Endangered Read online

  Chrys stepped in, stopping me from deciding to kick the ball straight at A.J.’s stomach. She always showed up at the most inopportune times, but I was glad to see her nevertheless. I knew that sitting next to her father, the God of the Underworld Hades, always made her tired and in the need for some relaxation. Which was why, as her “tutor”, we were “learning” soccer. Really we were just goofing off. But for some reason, instead of just being the two of us, A.J. had joined us. Again. Seriously, this guy needed to take a hint. Chrys wasn’t interested in him, yet he always joined us in games and hanging out. Maybe he did just want to be her friend, she was a goddess after all.

  Chrys still wore her lacy black dress, one that left me only to imagine what she would look like in just black lace. I tried my hardest not to think about it, but damn she was beautiful. Her long chestnut hair was still in curls and she examined us with her dark eyes. “You two behaving yourselves?”

  We both nodded in unison. “Yeah.”

  She snapped her fingers and her dress morphed into grey sweats and a pink tank-top. I tried to avert my eyes when she did stuff like that because I couldn’t keep away some of the thoughts that ran through my mind.

  Oh yeah, did I mention she was Hades’ daughter? Yeah, that was always a buzzkill.

  I couldn’t imagine what he would do to me if I ever laid a hand on his daughter, with her permission of course. I would say he would kill me, but I was dead already. So whatever he would do to me had to be much, much worse.

  Chrys kicked the ball up into her hands. “So, are we playing one-on-one-on-one?”

  A.J. and I glanced at each other and shrugged.

  “Sure, whatever you want,” I said as I straightened out black sleeveless shirt. She sort of nodded, but didn’t let go of the ball.

  A.J. stared at her a little longer. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  I hated it when he noticed things like that, made me look like I hadn’t a clue. I knew that they had been together for a very long time (again, as friends) so they learned a lot about each other during that time.

  She frowned as she twirled the ball in her hands. “Mother’s coming home today.”

  Was it already that time of year? It was hard to tell when the Underworld didn’t have seasons. For that reason, I neglected even keeping track of what day it was either because, well, it wasn’t like I had anything else to do for the rest of eternity.

  As for Chrys’ mother, Persephone… she was an interesting woman. She was kind of like those moms you knew were sleeping with the pool guy but the husbands didn’t care. Actually it was exactly like that as Persephone snuck men in all the time. In front of Hades. In front of her own daughter. Then apparently when Hades tried to sleep with a nymph named Minthe, Persephone trampled her and she became mint. I still didn’t know if I believed that, even after being in the Underworld and hanging out with gods and all. Though Chrys told me other stories about gods that made this one seem more plausible. The gods were up to some weird shit, I tell you.

  So one could see why Chrys got upset when her mother was back for the three months of the year. They didn’t exactly get along.

  Although Persephone did try what she considered “hard” and you could tell she loved her daughter even it felt forced. However, she never really took the time to understand Chrys with her unique personality, and I think that was why Chrys never looked forward to her mother being home, at least not since I’ve known her.

  I never looked forward to family time when I was alive either, so I could honestly relate.

  “We can do something else if you want, play some video games or something,” I said. Yes, we had video games down here. It was great. I also had some contraband that was burning a hole in my pocket, but couldn’t bring it up with A.J. there. He would simply disapprove.

  She shook her head. “No, I think some physical activity would be good for me. I need to get my mind off it all.” Dropping the ball, she kicked it over to me. “So let’s play.”

  We played for what seemed like hours, and it probably was. Time always went by fast, yet didn’t seem to move at all since we were kind of stuck here. Couldn’t wait until the day came when I had been here for a millennia and I’m just like oh, has it been that long already?

  And I probably would still suck at soccer.

  I was losing big time, and Chrys was winning. I didn’t know if A.J. was letting her win or if she was just having a good day in general. Maybe it had something to do with letting stress off about her mom’s upcoming visit. It was usually tied between those two, both part god after all, or fully goddess in her case.

  Chrys had collapsed in the middle of the gym, acting as if she had died from exhaustion, yet laughing hysterically as A.J. frowned, looking quite sad that she had gotten the ball past him and into the goal.

  I patted A.J. on the back. “Tough luck.”

  He glared at me. “Touch me again, you’re dead.”

  I lifted my hand off of him and went to help Chrys up. I lent her a hand and as she grabbed it, instead of letting me help her up, of course, she pulled me over her back and I hit the gym floor with a loud bang. That was definitely going to leave a mark. She busted up laughing again.

  “I can’t believe you fell for that gag again.” She rolled over to face me. I didn’t feel like getting up, as my body was in a lot of pain.

  Yup, one could feel pain in the Underworld. It was great… Though it would pass soon, it was still inconvenient. But at least I lost to Chrys and damn she smelled good, even after playing for a couple of hours. She smelled like a sweet flower.

  “Hey,” I said as I groaned. “If you are going to be like that, maybe I won't share with you what I have in my pocket.”

  Her eyes widened, and then her lips turned into a smile. “You didn’t.”

  I pulled out a small plastic bag full of little red seeds. They were better than any drug I had ever had on Earth, and believe me I had tried a few. “Just you and me. Our little secret.”

  She glanced over at A.J. who was kicking the goal post, still pissed off that Chrys had bested him. He never ate anything, I swore. Chrys had asked him once to join us and he chewed the both of us out and stormed off. Apparently they were some forbidden fruit of the gods, and anyone who ate them would have to face the wrath of Hades. We didn’t see him for a couple of days. It was great. But nevertheless, he came back and we never brought it up to him again. Kept it our little secret. Because, seriously, there was no way Hades would ever find out.

  Biting her lip, she nodded. “Yeah, let’s ditch him and go to my room.”

  I smiled. I really wished she wasn’t talking about just eating the seeds but that day probably would never come anytime soon. “Your turn to come up with a lie.”

  She rolled her eyes as she stood up. It really was her turn, as I had made up the lie of “Hades wanted me to teach her about modern politics. You interested in joining us?” What I had learned over the couple of years here was that A.J. hated learning about modern governments. He couldn’t get over the fact that he was once King of Tyre, and the fact that no one I knew had ever heard of the place pissed him off a lot.

  “Follow my lead,” she whispered to me, then turned to A.J. “Hey, I’m getting a bit tired and I need to get ready for dinner with my mother tonight. Call it good?”

  If I watched A.J.’s expression closely, it always amazed me how he could give me such a disgusted look, yet look at Chrys with such kindness. He was talented indeed.

  “Of course, Chrys. Go get some rest. Then tomorrow I shall have my revenge on the court,” A.J. kissed her hand and watched as she left. Then he turned to me with a frown. “You two are going to go eat that fruit, aren’t you?”

  I froze. I had no idea how he knew we still did this. “What are you talking about?”

  That was a stupid thing to say to a demigod. Do you know how strong demigods are? Very. The answer is very.

  A.J. had me pinned to the wall, his hand around my throat. “Are you a
n idiot?” he snarled. “The fruit is called ‘forbidden’ for a reason. Only Hades is allowed to eat that fruit. If he finds out his daughter has been eating it with a human, he will be pissed. Do you know what happens when Hades is pissed?”

  “Bad things?” I choked.

  “Very bad things. And guess what? He will take his anger out on the both of us. I don’t want any part of that, do you hear me? If you two get caught, you better leave me out of it.” His crystal blue eyes stared at me full of fury. I struggled to nod.

  “Yeah, don’t worry I will tell him it’s my fault. Don’t worry about it.”

  He let go of my throat, but jabbed his finger into my collarbone. “I shouldn’t have let Chrys save you. I should have let Charon find you and dispose of you like all the rest.”

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?”

  Instead of answering my question, A.J. shook his head and left me standing there. I sighed. Neither him nor Chrys ever told me how I ended up in this palace. She said it was because she needed a modern tutor, someone who could tell her about what the Earth was like. Yeah, I was pretty sure there were many more qualified than I was, but I didn’t complain. I saw the alternatives and since I wasn’t sure as to which of the three afterlives I would go to (well, which of the two to be honest), I decided being Chrys’ tutor wasn’t a bad choice after all, not to mention it meant I got to work closely with the most beautiful woman in all of the worlds. I didn’t care that I hadn’t met any other goddesses, other than Persephone. And I had to admit I thought she was quite beautiful when I first saw her. That was the day I taught Chrys what a MILF was, so I guess I was a tutor of modern affairs, just not ones that she really needed to learn. Teaching Earth slang wasn’t really furthering her education, at least with respects to what goddesses of the underworld needed to know.

  As I walked down the hallway towards Chrys’ room, I passed Hades’ office. I could hear him playing the song “Way Down Hadestown”. He really liked that song, it was quite entertaining, though Chrys didn’t seem to think so. She was quite annoyed by it honestly, but I presume she has heard her father playing it a lot more than I had. It seemed like a tune that foreshadowed the appearance of Chrys’ mother. It must have been their song, so to speak. Persephone probably hated it, if we were honest. It was about going down into the Underworld, or at least that part of New Orleans the song described. Very ironic, if you ask me.

  Hades must have heard me in the hallway because just as I passed by, he stepped out.

  “Huntley, have you and my daughter finished your tutoring for the day?” Hades asked.

  My heart feeling as if it were going to jump right out of my chest. Cool part is that I would still go on being “alive” here if that happened. It would hurt, but hey, it would make for a nice story to tell others for eternity. I turned, and there in front of me, stood the Lord of Darkness, Death himself.

  He really wasn’t how I pictured him. In fact, I laughed when I first saw him because I thought someone was playing some kind of joke. There was no joke, he was indeed Hades and even though Chrys elbowed me to shut up about the fact he didn’t look scary at all, I had to learn my lesson the hard way. He was indeed scary when he wanted to be and ever since then he hadn’t really liked me. Not sure if it was because of that incident or because I spent a lot of time with his daughter, but either way he liked glaring daggers at me for no reason.

  But seriously, this man was sexy, even I would admit that He would make a great movie villain, honestly. He had dark hair,was clean-shaven, and was always wearing a dark suit. That wasn’t how I pictured the dark lord to be. He was supposed to be scary, you know, with horns and goat legs, I don’t know. Not sexy.

  But that didn’t mean he wasn’t vicious by any means. I had seen him get angry and A.J. was right, I never wanted to be on his bad side. Which was why I made sure I would never get caught. And why I wouldn’t ever lay a hand on his daughter either. He made that clear the first time we met, when Chrys begged him to let me be her tutor.

  “No, we still need to go over some new geography. She keeps messing up her Nordic cities. Can’t blame her, they have some really weird names,” I lied to the God of the Underworld. I would say I was going to go to hell for that but…

  He examined me closely, his eyes narrowed, and nodded. “I see. Well, her mother will be home in a few hours. See to it that she is ready and on time. She has a problem with tardiness, as you know.”

  So he even knew that. Surprise, surprise. “Yes, sir.”

  “Carry on then. and thank you for training my daughter so well,” he said without a hint of actual thankfulness. Not sure if he was being sarcastic or if he just felt like it needed to be said, even though he still hadn’t quite decided if he liked me or not.

  “No problem, have fun doing… whatever you are doing.” And as quickly as I could, I got out of being in his intimidating presence. I didn’t like being around him for more than a little amount of time by myself. I just knew I was going to say something stupid out of sheer nervousness.

  I could feel his eyes on me until I rounded the corner. I let out the breath I had been holding and then knocked on Chrys’ door. She opened it.

  “Get in before I have to hear that stupid song of his any longer.” She grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me inside.

  “Whoa, someone’s addicted to this stuff.” I watched as she locked the door behind her. She was wearing jeans, converse, and a long black shirt. Her hair was pinned up, which I always thought looked best on her. I glanced around the room. Dark purple and black were the theme of her room. Curtains, pillowcases, lampshades, comforter. It was all the same. I knew with a snap of her fingers should could make it all a shade of pink that would make me vomit.

  The walls were decorated with metal and alternative rock posters. She had Oomph!, Rammstein, Amaranthe, Nightwish, Before Their Eyes, Escape the Fate, and that was just to name a few. I got her hooked on metal. It was great.

  “No, it’s just if I hear that song one more time I am going to go to my father’s office and break all his CDs.” She let out a brief sigh, as if even the thought of the song left her exhausted. “He thinks it’s hilarious because it’s about him. He plays it mostly before Mother is back because she won’t let him play it while she’s around. Anyway, I need some good music. What should we listen to?”

  I shrugged. I really didn’t have a preference. “Up to you. Your room.”

  She smiled as she pressed a button on her stereo. “Oomph! it is.”

  The song lyrics started to play. “Oh my time is up, I know you’re gonna burn me. Your judgement’s coiled just like a snake around my neck.”

  I pulled out the bag of a couple of red seeds. Okay, so they were pomegranate seeds, but damn these weren’t like any pomegranates I had ever had. These things could give a person a high without any of the side effects. It was great. Just one seed was all you needed.

  Chrys looked as if she couldn’t hold back her anticipation. She sat across from me in her black bean bag chair (I know, right? I have corrupted this poor goddess) biting her lip and playing with her nails. I opened up the bag and grabbed one to put in her hand.

  “I can’t wait to forget about Mother coming home. I’m so sick of her already, and she’s not even here yet.”

  “Won’t make the problem go away though.” I was one to talk, that was the exact reason I was here.

  She looked a little sad as she paused to take the seed. “Yeah, well, a little escape from time-to-time is enough. Anyway, where did you get them this time?” she asked as she stared at the seed in her hand.

  I shrugged. “Just been grabbing one at a time for a while now. No one notices when I only grab one at a time. Your father has them stashed in quite a few places all over his domain.”

  Chrys shook her head. “I can’t imagine him ever taking these. He’s too strict. I bet they are my mother’s. I’m surprised I have never seen her high on these before.” She popped the morsel in her mou
th and laid back in the beanbag chair. “These are heavenly. I’m so glad we found them.”

  The song kept playing. “Oh my time is up, and Heaven’s gates are bolted. But now I’m not even sure if they want me down in Hell.”

  I grabbed the remaining one and put it in my mouth. Instantly I felt like I was floating on clouds. The room felt as if it were spinning, yet not in a way that made one sick. It was like a surreal dream, as colors erupted around me.

  Yet even with all of this, I couldn’t get what A.J. had said out of my head.

  Mother was home.

  I forced myself to smile but damn I didn’t want to. She was the same mother who left me behind for most of the year, who didn’t care that it was just me and Father left in the Underworld. Sure I had Huntley and A.J. but it wasn’t the same as having one’s own mother home with them for more than just a few weeks.