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Description
The purity of the tile below the whitewashed walls gave the eyes no rest. Clinics always gave the people sitting within the pristine walls a feeling like they would be cleaned out of existence. The feeling that as they sat all of their natural flora sloshed off along with the bacteria that try so desperately to kill them. Ammonia wafted through the hallway filling William's nose as he shifted awkwardly in his nearly empty seat. His empty hands shook as they sat cupped within each other.

"William Dean?" called the rough voice of the nurse who had spent about twenty years too long sitting behind a small pine desk. Despite being in healthcare, her voice was rough from the five morning cigarettes a day, and William jumped at the harshness.

"Yeah, I'm here," he mumbled, standing up as he started to shuffle to the door that led into the doctor's offices. The charts last time hadn't been in his favor, but hoping for an error he hadn't even told his family what they had said. This simple door that was held open for him by a nurse holding a clipboard seemed to lead to a possible doom, or salvation. The nurse smiled at him as her black eyes blinked at him. His own hazel eyes looked away as he slipped past her into the hallway. As the door clicked behind him he jumped a little.

With a quiet laugh the nurse passed by him leading the way to the room. Even through her scrubs, William could make out a slight panty line as her hips swung side to side. They were the kind that had thin pieces of fabric connect the front and back, but not a thong. How could he be ogling at a time like this? Chances were that upon entering this room, the very room the blonde was opening before him now, he could find out he was going to die. That he had to get his affairs in order.

"I'll be back in a moment to check on you. Then the doctor will be in, Mr. Dean," the woman's voice said happily. William now noticed her lips were tinted a slight pink as he smiled at her trying to return courtesy.

"Right. Thanks," he said he as he slipped past her yet again and into the cold examination room. Suppose at least one should find the beauty in life, while you are in it.

William sat on the uncomfortable examination table staring at the tongue depressors and cotton swabs in jars. Every time he shifted his weight the crinkling sound of the thin paper that covered the examination table, what could be compared to butcher paper, would ring out in the empty air. Waiting inside of the examination room was always worse than waiting in the waiting room. It seemed like this torture would end soon because you were inside finally, but time clicked by even slower.

Life was maintained in this room. Not created. Nor taken. But maintained. Like a car or a computer. Maintaining those things William understood. But life… he had no understanding of how maintaining life worked.

As William stared at the large poster on the back of the room that had a diagram of lungs after years of abuse, and wondering if the receptionist in the lobby had seen it, the same soothing voice entered the room again. "Sorry about that, Mr. Dean. Seems we're extra busy today. I hope you didn't get too bored," said the blonde nurse as she slipped into the small examination room. Now she had a face mask on whereas she hadn't before. This made William nervous as it was tightly looped around both ears and secured at the nose. It was obvious to him that she didn't plan on taking it off.

He swallowed back a lump in his throat as he shifted, making crinkling noises again. "Not a problem. What is that mask for?" he asked, half feeling like patients weren't supposed to ask such questions. Places like this always made people feel oppressed. Helpless. Less than people.

Beneath the mask he could tell her pink lips had smiled just the smallest amount. "Oh, Mr. Dean. Don't worry so much. It's just an extra precaution we are taking today. We've had a lot of cases come in today that had a few air borne bacteria with them. It's nothing serious. But don't you agree that it would be bad for a healthcare professional to get sick?" the woman asked as she took a seat on a stool next to William, penlight already in hand. The man couldn't argue with that. It seemed like a reasonable response. But before he could ask for more details about these bacteria, the nurse asked him to open wide.

Shining the light into his throat with one hand, the other pressing a sliver of wood down on his tongue, the blonde nurse looked intently in his throat, but not for long. Quickly she moved to his ears. And immediately after took his blood pressure and checked his heartbeat. She smiled under the mask again as her fingers touched his bare chest when she slipped her hand under his shirt with the stethoscope to check his heartbeat. "A little nervous are we?" she asked casually, as she slid her hand back out from under his shirt. Her slender fingers scribbled out her findings as her mouth moved beneath the mask again. "Mr. Dean, have you still been feeling fatigued?"

"Yes."

"Can't sleep at night?"

"Yes. Which might be the worst part…"

"Feverish?"

"Randomly, yes."

"Have the shakes?"

"Yes. Mostly in my hands."

"Numbness in the right hand?"

"No. None of that."

That answer made the scribbling stop momentarily. Her black eyes flickered up from the chart to the man. "The left maybe?" William shook his head slightly confused as the woman's eyes flickered back down to the chart and she scribbled the last of her notes. "I see. That is unfortunate," she mumbled.

"Why? Why is that unfortunate?" William asked, alarmed at the change of tone in the woman's voice. Before she had been professional but warm. Now there was something empty and foreboding about her words.

Shaking her head the nurse stood up with a smile. "I didn't mean to alarm you, Mr. Dean. The doctor will have to do a blood draw just to confirm the last of the tests. It is only unfortunate as I thought I might have the solution to your illness. But you say you are lacking one of the main symptoms then it probably isn't what I thought it was. That is all," the nurse said as she turned to leave the room. "The doctor will be in to explain more to you in a moment."

William didn't seem convinced as he stared desperately after the blonde nurse. This time he was too distraught to even think about looking at her panty line.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The nurse stared at the various agar plates laid out before her, blonde hair tumbling out of its tight bun that it had been thrown into for work. The escaping strands made her look almost mad in the low lighting. All of the lights in the small room were off, save for what flooded the plates before her. "I don't understand. The blood agar plates showed a very obvious beta result. Why didn't it work?" the woman hissed as she thwacked her hand onto the cover of the newspaper. She sighed, shoving the paper away as she stood to her feet. The paper slid into the plates, making them crash to the floor.

The woman's white boots kicked the plates out of the way as she moved towards her charts that lined the walls of her personal microbiology room. She flicked on half of the overhead lights, too distracted to realize all the lights weren't on as all she needed filled the room to see. The room smelled of growing bacteria and disinfectant at the same time. A smell that her olfactory sense had already accommodated to well enough that the only time she smelled anything at all was if she wanted to. Sometimes the smell of bacteria was an easy enough way to identify what microbe was growing in a dish. But the mask that was slid over her nose and mouth negated some of the smell regardless as the tan cloth soaked up molecules.

"This is frustrating. I thought for sure combining Yersinia pestis would have worked... bacteria just don't kill people like they used to," she sighed as her nails scratched at the back of her hand.

"No they don't."

With a startled hop, the blonde nurse froze momentarily at the sudden deep male voice that came from behind her. Her hands had been in front of her body already, so slipping her fingers into the pocket of her smock took almost no muscle movement at all. The tips of her fingers had just clutched to the plunger of the syringe as the voice spoke again. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds that she had stayed turned, and even as she gripped the plunger she had been in motion to turn around. But already the voice knew. "Just leave that needle in your pocket, sweetheart. It won't do you any good here," the male voice said with a vocal inflection of amusement. "Not only that, but they kind of weird me out anyway."

Letting the syringe go back into her pocket, the woman turned around to face her intruder with a natural swivel. She was trying to seem natural, calm, like people just appeared in her lab all the time. Although no one knew of its existence under her small house out in suburbia. Her black eyes scanned carefully the man, profiling instantly. He was tall, about as tall as an average man but thin, with slicked black hair. His hair was so long that it was braided down his spine. A very classy suit hung from his frame, black with thin red stripes. The details were lost to her as she was not one to care about fashion in the least. But she did notice both hands were loosely in his pockets. "You'll have to excuse my harshness when I ask; who might you be? And what is more, why did you invite yourself into my home?" she asked resting hand naturally on her thigh. A scalpel was resting on a tray nearby. If the man made a sudden move she'd at least have a real weapon in hand, instead of a syringe full of numbing medicine.

The man's lips stretched into an almost unnatural smile. It didn't look right on his face. It seemed too wide, like he might try and eat you if you moved quickly. The feeling was only intensified by his bright blue eyes. "You don't sound too harsh at all. I admire you get right to the point," he replied, voice deep but devoid of any detectable emotion, "I understand how alarming this might be for you. Especially, under the circumstances." He left that half sentence hanging as he pulled his right hand out of his pocket to motion at his room. "Quite the lab you have here. Is it common practice for RNs to have an at home lab?" he asked as he gently kicked a soy agar plate towards her that was still resting on the floor. Its yellow sugar gel broke even more, rendering it fully useless.

"I wouldn't know. I don't tend to hang around very many," she replied naturally as she shifted her weight to the other leg, putting her hand closer to the scalpel. "Who are you?"

"We'll get to that. As for how I got here, let us just say… I let myself in," the man responded with a chuckle as his smile shrank to a normal size, although it didn't help its unnatural look on his face. It must have been due to his thin lips that it seemed so wrong, this she had decided. "I'm a big fan of your work, madam. Using modern human advances against itself. That is genius, that is," he said with another chuckle as he started to walk around the lab table to the other side where the paper had slid, but also further away. The flick of something followed behind him but she hadn't gotten a good look at it. "You think you have a great set up to kill off a good hundred thousand humans every hundred years or so, but they're too adaptable. Very good at picking up on these threats and trying to save themselves from death. But it always comes in one way or another. Mostly I leave it to war these days."

Patience was a thing you had to have if you ever wanted to join the healthcare profession. And patience was all the blonde had right now as she watched the man's movements. Hand still poised near the blade as she turned her head with his stride. "But it's great when someone takes the side of the natural against their own kind," he continued, her silence appearing not to bother him at all. Bending down he picked up the paper from the floor and stood again, shaking it free of dust. Again a flicker behind him, one that she almost could see.

She didn't have to see the paper to know what it said. Headliner of the "Health" section was all about a local doctor from a clinic whom was suspected of killing off his patient. The doctor claimed he didn't do it, but the syringe with some of the poison still inside was found in the office, and his prints were all over it.

"Who would have thought that the daughter of the Goddess of the Earth would be against its favorite habitants?" the man said after scanning the article. His eyes looked up at her directly this time, his bright blue irises stared directly into her. "I suppose Hades must have convinced you of something, eh, Persephone?" the man asked with a laugh this time.

A smile crossed Persephone's lips as she reached up and unhooked the mask from her left ear. She didn't bother with the other side and instead let it hang limply from the side of her face. "If that is what you are here about, I don't know a thing about it. Dr. Blake was always shady. All of the nursing staff thinks so. If you keep reading it says they don't think William Dean is the first of his victims," she responded as she crossed the room in long strides. "Also I would like to see your warrant for entry to my home. I doubt there is one, but I hope for the sake of your job that there might be one," she stated harshly as she stopped by the door out of the lab.

The man laughed again as he shook his head and let the paper drop to the floor. The article was still face up and the blank face of Dr. Neils Blake stared up from the paper. "I'm not with the police, or any type of law enforcement for that matter, Ms. Persephone," the man leaned on the lab table with one elbow as he looked at her with is his strange red eyes, "I suppose you could say I'm with the other side. Literally."

"I'm not interested in any underground business either. Whatever it is you want from me, or want me to do, I'm not interested. Leave," she said seriously. All traces of a smile were gone from her face as she opened the door to the lab for him to exit.

"But I thought you wanted to know who I am? How will you know if I leave now?" He asked honestly standing up straight again. The flicker behind him happened again but this time she could get a good look at it. A tail. Pointed at the tip, like an arrow. It swayed behind him like a pendulum and Persephone was curious how she missed it the first time. "I promise I'll get right to the point," he said finally sitting down on the nearest lab stool, "Just shut that door now and we'll have a nice talk. Go on now. Shut the door. And I promise all of your questions will be answered."

It seems the pieces were falling into place, bit by bit.

***
The story of Hades and Persephone starts on one bright sunny afternoon. Persephone was out picking flowers, innocent to the ordeal she was about to undergo. For as she reached for her last flower of the day, as it was growing dark, the ground opened up beneath her and she was swallowed into the underworld. Hades had taken her to his realm, planning to keep her for himself, make her his bride and thus queen of the underworld. But Persephone was worried of her mother's feelings on the subject. And as he kept her down in his realm trying to persuade her, Persephone's mother was searching for her. And while she did so, she made the Earth suffer a harsh and eternal winter.

Eventually Persephone was found by her dear mother and was saved. Or so was thought. For while Persephone stayed with Hades the girl ate nothing save for four seeds of the pomegranate fruit offered by the God of the underworld. To eat anything in Hades' realm mean that you must stay in that realm. And thus for four months of every year it was deemed that Persephone would live with Hades in the underworld. And for four months of every year the world would mourn their lost young Goddess by suffering a cold desolate winter, until again the Goddess would return to the world above.
***

"A tournament to determine the next hand of Death himself. The world is too full for it to be one man's job, be he man or something other. And I would like to invite you into this tournament personally," he said leaning back as he watched Persephone's reaction to his news.

The woman didn't speak for a while as her black eyes focused on the shining handle that led to the cold room where her samples and concoctions were kept. As her lips seperated to speak her eyes flicked back to him at the same time. He smiled, seeing the decision was made before she actually spoke, "Assistant to the God of Death himself, you say. But what do you get if you lose?"

"This isn't a tournament for children, my dear. There is no second place. You get nothing other than a guaranteed place in the afterlife. A guaranteed guaranteed place in the afterlife that you will move into right after you have met your loss. That is all that will await a loser," he said with a wide grin. This time Persephone felt it fit his face perfectly. Especially now that it was so easy to see the gleam of the horns that hid amongst the strands of hair.

Straightening her back out the woman sat up before sliding off of her stool, shoes clicking against the floor with their thick heels. "What of the rules? You can't take a soul without the person being dead for a reason outside of your hands, correct? That sounds rather restricted," she wondered aloud, not sure if she liked the tradeoff. Children were always warned to be cautious of when they strike deals with his type. And this was a lesson she carried with her into adulthood.

Standing up from the stool he had been resting on, the man watched the woman move. Each step and movement of her body his eyes followed, tail swinging in time still. He didn't even realize he was watching her. If asked he'd probably rack it up to habit. Watching humans was interesting at times. "That isn't really it. Setting up how they'll die, what will kill them off, that is just as important in this job. Humans have gotten so damn crafty at avoiding death, that sometimes they need a little push off of the cliff. Maybe literally," he replied as she stopped moving.

She was facing a chart that she had been keeping up with for this newest strain of virus. It was near completion but not quite. She was silent for a minute, maybe two, it was hard to tell for certain as no visible clock could be seen. But the man had all the time in the world so he didn't truly care how long it had been. "Why was I chosen? As a human that wishes to exterminate humanity entirely, doesn't that seem a little… excessive for an assistant?" she asked as her fingers twisted in the air as if taking down a note on her clipboard.

Persephone couldn't see this new smile. If she could have seen it she would have realized that this might have been the most unnatural of them all, one so wide that it looked like his lower jaw should almost drop open. And despite this large grin the man managed to keep his voice the same level it had been all this time. "I personally picked you because you are not like some of the others. Killing one or two just for fun or money isn't your motive. The fact you want to kill off all of humanity, down to the last child in the bassinet, this is what I like about you. You've got, how do they say it, moxie. And a very big dream. Even if the job description isn't for you to kill off all of humanity, I sure won't stop you from trying. What Death will feel about it, I can't say for sure. But he'll have to make do with that when we get there. So what do you say?" he asked suddenly to her direct right, "Will you eat the seed of the pomegranate?"

She hadn't heard him move. Even the softest of step would have rang out on this tile floor, but no such noise had been made. Her eyes looked at him as her face stayed the same direction it had been in. He had to be what he claimed. Something inside of her knew it, the way a dog knows that a storm is coming. Glancing at his hand a literal pomegranate sat in his hands. It was cracked open in half directly and the seeds were gleaming.

"I've never had a pomegranate before. For some reason my mother didn't want me to eat one. Bad for my health maybe," she answered in an interested tone. Turning full body to face the man she slowly reached out for the fruit and took it into her own hand. Delicately she brought a seed to her lips after prying it from its home and popped it into her mouth.

"The similarities between your life and the actual Goddesses are interesting, no? What do you think of it?" he asked watching her lips move as she tasted the seed.

A small smile spread across her lips at his question. "I like it. Well then, when shall we leave, Hades?"

He laughed as she took another seed into her mouth. "Seems almost more fitting for you to call me Hades in this situation, doesn't it? But he wouldn't like that. No, Satan will do. We leave when you are ready. Pack your bags, Persephone. We're going downstairs."

Description
The purity of the tile below the whitewashed walls gave the eyes no rest. Clinics always gave the people sitting within the pristine walls a feeling like they would be cleaned out of existence. The feeling that as they sat all of their natural flora sloshed off along with the bacteria that try so desperately to kill them. Ammonia wafted through the hallway filling William's nose as he shifted awkwardly in his nearly empty seat. His empty hands shook as they sat cupped within each other.

"William Dean?" called the rough voice of the nurse who had spent about twenty years too long sitting behind a small pine desk. Despite being in healthcare, her voice was rough from the five morning cigarettes a day, and William jumped at the harshness.

"Yeah, I'm here," he mumbled, standing up as he started to shuffle to the door that led into the doctor's offices. The charts last time hadn't been in his favor, but hoping for an error he hadn't even told his family what they had said. This simple door that was held open for him by a nurse holding a clipboard seemed to lead to a possible doom, or salvation. The nurse smiled at him as her black eyes blinked at him. His own hazel eyes looked away as he slipped past her into the hallway. As the door clicked behind him he jumped a little.

With a quiet laugh the nurse passed by him leading the way to the room. Even through her scrubs, William could make out a slight panty line as her hips swung side to side. They were the kind that had thin pieces of fabric connect the front and back, but not a thong. How could he be ogling at a time like this? Chances were that upon entering this room, the very room the blonde was opening before him now, he could find out he was going to die. That he had to get his affairs in order.

"I'll be back in a moment to check on you. Then the doctor will be in, Mr. Dean," the woman's voice said happily. William now noticed her lips were tinted a slight pink as he smiled at her trying to return courtesy.

"Right. Thanks," he said he as he slipped past her yet again and into the cold examination room. Suppose at least one should find the beauty in life, while you are in it.

William sat on the uncomfortable examination table staring at the tongue depressors and cotton swabs in jars. Every time he shifted his weight the crinkling sound of the thin paper that covered the examination table, what could be compared to butcher paper, would ring out in the empty air. Waiting inside of the examination room was always worse than waiting in the waiting room. It seemed like this torture would end soon because you were inside finally, but time clicked by even slower.

Life was maintained in this room. Not created. Nor taken. But maintained. Like a car or a computer. Maintaining those things William understood. But life… he had no understanding of how maintaining life worked.

As William stared at the large poster on the back of the room that had a diagram of lungs after years of abuse, and wondering if the receptionist in the lobby had seen it, the same soothing voice entered the room again. "Sorry about that, Mr. Dean. Seems we're extra busy today. I hope you didn't get too bored," said the blonde nurse as she slipped into the small examination room. Now she had a face mask on whereas she hadn't before. This made William nervous as it was tightly looped around both ears and secured at the nose. It was obvious to him that she didn't plan on taking it off.

He swallowed back a lump in his throat as he shifted, making crinkling noises again. "Not a problem. What is that mask for?" he asked, half feeling like patients weren't supposed to ask such questions. Places like this always made people feel oppressed. Helpless. Less than people.

Beneath the mask he could tell her pink lips had smiled just the smallest amount. "Oh, Mr. Dean. Don't worry so much. It's just an extra precaution we are taking today. We've had a lot of cases come in today that had a few air borne bacteria with them. It's nothing serious. But don't you agree that it would be bad for a healthcare professional to get sick?" the woman asked as she took a seat on a stool next to William, penlight already in hand. The man couldn't argue with that. It seemed like a reasonable response. But before he could ask for more details about these bacteria, the nurse asked him to open wide.

Shining the light into his throat with one hand, the other pressing a sliver of wood down on his tongue, the blonde nurse looked intently in his throat, but not for long. Quickly she moved to his ears. And immediately after took his blood pressure and checked his heartbeat. She smiled under the mask again as her fingers touched his bare chest when she slipped her hand under his shirt with the stethoscope to check his heartbeat. "A little nervous are we?" she asked casually, as she slid her hand back out from under his shirt. Her slender fingers scribbled out her findings as her mouth moved beneath the mask again. "Mr. Dean, have you still been feeling fatigued?"

"Yes."

"Can't sleep at night?"

"Yes. Which might be the worst part…"

"Feverish?"

"Randomly, yes."

"Have the shakes?"

"Yes. Mostly in my hands."

"Numbness in the right hand?"

"No. None of that."

That answer made the scribbling stop momentarily. Her black eyes flickered up from the chart to the man. "The left maybe?" William shook his head slightly confused as the woman's eyes flickered back down to the chart and she scribbled the last of her notes. "I see. That is unfortunate," she mumbled.

"Why? Why is that unfortunate?" William asked, alarmed at the change of tone in the woman's voice. Before she had been professional but warm. Now there was something empty and foreboding about her words.

Shaking her head the nurse stood up with a smile. "I didn't mean to alarm you, Mr. Dean. The doctor will have to do a blood draw just to confirm the last of the tests. It is only unfortunate as I thought I might have the solution to your illness. But you say you are lacking one of the main symptoms then it probably isn't what I thought it was. That is all," the nurse said as she turned to leave the room. "The doctor will be in to explain more to you in a moment."

William didn't seem convinced as he stared desperately after the blonde nurse. This time he was too distraught to even think about looking at her panty line.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The nurse stared at the various agar plates laid out before her, blonde hair tumbling out of its tight bun that it had been thrown into for work. The escaping strands made her look almost mad in the low lighting. All of the lights in the small room were off, save for what flooded the plates before her. "I don't understand. The blood agar plates showed a very obvious beta result. Why didn't it work?" the woman hissed as she thwacked her hand onto the cover of the newspaper. She sighed, shoving the paper away as she stood to her feet. The paper slid into the plates, making them crash to the floor.

The woman's white boots kicked the plates out of the way as she moved towards her charts that lined the walls of her personal microbiology room. She flicked on half of the overhead lights, too distracted to realize all the lights weren't on as all she needed filled the room to see. The room smelled of growing bacteria and disinfectant at the same time. A smell that her olfactory sense had already accommodated to well enough that the only time she smelled anything at all was if she wanted to. Sometimes the smell of bacteria was an easy enough way to identify what microbe was growing in a dish. But the mask that was slid over her nose and mouth negated some of the smell regardless as the tan cloth soaked up molecules.

"This is frustrating. I thought for sure combining Yersinia pestis would have worked... bacteria just don't kill people like they used to," she sighed as her nails scratched at the back of her hand.

"No they don't."

With a startled hop, the blonde nurse froze momentarily at the sudden deep male voice that came from behind her. Her hands had been in front of her body already, so slipping her fingers into the pocket of her smock took almost no muscle movement at all. The tips of her fingers had just clutched to the plunger of the syringe as the voice spoke again. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds that she had stayed turned, and even as she gripped the plunger she had been in motion to turn around. But already the voice knew. "Just leave that needle in your pocket, sweetheart. It won't do you any good here," the male voice said with a vocal inflection of amusement. "Not only that, but they kind of weird me out anyway."

Letting the syringe go back into her pocket, the woman turned around to face her intruder with a natural swivel. She was trying to seem natural, calm, like people just appeared in her lab all the time. Although no one knew of its existence under her small house out in suburbia. Her black eyes scanned carefully the man, profiling instantly. He was tall, about as tall as an average man but thin, with slicked black hair. His hair was so long that it was braided down his spine. A very classy suit hung from his frame, black with thin red stripes. The details were lost to her as she was not one to care about fashion in the least. But she did notice both hands were loosely in his pockets. "You'll have to excuse my harshness when I ask; who might you be? And what is more, why did you invite yourself into my home?" she asked resting hand naturally on her thigh. A scalpel was resting on a tray nearby. If the man made a sudden move she'd at least have a real weapon in hand, instead of a syringe full of numbing medicine.

The man's lips stretched into an almost unnatural smile. It didn't look right on his face. It seemed too wide, like he might try and eat you if you moved quickly. The feeling was only intensified by his bright blue eyes. "You don't sound too harsh at all. I admire you get right to the point," he replied, voice deep but devoid of any detectable emotion, "I understand how alarming this might be for you. Especially, under the circumstances." He left that half sentence hanging as he pulled his right hand out of his pocket to motion at his room. "Quite the lab you have here. Is it common practice for RNs to have an at home lab?" he asked as he gently kicked a soy agar plate towards her that was still resting on the floor. Its yellow sugar gel broke even more, rendering it fully useless.

"I wouldn't know. I don't tend to hang around very many," she replied naturally as she shifted her weight to the other leg, putting her hand closer to the scalpel. "Who are you?"

"We'll get to that. As for how I got here, let us just say… I let myself in," the man responded with a chuckle as his smile shrank to a normal size, although it didn't help its unnatural look on his face. It must have been due to his thin lips that it seemed so wrong, this she had decided. "I'm a big fan of your work, madam. Using modern human advances against itself. That is genius, that is," he said with another chuckle as he started to walk around the lab table to the other side where the paper had slid, but also further away. The flick of something followed behind him but she hadn't gotten a good look at it. "You think you have a great set up to kill off a good hundred thousand humans every hundred years or so, but they're too adaptable. Very good at picking up on these threats and trying to save themselves from death. But it always comes in one way or another. Mostly I leave it to war these days."

Patience was a thing you had to have if you ever wanted to join the healthcare profession. And patience was all the blonde had right now as she watched the man's movements. Hand still poised near the blade as she turned her head with his stride. "But it's great when someone takes the side of the natural against their own kind," he continued, her silence appearing not to bother him at all. Bending down he picked up the paper from the floor and stood again, shaking it free of dust. Again a flicker behind him, one that she almost could see.

She didn't have to see the paper to know what it said. Headliner of the "Health" section was all about a local doctor from a clinic whom was suspected of killing off his patient. The doctor claimed he didn't do it, but the syringe with some of the poison still inside was found in the office, and his prints were all over it.

"Who would have thought that the daughter of the Goddess of the Earth would be against its favorite habitants?" the man said after scanning the article. His eyes looked up at her directly this time, his bright blue irises stared directly into her. "I suppose Hades must have convinced you of something, eh, Persephone?" the man asked with a laugh this time.

A smile crossed Persephone's lips as she reached up and unhooked the mask from her left ear. She didn't bother with the other side and instead let it hang limply from the side of her face. "If that is what you are here about, I don't know a thing about it. Dr. Blake was always shady. All of the nursing staff thinks so. If you keep reading it says they don't think William Dean is the first of his victims," she responded as she crossed the room in long strides. "Also I would like to see your warrant for entry to my home. I doubt there is one, but I hope for the sake of your job that there might be one," she stated harshly as she stopped by the door out of the lab.

The man laughed again as he shook his head and let the paper drop to the floor. The article was still face up and the blank face of Dr. Neils Blake stared up from the paper. "I'm not with the police, or any type of law enforcement for that matter, Ms. Persephone," the man leaned on the lab table with one elbow as he looked at her with is his strange red eyes, "I suppose you could say I'm with the other side. Literally."

"I'm not interested in any underground business either. Whatever it is you want from me, or want me to do, I'm not interested. Leave," she said seriously. All traces of a smile were gone from her face as she opened the door to the lab for him to exit.

"But I thought you wanted to know who I am? How will you know if I leave now?" He asked honestly standing up straight again. The flicker behind him happened again but this time she could get a good look at it. A tail. Pointed at the tip, like an arrow. It swayed behind him like a pendulum and Persephone was curious how she missed it the first time. "I promise I'll get right to the point," he said finally sitting down on the nearest lab stool, "Just shut that door now and we'll have a nice talk. Go on now. Shut the door. And I promise all of your questions will be answered."

It seems the pieces were falling into place, bit by bit.

***
The story of Hades and Persephone starts on one bright sunny afternoon. Persephone was out picking flowers, innocent to the ordeal she was about to undergo. For as she reached for her last flower of the day, as it was growing dark, the ground opened up beneath her and she was swallowed into the underworld. Hades had taken her to his realm, planning to keep her for himself, make her his bride and thus queen of the underworld. But Persephone was worried of her mother's feelings on the subject. And as he kept her down in his realm trying to persuade her, Persephone's mother was searching for her. And while she did so, she made the Earth suffer a harsh and eternal winter.

Eventually Persephone was found by her dear mother and was saved. Or so was thought. For while Persephone stayed with Hades the girl ate nothing save for four seeds of the pomegranate fruit offered by the God of the underworld. To eat anything in Hades' realm mean that you must stay in that realm. And thus for four months of every year it was deemed that Persephone would live with Hades in the underworld. And for four months of every year the world would mourn their lost young Goddess by suffering a cold desolate winter, until again the Goddess would return to the world above.
***

"A tournament to determine the next hand of Death himself. The world is too full for it to be one man's job, be he man or something other. And I would like to invite you into this tournament personally," he said leaning back as he watched Persephone's reaction to his news.

The woman didn't speak for a while as her black eyes focused on the shining handle that led to the cold room where her samples and concoctions were kept. As her lips seperated to speak her eyes flicked back to him at the same time. He smiled, seeing the decision was made before she actually spoke, "Assistant to the God of Death himself, you say. But what do you get if you lose?"

"This isn't a tournament for children, my dear. There is no second place. You get nothing other than a guaranteed place in the afterlife. A guaranteed guaranteed place in the afterlife that you will move into right after you have met your loss. That is all that will await a loser," he said with a wide grin. This time Persephone felt it fit his face perfectly. Especially now that it was so easy to see the gleam of the horns that hid amongst the strands of hair.

Straightening her back out the woman sat up before sliding off of her stool, shoes clicking against the floor with their thick heels. "What of the rules? You can't take a soul without the person being dead for a reason outside of your hands, correct? That sounds rather restricted," she wondered aloud, not sure if she liked the tradeoff. Children were always warned to be cautious of when they strike deals with his type. And this was a lesson she carried with her into adulthood.

Standing up from the stool he had been resting on, the man watched the woman move. Each step and movement of her body his eyes followed, tail swinging in time still. He didn't even realize he was watching her. If asked he'd probably rack it up to habit. Watching humans was interesting at times. "That isn't really it. Setting up how they'll die, what will kill them off, that is just as important in this job. Humans have gotten so damn crafty at avoiding death, that sometimes they need a little push off of the cliff. Maybe literally," he replied as she stopped moving.

She was facing a chart that she had been keeping up with for this newest strain of virus. It was near completion but not quite. She was silent for a minute, maybe two, it was hard to tell for certain as no visible clock could be seen. But the man had all the time in the world so he didn't truly care how long it had been. "Why was I chosen? As a human that wishes to exterminate humanity entirely, doesn't that seem a little… excessive for an assistant?" she asked as her fingers twisted in the air as if taking down a note on her clipboard.

Persephone couldn't see this new smile. If she could have seen it she would have realized that this might have been the most unnatural of them all, one so wide that it looked like his lower jaw should almost drop open. And despite this large grin the man managed to keep his voice the same level it had been all this time. "I personally picked you because you are not like some of the others. Killing one or two just for fun or money isn't your motive. The fact you want to kill off all of humanity, down to the last child in the bassinet, this is what I like about you. You've got, how do they say it, moxie. And a very big dream. Even if the job description isn't for you to kill off all of humanity, I sure won't stop you from trying. What Death will feel about it, I can't say for sure. But he'll have to make do with that when we get there. So what do you say?" he asked suddenly to her direct right, "Will you eat the seed of the pomegranate?"

She hadn't heard him move. Even the softest of step would have rang out on this tile floor, but no such noise had been made. Her eyes looked at him as her face stayed the same direction it had been in. He had to be what he claimed. Something inside of her knew it, the way a dog knows that a storm is coming. Glancing at his hand a literal pomegranate sat in his hands. It was cracked open in half directly and the seeds were gleaming.

"I've never had a pomegranate before. For some reason my mother didn't want me to eat one. Bad for my health maybe," she answered in an interested tone. Turning full body to face the man she slowly reached out for the fruit and took it into her own hand. Delicately she brought a seed to her lips after prying it from its home and popped it into her mouth.

"The similarities between your life and the actual Goddesses are interesting, no? What do you think of it?" he asked watching her lips move as she tasted the seed.

A small smile spread across her lips at his question. "I like it. Well then, when shall we leave, Hades?"

He laughed as she took another seed into her mouth. "Seems almost more fitting for you to call me Hades in this situation, doesn't it? But he wouldn't like that. No, Satan will do. We leave when you are ready. Pack your bags, Persephone. We're going downstairs."