Persephone’s Fall – Page 33
Chapter 5
Night turns to day. Storm turns to sun. Life goes on. It’s all a rich tapestry.
The rain turned to hail the other night, while I was up there. I was in some sort of daze, standing there naked, staring down at the neon smears below. I didn’t notice at first, until it got really bad, and the pain went from the back of my mind to the front. I lost one hand, and for a minute I really thought I was going to drop regardless of my intentions. I didn’t feel any fear at all… just a sort of anger. It wasn’t supposed to go like this.
Instinct and adrenaline kicked in, and I managed to take the weight of my body swinging outward, and use it to spin around and over the rail. Scraped up my knees, crawled to the door, lay inside the stairwell for a bit shivering and bleeding.
Eventually, managed to find the strength to drag myself downstairs and into the shower, then I slept for about twelve hours.
I wouldn’t let Hades over for a few days. I was pretty bruised up, and didn’t feel like explaining it. Hades kept himself busy by calling me approximately seven hundred thousand times a day to talk about wedding stuff. I was as helpful as he’s come to expect, which was not very.
Now we’re headed out to talk to the priest. This has made me feel creepy, every time we’ve done it.
“I dunno, Hades… do you ever feel bad about lying to a priest?”
“No.” Hades doesn’t believe in a God, exactly. He holds some sort of ‘we’re all just energy, and energy never expires, it’s just transferred’ set of beliefs that he’s tried to explain to me in greater detail. He wears the cross because I bought it for him. I did that because I thought it would be funny to see if he would wear it.
“Not even a little? You’ve got to have some ingrained guilt!” I’m jealous of Hades’ ability to give up on religion completely. My parents are the closest thing to gods that he believes in.
Hades turns and smiles at me. “No, Seph. I don’t feel bad about it. I tell him I’m Episcopalean. He signs some papers. We get married in a church, everyone’s happy.”
I shrug. “Guess so. Everyone who counts, anyway.”
