“Look at Persephone, isn’t she beautiful? Wouldn’t you like to make her your bride?” A whispering voice spoke in my ear, although there was no one next to me. It was like the devil on my shoulder was speaking to me. I felt a small bee-like sting hit me in my heart, and before I could control my body, I was making my way toward the beautiful woman that caught my eye.
Up close she was even more beautiful; she was sitting in the tall grass of a meadow making flower crowns with the bright colored flowers. I couldn’t see her legs due to her long white dress that was spread out on the ground. When I was within earshot of her, I bellowed out, “Young maiden, I am Hades, God of the underworld. You will come with me and be my bride.” I didn’t wait for her response, and I grabbed her arm, opened a crack in the ground, and took us to the underworld.
“What? M-Mother! Mother! Help me! Help me!” She called out just before the crack closed up behind us. “Let me go! I cannot be your bride. You are brother to my parents and my uncle.”
“And your parents are siblings. There is nothing wrong with gods loving gods. There are no birth defects with us, so you don’t need to worry about our children.” I responded as I stopped the chariot in front of my house. I didn’t want to live in palaces like my brothers and sisters on Olympus, but I didn’t want to live in a small hut. It would remind me too much of my father’s stomach. So, I live in a big house, it was all black and dark colors, every emo kid’s dream home, but I had lots of big windows to make the inside seem bigger than it was.
“We wouldn’t have children even if I were to marry you.” She sneered at me. I turned to look at her, really look at her. Her long brown hair, despite having just flown through the wind, laid perfectly on her head. She had soft features, round cheeks, and a button nose, even as she glared at me her eyes shined with happiness and feistiness.
“Please do tell me, why is that?” I asked, stepping off the chariot, holding my hand out to her to help her off. She hesitated but accepted the help.
“Because I am not the woman you took. I’m not a woman at all. I’m a man.” She stated. I froze, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I turned at looked at her.
“I didn’t realize that a man could be as beautiful as you. I’m sorry to say but this new information does not scare me away. Before we go any further, would you like for me to refer to you as female or male?”
“M-male,” He said staring up at me in shock. He gripped his dress in his hands, knuckles turning white.
“Is everything all right? Come, let’s go inside.” I smile down at him while gesturing for him to follow me. I open the front door for him and watch in delight as his features grow wide at the open spaces in front of him. It was then that I noticed our height difference, I stood, like most gods, at 6’10” but even as a god himself, Persephone stood only at around 5’9”.
“All of this could be yours if you married me.” I stated, “You could rule over everything that lives and moves here.”
He doesn’t respond but his features show that he was thinking. “Show me to my room.” He demands. “I-I need time to think.”
After giving Persephone the night to think it over, I knocked on his bedroom door. “Persephone? Join me, please. I want to get to know you” I asked him quietly.
I heard soft footsteps on the other side of the door. The door cracked slightly, Persephone peeked up at me, “I think you are doing things in the wrong order. You’re supposed to get to know a person and then marry them. Not the other way around.”
“I’m not a traditionalist, sue me. Come.” I said while walking away. I heard a sigh before the door closed. I take him to a garden I had at the back of the house. Not really a garden because I could never get anything to grow.
“Well, this is sad.” He said cradling a dead plant leaf in his hand.
“I could never get anything to grow, I’ve tried for years. If you stayed this could be yours. You could grow anything.” I said smiling down at him. “How are my brother and sister” He flinched, like the mention of his mother had cut him. “Did something happen between you and your mother? Did she hurt you?
“My mother loves me.” he started, “But she thinks I make a better woman than a man. In her eyes, I am too small and weak to be a real man. My shoulders too small and my hips wide like a woman’s.”
“And what do you think of this?” I asked, while this conversation happened, he was fixated on the dead plants, trying to bring them back the best he could.
“She is my mother; she knows what is best for me. But sometimes, when she sleeps. I pin my hair up and wear pants and shirts. It’s silly I know. If Mother thinks I am best as a woman, then I should act like one.”
“You know, you can be whatever you want to be here. You can cut your hair, wear whatever you want. Act however you want. Be the you that you want. Everything you do would be up to you.”
Before he could respond the sky cracked open and Hermes came flying down. Hermes landed next to us and spoke, “I have come to bring you to your mother. She has threatened to destroy the humans by withholding their food.”
“I-I want to stay.” Persephone quickly stated. “I want to stay in the underworld with my husband.”
“This choice is not up to you, child. The choice was already made by Zeus. Without seeing you. Demeter will kill all the humans. We must leave. Now” He said while grabbing Persephone’s arm and dragging him up toward the crack.
“Quick my love before you leave, eat these.” I saw while handing him pomegranate seeds. “If you do, they can not keep us apart year-round. You will have to come back to me for half of the year.”
He quickly eats the seeds and smiles down at me as Hermes drags him away. “See you soon my love”
Phoenix Jones // BluePhoenixBirb 