When Darkness Calls

by C. R. Jane

  I was entranced as I watched his tongue dart off his perfectly, plump…

  Wow girl. Get yourself together.

  I cleared my throat, I’m sure blushing again, and then began to talk in between bites.

  I told him stories of my family. About my mom taking me to libraries as a child every Saturday. She would sit there patiently and wait as I picked out books for an hour, even though she had a day of work ahead of her. I told him of my brother beating up this kid at school that had made fun of the patch on my jeans. He’d been suspended for a week from school, but my mom had never said anything. I told him of the garden we’d tended in the backyard every spring and summer, of the tree where I read on warm afternoons, of the creek that my brother and I would play in. My stories came out to this stranger and I was overwhelmed when I finally took a breath and realized all the word vomit I’d just given this person...my kidnapper.

  Hades looked...out of it. Like he’d been caught in a trance, or a spell. I didn’t even know this man and I knew that whatever was happening in his head was not usual for him. His food lay forgotten in front of him. Mine had been deserted at some point as well. There was a warmth in his gaze as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing in front of him.

  He was giving me a lot of firsts. Because I hadn’t seen that look directed at me ever either.

  I laughed nervously and he leaned towards me. I shifted in my chair, a strange feeling in my gut. I had to actively prevent myself from leaning towards him as well.

  It couldn’t be possible, but it felt like at that moment the temperature in the room dropped at least ten degrees. And a flowery, mouth-watering perfume that stirred up memories of springtime and rosebuds masked the scent of food. I shivered and looked around the room, confused and wondering if a window had been opened, or if someone new had just walked into the room. I would need to ask them about their perfume if so, it was incredible.

  But there was no one there. It was just me and him.

  When I turned to ask Hades if he’d felt the chill enter the room as well, words left me. Gone was the interest, the light...the wonder that he’d shown only moments before. His face was a blank canvas and he was stiff. I wasn’t sure what had happened but when he stood up so quickly that his chair almost fell over, I sprung up too.

  “Let’s walk around the grounds,” he said too formally, sounding more like an eighteenth-century lord than a man in the twenty-first century. For a second there, I’d almost forgotten he was just a stranger. There had been something...more. Whatever that was, it was long gone now.

  He didn’t offer me an elbow this time, instead he strided ahead of me as if he couldn’t wait to get away. I meekly followed after him, wondering what I’d said.

  Something made me look back towards the dining table as I reached the doorway of the room that led back into the massive hallway. I could’ve sworn I saw a shadow on the floor of a woman stepping just out of view on the far side of the room.

  I could’ve sworn I heard the sound of her tinkling laughter too.

  Hades didn’t say anything until we made it outside of the mansion... castle...whatever it was. He didn’t even make sure I was following him. It was like he was just desperate to get out of there. I wanted to ask him about the shadow, about the laughter, about the hair. But it felt too crazy to voice out loud. Of course, everything about this situation felt crazy so maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal.

  Thoughts left me when we turned a corner and I found myself in a garden that looked straight from the Garden of Eden. Despite the fact that summer had faded into fall, there were still vibrant blooms everywhere. I didn’t even recognize many of the flowers and my mom had spent hours looking through garden books with me in preparation for creating ours every year. There was a small brook winding its way here and there. Small wooden bridges went over the water when it collided with the golden cobblestone pathway I was walking on. The air was filled with the collision of fragrant fruit trees and flowers. I took a deep breath, savoring the beauty until I realized something strange. I looked behind me and saw that the sky behind me, right beyond the wall that I now realized surrounded this magical place, it was completely grey and cloudy. It was dark like it was about to storm and there had been a shiver in the wind.

  Here, in this garden, the sun was shining down, the sky a perfect robin egg blue color.

  Just over the garden.

  What was this place?

  Studying my surroundings even more intently I noted there were statues of various gods and goddesses that I didn’t know the name of situated here and there, lending further credence to my idea that this was a cult obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. Hades turned just then and finally acknowledged my presence by gesturing for me to hurry and join him on the bench he’d just stopped at.

  This guy was giving me whiplash. He gave me furtive glances as I sat down, turning his head away from me as soon as I’d given him my attention, like he couldn’t stand it. It was like he had a million questions on the tip of his tongue but was too afraid to ask. Frustration built inside of me as the minutes seemed to stretch into hours. Finally, I broke the silence, unable to take it any longer.

  “What is this place and why am I here?” I said, peering at him closely. He sighed, and I could somehow feel his regret. There was something about him that seemed ancient in that moment.

  “The reason why you’re here is a little hard to believe,” he answered, shifting on the cold stone of the bench. He sighed and his shoulders dropped. Hades seemed to come to a decision then, something he wasn’t happy about.

  After a long moment where I felt like I was on the edge of a precipice, just dangling there, he finally turned and gave me his attention again, taking both of my hands in his. His touch shocked me and I curled my fingers in against his palms at first, trying to get rid of the sensation. Hades must have felt it too because he bit his lip and studied our clasped hands intently. I didn’t know why he was touching me, but I kind of wanted his touch to stay on me forever.

  It somehow felt like the most intimate moment that I’d ever experienced in my life. There was something about him that drew me in, made me want to know everything about him, uncover all of his secrets…fall in love. Love? Where the hell did that come from?

  “What if I told you that I was the god Hades, cursed to search for the reincarnation of my lost love?” he said, watching me closely.

  I burst out laughing, I was so shocked. I had expected him to be crazy, but this was a level I hadn’t anticipated.

  I tried to pull my hands away, but he held them tightly. “Greek gods,” he said earnestly. “They aren’t just legends. We’ve hidden ourselves throughout the years, but we’re still around,” he said. He changed topics abruptly. “What do you know about the legend of Hades and Persephone?” he asked.

  I decided I should probably not tell him about what his servant had told me the night before. She hadn’t mentioned anything about reincarnation though. Didn’t that mean Persephone had died? For some reason I hadn’t had that impression. But I guess it would make sense. This guy was clearly in mourning, a few screws gone loose from the pain.

  Having decided that the man I was sitting next to was in fact a crazy person that could attack me at any time, I decided to try to play along in order to appease him.

  “Didn’t he steal her away from her mother by tricking her, and then somehow, he got her to eat half a pomegranate which forced her to spend half a year with him after that?” I asked, watching his face closely to make sure he wasn’t about to attack me. He grimaced.

  “That is how the legend goes,” he said. “But that’s not how it was in reality. Persephone and I were in love,” he said softly, a wistful longing in his voice that made my heart ache. “So in love that the rest of the gods were jealous because they had never been loved as intensely as she loved me,” he said. “She became weak in this place though.” He gestured back to his home where the menacing clouds still blanketed the sky. “She was taken, an
d then killed by one of my brothers, her immortality leached out of her. I’ve never found out who did it, although I have my suspicions. The Fates felt sorry for my lost love, especially after they saw me go mad with grief. They made a promise to me that I would find love again.”

  “Find love again with Persephone you mean, right? Isn’t that what reincarnation would mean?”

  “I’d thought so,” he said with a frown, but something in his tone told me that he wasn’t feeling as certain about that anymore.

  “But what does this have to do with me?” I asked.

  He stared into my eyes, so intensely, it was like he was trying to see right into my soul. In that moment, I half wondered if he could. “Your family was picked by the Fates. It was their prophecy that Persephone would be reincarnated through your family line. No one has been a match yet.” This time, he let me yank my hands free from his grasp. This lunatic actually thought there was a chance I was the reincarnated version of his old dead girlfriend. It was enough that he considered himself some kind of god, but how did my family get picked to be the object of his hysteria?

  “My name is Elena,” I said firmly. “I was born on January second in a tiny town in Virginia. I’ve lived at 101 Westchester Drive my entire life with my mother and my brother. I am not your reincarnated lost love. And I demand that you release me.”

  He looked desperate after hearing my impassioned speech. He reached again for my hands, but I held them protectively against myself so he couldn’t touch me.

  “Please, Elena, just listen. We are both victims of this insufferable curse. It’s been centuries since someone in your family was picked by the Fates to come here. Your ancestors…” He trailed off, staring into the distance as if he was looking into another life. “Well, it was quite clear they weren’t her from the very beginning. It was like that with all of them. They couldn’t do it,” he said.

  “Do what?” I asked. An ache had developed in my chest from his story. It was like something he had said was calling me. It was probably the fact that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for anyone with a sad story, crazy or not.

  “They could never love me like she did.”

  I shook myself from the spell he had woven over me and began to back away slowly.

  “I’m leaving,” I said. “You need to let me go.”

  He shook his head sadly. “You won’t be able to. There’s nothing I can do that will allow you beyond these walls until the Fates are satisfied that you are not her.”

  I turned and ran away.

  Desperate to find the edge of the property, I ran around the side of the house towards the front to where I knew there was a road that at least led to the rest of civilization. But just as I was about to take a step onto the gravel road that had led us to the castle, it was as if I hit a glass wall. I bounced back so hard from the invisible barrier that I was thrown to the ground. Standing up, and refusing to believe that this was real, I once again charged towards the road.

  The same thing happened.

  This time I got a dozen scrapes from the rocky ground underneath me. A manic energy passed over me at that point. In a panic, I continued what I knew to be a useless effort. I began to run along the side of the property, periodically testing to see if I could take a step forward. Each time, I failed. Finally, after I’d fallen too many times to count, I lay on the ground, my body bruised and bleeding. I desperately tried to suck in air as tears streamed down my face.

  He stepped in front of me and looked down at me. He looked at me in a mournful way as if my pain was causing him true agony.

  Bending down, he carefully lifted me into his arms, cradling me as if I was the most precious thing he’d ever held. I was too tired to try and get away from him.

  “I’ll prove to you that I am Hades, King of the Underworld,” he said. “Then we can at least spend the rest of the time you’re here being friendly to one another until the Fates decide to release us both.”

  I passed out after that.

  7

  Elena

  I woke up in my bed. It took a moment for me to remember everything that happened. And when I did, I expected there to be a flash of pain as the memory of all my injuries came back to me.

  Surprisingly, as I sat up, I felt better than ever. It was like I’d visited a rejuvenating spa instead of having my ass handed to me by a mystical force that I was still pretending didn’t exist.

  There was a knock on the door, as if someone had been waiting outside so they could hear when I woke up. Not wanting to make the same mistake of opening the door practically naked, I hurriedly pulled on a silk robe that had appeared on the hook outside of my closet and walked to the main door.

  I cracked it open.

  It was him again.

  “I’d like to answer more of your questions this morning if you let me,” he said. He looked just as beautiful as ever this morning. But beautiful didn’t seem like the right word. He was more man than I’d ever seen in one person. The perfect embodiment of everything you could ever wish for and love. There was no way to not feel attraction, even if he was crazy.

  Remembering the last words he said to me the day before, I decided I would play nice this morning. I still suspected he was crazy, but my mother had always told me that it was easier to catch flies with honey than it was with vinegar, and cooperation seemed to be the honey I had to offer today.

  “Just give me a moment,” I said, and I couldn’t help but love how his eyes lit up at my words with a fervent hope.

  I put on a simple blue dress that reminded me of those eyes. It was a stupid thing to do, but my heart could be stupid sometimes. I opened the door, and he gave me an appreciative glance that made my cheeks blush.

  “Let’s have breakfast, and then I’ll prove to you that I’m not crazy,” he said as he offered his arm again for me to take.

  He tried to engage in small talk on our walk. But he was terrible at it, the small bit of ease we’d slid into yesterday completely gone now with his latest revelations. This man next to me actually believed he was a god. It was hard to fathom that kind of crazy.

  His words certainly made me look twice at that mural though as we descended down the long and arduous stairway. I could almost imagine she was watching me. Her gaze seemed to follow me all the way down the stairs and a piece of me certainly felt like she’d found me wanting.

  Growing up, reading had been my escape. I loved it. I’d always had an active imagination, wanting to believe there was more to the world than there actually was. I’d wanted to believe there was magic out there, that there was more than the provincial town I’d grown up in. But now faced with someone who was telling me that magic did indeed exist, well...I was having a really hard time believing that.

  I’d always liked to play it safe. Maybe that’s why I’d always loved books.

  I could live in them, instead of actually living.

  My...wasn’t I getting introspective at this place.

  We made it into the dining hall and inexplicable dread curled up in my gut. I thought of that shadow...the perfume...and the laughter. I shivered, wondering if I would ever feel comfortable in this room again.

  “Are there any other tables in this place?” I asked suddenly as I watched Hades pull out my chair.

  He looked at me confused. “Tables?”

  “Yeah. Maybe a circular table or something?”

  “A circular table?”

  This wasn’t working. We were going to be here all day.

  I grabbed the plates someone had already set out on the table, ignoring his befuddled expression, and I walked towards the door that I believed led to the kitchen. At least that’s where the food smells were coming from the last couple of days I’d been in here.

  It was indeed the kitchen, one befitting a large restaurant. There was a whole staff of people flitting from stove, to oven, to counter, chopping and stirring what looked like a million different dishes. They all paused in shock when we entered the room, just staring at u
s like we were aliens from an invading planet.

  Evidently Hades didn’t find himself in here very often. I waved at everyone sheepishly, looking around the room to see if it had what I was looking for. Darting a few steps to the left, I lucked out when a servant came into the room by another entrance and I saw what I was looking for through the swinging door.

  There was a separate alcove in the next room with a circular table that looked like it would hold about five people instead of the fifty… or hundred people that the dining table could hold.

  “Can we use that?” I asked the servants, pointing to the door where the table lay. None of them answered, they just continued to stare at us blankly.

  Hades laughed and steered me through the door I’d pointed to, all the way to the circle table. I could hear the servants’ conversations picking up as we left, their sounds abruptly cut off as the door swung close.

  We slid into the squishy bench seating that surrounded the table and I was all too aware that Hades had gotten in on the same side as me, and no matter how much I scooted around the table, he still seemed far too close.

  The nook where we were sitting was surrounded on three sides by walls of glass. It looked out to the dreary, beautiful grounds of this place. I could see the walls of the garden Hades had taken me yesterday a ways back.

  “Did you know this was here?” I asked, thinking this might be the best room in the whole house. There were definitely not enough uncovered windows in this place. The never-ending darkness felt suffocating. A person could go mad in a place like this.

  I gave Hades a side glance after that thought, but he missed it. Hades was looking around the room thoughtfully.

  “I guess it was just habit eating there. I knew this was here all along...but she…”

  He trailed off and I could guess at what he didn’t say.

  Persephone had wanted to eat in that monstrosity.