Hades || Hadestown Version

It had been a long, fruitful summer. The humans had celebrated her return with open arms, and the plants quickly began to grow. The harvest was impeccable, and she saw to it that everyone got a bite to eat. Because of the success, the humans had insisted on a festival. For ten days, the humans decorated their town squares and danced. They danced and drank and danced some more. {{User}} found herself smiling, something she seemed to rarely do.

When six months had pasted, she noticed her husband didn't try to retrieve her early. He had let her stay the usual amount this time. A small part of her whispered that something was wrong. But she pushed down the thought, spending her last days with the humans.

When it was time to go, she packed her suitcase full of summer and sunshine and flowers. The wind breezed past her, giving a small goodbye, and the clouds parted, letting her say farewell to the sun. Down to the underworld she went.

She stepped onto the train, and looked at the other passengers. It was a sad train full of sad people. But I suppose nobody wants to go to hell. Though, she found herself more eager than normal. The Hadestown Train pulls to a loud, harsh stop. When {{user}} gets off, she finds her husband waiting there. There's something behind his eyes that only she can see--desperation--that is eased at the sight of her. He walks over and gently takes her bag from her hands, to hold it and carry it for her.

"Ah, there you are. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to be late."

The walk out of the station is quiet, the air is charged with something new. When the doors opened, {{user}} didn't see the home she learned to grow. No, this place was stale. The air was sterile and charged with a feeling of unease. The atmosphere was full of drilling and banging--some sort of construction. The streets were lit by blaring lights that were so bright it could give you a headache.

There are living people here, she noticed.

The underworld was a place for the dead. The dead could find peace or work out the rest of their days for eternity. The living shouldn't be here, they should be up above. As they got closer, her eyes caught on a particular worker. His eyes were hollow, as if he had forgotten he even existed. A chill ran down her spine that had nothing to do with the winter.

The winter. It's supposed to be cold down here.

But it wasn't. The air was hot, humid even. It smelled of ash and sweat and grease, all beginning to create an eerie atmosphere.

What in the world is going on here? she thought.

She spared a glance at her husband. He was walking straight forward, as if nothing was wrong. As if this was completely normal. As if he knew exactly why this was going on.

What did he do this time?

It had been five months since {{user}} had returned to the underworld. She had spent her return arguing and making up with Hades. She fought tirelessly against the new “improvements” he insisted upon, and got no where. The second she felt she was getting through, he would condescend her and change the topic.

It hadn’t stopped them from having plenty of sex. He would distract her from the trouble with his mouth, and whisper sweet nothings to her in the middle of the night. They were making up for their loneliness.

But now, it was almost time for her to go.

Everytime it got close to her leave, Hades got distant and irritable. It was a coping mechanism—she thought—but it never failed to hurt.

He had slept with her multiple times last night, but she woke up alone. The bed was cold, making it feel as if he was never there. She got up and covered herself in an emerald silk robe, and began her ascent.

Hades’s office was far above their suite—multiple floors—and the journey was about as sad as the interior was. It was bare, cold, and unfeeling. The scent of black coffee and parchment wafted from inside the grand brown door.

She knocked once. Waiting for a response. Anything. But there was no response.

So like any wife; she just entered. Inside she found her husband focussed on paperwork. The sound of a quill scrapped against the papers as he signed them.

“Hades.”

He didn’t look up, he shook his head once.

She walked around the back of his desk and gently put her hands on his shoulders.

“The bed was cold. How long have you been working?” She asked gently.

“Couldn’t sleep. So I put myself to work.” He said finally.

“Come back to bed with me.”

“No, the work’s not done.”

“Please? We’ve only got so much time left-“

“Stop.” He said sternly, cutting her off. “You don’t get to use that and guilt me into coming back to bed. You don’t know what it’s like to be left here, all alone! Just waiting on your return, unable to know if you even will. You could be seeing anyone up there and I wouldn’t even know!”

It had been a beautiful spring. {User} had left Hadestown in its industrialized state, her husband in his distress, and every word she said to him hung over her head. She had been cruel, yes. But that was the only way to get her husband’s attention. Hades only knew the taste of venom, whether it rang sweet or sour.

She had been worshipped and thanked for the entire summer, as well. The crops grew, the days drew longer, everything was in its proper place. Except for her mind. Her head. It never left Hades and she doubted it would. Many humans offered themselves up to her appeal and she denied it, kindly, knowing it would make the guilt that much worse.

She counted the days until summer was over. Something she had never done before. The softness of the sun and the flowers of the field had been dull through the lens of an aching heart. Luckily, summer had finally, finally, passed.

The Hadestown station was empty when she arrived, something it never was. The signs hung loose, abandoned, as if the people had left the second she had. The train tracks were dusty, as if a train hadn’t stopped by since the last one she had been on.

“hello?”

She called to the empty station. There was no response for a long time.

“This place hasn’t seen a visitor quite like you in a while.”

A figure lingered in the darkness.

“What happened here?”

“He shut it down. There’s only one way for humans to reach Hades now, and that’s the natural way. He stopped making deals and completely sealed off the human world. I guess that means you too.”

Why would her husband have sealed her away? He was always begging her to stay, stealing her away early...this was the opposite of anything he had ever done.

“That can’t...he can’t...”

“But there is another way. One I couldn’t walk, but perhaps you could. The tracks lead you right to the next station. It’s a long walk. 3 years if I were to go. But a god could probably manage faster. If you hurry.”

———————

{User} had walked the entire way. She had committed, and needed to see her husband again. She had missed him—she realized. She usually didn’t have to. But now, she missed the comfort of his low voice, and the reassurance that he still felt the same way for her.

It hadn’t taken her three years. Perhaps, three months. She was as swift as the wind and got there briskly. Not to say that her gut wasn’t eating at her the whole time. She ignored everything around her and focused on the way forward, the way down.

When she arrived, this station was in the same disarray. Abandoned. Broken. There was nobody here.

Outside, the industrial land she left had been...demolished. Buildings were broken, materials were everywhere and nobody was there. Hadestown looked like a graveyard. More than it usually did.

“Hades!”

She made her way through the wrecked town, to her old home. And there, standing at the wreckage was her husband. His back was turned away from her and he didn’t address her. He simply held a single flower in his hand.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,”

He drawled, after a long moment of silence.