When she reached Derek, her father passed her hand, which had been resting on his arm, over to him and stepped out of the way, while I stepped forward and raised her veil.
“You are stunning,” Derek whispered to her.
The ceremony was short and went without any glitches, other than the celebrant having to shout so he could be heard over the sound of the waves. Before I knew it I was back in the car, heading to the reception at one of the big hotels in the city.
The food was good and it felt great having Kris sitting beside me. I noticed that Ankou was enjoying himself chatting up the young lady who was seated next to him. He was on a different table to the blonde he had been talking to earlier and she kept glaring at his back.
When the meal was over the speeches and toasts were made. Derek got through his with only a few mistakes, the best man was entertaining and Tam’s father managed to make the entire room both laugh and cry as he reminded Tam of some of the things she had done in her childhood before talking about her mother.
Then, against all tradition, I made a speech. I thanked Tam for her friendship, without which I would not have gotten over my betrayal by Robert. I mentioned that she was always there for me whenever I missed the man I loved so much that all I could do was curl up into a ball and cry. Then I talked about her love for Derek and how I knew that their marriage would be a long and happy one. Kris held my hand the entire time.
Once that was over, the tables were cleared away and the party really started. A band had been hired which performed covers of classic songs from the sixties all the way through to modern day. They were very good. I don’t think I have ever danced so much in my life. Kris never let me out of his arms, even when Ankou tried to cut in. He was told, in a not very polite manner, to go away.
I got the chance to speak with Tammara before she left with Derek and I asked her why she had invited Ankou. She explained that had it not been for him and his father she would not have found out what Robert was really like and would probably have ended up marrying him. If not for them she would not have met Derek and inviting Ankou was her way of thanking him. She didn’t think extending the invitation to his father was a good idea though. I think she was right. Can you imagine Death turning up to a wedding?
It was nearing midnight when the bride and groom left, but the party continued on without them.
“When do you have to leave?” I asked Kris, dreading that it would be all too soon.
“Ankou is supposed to make sure I am out of here at 2, 3 at the latest, but I haven’t seen him around for a while.”
“I think he went off with one of the bridesmaids.” I took Kris’s hand and led him from the room. “I have booked a room for the night. It is only a single, but I am sure that won’t be too much of a problem. Let’s see what fun we can have for the next hour or so.”
Kris did not complain.
3 am arrived, but Kris made no move to leave. “Screw the curfew,” he said and cuddled down next to me. “Nothing in Hell or on Earth could get me to leave you till the morning.”
I was too happy to point out that it was already morning.
We didn’t get much sleep that night and all too soon we were disturbed by banging on the door. Kris got dressed and let Ankou in.
“We are going to be in big trouble,” he said. “We should have left hours ago.”
“I really don’t care,” Kris said.
“So which bridesmaid did you spend the night with?” I asked.
Ankou grinned broadly. “Both.”
I laughed. “You never change do you?”
“Why would I?” he replied. Death was obviously having a lot of trouble finding him a wife. He turned to Kris, a serious look on his face.
“We really need to go. I dread to think what the fallout will be.”
“Whatever it is, it was worth it.” Kris kissed me goodbye and Ankou had the decency to turn his back. “I’ll see you soon,” he promised, then they both left. It was a promise he would not be able to keep.
I went back to sleep for a few hours before dragging myself out of bed, updating my diary then catching a taxi home.
20th April 2009
This is one of the hardest things I have ever had to write. When I arrived home, Spatha and Katana were waiting for me in my lounge and neither looked happy.
“What’s happened?” I asked, worried that Kris and Ankou had crashed the car on their way back. I had no idea if they could be killed that way and I definitely didn’t want to find out.
“You had better sit down,” Spatha said gently, tapping beside her on the sofa. I obeyed and she took my hand.
“Great-grandmother is not happy with the boys for staying the night,” Katana said. “They have both been grounded.”
Grounded? What did that mean? How do you ground someone who can travel between here and the underworld?
Spatha saw my confusion. “They have both been banned from coming to Earth.”
“How long for?” I asked.
“We are all used to Ankou’s antics, so he only got a year.” A year. That didn’t sound too bad. I have gone longer than that without seeing Kris.
“Kris, on the other hand, has always obeyed the rules. Rhea took a harder line with him.”
“How long?” I asked again.
“Twenty years.”
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe. Twenty years? In just under 19 years I would be able to join Kris in Hell, but I would not be allowed to see him at all until then? This was unfair. This was inhuman. Just because we spent one night together?
“I am so sorry, Rachel,” Spatha said. “We all are. Mom and dad are trying their best to get great-grandmother to change her mind. So is grand-father. Even uncle Death is joining in. Almost the entire family are rallying around you and Kris.”
“Rhea is a cruel woman,” I said in a cold voice. “Haven’t we suffered enough? We have done what she asked, stayed faithful even though we have hardly seen each other. What more does she want?”
“Kris disobeyed the rules, so he has to be punished,” Katana said, but not unkindly.
“But the punishment should fit the crime,” I snapped. They were both trying to comfort me, but I didn’t want comfort; I wanted Kris.
“Kris didn’t react very well to the news either,” Spatha said in a quiet voice. “He destroyed his room then left the house. And I do mean destroyed. It doesn’t exist anymore. Nobody knows where he has gone. We know he is still in the underworld as he would not dare to disobey Rhea again, but we don’t know where.”
“Get out,” I shouted. I didn’t want to hear any more. “Get out of my house and stay out. Unless I see Kris, I never want to see any of your family ever again. You bloody gods and demi-gods have ruined my life.” I know it was not the sisters’ fault and they were only trying to help me, but I was angry and couldn’t stop myself. “I used to think that true evil didn’t exist. Now I know it does and its name is Rhea.”
Spatha and Katana disappeared before I could say more. I stared around the room, feeling empty inside. For the first time in my life I contemplated suicide. At least I would be in the underworld then. I would probably end up in my own personal hell, but maybe Kris would be allowed to visit and let’s face it, how much worse could it be than this? The happiest day of my life had just been taken away from me.
I curled up into a ball and cried until I could cry no more. Then I just lay there, unable to do anything, not even think.
I don’t know how long I was in this semi-catatonic state. All I know is that it was dark when my next visitor arrived. It was Rhea.
She tried to explain her actions, tried to justify her decision, but I refused to even acknowledge her presence. Eventually she gave up and left me alone.
It is now almost midnight. I have managed to rouse myself enough to write this all down. I hoped that reliving it would help, but it has only made it worse. I have no idea how I am going to be able to get through tomorrow, let alone t
he next twenty years. If Rhea hoped to stop me and Kris being together, she has failed. She killed something inside me today, but not my love for her great-grandson or my determination to join him in Hell. Somehow I will live until the next solar eclipse, then I will journey back to the underworld to spend the rest of my life with the man I am destined to be with and somehow, someway, I will make Rhea pay for what she has done.
27th July 2028
It has been 19 years, 3 months and 8 days since I last wrote in my diary. That is how long I have been without Kris. I have kept a diary since I was a young girl and diligently updated it almost every day, but now I no longer feel like I have anything worth writing about. That is another thing that Rhea has taken from me.
A lot has happened over the last 2 decades. Tam and Derek had a beautiful baby daughter and asked me to be her godmother. She is a shining ray of light in an otherwise dull grey world. She has grown to be a lovely young woman that any parent would be proud of.
Tam and Derek are still very happily married and both are doing well in their careers. Speaking of careers, I changed mine. I didn’t really have much choice. I worked where I did so that I could see Death and through him keep in contact with Kris, but once I knew I could not see Kris again for an unimaginably long time, seeing Death became too painful. Also, Death was no longer able to pass on any messages as Kris had disappeared.
I retrained as a surgeon, giving up my roles in both geriatrics and A&E. I am earning a lot more money for less hours and now my patients rarely die. At my request Death does not appear in person any more. I haven’t seen him since when? 2010? 2011?
I sold my house and moved away as I could no longer bear to stay living there; it was filled with memories of Kris. He only ever visited there once, but it was enough. I was not trying to forget him, I knew that would be impossible, but some things were just too painful to be constantly reminded about.
It has been really easy to stay faithful to Kris. No other man I have met has interested me at all. Whenever I am asked out on a date, which is becoming more often the older I get as I still look so young, all I think is ‘you are not Kris’ and I turn them down.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Kris has also remained faithful. He may not have been allowed on Earth, but there must have been plenty of opportunity for him to stray while in the realms of Hades, Zeus or Poseidon, but even the thought of him betraying me is laughable. He’s just not that sort of person.
For a few years Kris’s relatives would come to be my ‘date’ for a special occasion, but each time I would politely tell them to go away and eventually they gave up. If I couldn’t have Kris on my arm, I didn’t want anyone.
At some point, I can’t really remember when exactly, Rhea came to see me. She didn’t bother knocking. She just turned up in my kitchen one day. Luckily I wasn’t cooking at the time or I might have hit her with a frying pan. I cannot remember the date, but I can remember the conversation very clearly.
“What are you doing here?” I asked coldly.
“That is not a very pleasant greeting,” she said as she made her way to my lounge. “Especially after I saved you from having to marry Ankou.”
“Well I wish you hadn’t. At least then I would still have been able to see Kris.”
She sat down, ignoring my outburst.
“Make yourself at home, why don’t you,” I said sarcastically.
“I need a favour.” Blunt and to the point.
“And why should I help you?”
“Because you are a very nice young lady.” Was she trying to be funny?
I sat opposite her, crossing my arms and legs. “I’ll make a deal with you. You explain why and I will think about listening to your request.”
“Why what?” she asked. She was acting exactly like the sweet old lady I met all those years ago in Hell.
“Well why don’t we start with why do you hate me so much?”
She looked genuinely surprised. “I don’t hate you my dear. Why would you think that?”
“You have got to be kidding me. You prevent me from seeing the man I love for twenty bloody years and you claim you don’t hate me. I would love to see what you would do to someone you do hate.”
“I don’t hate you. I am very grateful to you. But I do love my great-grandson. As you can probably imagine I have a very large family, but I have a soft spot for Kris. We all do. Why do you think so many of his relatives came to Earth when you needed company? Kris wanted you looked after and they were all lining up to help him. Of all the gods and demi-gods, he is the only one to have a permanent room in nearly everyone’s house. Kris is the grandson of a god, therefore he has power; a lot of power. You have only seen a tiny glimpse of what he is capable of. But he rarely uses it, preferring to do things manually. He is a genuine, honest, nice young man who never does anything wrong. Well, almost never. He puts others needs before his own and will do anything to help anyone.”
I found myself nodding my head and forced myself to stop as she continued.
“Don’t get me wrong; he is no angel. He has had his fair share of women, but he never led them on and always treated them well. But every single one chose Ankou instead. Kris never became bitter toward his cousin, but it did make him very sad.”
She smiled at me. “And then you came along. I knew he liked you and the moment I met you I knew how you felt about him. You had the chance to have Ankou and chose Kris instead. I knew you would be good for him for a while, but only for a while. He is too young to settle down.”
“Too young?” I almost screamed. “He is nearly six hundred years old for God’s sake.”
“Bad choice of words my dear. To a god that is barely the equivalent of reaching adolescence. Now where was I before you so rudely interrupted me? Oh yes. I remember. Keeping you apart was in both of your interests. It would never have worked out and you would both have been hurt.”
“So why not just outright ban us from seeing each other? Why go through this charade of pretending we would be able to occasionally meet up?” I asked. “And why did you allow him to visit me on my birthday or go to Tammara’s wedding?”
“You know what it is like when you aren’t able to have something you really like. You miss it, crave for it. Then when you get to have it again you realise that it was not as good as you remembered. I allowed him to see you on your birthday because I thought that is how one of you would feel. When that didn’t happen I allowed him to go to your friend’s wedding as it would make you realise the life you would have to give up for him. And what was the result? He disobeyed me. He has never done that before. It made me realise that he wants to spend the rest of his life with you and I cannot allow that. Banning him from seeing you was the only solution.”
“So let me get this right,” I said in disbelief. “You are forcibly keeping us apart because you want him to stay single for another few hundred years? What about Ankou? He’s younger than Kris, but you didn’t seem to mind Death trying to get him married off.”
Rhea looked at me as though I was stupid. “We both know that is never going to happen.” OK. She had a point.
“So now we have got that out of the way, I need your help. Nobody has seen Kris since he found out he was not allowed to visit you again and I want to know where he is. I’m worried about him. I need to know that he is alright. He used to visit me often and I miss his company.”
“How should I know where he is?” I asked cautiously, unsure what she knew.
“I know my great-grandson. He will have found a way to contact you.”
“If you want to see him, let him see me so I can tell him in person. It’s your own fault if he wants nothing to do with you and only you can fix it.”
She looked at me sadly. “I cannot do that. If I let people off the hook every time they reacted badly to my decisions I would lose all control. Gods and their offspring are very hard to keep in line you know. Now can you help me and are you willing to do so?”
“No.” She didn’t deser
ve more than a one word answer.
“No you can’t or no you won’t?”
I smiled at her. It was not a nice smile. “I have no intention of doing anything to help you in any way so whether I can or not is rather a moot question, isn’t it.”
Rhea’s eyes blazed with anger and she no longer looked like a sweet little old grandmother. “I am the mother of the gods. I can destroy you just by clicking my fingers.” She demonstrated the action for emphasis.
“Go ahead then,” I said. “But I should warn you that Kris has found a way to hack into every security camera in the world. He can watch me walk down the street. He can watch me working at the hospital. I installed cameras in almost every room in this house so he can watch every move I make. So please, go ahead and let your favourite great-grandson watch as you destroy the woman he loves.” I glanced up at the camera in the lounge. I had no idea if Kris was currently watching, but Rhea didn’t know that.
The anger left her face and a smile returned. “You really are perfect for him,” she surprised me by saying. “If only he had met you in a few hundred years, then none of this would have been necessary. I hope you both survive this separation and have a long and happy life together in the underworld, I honestly do.” She then stood up, walked over to me and hugged me affectionately before vanishing. I sat there, staring at the empty space she had just been populating, wondering what that had been about.
“You are either very brave or very stupid,” a voice sounded from behind me, almost making me scream, and Ankou walked out of my bedroom.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.
Ankou shook his head. “You know that Kris does not like you using that word,” he said.
I looked toward the camera. “He may be able to see me, but he can’t hear me, so what does it matter?” I said. “I’ll ask again. What are you doing here?”
Diary of a journey through Hell Page 30
