[ graphic: @rebellionofhope]

a jar of secrets
12 | the gods in mcdonalds

"I'm so hungry!" I complain when I wake up six hours later. I notice it's awfully quiet and turn to look in the back to see Hermes gone yet again. "Where is Hermes?"

"He had to go and check on something for me, he'll be back soon," Hades answers before yawning.

"You must be tired, I haven't seen you sleep at all.. well except for when you got stabbed but-"

"I'm fine sweetheart," he chuckles at my rambling. "I just don't sleep much."

"Why not?" I ask taking the cap off one of the bottles of water by my feet and taking a long sip.

"I work a lot..." Hades says eventually, almost uncertain of his words.

"So you're a workaholic?" I question raising my eyebrow.

"I guess you could say that, yes." He tells me giving me a small smile.

"Working all the time isn't good for you, you know?" I tell him taking another sip of the water since it's all we have with us.

"Isn't it? and whys that?"

"Because you forget what fun is like, and everyone needs that in their lives otherwise they turn into grumpy old people." I answer as a matter of fact.

"Yes I agree with you there. I will not work as much from now on," he smiles across at me and I smile back. "We're picking Hermes up here," he adds as he indicates to the side of an abandoned bus stop.

"How do you know when he's ready to be picked up?"

Hades sighs before giving me a small smile, I can tell right away that it's fake.

"Ear piece," he gestures to his ear.

"And how does he get ahead of us? I mean you just randomly drop him off-"

"It's a department secret...."

"Aww how sweet is this!"

"Hermes you're back!" I cry turning around to see him climbing into the middle seat pulling his seatbelt on.

"Hey my little duckling, did you miss me?" he asks leaning over to ruffle my still blonde hair.

"I'm starting to think this was a very bad idea..." Hades huffs beside me making me laugh.

"You're just jealous mister," Hermes tells him poking his tongue out. I laugh.

"I hear you girls love the tall, dark and handsome. Isn't that right Persephone?"

I slowly nod my head.

"But they also love the short, light and tricksters. Huh ducky?"

I also nod my head, trying not to laugh.

"Can we get something to eat please? I'm really hungry!" I repeat from earlier just as my belly decides to roar.

"Haven't you been feeding my poor ducky?!" cries Hermes in pretend shock and worry.

"She's been asleep the last six hours, what was I meant to do?"

"Uh get her something to eat and either sit it by her or wake her up, idiot!"

"It's alright Hades," I tell him laughing as I see a little town coming up ahead of us.

"We'll get something to eat here, I promise," he tells me looking around for food signs.

"Ooh what's that big yellow M thing?" Hermes ask looking out his window as we look for something to eat.

"Where? Where did you see it?" I cry out looking around for it excitedly.

"What does it stand for? Hidden gold or something?" Hermes asks confused at my highly estactic mood.

"No silly, it stands for McDonalds and I'm hungry and they have food!"

"Okay this uh.. McDonalds thing it is," Hades announces turning right and heading towards the big M.

I stare at the both of them confused.

"How do you guys not know about McDonalds, it's been around forever!" I laugh watching and waiting for Hades to park the car so I can hop out.

"No we've been around forever, McDonalds is recent news to us," Hermes mumbles looking out his window towards the McDonalds restaurant with uneasiness.

"Wait what?" I blink staring at him confused.

"Are you serious Uncle?! She doesn't know we're immoral?" Hermes cries hitting his uncle over the head gently.

Oh great, the whole immortal thing is back.

"Knock it off ! I'm parking here," Hades groans just as the car comes to a stop and I jump out forgetting all about the immortal thing.

"Persephone!"

I don't wait and instead rush across the street towards the big M. I laugh as I open the door and walk inside, the air con hitting me in the face and the smell of chips and burgers in the air. I make my way towards one of the empty booths waiting for the boys to come in.

"Don't run off like that, you scared us!" I jump and bang my knee under the table.

"Like ow!" I mumble rubbing it as I look up to see Hermes casually lounging on the other side of the booth.

"What the fuck, I just sat down?" I mumble under my breath glancing around, wasn't he still in the car when I got to the doors?

"I ran, you could've been in danger!" He responds looking around us.

"Yeah in danger of dying if I don't get food into me in the next two minutes," I sigh which makes him laugh.

"Don't do that again." Hades tells me taking the seat beside me, his voice deep and almost somewhat dark. "Ever."

"I'm sorry but I was hungry," I cry out just as my belly decides to roar again making both boys look at me. I shyly blush.

"We need to get some food into this woman asap." Hermes laughs as he takes the cash Hades has given him.

"I'll have a large cheeseburger meal, a box of ten nuggets with a hash brown-" I glance over at Hades. "Can I have an ice-cream too?"

Hades blinks shocked at my order before finally nodding.

"But after you've finished all your lunch, if you can fit it in..."

❦

"So what's the deal with this whole 'immortal' thing you two keep talking about?"

Hades glares at Hermes but stays quiet, eating his fries instead.

"Do you know what it means?" Hermes asks me, crossing his arms down on the table in front of us.

"Well yeah... but that's a myth." I say around a mouthful of my own fries.

Hermes sighs before taking away my packet of fries.

"Excuse you, pass my fries back over here!" I cry trying to reach across the table but it's no use, he holds them well out of my reach.

"It's not a myth ducky."

I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Are you one of those science guys? or those uh myth busters or something?" I ask leaning back and crossing my own arms. "Or highly religious maybe?"

"Just drop the subject Hermes," Hades says from his place beside me, shaking his head.

"But she has a right to know uncle."

I pick up on that.

"A right to know what exactly?" I ask looking from him to Hades.

"Some of us have been around for centuries... Hades and I, and you as well," Hermes simply says as he takes a fry out of my packet and puts it in his mouth. "We never physically age but can take different forms if we please."

"Okay..." crazy talk here. I try to look around for a security guard or someone to help me but see none. Well I can always get up and make a run for it. "So what? You're saying that we are actually.. immortal?"

"Yeah, as in we don't die," he puts in digging into my fries.

"Stop eating my fries!"

I want to add that it's crazy, he's crazy... but somewhere, some part of me knows it's true and that scares me.

"So that's how Hades healed the other day, right?" Hermes nods his head.

"Yes but it takes some time as you saw yourself," Hades adds in before trying out his burger.

"Right..." I shake my head as I reach out for my fries which Hermes finally gives back to me.

I'm about to say something else when I notice someone familiar walk by the window but it couldn't be him because they were both back at Misty Hallows.

"Ash?" I say under my breath trying to look for the familiar blonde mop of hair.

"Who now?" Hermes asks obviously hearing me across the table. Hades has stopped eating and is looking over at the window closely, searching or waiting for something to happen but nothing does.

"I just thought I saw someone I knew..." I mumble looking away from the window and back to my food. "Must've been someone else though," I say feeling disappointed.

Hermes shrugs and goes back to eating like me, but Hades stays on high alert keeping an eye on the windows and main door.

"Actually I need to make a quick phone call, keep an eye on her Hermes," Hades announces getting up and walking out to the door without a second word from him.

"You know that sounds insane, right?" I tell him referring to the immortal talk earlier.

"Listen," Hermes says looking across at me, his green eyes bright. "I'm telling you the truth here."

I roll my eyes as I start eating my hash brown.

Right and I'm the jolly Santa from the North Pole who rides a sleigh and delivers millions of presents in one night.

"And deep down, you know what I'm saying is true..."

When he says this, I stop eating and really look across at him because he's right. Deep down I somehow just know that he's telling the truth however crazy it may sound.

"Oh god! Hades needs to buy you a book," he sighs looking away from me which makes me even more confused.

"What does a book have to do with any of this exactly?" I ask him eating my last nugget.

"Everything," he mumbles around a mouthful of food with a grin. "When you have the right book of course, not these mortal ones nowadays."

"Of course... not the mortal ones, how silly of me," I roll my eyes which makes him laugh.

"We have to go!" Hades says to us both once he returns to the table.

"What's the rush Uncle Hadeso? We haven't even ordered our ice-creams yet."

"We're being watched, have been since the moment we first stepped inside this place," Hades tells us quietly flicking his eyes over to two rather normal looking men sitting outside the door.

"How can you be certain?" I ask him turning to look at the two men but just as I do so however, one of the guys turn around and grins at me before whispering something to his partner.

I watch closely as the man's partner turns around to look at us and I gasp because his face is covered in fur.

"That's how, it's a ---!" Hades mumbles angrily to his nephew.

"Sorry a... What?" I ask trying to see the man's face again but when I turn to look, both men are gone.

"Oh shit!" Hermes says obviously seeing what I'd seen. "Where did they go?"

Hades doesn't answer and instead gets up slowly and grabs my hand helping me up, I stumble as I come to stand close beside him.

"Look out!" Someone shouts close by and Hades gently but firmly pushes me out of the way as something slams into the front window shattering the glass around us.

I scream in pain as I feel something sharp dig into my left thigh.

I hear people around us scream as the glass comes down around us and others go running for cover or out the door towards the car park.

"We need an ambulance here right now!" I hear one person yell not far from where I'm laying on the cold hard floor.

"Quick go for the exit people!" That's Hermes voice shouting somewhere around me.

"H-Hades?" I cry opening my eyes to see complete chaos in the store but I don't see him anywhere even though he was just here with me.

It's dark inside McDonalds, the lights flickering off and on above me - it's like a scene from a horror movie. My head is killing me as I try to look around, I see people run pass me as they go for the door.

"Persephone?" I look up towards the sound only to be a little disappointed to see that it's only Hermes.

"Where's Hades? He was just here Hermes..." I cry trying to get my bearings and stand up.

"You're hurt, don't move okay!" Hermes shouts above the loud noise as he looks down at my leg. I notice there's a fresh cut above his left eyebrow which is still bleeding as he groans suddenly. "It's a bit of glass, wait here!"

"Hermes!" I shout as I watch his blurry figure take off towards the doorway.

Shakily I hold onto the side of the table as I push myself up to a somewhat standing position and look down at my thigh, I notice a small shared of glass sticking out and lots of blood around the area.

"So you must be Persephone, am I right?"

I blink using my other hand to touch my forehead only to pull back to see that it's bleeding as well.

"What have you done?" I yell at the darkness around me, I can't see anyone around and the smokes starting to settle in making my vision go hazy.

"It's a shame I have to do this because you're actually pretty cute." I look up just as a figure emerges from the smoke beside me. It's the guy from earlier, the one who smirked at me but now he's holding a silver dagger.

I start coughing as the smoke begins to enter my lungs, burning them and making it harder for me to breathe.

"What do you want?" I manage to cry out feeling quite disorientated and I reach out to take a hold of the table again to steady myself as I watch him walk a few steps closer to me.

The man smiles as he twirls the dagger around in his hand as he comes to stand only a few small steps away from me.

"Only you, I promise it won't hurt a bit." He adds smiling as he raises the dagger above his head.

I'm frozen in fear, I can't move or do anything that'll help me.

"My... f-friends won't be happy... a-about this!" I yell out noticing the familiar black dots beginning to cloud my vision.

Oh no... Hades and Hermes, what will they do when they find my body? What about Ash and Pat, my friends Liz and Ethan? Tears start to fall down my heated face, briefly cooling it down.

"Your 'friends' don't scare me," the man tells me grinning down at me as he lowers the dagger down over me. I close my eyes, tight.

"Yeah well they should, we're pretty awesome!" I open my eyes just as a tip of a sword appears in front of me, through the man's body and he falls to the ground instantly.

"And we protect our family."