Forbidden Fruit

Note of Desperation: I'm really glad to see that many people have added this story to their Favorites or to their Alerts. However, it would be so much more helpful if they would review instead! It's not that hard. Just drop me a note telling me what you thought of this. It doesn't have to be long! Please review.

'Kore, would you like a tour of my kingdom?' Hades asked me casually. We were both sitting on the floor of the bedroom he'd arranged to be mine. The walls were light blue with patterns of clouds all over them as though they were the sky, surrounding me. The tiles on the floor were the green of grass. The bed was luxurious, silver, and there were two chairs for me to sit and read on. There was a dresser for the clothes which Hades had started to bring in for me, a desk for writing, and a wall covered in bookshelves. It was wonderful, and I loved it. Currently, Hades was making a crown of flowers for me, the third, and these flowers were crimson. I was wearing the silver crown he'd made with pride while I watched him work on the third one. I had told him he didn't need to pile me with crowns, but he'd just smiled and insisted that he liked to.

'Don't call me Kore,' was my immediate, mumbled reaction. He grinned when he looked up at me and I couldn't possibly be angry. I smiled back and continued toying with the yellow flower in my hands, the stickiness inside the stem spilling out onto my fingers.

'Why not? Why don't you like it when anyone calls you Kore anyway?' Hades asked playfully, reaching out to play with a lock of my hair. I jerked teasingly out of his reach and stuck out my tongue at him mockingly.

'Because my mother calls me Kore,' was my answer. 'And I tend to dislike everything my mother does. Have you noticed?' Hades grinned and inched closer to grab a strand of my hair again. I shuffled away. He shuffled closer. I stayed still, exasperated, and let him toy with the lock of hair.

His expression was triumphant; he knew he could dominate me. And I didn't mind that. 'Alright,' Hades mumbled, though I knew he hadn't really been paying attention. 'So, do you want me to tell you a story?'

My first impression was that I was three again, he was my mother, we were sitting by a roaring fireplace and I was begging for a story. I smiled, and I could tell he had the same images in his head. 'A story,' I repeated, thoughtfully. 'Alright. About what? Hercules? Perseus? Theseus? Oh, wait, maybe it will be a story of your own heroic deeds, though I cannot imagine you doing anything heroic.' I stuck out my tongue and shuffled away.

Hades moved closer, flower crown abandoned. 'Oh, you can't imagine me doing anything heroic, can you, you insolent little vixen? Well then, let's see if this doesn't awe you!' And he proceeded to tell me the story of how he and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated the Titans. He was almost at the part where he created Tartarus when a messenger burst into the room.

(…)

It didn't take too long to find out who had taken her dearest daughter. Demeter soon got to a swine-herder who, with frightened, wide eyes, reported that he'd seen the lord of the dead, Hades himself, carrying a girl with rusty, almost golden locks and blue eyes with him down to the Underworld through a hole in the ground. He added that several of his pigs had fallen into the hole with them, though Demeter knew it was his artful exaggeration so that he would be included in the tale. Demeter let out a wail like no other and rushed to Zeus to report what she'd been told by the swine-herder.

'And I'm sure she is unhappy! She has been kidnapped, brother, kidnapped! Our daughter has been kidnapped by the lord of the dead, Hades, master of the Underworld, and I am sure she is unhappy! Unhappy, my daughter, your dear, dear, daughter, unhappy! Not for the world! Oh, brother, oh, Zeus, help me, help her! You see that she has not been lost but kidnapped!'

'Hush, hysterical woman!' Zeus cried out, exasperated. 'I heard you!'

'I will not let the crops grow until you get her back to me, my dear, dear baby, my dear, dear Kore, dearest, love, sweet, kidnapped! Kidnapped! Oh, unhappy, unhappy day, unhappy Kore, unhappy-'

'Hush!' Zeus cried, standing up and nearly knocking over his huge throne. He glared at Demeter in anger. 'I will send a messenger to ask our brother if it's true and send him to me. Now hush, sister! Please!'

Demeter went back to her little cottage satisfied; she was sure that she would have her daughter back before long.

(…)

'Sir,' the messenger called out formally, his tunic dusty and ripped in some places, his blond hair curiously gray and tussled. By the look of him he'd traveled all the way from the surface! He couldn't be happy to be in the realm of the dead. Whoever had sent him must pay him well. The messenger bowed low and then said, 'Sir, Zeus sends me to tell you that Lady Demeter is on strike; she is killing all the crops and refuses to help out the farmers or answer their prayers. She says her daughter has been kidnapped and will not stop this tyrannical behavior until her 'dearest, sweetest, loved daughter' is returned to her.'

A cold feeling of dread was building in my stomach as I listened to the messenger, and I wanted to retch. My mother. Oh, my vile mother! That she should ruin my happiness now was typical. I wanted to break down and cry, or tell the messenger to go back and bury my mother in Tartarus, but suddenly I felt Hades arms around me, his breath on the back of my neck, and I was reassured. He was stronger than my mother, and he would protect me.

'Love, do you wish to go back to the surface?' he asked me gently, letting me go and studying my face intently. I shook my head vigorously.

'No! No, I do not want to go back to my mother! Let me stay here, please.' Hades saw the wild look in my eyes and enveloped me again.

'Hush. You don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to,' Hades told me softly. And then to the messenger he said, 'There. You have heard her. Tell Demeter that I have not kidnapped her daughter, but that her daughter has come with me willingly and wishes to stay. Now be off!' The messenger, however, shook his head, looking a little frightened.

'Sir, I shall tell her, sir, but Zeus requests that you come with me to the surface to see him, sir. Please, sir, you must come, sir.' Whether it was all the 'sir's or the desperation in the messenger's tone, Hades agreed to go with him.

'I'll be back as soon as I can, Persephone,' he told me gently. 'Don't worry. I will.' And then he left.

I was lonely, alone, and despairing. I thought that perhaps that tour of the kingdom that Hades had offered may do me good, and so I set off myself, leaving the palace to go around and look through the Elysian Fields. I wasn't particularly hungry, and so when I saw the table laden with decadent food, I wasn't too tempted. I went on and got to a lovely garden. It was much nicer than anything on the surface, and I found myself admiring it. There were a few flowers that I took a liking to, and many roses. There were also magnificent trees and other enticing plants, as well as ripened fruit trees, which delighted me. Picking up the hem of my tunic so that it didn't rip, I leaped to the first branch of a sturdy pomegranate tree and held on tightly, then made my way to the top of the beautiful tree.

From my perch at the top of the tree, I surveyed the Elysian Fields in wonder. The greenest grass I had ever seen rippled into hills, or just stayed flat, and there were many trees, flowers, and plants like the ones right below me waving in a slight, cooling breeze. There was no sun, and yet it was warm. I watched hordes of people moving around among the grass, caught snatches of a few conversations, and forgot entirely that these were the dead, because they were by no means somber or gloomy. They looked as happy, peaceful, calm and rested as I felt here, in Hades kingdom. And I made my decision never to leave. I liked it here too much.

When I was done admiring, I reached out and grabbed a crimson pomegranate dangling on a branch next to me and split it open. Careful not to let the sweet, enticing juices leak out onto my tunic and stain it, I reached two fingers into the fruit and extracted a single blood-red seed, put it into my mouth, and swallowed. I reached in to take another one of the delicious seeds when I heard a harsh, worried voice call out from beneath me.

'Miss?' a man's shrill voice called. I rustled a few leaves to show him I was here. 'I know you're not one of the dead. Just wanted to warn you that if you so much as nibble any food you see here, you'll be doomed to stay in the realm of the dead forever.' I listened for the man's retreating footsteps, then let the split-open pomegranate fall to the grass and placed my red hands in my lap, not caring if I stained the tunic. I tried to repress the rising dread building in my chest and stop my shaking hands.

What had I done? I thought I wanted to stay here forever just glorious moments before, with Hades, in this beautiful realm, and spend the rest of eternity in peace and solitude. But now that it was done, now that the choice had been taken from me, I realized that being confined here, in the Underworld, for eternity was a frightfully long time. I would never be able to see the sun again, the moon, the real grass, flowers, wind. And I would never see my mother again. I realized this with a pang, and for the first time I admitted to myself that I did love my mother in my own strange way. And never seeing her again would be hard.

What had I done?

Note: See that little button on the left? You know you want to press it…