It’s dark down here.
That was the first thing Persephone thought. Shadows seemed to crawl up and grip her skin, seeping out of every corner of the dock. Well, it wasn’t so much of a dock, mainly a riverbank. The Styx was surrounded by a vast cavern formed out of black rock that shined with a ghostly light that peeked in from somewhere that she couldn’t see. The ground that Persephone walked on, that Hades led her across, was covered in black pebbles of varying size. A few times, she swore, some of them moved. The barge that bobbed in front of them on the river, which every mortal expected to cross when their short lives ceased to be, held Charon. She could not see his face for the enormous hooded cloak he wore, but she sensed it hid a face that even her family, who had fathered monsters much worse than he, could not love.
They came to the edge of the Styx, dark water with a glassy surface, wide, and seemingly endless. She, again, attempted to snatch her arm from his hand, but again was met with resistance. It wasn’t that he held her tightly, or that he pulled her with much force, but his hands were ice cold and she did not want to be here.
She hated to admit that her own naïve curiosity, the very thing her mother often told her would be her undoing, was the reason she hadn’t escaped earlier. He’d been able to pull her forward several feet while she gawked and gaped at the cavern they’d landed in after he’d grabbed her, and pulled her down that awful hole. To think that a mere fifteen minutes before this moment that she and her friends had been picking flowers. She should have never let them leave her to go fill their water jugs in the creek; or rather, she should have just gone with them.
But then, she thought, would that have stopped him?
“This is Ch-“
“I know who it is,” she snapped. She knew all about Hades, and its most notable inhabitants. That didn’t make any of it any easier.
The smile his face wore faltered, but soon reappeared. It was irritating how with every comment and snip she made, that grin of his would fall, and in the same second rise back up again like a stumbling little foal. Every effort to hopefully make him disenchanted with her never seemed to have the desired effect, and the little store of patience she had was running low.
“She’s a fiery one, Your Majesty,” a low, sliming voice drifted out of the darkness under Charon’s hood. She sensed, in one sickening moment, that behind those shadows hid a smile.
“Isn’t she,” he said, looking at her like she was some prize mustang he had brought home. She grimaced.
“I am right here, you know. I can hear you talking about me.”
The two men laughed as if what she said was a fabulous joke. She felt her face contort into a glare. In this moment, the flowers and vines around her would be growing at a speed farmers could only dream of, and she would endeavor to strangle them. But there was no vegetation down here, no flowers, or sunlight, only rocks and darkness. Besides, they were immortal, and could not be killed.
“Come, I have much to show you, and you cannot see it on this side of the river,” Hades said, hopping easily into the boat. She pulled back with as much force as she could muster, and to her delight, was able to break free. She immediately began to run.
She could hear him chasing her, could feel the pebbles slipping underneath her and her feet were so cold she felt as if they were not part of her body. She wished she had worn her sandals like her mother had suggested. “You never know why you might need them,” Demeter had said.
“We are immortal, Mother; we have no need for sandals,” she’d replied, as usual.
Did her mother know where she was yet? Was she searching for her?
She makes it back to the wall of rock they had landed in front of, out of breath and shaking.
“Hermes! Hermes, help! Mother-!”
An arm caught her around the waist, and she began to kick.
“Get off me, you psychotic, insane, poor excuse of a god! When Zeus learns of what you did, he’ll-”
“It,” Hades grunted with effort, “was he,” another grunt, “who gave me permission to take you.”
She went limp.  This was madness; it couldn’t be true. It wasn’t, was it?
“I am sorry, really,” he says, turning her around to face him. Whatever emotion was on her face, the same amount of pity, and perhaps guilt, was reflected on his, along with that stupid smile of his.
“My mother, did she allow this?” Persephone asked, the words coming out thickly.
His face drooped a little. “No, I did not ask her. It is not the mother’s job to give away her daughter.”
She growls, “That is a human law, you idiot. We are immortals. We do not abide by their rules.”
He sighs, “You must forgive me, I live by a different code. I have dominion over the souls of the mortals; so therefore, I must judge their lives by their rules. In order to be fair, that is. I am used to running my life based on their laws.”
“No wonder my father gave you this kingdom, far from the rest of us. You are nothing like us. How can anyone call you a true god when you live by mortal laws?”
At this, Hades’ face distorts into a frown that lasts more than a second. It shocks her to her core, and she lets out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
“I am better suited to this life than that of the debauchery and carelessness of my family above. I, unlike the others, take my responsibilities seriously, rather than squander my sanity and attention away to fickle matters. I was hoping to show that to you,” he says, his voice controlled, but a deep anger still peeking through. She is speechless for a moment.
“I want my mother,” she says in a little voice, a child’s voice. His face returns to normal.
“All in due time. Now, to the ship,” he says, walking away.  Persephone looks again at the wall, knowing that this is the only place anyone could find her and bring her home. But when she knew that her own father had given her away, could it still be her home? Had it ever been?
“Persephone?” she hears Hades say, and she turns to face him. Now, she noticed, he was not so harsh looking, so foolish. He had a caring air about him, and a concerned look on his face. Even if he had dragged her all the way to the ship a few moments ago. Perhaps it would not be so much worse down here than how it was above.
This time, when Hades continues toward the ship, she willingly follows.