Six Months with Cerberus

by Lucas, Naomi

  Then there were the screams of stolen sex and torment. Disgusting Menoetes held down a small maenad and thrust into her. Tantalus cried as Dionysus poured wine over his head, wine Tantalus would still be denied, as nymphs caressed their breasts before him, turned on by his wails. Not all the screams were good ones. Even rape could create life.

  The only ones spared were Cerberus, Hades, Cyane, and…Melinoe.

  He found the goddess sitting alone at the edge of a pond, and with Hades’s command still in Cerberus’s mind, he went to her. His stiff erection died as he neared.

  He searched for Hermes as he crossed towards Melinoe, preparing to signal that he needed his end of their deal upheld, but couldn’t find the golden pest. Cerberus gritted his teeth. He wouldn’t search for him, his hounds already found the god’s scent somewhere deep within the trees, and it wasn’t a good smell. Blood, feces, and semen.

  Melinoe glanced at Cerberus. Naked naiads and maenads swam around a dead Arae male, touching and kissing his corpse, one which they probably drowned not long ago.

  “Sweet Cerberus, what do you want?” Melinoe asked. Ghostly hands came up from the ground to pet Melinoe’s skin.

  “Nothing from you.”

  “Then why are you bothering me?”

  Cerberus moved his eyes back to the goddess, surprised. Melinoe had never not wanted his attention before. “Hades deems it fit to punish me with your presence this day, goddess.”

  She laughed, but it was tinged with sadness. “You must’ve done something horrible for such a punishment. Tell me, is the punishment really for you or for him? To keep me away from him this day?”

  “I wouldn’t presume to guess our lord’s mind.”

  “Try, if not for me, then for a promise that I won’t approach my father this day?” Melinoe dipped her fingers into the water, and the nymphs jumped out.

  “He did it for both then, as much to torment me as to ensure nothing ruins his day.”

  “Hmm.”

  The Arae’s corpse floated and drifted to the middle of the small pond. The body began to convulse and shake, slow at first then wildly. A soul tore out from its body and transformed into a ghost. He screamed and wailed, moving unwillingly towards Melinoe.

  The goddess flicked her fingers through the water, urging the Arae’s soul to her, and when he stood before her, his translucent jaw hung slack from such violent screams. Melinoe forced him down to kiss her.

  Disgusted, Cerberus turned away.

  When she was done, Melinoe shoved the ghost towards him. “Something to alleviate your torture.”

  Cerberus stared at the crying male and drew him closer. His belly yawned with hunger, his mouth grew wide beneath his helmet, and familiar sharp teeth split from his gums. Several of his hounds arrived as Cerberus grabbed the ghost by its neck and opened his human mouth beyond its natural limits. The Arae screamed again as it contorted and slipped under Cerberus’s helmet to be devoured.

  The soul’s cries joined the hundreds of thousands of others inside him. It did little to quench the void.

  Cerberus found Cyane when he was done with his meal. Nothing would ever be as good as her.

  I get to devour her slowly, beautifully, lovingly.

  Lovingly. A strange word to enter his head. He hissed.

  Melinoe tilted her head. “Was it not enough?”

  “It’s never enough.” I want Cyane, by my side, not Hades’s.

  This truly was punishment.

  “How did you find her?” Cerberus asked.

  “Why does my father hate me so much?”

  “I don’t know, perhaps the same reason everyone detests you, goddess.”

  Melinoe wiped her fingers on the grass and stood. “But you do know. I know you do. End my eternal torment, and I’ll end yours. I’ll never bother you again. We made a deal, your dear Cyane and I.”

  A deal? “You assume I can’t withstand your presence, I lived for eons before you were brought into this world, I will live countless more after you’re gone.”

  “I offered her freedom,” Melinoe taunted him with a whisper. “Tell me what I want to know and my deal with Cyane will be broken. Besides, she won’t make it above before her mind dies, then she’ll be mine forever more.”

  His hand shot out to grip Melinoe’s neck before he realized what he had done. “What did she offer in return?”

  She didn’t fight him off. “I want an answer to the question I’ve been asking, the same one even my own mother won’t answer.”

  “You’re the goddess of nightmares.” He squeezed, wanting so badly to snap Melinoe’s neck. “The goddess of insanity. You’re mere existence hurts.”

  “I’m powerful.”

  “You’re a curse.”

  “The longer you stay beside me, the worse it will become, sweet Cerberus. Tell me, tell me, and I’m gone. Tell me now, and Cyane’s deal is broken. The longer I’m near her, the worse it will get. The more she encounters me, the more her thoughts will melt. She’s not a god, she’s mortal, and she’s susceptible to me. I’ve already stroked her mind on several occasions. She won’t be able to recover what sanity she’s lost. Mortals are weak, and I can’t stop it. Tell me, and I will never go near her again.”

  Fury unlike never before filled him, fury laced with mania. He jerked Melinoe up then threw her to the ground. She scurried back with a laugh. “I’m hungry too, sweet Cerberus. Grab my neck again and take me like you took her!”

  “You’ll never go near her again?” he snarled, kneeling over the goddess. He didn’t eat living beings, detested blood, but he’d make an exception.

  “Never. I promise. I swear an oath on Styx. I will never go near Cyane again.”

  His mouth burned. “You’re not Hades’s daughter. You’re the product of rape. Zeus, Persephone’s own father, raped her after giving her to Hades. He stole Hades’s heir. Your mother can’t look at you without pain, and Hades knows you are the curse of Persephone’s pain. You, Melinoe, exist as punishment, and not even Olympus wants the darkness that follows you.”

  The goddess was never supposed to know, and now she did.

  He’d betrayed Hades again.

  Cerberus was beginning to realize he’d do anything for Cyane. Lovingly. The word was too close to love. His kind didn’t love…did they? He was the last one left of his breed.

  The goddess’s eyes widened. She sank back into the dark grass, and her eyes closed with a shuddering breath. Cerberus rose up, but not before he dipped his hand into the pond to get the feel of Melinoe off of him.

  “Thank you,” she said at last without her usual despair. “Thank you, sweet Cerberus.”

  A genuine smile teased Melinoe’s lips. The first he’d ever seen her have.

  She drew in the darkness and vanished, keeping her end of the bargain.

  He searched the area, but no longer sensed her. Melinoe was gone. None of his hounds had her scent anymore. Pressure lifted from his chest.

  His head cleared some, but not enough. It would never be enough. Not anymore, not after everything that had happened.

  He stepped back into the forest and watched Cyane and Hades from the shadows. She sat in Persephone’s spot, perhaps a little further back, and a little to the right. She was in his Queen’s seat, where no one had ever sat besides Leuce, a nymph that his lord had also stolen from above. Persephone turned Leuce into a white poplar tree upon her discovery of their affair.

  Just because one thorn in his side was gone, didn’t mean his promise to protect Cyane became any easier.

  ‘Cyane is not yours, she is mine.’

  ‘I belong to you.’ Cyane’s voice eclipsed Hades’s.

  Hades’s love for nymphs wasn’t a secret, but it had been rarely entertained, incredibly so. Cerberus studied as his lord’s gaze lingered on the writhing maenads across the glade.

  Cyane is a mortal, not a nymph. Hades had neither touched nor wooed her, where the women of his past—if they didn’t come willingly—were taken against their
will.

  If Persephone saw Cyane sitting there, would she know that?

  The Day of Deviance was nearly over. He tore his eyes off of Cyane and drew the darkness to him, hating himself for leaving her in such a place alone. Dozens of his hounds moved to stand guard around the dais. If something should happen, he would know. He would return.

  Cerberus stood in the gatehouse room once more, alone for the first time since Cyane’s arrival in his haven. Loneliness from those previous days returned quickly. He glanced at the bed for a split-second, picturing her there. She faded away. He was turning towards the terrace when something caught his eye.

  A white scrap of cloth?

  No, a piece of paper.

  It didn’t belong. He knew everything that was in this room. Not one thing in this space had been placed there by anyone but himself...or Cyane.

  Cerberus reached out and touched it. The note smelled of Cyane, even more so than the bed. It smelled like power and history, endless travel and tears.

  There was nothing like it here in Tartarus. It was a thing from above. The only items Cyane had with her were her clothes, and those had been promptly destroyed.

  He picked the paper up and flipped it over.

  ‘Dear Cyane, come to Thesmophoria on your twenty-fourth year. We await you in Syracuse, Sicily. Your father.’

  He recognized the handwriting.

  The Question Best Left Unanswered

  Gazing out from the dais, Cyane thought she’d found Cerberus, but then the shadows shifted once again to shady foliage. The potent reek of Dionysus’s wine and the pounding tribalized music put her on edge.

  She couldn’t look at the bodies around her for long without her stomach feeling the urge to succumb to its own violence. Cyane tangled her fingers in her lap and pressed her thighs together tightly.

  Before her was a glittery pond where a single female bathed. A naked male watched from the shore. They played a game, chase and retreat, a form of foreplay.

  Guilt filled her for watching such a sight, but it was far easier to focus on them than the sounds in her ears, the brutal orgy, or Hades, who sat barely a foot away, acting as though he’d forgotten she was there.

  And now I’m wetting the seat. Unwanted desire still beat in her. Cyane wrenched her eyes closed with embarrassment.

  “How are you enjoying the entertainment?” Hades asked.

  Her eyes snapped open.

  “It’s...interesting…my lord.” It makes me feel sick and terrible. It makes me want to run. It makes me want to hate everything about this place.

  It makes me want to join in.

  “Yes,” Hades mused with a little more mirth then she cared to hear in his voice. “Every year I’m awed. You would think if you’d lived as long as I have, and have seen what I’ve seen, not much would phase you anymore. Yet today always brings a surprise.”

  “Some of your subjects are being hurt.”

  Hades turned towards her. “Do you feel for them? Would you stop their hurts if you could?”

  Even from the corner of her eye, his presence was all consuming when his attention was on her. “Yes.”

  “Even though this day has happened each year for countless years?” Hades raised one ebony brow. “Everyone came here knowing exactly what would happen, the dangers they were putting themselves in, as well as the vast pleasure, and they still choose to come. Some choose to be hurt. They seek it. They need it. Some come to hurt others or for revenge from past years.”

  Cyane licked her lips. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “To tell you not to care so much.” Hades laughed. “They didn’t have to come. No one is here against their will.”

  She tangled her fingers even tighter in her lap. “Except me…”

  Don’t look at him. Don’t look at him! She didn’t want to see Cerberus in him. I want Cerberus, not him.

  The woman in the pond splashed at the man on the shore, stealing Cyane’s attention. She wondered what it would be like to be them right now. They appeared so carefree and happy, enjoying their voyeurism without shame. It’s not like she was voyeuristic, but she’d switch places with the nymph in a heartbeat to be free of...this.

  “Cyane, even you came here with free will,” Hades purred.

  Cyane paused. “I followed you for answers.”

  “Hah! Yes, yes you did. But I mean here”—he waved his arm out—“to my kingdom. You couldn’t stay away. You were given all the freedom of the world above, yet you still came here willingly.”

  She stiffened and turned to him, flinching when she saw Cerberus for a split-second. “What do you mean? My boat capsized. I was on the way to Sicily for—”

  “Thesmophoria?”

  “How did you know?”

  He leaned over the arm of his chair and lowered his voice. “What do you think this festival is? It’s not like the mortal one above, which is all women honoring my shrew of a sister, Demeter, where they beg and pray for good harvests and fertility. That bitch brought you winter and starvation without a care in the world for your meager mortal lives. She’s as selfish as they come.”

  “And you kidnapped her daughter without consent and kept her here to be your queen, I’d say you’re selfish, too,” Cyane snapped.

  Hades’s smile turned wicked, and she turned back to the couple playing at the pond. They were gone.

  “Zeus gave me consent,” Hades spat, “and if Zeus gives his consent, there is no other consent one needs. He rules everything. Even me.”

  A stocky, wizened man flashed in Cyane’s head. Long white hair with crows feet framing the side of his eyes. His leering gaze was ancient and full of lightning. The image disappeared, and she realized she was thankful to be sitting next to Hades. How was that possible?

  “It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “I didn’t come here willingly.”

  “Yet you carried my note for twenty-four years.”

  Her stomach sickened. What?

  Hades continued speaking.

  “You read it nearly every day once your young mortal mind could comprehend words. You, Cyane, were the most eager of all to be here. Even I could feel your desire from so far below.”

  The air stole away from her lungs. “No.” Shock dominated her mind, and her hands untangled from each other. “You lie,” she stammered.

  “If only life could be that easy for you.”

  “No,” she said again, heart thumping painfully in her chest. Maybe if she said it enough times, it would be real. But Hades reached out and touched a tendril of her hair, petting it with fingers that were now so familiar. It made her want to vomit. No, please. Please, god no.

  “Yes,” he said softly, terribly. “You turned out perfect. Persephone will be pleased.”

  Cyane jerked back with a cry. “Don’t touch me!” She moved to stand, but Hades clamped his hand on her shoulder. Her struggles were nothing against his strength.

  He forced her back down. “You will sit, and you will listen. That’s why you’re here, aren’t you? To watch others fuck with the man who is the closest thing you have to a father?”

  She cried out again, shaking now, trying not to hear what he was saying. She didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to know anymore. If the note came from Hades…

  My whole life...

  “We don’t have much time before my Queen arrives, and once that happens, we’ll both be too busy to even look at each other, let alone speak. You’re going to help me, Cyane, because you exist for no other reason, and you will serve obediently, because I know of your treachery to escape this place, and I know what Cerberus would do for you.” Hades chuckled. “He’s committing even more treason as we speak!”

  Cerberus. She couldn’t find him among the trees, the orgy. His hounds walked in and out of the treeline shadows. She caught the gaze of one and held it, finding a modicum of courage. She swallowed down the bile in her throat.

  She didn’t want to believe Hades. It wrenched her mind, but if what he said was
true, then…

  Her fingers twitched to claw out her eyes.

  “If you want to ensure Cerberus’s safety, you will listen and you will obey. Understood?” Hades’s voice slithered into her.

  Cyane nodded.

  The moans and guttural grunts of countless orgasms filled her ears, but none were enough to eclipse Hades’s voice.

  “Good.” He released her shoulder.

  Cyane slumped as though all her strength had been drained. Her skin was frozen where he’d touched her.

  “It was no small feat to bring you back to life, so you owe me a great debt. Not only did I have to collect your soul from the world above because, well, you’d never truly died, but Charon was also not thrilled to leave his ferry to travel inland.”

  “My—soul?”

  “It matters not. You were dying, and I’ve waited a long time for it to happen, but it still wasn’t fast enough. The mortals above honor you to this day, and their worship was enough to make you linger.

  “You see, I’m an incredibly patient god, one of the most patient of my family, but after hundreds of years waiting for you to die so I can bring you back to life in your former form, well, I grew restless.”

  She didn’t understand what he was telling her. The possibility of leaving this place and returning to her life before was crashing and burning with each word he spoke. She desperately needed to believe this was all tricks and lies—even when something deep inside told her it wasn’t.

  I’d already succumbed to my fate here. The fate that a normal life above, a reunion with normal parents, was impossible, and had been for awhile.

  “Are you really my father?” she whispered.

  “Not in flesh or blood, or godly gifts. I would never sire a mortal. I couldn’t, even if I fucked every child-bearing female above. Not that I would. Only Persephone holds my lust these centuries. In terms of giving you life...I suppose I am responsible for your existence, but I would never claim you as a child.”

  “Why?” she rasped.