Her Hope

Her Hope: Chapter 2

Again one of those nightmares, or whatever that was. The nightmares were always the same. Her friends would die for her in their quest to find her parents, she was left alone and the people would hate her. She has died several times in these nightmares. Mostly she willingly died next to Odin, sometimes she ended her life herself and there are even times that she let Ares get his revenge on her. Whatever she did, she kept punishing herself. But, recently Cronos came to interfere with her dreams. He had saved her countable times. She would hate him until that strange man would appear. After his visit, she always ends up in Cronos’s arms. It’s taking longer and longer to break that embrace. This time she even wanted to choose him. The fear that she might bring her friends in danger is too real. She can’t ask them to risk their lives for a dream that might not come true. That would be too selfish of her. How could she expect such a thing from them? She knows they want to help, but they only say that to keep her out of danger. She couldn’t stay in bed anymore, she needed to get out.

With silent footsteps, she went out of the castle. Persephone could easily teleport herself to her destination, but she still makes a lot of noise when she does it and she doesn’t want to risk waking up Odin. Finally, she reached the hidden door that led her to Hera’s garden. She went to sit next to that one special flower her mom had created. The first time Persephone had seen that flower it was death. But, since she had defeated Cronos it was blooming again. Persephone had seen that as a sign that her parents were still alive somewhere, but what if it wasn’t a sign. What if this was all nothing but a wish that Persephone desperately wanted to come true. Maybe she just saw signs because she wanted to see them. Maybe this was all a trick. She kept sitting there on the ground staring at the shining flower holding on to the thought that there might be a day that she would see her family back or that she would lose everything. Persephone didn’t dare to tell Odin about her dreams, she didn’t want to scare him. But it was troubling her somehow it felt as if she was betraying Odin.

“Don’t ever do that to me again.”

Persephone jumped up, startled by Odin. He came closer and took her in his arms. Gladly she nestled herself a little bit closer to him, so she could rest her face against his chest. For a moment the image of her hugging Cronos like this came into her mind but she shook it away. She would never choose him.

Odin sighed and held her tightly. “ Don’t sneak out like that without letting me know. And certainly not when you're alone. Don’t forget there is a god that won’t stop until your dead, and it's not just any god but a war god.”

“I am fine, don’t worry about me.” Persephone wasn’t good at lying and Odin knew well enough that she wasn’t fine. He tensed. He couldn’t risk losing her.

“Fifteen.”He had said it softly but loud enough so Persephone would hear it. She looked at Odin, not understanding what he meant. Odin sighed and reinforced his embrace, afraid she might want to run away when he would tell her.

“There’ve already been fifteen murder attempts on you. A cursed gift, poisoned food, an arrow that had missed its target, a poison snake, a curse, and so on.” The attacks are coming more often and careless. I can’t let you sneak out like that again. I can’t protect you then. Persephone pulled herself out of the embrace. Emotions were glowing of her. Disappointment because he kept it a secret, angry because he thought she was weak, scared because of the number of attempts, scared other people might have died instead of her. Especially the last fear, she needed to know. “Did… Did anyone die?” She looked at the ground she didn’t want to hear it, but she really needed to know.

“No, luckily nobody died. But, that doesn’t make the danger any less. This is merely playing, Persephone. It's like a snake that's playing with its mouse. If Ares would've really wanted you to die fastly, we would be fighting already. Instead, he's playing f*****g mind games. Believe me, he wants you to  suffer.” Odin's face was hard and every other person would be feared to death by just looking at him. Odin hated he had to watch how some psycho dared to disrespect Persephone like this. But he feared that the mind games were for him instead of Persephone. Maybe Ares wanted Odin to search for him so he would be distracted when Ares got to Persephone.  Before Odin could continue Percy and Pan appeared in front of them.

“Oh, thankfully you’re okay” Pan took her in a quick embrace, but let her go when Percy came closer. Percy checked on her and then hugged her tightly. “Don’t do that again princess, the whole castle is looking for you. I could feel Odin’s anger from miles away.” Odin stepped closer, Percy had hugged her long enough. He needed to feel her closely, or the tension wouldn’t go away. Odin’s men were searching for Ares, but the war god wasn’t an enemy that could be underestimated. Odin was possibly one of the few that could actually get and kill him.

Persephone looked at her three heroes, how could she risk their lives? Maybe it was for the best if she went to search for her parents alone. The next time she’ll see Cronos is her dream, she’ll be waiting for him. It’s time they’ll talk business.

***

Somewhere in a dark place, Cronos was so angry that the ground was shaking. Even though he was nothing more than a projection of himself, his strength was still terrifying.

“Again! She pulled away again!” Eros cringed away from Cronos. He could barely hold himself from pissing his pants. “Can’t you do anything good?! How is it possible that she still pulled away! I created you, son, I gifted you with Aphrodite’s powers, and still, you can’t succeed making her fall in love with me!”

“She is just too strong, I don’t know how it’s even possible.” Eros didn’t dare to look at Cronos, but he doesn’t understand how Persephone is strong enough to break his spell every time.

“Why don’t you choose somebody else? You can have anyone. I’ll bring you back my King. I’ll help you in your fight for power. You’ll have the throne and we’ll destroy those ungrateful bastards” This time Apatha walked forward to Cronos, lust in her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to have Cronos for herself. She used her gift of deception to create an example of how their love could be. Cronos waved the delusion away, in one swift move he stood in front of Apata and strangled her while lifting her in the air. His face was so close that she could feel his warm breath. Apatha struggled but she couldn’t win against him. “Listen very carefully. Only she is worthy. This is all part of a much bigger plan. I can feel that she was created for me. She's going to be mine!” He threw Apata away like she was nothing more than garbage.

“When she sleeps, we’ll try again.”

“Yes, master” Both Eros and Apata bowed their head. Why had Cronos created them to do such impossible tasks?