Disenchantment 50

*****

 

 

 

 

So, you did come back. Two days after Detective Hornblende and I got out of Hell, you did come back.

 

The oceans have started to recede and the temperature did start to dip slightly. However, winter is pretty much over. The real test will be next winter. Will we actually have one? I think so.

 

A section of the national guard made a stop here for a few days, trying to establish leadership, get things back to normal again. They didn’t stay long, as I’m sure there are many other places that are worse off than we are. The mayor was found and brought back out into the public eye. Communications between the local government and the people have been reestablished.

 

Society is quickly coming back together. Surprisingly quickly. In less than a month we had a police department again. It was only Hornblende and three other guys at first, but it was something. The government has bounced back surprising quickly in our little city.

 

To my knowledge no one has been arrested or even interrogated for anything that went on during the time the oceans rose up to swallow the land. I don’t know if that will continue, if all things will be forgiven, or if they are waiting to get a little more control before they start investigating anything that happened.

 

It’s crazy about Floyd and Blake. Both of those deaths were quite shocking to me. A god doing it is one thing, but Hornblende? He is pretty scary. Although on one level, I suppose he was right to do what he did. I had no idea that my attorney was that bad of a person, but Mark always said that I was a bad judge of character, especially when it comes to you. Is he right?

 

In the last couple months I only communicated with Hornblende once. He called asking if I knew anything at all about Malbourne’s office and home. I don’t think I was able to give him anything useful and I haven’t heard from him since then.

 

I know nothing about Ricardo and Jesus. I haven’t seen them again since we left them with Blake. Malbourne did say that they ran away. I have a feeling they were just done with him. Wherever they are, I hope that they’re doing well. I hope that they got back to their families or wherever they were going.

 

I miss Mark quite a bit, even though over the last few years we drifted apart somewhat. He was always quite loyal to me. You know I’ve gone back out to what was the entry to the Underworld at least twice. Of course, nothing. I don’t know why I think and hope he will come back. What does he really have to come back to? I guess that I’ll see him again, somehow, someway, one day.

 

So, Mark, Floyd, and Malbourne just up and disappeared from society. It happened at a fortunate time, I suppose. Many people around these parts, and others in the world, have just disappeared. A lot of crimes from this time won’t be solved. I don’t know who will be asking questions about any of this.

 

The rest of the band is intact, and everyone is still here. It’s funny that throughout all that happened here, cell service never went out, at least in this area. I guess society has its priorities. Even at the end of the world it’s important to check out your friends’ social media pages and post your own shit. People have been posting some morbid stuff, although it is significant of the times we’re in, and their friends keep signifying they like that your father disappeared or your aunt has passed away. Maybe Zeus is right about his culling.

 

Of course, we haven’t played at all. Society hasn’t gotten back to a point where people want to go out to the bar and watch a band again. Most of the guys have their own weird shit to deal with, but we’ve stayed in touch. I imagine that within a couple more months people will be willing to go out again and bars will open up. I guess we will play again.

 

Since you’ve been back, you have been quite different. Things just aren’t the same. Of course, Hades did warn me about that, didn’t he? We haven’t made love at all, nor have you treated me like a husband. Maybe you came back to see your parents and friends again. Still, you don’t treat them much better.

 

Well, I have performed for you, my new stuff, songs that I can call my own. You do seem to like that. I’ve composed more and actually recorded some of my own songs. Maybe they’ll get a lot of listening to at some point. I haven’t released anything to the public. I think that will come in time. I’m sure I will want to bounce them off of a live audience when we have a gig sometime in the future. If I do get big, if I do go beyond just covering other people’s songs, I want to keep the same band, if the guys are willing. Hades did say that popular does not equal good, so it may be that I don’t ever get too popular. That’s fine, maybe they’ll discover me after I die, or maybe never at all. I guess that we can assume they will be listened to in the underworld. I think I would be comfortable just playing with the guys at local shows for the rest of my life.

 

I missed you so much when you were gone, when I was looking for you, trying to get you back. You are here again, and I still miss you. Things aren’t the same I suppose they won’t ever be again. I’d like to say that it is great to have you back, that it doesn’t matter if things are different, but it does matter. You won’t ever really be mine again.

 

The world is a much different place than I could have ever imagined it to be a few months ago. A lot of mysteries have been solved. Many questions have been answered, questions that I didn’t even know I had. I see my life with different eyes, wiser, and even more cynical eyes.

 

You are about to leave again. Does it matter? Does anything matter anymore? You were here, but you weren’t really here. Now, you will leave. I thought I would be sharing you with him, but that’s not really the case, is it? I’m not sharing you with him as an equal, but it’s more like he just lends you to me for a time.

 

I don’t know what’s going to happen with all this.

 

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

 

Persehphone, both human wife of Oren Phileus and goddess, queen of the underworld, prepared to leave. She almost wanted to pack a bag, but realized that it was highly unnecessary. There was nothing she could take, nothing that she really needed to take. Where she was going, all things would be provided. There was no reason to pack any mortal belongings.

 

That was the deal. That was her decision. She was to spend half the year with Hades and half the year with Oren. It was a schedule that Hades was familiar with, one that he could accept due to his familiarity.

 

It seemed that Hades was quite possessive of his new bride and he had a jealous personality, but still wanted Oren to be able to see her too. He had made her promise not to bed Oren, but to merely spend time with him, be a muse of sorts. It didn’t matter, the thought of sex with Oren, after having had a god was almost ludicrous. It wasn’t an option anymore regardless of how the god and man felt. There was nothing Oren could possibly do to arouse her anymore. Those times were long over.

 

She preferred being with Hades. Anything she wanted in the underworld was hers, on a whim. Nothing was denied her when she was with the god. With Oren, life was stagnant. She talked with her parents, met occasionally with her few friends, talked through the night with Oren here and there. She was just there to fill a role, like it was a job that she cared little about. After having been pampered by Hades, the real world was highly mundane and she looked forward to the time she could return to the underworld.

 

Hades did as Hornblende had asked. He took her up to Olympus, although she was not allowed to interact with most of the gods there. She was able to see the great hall of Zeus. While Hades conferred with Demeter, the mother of the goddess Persephone, she was allowed to sit in the great hall. It was a magnificent white marble structure, a huge contrast to Hades’s darker dwelling. She sat in awe as Hades struck a deal with Demeter, allowing another with the name of Persephone to be in the goddess’s graces, to have patronage from the goddess of the harvest, allowing winter to return to the world, a time for the plants to sleep again.

 

How could she truly enjoy the world of men after having seen that? It was like shifting from a bright color palate to a dull grey monotony. She was to do her time on Earth, so that she could enjoy her time with the gods. Was she a goddess herself now? She doubted it. She wasn’t even sure if she was alive or dead. She certainly felt alive when with Hades, and she felt dead when with Oren.

 

She tried her best to interact with Oren on a friendly level, but that was difficult to do. She felt herself getting colder and colder going back to a previous time that she had outgrown in a way. Her time with Hades robbed her of her patience to deal with Oren and other mortals, but primarily Oren.

 

“It’s time for me to leave.”

 

“Do you have to go, baby?”

 

“Yes, yes I do.”

 

“What happens if you just stay?”

 

“I can’t just stay. He will come to get me. I couldn’t stay if I wanted to.”

 

“You don’t want to?”

 

“Goodbye Oren, I’ll be back.”

 

“I love you. I’ll miss you.”

 

“Goodbye Oren.”

 

She felt Hades getting nearer.