Hades by Crystal Dawn

worried more for Sierra who wasn’t sleeping well anyway and
now had the added burden of a worry she could do nothing about.
    He pulled her into his arms carrying her to
their room. She turned red as the gods they walked by responded
with cat calls and whistles. She didn’t protest which worried him a
little, it showed how tired she was. He hadn’t realized how much
carrying Athena had taken out of her because they hadn’t been
together for much of it. Of course being pregnant with a baby while
nursing another was even harder. He planned to talk to Doc, they
would wait, giving her more time to recover before the next
baby.
    Zeus couldn’t sleep, he was worried about
Hades. He had always been a concern since they were around the age
of five. The team, that was what Origin was teaching them to be,
sat around the table eating. Their diet was regulated, it was high
protein, some fat and complex carbs. They weren’t allowed processed
foods, drinks were only juice, milk, or water. They said it was
healthy, it would grow warriors and it had. The scientists were
fighting again and that cold bastard Humpreys was talking about
deleting one of their team. The others argued that the team was set
and all members needed.
    “He’s just a child,” Doctor Shelly argued.
She was the nicest of the group and she found it difficult to work
with such cruel people. She had developed a permanent tic near her
right eye. She was maybe forty, a rather plain female with mousy
brown hair and plain brown eyes. She was quite nondescript until
she smiled, that transformed her entire face making her glow.
Lately, she’d had little reason to smile and no reasons to laugh.
Zeus often wondered if she didn’t like it here, why didn’t she
leave? He was glad she didn’t because she was one of the few that
made it bearable for them.
    “He’s death just like his name implies. He
needs to be removed from the team before it’s too late. Don’t let
him cause us the trouble I can see in his future.”
    “Murdered you mean. Say it like it is,
Humpreys. You want to kill the child for no real reason at all,”
Giles screeched. It was obvious he was upset and doing what he
could to stop an injustice. He was the other one that had some
kindness in him. He thought of them as children and tried to do
what he could. It had eventually caught up with him and he had been
terminated from his job. Origin’s terminations were permanent and
he was never seen or heard from again.
    Zeus looked at Hades who was shaking but
trying to control it. None of them said a thing because here, what
you said, could cost you your life. The discussion was over but it
wasn’t the first nor the last time it came up. Humpreys hated Hades
and Zeus never discovered why, but maybe Humpreys didn’t need a
reason. He had black hair, cold bottomless black eyes, and a face
that was always frozen in a hard look that discouraged anyone from
approaching him. Humpreys died on a mission a few years later and
no one but Hades knew what had really happened. Origin hadn’t cared
since Humpreys had become ill, cancer someone had hinted. He was a
liability and then he was gone, end of story.
    If there was ever a way to win when you were
owned right down to your soul, Zeus supposed Hades had accomplished
it by outliving his worst enemy. Maybe Humpreys had seen the future
and thought Hades would kill him, maybe Hades had done just that.
It was just one of the many sad stories he could tell from his life
at Origin. So many had died, so many had suffered and only a few
had made it to enjoy the freedom they all had dreamed about.
    Sierra turned to him opening her arms for him
to burrow into her warmth. “You’re thinking too much, Babe.” She
seemed to sense the dark past he had been sinking into and she
pulled him from it.
    “You could help me with that,” he said as he
stroked her back with his hands and moved his lips over hers. She
moved her hand to trace the outline of his hard on.