"i wasn't afraid, mama
i wasn't taken. i left.
if only you knew
how his hair is the softest
when he's on his knees,
coaxing spring
from inside me"
- Cecilia Woloch

"You are never to go near the forest again, do you understand me Persephone?" She was all but shouting. Her hands were balled into fists at her side, and I'd never in my life gotten the impression that my mother, the gentle farmer woman who had raised me, had the capacity for violence, but I felt in this moment she could set the world on fire and gladly watch it burn. I had never thought she had the capacity for such a rage.

I whirled around. "You can't tell me what to do anymore! I am not a child!"

"As long as you are under my roof, Persephone, you will do as I say! I don't care if you're nineteen or a thousand and nineteen!" She breathed in sharply. "If you go near that - that man again -!"

"You'll what?!" I returned, shouting too. "What could you possibly do?!"

Suddenly, the fire in her eyes dimmed, and her expression became even as she regarded me. "I could do many terrible things, Persephone - but I would not enjoy them."

"Terrible things?! Are you out of your mind, Mom?"

"You are capable of them, as well, my flower. Humans are capable of many atrocities, but we are capable of much worse. The world knows nothing of the kind of power I clench in my fist, of the power -"

"Come again?"

She reached out, wrapped her fingers around my hands, gently. "I've been putting this off for some time, haven't I?"

"Putting off - Mom, you're scaring me." I tried to back away, but that gentle grip held firm, and maybe it wasn't so gentle after all.

She looked me in the eyes, "There's nothing to be afraid of, Persephone."

"Well consider me afraid." I finally yanked my hands free, rubbing where her fingers had touched like she'd burned me.

"Listen, sweetheart," she implored. "I've already put this off much too long, and you need to hear the truth, and hear it from me before he tells you."

"He? Do you mean Hades?"

"Yes, Hades." She paused, seeming to debate with herself. "He's not all he appears, and neither are you, neither am I, Persephone."

I was following my Mom out to the fields, our little garden, trying my best to keep up. She wasn't a tall woman, and her legs didn't span miles with each step, but she was on a mission; I was jogging to keep up.

"What're you doing?" I asked her again.

"You have to see," she repeated.

"See what?"

Finally, we reached the fields. She pointed to a small little tree, skinny and young, that she had helped me to plant when I was little. When I opened my mouth to ask what she was doing now, she cut in: "Just watch, Persephone."

And I did.

Suddenly, the tree shot up, spread out, swallowing the ground around it and blotting out the sunshine as leaves unfurled from the branches, which had moments ago been mere twigs.

I staggered back, swearing colorfully.

My Mom shot me a look, hand on her chin, looking for all the world like the biggest thing that had just happened was my cursing. "I'll let that one go, considering the circumstances."

Meanwhile, all I could think about was the amazingly gigantic tree now encroaching on the vegetable garden. "What the hell, Mom?" This time, I gave her a look.

She took a few steps towards me. "That is what I wanted to show you."

I fumbled for words for a second. "A tree? A rapidly maturing tree?" I was still gaping at the tree's trunk.

"Funny, Perse," she rolled her eyes, but then smiled gently at me. Like I was a startled animal she was trying to save. "That's what we're capable of, honey. That and so much more."

"Mom, you sound like you're losing it."

She crossed her arms over her chest, lifting a brow at me. "You can do the same thing, Persephone."

I raised my eyebrows back. "Prove it, then."

"You have to prove it to yourself, sweetie."

Prove it to yourself. How ridiculous was that? Ridiculous, but certainly not as much as watching my mom insta-mature a tree. God. I felt like I was losing it. Was insanity hereditary? Maybe I should look into that.

I sat up to get my phone, to start googling away but fell back into the flowery wallpaper of my wall instead. I pulled my knees up to my chest and laid my head down on them. I had no idea what to think, but...but maybe someone else might? Maybe someone else could help me understand this?

What was I thinking? Hades...I didn't even know where to find Hades. But I knew where to find a good space to think.

I climbed out of bed, shimmying into a pair of jean shorts lying on the floor, and, tiptoeing down the stairs, shoved my feet into a pair of flip flops that I couldn't tell where mine or my mom's in the dark. They felt a bit big, so I guessed mom's.

The kitchen door shut silently behind me, and I headed out into the greenery shrouded in night. A warmish breeze blew, making the longer grasses reach out and tickle my legs, and the moon was bright and full overhead. It gave a very faint blue-white hue to the things that it graced with light.

I thought coming out to the fresh air, the plants and the trees would help give me what I needed to think through whatever it was that was going on. But, nothing. I was still stuck on what to do, where to go from here.

Hades' name popped into my head again, unbidden and uninvited. I sighed to myself. What was the harm in trying to find him, even when I knew I wouldn't?

I turned to my right, heading for the line of trees, even darker than everything else outside. Twigs and leaves crunched underfoot, and I heard small animals roaming around. It was eerie, but if Hades could walk this all the time, why couldn't I? There obviously wasn't anything dangerous out here.

I let my fingertips drift across bark, let myself go slowly so as not to trip over roots. I came to the fork in the path - and I knew there was nothing but a dead end down the left path, but I thought, I swore I could remember Cerberus bounding out of those dark trees. I hesitated for a moment - but what was the harm? The worst that could happen was I came to the dead end and came back the way I'd gone.

I took a step down the trail, and when my apprehension saw that there was nothing wrong, my steps became surer, my steps more confident. If I really was what Mom said, what did I have to fear from trees and plants?

I kept walking what felt like forever, but I knew couldn't have been - just today, it had taken me mere minutes to come to the end of the trail.

Up ahead, I spotted a bright spot, where moonlight was breaking through overhead tree branches. I sped up towards it. When I got close enough, I could see flowers everywhere and knew I'd hit something when I noticed some of them were trampled. So maybe it isn't a dead end after all...

There was enough illumination from the moon that I could see all the colours of the flowers, and a white one that seemed to glow caught my eye. I couldn't remember seeing one like this before, and I was sure I'd seen them all; I bent down and plucked it out of the ground. I straightened and was about to bring the flower close to my nose to smell its perfume when the ground shook beneath my feet. At first, it was subtle, until suddenly it wasn't, and I thought the ground would split open with the force of whatever earthquake this must be -

But that's not quite what happened.

The ground did split, and a huge chasm began to yawn before me, spreading faster than I could run, until I fell into it.