The Hybrid [malexmale]

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

We teleported from Ares's strange little castle island back to Tartarus.

I wasn't comfortable being back in the darkest pit of Hades that looked like some kind of futuristic style prison and smelled heavily of smoke and rubbing alcohol. It was sterile and cold. However, I think that was the point; to make it one of the least liked places in the world.

We reappeared back outside Menoetius's cell and Ares summoned the keypad from the wall to untint the window. This time, Menoetius was inside curled up in another corner, his eyelids hanging half-shut like he wanted to sleep, but he didn't dare let himself. As soon as I approached the window, his eyes flashed wide open and he jerked his head up before whimpering and covering his head, curling up tighter.

"Please, stop," He begged pitifully, "Please..." I sighed, glancing at Ares, who looked at me innocently.

"Guess he got another therapy session recently... What? How was I supposed to know? I don't follow Hades's schedule. I feel like I'd be extremely disturbed by his hobbies." He added under his breath, rubbing at the back of his neck. I looked back through the window at Menoetius, who sniffed helplessly.

He looked nothing like the brother I remembered. Ares was right; he was completely broken. Shattered to pieces. And now Iapetus was no longer breathing down our necks to manipulate Menoetius into acting the way he wanted him to. This was Menoetius, clean and uncensored.

I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

I got down slowly in front of the window, watching Menoetius try to cram himself further into the corner.

"We need to talk." I said. Menoetius hesitated and looked up, peering through his hands that he put over his face. He swallowed audibly and looked around nervously. He twitched every so often, flinching away from something I couldn't see. He reminded me of an untreated mental patient from the movies. I just hope he didn't start screaming or trying to hit me through the window. The window didn't look strong enough, but then again, it was probably laced with something that would back fire on Menoetius if he tried to attack me.

"Did you really ask Iapetus if you could... Did you really not hate me?" I decided to ask instead. Menoetius stared at me, his gaze haunted before he sucking in a shuddering breath and he put his arms around himself tightly, eyes lowering to the ground.

"I tried to. I really did," He added quickly, looking up at me, panicked, "I tried to like Atlas's stupid ideas, Iapetus treating you like garbage. But I couldn't and everyone knew it... They all knew." His voice dropped to a whisper and I had to lean in closer to try and hear as he reached his hands up through his hair, clenching his fists in it as he covered his ears and choked on a dry sob.

"Even my mother stopped loving me because of it. She wouldn't even look at me anymore. Oh, she pretended to for Iapetus, for other people, but she hated me... She caught me watching you, just like Prometheus did, and she beat me for it and all I could think the entire time was... please don't hurt, Hannibal. Please don't hurt him for what I did... But that was stupid," He stopped to laugh bitterly, lowering his arms to his sides, "I don't know why I bothered thinking that. She went and she hit you for it anyway and you had no idea what was going on. You kept asking what you did and mother never told you why. She just called you a demon... And for the longest time, that's what I tried to talk myself into. That Iapetus was right."

"You're a demon here to corrupt the family," Menoetius said, suddenly laughing out loud and waving his hands dramatically before he choked on another sob and covered his eyes in distress, "But it was stupid to blame someone else for our problems. So fucking stupid. I did everything I could to try and hate you as much as they did, but I couldn't. Even after... even after I attacked you and hurt you, that scar... I hated myself. God, I spent hours cutting to make up for it, but no matter how many times I did it, I didn't feel like it was enough for what I did." I hesitated.