179. Hades’ Domain
Hades’ Domain
Thanatos was watching me
as we emerged from the woods,
brambles stuck in our clothes
and blue-black leaves caught
in our hair. I took in the
four strange obsidian towers
that simply disappeared
into the earth’s crust above us
and the skulls that had been
hammered into the walls
as though a morbid decoration.
Bats flew everywhere,
one even landed in my hair,
but I shook it out before it settled.
Thanatos gestured to a small archway
at the very back of the palace.
It was twice his height
and I began to walk towards it,
but then he said, ‘We will take this way;
it is the servants’ door.’
With two thumps from
his scythe, the heavy doors
swung open. He walked ahead of me
whispering, ‘Be very quiet,
and let me do all of the talking.’