Undying

Undying Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Underworld was dark and cold.  It takes forever to cross the River Styx.  The boatman doesn't talk much.  All he says is that his name is Charon and that Hades is expecting me.  Then he stays quiet.   It's not quiet here.  There is a haunting wail that fills the air as we cross the rivers.

"There's something below the waters," I state.

"Spirits that never crossed," he tells me.

Sure enough, the waters are uneasy.  In the murky depth, I see the spirits below the surface.   They swim through the dark waters.  I am not part of my body.  In so many ways I am dead myself but somehow I still feel an uneasiness in my stomach.  The Underworld was hidden deep in the earth and was the kingdom of the dead, ruled by god Hades.

As I step on the ground, I see the huge gateways above me.  The boatman turns to me and says coldly, "Follow the path, past the diamond gate.  He's expecting you.   Welcome to the Underworld."

It was rather like being in a miserable dream.  The place was full of shadows, ill-lit and desolate.  It seemed like there was no hope in this place.  I walk down the path the boatman tells me to walk and I just feel this feeling of emptiness all around me.  It was a joyless place where the dead slowly faded into nothingness.

The dead roam the place...walking across fields of grey plants.  They stretch as far as the eyes can see.   There is an emptiness in their eyes.   No plans.  No motives or no destination.  Is this what it felt like to be dead?

"You're afraid."

The voice comes out of nowhere.  I turn.  I don't see anything.  The voice is deep though.  It is a trombone coming out of an invisible esophagus.  I turn from side to side frantically.

"Who is it?"  I'm asking, "Who's talking?"

"Hades..."

It was him.  The king of the Underworld himself.

"Where?" I ask.

"Forgive me.  I wear my invisible helmet so much that I forget I have it."

There is a man in front of me.  He is the tallest Olympian I've seen thus far.  He's even taller than Heracles.   He has dark, thick black hair.  His skin is pale.  He has these high prominent cheekbones and a slightly sunken face.  He has these thick eyebrows over deep-set eyes with a sad subdued expression.   His nose is long and thin.  He has a hard Adam's apple like Clep but his long neck exposes it even more.  One thing I notice is his long, strong muscular legs.  When he walks it's as though his thin body weighs a million pounds.  All I can think is Vampire.  It's as though I'm stepping into Twilight meeting one of the Cullens when I see him.

"You're Hades?"

"I'm not what you were expecting."

No one ever spoke of Hades on Olympus.  It was almost taboo.  The dark brother that no one wanted to mention.   Dark of course was symbolic.  There was nothing dark about him. He's pale.  He's white but like a ghostly white.

None of that is weird.

What's weird is how attractive he is.

"I don't know what I was expecting," I admit.

Not this though.  Definitely not this. He looks...young.  Hades was the older brother of Zeus...king of the Gods.   Yet looking at him he looks no more than in his 30s.   All the gods on Olympus were beautiful so I don't know why it takes me by surprise that he is as well...even with his mean face.   His hair is long and dark.  He has a dark beard that is just as straight.  His lips are reddest of red.   He's face is stern, cold and expressionless but still...somewhat attractive in the weirdest way.   His eyes are dark.  Dark like a pit that I can't see the bottom of.  He has no shirt on and his black pants are so tight that I can make out every part of his body including the prominent print of his dick handing off the side of his leg down his pant leg.  I follow it down...down...down.

I guess its true what they say about skinny men.  It is double that what they say about skinny gods.  He doesn't mean to be sexy.  No.  There is a feeling as though I'm interrupting something.  As though I am on his turf and he's comfortable.

"So you are what all the fuss is about?" he asks.

"Fuss?"

He looks...unpleasant.  I'm not used to it.  Men usually loved me.  Of course there was Deimos but Deimos looked at me with indifference.  This look was something different.  It was almost uncomfortable the way he is.

"Follow me," he tells me.

The enormous palace was clearly modeled Mount Olympus.  The winding roads.  The large mountains.  There were no beautiful skies above us though...only an endless darkness.   As we approach the doors they open as though guided by an invisible force.  I notice the dead don't approach the palace doors.   It's beautiful in a creepy way...just like Hades.  It is made of glittering black obsidian, with a black marble portico, and the entry hall had a polished bronze floor. As we walk in, I realize something that makes me jump.

I jump right into Hades.

Before I know it I'm pressed up against his stomach.  He's so tall that I don't even make it to his chest.  He has to be at least 6'7".   He's almost a giant in a way but none like the ones I'd seen on Olympus.  Not awkward and bulky.  He was lean and slim.

"Don't worry.  You're welcome here."

"Those were..."

I realize the figures in the dark palace as we walk.  I'm so scared that I'm shaking.  My hair is standing on end.

"Skeletons.  the palace is guarded by the skeletons of dead soldiers from different wars that have been around the world, such as The Second World War."

In Olympus, everything was silver and white.  Everything was alive.  This was the opposite.  Everything here was black and bronze.  It was dark.  It was almost unfortunate.

I push myself away from him not really finding much any comfort in his arms.  He doesn't seem offended either way.  As we walk I notice something to the left.  It's a garden outside of the window.

"What is that?"

"Persephone's garden," he tells me, "My wife likes to pretend that she's somewhere else when she has to spend her time with me."

"Oh..."

"She's miserable when she's here."

The way he says it sounds sad and depressing but also somewhat removed from emotion.  I'm not sure if I'm sad for him or if I'm sad for Persephone.  All of a sudden though I have to admit that it makes so much sense why she's such a bitch.  She was the daughter of a fertility goddess living in the land of the dead.   I wasn't sure if a garden would be enough to bring happiness to her.

At the end of the hallway, we enter the throne room.  The dark...dreaded throne room.  There are skulls that decorate the ground.  They are human skulls but also the skulls of animals.   I stand as I realize the dark, lean, overwhelming figure approach his onyx throne at the very front of the room.  He leans over there heavily and stares at me examining me in the weirdest way possible.

"Would you like to take a seat?" he asks me, "I can have someone bring you a chair."

"No."

The skeletons were creepy.  Everything was...including the stare that Hades was giving me.  His helmet is on his lap.  He holds it close to him.  I feel like I'm being watched by something else.   I'm not sure what it is.

"Somethings...watchin' us," I state.

Hades doesn't budge.  The room was so dark with shadows everywhere.  I can't hear anything.  No more of the wails of the dead.  Nothing terrifying like that.  A great hush falls over the room but I have this certainty that we were not alone.  Shadows, urged by the silence, twisted around us.

"You're quite handsome when you're terrified," he states, "You look so uncomfortable."

His eyes twitch as he looks at me.    I stare into the darkness wanting to know what that thing was staring back at me.  This feeling was filling my soul.  This horrifying darkness was stalking me slowly.

"What's back there?" I ask.

"Go see."

"I'd rather not.  I'd rather just get our business over with.  We had business remember.  You invited me here.  Your wife had someone kill my father to get back at me, you see..."

"I know."

That's all he says.  His dark lips still perched.  Still staring.  Cold.  Dark.  Unmoved.

"Can we talk about my father?"

"There is no need.  I released your father's soul," Hades states out of nowhere, "When I heard you arrived."

I'm surprised by it.  I'm not sure what to say.

"Thank you."

He was kinder than I thought he'd be.

He nods.  Still cold.  Still staring. Still not looking back at the moving shadow that I felt in all my body.

"You look uncomfortable," he points out, yet again.

Something was definitely watching me.  In the darkness.  "Your kingdom is beautiful," I tell him.

"You don't have to lie."

"I'm not.  In its own way there is a beauty here," I tell him.

"I'm glad you like it," he explains to me.

That's when the thing jumps out!   It's huge.  It's the size of a horse.  I jump back across the floor moving as fast as I can!  My heart is racing!  I'm sliding across the marble floor.  It's coming for me!  It's snapping...gnawing.  There are these sharp teeth coming at me from it's head.  I kick away but as soon as I do I see another head coming at me.  Then another.   This demon dog from hell.  A THREE-HEADED demon dog at that.

A chain snaps at that moment and I'm realized I'm cornered.  I have nowhere to go.  I have nowhere to move.

I'm cornered!

"I'm really glad you like it," Hades tells me again before adding, "Because you'll be staying here forever."

~

Krill is surprised when he is invited to the gardens of Demeter.   They were beautiful palatial gardens outside of one of the palaces of Olympus.  They stretched out as far as the eyes can see.

"Thank you for coming," Persephone states.

He's confused at the fact that he is meeting with her.  Persephone.  She had not said the better of two good words to him since he'd come to Olympus.  Persephone had always placed herself above him and most of the others.  She was the Queen of the Underworld after all.  She had grown up on Olympus.  Both her parents were Olympians. She was more a part of this world than anyone.

"What is this place?"

"A hidden garden of Olympus.   My mother, Demeter, built for Zeus as a space for leisure outside of surrounding walls of his main palace."

She is standing underneath a pavilion.   All around us, there were golden, divine ponds scattered inside the garden. Strangely enough, the garden featured more trees than flowers, however, the flowers that do grow were nothing like Krill had ever seen.   What was the most beautiful part of this garden was how very remote it was.  There was no one around.  They were completely separate.  Maybe this was what Persephone wanted.

"What's the reason for the invite?"

"See that palace right there beyond the garden.  That belonged to my father, Zeus.  I want it to one day belong to me.  The trial is being announced tomorrow.  They keep pushing it back but I do believe the announcement is coming soon.  I plan on being Queen."

"Well good luck."

"I'd like your support.  Throw the competition to me," she states.

It was bold for her to reach out and ask this.   Bold as all hell.  It makes him look at her with a strange look.  Was she serious?  Was she that clear with what she was saying?

"I don't even know you."

"We have something in common.  Someone we hate.   Thaddeus."

"I don't hate anyone," Krill states.

"I know you slept with Deimos for a reason that day.  You can admit it..."

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

"The agreement."

Krill stops talking.  Olympus was like a damn spider web.  There were ears everywhere.  Spies everywhere.   The problem was that he was learning the political games that went on in Olympus way too late.   Somehow she had known about the deal he had made with Cupid.  That's why she was here.

"Well, if you know about the deal then you know the reason I did what I did was not because of hate.  I did it because of love."

"Love of Blue?"

The name was so clear.  It was so real.  Hearing it made Krill shake at that moment.

"I don't want to talk about it with you."

"Don't you?" she asks, "Cupid didn't keep his promise, did he?  Where is Blue?  Ever since Cupid promised he'd come back to you...he hasn't.   You would think if he was in love with you again he would have made his way to Olympus..."

"He's not a god."

"He's a mermaid.  You call them mermen, we call them nereids...sea nymphs.   He's welcome here.   He could have come if he wanted.  No.  He doesn't want to come.  He's still not in love with you."

"Cupid just hasn't gotten to it."

"Cupid doesn't want to get to it," Persephone states, "Open your eyes.  Cupid only cares about Thaddeus and the Love Department.  He doesn't care about you and your stupid relationship.  Don't you think it was weird that Blue randomly fell in love with you as soon as you become a god? Who is in charge of the Love Department?"

Krill stops.

He thinks.  She has a point.  She has a really good point.

"Cupid and Thad.'

"They made him fall out of love with you."

He is so angry at this point, "I need to talk to Thad. Cupid wants Thad to focus on Heracles so they can rise to power together."

"Thad is gone.  Forever.  I spoke with my husband.  My husband will hold him there forever.  He's going to miss the trial tomorrow..."

That's all she seemed to care about.  The trial.   She had her powerful husband damn near holding the God of love hostage so that she could have an easier job of being Queen of the Gods.

"I'm not an idiot.  You want power just as much as the Love Department."

Persephone smiles, "You're smarter than I thought.  I'll admit it.  I do.  I deserve it.  I'm the Queen of the Underworld.  My husband fought with Zeus and Poseidon against the Titans.  My husband is clearly the sole survivor of the Olympians."

She has all of this pride because of the man that she was married to.  Krill can see it all on her face.  When he was in the mortal world he had met women like her.  Women who were so unhappy with their lives but continued their marriage because the men they were married to came with power.  They felt like the power of their men meant that they through marriage were just as powerful.   Every chance Persephone gets she flaunts that she is the Queen of the Underworld.  If being the Queen of the Underworld was so goddam great to her then why wasn't she there now?

Still, as annoying as she was to him, she had a point.  Blue hadn't returned to him even after Krill had done Cupid's bidding and hookup with Deimos to manipulate Thad's feelings for the war god.

What if Cupid was behind Blue falling out of love in the first place?

What if Thad was behind it?

The Love department was not to be trusted.

He couldn't help it, "Fine.  What do I get if I support you?"

"I'll make Blue an immortal.  I'll force Cupid to make him fall back in love with you.  I'll have the authority to do that as Queen."

Krill thinks about it.  He hardly knew Heracles.  The only person Heracles seemed to notice was Thaddeus.  No one else was good enough for his time.  He was beyond conceited.  Krill couldn't imagine someone so into themselves as being the king.  Then there was Cupid.  He had no loyalty to Cupid.  He didn't even like him.  He thought Thad was cool but after sleeping with Deimos things would never be the same between them.  He didn't have much to lose by supporting Persephone.

But maybe...

He had everything to gain.

~

"Cerberus...fetch," Hades states.

The monster dog with three heads had a name.  He treats it like an actual fucking dog.  It's terrifying.  Hades throws some meat at the wild dog.  So much time has passed in the Underworld.  The three-headed dog leaves the table and grabs the meat.  It's rather crude to be doing that at the table but Hades doesn't seem to care.  He played by his own rules here.  This was his world.  His personal playground.

And I was his prisoner...

The food in the Underworld is just as bad as I thought it would be.  I'm sitting at a long table.  It's just the two of us.  Me on one end and the King of the Underworld on the other end.  He's so cold.  He doesn't speak...not ever.

"May I have some more wine?" I ask.

"Do as he says," Hades instructs his aides, "Thaddeus is our honored guest."

His dead aides creep me out.  They are ghouls.  Spirits bound to serve Hades for all time.  The idea of them touching the goblet I was drinking out of made me uneasy.  It made me so uneasy that I choose instead to get up from my seat.

"No worries, I'll get it," I state.

I move across the hall.  It's not until I'm halfway towards Hades that he lifts up his eyes and looks at me.  He has these curious eyes especially when I come and take a seat next to him.

"Are you going to grab your wine and go back?"

He is uncomfortable with me being close to him.  It's clear he's not used to having company.  I wonder if he and Persephone were just as cold.  Were they even intimate?   Zeus and Poseidon were known to have so many children.   Hades had none with Persephone.

"I was going to ask you about your helmet."

I look over at the thing.  The onyx helmet is always by his side.

"When I and my brothers defeated the Titans the first time, we were given weapons by the Cyclops.  Zeus got his lightning,  Poseidon got his trident and I got my helmet of invisibility."

"May I touch?"

He nods, reluctantly.  I reach over him.  I touch the metal.  As I touch it I lean across his chair.  I want him to smell me.  I wanted him to feel my spirit all around him.   He does.  I can see him staring up at me.  I can almost hear his heart beating faster through his immortal chest.  His breathing is getting harder.  Yes.  There it was.  I loved it when they got nervous.  Nerves were good.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"I've been here for 8 hours already," I tell him, "I'm bored..."

"You have much longer to go," he explains to me, "As a matter of fact...forever.  Don't even think about running either.  There is no escaping my dominion.  No souls escape my kingdom without my permission."
He ruled supreme here and he wasn't going to let anyone forget about it. All I knew was that I was going to miss the trial if I stuck around at this point.   I didn't know what that meant.

"When your wife becomes Queen...will you move to Olympus?"

"I don't leave the Underworld...ever," he explains.

"Odd...I'd assume if Persephone was Queen of the Gods, then she wouldn't be forced to ever come here," I explain, "But then again I'm sure you thought about that already right.  I mean you did set her up a...little garden.   That ought to be enough to make her come back here and visit you once in a while."

It's clear Hades hadn't thought of it.  I wonder how Persephone was able to convince him to let her go to Olympus and attempt to become Queen of all the Gods.  I wonder if he really thought as Queen she would continue to spend time in the Underworld as Zeus instructed.  If she was Queen she could decide herself where she spent her time.   Demeter didn't have the power to kill crops anymore.  Persephone had that power herself.

"She still needs me," he states, "I'm Hades."

"She needs you, but does she want you?" I ask.

"What's the difference?"

"Persephone needs your title to gain respect amongst the other gods,"  I state, "But does she want you.  Does she stay up late at night...wanting you to sneak into the bedroom?  Does she want you to put that long dick of yours deep into her bowels and plow her until springtime?  Judging by your expression, I'd assume the answer to that question was no."

He's uncomfortable.  Very uncomfortable.

"Your food is cold.  It's time you retire for the night Thaddeus."

~

The fear that I may be spending the rest of time as an Immortal in a place like this scares the fuck out of me.  I'm desperate.  Flirting with Hades clearly didn't have an effect on trying to sway him one way or another.  Hell.  Maybe I was losing it.   First Deimos and now Hades.  It was pointless to keep trying to seduce Gods.  They weren't the same as mortals.  I didn't have the same influence on them and it sucked.

I'm sitting on the side of the bed.  My head is buried in a pillow.  The room is dark as hell.  The sheets are black.  Outside of my window, I can see the different parts of the Underworld.  Thankfully there is enough reading material around the boring Underworld to give me information on these places.   I spend the night reading through it all.  There were the Fields of Punishment, where souls that committed crimes against the Gods were sent.   Supposedly that was the Hell of the Greek Underworld.   Didn't want to end up there. Then there was the Asphodel Meadows where ordinary people went.  Those were the fields that I had traveled when I came there.  The indifferent souls just wandering around. Then there were the Elysium fields.  This was where all the virtuous and heroic souls ended.

The bad, the good and the indifferent.

There was one other place though.

Then there was the hole.  The dark hole.  Tartarus.  This was where the Titans came from.  If Tartarus was part of the Underworld...did Hades know anything about them?  Did he know how they escaped or where they were now?

Thinking about Tartarus almost puts me to sleep...almost...until I feel something.  It's something wet.

"What the---"

I turn at that moment and I realize the door is open.  I'm not alone.

"Do you want me---like Persephone should?" the voice asks.

Hades.

He'd followed me."

I have two choices at this point.  I can say yes.  Or I can say no.  Hades wanted me.  That much was clear.  I had leverage.  I had to use it somehow.  I had to be smart.

"Maybe..." I state.

My underwear is sliding off.  I look back still unable to see anyone behind me.  I just feel his fingers exploring my thighs as he takes my underwear off.  I'm lifted off the bed magically.  Without seeing him I can feel him all around me and I imagine that handsome face staring at my body.

Before long I realize that he blows warm air onto the anus and the skin surrounding it.  It's feeling like he's hovering over it breathing.

"Erghhh..." I'm moaning.

"I've never done this before," he admits.

Strange.  He was an immortal.  He'd been around forever but he hasn't eaten an ass before.  He seems like he wants it though.  I can feel him beginning to use his tongue.  I feel him lay it flat to lick, flick, rub and push against the general backside region.

"Just like that...yes..." I moan when he makes his tongue stiff and hard to penetrate and probe my insides but softens it as he starts to tap and circle around my hole.

"It tastes so good.  I want you to cream all on my lips."

He kisses and sucks the asshole, taint, inner thighs, crack of the ass, buttocks, lower back and the back of the legs.

He's attempting to get all of my juices clean out of there.

"I'm close," I warn him, "I'm so close."

He seems excited when he hears this.  I can see the bed shuffling around quickly as he uses his fingers to probe my insides and pull apart the butt cheeks. He reaches around and begins to fondle my dick.

I'm moaning louder.  Harder.

"HADES!  HADES!"

I'm loud enough to wake the dead.

He lifts me high into the air and drops me on his face.  My asshole lands on his stiff, long hard tongue.  He drops me so hard the helmet falls off and I see that beautiful long dick pointed to high heaven on the bed.   Without even touching himself his dick explodes at that moment spraying cum all over me.

I can't take it anymore.

I'm nutting my damn self.  Semen is running all over the god of death.

We collapse together after that and for the first time, I see a warmness to him.  He smiles softly.  I fall on his chest just like I did the first time I met him.  This time it's different though.  This time he pulls me into him.  There is a warmth in the way that he holds me.  It feels like old lovers reunited all over again.

"I've never felt like this," he tells me.

It's a strange thing to say.  It's a deep thing to say.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"It means Persephone has a reason to be concerned," he tells me.

`

To read the next chapter in advance go to www.crushedcrown.com