After parting from our girl's night out, Isabella and I said our goodbyes and drove home separately and went back home to our apartments. I was so damn tired that whenever I got inside, I locked my apartment door and went into my bedroom and passed out across my bed, leaving the lights on and not even bothering to change into my pajamas.

This next morning, when I woke up, I heard the loud sound of someone banging on my apartment door. Steadily, I rose from my position across the bed and yelled out. "YEAH, YEAH. I'M COMING. KEEP YOUR SKIRT ON!"

I figured that would keep the person on the other side of my door calm for a few minutes as I stumbled my way through the apartment. However, the person on the other side started doing again, this time more impatiently, as I guess they figured that I wasn't getting there fast enough.

I huffed in annoyance when I got to my apartment door and then asked in a sing-song voice. "Who is it?"

"Your worst nightmare." The male voice gruffed.

Feeling like I wanted to annoy the hell out of the bastard who disturbed my Sunday morning sleep fest. I replied back in a curious tone. "Sorry, dude. I met my worst nightmare last night and you ain't it."

"Open the door, Persephone! Now." The man bellowed.

"Look, I'm sorry. I think you have the wrong house. There is no one named Persephone that lives here." I grumbled out.

As soon as those words left my lips, I heard the man on the other side of my door yell back at me. "You have exactly till the count of five to open this door and let me in, or I promise you that I will kick it in!"

"I'm not going to open this door for you. For one, I have no clue who the fuck you are and two, for all I know you could be a rapist or something. So, no I'm not letting you in. Now, GO AWAY!" I yelled back as I walked over to the couch and took a seat.

I hoped that that had made him go away. However, a few seconds later I heard him begin counting.

"1"

"2"

"3"

"4"

"Persephone. OPEN THIS DOOR! I'M NOT PLAYING GAMES WITH YOU!"

I kept my mouth shut and stayed quiet on the couch. Figuring that if this crazy bastard came in, that I was going to call the cops.

"5!"

As soon as he screamed that number out, I heard a loud bam and watched as my apartment door came right off its hinges and land within an inch from where I was sitting. When I turned my head towards where my door used to be, I saw a large, pale, burly man standing at the entry, staring at me with a look of both anger and relief on his face.

Still, in a bit of shock and awe at this behemoth of a man standing in my doorway, I quickly moved across the plush gray couch and grabbed my house phone off the table that it was sitting on and began dialing, 911. However, before I could even press the one on the keypad, I felt him wrap his hand around my wrist and grip it hard.

I winced in pain that he was causing my wrist from his tight grip and tried to prise his fingers from where they were currently digging into my skin. However, that ended to no avail. Then the next thing that I knew, he jerked me up off the couch and right smack against his darkly clothed chest.

I tried to squirm and move away from him and even punched him in the chest with my free hand. However, the punch did little to affect him, I ended up hurting my own hand in the process. As I went to look at his face, I noticed that he was nearly two foot taller than my five-foot height. His medium length black hair partially covered over one of his eyes and he looked as if he was wearing goth makeup.

I wanted to scream out for help, but I was too terrified to do so as I was afraid of what this stranger would do to me. My body began to shake in fear and panic. I closed my eyes and pressed my face against his chest and started to hope that this was all nothing but one bad dream and that I would wake up in my bed.

However, that hope was not meant to come true, as the next thing that I knew the stranger began stroking his hand down the back of my head and through my long blonde locks, and then murmured to me. "My dear sweet Persephone. You have finally returned to me. I have been searching for you for many centuries. I can't believe that I finally found you."

Quickly, I opened my eyes and began staring blankly at his chest, all the while wondering to myself why this big bastard was still calling me Persephone. As he continued doing what he was doing I felt a burst of strength inside me and I pushed myself away from his grasp and looked up to his face and said in a shaky voice. "Look, I'm telling you for the second and final time. I am not whoever this Persephone person is. You have the wrong apartment. You need to leave before I call the cops."

The man smirked at me and bellowed out a deep laugh and then said in a stern voice. "Persephone, Persephone. Your human laws do not affect me at all. You can call those people all you want, but they can do nothing to a god like me. I am staying right here with you and there is nothing that no man can do about it."

"A-a god, what the hell are you talking about?" I asked as I slumped back down on my couch and took another look at my destroyed door.

"I am the Greek god known as Hades, the ruler of death. I don't see why I have to explain this to you Persephone, you should already know this." He announced in a matter of fact tone as he walked over to the couch that I was sitting on and sat down beside me.

The couch creaked and groaned underneath his weight and I thought for a second that it was going to break. I moved over an inch from where he was sitting and turned and looked at him and said. "Will you stop calling me Persephone?! My name is Sophie."

Hades looked at me for a couple of seconds in silence and then said. "So that is your human name now. I like it, it suits you so well."

"What the hell are you talking about a human name? My name has always been Sophie. I have never gone by anything other than that name."

Hades made a tsking sound with his lips and wagged his finger in front of me a couple of times and said. "Now, now dear. There is no need to get angry with me. The reason why I said a human name is because you are the reincarnation of my dearly departed Persephone, who was taken from me many centuries ago."

I turned my head to the side and looked at him like he was crazy or something and then asked. "Do you and Madam Zola have some scheme going against me to drive me crazy?"

"Who is this Madam Zola that you are speaking of?"

"You know the old woman from the carnival that I visited last night with my friend?" I asked, a bit perplexed.

"Sorry, I have no clue what you are talking about," Hades replied, as he stretched his arms across the back of my couch and started trying to get comfortable.

"You mean to tell me that you don't have anything to do with that crazy old bat from last night?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

Hades shook his head and then said. "No, sweetheart. I have no clue who this Madam Zola person is."

I moved closer to him, so close so that I was pretty much sitting in his lap. I looked up into his dark eyes and asked. "Are you telling me the truth?"

"I promise you with every fiber of my being that I am telling you the utmost truth that I have no association with this old woman that you speak of. Now, come on sweetheart. Enough of this chit chat about this and come back home with me." He said and moved his arm off the back of the couch and then began rubbing the side of my bare leg.

I flinched at his touch; the sensation of his warm hand felt so good against my chilled skin. I inwardly moaned a bit and then shook my mind free of the sensation and then said. "I don't even know who you are. Why would I go home with you? This is where I belong and I'm not going anywhere."

Hades narrowed his eyes and then leaned his head down to my neck and brushed my hair to the side and gave a small peck on my neck. He then leaned back up and replied. "I see how this is going to go then. I guess I'm just going to have to stay with you in the mortal realm until I can persuade you to come back home with me, my queen."

"You are going to stay here with me?!" I croaked.

"Yes, my sweet. That is exactly what I am going to do. And there is nothing that you can do about it." He said with a slight smirk.

"But, how do I know that you're not lying to me and that you're not some serial killer that is here to kill me?" I asked as I tried to move away from him a bit.

Hades laughed out a deep baritone laugh and then asked. "Don't you think that if I was some kind of serial killer that I would have already killed you by now and left?"

I thought about what he said for a minute and then answered. "Well, yeah that is true. But how do I know that you are the actual Hades?"

As soon as He heard me say that, Hades moved me over to the side and then walked over to my apartment window that faced the street below and looked back at me and motioned for me to come where he standing. Quickly, I stood from the couch and walked over to him and then stopped beside him.

Once he knew that I was beside him, I watched as he pointed at this older woman that was walking down the middle of the road and said to me. "You see that woman right there?"

I nodded my head and then replied. "Yeah, what about her?"

Hades' mouth formed a grim line and then said. "She is destined to die today. In fact, in a matter of a few minutes, I should say."

"What do you mean she is going to die in a few minutes?" I asked worriedly.

Hades sighed a bit annoyed at how stupid he thought I was being and then replied. "You know, heart attack, shooting, stabbing, getting run over. That kind of thing."

"Oh god, I'm going to witness someone die, aren't I?" I said with dread laced into my voice.

"You sure are, precious." He replied and snapped his fingers.

As soon as he snapped his fingers, a white car came barreling down the road at a high rate of speed and hit the woman. She flipped in the air and then landed down on the road with a loud smack. Her blood flowed profusely from her injuries and it was then that I felt a huge urge to puke.

Quickly, I moved from where I was beside him and ran over to the small metal trash can in my living room and puked. As I continued to hug the trash can, Hades walked over to me and bent down beside me and rubbed my back and said. "I'm sorry that you had to see that. But it was her time to go. There is nothing that neither you nor I can do about it."

I brushed off his touch and said. "That was so wrong. Why did you have to show me something like that?"

"You wanted me to prove that I was actually Hades, and I did just that. Do you believe me now?"

I knew that there was no use in arguing with him, and deep down I knew that he had proven to me that he was indeed Hades. I looked over my shoulder at him and said. "Yes, I believe you."

"Good. I'm glad that you do. Now that we have that little matter solved, where am I going to sleep while I'm here?" He asked with a matter of fact tone and grabbed the box of tissues from a nearby table and handed me one.

I gladly took the tissue from him and wiped my mouth and replied. "You are going to be sleeping on the couch because there is no way in hell that you are going to be sleeping with me in my bed."

"That sounds good to me, you will hear no complaints from me on that issue." He said with a nod of his head.

Once the issue of where he was going to be sleeping was solved and my head spinning from the horrors that I had just seen, I stood up and walked off to my bedroom and closed the door and collapsed onto my bed and passed out.