15. Sandro
Sandro
I knew it was too good to last.
This time with Hades and me, in close contact, however impossible in my condition and current state, doing something I loved together.
It had been a magical time. Time that I hadn’t even felt until we were done and I looked back to admire our combined handiwork and realized we had been going for hours.
Damian was a trooper, biting through the pain and getting on with it, but so was Hades for putting up with everything. He didn’t need to help me or Damian, but he had, and I couldn’t appreciate that more.
Possessing his hand, becoming one was…
It had been beautiful. Magical. So, of course, it was after such a beautiful, magical moment that things would go south.
Because why allow me a moment of bliss in my life or my afterlife. Why couldn’t I, for once, be dealt good cards? Had an angel spat on me when I was born or something?
It, whatever it was, appeared out of nowhere, a large dark mass made of nothing. No, not nothing. Smoke. Condensed, thick smoke, but smoke nonetheless.
And it came at me with sharp claws before I could shout or scream.
I closed my eyes, anticipating the pain, but none came.
In fact, all that I felt when it touched me was hollow. Which was quite the irony considering I was a spirit, but that was exactly how it felt.
One moment, I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness, panic and shock, and then…
Nothing.
It was as if someone dug deep and yanked my heart out, leaving behind a corpse. A spirit corpse? I honestly needed an upgrade on my dictionary when dealing with this stuff because I didn’t feel qualified to describe any of it.
Hades touched Damian’s back, and I saw the pulsing of the magic spell activating, yet he hadn’t uttered a word. How was that possible? Unless he had, and I hadn’t heard it…being all empty and stuff.
He turned to me and froze on the spot. Pluto appeared beside him and snarled. It didn’t respond.
Then Pluto launched at me, at it, and another dark thing appeared, reaching for him.
“No,” he said.
It wasn’t angry or sad. Nor loud or quiet. It was very matter-of-fact. Like a statement. It felt like an order.
Yet whatever order it was, it didn’t obey.
Hades looked from one thing to the other, but he didn’t move. His breathing, though, got harder. I could see his chest expanding with each breath.
Pluto barked.
I knew I should be feeling something in response to it or in response to what was happening to me, but I didn’t. I was simply an observer of things, not a feeler.
The thing that had grabbed Pluto dug a claw into him, and the translucent Doberman started filling with the same black smoke as the Unidentifiable Smoky Creatures.
USC?
Nah, that will never catch on.
Hades raised his hands.
“I said no. He is spoken for!” Hades shouted.
Blue fire unraveled from his hands toward the USC, which recoiled, taking its claw out of Pluto.
Pluto ran to Hades and whimpered, nuzzling his nose against him.
Was I supposed to feel something from witnessing this? Betrayal, anger, or maybe fuzzy? Because I didn’t feel any of it.
I knew there were more things I should be feeling, but before I could even go through them, I started moving backward. It was slow but sudden, and the other creature, the one that had tried to take Pluto, also followed, getting in front of me and blocking my view of Hades and Pluto.
Hades and Pluto. Hm…
What were the chances I’d named my dog after the Latin version of Hades?
In my defense, Pluto was named after the animated character, but maybe—just maybe—there was something to Hades’ idea that I was a reincarnation from his time.
Maybe I wasn’t Persephone though. Maybe I was someone else. Someone who had been close to him but not been with him.
My rampant thought process was interrupted when something silver and shiny cut through the blackness, dispelling the smoke and creating a hole in the creature, and from within it, I saw Hades midjump. The Sai he had thrown returned to him, and as he landed on the floor in front of the creature, he slashed with another Sai in his other hand.
Wherever the blade touched, it sliced the creature, creating gaps in its smoky composition.
It was fruitless though.
Within seconds, the darkness reformed and the creature returned to its full glory.
“You’re not taking him!” he shouted, bursting through the creature, unafraid of its claws.
He stopped for a moment and looked at me with gritted teeth and bright-blue eyes.
I wanted to open my mouth and say something, although what that something was, I did not know.
I didn’t get a chance anyway because the creature pulled me back yet again.
Hades’ face scrunched up in a scream as he stabbed the creature behind him and ran after me, slicing at the clawed hand covering my chest and neck.
It was stupid to feel alive when you were dead, but that was exactly how I felt when the contact with me and it , the dark creature, broke.
I stumbled forward and panted even though I had no lungs or breath.
But those precious moments were enough to feel again. Because that was what it was. The feeling of being alive? It was having deep, meaningful emotions again, and boy, did it make a difference.
Hades stabbed, turned, sliced, and kicked again and again with such grace that he appeared to be dancing. I was enthralled watching him battle the USCs—oh yes, baby, I’m gonna make that stick—that I didn’t notice when one of them split into two and jumped straight at me.
“Get away. Shit. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me again.”
I backed away as far as I could, passing through the wall of my parlor, through the little damp storage room next door that had caused too much trouble with mold in my property, and ended up outside on Bateman Street in broad daylight. People walked past in droves.
Must be a weekend. Is it?
The USC wasn’t deterred. It kept coming for me, passing through humans as if they were nothing, disinterested in them. Its only concern was me. And no one could help me because no one could see either of us.
“Help. Get away from me. Help! Somebody!”
Of course my cries went unanswered. I didn’t expect anything more, but a boy had to try.
The creature towered over me, humans passed through us, and I could only watch as it bent and stretched its claw toward my chest.
This is it. I’m going to die.
Again.
For fuck’s sake. Wasn’t once enough? Do I have to go through this again?
I closed my eyes and embraced the end. I didn’t waste time with fear. As soon as it touched me, I knew I wouldn’t feel a thing.
The claw breached my spiritual form and filled me with darkness and…
Dissolved.
I slowly opened my eyes, and the creature was gone, the people were gone, and the only one left was Hades with Pluto by his side.
I blinked.
And blinked again.
Was I dreaming? This was a dream, right?
No, not a dream. This was the end. But why would my end be filled with visions of Hades? Pluto, I understood. He was my buddy. But Hades? He was a stranger. A kind, beautiful stranger who’d done more for me than anyone else ever had, but a stranger nonetheless.
“Are you okay?” He reached for me, and I took his hand.
I looked around.
No, this wasn’t the end. There were still people around. They were staring at Hades as if he were a madman, but they were there.
“What happened?” I asked and took his hand before I remembered I didn’t actually have a corporeal form, so I fell back down.
“The Wraiths. They came for you.”
Wraiths. He’d mentioned those before, but the details refused to rise to the surface.
“Oh. Wh-what are they again?”
“They…they come to claim unjudged souls, and if they take them?—”
“The souls cease to exist. Right.” It came to me as soon as he started the familiar spiel from last night.
Only, at the time, we were talking about someone else, about someone I didn’t know. Someone that wasn’t me. This time, it was different.
“But you sent them away, right?” I finally rose to my feet.
He shook his head, and some people behind Hades grimaced. All they were probably seeing was an armed man talking to himself.
“I can’t. I don’t control them. I simply wore them out. But make no mistake. They’ll be back. And when they do, I don’t know if I’ll be able to protect you.”
As if on cue, Hades collapsed and clenched his stomach.
I bent and searched for any injuries. There were none.
“Are you….are you all right?” I asked.
Silly me. Of course he wasn’t.
“I’m fine. Physically. It’s my…my soul. It’s dying.”
I bit my lip. “What did they do to you? Do you need a doctor? A spell?”
He shook his head. “All I need is to save you. Then I’ll be fine.” His eyes were big, the puppy-dog kind, and they made me feel things.
I was so glad I could feel things again. Being caught in the Wraiths’ grasp had been…it hadn’t been nice.
“Gods, I’d kill for a drink right now,” I said.
Hades took a deep breath and, with a deflated sigh, dusted his hands.
“Me too. Where can we find the strongest nectar around here?”
I chuckled.
“Nectar? No, honey. We’ll need something much, much stronger than that. And I think I know just the place.”
Sometimes, it was easy to forget Hades wasn’t from around here, but then, other times, most times I guessed, he’d say things like nectar and my love, and I’d remember who he was all over again.