[ graphic: @me ]

a jar of secrets
19 | my name is persephone

"They burned my socks, again!" Hermes groans sitting on the edge of the single bed, his hands over his face.

"Aw you didn't mean it, did you Cerberus?" I ask the cutie that's resting across my legs. At hearing it's name, Cerberus looks up at me, well one of its head while the other two poke their tongues out at Hermes.

"Did you see that, ugh!" Hermes cries glaring at Cerberus who licks my fingers happily as I pat each one of their heads. "Bad Cerberus!"

"Good boys." I praise them under my breath and they all smile up at me.

"What are they even doing here anyways?" Asks Hermes, glancing curiously at Cerberus and I.

"They're here to warn us."

Hermes, Cerberus and I all turn to face Hades who had gone for a quick shower, his hair still dripping water as he walks over to the couch to sit down. Cerberus turns all three heads in his direction before jumping off me and trotting over to his master, sitting calmly by his feet.

"Hello boys." Hades greets them, gently rubbing the top of their heads.

"About what exactly? Aren't we safe here?" Hermes has gotten off the bed now and is pulling the curtains to the side, peeking out into the street below.

"You guys are safe here.. for now."

We all look towards the fourth voice that suddenly fills the room.

"Hestia." Hermes exclaims rather surprised to see the older woman standing in the middle of the room in a robe. Hades gets up off the couch, sending a weary glance at the woman before nodding his head towards her in welcome.

"Sister."

Hestia is Hades sister? How many siblings does this guy have honestly.

"Hades. It's good to see you out and about again." Hestia tells him before glancing over at me, her dark eyes widening. "Persephone?"

"What are you doing here Hestia?" Hades asks her. He moves over to where I am standing and gently nudges me protectively behind him. "If He brought you down here-"

I really need to figure out who this He guy is. Everyone seems to be frightened of him and that is enough to frighten me and I don't even know who they're talking about.

"He didn't. I came by my own free will brother to help my niece." Hestia explains sending a warm smile my way as she removes the hood from the robe and shakes out her long dark hair.

"You're my aunt?" I ask her, stepping around Hades who sighs but let's me.

"One of them, yes." Hestia tells me. "The other is Hera, Queen of the Gods and rules alongside your fa-"

Hermes chooses this moment to start coughing and Hades sends a glare directed at his sister.

"Alongside who?" I ask not catching the glare. Hestia glances over at Hades in question before nodding her head towards him. "Our youngest brother."

"Come on, I think this is quite enough for one night. It's already nearly two in the morning and we all need our rest."

I tilt my head to the side watching how Hades keeps glancing over at his sister worriedly, like she knows something that I don't and the boys don't want her to tell.

"But we haven't even got started Hades." Hestia states crossing her arms over her chest, looking almost annoyed yet still holding herself like a queen. "And I won't be able to stay here for long, I'll have to go back before anyone notices I'm missing."

"How can you help me?" I ask her cautiously, her eyes turn to look over at me.

"One of Hestia's gifts is that she can allow others to witness events from the past, present and future but only events that deal with that persons family." Hermes explains from his spot near the bed.

"You can help me remember my parents!" I exclaim excitedly putting it together. Finally I'll be able to see them and hopefully remember my true parents.

"Hestia!" Hades speaks up in a warning and I turn to face him, my own hands on my hips annoyed

"Why don't you want me to remember my parents Hades?" I ask him confused. "I don't understand why. What's so bad about them?" I continue, taking a step towards him looking into his dark crimson eyes.

He turns his head to the side, looking away from me almost guiltily.

"We'll be outside brother." Hestia quickly says, gesturing for Hermes to walk out of the room as well.

"Hades? You can talk to me." I tell him after they leave. I'm standing right in front of him now, I reach out to take hold of his hands in mine. They're so small compared to his and I can't help but smile down at them.

"If I told you the truth, you'd hate me my Persephone."

I raise one of my hands to his face, my fingers softly tracing the shape of his jaw and feeling the stubble along with it.

"The truth, no matter how hard it is to tell, is the right thing to do."

"I asked your father for your hand in marriage." I gasp, dropping my hand from his face in shock.

"I was only seven years old when you knew me?" I cry out.

"I know." Hades sighs running his fingers through his dark hair. "And yet I fell in love with you Persephone. I knew you were the one I wanted to be with for the rest of our lives."

"You're immortal." I point out and he smiles sadly down at me.

"We're immortal yes. I wanted to spend all my days with you alongside me, ruling beside me in The Underworld."

"I was seven!" I repeat still in shock. "But what did my father say?" I ask still intrigued to hear the story. Hades takes my hand and brings me over to the couch, sitting us down and Cerberus comes over to join us as well.

"Your father refused of course, I was never good enough in his eyes or your mothers for that matter. You were their little princess, the little Spring Goddess, you didn't deserve to be kept in The Underworld by a hideous beast of a God."

I go to speak but Hades stops me, continuing on.

"That last night in the meadow, I went there to see you, to say goodbye."

"You're my little queen," he told me, placing the crown gently on my head. I giggled as I gestured for him to kneel down before me.

"And you're my king," I squealed, also placing the flower crown awkwardly on top of his head. He chuckled, pulling me into a tight hug.

"I have to go now my Persephone," the man whispers into my ear as he hugs me. I pull back from him confused and sadden by the news. "But you need to know that I lo-"

"Sweetheart, come away from that man!" A third voice cried out suddenly. I turned to face the owner of the voice, tears coming to my eyes as they never yelled at me.

"I think I remember that night actually..." I mumble coming back from the memory.

"Your parents thought I was going to kidnap you not say goodbye so your mother raced into the meadow and took you away from me. Your father on the other hand was so angry when he heard about this that he started the thunderstorm and I had to go back to The Underworld to hide out."

"Your mother thought it wasn't safe up there in Olympus for you anymore, and so she brought you down here in the Human Rhelm to hide you among the mortals. Once your father got news of this he become furious and went down to try to find you. But it was hopeless as your mother asked Hecate, a very powerful goddess, to create a curse for you."

At this, Cerberus begins to growl in the middle of us and Hades rubs their stomach to calm them.

"Let me guess, a forgetting curse?" Hades nods his head sadly.

"Hecate tells your father that the curse will weaken on your eighteenth, and after that your memories will come back to you. Your father wasn't happy with this and tried to undo the curse but it was no good, instead he sent down his two most trusted men to look over you until the curse was broken."

"Achilles and Patrolous?" He nods.

"In the meantime however, he trapped me down in The Underworld so I couldn't go and try searching for you. Luckily on the night before your eighteenth, I managed to escape and come down here where I started trying to track you down."

"You tried to track me down?" I find myself quite surprised at this. Hades frowns at me but nods his head.

"Of course sweetheart, I wasn't going to lose you. While I was trapped, I sent Hermes out to try and get a rough estimate of where you were situated so I knew when I escaped. He led me to Misty Hallows. After shadow travelling there however, I realized soon after that I was powerless; somebody powerful blocked them as punishment."

"Wait, so is this the he guy you guys keep talking about my father?" Again Hades nods his head looking down at Cerberus. "So why is everyone so scared of him? Especially around you."

Hades looks up towards me, his eyes darkening to a deep chocolate with specks of crimson.

"Because he wants to kill me and return you to his kingdom and your mother."

❦

"You know, if you had followed my advice earlier ducky you would already know about your parents and family tree."

"I was following your advice Hermes, I just didn't get up to my family tree." I admit looking up from the textbook in my hands. Or maybe I had but skipped over it because it hadn't rung any familiar bells.

"Do you want me to just tell you?" He asks yawning. I shake my head although I was tempted.

"No, Hestia said I needed to find it myself and then she'll show me something."

After Hades and I's talk last night, Hestia had came into the room apologizing that she had to leave now or her cover would be blown. So she left, telling me I needed to find my parents names on my own and then I just call her name and she'll show me something from my past.

"But that could take forever." Hermes groans, taking the last sip of his caffeine filled mug.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask him, dropping the book down on the table between us.

"Tell you what?" I roll my eyes.

"About my parents and Hades, how he's got a bulls eye on his head and everything." I exclaim taking a quick sip from mine trying to calm my panicking heart.

"It wasn't my place to tell ducky, you know that." I sigh but nod my head. "So where's the dude with the bulls eye anyways?"

"Updating his brother on our whereabouts and trying to get Cerberus to go back home." I explain glancing around the little cafe we had found the next morning.

"Oh my shit! You're not drunk until you have to grab onto the grass to keep from falling off the earth kids."

I blink and turn to face someone I haven't met before although I have my guess.

"Dionysus, what a surprise to see you down here my man." Hermes smiles reaching over the table to hi-five the other man. "Where you been?"

"Oh I just got back from a party a few towns over, but they didn't have a piñata." Dionysus sighs loudly before stealing my coffee and downing the rest.

"Hey! That was my coffee." I cry watching as he crashes the cup in his hand and throws it towards the bin but misses.

"Oops." But he doesn't sound apologetic.

"And why are you upset about a party not having a piñata?" I mumble unhappily still looking over at my crashed cup.

"Because young girl, a party without a piñata is not a party I want to attend."

"Okay?" I say slowly, raising my eyebrow at Hermes who just shrugs in response.

"Wait, what's your name anyways?" Dionysus asks me glancing over at Hermes.

"My name is Persephone." I find myself telling him and for the first time, I feel rather happy to say it. Hermes smiles at me, picking up on it too. As the boys turn their chairs around to catch up on things, I glance back at the motel down the street.

I'm about to leave the cafe and head back down to check up on Hades when suddenly another person fills the last empty chair beside me.

"Ares?" I cry out as he appears before me, hunched over and holding his stomach. I notice the blood pouring out of the wound around his hands and I panic. "You're injured."

"No." Ares mumbles lifting his head to look up at me. "No, I wasn't injured."

"What? Then what happened?" I ask him realizing he isn't making much sense as I run around the table to try and apply pressure to the wound. Hermes and Dionysus have also come around the table to see what's going on.

"Take us back to the room Hermes." I instruct him and he nods his head as he touches both Dionysus's and my shoulder.

"I was.." Ares takes a shaky breath as the cafe around us begins to fade out. "I was lightly stabbed."