Persephone and Hades

This is my story, the one of love and loss.  Hate and distrust theft and the regaining of what I lost.  My name is Persephone; my mother is the Greek goddess Demeter.  Many, many human years ago, I was stolen from my mother by the god of the Underworld, Hades.  He claimed me as his bride, forcing me to eat a berry from the Underworld so that I could not stay outside of it for very long or at least without him near me.  But I’m getting ahead of myself; I want to tell you everything.  
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I remember my last day on the planet we gods and demi-gods called Earth, where we let the mortal humans run around and be free.  Mother had sent me with a few maids to pick flowers for her, especially since she was already angry with some farmers who had not given an offering before they planted their crops.  I was obedient and left immediately, throwing on a dress no one would look at me twice in.  It was green, so that it would match my medium dark red hair.  The dress was a pale green with a low cut top, and a slit up the side, my father had given it to me for a present a while back.  The underneath of the dress was made in layers of the same color green, but because of different fabrics, they flew out from behind me separately, like I was walking on green clouds.  This was a pretty dress, but one that I had worn many times before, especially in front of Hades.  
Oh my mother hated Hades; he was everything she was not.  She was light and happy and green, he was dark and dreary.  But I didn’t blame him, his lifestyle was terrible.  Sitting in hell for all eternity, punishing souls for their sins in life, and sitting on a cold dank throne made of the bones of Kings.  Not exactly my cup of tea.  But, I taunted him, knowing I was beautiful.  Zeus loved me, but mostly because he was my father, he was everyone’s father though.  More than half the gods or goddesses could claim paternity through him, which never made Hera, his wife, happy.  I was beautiful, more than any other goddess, simply because I was a child of the full Harvest Earth.  My skin was pale like white rice from Persia, my eyes the shades of darkening leaves in the middle of spring, and my hair was the color of blood that was shed by the farmers who made everything live.  
That description was creepy, I know, but so true.  I was the demi-goddess of beauty, second only to Aphrodite herself, the little prick.  That son of hers made me just want to rip his wings out and scream.  Always running around, “Mom!  What next mom?  Can I go now?”  Made me sick.  Aphrodite was also pretty stupid, she was engaged to Hephaestus. They never got married, but he treated her that way.  She was free to run about as she wanted and to run back when things got ugly, slut.  
Anyway, so I taunted Hades, but no more than anyone else, he never even seemed interested in me most of the time, he truly bored me.  Mother always said be careful around him, but oh well, he couldn’t do anything.  So I prepared myself for my outing on Earth and left quickly.  
I chose a small piece of land near the ocean, so the flowers would smell like it, it was a whole island to myself, no humans to find me.  My maids went on one side with directions for orange flowers, with white leaves.  I had seen them around here before and thought they were lovely.  The younger one wanted to stay close, but I always climbed over rocks she was too tiny to manage.  “You go help your sisters; I just wanted these violet ones for the bouquet.  I’ll be back in a second.”  I assured her.  She nodded and ran off, still keeping an eye on me.  
The waves crashed against the mouth of a sea cave as I climbed further down to where I could see the beautiful flowers below.  Man I wished I could have Hermes’ shoes right now.  He always flitted around so easily through the sky, this would be a cinch.  I grunted slightly when my bare foot hit a small wet area from the spray of the salt water.  Finally, I hit the patched landing the beautiful flowers sat at and straightened my dress.  My bare feet looked slightly dirty, but they would be fine.  I leaned down and grabbed a few flowers, sticking some in my hair. They truly were gorgeous, not just the violet ones, but all of them.  Eventually I just sat down and made a belt of them, mother would like to see me in it.  It didn’t take me long, as the tide was starting to rise and I needed to head back anyway.  As soon I stood I noticed a hissing noise from the sea cave and saw some dark and eerie smoke rising slowly from the mouth.  
My curiosity got the best of me and I walked to the other side of the flowered landing and leaned over, to get a better view.  It was still a small ways off, but I could see something inside.  Something was moving, something black and dark green.  I leaned even more to see, but from where I was I was about to fall.  I noticed another part of the landing that I could probably see better from and ran over, leaning out.  I could see more, but not everything, defiantly not whatever was moving inside of it.  As I turned to go I heard a different noise, laughter.  That was never a good sign.  I whipped around, my mouth open in horror.  
I didn’t even have time to scream.  Before I knew what was going on, Hades flew out of the cave.  Winged horses carried his chariot into the air and straight for me, he held something small in his cupped hand, and he was staring directly at me.  In an instant he leaned over, grabbed my waist and pulled me into the chariot as if I were nothing but a feather.  Here is where I began screaming, but I shouldn’t have. I should have kept my mouth shut and just jumped, death would have been better for whatever awaited me now.   The moment I opened my pretty mouth to scream, Hades shoved whatever he had in his hand down my throat and clamped my mouth shut.  I instinctively swallowed, dumb idea.  I felt the dead weight of the berries hit my stomach, and then I could feel it lurch in pain from the fruit.  I could taste the dead of one thousand souls in my mouth and heard their scream in my ears.  I looked up to Hades in a mixture of horror, surprise, and disgust.  He just gave a small smile.  “You’re mine now.”  He muttered and turned his chariot, one hand on the reigns, the other pulling me close around the shoulders. I was still in such shock I leaned into him, trying not to fall and I looked down.  This time I screamed, and I screamed hard!
As we passed over the island, heading back to the cave, I saw my maids, running in my direction.  I screamed again and again, it was enough.  They knew what had happened and they ran to return home and tell my mother and Zeus what Hades had done.  There was nothing I could do now, except hope Zeus would get me out of this.  I hit the side of Hades’ shoulder, stupid.  He was dressed in his usual metal battle armor, with emeralds embedded in the shoulders, one of which I hit directly.  I shouted in pain and cradled my hand in the other.  “Don’t hurt yourself, my pet, wouldn’t want you ruined before I can have you.”  He gave a short, evil, laugh and I almost cried.  What was I going to do now? I couldn’t run, I couldn’t fly, jumping was still an option, but his strong arm around me kept me from even looking behind me.  Maybe if I just moved my foot backwards it could fall off and I would go with it.  I tried, but saw a small raised piece in the back of his chariot to keep that very thing from happening.  Maybe I could bite him, or just try and wiggle free.  I tired the latter first, but when he jerked me closer with a tug of his arm, I stopped, my head hurt from the snap.  
Finally, he reached the cave and dove inside.  The entrance to hell was underwater, maybe Poseidon would save me.  No such luck, he couldn’t interfere with this, not at the mouth of Hell at least.  Hades snapped the reins on his black, bat-winged, monsters and they dove down.  The water hit, but neither of us got wet as the horses flew through the water, downward, to Hell.  We finally reached the bottom of the water and broke through the barrier, landing on hard rock near a river. I looked around as best I could frantically, trying to find an escape route, but then I noticed the river.  It was the River Styx and even now the ferry and its skeleton steer were coming forward at the call of its master.  “Welcome home.”  Hades said quietly.  I didn’t even breathe, I was too angry at what he had done, and too scared really.  
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