CHAPTER 2

That night I slept like a rock. When I woke up the next morning, I heard the most horrible sound that I swear I had ever been graced with hearing before. A group of Aphrodite's children were walking past my window, giggling over something amusing in their high-pitched, scratchy voices. I felt as though I wanted to throw a shoe at them, but I managed to restrain myself and just ignore them. I swung my legs over the side of my bed and stood up to perform my usual daily ritual before going for breakfast.

On my way there, I met a girl named Amber, and we instantly hit it off as friends. She was a daughter of Nyx, the goddess of the night, and she shared many of my interests. She was about six-foot one-inch tall, but healthily built and not lanky. Her skin was pale and her hair was raven black in color. I thought that she was very cool. We went to Mr. D to ask if we were permitted to sit next to each other during breakfast, but he replied with a short and curt 'no".

Amber and I separated, going to sit at separate tables for breakfast. As I was sitting by my lonesome, I heard a huge crack of thunder and jumped several feet. A quick glance around me showed that I was not the only one that had been given a fright by the sudden loud noise. I noticed another person choking on their toast a little. I glanced away only to notice a handsome young man standing a short distance from me. He had not been there before.

He wore a black band t-shirt as well as a pair of black skinny-type jeans. His eyes were an abnormally beautiful emerald green color, the rims of the irises colored slightly golden, framing the green. His face was an elfin-like angelic shape. He looked past the crowd and straight at me, causing a shiver to crawl up my spine. It was almost as if he had the ability to look right through me. "Come here," he said.

My legs moved on my own, but I was not resisting either so I had no right to complain. I approached the young man slowly, and he reached out to hug me when I was close enough to him.

"Who are you?" I asked, mid-hug.

He gave a small chuckle before replying. "I am Hades, the god of the underworld. I am also known as your father."

I began to feel woozy, and my vision blurred. I felt myself being lifted up, but I could also feel my attention waning. I was so tired. One more nap should have been perfectly fine.

I felt lovely and warm, as if I was covered by a blanket. I blinked sleepily and looked down on myself to see that I was indeed covered by a wolf-fur blanket. A quick glance to the clock made my eyes bug though. What I had thought to have been only a ten minute sleep was actually a three-hour nap. I glanced to my side and saw Hades sitting in a chair by the wall.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"It was difficult, but I managed," he said, avoiding answering my question with what I had really wanted to hear. "I would like to get to know you, Luna. You may be my daughter, but I know next to nothing about you," he admitted, having changed the subject just a little. He stood up from his chair. "It may be late, but I suppose that I can let you still have breakfast."

My stomach grumbled at the mention of food.

Amber joined Hades and me for breakfast. Amber, it turned out, was capable of eating a lot, but she never gained any weight. I guessed that she must have had an amazing metabolism. Breakfast overall was . . . interesting. First we got to choose whatever we wanted to have to eat. When we had enough of that particular food, we dumped the leftovers into a pit of fire. Then we could go and get anything else of our choosing. We also had glasses that filled with any drink that we wanted, just by thinking.

When night had already arrived, after a fairly uneventful day of 'touring', I found that I was actually feeling more awake than I had been these past two days. Hades stayed in the cabin with me and we talked about my mom, Raven Madison. I told him all about her, and how she was married to a broad man named Alexander Sterling. I even told him about how I knew that Alexander beat my mother regularly all through their six years of marriage, starting after I had turned five years of age.

Shyly, I continued to tell Hades of what I could remember about Alexander. I told him that I had received a phone call from a couple of officers on one evening.

"My mom had not returned home that evening. I thought it was normal as she sometimes worked late night shifts. But, the officers told me that they had found Mom beaten to death," I said shakily, pausing to catch my breath. "They also told me that they were sending around another officer to pick me up and put me under protection. They had found a note next to my mom's body. Scribbled in Alexander's handwriting was apparently

A message claiming that he was after me next."

I could feel my body start to shake all over due to some mixture of pure rage and sadness. Hades was probably still staring at me, but I did not care. I guessed that he would probably start freaking out soon. I knew that I 'changed' when I became like I was now. I knew that my irises would bleed into red and that my eye-teeth would elongate. It had happened before, so I was not too worried at all. What I had not expected was how calm Hades' voice was when he talked to me after his moment of staring in silence.

"Would you like to tell more of what happened then, or do you want to feed first?"

"Ohuh?" I was caught slightly off guard by his question, but I quickly regained my senses. "I will tell you after I hunt. You can come along if you want, but I warn you that it won't be pretty. It is your choice," I replied, using a voice that I did not completely recognize.

I stood up to leave and found that Hades was planning on following. I wondered why he had decided to come, and I promised myself to ask him later. I let go of all my normal emotions and held onto the more animalistic feelings. I discovered the scent spilt human blood. I had never tried human blood before, so I pondered what it would taste like. I also wondered who it could be.

I followed the strong smell a short distance away. When I was finally in the vicinity of the wounded human, I gave a moment to stare over at them. My eyes widened at who I saw.

Alexander— I saw Alexander Sterling.

I glanced behind me quickly, before allowing my gaze to settle back on the hateful man. I wondered if I should tell Hades who I saw. I licked my lips hungrily as I eyed the gash in the man's arm; I doubted that telling Hades now would make any difference to the final outcome.

I looked into Alexander's ghastly eyes and pure terror. I could tell that he knew something was here with him, but I could also tell that he had no idea what it was. I felt myself grin. He was finally going to pay for what he did to my mother and for what he threatened to do to me.

I lunged forward and latched onto his throat with my knife-like teeth. The force of me running at him knocked Alexander to the ground. I tore at his bleeding arm with my sharp nails, and pulled away a chunk of flesh from his neck. The elastic skin stretched for a little bit before snapping way. Alexander gurgled and choked on his own blood as the last moments of life remained with him. He clutched onto life for a little while longer than I had expected, but it pleased me that he would be feeling more pain that way. I tore at his neck and snarled while I swallowed up pieces of blood soaked meat. The blood that entered my stomach helped alleviate any uncomfortable feelings that had been there before.

When I came back to my human senses, I could not help but to just stare at the mess that I had created. I rid myself of the mauled body and checked myself over. I was relieved to find that I somehow had managed to avoid staining myself with blood— other than my face, that is.

I walked back towards the cabins and discovered Hades not too far away. He had stopped and had allowed me to carry on ahead. Hades looked at me, smiled warmly, and then hugged me. We walked back to my cabin and I told Hades more of what had happened to my mom, and he just started to hug me. He tried to comfort me by telling me that everything was going to be fine. We just stayed like that for a while, before I started to feel groggy.

"Answer me this, who was the man that you killed?" he asked.

"Alexander," I growled. "I killed that man. I just hope that he will not be able to cross the river Styx and enter the underworld."

"Hey, don't worry about that now. Why don't you get some sleep, you seem tired."

Wordlessly, I agreed with him completely. I laid down on my bed and shut my eyes, listening to him hum the lyrics of one of my favorite songs. 'Into the Flood' by Deepfield. It was surprising how well he could do it. I relaxed and fell asleep.