by Vera Strange
My brothers can be super annoying, Hector thought. But I’d never imprison any of them in the Underworld.
He wondered what Hades had done to make Zeus so angry. From what he knew, the Greek gods always seemed to have a lot of family drama going on, not unlike the reality TV shows that his mother loved. Dad pretended to find his mom’s shows annoying, but he was always glued to the screen when he thought nobody was looking.
“Well, isn’t this where you said it started?” Mae said, gazing up at the Hades statue. “The demons brought you here. You said the statue came to life, right?” she added, circling it slowly and studying it. “And Hades started talking to you?”
She ran her hands over the smooth marble surface, searching for clues. Hades’ frozen face peered down at them, unmoving. Hector felt a jolt of fear, remembering how the statue’s yellow eyes had popped open and his head ignited with bright, blue flames.
Hector half expected the statue to come to life again, just like it did that fateful night. But the statue remained still.
“Yeah…” he said nervously. “And well, he’s kind of scary. Not sure it’s a good idea to bother him—”
“Hey, knock-knock!” Mae called out, ignoring Hector’s warning and rapping on the statue. “Anybody home? Yo, Lord of the Dead? Wake up! We wanna talk to you!”
“Uh, I think he prefers God of the Underworld,” Hector quipped.
“Scary god dude…whatever,” Mae said, rolling her eyes. She knocked on the marble again. “You in there?”
Hector braced himself for Hades to awaken, but nothing happened.
The statue didn’t move.
The eyes didn’t light up.
The hair didn’t ignite.
While Mae inspected it further, Hector snapped pictures of Hades, as well as the other statues in the park. He caught his lens drifting to Mae, capturing some candid pics of her.
“Well, it just seems like a normal statue to me,” Mae said finally, stumped. She bit her lower lip. “Or he doesn’t want to talk to us.”
Hector lowered his camera, feeling both disappointed and relieved. They retreated to a park bench, where they shared some snacks that Hector kept stowed in his camera bag.
“Got any other ideas?” he asked. He wasn’t sure what he was hoping they’d find, but he hoped it’d be something that would help.
“Lemme see the pictures you took,” Mae said, popping a peanut-butter cracker into her mouth. “Maybe there’s a clue if we look closer.”
Hector pulled up the images that he’d snapped of Hades on the digital screen. They flicked through them, inspecting the different angles.
Hades’ frozen face flashed across the digital screen, then suddenly—
The camera starting acting up. It started to turn warm.
“Uh, do you feel that?” Hector said, pulling Mae’s hand to touch it.
“Ouch!” she said, yelping and yanking it back. “Maybe the battery’s overheating. Try turning it off.”
But then something about the image of Hades changed. Its eyes lit up with searing yellow light.
“What’s happening?” Mae said, jumping back in fear.
But Hector couldn’t look away. The camera stayed locked in his grip, as if glued to his hands…or more like melted into them.
It grew hotter, burning his palms. “Ouch, it’s burning me!”
“Put the camera down!” Mae said. “Hurry up! Drop it!”
“I’m trying, but I can’t let go!” Hector managed, wincing in pain. “My hands are stuck to it!”
Suddenly, the Hades statue came to life in the picture, gnashing his pointy teeth and snarling at them. His voice boomed out.
“The Zeus Cup belongs to me!”
Smoke started drifting out of the camera’s lens, stinging their eyes and making them cough.
Then suddenly—
Red flames surged out of the camera’s screen at their faces.
“Hurry, turn it off!” Mae yelled.
“I can’t!”
The flames seared his face, making his cheeks burn, while the camera singed his hands. Mae finally lunged toward him and hit the POWER button, then pulled her hand back to shake it out as if burned.
The flames and smoke vanished, retracting into the camera almost as if sucked into a flue, as the screen went dark.
Hector dropped the camera onto the bench and stared at the black screen. His heart thumped and his breath came in staccato bursts, like when he snapped rapid-fire pictures. His hands still tingled and felt hot from the camera burning them, but they were quickly returning to normal.
“What was that?” Hector said, struggling to catch his breath.
“I have no idea!” Mae said. “But wow, you weren’t kidding! That Hades dude isn’t very friendly.”
“Wait, you could see all that?” Hector said, the last few intense moments finally coming into focus for him. “The smoke? The fire? Hades coming to life?”
“Uh, yeah?” Mae said. “You’re right, he’s kind of scary. Actually, kind of scary doesn’t do him justice. I’d say more like, mega scary. Terrifying. Petrifying.”
“And you could hear him, too?” Hector said, excited.
“Yeah, he wants the Zeus Cup pretty bad,” Mae said with wide eyes. “He sounded angry, too.”
“Wow, I feel so much better,” Hector said, exhaling in relief.
“Better?” Mae said. “How could you possibly feel better? You’ve managed to enrage the Lord of the Dead. I’d say that’s a pretty bad situation.”
“I know, but you can see and hear it, too!” Hector said excitedly. “At least I’m not losing it. Nobody else can see him. At least, not my family.”
“Well, I wouldn’t blame you for losing it,” Mae said. “An ancient, mega-scary Greek god dude is haunting you. I’d be going a little nuts, too, if I were you.”
Hector touched the camera. It still felt warm, but it had cooled off a bit. It looked completely normal, though. Which made no sense at all. It had basically burst into flames two minutes ago, yet it was completely intact.
“What do you think it means?” he asked, glancing at Mae.
She chewed her lower lip thoughtfully.
“Somebody doesn’t want us snooping around his statue,” she said, sounding concerned. Her gaze flicked over to Hades. “What do you think he doesn’t want us to know?”
Hector breathed in—and smelled them. Books, books, and more books. His eyes scanned the cozy wood-paneled, shelf-lined space lit by overhead fluorescent lights.
“Don’t you just love that smell?” Mae said, leading him deeper inside the library.
Hector started to agree, but then he sneezed.
“Yeah, except when they trigger my allergies,” he said.
They both laughed, but then Mae’s expression turned serious. They were here for a reason, and just thinking about it made Hector feel anxious.
“This way,” Mae said, pulling his arm and leading him all the way to the back of the library. His eyes scanned the shelves as they passed, taking in the musty books.
“Where’re we going?” he asked. “I think the history section is that way. Or maybe we need mythology?”
She shook her head. “No, there’s a special section. We should start there.”
“Special section?” Hector repeated. Truthfully, he’d never spent that much time in the library. His spare time was spent on the training field.
“Yup, should be right over here,” Mae said, halting in front of a wooden door. The sign at its center read:
CURATED BY THE MT. OLYMPUS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
“There’s a special section dedicated to our town’s history and the Mt. Olympus Spartan Run,” Mae told Hector, twisting the handle and leading him inside.
The room was filled with books, maps, and historical documents. Comfortable chairs and sofas were placed around the room. There were three ancient computers on desks set against the back wall.
“Wow, how did you know about this?” Hector asked, s
canning the space. He approached a map encased in glass, studying the town layout.
“Dad made me do a research paper on the Spartan race,” she said with an exaggerated eye roll. “He wanted me to understand how important it was and learn the history. He said training is as much mental as it is physical.”
“Hard-core,” Hector said. “And also, super true. I grew up in a family totally obsessed with it, so I started learning about the Zeus Cup before I could even crawl.”
Hector explored the room. Displayed on one wall were black-and-white photographs depicting the construction of the town center. His eyes fixed on the pictures showing the marble statues being hoisted by a crane and installed in the park. He loved how photos could preserve a moment in time—or in this case—in history.
“Check this out,” Mae said, calling him over to one of the tables. She had a large book open in front of her. “According to this, the original founders of our town emigrated here from Greece.”
“Everyone knows that,” Hector said. “They brought the marble statues, too.”
“Yup, exactly.” Mae nodded, flipping through the book. “But that’s not all they brought over.”
The next page showed an old photograph of the Zeus Cup. Mae’s eyes lit up excitedly.
“They brought the Zeus Cup?” Hector said. “Wow, then it could be really old. Ancient, even.”
“Exactly,” Mae said, scanning the pages. “But there’s more. It says here that the founders of the town brought the Zeus Cup over here from Greece…to hide it.”
“But why would they need to hide it?” Hector said.
“Hades,” Mae said, her face turning darker. She flipped to the next page. Hector started back in fear—it was a painting of Zeus and Hades battling as Zeus tried to imprison his brother in the Underworld. But that wasn’t what caught Hector’s eye.
Two little demons clung to Hades’ legs as Zeus was about to strike him with a lightning bolt.
They were the same demons that had visited him in his bedroom that night and led him to the Hades statue.
Pain and Panic.
“That’s them!” Hector said, pointing to the demons. “They’re the ones that brought me to Hades in the first place!”
“They’re his minions,” Mae said, reading the description. “It says they serve Hades.”
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Hector said. “It’s impossible.”
“I can’t believe your camera tried to burn you alive,” Mae said, giving him a pointed look. “I think we left impossible behind a long time ago.”
“Good point.” Hector followed her gaze to the next section. It was all about the town’s Spartan Run.
“Look here,” Mae said. “According to this, the Mt. Olympus Spartan Run originated in ancient Greece. It was a test to select the best protector for the Zeus Cup.”
“A test?” Hector said, thinking it over.
Mae continued reading. “The victor in the race was supposed to be the strongest and bravest—the hero most suited to keep the Zeus Cup safe….”
“And out of Hades’ greedy hands,” Hector finished.
“Yup, it makes sense,” Mae said. “They wanted to find a way to protect it. Why not a race?”
Hector’s stomach filled with dread. “And I’ve completely failed as a hero.”
“No, Hades tempted you into making a deal,” Mae said emphatically, meeting his eyes. “That’s what he does—he manipulates mortals. He’s also a liar. You can’t trust him.”
Mae pulled down another book—this one titled The God of the Underworld. The cover even looked scary, with flames and demons surrounding Hades.
“Hate to tell you this,” Mae said, flipping through the book on the Lord of the Dead, “but he’s a pretty bad dude.”
“Ugh. Tell me something I don’t know,” Hector said, scanning the pages.
Images of the Underworld flashed before his eyes, making him shudder in fear. The Land of the Dead resembled a cavernous, underground hellscape constantly burning with fires and populated with ghastly monsters. They were the creatures of nightmares.
Their fearsome visages flashed before his eyes as Mae flipped the pages. One looked like a ferocious three-headed dog. Its name was Cerberus. Apparently, Cerberus was the guard of the Underworld and served Hades. Another creature had a number of heads as well, but it looked like a water serpent. Its name was Hydra.
This creature lived in a river that flowed through the Underworld named the River Styx, where Hades imprisoned the souls of mortals for all eternity, after their lifeline was cut by the Fates.
Mae flipped to the next page and scanned it. “Look here, according to this book, releasing the Titans is Hades’ main obsession,” she said, pointing to images of the creatures.
The Titans looked like monsters. There was really no other word for them.
And they had incredible powers. According to the book, the Titans were gods who ruled before Zeus, also known as pre-Olympian gods, who had been imprisoned for many millennia. They would serve whoever released them, and once freed, they would dethrone Zeus, take over Mt. Olympus, and destroy the world.
The Mountain King: a two-headed Titan made completely out of rock.
The Lurker: an ice monster.
The Lord of Flame: a lava creature.
The Mystic Voice: a being made of wind, like a tornado.
And the worst one—Cyclops. This was an enormous, bloblike pink one-eyed monster.
“Wait, so it’s not just god stuff?” Hector said, his eyes fixed on the giants’ monstrous faces. Cyclops stared back with his single eyeball. The illustration was so lifelike that Hector had to look away. “Hades wants to release the Titans when he escapes from the Underworld?”
Mae nodded. “Yeah, Hades lied to you. It’s not just god stuff. If he escapes from the Underworld in time for the Celestial Alignment that’s coming up tonight…” She tapped an image of the planets all aligned in a cosmic row. “He can release the Titans.”
“And they’ll destroy the world,” Hector finished.
His words echoed in the room, then silence enfolded them. Hector could tell they were both thinking the same thing.
We can’t let Hades get the Zeus Cup—we have to protect it.
“But what am I going to do?” Hector said, standing up and pacing around the room. Fear rippled through him. “You saw what happened with my camera. It’s getting worse, especially with the alignment coming up. Hades isn’t going to leave me alone.”
Mae bit her lip. “I don’t know. I’ll check out this book. Maybe it’ll have a clue as to his weaknesses. Something we can use against him. There must be some way to defeat him and make it stop—”
“Smell that?” Hector said, feeling his nose prickle—and it wasn’t allergies this time.
“Smoke.” Mae gulped.
“It’s Hades—he’s here!” Hector gasped, wheeling around. Smoke wafted into the library, gushing out of the shelves. It choked them and blocked the light.
Suddenly, flames erupted from the books and engulfed the bookshelf behind him. A shadowy, demonic figure rose up out of the framed picture of Hades on the wall.
“Fools! Mortals!” Hades’ shadowy figure shouted. “You can’t stop me! I’m a god—I’m immortal! Only another god can defeat me!”
Hades’ shadowy figure burst out of the painting and rose up over them, blue flames sprouting from his head. As he loomed forward, the flames erupted, turning orange, then red.
That meant he was angry.
Like, really, really angry.
Hades’ shadow thrust out his arms, knocking against the flaming bookshelf. The enormous shelf wobbled, then crashed toward Hector and Mae, threatening to crush them. Flaming books tumbled out and hit the floor at their feet.
“Watch out!” Hector said, grabbing Mae’s arm and yanking her out of the way. “Run!”
They both had great reflexes and dodged the flaming bookshelf just as it collapsed. Ash, sparks, and embers exploded i
nto the air.
“Hurry! Run!” Hector cried, pulling Mae toward the door. The smoke made his eyes water and his lungs burn and scream for oxygen. Stars danced in his vision.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The fire alarm sounded its shrill cry, but no one was coming to help.
Hector risked a glance back. Behind them, the books burned on their shelves, catching fire like dry tinder and spreading. The whole room was quickly going up in flames.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
“The Zeus Cup belongs to me!”
Hades’ demonic shadow chased after them.
His shadowy hands reached out their clawed fingers—
Hector yanked the door open just in time. He and Mae burst through it, slamming it shut behind them with a loud bang.
Patrons in the main library looked up from their reading and browsing with puzzled expressions. “Shhhhhh!” the librarian hissed at them.
Hector’s mouth dropped open. He was about to say—Call the fire department! But then he shut his mouth. They couldn’t see it. They couldn’t hear it or smell it or anything.
He turned back toward the blazing inferno they’d left in the specialized history section of the library. Mae followed his gaze.
There was no smoke seeping out from under the door. No fire alarm blaring. No demonic shadow chasing after them.
Hector felt his cheeks flame, this time from embarrassment. Mae looked freaked out, too. She glanced around the library at the patrons staring back at them in irritation.
“Why can’t they see it?” she stammered in a low voice. “But we can?”
“I don’t know,” Hector said. “But let’s get out of here.”
They burst outside into the bright sunlight. The sun would start to set soon, casting the sky into twilight and a burst of sunset colors, much like embers. The sky would look like it was on fire.
Mae still looked scared. She was breathing heavily. “Okay, Hades is way freakier than you mentioned. No wonder Zeus trapped him in the Underworld.”
Hector nodded. “Yeah, well, that was way worse than normal. And normal was already pretty terrifying. He’s getting angrier.”