Hades' Doctor

Eyes of hell fire, brighter than a coal aflame revealed to me their menacing beauty.

And bewitched, I stood bound by a reality no different from fantasy, for before me was the god spoken of in ancient hymns, the Ruler of the dead.

My grip on the curtain loosen and soon my hand falls limp to my side as I stood in a daze, long enough for a look of nonchalance and a weak smile to be unable to compensate for my rude stares.

This King was not atop any extravagant throne, nor a golden wreath crowned his lustrous hair like ink as he languidly leans back by his bed and under those amber eyes, even the most calmest of souls would falter, with its gaze never to be the first to avert its focus, but they were indifferent to the world, and far from welcoming.

"Can you cure me mortal child?" A deep voice questions in annoyance.

Audibly I gulp, complaining in my heart, a sweet old man was so much better!

The journey that brought me to this very moment started of with an argument, an argument that I now I wish my mother had won.

And my mind starts to play an awful dramatic music in que for a flashback.

"So you want to spent your summer alone, and in the middle of nowhere." A woman in her early forties scoffs her grey eyes glaring behind large reading glasses as she flips through the pages of the file in her hands.

"I won't be by myself, I will have two maids to look after me." Maintaining a straight face, I say in my most persuasive tone.

She sets the file down on the table and looks at me, exasperated and I knew then that I was in for a rundown of all those times I messed up in my life.

"Do you remember the time you to stayed with Aunt Irene? You broke your cousin's nose! right after he FRACTURED your leg." She sighs looking away as if feeling sad for the poor boy and not her innocent daughter. "There is no way that I would let you stay in that old house even if you had an entire army guarding you."

"Because my love." Her tone softens as her lays down her glasses. "You're a ten year-old soul inhibiting a fifteen year-old body with the MINDSET of a five year-old who plays with a two year-olds toys!!"

Her graceful features contours in anger, and nearby my father who chose to remain in neutral territory hides behind his newpaper presumably smiling at his daughter's plight.

My lips part in a deep sigh stopping myself from rebuking her every word, not even pointing out that I, as a matter of fact fractured my leg when I fell into a ditch, or how my cousin deserved to get his nose broken for smaking down my ice-cream. And how I am actually SEVENTEEN, something she very well knew, but it seems to be a norm for mothers to either raise or lower their children's age according to the situation.

And seeing no other way to get through to this practical mother of mine, I give into emotions. "Ma, you know that...that I miss Nana. And we haven't gone back to that house ever since she passed away."

"Its been four years and now you are selling it...I understand that you don't want to leave it empty so you have to give it away. But please let me stay stay there for a month, that place has too many memories I have of her."

"Ma please."

Her grey eyes becomes gentle knowing how attached I was to my great grandmother and after a series of emotional backmails and desperated yelling she finally gave in with the ending words. "Fine, but you better not visit those ruins."

And a week later, I arrieved in Greece and with a backpack in hand I had hiked through the mountain trials to stand before the same ruins my mother talked of, as if it was only natural.

The degrading structure before me once used to a Greek temple, bringing peace to the land, but now only little remains with the people of the town nearby deadset on the rumours being true, of a curse casted to trap those trespassing into hysterics, unable to leave till their last breaths.

But Nana never seemed afraid unlike her fellow town folks and usually brought me along to this place she used to call Ouránios katastrofí, meaning the celestial wreck.

It wasn't the thirst for an adventure that brought me here, but its rich untented gardens with rare species of plants thriving untouched by the outside world.

My interest for plant life was stemmed from my gift, something most found strange, for from the time I was conscious I knew the medicinal properties of each plant there is, from roses, to moss, to palm trees, like a built-in catalogue with pictures and habitat in my mind, never overlapping or confusing.

On revelation of such an ability it was not uncommon for people to think of it as a joke and nicknames, ohh I had many. My most favourite being witch doctor though I never sported baggy hats or brooms though maybe I could have pulled it off with combat boots.

And being here today was with a specific purpose, for a plant that had long ago quipped my interest but was never let to pluck for Nana said it would bloom after seven years and now those years have passed but even after two hours searching, the odds weren't in favour.

I wipe my forehead relieving it off sweat that took only seconds to be replaced, my clothes uncomfortably clinging to skin. I wanted to find it, figure out what was so special about that one tiny green bud, but I was out of luck. It was nowhere to be found.

It was as I neared the temple itself that I heard the distinct sound of flowing water and curious of its source I enter the ruins I was always warned against by Nana fearing its collapse and whatnot.

The roof was almost nonexistent, the walls eroded inwards and numerous humanoid statues remained by the sides with only few retaining traces of its former artistic beauty. I stepped carefully over pieces of rubble on the mossy floor that clearned in patches to reveal paintings lost of their luster and colour in only blurred outlines.

I neared the end of the edifice, there was a hole in the floor, almost two meters in radius and something about it makes me cautious as I slowly inch as if fearing something would suddenly pop up.

My vivid imagination at times like this, did not help as I peered into murky waters that strangely wasn't stagnant and unable to see past its surface to know its depth. Quenching my curiosity I step away trying to keep a relatively safe distance.

But suddenly rumbling noises come from underneath my feet and with this brief warning, the floor crumbles and slides forward taking me along into the waters beneath.

I fall in with a shriek that was close to animalistic as I plunge into ice cold waters that momentarily leaves me dumb with a lack of response.

And when the shock fades instincts kick in and I force my limbs to work, but as my face surfaces a strange force more powerful than gravity pulls at my body submerging it and I fail to keep my mind and thundering heart calm.

The screams, I push down my throat, giving it my whole to break through to the surface and a single breath is all I gain as I am once again pulled down to its depths.

The breath I managed to hold, fails me as it escapes in bubbles and the light shining down from the entrance, my only hope grows dimmer till only darkness remain as company.

_________________________________________

My eyes flutter open to the voice beckoning me to the light, instantly assulted by the coldness of the floor that I lay upon drenched and shivering.

"Are you awake?" The same voice questions and I turn to the silhouette of a man behind steel bars and in response I sit up uncomfortable by the water trapped in my ears.

Did I not drown?

"Are you human?" The man asks and my hands reach up to my hair pitying myself that my state even made him uncertain of my species.

"What do I look like?" I laugh and find my body's health quite odd since from the moment I lost consciousness water should have entered my lungs, but I seemed entirely fine. And if my saviour did perform basic first aid why leave me soaked to succumb to hypothermia.

While I was lost in thought the man was silent and I realise that he was serious when asking and with warmed cheeks I was made to admit. "Yes, I am human."

There was movement on his side. "Then I apologise for locking you up like this, we had had follow procedure and make sure that you were mortal."

Mortal? Aren't we all? The explanation only leads me to ask for more. If this was indeed the worst day of my life, I was probably kidnapped and put into this cell with chandeliers for lighting.

Watching me knead my forehead I hear him chuckle and drop to his knees after nearing the bars. And a face heavily contradicting what I had in mind for a rough and tough kidnapper offered me a small smile.

A spring sky was held in his eyes of blue, disarming all with a single glance.

My brows were raised in obvious surprise by the man no older than twenty two and clearing all other thoughts I try to be polite hoping to find some answers. "My name is Elizabeth."

In shock he sets himself down crosslegged soon seeming amused when squeezing his hands between the bars. "I am William. "

This man was handsome from the lines of his lips to the gentleness of his voice but the depths of his eyes made him beautiful and the intelligence behind them made him charming.

"Nice to meet you." I shake his hand warmly and like once before he chuckles throwing a query my way.

"You sure that you are human?"

Faking seriousness I play along."I am starting to have my doubts." And here I was getting cozy with my potential kidnapper.

His smile widens and props his chin on his palm. "How did you get here"?

And all my guesses and speculations went down the drain. "You mean you did not take me here?"

He keeps silent, not wanting to answer and I very much wanted to do the same, but given this situation with only cons in an endless list I could only cooperate.

"What plant?" It was not William that spoke but someone with a greasy voice behind him and untill now I had thought only William was involved in this strange plot but it surely wasn't the case.

"I don't know."

"Then why were you looking for it?" I get up as William rise looking back to the speaker. This man was much less friendly and his tone like that of interrogating a criminal.

"It has medicinal value so I wanted to know more of it." But unlike my expectations, the reason did not put an end to his curiosity.

"You...you wanted to make a medicine out of it?" A man around his forties having more strands of grey than black finally steps out of the shadows.

Are you cosplaying? I wanted to ask while taking in his attire of ancient armour over red robes, a deadly sword hanging on his belt of leather.

"Sort of."

Chaos soon broke with multiple people hidden away from my sight starting to speak, the echoes too hard to discern.

I shrank back to the wall when it grew louder and the loudest of the group finally letting me hear a clear statement. "She's a doctor!"

"A doctor!" A dozen men said in unison pushing me to correct the misunderstanding.

"I am not a doctor, you have got-"

"Get her out of the cell." William cuts me off puting an end to the enthusiastic screams and I look to him still by the bars, his ocean eyes cautious and calculating.

The door it pushed open and I cramp myself into the corner when another man in matching armour as the first enters, his hands reaching out when saying."Come with us."

I pause for a moment to watch his actions and when he tries to grab my arm, his expression unapologetic I drive my fist to his nose jabbing upwards towards the nostrils. But the man does not stagger and closes in unflinching to the sound of broken bones.

My mind races when he nears as if wanting to hug and in such close range I couldn't find the momentum to throw a punch and so I bent my arm at the elbow and aim at his chin.

But in the last moment lower its force remembering his broken nose and like before the attacker seemed unbothered.

So instead he tries to grab onto my hands again and now having known that using brute force was futile I evade. This tactic was always easier on the one chasing and within limited space I was already having a hard time before two others join in.

"Three against one? Come on!" But with two on either side holding my hand and the other desperately trying to get ahold of my legs, they were unashamed by such unfair play.

"Let me go," Finding myself completely defeated, there was no room for strategy amid frustration and I kick around blindly resembling a chick caught in hawk's claw.

"Leave her." William orders stepping towards us and their grip loosen and I slip free, annoyed and angry.

"No." I retreat a few steps back, my eyes wandering to find escape routes. "What are you saying? Who is this Lord you are talking about?"

A sigh leaves William' lips and he looks to me a little helpless. "You have trespassed into the domain of the dead, the Kingdom of the Underworld."

"And now you will be our Lord Hades' Doctor."

Huh?!?!

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