Mini Stories and One Shots

Maybe Hades Isn't So Bad After All

What would you do if Hades turned up at your bedroom door with a red balloon in his hand and a grin?

“Hello,” he would say and smile at you as if nothing was wrong.

He would stare at the shadows scratching at your body, trying to drag you to the underworld faster.

You would remain still and flinch when he points a bony finger at you and traces it down your face.

“You will love it there, don’t worry,” he says, as if he has to say it all the time, as if he is not assuring you, but making you more nervous.

You want to cry out in pain, but you know nothing is going to work. You’re all ready dead, you remind yourself.

“Wait!” he shouts, pulling himself out of his reverie. He claps his hands and growls. The demons looking at you disappear, and then you’re left looking at one very confused looking man.

A man in a fancy waist coat that is smudged and stained; a man with matching striped breeches with the two bands of elastics wrapping around his shoulders. An air of darkness consumes you, making him look terrifying.

But you can’t focus on that, because he has a pained frown on his face. “You may go,” are his last words.

And then he disappears, and you’re left in your bed, and you’re thinking to yourself, it was all a dream.

But you know, deep down, that it wasn’t.