOT Hades?"
Demeter stared at her mother and, for the longest time in her life, didn't have a reply.
