Percy steps in front of the monitor, obscuring her husband’s view. “But, darling,” she says through clenched teeth, “you’ve been on this level for three weeks now. And the minions are starting to get restless.”
Hades screeches as a zombie grabs him and takes a huge chomp out of his leg, spewing blood everywhere. There goes another controller. I hope he has stock in PlayStation.
“I don’t care if Zeus himself wants to come for tea,” he screams back at her. “Now get out of here before I have the lot of you beheaded.” He grabs yet another new controller from his slave with such force the poor boy almost gets knocked over.
“Fine. Whatever. See if I care if they overthrow you from power,” Percy shoots back before storming out of the room. I glance over at Hades again but he’s completely back to the game. Reluctantly, Jareth and I retreat after Percy.
“Sorry,” she says with an apologetic look. “As you can see, my husband is a bit… occupied… right now.” She rolls her eyes. “You’re welcome to wait.” She glances at her diamond-studded Rolex. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go meet…” She giggles. “Well, you know who.”
And with that, she skips down the hall, disappearing from sight. Jareth sinks down onto one of the couches with a sigh. “Well, at least the furniture here is more comfortable than at the Lake of Fire prison,” he says, trying to stay optimistic.
“Yeah, sure,” I mutter, peeking through the office doors, still immersed in the game play. I’m just in time to see Hades get killed again, this time by a trap laid by humans in the ice cream parlor. “But this could take a while. I mean, it took me three days to get past this level and I’m totally leet. In fact, it wasn’t until I looked up online and learned about the shotgun hidden in the toy store that I really—” I break off, an idea coming to me. “I’ll be right back,” I inform my boyfriend.
“Where are you going?”
But I don’t bother to answer. Instead, I push through the double doors again and into Hades’s chamber. A bold move, I know, and one liable to get my body separated from my head if his threats are to be believed. But those who dare, win. Especially when it comes to video games.
“I thought I told you to go away,” the god grinds out, not looking up from his TV as he guides his character through the mall, avoiding a hungry zombie to his left. He’s actually pretty good, I observe, and might eventually be able to master the level without my little trick. But we don’t have time, in this case, to wait and see.
“Go left,” I instruct him. “Into the toy store.”
He whirls around at my voice, almost losing it to an oncoming zombie.
“Watch out!”
He turns back to the game, just in time to take out the creature. Saving his life and quite possibly my own head.
“Toy store,” I repeat, adrenaline kicking up a notch. I have a feeling if I can’t get him through this, it’ll be game over for me. Permanently.
Thankfully, he does as I say, swinging a left into the toy store and cutting down a zombie cashier at the entrance.
“Head down the toy gun aisle,” I instruct, heart in my throat. Will he make it? Will I? “Then search the lowest shelf under the Super Soaker display.”
Hades obeys, making a right, then a left through the Barbie aisle, past the Hot Wheels section, narrowly missing being chomped by a child-sized zombie on a three-wheeler. I watch, breathlessly, as his character searches the shelf in question and…
“Shotgun acquired,” the game announces.
Yes! I jump up and down in excitement as Hades locks and loads. A zombie clown comes barreling toward him, but he easily blows it out of the water. He looks back at me with a big, toothy grin and I clap my hands appreciatively. Maybe I’ll save my head just yet. And my sister’s soul, too.
“Now head to the roof,” I tell him. “The helicopter’s waiting.”
He follows orders, storming the mall, shooting everything in sight. His points rack up higher and higher as he ascends the back stairs and steps out onto the roof. Sure enough, the helicopter is waiting for him and a moment later, he’s flying away, with the game auto-saving his place before moving him on to level thirteen. From the side of the room, I can see his slave boy breathe a sigh of relief.
Hades sets down the controller and rises to his feet, turning to me with a big smile on his wrinkled face. “Good trick,” he admits. “I never would have found that.”
I smile back at him, trying to look braver than I feel. “Yeah, well, that level is total hell,” I reply. “Um, pardon the pun.” Oops. Hopefully he’s not sensitive about that kind of thing.
But luckily, the god just laughs, sitting down on a nearby sofa and patting the cushion for me to join him. “So tell me, gamer girl,” he says. “Who are you and what do you want?”
30
And so I dive in, telling him the whole sordid tale. And when I’m finished, he makes me go back further. Then even further. Until I come to that first night at Club Fang. When, because of my actions, my sister fell down the rabbit hole and lost her innocence forever.
“So you believe that if you didn’t drag her to this nightclub,” Hades concludes when I’m finished, “none of this would have happened.”
“Well, Sunny wouldn’t be mixed up with vampires, that’s for sure,” I reply, wondering what he’s getting at. Is he trying to make me feel guilty about the whole thing? ’Cause if so, he’s a little late. “I take full responsibilities for my own actions. I made my choices and I knew the consequences. But Sunny just wanted to be normal. And I stole that from her.” I stare down at my hands, remembering that fateful night. The first time I saw those two tiny puncture wounds on my sister’s neck. At the time, she’d thought it was all a big joke. Little did she know…