Chapter 5
"Don't talk to strangers
Cause they're only there to do you harm."
- Don't Talk to Strangers by Dio
Life always had a funny way of subverting Hades' expectations. It could've been considered cruel the ways things ended up this far in his life, but since he was paving a road to create some misbegotten fortunes, maybe life was starting to lighten up on him. However, she, Life, as he was dubbing some personification of all living things, the cosmos, and the circumstances which arose because of this divine being interfering with the lives of mortals everywhere- was giving it her all in her supposed swan song.
It was here where he stood on a dock facing the East River that Hades felt the prickle of longing for an escape out of the city return at the thought of where a ferry could take him. He couldn't see a thing beyond the dock, except for the occasional white violet streaks across the horizon where destiny was calling him like a hero in tales of old to the dragon's den. Mist encircled the waters and the dingy barge was like a welcome friend, but with the gloom of darkness hanging over the wide river, it seemed nearly impossible that they'd make it out there in one piece, but he held onto the hope that they could. They had to.
He needed to see what was out there.
The farthest he ever got was a little past the Jersey state line two winters ago after some bozo bit it in the middle of a New Year's Eve party Kronos was hosting. He was subsequently thrown outta the sack and forced to venture along with one of Kronos' goons and ride in the back of a hearse with the body to make sure no one got a good look at his mug and to assist in the disposal of the corpse. Not a particularly positive memory, but it had given the boy the slightest glimpse into something other than this dismal city.
Glancing now at the weathered, shabby ship as she rose up and down in a smooth, methodical motion, riding the waters as she attempted to join the current, but the barge was hindered by the anchor that moored her and the rope that kept her from sliding away any further.
Funny, that this was how his first boat ride was going to be. Not with Poseidon, no, this was the exact opposite of what he had in mind for his first time.
From what he hoped of his first time on a boat, he imagined the sun, for once welcoming and gratifying the world with a tranquil heat. Not one cloud would turn the sky any shade less than blue, and the wind would be whipping and all encompassing just to fill the sail and allow them to follow the sun to try to make the day last forever. The smell and taste of salt would permeate everything, but they'd laugh the whole way through as the waves carried them to some distant shore. The water wouldn't be cold or frigid or unforgiving. It would be a welcoming respite when they became overheated and wanted to take a swim, unlike all the frigid rivers in this city. Coca-cola would help him scarf down all the sandwiches he could eat or make ice cream floats.
No, this thing looked like it had been through hell.
Hades passed a side glance to the wiry ferryman who began to pocket the silver half-dollars into a pocket of his heavy, long coat. "Hey, how long's it gonna take to cross, anyway?"
"Depends." The ferryman vaguely remarked before he hopped onto his boat with a finesse Hades did not expect in such an old man.
"Depends? Depends on what?!" Hades shouted, but either he was out of earshot, or the ferryman chose to ignore the chance of making conversation. Hades considered this with an annoyed grimace as he descended down onto the deck of the ship, but before he could follow him he remembered the girl.
He extended out his arm over the lip of the boat and coaxed her to grab onto his hand. "Come on, what're you waiting for?"
"Something smells awful."
"It's the river- low tide- I don't know. Pick something," Hades said.
When the girl didn't move, Hades rolled his eyes, "Look we need to-" he stopped himself mid-sentence as he realized how harsh he sounded. He needed to calm down, but how could he when he didn't even know if his brothers were still alive or- no he wasn't thinking about that option. "It's gonna be okay. If this guy turns out shady- I'll take care of it. If I could deal with uncle fatso I can handle an old bag of bones," he assured her.
"I just want to go home," Kore sighed, but resignedly took his hand and hopped aboard before the gap between the boat and the dock grew too far away.
Hades couldn't help but laugh, "Should'a thought of that before you raised the dead."
Before she could even mutter a reply, Hades was ready to dash after the ferryman across the flat-bottomed barge, but the boy hadn't gone more than a few steps when suddenly a gust of wind blew into his face and introduced him to the putrid stench of the cargo onboard.
Hades gagged and Kore followed suit, turning the same shade of green as her mother. "What the- oh," Hades instantly held his tongue as he took stock of the unusual cargo and suddenly realized what the girl had smelled. After working years at a mortuary with his mother's uncle, he recognized that smell instantly. "Whoa, okay, we're gonna play a little game right now. It's called: shut your eyes and plug your schnoz."
"What?" Kore grumbled, but her protests were hindered when Hades chose instead to focus on grabbing her arm and tugging her along to where Charon steered in a small little cabin closer to the stern of the barge.
"And you already lost," Hades deadpanned.
The girl grumpily muttered something incomprehensible under her breath as the boy dragged her into the dimly-lit cabin, furnished with glass windows, blocking out the whipping winds and thus slightly diminishing the awful smell they carried.
Charon greeted the duo with a bored grin. Lifting a cigarette to his lips, the bony man took a long drawl before disposing the ashes on a waiting ashtray that sat on a small shelf that jutted out underneath the windows. Little curios and portraits littered the shelf in a surprisingly ordered fashion along with pens and scattered little notes nailed to the shelf.
Taking note of the sickly green hue on their faces, Charon chuckled a dry smoker's laugh. "First time on a boat?"
Hades and Kore lifted unamused eyebrows while the former muttered, "Yeah, you too?"
Charon took another drag, hiding the grin he wore on his sallow face as he inspected the pair now that they were standing in his well-lit cabin. The bony man merely glanced at the slight girl with wavy blonde hair she had tied back with magenta ribbons before his attention was robbed by the tall, thin boy and noticed the slightest smear of blood on his chin and quite a few splatters on his gray shirt.
Even his hands bared some signs of hastily cleaned up blood based on the way the spots were smudged and the small grimaces he made each time he took a breath. But despite his scrappy, beat-up appearance, the air about him said otherwise. There was a strange sense of triumph about him, the way he strutted across the deck and the cocky look of determination in the gaze he gave now. He may have gotten out of a scrap, but if he knew anything about teenagers, he had just won a fight he shouldn't have.
"You look terrible."
Kore snorted, losing the haunted look in her eyes for that small moment of levity as she gazed up at the boy with a knowing smirk. "I told you."
"Oi, not this again," Hades rolled his eyes, but the young man couldn't stop his hand from running it through the wisps of hair that fell over his forehead and the clumsy hands that hastily straightened his coat. Trust him, he knew he looked terrible- hell, he felt it. Arges wasn't playing around once he had him defenseless, knocking him to his knees, and throwing him around for good measure would leave some pretty nasty bruises forming on his abdomen right about now. "So you said you're taking these dead beats to Hart Island?"
Hades patiently waited for the man to respond, but Charon seemed to be ignoring him. "Yeah, I know dumb question…" Hades rolled his eyes. "They're not using it for cemeteries anymore, right?" He pressed the taciturn ferryman, "Or do the prisons on there count as one these days?"
Charon clicked his tongue, a sound that reminded the boy of brittle bones creaking. "… No."
Hades felt his face set in a glower. His lungs began to fill with air ready to give the guy a piece of his mind, but the girl nudged him with her elbow in his rib cage, earning a wince from the boy.
"yOw!" Hades yelped. "Quit it!" He snapped in a hushed tone.
That same stern look she had given him in the automobile was once again making an appearance on Kore's sweet face. "He's being nice enough to help us cross; just let him be."
"Us? Don't get used to the term, now. Cuz you're going to stay here," Hades enunciated with a forceful jab of his finger aimed at the floor beneath them. "This guy's on a payroll so he has to get back to Queens eventually and then you'll find your own way back to your ma."
"You can't do that," Kore stamped her foot frustratedly. "How do we know we can trust him?" She harshly whispered.
Hades bent down to her level, wearing a smug grin as he did so before whispering in an oily, high-pitched tone, "But he's being so nice."
Kore's lips set into an angered pout at hearing her own words thrown back at her, but the girl was having none of it. "I'm starting to see why your brothers left you."
The smirk Hades wore on his face shattered into a million pieces like he'd just been slapped.
"Boy, can you swim?"
Hades breathed a sigh of relief and silently thanked the ferryman for giving him a reason to not respond to the girl's massive burn. "Sorry, but the name's Hades."
Charon stiffened. He began swinging his head back and forth in a disappointed, regretful manner. With an exaggerated sigh and droop of his shoulders, the wiry man began to forgo his reserved disposition and slowly turned to face the children with cold, watery eyes. "Never give your name out when you're on the run. Dropping names," he clicked his tongue in a tutting manner. " 'Specially as unique as yours- attract flies."
Hades began to feel an unexpected rush of embarrassment coarse through him at his oversight. A mental hand slapped himself silly as he berated himself silently. He was smarter than this. Why couldn't he just let go being called a boy? Frustration reared its ugly head at both himself and Charon calling him a boy, but his ears perked up as the boatman began to speak again.
"No, if anyone asks, I'll just call you…"
Charon paused as his gray eyes looked the boy up and down in a deep, pensive manner, trying to find one specific detail that would mean something to him. He was unusually tall, with a long angular face and hollow cheeks that would become even hollower once he lost the softness of childhood. His yellow eyes that heavily desired blood were wincing with pain and a mop of uncoordinated curls like wisps of flames that refused to stay put no matter how many times he swept his hand through them did not do much to add any sort of handsome features to him, but perhaps there was hope as he got older. The only indication to his actual age was the lingering annoyance in his stance and the brooding air he radiated from that fiery, steely glare he was giving him. With a final glance at the scarf wrapped loosely around the boy's neck, the sailor settled his gaze on Hades' yellow eyes.
"… Mr. Teal."
"I don't hate it," Hades shrugged. "Better than boy I'll give ya that, but… y'know," he paused. "I think it's growing on me," the boy reconsidered after another moment of thought.
"What about me?" Kore reminded the two men in the room to her presence once more. Her bright magenta eyes sweetly gazed up at Charon who in turn gazed at her thoughtfully, loosening up his iciness towards the pair.
"What about you, sweet pea?" Charon motioned the girl forward, allowing her to grab onto the steering of the ship, but the wiry ferryman kept a subtle hand just below her own to guide it just a tad. "Keep it steady now and hold her tight. Styx here is just like her namesake, wild, stubborn and a bit full of herself."
"She sounds like a trip," the girl giggled.
"A winding one," Charon sourly added.
"But she couldn't have been all bad if you named your ship after her," Kore twittered with a coy expression on her face.
Charon considered the girl's words with a grumble, but a glance on the bow of the ship reminded the ferryman of something.
"Mr. Teal," Charon grabbed a set of matches on his little shelf and tossed it into the unsuspecting boy's hands. "There's lanterns waiting for you on the deck."
Hades grumpily lifted the box of matches to his face and groaned at the sight of his second cousin on his mother's side, Nyx's daughter, Hecate. The vexatious grin she wore with her twinkling, wicked eyes were just as cruel and icy as every second he had spent in her presence. If even a picture that was supposed to be flattering could pick up on the malignant quiddity behind the attempted flirty grin she gave; there was no telling just how much the poor artist had tried to tone it down when he was hired to create a new logo for the match company they owned.
"Whatever you say," Hades stiffly began to head towards the bow of the ship.
Once Kore was positive he was out of earshot, the girl turned to the ferryman with a worried expression on her face. "Are you sure it's a good idea to light those lanterns?"
Charon nodded once. "I can't see where I'm going in this night."
Kore's mouth fell into a firm line. "But won't they see us coming? Or do you expect him to swim there?"
Charon lifted a knowing eyebrow as he considered the girl who continued to make cow eyes out his little window at the young man who struggled to light a single match.
"Mr. Boatman," Kore's face became serious, a switch the ferryman was unprepared for as her magenta eyes roamed over his own face in a quick observation before her attention returned to the steering wheel she could barely look over. "I can't tell if you're trying to ignore me, or you just don't know how to answer me."
"Yes."
Long shadows created by the lanterns from Charon's cabin were cast upon the deck of the barge, shrouding Hades' surroundings further. With the sun already gobbled by the horizon, night reigned supreme while the stars kept their dutiful watch over the inhabitants of earth. If only he could gaze up at them now and count them like he would whenever Nyx tried to get him to sleep when he was young. All those nights his great aunt would sit beside him on his bed and comfort him by numbering the stars or spinning tales of the constellations in her Greek tongue, helping the boy memorize his numbers in the language of his family, but now that sky was covered by clouds dressing up as mountains while streaks of white hot violet illuminated their heavy gray puffs.
He watched them instead of gazing at the dead piled high and dumped like they were trash. Only now did he finally dare a glance and instantly regretted the choice. He'd never seen this many dead gathered in one place, and they had been that way for a while judging by their state of rigor mortis. Tartarus, his mother's uncle and the man he was apprenticing under, would've spat at the way they were to be buried, considering it a great disrespect, but who would've claimed these lost souls? No one had come, so now they were to be buried in mass unmarked graves. It was a shame, but with how wide the city was expanding every year, the undesirables were being buried further and further away.
Hades tread carefully beside them. His footfalls barely audible across the wooden deck, but one false step sent a loud creak breaking the silence on board. Hades jumped at the unexpected noise, but after realizing it was just a loose floorboard, the boy took a deep breath.
Jeez Louise he was getting a bad case of the willies.
Putting his fear behind him, Hades reached over the lip of the ship, and carefully retrieved three lanterns by untying them from the many ropes that secured them in place. Setting them down onto neighboring barrels, Hades undid the latch on each door and swung the lanterns open.
Good, they still had kerosene.
Whipping open the box of matches, Hades' fingers began to probe the box until he managed to fish out one match. He was half-glad he couldn't see Hecate's hag face anymore with the darkness obscuring her image as he prepared to slide the match along the sandpaper side of the match box. Roaring into life, the match illuminated the youth's face, slathering him with a mini little halo of warmth.
Blocking the lit match from the wind, Hades returned his attention to the lantern and not the empty eyes that he could swear were staring right at him. "See? Nothing to worry- GAH! F-" Hades cursed, dropping the lit match onto the floorboards before putting his burnt fingers into his mouth. Amid the pain, the boy bounced and danced across the deck and took out his fingers from his mouth and inspected them. He winced as he brought his thumb and forefinger together, but decided he could live with it.
"For God's sake," Hades began to fumble again for the box of matches and procured one more match. Not wasting any time, Hades quickly lit it again.
Hades spun around to face the lanterns, but the movement plus the exposure to the wind snuffed out the light. "This is getting old," the boy took out every single match in the box and lifted his hand ready to strike them all simultaneously, "I can't even light one flaming lante-"
"Are you okay?" Kore's voice tore him out of his own concentration.
"HEY!" Hades flinched. Turning around to face the little girl, Hades glowered down at her, a hand over his pulsating heart. "Jeez Louise, you tryna give me a heart attack or what?!"
"I'm sorry! I just thought you needed help, but it looks like you're almost done."
Hades snorted. "Yeah I'll be done when I light these f- who turned on the lanterns?" Hades stared in utter bewilderment at the now lit lanterns once he turned around to face them.
"… You?" Kore pondered with a small, unsure smile.
"Oh so I managed to light three lanterns at the same time?" Hades deadpanned.
"Can you stop being grumpy for five seconds? You're going to get frowny wrinkles by the time you're all grown up," Kore tsked.
"I am all grown up!"
Kore shook her head like a mother with her toddler. "Turning sixteen doesn't make you an adult, dummy."
"I'm not sixteen! I'm eighteen- today," Hades added in frustration, earning a look of surprise from the girl.
The girl blinked up at him in astonishment. "Oh…"
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Hades deadpanned, finally noticing the blush on her small face in the dim lantern light.
Kore flashed him a shy smile. "Well, I'm almost sixteen."
Hades snorted, crossing his arms as he looked down in disbelief at the girl who barely came up past his abdomen. "Sure, sure, and by almost you mean…?"
Kore's face turned sour at his ability to catch her bluff. "Ten- and a half," she added after a second of hesitation. "I'm older than Hermes by two whole weeks!"
Hades rolled his eyes. Kids. "Wow, that means something- somewhere… Anyway, how about you just help me tie up these lanterns, and we can forget the conversation so I can move on and make a little game plan-"
"Wait, that's what I wanted to ask you about," her hesitant voice managed to slip through once again. "The lanterns. I don't think we should hang them up."
"Why?" Hades didn't look back as he began to tie one of the lanterns onto the bow. "Doesn't the old man need to see where he's going?"
"Charon," she corrected, earning a frown of recognition from the boy.
"Hold on, you called him Charon?"
"Yes, I saw some letters addressed to that name on his shelf. But look, the light will be seen by us and them! They'll see us coming."
Hades sucked in a breath ready to offer a rebuttal, but there was none. He knew that name, honest to God he knew that name. "Did you tell him that?"
"Of course, but he's not really a talker. Can you swim?"
"Nope, and even if I did, I am not diving into this water," he cast a critical eye upon the dismal waters of the wide river that separated Queens from Orthys. "Look, let me go ask him-"
Kore grabbed at his arm and held him back. "But he's not in the cabin anymore."
"What?" Hades turned his attention to the lit-cabin and observed that he was nowhere to be seen just like the girl had said, neither anywhere on deck as well. "Where'd he go?
"I don't know, that's why I'm with you!"
"How far from shore are we?" Hades dashed to the starboard side of the boat, peering over the ledge into the distance. They were halfway to Orthys, but they couldn't get there if they were set adrift without the guidance of a captain! "Great, we're nowhere near."
"I know how to steer!" Kore offered. "How about you find him and give him the old one-two treatment," she demonstrated by mimicking a boxer like the ones he watched every weekend with his cousins.
"What? No, look, babe," he began to prod the girl off him, but she refused to budge. Hades inwardly sighed and felt all his frustration simmer down. She was just a kid, he reminded himself. She had just seen someone die, someone else get seriously maimed, and now she was sailing on a boat full of the dead. She was terrified and latched herself onto the one thing she could trust, the only thing familiar since her mother and her family were far across the river. He just needed a different approach. In a softer, gentler manner like Nyx would with him when he was in a mood, Hades whispered. "Look I appreciate the chutzpah, kiddo, but let me handle this, okay?"
Kore's arms began to begrudgingly slide off of him. "O-kay," she muttered. "But I'd fix that pin, you're going to lose it," she added adamantly.
"It's tied fine," he snapped dismissively, patting the pin defensively.
"No it isn't," Kore warned. "Can you crouch down, or do I need to get on a barrel?"
The look she was giving him was one that said she was getting her way whether he liked it or not. Grumbling under his breath, Hades bent down to allow the small girl to be able to reach his neck. With her lithe fingers, Kore made quick work and undid the messy knot of the teal scarf he had made to hold the pin in place. Reaching into her own hair, she removed the magenta ribbon her mother had used to do her hair earlier that day and hung the pin onto it like a necklace before she placed it over his head.
"Pink?" Hades sneered at the bright tone of the ribbon.
Kore stuck her tongue out at him. "If you hate it so much you can hide it under your shirt."
"Don't mind if I do," he stuffed the offending ribbon band under his shirt, but his eyes locked onto his teal scarf that still remained draped over his shoulders. "Hey, Kore, right?"
The girl's eyes brightened now that he finally used her name without any sort of mockery in his voice. "Yes?"
Hades removed the scarf he was wearing, a plan forming in his mind faster than he had ever created. "I want to give you a little something to remember me by."
Charon jumped as the sound of a high pitched scream pierced the air. Racing out from under the deck, the bony ferryman reached for something in his coat, but what he found on deck surprised him to say the least.
"Hey, so I don't know where to put her. Any ideas?" Hades inquired as he held up the little girl tied up with her hands and mouth gagged with the scarf he was wearing earlier. Her whole body was squirming and her feet were attempting to kick out at the boy who held her in his arms, but he had wisely tied her legs together to circumvent any sort of resistance or escape plan.
Charon blinked. With a shrug of his shoulders, the ferryman released whatever he held in his pocket and reached out to grab one of the lit lanterns and gestured him forward. Leading him back towards the middle of the deck he had emerged from, Charon lifted up the wooden compartment that led below deck, Charon sent Hades down first and climbed down after him. He set a lantern down onto a small table while Hades stiffly set the girl down onto a neighboring chair.
Cora shot him a disgruntled look, but the boy simply shot back with a smarmy grin.
"Sorry, kid. It never would've worked out between us." Hades winked, patting the top of her head of curls as she tried to yell with the gag in her mouth. Hades' attention now zeroed in onto the ferryman, who was already moving up the ladder.
"Now hold on a minute, who said I was done with your help, Charon?"
The ferryman stiffened at the sound of his own name, but before he could move, Hades lunged forward and grabbed at the back of his coat collar and pinned him to the ladder he was ascending not even a second ago.
"Do you take me for some kinda wise guy?!"
"I don't know what you mean!" Charon struggled under his grasp, his bony arms flailed, attempting to push the boy off, but he was not budging.
"I may not know the docks, how to sail, or how to tie a flaming knot," he shot a sideways glare at Cora who still grumpily watched the scene, "But I do know the names of Uncle Oceanus' hands, and you're one of them," Hades snapped.
Charon squirmed underneath Hades' grip. While the boy's size contributed a great deal to his advantage, the ferryman's own deteriorating health and wizened body kept him completely immobilized. "Please, I'm just an old man."
Hades released the ferryman, but kept his gaze upon him as he sank to the floor. "Well, am I wrong, or what?"
Charon steadied his breath until his heartbeat came back to a steadier tempo. "No. I work him, but he's not like your other uncles. He's as much a pawn as you and me."
"With some benefits."
"Yes, some benefits," Charon admitted.
"So are you trying to turn me in or what?"
Charon remained silent.
Hades took this as his cue and procured rope from one of his pockets. "Give me your hands, babe."
"No, I'll help you," the ferryman pleaded.
"Nope, not going to chance it," Hades ignored him as he advanced on him and began to bind his hands together.
"Please," Charon pulled back his hands only for Hades to grab him at the wrists. "I swear on the woman who's name this boat bears, I will get you across this river alive and free, so help me God. "
"Amen," Cora garbled in her gag.
Hades hesitated. He spared a glance between the aging ferryman and the rope he was still tying around the ferryman's hands. He knew it was a bad idea to trust anyone, especially someone who had history working for his family, but what choice did he have? He didn't know how to sail, they were in the middle of a large river, the absolute worst place to stage a mutiny, and the amount of alarm bells going off did not cease their ringing as he studied the ferryman.
Hades searched his grizzled face underneath the wispy bone white hairs and paddy cap trying to detect any sign of malcontent. He knew how to read people. It was one of the many talents he developed over the years that had saved him from many a scrap, but there was something unreadable about this old coot. He noticed it earlier when they first boarded the boat, but Charon's indifferent and taciturn nature was by far the hardest expression he had ever tried to read. While some had twitchy eyes and expressive gestures with their hands and the way they nodded or didn't nod, others had stone faced facades he could tear apart bit by bit based on how the guy's hands or arms were positioned or even how their feet were angled. All that he could read, but this man was old- experienced and any seasoned sailor knew how to lie.
Well, there was always plan B.
"And what do you get outta this?" the young man asked cautiously.
"Just make sure I don't get put into Sing Sing," Charon chuckled.
Hades cracked a grin before he even knew he had done so. He had three cousins in there already, and the ones that had flown the coup said everything you heard about it was true; even the lies. "Heh, I guess we got a deal then."
Cora began to shout from underneath her gag, but Hades paid it no mind.
Once he was on his feet, Charon dusted himself off and held out his hand. "Real men shake at the end of a deal, son. Makes our words more than dust in the wind."
Hades quietly gazed and considered the offered hand. He had been a witness to many deals, but this would mark the first time he would be part of this most sordid of practices. A weathered and gnarled hand quite similar to the hags he had met earlier before the sun had sunk into the horizon was extended and waiting for his own. In the light of the lone lantern, Cora's head began to shake disapprovingly, but Hades ignored it as he reached out and took the ferryman's hand.
Charon smiled, a ghastly thing with the long shadows transfiguring the skin of his face like a waxen mask.
This schmuck's gonna try to kill me isn't he? Hades flashed the same wolfish grin at the ferryman.
"You going to leave Miss Sweet pea down here?"
"Oh yeah," Hades saluted the girl with a half-hearted wave. "She's been a thorn in my side since I found her. Little time in the clink'll do her some good."
"Good. We'll be there soon."
Following the ferryman out onto the deck, Hades cast a sideways glance towards Cora as he ascended the ladder and casually dropped the box of matches on the floor. The girl sent him a single nod and just when the wooden compartment closed in on her, leaving her all by her lonesome, she began to shimmy out of her crudely tied restraints.
She had some work to do.
Back in Charon's little cabin where the steering and navigating was done, Hades paid special attention to whatever the bony ferryman was up to. Whether he was tapping at his compass, rotating the steering wheel, or any other sort of business he was always watching him like a hawk.
"So you been sailing long?"
"Hm," Charon grunted, but he had no idea whether it was one of affirmation or denial.
Hades inwardly groaned. Ten minutes of this kind of back and forth. It was enough to make a sane man want to scream, but he could already see the shore and the multitude of light like a carnival that was coming from the Orthys Estate that overlooked the bay.
How could one describe the malignant mansion of which his family had resided in for the past thirty years? It was not just any run-of-the-mill mansion north of the Bronx. It was a fortress- one that Ouranos, his step-grandfather, had constructed as his dream home after his business began to boom with the need for steel for buildings instead of wood. The man spared no expense, shipping in marble from his native Greece, gold from Turkey, architects from Spain, interior designers from France, wood carvers and painters from Italy- everything inside that fifty room mansion was worth its weight in gold, and to a greater extent, the lives that were wasted to get the ludicrous amount of money to finish it.
Ouranos was no dummy in that regard and planned the mansion out to be his citadel to keep his enemies, the feds, and anyone who opposed him out. Unfortunately for him, he had not planned for someone within his own walls to do him in.
Which meant as long as he got inside, he'd be free to roam about the place, but how was he supposed to find Zeus and Poseidon? He really didn't want to show up when things were over, or worse when they were going wrong. But he didn't need to worry about that yet- the hardest part right now was going to be getting from the boat and back to terra firma.
He remembered a sewage pipe that extended out over the river from the cliff the estate was situated on. Thank God Kronos installed indoor plumbing when he took over, Hades mused.
"Where you gonna drop me off?"
"I know a place," Charon stated as the boat rocked as he began to turn the wheel sharply. "But we'll have to take a skiff to get there."
Hades inwardly cursed. "Hey, you're the chauffeur," the boy plastered a grin on his face as he followed the ferryman out the cabin.
Helping the old man, Hades grabbed hold of the anchor and threw it over board. The rope soon began to follow suit until a few seconds passed and the anchor hit the riverbed and after an additional minute, the ferry slowed to a stop.
"You take the other side," Charon ordered as he began to fiddle with the rope on one side of the small boat attached to the side of the barge to the water level. "You'll have to step inside, Mr. Teal."
Hades felt himself tense at the command. Something told him that the ferryman remained cool- not because there was a mutual trust after the deal was made, but because he had something up his sleeve, and by the looks of things it wasn't an ace.
He was going to make him swim with the fishes wasn't he?
"Don't you want to come with me?" Hades sheepishly grinned as Charon removed an old revolver from his pocket and pointed it towards his face. Second time today, but it still didn't beat his previous record of three times.
"Sorry, Mr. Teal," Charon cocked the revolver with a loud click, motioning him into the boat.
Hades began to sweat. Maybe his plan wasn't going to work after all. "We made a deal here, babe!" Hades took one tentative step into the boat, his eyes searching for the slightest sign of a blonde head. While the distance wasn't too far down since the barge was on the small side, Hades still slowly lowered himself into the boat, rocking unsteadily as his shifting weight changed the balance of the skiff.
"You never should've given me your name," Charon admitted in an even tone, almost like this didn't bother him in the slightest. "I take it Mr. Titan would't mind getting you this way-"
Even now he could still see into the ship, and there just as they had planned, Kore held the box of matches in one hand and in the other the pink ribbon with the skull pin. Hades shifted his eyes towards her before flitting back towards Charon's watery eyes.
"But you're about to be the most expensive corpse I ever ferr-"
Charon stopped mid-sentence as he felt hands begin to take hold of his shoulders, his coat, his arms, anything they could grab hold of as the dead marched forward surrounding the old man.
"Get away from me!" Charon screamed, pulling himself out of their grasp. He rotated himself around and stuck to the ledge of the boat in an attempt to put some distance between him and the oncoming dead.
Their persistent hands reached out to grab at him, their decayed ligaments straining against their bones to move, scuffling towards him with eyes hollow, but alight with a strange hellish flame.
With revolver still in hand, the ferryman began to shoot at the rotting corpses as they continued to descend upon him, but as the six shots rung in the air, Charon hopelessly looked towards the girl who controlled them all.
"Mary, mother of God," Charon gasped.
"Let 'em go, kid," Hades shouted. "He's out of rounds!"
Kore didn't need any encouragement as she staggered. Hades watched as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and fell unconscious. All the reanimated zombies too began to drop like flies, falling one by one until all nine were on the deck with her.
"Shit," Hades leapt back into the barge in and knelt down beside her, staring at her in terror. "Don't be dead, don't be dead- "
Putting his hand over her chest, the boy waited for a pulse with apprehension in his veins, until finally he could clearly distinguish her own heartbeat as his own heart was up in his throat. "Jesus, kid, I only said two or three of them," Hades made a move to pick her up, but not before taking the ribbon out of her hand and slipping it back over his neck. "Hey, Charon- shit!"
While his back was turned, the ferryman was jumping into the skiff. With no semblance of a plan, Hades snatched the unconscious girl up and booked it towards him. He watched the old man struggling to quickly grab at the oars as he tried to take off, but he wasn't going to let him get away. Hades' leg lifted to catch the ledge in his strides and that was all he needed to jump!
Charon could only stare as Hades roughly landed in the boat with the girl thrown over his shoulder. The skiff began to wobble uncontrollably at the unexpected addition and the way the weight was currently distributed. Hades immediately sat down and steadied the boat before it could turn over, his eyes wide and terrified at the prospect of being thrown into the dark current of the river.
"And who said I was done with you, babe?!" Hades snapped, grabbing ahold of the old man's collar. He could already feel his fist curling up into a ball, but his grip began to loosen when he felt the girl shift beside him. The boy gave her a glance, but it would seem whatever spell she had just cast had made her completely drained of energy.
"You're lucky I need a chauffeur," Hades grumbled, shoving the oars back into the old man's shaking hands.
Before Charon could begin to row, Hades lifted his hand. "Wait a sec'. I almost forgot," Hades reached over to the girl and found the box of matches still held tightly in her hand. With well practiced precision, Hades took out one match and struck the match.
Charon stared at him. What was the kid going to light a cig or something? But it would seem Mr. Teal was more unpredictable than he could've ever imagined as he proceeded to light the entire box on fire and chucked it at his precious ship.
The ferryman began to cackle uncontrollably. "What you think that's going to-"
But the words dried up faster in his throat than the blood in his face as the simple little flame began to spread uncontrollably and quickly across his deck.
"What did you do?!"
"Kerosene, right?" Hades shrugged, his eyes alight with a glint of mischief.
"But that's my boat! Those corpses-"
Hades stared at him with a stoic gaze far older than his years, and far more morose. In a solemn tone not befitting a young man, Hades interrupted him,"-Are getting a proper send off, and I suggest you do the same, babe." Mr. Teal's eyes began to smolder far more intently as the light of the flames began to cast their blaze upon him.
Charon's face began to crack, his visage showcasing the slightest tinge of fear. Without warning, the old ferryman began to move and were it not for Hades already anticipating this, grabbed a hold of his arm and held him back from jumping ship.
"Hang on," Hades began to peruse the skiff, his eyes lighting up at the sight of some rope. "Here we go," the boy forced Charon back into his seat and began to tie him down with the rope. "We have some old friends in here after all, huh?"
Charon said not a word as he lifted the oars back into his hands without even being instructed.
"Could you at least lend me a hand, Mr. Teal?" Charon groaned, his back bending and breaking to the repetitive motion of the stubborn tide and his rowing.
"Sorry," Hades smirked, a terrible thing to see in the long shadows cast by the flames. "But my hands are full," he lifted the still unconscious girl.
Charon grumbled to himself, but said not a word more as his arms began to burn with exertion and rage. He'd been outsmarted by children! He could never live that down once he strolled back into Queens with no boat and certainly no job all tied to a tale that would make even the most zozzled sailors shiver.
The ferryman twisted his neck around to try and see his Styx, a hard thing to miss when it was the only source of light for the whole bay. The old girl was completely awash in red and yellow flames, the beams and boards already breaking down and descending into their watery grave. He had spent many a decade on that thing, and yet he was both relieved and saddened to see it go down the way it did.
However, that was not the only reason he had trained his eyes on his beloved Styx, far from it, dear reader. With a boat that size, with a river not so popular as a thunderstorm raged just North of them, everyone would be able to see the spectacle. So now all he wondered was who was going to do something about it first?
And by the looks of things, Charon returned his attention back to the front of the skiff, facing the boy's back as he gazed unmoved towards the twinkling light of the Orthys mansion.
They were about to have company.
A/N: No, I have not abandoned this project. I just needed a good stormy night and though I wanted to get to the Titans already it just felt right setting up Charon's character a bit. I really enjoy writing it and since there's less attention to this fic so there's less pressure in getting it churned out.
And boy, do I actually miss Zeus! Here's to the moment y'all have been waiting for!
Anyway, idk when the next chapter will be up for this, but I'm focusing on Now hiring for the rest of the summer. I had more than half of this done back in February, but I just now finished and polished it.
Till next time, and as always please lmk what you think be it review or PM!