by D Wills
Sweet little lies
~20~
We walk through an endless row of ominous narrow corridors. They’re deathly quiet, but I know when there are others around because Luca grabs my arm roughly instead of loosely holding my wrist as he guides me along. It’s hard to see in the passageways. A mortal would surely be terrified here as they wouldn’t be able to see their hand in front of their face. I can make out Luca in front of me but not much beyond that. Maybe that’s for the best. I glance at the walls either side of me as we slowly walk along; I avert my eyes to look straight ahead when I see what look like fingernail marks scratched into the walls. Luca must have felt me tense because he looks over his shoulder to me and whispers “You ok?” I nod, even though I'm not. Luca moves his hand from my wrist and places it on the small of my back, pulling me to the side of him, so we are walking side-by-side. “It’ll be ok,” he breathes in my ear. The sound of his voice so close to me sends shivers down my neck and makes my heart beat a little faster. He tries to stifle a laugh. Is he doing this on purpose? Does he know the effect he’s having on me? If he does, it is downright inappropriate. I still haven’t forgotten that hours ago he sent Josh to his death. There’s no point questioning him and getting into an argument. I may as well just let him guide me to wherever I'm destined for. I look out in front of us and see nothing but a darkness that I feel is going to swallow me up and never spit me out. Josh, wherever you are, I love you, and I'm sorry I never got the chance to tell you. Please don’t be angry at me. I want to rip Luca to pieces right now for you, but he’s the only chance I’ve got. For whatever reason, Luca seems to be my saviour in this place, and if I don’t keep him on side, who knows what they will do to me? I pray he can hear my thoughts and understand my words. As we approach the end of the corridor, there’s a small stream of light spilling into the hall. It’s highlighting a spiral staircase which is dotted with the tiny windows I saw from outside. Luca leads me up them, and I try to look out of each one so I can figure out which part of the palace I'm in. Luca forces me along too fast, though. He moves his arm further around my waist and lifts me slightly off the ground, then flies up what must be twenty sets of staircases, not pausing at any of the small landings we pass. It’s not until he sets me down in what must be the top turret - as there are no more stairs leading up - that I hear the screams from below. “Who are they?” I almost scream myself, horrified at the piercing noises coming from downstairs. “I was hoping you wouldn’t be able to hear them up here,” Luca replies blankly while he fiddles with a twisted dungeon door made out of bleached white sticks. He springs it open and gestures into the circular room which is to be my prison. But I'm not moving until he tells me what’s happening down the stairs. Luca stands waiting for me to go in, but when I don’t respond, he looks down at the ground and shakes his head. “You’d probably feel better if you didn’t know,” he tells me and looks expectantly, hoping that will be the end of it. “Try me.” I lean back on the small windowsill and fold my arms.
Luca looks slightly impressed at my challenge to him, but he quickly tries to cover it with a look of annoyance. “They’re prisoners who are being mercilessly tortured by the guards watching over them, something that they’ll all be expecting me to do to you whilst you’re up here.” He goes quiet at the end, and I stiffen up against the window, remembering the cold look in his eyes when he threw me through the first door, reminding me just what he is capable of. Luca sighs and he’s at my side before I can even blink. “Don’t worry; I’m not planning on torturing you- unless you’d like it.” He winks at me playfully. “Don’t hold your breath” “Couldn’t even if I wanted to,” he mutters as he walks back over the prison gate. “Come on.” He nods towards the empty room, and I reluctantly move towards my cage. The room is small and round, with one tiny window directly opposite the door. The ceiling is a cone with beams leading up to the peak. Each beam is made of the same stuff as the door. I’ve never seen a material like it. It twists at odd angles and splits open in different sections but fuses together seamlessly at the top, and the colour is whiter than snow. “They’re bones.” Luca is leaning against the door arch. “What!” I exclaim. Luca just shrugs. There’s no explanation he can give but maybe he could learn to be more tactful. I suppose I am in the palace of the Underworld. What more did I expect from the décor or the personnel? I continue to take in my new room. There’s a long bench at one edge of the room which must double as a bed. I’m glad I don’t need much sleep. I can see, peeking out from under the throw that’s been laid across it that it’s also made of bone. “Are they from humans?” I can almost hear Luca trying to think of a different way of saying yes. “Mostly,” is what he comes up with. I walk across to the window and look out. I can only see the Asphodel fields and the plants swaying in different spots. I guess that’s where the dead are running through. To the left I can see the bridge we crossed, but I'm too high up to see directly below me. Just above me I can see the thick layer of cloud which must lead to Elysium. I sigh, wondering where Josh is going to end up. “Do you need anything?” Luca’s voice snaps me out of thinking about Josh. “Erm … no.” I shake my head, knowing the one thing I do need he couldn’t give me. Only Josh would be able to fill the space that’s getting bigger by the second in my body. I slump down by the window, so I'm sitting on the floor which mercifully is made of stone and of no other human parts. “Okay, traditionally I would now shut this door, lock it and start to torment you.” A flash of pain crosses his face, but he shakes it off. “Then why don’t you?” Now I'm up here and relatively safe, I can be done with the niceties between us. Luca shakes his head at me slowly his face filling with disappointment, but I don’t know what’s causing it. Is this what he is then, one of Hades' guards, trained to kidnap torture and probably kill? “If one of the other guards comes up, I’ll shut the door, but no need for now.” I almost laugh at how he’s trying to force the feigned official stuff after everything he’s already done which he would probably be cast to Tartarus for. “So are you like Hades' right hand man or something?” I don’t honestly want to learn more about him, but there’s something intriguing that makes me question him, and questioning him gives my mind something else to do instead of replaying Josh’s final moments. As I wait for his response, he slides his back down the door arch, so he’s sitting at the same level as me. “I guess you could say that,” he answers, staring straight ahead. “Why what else could you say?” He laughs at my twisting of his words. “You could say I’m a slave, you could say I’m a collector, or you could perhaps say I’m a guard.” He tilts his head towards me and smirks, impressed with his roundabout way of answering my question without actually giving me the truth. “You could say I'm your only hope.” I stay quiet. Luca didn’t mean for me to hear that. He muttered it and looked away from me as he said it. He mustn't know I can hear everything he says, no matter at what volume. I jump as he brings his attention back to me. Worry is painted across his face, but he shakes it off and stares at me coldly. I stare back at his eyes, and the red that was before just a border is now seeping its way towards his pupil, turning his eyes mostly the same crimson shade. But that’s not the only thing that’s different. Before, the hard set of his jaw and sharp point of his cheek bones made him look dangerous, but now, when we’re all alone, they’re starting to appear gentler. “You want the truth,” he carries on without me replying. “I'm a soldier, a soldier for a war that’s yet to begin,” he sighs, “and one that’s tired of waiting for it to start.” He trails off, but I don’t leave it there. “Why?” He shrugs “Hades saw that Zeus had got Prometheus to make him more Gods, like you and that Poseidon had got him to make him the merfolk, so he wanted his own race made.” I shake my head at him. “Zeus would never allow Prometheus to do that for Hades.” Prometheus only made the mortals for Zeus because he spared him from Tartarus. What could Hades offer him? He holds no power over Prometheus as he lives in Olympus. Luca throws his hands out in front him and lets out an exasperated laugh, lik
e he’s argued this point before. “Hades tricked Prometheus into coming to the Underworld with the promise that he would release a Titan from Tartarus if he helped him, but once Hades got what he wanted, he told Prometheus to leave, or he’d lock him away as well, and he would tell Zeus of his betrayal.” He finishes there, but I can tell there’s more to come.
“So Zeus has no idea there’s an army down here?”
Luca shakes his head grinning. “Not a clue.” “How long have you been here?” I can’t believe this secret has been kept from Zeus. Luca doesn’t answer me. I start to chew my lip. What if the answer he’s holding back is so horrific even he’s too terrified to utter the words. “Luca…” “Acacia, we don’t measure time here as you do or as any other God or mortal does. We’ve been made for a war. We train until we are needed.” I stare at him silently, an anger rising inside of me which must be my loyalty to Olympus. I can’t believe what I'm being told. There's a secret army of, well, I don’t know what they are, but they are all waiting to strike an unsuspecting world. “If Prometheus made both of us, does that make you a God as well?” Luca grins and shrugs. “I have no idea; perhaps it makes you a demon. We all contain different powers. All I know is I'm what you would call a vrykolaka, a vampire by modern interpretation.” He scoffs at the word, but my heart starts to thump in fear. Luca must have picked up on it. “You don’t need to worry, but down here we’re all something. Hades' race consists of vampires, werewolves, demons and even some zombies.” Luca gets up and walks over to where I'm starting to panic and slumps down next to me. “I'm not going to kill you, Acacia” he openly admits.
“My skin is impenetrable so you couldn’t anyway.” Luca reaches for my hand. “Your skin is impenetrable to mortals. Do you really think Hades would order a race to be made that couldn’t defeat the opposition?” I pull my hand away, disgusted by his touch, I’ve only ever been touched by Josh, and that’s the way it shall remain. “You’re a race of monsters” I spit “You said yourself we are crafted by the same hands, so how does that make you better than me? Just because, you had the God of love invoke you with your powers doesn’t mean you’re innocent.” “I am nothing like you.” “No, you’re not. You’re blind to what is happening in both our worlds. It’s about time you opened your eyes and took in what is happening and what will happen. I spend my days marching soldiers through those fields.” He gestures wildly out of the window, and I follow reluctantly to where he’s pointing. “Every day I make them stronger, I get them ready to die for Hades to succeed. The war is coming, Acacia. You'd better figure out what side you’re on.” “Hades is going to go to war with Olympus?” I whisper, understanding now what he is saying. Luca shrugs again. His demeanour switches between fire and ice so quickly, it’s hard to keep track, but he’s a soldier, he has to be able to turn the fight on at any time.
“Hades doesn’t have any immediate plans to, but should he come under attack from either Olympus or the merfolk, he needs to make sure he’s ready.” Luca sounds like he’s reciting from the ‘Hades Good Soldier Guide’ Why would any of the different brothers lead an attack against each other? They’ve all lived in the lots they drew for millennia. Yes, everyone knows Hades got the raw end of the deal with the Underworld but he’s made it his own. He’s the King, and he’s got his own race. He has everything his brothers have. “What would start a war?” I have to ask. Luca looks deep in my eyes, and I can see a frustration burning behind his own. His lips part and close as if he wants to tell me something, but he’s either not sure how to phrase it or not sure he should tell me. “You,” he finally whispers. He moves his hand up as if to touch me but drops it back down. “Me? Me? Why, what have I got to do with anything?” I sit upright. “The one thing missing from Hades life is a Queen who loves him.” I think back to the girl in the picture with the dead eyes in the great hall. “Persephone,” I mumble quietly. Luca leans forward, so he’s level with me. “Zeus has Hera, and despite his many affairs, she still loves him. Poseidon has Amphitrite who fled when he first advanced but still returned to him. Persephone was forced to be with Hades, she never chose him, that’s why Hades is so happy you’ve been sent to him. You can give him the one thing he desires, Persephone’s love.” I can’t, but if that’s the only thing keeping me from punishment, I can’t let them know, not yet. “So you’re dead.” I quickly try to change the subject. “Where did that come from?” he asks, laughing. “Just wondered” Luca leans back against the wall either so taken aback by my change of subject he’s not going to question why any further, or he doesn’t want to talk about the war and is grateful I changed the topic. “Well, would you say that you have to be alive, to die, to be dead?” I run his words through my head a second time, checking I understand them. “Yes,” I nod cautiously. Luca grins. “And would you say that in order for you to be alive, your heart must beat, and in order for you to be dead, it must be stopped?” I think for another second, “Yes,” I answer, turning to look at him for some sort of hint of where he’s going with this. But all I see is the devilish grin he has from twisting my mind to easily. “Then, no, I'm not dead as I never had a heart to beat in order for me to be alive, and if I never lived, I can never have died.” He looks smug at my confused expression. I lean back against the wall, so we’re shoulder to shoulder and ponder his answer. “I’m going to leave for a few hours,” he tells me quietly, and I get a strange sick feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought of his absence. It must be from fear, nothing else. “I’m going to lock the door. As I'm your guard, I'm the only one who can open or lock it, so if it is shut, you’ll be safe.” He nods to himself. “Safe from what?” My mind kicks into overdrive at the possibilities of what could happen if he isn’t here. “Some of the other guards may want to come and observe you. If they do, do yourself a favour and pretend to be asleep. They should get bored and leave.” He takes hold of my hand which is now trembling. I don’t pull it away. He must be mistaking it for acceptance. “I won’t be long.” He looks into my eyes for something, probably my belief that I’ll be fine, but I don’t believe I will be. “You should try to sleep,” he tells me, like falling into a peaceful slumber would be that simple. “You could dream about me,” he smirks and winks. “That would be a pretty horrific dream,” I tell him sarcastically, but he just laughs. “Think of it more as a beautiful nightmare,” and with that he’s gone. I force my body to stop shaking. If I act like I'm not scared or worried, I won’t be scared or worried, I tell myself, but I'm not convinced. The bone door is closed and sealed behind Luca and the screams below cease momentarily. Now I'm alone in the silence, I feel a wave of emotion washing over me, drowning me in everything that’s happened.