Had to update before heading to BBQ's, Texas burger, here I come….Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter : )
The steps were steep, made of stone like the outside of the prison. Eriboea, Hermes and I descended the steps slowly and carefully. Hermes was first; the torchlight he carried illuminated the narrow stone corridor. Not a single sound came from the corridors except the sound of our own footsteps. Eriboea had told us that Aloeaus had ceased all interaction with Ares. Months ago he had decided to keep Ares chained in bronze brackets and in cell. Aloeaus then commanded to have the prison closed and stone was laid over the entrance, hiding the door. Aloeus attempted to keep Ares locked away until he faded to nothing and perished.
When we came to this simple hut of stones with a door recently covered Hermes had used a picket and with brute force pounded upon the stones until they collapsed and gave way to the door. Eriboea had brought the key and thus opened the door.
There was a haunting silence in this place, the walls seemed much too close for comfort, and the air was humid and suffocating. There was no ventilation, no wind and the further down the corridors we reached the more prominent the smell of death became. Instinct told me to turn on my heels and run from this dreadful place. But I did not listen to these instincts. I gathered my wit and persisted down the dark corridor. We had walked underground for what seemed like an eternity, seeing only what was ahead as the torch moved with us and what we left behind was left in darkness. We had finally come across another door just as powerfully built as the first one, thick and of metal. But this one did not lock; it simply had a bar that ran across from it. I moved beneath Hermes raised arm, removed the bar and opened the door.
If the corridor smelled of death, this chamber stank of it. The door gave way to a large rectangular chamber, indeed a dungeon of some sort. There were five prison cells in total, two on both sides and a fifth one straight ahead. The entrance was made of metal bars as thick as my wrists placed within four inches from one another.
Hermes approached each one slowly, illuminating the cells, the bars gleaming dimly against the light. Three were empty, and one held a dead man. He lay on the stone floor in fetal position that spoke of abandonment and defilement. Even in death he was still chained. There is something rather pitiful about seeing a person in such manner, knowing that they had been deprived of the inalienable right to be buried or cremated. I wondered what deeds he had committed to merit such a appalling fate.
"Euklid." The broken whisper of Eriboea tore through the darkness, echoing against the stone walls and repeating itself cruelly against her.
"Do you know him?" I asked.
"He is my brother." She breathing heavily, her hand over her mouth to halt the tremors that raked her body.
"He had gone missing months ago…Aloues…Dear gods how could this be? I…I" Even in the dim glow of the torchlight I could see the tears falling from her eyes. She spared one last grief-stricken look at the corpse of the man who was her kin, then she turned and looked at me in the eye, shaking her head as if she refused to belief it. She turned and ran from the chamber, her footsteps fading the farther she ran.
"Where is she going?" I asked Hermes. Though I was worried for Eriboea I simply could not turn to follow her and I knew that Hermes could not either.
"To meet her fate. She will go to her husband hysterical and grief-stricken and accuse him of killing her brother. We must hurry for when she reaches him, he shall know."
"Should we not get her?"
"Her fate is set." He simply said almost coldly. Hermes approached the last cell, the one across from the entrance.
There was somebody there, somebody still whole. But he did not move as the light illuminated his cell. His knees were drawn up, and his head rested on them. He did not move at all. But I did not require movement to recognize who he was. I would recognize that body anywhere.
His tall and powerful frame had lost weight, but not as much as he should have for a year of imprisonment, he was a god after all. His body was slender, muscles smaller but just as deadly, just as powerful. There were bronze chains around his wrists, around his neck, similar to the ones I remember from the night he was taken. The chains had formed sores against his skin. Caked blood formed rust on the chains around his wrists. The God of war was chained like a rabid dog. All because of me.
There was not a stitch of cloth on his body to distract me from what they had done to him. I knew Ares' body as I knew my own. I knew of the faint scars that adorned his body, too faint to notice in the dim light. But now he wore scars, as the god of war should. Many scars made by perhaps a dagger adorned his body, punctured wounds meant to hurt but not to kill the god of war, they were on his bicep, on his shoulder, on his thighs, deeply carved wounds that had healed. Healed but scarred.
A sob escaped my lips as I took in of everything they had done to him. The sound I made caught his attention, for he lifted his head and looked at me, giving me view of his face. A long scar ran from his hairline, through his beautifully sculpted cheek, narrowly missing his lips and ending almost at the very center of his chin. I gasped at the sight and my eyes fell upon his. When our eyes met he launched himself at the bars, snarling like a wild beast. He crashed into the bars fell, and the threw himself against them again, but this time he grabbed them, rattling them with his fists, making a pitiful howling noise deep in his throat. The chains against the floor made an eerie racket that I shall never forget.
His emerald eyes were wild and feverish, jumping from me to Hermes and back again to me. He was Ares, but he was not the Ares I had met in that ill-fated battle, fierce, frightening and demented but above all still sane enough to behold a glimmer of logic. He was not the passionate and determined Ares I fell in love with. No, here laid a shell of the man I loved inhabited by a wild, inhuman and terrifying creature. He was like a berserker of the Norse lands. To say that I did not fear him would be to withhold the truth.
"What've they done to you, brother?" Hermes asked his voice held the tormenting storms I felt. Ares tilted his head at an angle and snarled again.
"Can we release him like this?" I whispered.
"We must." Hermes said and I approached the cell. Ares unleashed like this would be fatal to anyone in his path.
Ares watched me intensely as I approached his cell. He did not move simply waited. I felt Hermes' hand upon my shoulder. At the very instant Ares became much more violent, raging in his cage like rabid beast.
"I shall do this." I said stepping away from Hermes. Ares was silent again and stepped away from the door. "Do you have the keys?" I asked Hermes.
I placed the key in the lock and turned the door, opening his cell and stepping inside with him. When I stepped inside the cell I began walking towards him, but then stopped unsure of the safety of the action. But I had made my choice the moment I had stepped inside this vile place with him. He walked closer to me, studying me, stalking me. He began walking around me like a panther, slowly and dangerously. I felt his arm rubbing against my body as he walked around me.
"Stop pacing dearest," I said as he came in front of me, my hand touching his arm. "Let me take this off." I touched the cold bronze of the chains against his wrists and at my touch the violence returned. He brutally pushed me against the wall coming closer to me; his hands came to my throat firmly grabbing me.
Ares began making that eerie growl in his throat, he grounded his teeth together, lifted his lips. I thought of what a way it was to perish in infinite darkness, with the stench of death on your nose, after being torture. I thought of what it was like to undergo such darkness after being tortured for nearly a year, and it was no wonder that Ares had been reduced to this.
His hands roughly slid from my throat down my body with bruising force.
He leaned closer to me, until our bodies were completely aligned, but his body brought me no comfort, for it was hard against my own, it pushed against me with too much force. His face came to rest against the hollow of my throat.
I moved my face away from him, turning it towards Hermes. I warned him with my eyes to stay away. Ares appeared to notice my change for he lifted his head, and much too forcefully he grabbed my jaw and turned my face towards his. A whimper escaped my lips.
"Mine." He said to my face. I felt fear, fear of what this Ares could do, of how he could hurt me. Without thought I brought my arm up between us, pushing at him. I could not stop myself from doing so, for I knew Ares was not always a gentle lover, but it had never been like this, never this uncontrollable against me, he had never been so unpredictably frightening. I had never felt so frighten of Ares as I did that very moment and the immense fear with in me made me push against him. Unconsciously I struggled against his body.
But my struggle seemed to infuriate him further. He raised his fist, and beat against the wall besides my head. I stared at him with wide eyes, cringing as his fist beat the wall.
"MineMineMineMineMineMine!" His eyes so wild and feral wanted me to understand everything with that single word. That he was capable of forming one word, even if it was simply a single word, helped me rein my fear. My heart was beating furiously as I brought my hand to his cheek and touched his cool skin. I am not afraid. I am not afraid. I told myself multiple times.
"Yes, dearest. Yours. Always yours." I said smoothing the filthy hair from his face.
"O…O..!" His full lips struggled to form the word and when they did not come, he grabbed my wrists with enough force to make me gasp and attempt to pull away again.
And then Ares was no longer against me. Hermes had pulled him from me, but scarcely. The aggressive action of Hermes merely caused Ares to forget me and turn towards the golden god. Hermes stood in a fighting stance, his face contorted in indecision, his bright eyes beautifully worried. It was the worst thing Hermes could've done, for Ares threw himself at him. When Hermes fell Ares straddled him and began savagely pounding against the golden god's face repeatedly.
"STOP! Ares, please stop! PLEASE! STOP!" But he did not listen. I ran to him and attempted to push him off Hermes, but he would not bulge.
"We have no time for this, Aloeaus can soon be here…Ares, please, and it is not Hermes your angry at. It is not Hermes you wish to kill. It is the Ephialtes, Otus!" The names jogged his memory. He stood, Hermes forgotten and started towards me.
"Let me free you. Let me unchain you so that you may find the vengeance you desperately seek." I felt salty tears on the corner of my lips and I reached out for him as he approached me. He grabbed my wrists and brought them to his neck. His hands on top of mine against the chain. And I simply nodded, understanding his gesture.
I knelt and grabbed the fallen keys. I brought them to the thick chain around his neck, placing it on the small lock and turning it. The chain fell on the floor with a loud clanking sound. I lifted his wrists close to my face and proceeded to release him from those too.
When he was finally free he did not say anything he looked up above and closed his eyes. Before my very eyes I saw as his armor appeared on his body, conjured from thin air. It was the very same bronze armor that I remember from our first battle. And then he vanished, and darkness descended again.
I hope you guys enjoyed it. C you later 3