[ graphic: me ]

a jar of secrets
04 | hades the jerk

I stare up at him, unblinkingly.

"Let me guess, you're here to kill me too?" I ask straight faced.

Well this has turned out to be a very interesting birthday indeed.

"What?" Hades says raising his perfectly shaped eyebrow at me in confusion.

"That's what you're here for, right?" I frown as he shakes his head. "Then why are you here because you certainly don't look like God to me."

At this, the mans mouth raises up in a tiny smile.

"God and I aren't really the best of friends," he admits before standing back up to his full height - all 6'2 of it. "Now come on out of there, your legs must be killing you."

Slowly I peek my head out of the little closet, looking around for any signs of the three men from earlier but they're not here nor can I hear anything around the house.

Once I'm out, I start stretching my poor legs trying to get the blood pumping again. I feel the mans eyes on me and look up to see that he is watching.

"Who are you?" I ask wearily. Now that we're both standing up, I can see that he's dressed all in black and with the hood he kind of reminds me of an assassin.

"Hades, I'm a private detective," he explains showing me a badge. I also notice the pistol that's hiding under the oversized black sweater as he puts the badge back into his pocket.

"Who hired you then?" Something about this guy is off I can just feel it.

And where the hell is Ash and Pat?

"Your guardians."

I watch as the man then proceeds over to the door, cracking it open a little to check out in the hallway.

"Do you know where they are?" I ask him, watching as he spins around to face me, his hood covering his dark hair once again.

"You ask way too many questions," he sighs before glancing down at something on my left arm. I turn my arm so I can see whatever it is that's so interesting, it's a hand mark left from hairy guy.

"It doesn't hurt.." I mumble trying to cover it but Hades has already walked over and is standing right in front of me.

"That's because you're a-" I look up at him confused as to where he's going with this and his eyes soften ever so lightly. "Because you're full of adrenaline from what's happened, you'll probably feel it later on when we're on the road."

"On the road?" I repeat looking back up at him in surprise but he's already slipped out the room. "Okay whoever the hell you are, detective or not I don't care.. I can't just leave," I yell following him out into the hall. 

"This is my life. I'm in my last year of school and my best friends and I are going to the masquerade ball at the end of the year a-and.." I take a breath before continuing. "Ash and Patrick are probably worried sick about me right no-"

"Do you ever stop talking?" Hades asks glancing behind him to me.

"Uh no not really. When I'm scared I tend to talk people's heads off," I admit shrugging as I catch up to him on the stairs.

"I need to get you back to the Un-" I glance over at him as he continues to talk to himself, finding it quite amusing I chuckle.

"What it is?" Hade asks noticing that I had stopped a few steps above him. "I need to get you to the safe house Persephone-"

"My names Seph actually, not that really long one." I interrupt as I by pass him and down the rest of the steps.

"Is that so?" Hade retorts in again that cold, hard tone.

"Yes actually it is!" I state glaring up at him, my hands on my hips. "I've wrote that name for eighteen years."

"Fifteen and a half."

"Are you being a smart ass?" I yell as he meets me at the bottom of the stairs.

"And you're not?" I notice his eyes darken a fraction.

"No. I was just saying that I know my name and I know how to spell it thank you very much!" I snap.

Ugh I don't even care that this guy saved my life, he is a total jerk.

"Then maybe you should revise on that while we're driving," he scoffs barging right past me.

"Excuse me!"

Hades doesn't answer and instead walks straight pass the lounge room and right pass the kitchen to where the front door used to be.

I'm about to ask what his problem is when a horrible smell greets me.

The smell of something sickeningly salty, metallic mixed with either a copper or iron-y kind of smell.

"Is that blood?" Hades decides to finally hear me this time, turning around to look at me in a confused sort of way.

"What?" he groans as I try to figure out where the smell is coming from. "We haven't got time for this Persephone."

"Seph."

I realise with a start that it's coming from the kitchen, the rotting like smell is definitely stronger over this side of the house.

"You won't like what you find," he warns me when he realises that I wouldn't stop till I found out.

I choose to ignore the giant leaning against the wall behind me and peek into the kitchen, preparing myself for havoc.

What I find however is a lot worse then the havoc I was thinking.

There are shards of glass over the floor everywhere, mixing in with the dark liquid that's smeared over the once white tiles. The smashed window is making a howling noise as it lets in the roaring winds from outside, blowing the curtains back and fourth violently.

The scene in front of me is horrific as I take the rest in. The table I had been sitting at earlier this morning is broken with a dark figure laying on top of it, dark liquid running out beneath him.

I want to scream but it's like my body is too tired from trying to get away earlier that it just won't allow me to.

"I-Is that a dead body?" I ask Hades pointing towards the statute still figure in the centre of the room.

"Maybe?" I frown as I get an answer I wasn't expecting from him.

"It is. I can see it right here in front of me." I yell waving my arms up in the air like a crazy person would or what a normal person would do when discovering a dead body in their kitchen.

"I'll send someone here to clean it up after we get out onto the road, okay?"

I glare over at the man a few steps in front of me, his arms resting behind his head relaxed as if it is completely normal to find a dead person hanging around a house.

"Don't call it a it, that's a human being laying dead right there on my kitchen table!" I cry hurt.

I'm shocked to see that Hades still looks relaxed and even calm might I add, the complete opposite of how I'm feeling right now.

"Remember that he had tried to kill you."

He remains emotionless in front of me as the storm outside decides to pick up again.

"We have to help him," I tell him already climbing over the bits of rubble and fallen chairs towards the unmoving man.

"Persephone, come back here."

I don't listen to him and continue to make my way over to kneel beside the man. I realise that it was the one who had called me a cutie.

"There's so much blood!" I scream trying to stop the bleeding but my small hands do nothing against the blood gashing from the massive hole on his side. I try to look around for a piece of fabric or material but find none.

The metal smell is beginning to get to me now and I begin to feel a little faint, especially seeing my hands covered in this mans blood. I have never liked the sight of it.

"He's already dead. It's no use trying to help him now," a surprisedly soft voice tells me from behind my kneeling position on the floor.

I notice something shine in the darkness from the man's hand, a small but deadly looking dagger.

It's then that I realise what must have happened here. The three men that had been here before were all together as a group, Hades came by himself which meant that the man standing behind me must be the killer.

"Come on we must get going before the next lot of reinforcements arrive," he tells me already moving away from the devastating scene in front of us.

"I'm so sorry!" I mumble under my breath as I lean over to close the mans eyelids, in doing so my other hand finds the dagger pulling it out of the mans grip. "But I think I need this more then you do now."

I have never held a dagger before and in my small hand it feels heavier than I would've thought but as my eyes look up to find Hades back towards me, I know what I have to do.

Fight. Get out. Run.

The dagger is cold in my hand, short too at only four inches but it is sharp even the most gentle of touches to flesh would result in a bleeding cut.

I slowly push myself off the floor and back onto my feet, careful not to cut myself. Hades is crouching on the ground looking at something in front of me.

"You can do this Seph.. you can do this," I tell myself under my breath as I start taking very slow steps towards him.

"Did you want to wash you ha-"

Before he can stand up fully or turn around to face me, I quickly move my hand over his shoulder and raise the small dagger to his throat. My hand is trembling and I know that he can very easily disarm me if he wanted to.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I try to shout but my voice comes out weak and quiet.

"I'm trying my best to be nice here but if you move that dagger a centimetre closer to my throat.. I won't hesitate to hurt you, Persephone or not." Hades growls, his voice dripping with venom.

The dagger clatters onto the floor at my feet as I drop it, Hades stands up and turns around to look down at me. He looks pissed, well I mean I guess I would be too if someone had just held a dagger to my throat.

I tilt my head back so I could look up at his face and am surprised to see his eyes have changed colour, they're no longer a rich brown but dark crimson.

I let out a shaky gasp.

"Don't try that again, do I make myself clear?"

Eyes wide, I slowly nod my head watching as he closes his eyes for a split second before reopening them again.

They're back to their usual dark brown.