Chapter 8

"Persephone wake up." Seth's voice intruded Persephone's slumber.

"Just a few more minutes..." she groaned, turning her back to him.

"People are arriving. I think they're talking about your placement in an orphanage." he spoke.

Persephone's eyes were wide open now as she remembered the death of her aunt Adissa, the only person in the world -the only person alive- who shared her blood. She remember the lie she told to Agamemnon, the same lie she had been telling him ever since they first met: that her parents would arrive on New Year's Eve. She had a vague memory of her parents who have been killed in a mugshot when she was only four years old, leaving her to the custody her aunt -her mother's older sister.

She shook her head to make the memories dissolve and looked into Seth's eyes.

"What happened before?" she inquired.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you, not yet. You are far too young." he said avoiding her piercing gaze.

"If it's something that has got to do with me I think I deserve to know." she told him with an ice cold voice.

"I'm sorry I can't." he spoke with a quiet voice.

Persephone sat on her bed and had another question pop inside her head.

"I remember falling on the floor... How did I end up on my bed?" she asked.

"Well I took the liberty if placing you in your bed. I figured out that you wouldn't be very comfortable on the floor..." he replied.

"Thanks." she murmured.

Even though the idea of Death putting her to bed seemed somewhat morbid to her she was grateful for his action.

"I understand that you may feel repulsed by me and nobody can blame you for that." he started as he saw the expression on Persephone's face. "You can forget about me if you wish... I will erase your memory and it would be as if I never existed."

"I...I don't think I would want that..." she spoke quietly.

A look of wonder slowly crept on Death's face.

"I mean when said that you knew me better than I know myself....Well, I felt that there was somebody who could understand me..." Persephone said.

"I see fear in your eyes Persephone, yet I fail to see the hate you had towards death ever since the day your parents were killed." Seth told her gazing deep into her eyes.

"I thought you were different, you know, like Mr. Big Bad who would take anyone from me without hesitating, someone who would be heartless and cruel. Yet you are not like that..." she said keeping eye contact.

A hint of a smile made its way on Seth's face.

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

"Persephone may we come in?" an unfamiliar voice spoke.

She looked at Seth suddenly alert.

"Don't worry they can't see or hear me" he said as if reading her mind.

She opened her mouth to talk but another knock on the door.

"Persephone are you in there?" the same voice spoke.

"Yes, come in..." Persephone replied

The door opened and three white men entered her room. They wore black tuxedos with matching black shoes. The man in the middle was holding a pack of stapled papers and he cleared his throat.

"Ahem, Persephone, we are from the child protection service. We are deeply sorry about your loss and as we found out you have no family to live with. In cases like these we are here to inform you that you are to stay in the local orphanage "Maria" where you will remain until someone makes an offer for an adoption or, if there is no such case, until you turn 18..." the man spoke in a monotonous voice as if he was reading.

Persephone nodded.

"Very well then. A car will be here for you at approximately 7 o' clock tomorrow morning." the man glanced at his watch "Well it's 6.30 p.m right now and we shall be leaving"

"Uh...ok I'll be ready..." Persephone replied knitting her eyebrows together.

With that the three men departed from her room and Persephone remained with Seth.

"How did you know they were to take me to the orphanage?" she asked him in wonder.

"I spoke with their Aces Persephone." Seth said as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Their Aces? Their Deaths? But I didn't see them..." she told him.

"Just because you can see me doesn't mean you can see every person's Death. In fact a Death that is not connected to you may only be seen from a another person if he chooses to." he explained.

"I see...Tell me something... I've been thinking: If you know me better than I know myself, as you say, does that mean that...you know.. can read my mind?" she inquired.

"Well...Yes..." he confessed

Persephone's eyes widened.

"Now isn't that a blow on my privacy..." she spoke sarcastically.

"I'm sorry... It's the same for every human..." he said staring the floor.

"I understand..." she sighed.

"Would you like to help you pack?" Seth asked changing the subject of their conversation.

Persephone nodded.

So they started packing things into a suitcase Persephone found scattered in the attic. And as they finished placing her possessions into the luggage starting from her clothes to her favorite stuffed animal, a resemblance of a black dog, they sat on her bed in silence conversing about everything and nothing.

It was then the first time that Seth was seen as a person and not as the personification of death.

Persephone would laugh at his witty remarks and he would smile, for the first time in eons. It was on midnight that sleep started to caress her eyelids making them drop.

"You know what?" she asked him.

"Hmm?" he replied looking at her lovingly.

"I would like to be your friend, if you don't mind" she said smiling contently.

"I'd love that." he told her even though he knew that she was now in the arms of Morpheus.

Author's Note

English is not my native language so I know there are a couple of grammar and spelling issues...